The newest guitar off my bench: Black Cherry

[Chuck Raudonis]

Cutting the fretboard

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Setting the mother of pearl inlays

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Starting the frets

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All ready for final leveling and polishing

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[Chuck Raudonis]

The body is solid mahogany with a raised flamed maple top

The cap with binding

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Dyed it brown

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Sanded it back to leave the dye only in the figure

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Dyed it cherry red

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Final look after scraping the dye off the binding and before it gets any finish

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Roughing out the body

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The body after application of black satin lacquer leaving the center raw to glue the cap on

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[Chuck Raudonis]

https://i.imgur.com/DOtzTMZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/63fpuRM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1OR8tff.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/I74ugod.jpg

[Frederick Skelly]

Beautiful work Sir!

[Keith Outten]

Very Nice Work Chuck!

[Julie Moriarty]

Gorgeous! I love the cap and binding. Very creative!

[Ted Calver]

Lovely work, Chuck! I'll echo the very creative.

[Chuck Raudonis]

Thanks everyone! It plays like a dream.

[John Blazy]

Very good design, and highly innovative, even though there are similar designs like Sky. I always liked the line quality on these bodies with contrasting levels / reveals. Do you plan to show it or start a line of custom guitars (reading your headstock appears so)? If so, you really need to recut and re-apply the binding on top to get rid of the flat spots in the curve. Make a template from 1/4" hardboard, and hand sand the curves with curved sanding blocks until they flow without flat spots, then use the template as a bearing guide to re-route the edge, then re-apply the binding - shouldn't take long. I spend lots of time "fairing" my curves on anything I make, from boats to guitars, and its well worth it ("fairing" is a term used in nautical design to smooth out curves, which are of utmost importance in boat design).

To get a "fair" curve on your template to begin with, make a curve tracing bow, which is a stick of wood about 1/8" thick by one or two inches wide, with holes at the end for string. you bend the "bow" to the radius you want, then clamp the string in place (binderclip). Then draw the curved line right off the bow, tightening and loosening the radius as you go. It will be tighter radius in middle, so the "bow" will provide plenty of variance needed to get the line fair. Then sand to the line, and use curved sanding blocks.

I cheat and use CAD, but I used to make curved templates like this all the time.

[Randy Heinemann]

Very talented you are.