Guitar - New 7 String Build!

The wood's all dry and I'm ready to roll! This guitar is designed for all around playing. It will feature an erratic maple burl top, walnut edge stripe, cherry 'wing strips,' and mahogany back. The neck is a 5 piece mahogany/maple laminate which I had custom made by Soulmate (check him out - his necks are excellent!). The profile is somewhere between a Carvin and an Ibanez and is just right. The bridge is a good ol tune-o-matic for unobstructed rhythm playing and sustain. I will probalby only put one pickup in since I do not want to clutter this instrument. I hardly ever use the neck positions anyway.

Probably the most striking and radically new feature for this instrument is the introduction of what I have dubbed: "blind controls." This is an electronics project which is based on capacitive touch sensors to provide totally hidden controls. To operate you simply swipe your finger across an area of the body. This can be used to control anything - volume, pickup switching, tone, the lights in the house, etc... I am pretty sure (at least to my research) that I am the first to do this kinda thing for this application. I will offer the electronics and retrofits for other common guitars using this system shortly! There will also be another posting discussing the design. If you'd like a system for your project, drop me a line!

The past week I glued up the top and back/neck. The top is actually composed of a maple-walnut laminate which will appear as a walnut stripe around the guitar. Before the top is attached to the base, however, I've decided to do a few routs - for weight reduction and the wiring channels for the pickups (no more 12" long drill bits!)... This and all of the routs are made possible by the use of 3 separate Lexan templates which I've carefully drawn in CAD to provide all of the bushing offsets. Using a standard bit with a bushing set not only saves considerable money, but allows easier depth control and eliminates bearing marks.

Gluing the wings to the neck:

Milling the back half of the guitar with fly cutter to ensure a nice flat surface for gluing the top:

Maple and Walnut laminate for top:

Creating the neck pocket in the top billets:


- Phil