Sapele and Sitka Spruce OM

[Kevin in California]

Here is my progress as of Saturday. The truss rod, a Gotoh 2 way is embedded in the neck with a cherry filler strip over the top. The adjuster nut comes in right behind the hole in the transverse brace on the top.
With the neck bolted on and the fretboard pinned on center, the angle is near perfect and the fretboard lays flat on the top. Yes!
I will have to fit the neck cheek to the boy better after I've carved the heel.
I have some minor gap filling to do on the sides along the binding, but I got a great fit on the BWB purflings on the top and bottom. No obvious gaps at this point. Some will probably show their face.
The neck is Sapele and will be a heavy neck especially with the Gotoh truss rod which with the steel channel and extra length is a bit heavier than some rods.
But, the body is on the heavy side too as Sapele is dense and heavy. The end wedge is olive wood. The heel cap will also be olive, and I'm thinking about making a burly olive wood pick guard. The headstock veneer is walnut, and my brush script "S" inlay is maple. That is what I will do next, rout out and inlay the "S".
So it is looking like a guitar now. I was hoping to be spraying this guitar by now as it is beginning to get really hot, but I got behind starting over on the body after the cherry guitar fiasco. Anywhere, this is where I am now. Thanks for looking.

[dave d]

Wow - that's a beauty. Very nice work on the binding.

[Kevin in California]

Carving the neck with the fretboard glued in place.
Almost have it done. Using my Lee Valley kit spoke shave too for the first time on a neck. Sweet!

[John Parchem]

very nice! I love using a spokeshave for carving.

[Kevin in California]

The Sapele probably didn't carve as easily as Spanish cedar or Honduras hog does, but I liked using it for sure

[Kevin in California]

Here is where I am thus far. The neck is done and fit to the body, frets installed and recrowned, etc. I have done some gap filling, need to go over it again, then I will be ready to begin porefilling. I think I will use Zpoxy on the Sapele. I've used Timbermate rosewood color in the past and that turned out well, but want to try the Zpoxy for the first time, so that is what I'll use. The walnut binding I probably will just let the lacquer fill, I'll Zpoxy the headstock too. I have filled the walnut rosette with CA. The neck is also Sapele and I may use shellac and sawdust to pore fill there...might work better than Zpoxy would on the curved areas?
I will either make a walnut or ebony bridge. I have some pretty cool burly olive I may use for a pickguard.
I plan to put up the spray booth and be spraying early September, probably start the weekend of Labor Day. Then the guitar can sit and cure until I return from India in mid November. That should work out well.

[Herman]

Nice Kevin, that looks well. Go for the Zpoxy, even on the curved areas. It is easy to work with and very forgiving.
Herman