I had another nice visit to the Sexauer shop...drooled a bit over the "in the white" soundbox. Some shots:
We decided most of the remaining details, most important of which was the neck. It's going to be his "Sexauer" shape, which starts as a mild V at the nut to a C at the heel. Now to choose the wood. Bruce carves 1 piece necks. The criteria was something well-quartered, of sufficient density to promote sustain, and maybe some figure to give it pizazz.
After some time digging, we pared it down to 2 Honduras Mahogany blanks. One was from his stash of about 15 (from Belize he thinks) that's been seasoning in his shop for 10 yrs+. It was relatively quartered, of medium weight, and had some medullary ray figure. Unusually, it had a deep, orangey color many expect from raw mahogany but normally isn't the case. Bruce called it AAA grade.
The second blank he rated Master. It was from a big stash he painstakingly culled from a supplier a couple years back. It was of sufficient density and uncommonly well quartered:
Bruce plained the mahogany blank to better show the exceptional figure and silking. It didn't have the color of the first, but was the looker of the two. I couldn't decide. I liked the "romance" of the first; it was from Belize, it had been seasoning for a long time (older is always better, right?), and it had that warm, orange color. Bruce assured me either would make a great neck, but he liked the qualities of the second. He felt the importance I placed on long time air seasoning was misplaced, that beyond a couple years it made no difference. He thinks much of what people obsess over in regards to guitars comes from sitting in front of the computer for too long. Hey, I resemble that remark! I chose the second:
Finished, the neck might look like the back of this Collings:
I'm not even going to mention my back and forth on carbon fiber inserts (it'll have 'em) and tint (trans black). Ahh, the joys of a custom build
