VSK Guitars Build - INSANE WOODS!

[MoonJelly]

It is super soft, yes. You can use a hardener or epoxy as grain filler and it will be significantly tougher to ding though.

Don't listen to me, I'm just a redwood whore. I love redwood. Redwood is good.

 

[JMO831]

Insane work by Brett on this top. Closest to perfection I've ever seen in a book matched burled top.

 

[trebal]

Awesome woods!!

 

[JMO831]

The top has been glued onto the body, and the body has been cut to size! Keep in mind Brett hasn't finished the top in oil yet... That's how it looks in its natural state! Also, the ebony neck came out more colorful than I initially thought. Which is a welcomed surprise. A lot of different hues and streaks in the neck. Which I think matches up perfectly with the ebony pickup covers that Instrumental Pickups is currently working on! A short preview of the covers without the gold poles.

 

[MoonJelly]

Sweet chimichangas, that is gonna be a nice guitar.

 

[JMO831]

Here is the fretboard placement. The start of the fretboard (adjacent to the neck pickup) will start where the sap ends. So essentially where that "claw" is. This will flow well with the guitar as the "claw" moves downwards as the horns do. But then the fretboard seems to swoop upwards with the crazy figuring at the end which will match well with the reverse swooping headstock.


Brett was able to get a top from the quilted maple billet. The top is from the less figured side but this is how it looks like with a stain. Safe to say, we will definitely be doing a stain!


In terms of what type of stain, we will be using this one as a reference point (obviously +/- how light or dark the top is when finished with oil). This guitar is going to scream class with the darker fretboard/neck wood/ebony pickup covers and blackwood knobs along with the black & gold hardware and brownish top and backside! I think the fact that the hardware is black and gold brings more balance to the fact that many of this guitar's most pronounced features will come from the brown/gold top wood and backside.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

LIKE

 

[jwade]

Madre de Dios

 

[trebal]

Madre de Dios

 

[Edika]

If that top was from the less figured side of that quilted maple block I can't imagine how much more awesome the back is going to be when stained. That burl top looks like what you'd you get in terms of muscles and sinew under the skin, it's immensely brutal but classy. Like a more refined Cannibal Corpse cover!
I also hope that the whole length of that piece of cocobolo gets on the fretboard as it's insane!
Man what a stunning build!

 

[JMO831]

And here is the fretboard! It is unpolished and unfinished. So it's going to look even better soon. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I may purchase the other half fretboard for an extended range guitar build, so that I could use the whole board. But I like how focused this board is.

 

[DistinguishedPapyrus]

Man, so glad to see you using Instrumental Pickups. Ethan is such a cool dude to work with, the last build I did used a custom set for fanned fret. I immediately fell in love with those pups, some of the finest pickups I've had the pleasure of working with. I need some more now...

 

[cmtd]

One of the coolest fretboards I've ever seen. That looks great.

 

[Electrotimber]

Can't wait to see the final guitar!

 

[JMO831]

These turned out better than I could've ever imagined. Although they took longer than I would've liked (roughly 6 months), Ethan was very transparent throughout the process. The principle concern for the delay was his attention to detail, in particular him wanting to redo the lacquer finish until he got it perfect. Needles to say, these definitely are perfect! Enjoy!

 

[KnightBrolaire]

These turned out better than I could've ever imagined. Although they took longer than I would've liked (roughly 6 months), Ethan was very transparent throughout the process. The principle concern for the delay was his attention to detail, in particular him wanting to redo the lacquer finish until he got it perfect. Needles to say, these definitely are perfect! Enjoy!

those look killer, ethan's a great guy to deal with. Love my sfty3 pups in my strandberg-they slay.

 

[JMO831]

Despite some setbacks/challenges, this build has been committed to be finished by April at the latest. Between the marbled cocobolo fretboard/brown mallee burl top/quilt maple body, this one is going to be next level. Photos to follow completion!

 

[Dcm81]

Looking forward to those! Please change the pic hosting site too so we can still drool over all the pics so far