Things are moving a long nicely. Yeah, I'm having fun. For one thing, an AJ is a simple guitar, so it goes much more quickly than most of my guitars. In terms of trim and construction, this is pretty much my "Performance" model with upgrades to the back and side wood and the fretboard.
For another, an AJ is kind of a hotrod. Gibson built them much closer to the edge than the usual factory guitar. They are not just Martins wearing slope shoulders. The X is opened up very wide, and sits further forward of the bridge than even a "forward braced" Martin. The bridge is narrow and lightweight. I developed my own bracing plan, but I kept it in that tradition. Wade has OK'd my taking a few risks with it, so I'm getting to build something new and to hotrod it a bit. I want him to be able to take it to a jam and blow away some of those old 'bones.
The back braces are shaved:
And the neck is underway. This is the second half of a two-neck blank. Here, after laying out the neck in pencil on the wood, I've cut the tenon and installed the truss rod:
Then I bandsaw out the shape:
And cut the channels for the carbon fiber reinforcement rods:
Carbon fiber rods are installed:
More to come later today, I hope.