Taking flight

[Kuro Uma]

So I recently got back in touch with and old friend of mine. He played with me in my first serious gigging band back when I was 18 and couldn't leave the stage on breaks.  :sad1: He was checking out my guitars and asked if would build him one, I said sure if he bought all the parts. It's not like I'm addicted to doing this anything, purely out of desire to help an old buddy... So we talked for weeks and spec'd out what he would like and we settled on a Soloist style alder body and a canary neck. He even picked out the top himself. Here'd what just showed up today on Christmas Eve.

Alder body with UC one piece quilt maple and walnut line

Canary on canary neck 1-5/8 tusq nut, wizard profile with stainless steel 6105's

We're gonna load it with a pair of BKP Black Hawks, a Graphtech Ghost Acousti-Phonic system and all black hardware.
My friend is half Italian and half British and spent so much time over in Italy that he married his childhood sweetheart, She is from Italy and were going to name this one after her. He works for Boeing and wanted it to have something to do with flight. He also likes just about anything related to Da Vinci. I didn't want to just to throw a plane on it so after many ideas we both liked going with some Da Vinci sketches and Icarus on the body. We are thinking something like this:

I plan to dye this into it, or something very similar. Wish me luck.

 

[Hendrix]

looking forward to progress  arty07:,  dye this into it with ink ?

 

[Kuro Uma]

looking forward to progress  arty07:,  dye this into it with ink ?

Mostly just dye I'm thinking, we'll see once I start...

 

[stratamania]

Some Da Vinci inspired is going to look rather stunning I think when you have worked on it.

Seasons greetings to you also.

 

[Great Ape]

OH BOYOBOY...(...deep breath...) Here he goes again!! Too amazing...

 

[DangerousR6]

Cool, kind of a VH meets LZ... :headbang1:

 

[Ddbltrbl]

I'm expecting this to be another master piece! The mock up really looks nice!
The BK Blackhawks are honestly kinda ugly, but the pair I have sound amazing!
Looking forward to seeing this come together! ccasion14:

 

[line6man]

I'm curious to see how this turns out, since you're doing intricate designs on a wood that is already quite "busy."

 

[Kuro Uma]

I'm expecting this to be another master piece! The mock up really looks nice!
The BK Blackhawks are honestly kinda ugly, but the pair I have sound amazing!
Looking forward to seeing this come together! ccasion14:

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I actually tried to talk him into a set of Crawlers for what he plans to do with this guitar. But it's his baby and i'll do what he wants. He prefers the Blackhawk look. So we went with the Alnico ones.

I'm curious to see how this turns out, since you're doing intricate designs on a wood that is already quite "busy."

The DaVinci sketch stuff i plan to kind of fade a bit and make the Icarus stick out. I guess were hoping the maple will resemble parchment. I've even considered using drawing pencils for the Icarus instead of dye. I'll test it out on a few pieces of maple before I commit to anything.

I've been extremely busy with holiday gigs of my own i haven't got much done. After New Years i plan to attack this project 100%.

 

[Kuro Uma]

Well here we are so far

 

[bagman67]

Keep practicin', son, and you may one day make an actual artist of yourself.


Sweet work, as always, is what I meant to say.
:laughing7:

 

[Great Ape]

Oh, man....

 

[riverbluff]

Wow!  Nothing else to say.....

 

[Cagey]

That's some fine work!

I wish I had that talent, but it would probably drive me crazy. Hardly anybody has it, yet it pays less than the fry guy gets at Micky D's. One of those rare things where supply and demand gets turned on its head.

 

[Kuro Uma]

A little more progress

 

[Great Ape]

YES! Looks incredible, and--looks quite parchment-like as well--as you had hoped. Another stunner, Kuro!

 

[Rocktrond]

If I get around to submitting for Guitar of the Month I sure hope this one is not submitted the same month! It looks awesome!

 

[Kuro Uma]

Ok more work done on the body, finished the reverse writing and got some oil on it.

Headstock cutout and put it with the body to see how it looks. (took this before I finished the body)

I veneered the headstock once with walnut then again with quilt maple creating a line like on the body.

Then i used my 1/32 dremel engraving bit and just went through the maple to the walnut to route the name into it. It's named after his wife. Also did a bit more Da Vinci sketches and made him a truss cover from maple.

It's getting there, he wants a particular sun on the 12th fret. I'm not really feeling the one he wants but it's his guitar. I'll post it when I get that done.

 

[Cagey]

Fantastic work! I'm impressed!

 

[Miotch]

I hate you
That is freakin' awesome !!