In The Workshop Recently......

We had this rather nice pair of Ibanez Jems in recently. The Stunning Blue model was in for a set-up, but the Black one had a strange

pickup selection problem. This was soon cured with a new switch (after a lot of head scratching ! ).

 

This single cut SE had already visited the workshop for a set up, but the owner decided that it needed a bit of an upgrade.

The machine heads were replaced with a set of locking Schallers, the bridge was also a Schaller item with adjustable saddles,

and the pickups are Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays, with some new Black surrounds and a pair of matching Chrome Knobs.

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It seems to have been all Les Pauls recently in the workshop.

The Gibson on the left came in for a well deserved fret dress, and a new bridge to replace the worn original. And the rather

pretty Green Epiphone came in for a set-up, but this also needed some fret work to get everything straight.

 

We also had an Epiphone Les Paul Custom in for a fret dress, and we also changed the pickups for a pair of Mighty Mite

Motherbuckers, as the original bridge pickup was found to be lacking.

And finally, another Epiphone which had sadly sufferred a knock and needed a badly cracked neck/headstock repairing.

 

 

Some pictures from the workshop of the construction process,

click on the photos to enlarge................

 

Washington IV

What happens to all the left over timber that isn't big enough for customer guitars, build one for the boss!  Apart from the top and the fingerboard, all of the wood used in this guitar is from the off-cuts bin.
Body timbers being glued together before being split to make a book matched pair. Curly Maple top.
Neck lamination glued up. Body cavity initial shaping. The bottom will be cut out and used as the cover.

body and neck glued together. cavities in Maple top.
Matched halves. Fingerboard fitting.
Stain applied. Bookmatched headstock veneer.
First coat of lacquer applied.    

 

Lucky

     
Ethos Guitars' first bass guitar with highly personalised twelfth fret markers Front side body showing "neck through" and routing
Rear routing with the smallest amount of wood removed from the body to retain as much tone as possible    

 

Coronet

     
Headstock being shaped, routed and drilled The body takes shape, once more as little wood removed as possible
       

 

The Aphrodite

   
The first Aphrodite underway
A lovely figured top and deep control routing
Handshaped upper and lower bouts make all the difference
Some addition of colour
Back with center stripe and control cavities. Note the deep heel cutaway for easy upper fret access.
   
The Washington      
This is after initial body shaping, and shows the intial
component fit to check tolerances
Bookmatched headstock facing
You can also see the smooth recessed fit of the selector switch
and pots
The picture of the rear clearly show the neck-through-body construction
and the excellent access to the upper frets.
There is no visible gap under the knobs even when the pull switch is operated    
The Pumpkin
   
Neck Laminated from Maple and Walnut. Headstock drilled for machine heads.
Hand Carved Spruce top made from 2 matched wedges
The neck-through body construction can be seen here with the Walnut
centre stripe visible through the pick-up cavities.
Head stock faced with book matched Rosewood, single binding applied ready for scraping
Sides fitted and top routed ready for binding.
Binding (made up from 3 separate strips) now fitted and scraped to shape.
Book matched Rosewood back with centre purfling.
Finished Rosewood back
Heel detail showing the center stripe
More heel detail aslo showing the depth of the binding
Painted and ready for polishing, wiring and hardware. Carved top with paint applied