The following is a pictorial documentation of the building process along with some descriptions of my building practices and techniques.
Let’s start off with some pics of raw product 60+ year old Brazilian Rosewood fretboards and headstock veneers. In the background you can see some of the 35+ year old Honduran mahogany I have in crazy wide boards.
Building a Maguire Custom Guitar: Phase One
Neck blanks.
The shorter ones are for set necks. The longer ones are for thru tenon Meridian necks. The different species are old stock Honduran mahogany, Peruvian walnut and Tasmanian blackwood. The 2 that have been sawed to rough shape will be for Certified 7’s.
Here are some 35+ year old curly maple billets. Various species from Honduran mahogany, Tasmanian tiger myrtle, Tasmanian blackwood, bubinga, ziricote, and more…
Inlay materials in the raw. From the right, red abalone, black lip MOP, white MOP and mammoth ivory.
Here are some chunks of mammoth ivory and abalone being slabbed.
These are abalone blanks that started out as raw shell.
More chunks of fossilized mammoth ivory.
Some pieces of mammoth ivory are better cut with a slitting saw on the mini milling machine.
Mammoth ivory and MOP slabs glued to cutting jigs. More on the cutting jigs later. Below are photos of the raw products grouped together representing the guitars being made in this documentary process. This will be a Certified7 special. Korina neck and body, East Indian rosewood f/b with cream ABS binding. All woods 30-60 years old. This guitar will will be outfitted with Fralin p-90’s.
This will be a Certified7 single cut with carved maple top, Honduran mahogany back and neck, Brazilian rosewood fretboard with maple binding. All woods 25-60 years old. MOP trap inlays. Outfitted with Fralin Pure PAF’s
This is another Certified7 same specs as above. Excepting ivoroid binding instead of maple.
This will be a Contemporary, carved Tasmanian tiger myrtle top, Honduran mahogany neck, Spanish cedar back, Madagascar rosewood fretboard with Gabon ebony binding with white purfling. The strange looking thing between the wood is a chunk of fossil mammoth ivory that I will slab for the diamond inlays.
This will be a Meridian solid body with Carved Tasmanian tiger myrtle top, Tasmanian blackwood neck and back/sides, Gabon ebony fretboard with Tasmanian blackwood binding with b/w purfling. Ivory to be slabbed will match the sapwood nicely. Outfitted with Fralin Pure PAF’s
Also a Meridian, this one will be semi-hollow. Carved Gabon ebony top, fiddleback Honduran mahogany neck and back/sides, private stock Brazilian rosewood fretboard with Gabon ebony binding with white purfling. More mammoth ivory to be slabbed here, this piece is a light chocolate color that matches the streaking in the ebony. Very cool! Outfitted with Tom Shorts Fleetwood humbuckers.