Hi guys,
Im about to embark on making a custom guitar for my buddy. He wants a flamed maple top with a (preferably) mahogany body...easy enough but the shape hes wanting is a strat type (Ibanez JS1000) and its very curvy and contoured all along the sides. Im wondering if there is a way i can put a top on that body in such a way that i can get away without using traditional binding method? Ive done binding on flat tops before just fine but obviously this strat shape wouldnt have binding. Can I get away with hiding the seam between the two woods? If so, with what? Glue filler? Thick paint over the seam?
I guess the easiest way to do this is just to make the whole thing out of one chunk of flamed maple that way i dont have to deal with the seam at all, but im wondering if anyone has done the above or seen it. I usually have cut tops from 1/2",1/4",1/8"...those thin 1/48" - 1/52" paperbacked veneers always would split if i tried to deal with a contour on the guitar body so i usually dont mess with those. thanks, jonathan