OK - MAYBE, just maybe, that guitar is as nice, perhaps a tiny bit nicer, than the one I got from you last year - I hope I get to hear it!!

Appealing....sure.

So Bruce, as this guitar ages will the cutaway gracefully tend toward Venetian?

Probably not, and I stress that it is all natural. ;)

Today I move on to the neck for this 000. The body is bound and finessed to 180 grit.
http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/boundfront.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/boundback2.jpg

I struggle to get the graft to line up with the back strip. The goal is to get the maple purflings to appear to run into each other, and this one came out as well as any.
http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/graft2.jpg

This 000 is 12 frets to the body, as are all 000s in my nomenclature, though I have erroneously called guitars 000-Kerala on occasion when I make a 000-like 13 fretter. This one will feature my asymmetrical slothead design, which I consider one of my tastiest options. I definitely feel like a sculptor while I'm carving it!

The chosen neck wood is as close to possible truly quartersawn as it joins the fingerboard. I don't think this is all that important as long as the mahogany is clear, dry, and grain aligned, but this is a pretty high end guitar and it is a nice traditional touch.
http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/neckendgrain.jpg

Although I could bandsaw the required horizontal bevel angle to create the MultiScale face pretty close to correct, I usually just cut it as for a symmetrical head and then plane off the head face until I hit the diagonal line on the FB surface. I enjoy it and it only takes a couple of minutes if I don't have to sharpen the plane . . . as I did have to today: that adds another two minutes.
http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/headbevel.jpg

Here are a few pics of the 000 neck as it developed.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/headseries1.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/headseries2.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/headseries3.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/headseries4.jpg

While carving the neck I left the body in a fixture near the window that left a UV shadow on the back. This is just one day!
http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/UVback.jpg

Very nice looking back! That UV shadow is impressive. It's always amazing how wood that normally wouldn't see the light of day can have such a dramatic change in sunlight.

I know this is a random picture, but the Catalpas are in bloom in East Texas which made me think about your guitars.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/...psnqaimcms.jpg

I have never noticed Catalpa growing here in Petaluma, but it probably does as I do know where some are 30 miles to the south, that being where I got the Catalpa which I first built with.

I have spent much of the last two days carving the headstock on the P -000. I flung myself off a creative cliff and have been working to balance the thing ever since. I am at lunch at the moment, but when I get back to work I will take a picture of how I changed it from the pictures here, which I took a couple of hours ago.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/roughheadback.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/roughfront.jpg

The headstock looks great, Bruce! Curious as to how you changed it...

I changed the bass side slot at the bottom to reverse the angle of the treble side. I raised the top of the treble side slot about 4 mm. I have mixed emotions about the balance achieved, but this one will work well enough, and if I do it again I have ideas about getting it closer. Many artists paint the same painting again and again till they hit the goal. Actually, with the tuners installed it looks a lot better as they were a well considered part of the design equation.

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/sealedhead1.jpg

Also sealed:

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/sealedfront.jpg

http://mojoluthier.com/LP17/267P/sealedback.jpg

That headstock is definitely cool ... love it!

I really like the headstock as well. Cool design.

When a Sexauer thread gets down to the bottom of the second page without some new pics, I start worrying!

Maybe its just a broken camera? C'mon Bruce - you gotta be working on something cool - ;-)

What he said...:lol: