Tazmanian Blackwood Eden Acoustic.

The guitar was built in 2000, and the soundhole label reflects this with a signature and date of February 16th 2000. The fingerboard is unique in its use of a fine maple coach line on the inside of the ebony binding which is then lap fretted, this is clearly seen in the soundhole label picture below.

Soundhole label of stolen guitar clearly showing the date.

The guitar is unique in other ways too. It is the only Eden I have made in Tazmanian Blackwood, quite a highly figured back and side set. The fingerboard binding with its contrasting maple coachline is also unique to this build.

Highly figured Tazmanian Blackwood back and sides.

The soundboard is German Spruce and has some quite strong bear claw figure. The headstock features my older ‘W’ logo inlaid into the ebony head plate with mother of pearl, the neck is Brazilian Mahogany.

Bear Claw figure in the soundboard is clearly visible in this picture.

The guitar has been listed for sale on Gumtree and a blog site. Though Google still picks it up in searches the listing no longer appears on Gumtree so, it may well have been sold already.

If you do happen to see or hear anything of this guitar, please do get in touch.

Thanks

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The ‘Living With’ article is available to view on the Media page of the web site or you can link to the PDF here.

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The body is bound in 2mm thick grained ivoroid which is glued and taped as I work round the body. In order to bend the binding round tight curves, like the horns, I heat it with a hairdryer and overbend it slightly. The binding is glued using a specialist ‘solvent weld’ adhesive.

Gluing the ivoroid binding in place.

When the glue has cured the binding is scraped flush with the top and sides of the body using a sharp cabinet scraper.

Trimming the binding flush to the body with a cabinet scraper.

The fingerboard and headstock are bound in the same way though in this case the binding is shallower and thinner and the binding is cut and mitred at the sharp corners.

The bound headstock with ebony head veneer.

Before the neck is joined to the body I finish as much of the neck as possible as it’s much easier to work when the two are still seperate. Access to and around the heel is where finishing gets harder if the two are joined so, this is finished and sanded before joining. This leaves me with just a little clean up to do around the joint when the neck is permanently fixed. Before I carve the neck heel I glue on the ebony heel cap, I usually fit a heel cap to all the the necks on a Lil 58.

Rough carving the neck heel with various rasps.

Once the rough carving has been done I use coarse cloth backed abrasive strips to blend and even out the curves and transition from neck to heel. Cawls are taped around the neck tenon to prevent any damage to the edges of the joint.

Blending in the transition from neck to heel with coarse abrasive.

When the heel shaping is complete I finish shaping the neck profile before carving the transition between neck and headstock. The carved neck is scraped and then any bumps are smoothed out using a coarse abrasive strip rolled in a zig zag fashion up and down the neck.

Roll sanding the neck with coarse abrasive.

I carve a volute where the neck meets the headstock, for increased strength, rigidity and I like the aesthetics of it. The upstand is shaped with a medium thumb plane and is finished off with various scrapers. A rasp and round file are used to blend the area leading from the neck to the headstock sides.

Carving the volute with a thumb plane.

Finishing off with a goose neck scraper.

With the majority of the heavy neck work completed I can then move on to checking and adjusting the neck joint. The neck joint is keyed and self tightening when clamped in one direction. This allows me to dry joint the neck for final check of neck angle and side to side accuracy, also for cambering the fingerboard, dotting and fretting.

The neck and body dry jointed for a first fit.

When all the neck work is completed the neck and body will be seperated again, final sanded and then permanently glued in place.

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In the mean time I’ve been moving along with a Lil 58 build. The body was cut out and machined a little while ago, with the neck now catching up and should be ready for a customer fitting later this week.

Lil 58 body waiting for binding, and it’s neck components.

The body is American Poplar and the maple neck blank has been prepared. The fingerboard is old growth Indian Rosewood, one of  few remaining old growth boards that I have and sourced many years ago. The board has now been slotted at 25″ scale and two octave.

Routing the body binding channel.

Like the body, the fingerboard will be bound in ivoroid and lap fretted. The body will be finished in gloss black, with chrome hardware, including my favoured choice of Gotoh 510 wrap around bridge and Sidewynder pickups. Should be sweet!

The resulting channel for the ivoroid binding.

I should have some more progress pics of this build in the next day or so, so check back soon for more.

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Cutting maple stock to width on the table saw.

Unlike a traditional J Bass, the headstock will have a back angle, this will eliminate the need for string trees and will make the headstock stiffer and less prone to forward bend or twist, often seen on ‘flat’ five string headstocks. The maple is figured and was roughly planed flat before being finished to a touch over size on the drum sander.  I’ve had the drum sander for about a year now and I have to say I don’t know how I managed without one for so long, it’s a godsend when preparing figured or difficult timbers.

Once the stock is flat and square I can cut the angle for the scarf joint. The angle is not that steep, I use 10 degrees which is enough to create a string break angle over the nut and not so much that it results in a shorter, weaker joint. I cut the angle using a jig on the table saw. With a sharp, clean blade I can cut the gluing faces in one pass. Ocassionally I need to do a second light trim if vibration has maybe caused a ripple in the cut faces.

Using the table saw to its full capacity to cut the joint.

With the joint cut the two parts are glued. This type of joint is very prone to glue slip and requires both parts to be clamped to prevent slippage before the actual gluing faces are clamped. The joint is left overnight to cure.

The prepared joint glued and clamped.

If anyone is wondering why I use a scarf joint then please let me explain, a few people do see it as an aesthetically inferior means to produce an angled headstock. The weakest part of any guitar neck is in the area around the nut, the thinnest and narrowest region. A one piece neck is particularly weak in this area due to the run of the grain fibres. By using a scarf joint the fibres in the timber run parallel with all long faces of the neck, ie there is little run out of  grain fibres into a face. This dramtically increases stiffness and strength at the headstock. The nature of modern glues also means that the timber will fail before the glue joint does. An added benefit is it’s considerably more material efficient than a one piece neck.

A graphical explanation of why I use a scarf joint.

Once the glued blank is cured I can dress the fingerboard gluing face. Again this is done with the drum sander. To enable me to allow for the headstock angle the neck blank is supported on a wooden block.

Usingthe drum sander to dress the fingerboard gluing face.

Next, I will cut out the neck shape, route for the truss rod and prepare and glue the fingerboard.

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Select Birdseye Maple neck.

The fingerboard is ebony and has a 43mm nut width. To match the feel of the customers Lil ’58 I am using the same jumbo 3mm fret wire and the neck profile has been duplicated as close as possible.

Installing the jumbo frets.

To maintain the theme of the clients other guitar I am also using the same abalone postion markers which look great in contrast to the dark ebony fingerboard.

Abalone postion markers and jumbo fret wire.

Having originally decided to go with a black logo to match the ebony fingerboard, it was decided to follow the abalone theme instead, and inlay a shell logo.

Scraping the Abalone logo inlay.

The headstock is based on the same design I use for the Evo guitars. In this case it’s a little slimmer and also has no back angle. The guitar will use staggered post Sperzel tuners to avoid the need for string trees.

Slimmer and slightly smaller headstock than the Evo.

The guitar is now in final sanding before spraying, the neck will be natural and the body will be cream and will feature a tortoise shell scratchplate.

The woodwork complete, ready for final sanding.

Before finishing starts the customer will get a chance to sit with the guitar and check that everything feels just right and any necessary changes can be made.

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Custom Lil’58 double neck circa 1995.

Unusually, the 12 string side of the body is built in a semi acoustic style with the 6 string half employing a more conventional solid build technique. The guitar is in very good condition, having originally had an oil finish. For some reason, I don’t recall why, no logo was ever applied so the headstocks will be having those inlaid followed bya general check up and setup.

Carved top solid and semi body.

Much loved by it’s current owner, the guitar plays very well and will be better still after a few necessary modifications, including a little fret work and replacement nuts.

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Body finished ready for hole drilling and finish sanding.

The body is two piece Swamp Ash and routed for a traditional J layout with pickup positions compensated for with the extra scale length. Hardware will be by Hipshot and the bass will have an East J or U Retro active circuit. The pickups are in hand and I’m looking forward to trying them, a custom set of Wizard 64′s in 5 string format, a first for Andy at Wizard Pickups I believe. If they are as good as his standard 64′s I used on the last bass I built then i’ll be very happy. The neck is now in production, in this case figured maple with a maple block inlayed fingerboard. As a departure from most ‘J’ style basses the headstock will be scarfed on at a 10deg angle, in much the same way as described in the Evo build diary. This is to eliminate the need for string trees and also to prevent the headstock from pulling forward, all too common on a traditional slab built ‘J’ neck.

More information to come as the build developes.

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Custom ‘T’ style body ready for sanding and finishing prep work.

Unlike a traditional T style guitar this one is built around a shorter 25″ scale length. As the routing suggests the guitar will feature two Bare Knuckle humbucker sized P90 pickups, the bridge pickup will be mounted within the base plate of a modified traditional style T bridge. The neck, which is underway, will be Birdseye Maple with an Ebony fingerboard and will be joined using my three bolt Ergo system. When complete the guitar will be finished in cream with a dark tortoise shell scratchplate.

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I sourced some Cocobolo a while ago which I am now converting into back and side sets for use later next year. I have some backs and tops joined in preparation for a review Eden which has been requested by Acoustic Magazine. I’ll be making a stock Eden along side the review guitar so, I should have something available for people to try in the not too distant future.

Busy, busy!

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