Back in 2007 I began this project with the help of incredible Adrian of ASH Customworks.  If you’re thinking of a new guitar definitely look at getting an ASH Customworks guitar, they’re among the nicest I’ve ever played. Not to mention each one is unique and handcrafted right here in beautiful New Zealand.

www.ashcustomworks.com

 

Cutting the headstock angle (yup that’s me!)

Rough cut out of the neck.

Giving wings to the neck (my one is the one on the left; note where I burnt the truss-rod channel breaking a router bit in the process!)

Cutting fret-slots into the fretboard.

Fretboards… Mine is the rosewood one on the bottom.

Rough headstock.

Preparing to cut out the mirrored inlay I planned. (Silhouette of my bff Michelle Klaessens!)

Taadaaa! (I had a quite a bit of help with this)

Gluing the trussrod into the curved slot.

Binding the fretboard.

 

Using ‘The Beast’ to get the neck to the right thickness. An Ibanez Wizard inspired thickness…

 

Planing the neck in prep for fretboard gluing.

Adrian has a saying at work.  “Kristie can’t be trusted with glue”.  Despite this, I am still allowed to smear large amounts of glue all over the back of fretboard.  It’s kind of like icing a cake, and I’m quite bad at icing cakes.

-My Myspace Blog, 2007

Sticking the fretboards on the necks and clamping them up together to dry.  Adrian is making a guitar at the same time as I make one, though as it turns out, he finishes this and many other guitars years before I finish mine

Cutting up some Fijian Kauri for the back of the body.

And some for the top.

Planing machine gets it nice and flat…

And reveals cool stripyness!

It’s starting to look a bit like a guitar!

More fun with glue… this glue looks a bit like golden syrup and will hold the parts of the guitar body together.

Soaking black paper in resin to create an experimental stylish pinstripe around the curve of the guitar (you’ll see later).

The wood for the body gets all clamped up while the glue dries.

After the clamps have been removed the shape of the body gets cut out with the big router.

The router is also used to carve out the initial curve of the neck.

Which is then refined by laborious attack with a cheesegrater.

Pick-up cavities routed out using a template.

Adrian radiusing the fretboard on his guitar.

Headstocks. Mine is the one at the top.

The guitars are looking something like this. Mine is the one on the right, Adrians is the one on the left.

Then like magic the guitar gets some sexy curves thanks to the big router, and a sander!

Also, control cavities a la drill press!

Do you see the pinstripe from the black paper?

Some years later (don’t ask) I return to Adrians workshop. I’ve missed him a lot. And it’s time to get out the fret wire.

Frets on

Frets trimmed and beveled

Glueing in the headstock deco… If you know my original name you’ll get it.

Getting the neck to fit into the body, the photos never quite portray how much effort is involved in each step hehe

Discovering the heel needs a lot of work.

A couple of hours hacking at it with rasp and chisel… and it’s starting to come together nicely

…To Be Continued