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Progress. The neck isn't glued to the body yet, I'm playing with some inlay first.

Here's what it looks like now, 100% salvaged wood guitar.








Kittens on my porch. It was too cute.

Anyway I'm attempting to inlay the fretboard with beaver spine. This will be my first real inlay attempt, so any good wished as well as advice is appreciated. These are somewhat awkward pieces to work with so I was thinking I might set them in after the fretboard is radiused.





Any thoughts?

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Someone should make a guitar out of a gator head.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

And I thought I was an original inlaying prehistoric sharks' teeth!
The first thing that comes to mind for me RIGHT after Angel fish is Beaver Spine!

Very cool!

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

You know I really wanted to do something with that beaver skull.... just can't think of what. Best I could come up with is sink it into some acrylic guitar body or something.

You should see its teeth, they're beautiful.

I might have to round the edges of the spine slices because being cross sections of an irregular shape, some parts of the bone slant upward, while others slant downward.

Come on, nobody here has experience with beaver spine?! Sheesh.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Gonna be one cool machine when it's done!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

The end of the headstock would be a cool place for it - or maybe the jack input could go in its mouth lol

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

I love reclaimed wood! Interesting build!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Thanks guys. I'm almost halfway done with the spine. Working out pretty well for a first try at inlay, although we'll see how it all looks when it's done. Wish me luck.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Don't be shy with that epoxy - it can fill quite a bit of holes

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

The only other problem I see is you are inlaying a light material into a light material - not a whole lot of contrast, but the next beaver you run over, you should try slapping it into some rosewood or ebony - good luck dude and enjoy the journey!

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Yeah I thought of that. I'm gonna stain the whole thing darkish amber, hopefully with a sunburst on the body. Scratch it off the bone so it sticks out nice.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

The "scratching" concept may sound good, but you should try it on some "practice" material first..

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Wow what a great idea!! Looking really great. Love how it's all salvaged material too. Look forward to seeing how this pans out!

Reincarnation is true....at least for beavers!!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Very cool! I really like your headstock design too.

Done with inlay, began carving the neck.

The bone inlay gives it kind of a midwestern look. That's how my wife worded it. You could call it a Texas Longhorn.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I agree. Not only a southwestern flare but each inlay
being different is looking very cool.

Great build and sure enjoy seeing it.

This is sick! Awesome job!

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

Thanks guys. Carving the neck today. The heel is kind of awkward looking but it doesn't feel too awkward. It's a little off looking cause the original longhorns were bolt-ons, but this one is a set neck. But I guess it would've been just as awkward on the old ones anyway with the neck to body joint being where it is, sort of protruding from the body.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Wow - love it.

What's your plan with the bone? Flood it with CA? Clear epoxy? I'm afraid that if you leave that porous bone "as-is" it will degrade/chip away very quickly. Not too hard. I'll bet you could flood it with CA several times to create a clear hard protective coating. Others may have ideas about the effectiveness of that approach.

I was gonna do epoxy. I definitely know it's brittle, I broke a bunch of pieces while cutting. Some of the pieces that are inlaid broke, but they fit back together. I've got plenty extra too.

I think I'm gonna add a third humbucker. I've got extra pickups that sound decent so why not? Series/parallel/phase switching for each.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

We now have a bright orange sunburst!

I did it by hand because I don't own a spray gun.




Any good?

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Very cool. All of the wood is reclaimed, but is the beaver reclaimed as well? I really like the beaver bone inlays. Really cool. Keep the pics coming!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

That's gotta be one of the coolest guitars I've seen, and orange is pretty much my favorite guitar color, so you're scoring some major "cool" points as far as I'm concerned

Thanks Roger, that tele you made was killer too.

And yes Tony, the beaver is also reclaimed. Found him by the lake, almost completely intact.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com