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I figured it'll be a little while before I can post any more of the acoustics (have little time, and binding and finishing and setup to do on the next), and Sylvan (Wells) and Steve R (who've both seen this guitar hands-on) both said I should post a few pics here. Special thanks go to Sylvan for helping me set the action/relief ideally (gotta get/make one of those relief guages now..) and letting me borrow his nut files to get it playing smoothly. Then there's all the thanks he deserves for showing me around his shop and letting me play/handle some mighty fine guitars, and draw inspiration from his plethora of deceptively simple (sometimes) jigs. Thanks also go to Craig L for his engraving tips and hints

Anyway, some details: it's a carved top and back maple on mahogany guitar in the Gibson/PRS tradition, and was made for a friend's wedding. He likes it, I think :-) African Mahogany body, honduran neck, maple top, pickup rings, tremolo cover plate, ebony board, EIR overlay. Inlay materials are silver wire, abalone, white and gold MOP and river/ivory Pearl, all from DePaule supply. The shell, that is. The silver I got from Cookson Gold over in the UK. Finish is Target USL on the body and headstock, shellac on the pickup rings, cavity covers and the back of the neck. DiMarzio pups, series/single/parallel mini switches for both, volume, blend pot, standard 3 way, and a push/push tone controle to switch the two pickups in series with each other.

Full frontal overview, probably most accurate color representation:

Body closeup. The silver wire vine on the body came about thanks to hidden worm damage to the wood. Need disguising.

Upper horn, fake binding, slightly smudgy fingerprinted finish, home-made pickup ring, lowest and biggest of the MOP roses:

More of the inlay:

The engraved laydee. Came out quite well for a first try, I think. I'll be doing that again, though. Engraving's fun!

Badly smudged headstock:

The back:

Wow... that is really nice.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOMMMMMMMEEEEEEEE

beautiful!!!!!

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Thanks for sharing that Mattia. Very nice work.

Mattia, nice guitar! And awesome inlay! What's up next?

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Wow, Awesome.

Mattia was gracious enough to bring that guitar out to my shop when he
was visiting. The pictures are georgous but the guitar, in person, is even
better! A beautiful instrument, light and very well balanced. The inlays
were very well executed and the engraving flawless. Scary that he can
make such a beautiful instrument so early in his building career!!! Well
done!!!!

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Sylvan
http://www.wellsguitars.com

Looks great! Except for the trussrod cover.....

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Really, really nice Mattia. I especially like the maple p'up rings. I'm going to try that.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Beautiful!! Tell us about how you did the fake binding.

Fantastic Mattia...very well executed!!!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

Don: well, yes. I didn't have time to make one. Probably going to engrave a white MOP cover with my friends' initials on it and mail it to him. That's what happens when you're buffing the guitar the day before you fly!

Steve: I highly reccomend making your own pickup rings. They're really pretty easy to do, and took me all of about 2 hours, including resawing slices by hand, thicknessing with a router, and cutting and filing the shapes by hand (japanese saw, file, bit of sandpaper). I'll be doing it again, although I'll make a master template first next time. Easier.

Ron: the 'faux binding' was easier than I thought it would be. I've got some pics of the process, but not very good ones.

What I did:
Step 1 - Mask off the top so only the binding ledge showed.
Step 2 - Seal with 3-4 wiped on coats of shellac
Step 3 - Remove masking tape, use single edged razor/#11 scalpel to clean up any shellac that got under the tape
Step 4 - Wipe-on black colortone/transtint stain, water dissolved
Step 5 - Sand band stain, accenting the grain slightly
Step 6 - Mask off the binding ONLY with whatever tape you've got. I used electrical, but pinstriping tape would be perfect
Step 7 - Shoot color coats
Step 8 - When coats are touch-dry, but not fully cured, scribe the edge of the masking tape/finish with a SHARP #11, and remove the tape
Step 9 - Scrape away any finish that got under the tape
Step 10 - Shoot clear coats. Do enough, and maybe shoot a few 'extra' just around the edges to you can level out the small 'bump' between the finished/unfinished area. I suppose you could also brush on a few extra coats on the binding only, but that didn't seem necessary.

Dave: next? Well, finish the acoustic baritone, build a lefty pointy death metal explorer for a friend (not my cup of tea, design wise, but why not give it shot, right?), build a matched pair strat/tele (same boards for woods, same brand pickups), then a medium jumbo w/ wedge body and soundport and baroque-ish 'country' vine inlay for a country picker friend of mine, a cherry parlour for another friend, and maybe, in 2-3 years, I'll manage to get around to building something for myself again. Maybe.    

Mattia,
Beautiful axe.

SCHWEET!
Very nice Mattia - your a brave man to drag it through the air port with ya on your trip over here --

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

That is absolutely beautiful! Specially the inaly, the engraving is great! I am also using target USL and I have a few questions for you if you don’t mind. Do you spray the coats in normal thin coats, or do you spray them like Stew Mac recommends? They recommend spraying on half dry coats. What kind of buffing system do you use?

I sprayed 'em on 'regularly', not using StewMac's crazily slow and time consuming 'dust coats' technique. Until it only just looks wet per coat, shall we say, no more, or you risk drips. Err on the side of too little. 3 coats per day, spaced as far apart as feasible (at least 2 days), 12-15 clearcoats seems to be a good amount, kind of depending on how thin/thick you lay them on. For me, using a SATA miniJet set to medium flow, it was two quick passes to a coat.

I buffed using SM compounds and their foam wheel doodads. No space for a buffing wheel here, and it worked out just great.

mattia

i'm really disappointed in your slipshod, sloppy workmanship!!!

why you didn't even match the flame of your pickup rings to the flame of the body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what a discordant mess!!!!!(GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG)


seriously mattia, as others have said, very, very nice....

the only problem in doing such lovely work early is that you are expected to get better....

I know, I know, I should've bookmatched the humbucker rings instead of just using top offcuts! Darn me and my lazy ways!

And, well, I'm going to scale back a little for the next few. Simplicity is its own reward and all that. But I've got these 4 nice sets of flamed (and one combined flamed/spalted) maple tops for carving sitting there (thanks to Ed Dicks), and, well, they're calling to me.

Thanks!