Blackwood and Qld Maple Semi-hollow

[IWieldTheSpade]

Hi all,

This is an electric I finished for the missus about a month ago now I think. Specs are:

• Compression blackwood top
• Qld maple body
• Ebony fingerboard, 21 fret
• PNG rosewood, Qld maple, jarrah and mystery wood neck
• Gold MOP inlays
• Grover machine heads, Gotoh bridge
• Opal triplet and ebony headstock inlay

The neck was finished with tung oil and carnauba wax, and the body was done with five or six brushed coats of ubeaut hard shellac.
I really need to invest in some more power tools, doing this thing with mostly hand tools, plunge router and dremel was a killer
Sorry about the mediocre pics, it was hard to capture much wood figure or the colours in the opal, and I'm not too hot with a phone camera

Thanks for looking

[lildrummerboy52]

wow I love it. Very nice. Love the whole look...but tell us how awesome it plays/sounds

[Hermit]

Nice. I love the inlaid opal and the sound hole shapes.

A question if you don't mind. What's 'compression' Blackwood?

[Jef Long]

Whoah lots to like here! Great job

[IWieldTheSpade]

Thanks guys. Lildrummerboy, the action is about as close to the fingerboard without ending up with fret buzz - barely needs to have a string touched to play (as requested by the missus). Sounds mostly like an ES335, but to my ears a little warmer I think. The pickups are "Tonerider" brand, it's the first time I've tried them but they sound great and they're a good price.

Hermit, I'm not 100% sure on what the compression blackwood is, the figuring just looked really good It came from Bob at Tasmanian Tonewoods, so he might be a better one to ask on that, but from memory the figuring comes about from the compression of the wood under a large branch on the trunk.

[Hermit]

Hermit, I'm not 100% sure on what the compression blackwood is, the figuring just looked really good It came from Bob at Tasmanian Tonewoods, so he might be a better one to ask on that, but from memory the figuring comes about from the compression of the wood under a large branch on the trunk.

I kinda thought that was it. The grain has a 'compressed' look about it. It looks great.
The action sounds about perfect for me too, I like it as low as possible.

[Stopper]

Nice work. Very original.
cheers
Steve

[enelef]

nice piece of work.
Any chance of a sound file?

[IWieldTheSpade]

I'll see if I can get a sound file up by the end of the week

[old_picker]

not sure what bob means by "compression" blackwood - but as i understand it wood grain in the lower sections of a really big tree are under compression from the huge weight of the tree - being under compression the grain is forced into the familiar fiddle back patterns we prize so highly

nice guitar BTW - i love the fender style hardtail bridge / flat top / humbucker combo - i also like the toneriders - seen a few sets through here recently and they are very good