Just incredible work Graham. Love it.
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This.
Beautiful work Graham 
Removed the clamps, they did a great job, not a single gap anywhere. Decided to take my chances with the router table (risking tareout) to trim the maple down to the body. I got away with it.
End grain sanding is hateful, there’s loads more to, but seeing the maple edge shine after only 120 grit is motivating. Doubt I’ll do much more this side of the new year, weekends are quite busy from now on.
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Lovely work, it’s going to be your best yet!
I hope so, this is a lot more involved, I’m actually writing notes to make sure I don’t forget a step, if I miss something critical I’m screwed. (like chopping out a cavity for the pots before gluing the top).
The previouse ones have taught me the value of patience - nothing can be rushed if you want a quality end result. This is going to take months.
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Just watched a program about Atkins guitars, being made.
Love this one it looks amazing
What’s the plan for the hardware?
It depends, if it is good I’ll buy some nice parts, mediocre and I’ll cobble it together with what I already have.
Either way it’ll have P90s, they are my favourite pickups atm.
Edit for fat finger typos
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I wish I understood all the technical terms in this and had 1/10 of the skill. The pictures are fantastic. I really am an untalented so and so. The workmanship here is just fantastic.
Maple and Sapele for the neck blank,
Some time later (glued up during the week)
Standard joint.
Bandsawing the scarf joint
Having cut the neck correctly at 12 deg, I decided to reverse the angle so the wood grain would line up down the lenght of the neck - had to really think about what I was doing making the 2nd cut so the 12deg break angle was on the correct side, bugger up here and it’s all in the bin.
I am unable to explain what I did, I’m not sure I fully understand even now, however the end result is the piece top right (below) is scrap, importantly the other two larger parts are not. Happy days.
They’ll be sanded, scraped and glued together next weekend.
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With this post your work has gone from merely impressive to WTAF !
Scarf joints are cool, and there obviously different types fro different uses.
I remember doing some labouring for my dad when he was building a roof (no pre assembled trusses on that one) and he cut a scarf joint for the roof beam.
I watched and was totally perplexed until he fitted it together.
I think there were some pegs involved.
I have searched the internets and this is the closest to my memory, although it was about 45 years ago!
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Generally used for jointing ridge boards on the few trad roofs constructed these days, I’ve never seen one pegged though.
There were scarfs (scarves ?) a bit like that in the failing purlins (maybe 5" x 6", although quite rough cut) in our 1870’s roof when we bought our house. The purlins span from one gable to the other, so each one is more than 8m long. The structural engineer had the load taken off them using new short stud walls to support the rafters off two new steel beams at bedroom ceiling level.
The pegged ones are great, glueless locked joints. Seen the same used in japan on a beam cross section that was something like 2ft by 1ft.
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Rather than simply glue the neck together, I thought I’d complicate things.
Made a wafer thin piece of Sapele to glue into the joint, the idea being that it will produce a nice curve around the back of the neck once the neck profile is carved.
I managed to plane it down to approx. 1.5mm with my No7 plane and a fine height adjustment stop at the end of my bench. The big plane is a joy to use - the blade holds a superb edge, far better than the old Stanley ones I have.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Fortunately the largest part of the misalignment will be cut away.
I think I’ll get away with it because it will not be possible to see both sides of the neck at once, the approx. 1mm difference should be small enough to lose.
(There’s a lesson here, so I can avoid that mistake next time)
At least the Sapele stripes are more or less dead straight which I’m pleased with.
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Cool feature for a guitar if it could be done
Uh oh?
