David Mesple's Craft Project #1

DAVID MESPLE'S Craft Project

I come from 4 generations of professional musicians.  I began using woodworking tools at age 3.  Shortly before he passed away, my grandfather, a college Voice Professor and choir director, told my mother that he'd only seen one "untrainable voice" and it was mine.  But I was/am very musical and play woodwinds, love electric guitars, and play the blues on them.  My grandfather gave me adult carpenter’s tools at age 5, which I still own and use today. (I am completely self-taught).  

I have built some simple guitars, but wanted to push my hand and machine skills farther, so…I decided to make an electric guitar.  My design was driven by the woods I had on hand, ideas I had tossed around,  and parts I purchased used on eBay.  The headstock was loosely based on Native American iconography, inspired by a Floyd Rose headless guitar (left) which I redesigned with maple and walnut (right):

I have sent Future a Power Point on this project which you may ask her to send to you.  Next came  body design, starting with a scrap of walnut (which dictated the shape), I overlaid it with hard maple& cut splines, then glued in thin strips of South American massaranduba.  Finally I routed the body to reduce weight and permit the installation of pickups and other parts:

  

Next came the addition of a rosewood top, a very hard wood that was extremely difficult to cut and sand. Alignment was critical to get the most color variation and keep the mirrored pattern effect:

All the separate pieces looked like this:

attaching the rosewood top and adding the electronics and hardware:   

I even got  to use the hand tools my grandfather gave me 60 years ago!

And here is the finished guitar, less 12 more coats of nitro-cellulose lacquer:

This was huge amount of work, but I can honestly say it was the most creatively rewarding thing I have done in 3 years of doctoral studies.

Thank you, Future!