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this is something that i have wanted to do pretty much since i first started building 3 or 4 years ago. on this build im planning to make pretty much all of the hardware, except for a few pieces i cant do, from Damascus steel. i have some good friends over at the the mad dwarf workshop http://maddwarfworkshop.com/ who have a lot experience with Damascus and i have a far amount of steel working experience myself, as well as access to a mill, metal lathe, linisher and all that jazz, so i think it will be do able just pretty time consuming. i spent a lot of time trying to figure out what sort of guitar i wanted to try this on, and though not generally my style i decided on a doing it with a les-paul style body to which i have made some slight curvature adjustments and such. here the general idea

it will have a tune-o-matic style bridge with a tail piece that will all be damascus. the pickup rings, tuning knobs, control knobs, and jack plate will be as well. the block inlays on the ebony fretboard will will also be damascus.

im pretty much making everything that i can on this one, the only things i am not willing to at least attempt at this point is the actual tuning machines. the body is going to have burst on it, black around the edges and fading to a steel gray on the inside. i prolly throw an emg 81 and 85 in there, i have fallen in love with emg.
i haven't gotten to far on it at this point, but i have started working some of the steel though, i have all my inlays roughly cut and now i just need to thin them down the proper thickness. I'll keep the thread updated as i make more hardware.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

I'm probably just showing my ignorance, but won't contact with sweaty fingers cause it to oxidize and rust?

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It's not the miles ahead, it's the stone in your shoe


In Markham,Virginia

well... that is something im trying to work around, im going to experiment with some different methods of preserving it and keeping it from rusting.

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

ok, i am resurecting this thread, no sense in starting a new one right? i have been terrible about doing any type of updates on this guitar, but i really havent had a whole lot of time to work on it till recently its just kind of a little side project. i have gotten quite a bit done though, i decided to carve the top which i did not originally intend to do, but it sounded like fun and i had never done one before, since the top was not really thick enough, i did a pretty shallow carve, but a carve none the less. i also started doing some work on the neck here in the past few days and have it ready for profiling more or less. also did my first scarf join on this neck, unfortunately i did not see Chris v's very helpful video until after the fact but, it still turned out pretty good for my first go at it. lastly i have started shaping some of the damascus for the tailpeice, and once i figure out how to hurdle a couple obstacle i will start on a tune-o-matic style bridge from some of the same stock. anyways, at fillipos request here is a build thread

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

no unfortunately i dont have any photos from while i was actually carving the top, or doing the burst, i was using the spokeshave to do a chest carve on the back side. for the archtop i used a topographical method similar to chris v and then shaped it with a chair makers plain random orbit sander, and scrapers.

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/