Charles Faulstich's Neck-Through Hippie Sandwich with P90s

[Charles Faulstich]

Here is my tenth guitar built for a talented young musician as a college graduation gift. Walnut/maple/purpleheart neck with walnut/maple/purpleheart/mahogany body wings. Fingerboard and headstock overlay are ebony bound with purpleheart. Pickups are Stew-Mac P90s. After using true oil on my two previous guitars, I tried Waterlox. It was more difficult to apply, and I am not totally happy with the results.

[Charles Faulstich]

Here are some more photos. Pickup covers are flamed maple dyed black. Ebony inlay on back is to cover a hole drilling tear-out.

[Charles Faulstich]

And the headstock.

[Charles Faulstich]

Some people have trouble reading this, but the new owner's name is Nick.

[Charlie Schultz]

Very nice work Charles and welcome to the forum! Very clever spelling of "Nick" too.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

That's a very beautiful guitar. Do you have any sound clips?

[Jason Rodgers]

Here are some more photos. Pickup covers are flamed maple dyed black. Ebony inlay on back is to cover a hole drilling tear-out.

No, no, no! This "feature" on the back is a matching inlay, opposite the clever tailpiece on the front!

Cool, compact design. I hope that purpleheart stays bright next to the ebony, 'cause it looks great.

[Terry Mashek]

Nice!

How thick are your maple veneers? They look awful thin. Did you cut them yourself? I haven't had any luck creating veneers that thin.

[Jim Bonnell]

Impressive job Charles. I would like to try my hand at a neck through and laminate like that myself at some point. Nice work.

[Charles Faulstich]

Thanks for the compliments. Markku, I do not have any sound clips but will try to post some asap. Terry - I purchased the maple veneer, and it measures 0.025". By the way I pre-rounded the fret ends and pressed them in with great success. This was the first time I did not have to level the frets! Just a minor truss rod adjustment at it played buzz-free. I also made a compound radius fretboard cutting jig for my router and I presume that contributed to the fret level accuracy as well.

[Samuel Hartpence]

Very Nice!

Any chance you can put the details of that radius jig in the tools section?

[Charles Faulstich]

Samuel - I based mine on this one: http://www.cambrianguitars.com/compradjig.html.

[Samuel Hartpence]

So is that router jig not adjustable? Is there only one compound radius you can shape (i.e. fixed at say 12 inches to 16)

[Charles Faulstich]

Samuel: You are correct - the jig can only cut one pair of radii since the bearings are bolted in one location. I suppose you could mount them in slots so that any combination of radii could be cut.