Official Luthiers Forum!

Dan Smith has been patiently waiting for me to finish this Korina flying V build, & it's still not done. It's been close to a year on this flat, unbound slab guitar but life happens. So anyhow here are some progress pics.

The neck is on along with the fingerboard.

Here's a back shot. This original style neck joint seems like it was easier to make when Gibson had to do the operations by hand with various sanders while the modern neck joint would be easier with CNC I assume.

Here's a shot of the Amazon rosewood fingerboard. Looks a lot like Brazilian after a little oil IMO (there's still a little epoxy on the fingerboard that still needs removed).

The initials on the headstock are those of my buddy who the guitar is for. They match another guitar he had made. Thanks Ken McKay for sharing the technique (it will eventually be black).

That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Looks sharp, Kevin!

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

Thanks Kevin!
Man, it looks great!
The nexk to body junction looks perfect.
I like the body grain orientation, looks book-matched.
Thanks for posting an update!
Dan

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wah
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Wah

Thanks Chris & Dan.

The book match look comes from orienting the grain so that it follows the outside lines of the overall V-shape. If you look at some of the original super rare ones from about '58, that's how they were made. A lot of the reissues have the grain lines parallel to the neck which doesn't look as good IMO.

I tried to be as authentic as I was comfortable with except:
Scarf joint at the headstock.
Headstock angle only about 13 degrees instead of 17.
2-Way trussrod

Hopefully I'll get this finished by spring since my buddy has just installed an industrial spray booth.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Nice,
Whats your neck angle?

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Ken

The neck angle is somewhere around 3 to 3.5 degrees. I cut it at 3 then fine tuned the projected height at the bridge (like doing an acoustic I guess) using a block plane on the neck tenon. I ended up increasing the angle very slightly.

Kevin Looker

edit:
I just re-measured the neck angle, it's closer to 2.5 to 3 degrees!!!!

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Perfect!

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Ken

Love the heel, looks lovely to play! Great looking guitar man!

In my typical mode of rushing, I didn't pay attention to the heel when making the body. I downloaded a print but it had the modern heel as opposed to the vintage.

So don't do it like this. I wasted some of my best Korina (White Limba).

This is how the body needs to be when making the vintage neck joint.

Hopefully this will prevent someone else from making the same mistake.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Where did you get your Korina ( White Limba) from?

That thing is awesome!
I'm taking it you had a set back with the build.
I've had that happen, and it took forever to get it to the customer.
I'm sure you could still use the other body for a build,
so it's not wasted.
Maybe you could sell it,
if ya don't want to mess with it.

Oops, hadn't paid attention to this thread.

I got the Korina, aka White Limba, from Keim Lumber in Charm Ohio - it's a gigantic Amish home center type of place that has all types of hard woods, building materials, custom millwork, windows & doors, power tools, etc. It's not expensive but it's hard to find suitable pieces. It's almost always flat sawn and it is prone to cracking. On the positive side, it shapes like styrofoam.

Yes, I had more setbacks or stupid blunders so now I have 2 V's, once they're done the problem should be obvious on the "flawed" one but it will still be a perfectly playable guitar.

I sprayed lacquer last week so I'm giving them a couple of weeks before I sand & buff.

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Looks awesome.

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

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Another day, another dollar.

Cool Kevin!
Well, you did not have to inlay "Flawed" into the headstock.
Unless, of course, you know a feller named "Flawed".

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wah
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Wah

Thanks guys.

Electrics are supposed to be easier than acoustics which must be my problem, I underestimate them.

The neck on FLAWED is out of alignment with the body which will be very noticeable with the traditional V-shaped flat metal tail piece. I could put a stop bar on it which will be less noticeable but I've decided not to. My wife went to art school & threw away all of her early work which I think is a shame. I want to remember this lesson, not to rub my nose in it, just don't want to forget and want to be able to laugh about it.

Thanks for all the support.

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I love flawed guitars.