Luthiery Laboratories

Yesterday I hunted around for stuff. The trusty local hobby shop is all out of everything but balsa, and it didn't sound like they were getting anything else in, ever ! So I went down the road a piece to the high-end builder's supply / lumberyard (Dykes) to see what they had. And I turned up this nice piece of 5/4" x 6" maple. 5/4" is actually 1", the same way 1" is actually 3/4", and 6" is actually 5-1/2". I looked at a couple of pieces, and took three feet off the nicest one for about $18.

Today I took the piece to the table saw and split it, so I'll get two projects for under $10 each. Yesterday I reconsidered the hardwood 'wings' I was working on. The first one turned out nearly perfect in thickness and will require no more shaping except to make the outline, so I finished the second one. I'll glue them on at a slight back angle and they will serve as guides for shaping the maple, which is not as hard.

Note the burn marks from the saw. It's hard not to do that with maple and any high-speed tool. They sand out, or in that case, they won't matter at all. Unfortunately, the humidity has gone crazy and the board that was straight has gone a little crooked at one end. I'm not worried about it, I just won't use that part.

The only usable material I could find in eBay was a single piece of soft western maple labeled "luthier" and therefore $35. Just look at this ratty piece of "luthier grade" wood. It looks like it came from a pallet. If you actually go to a luthiery supply place, you'll pay a lot more than that.

My lumberyard had all of these in 1", 5/4", and 8/4": ( prices for 5/4"x6" )

• maple - $5.75 / ft ( also 2"x4" )
• mahogany - $6.75 / ft
• cherry - $6.25 / ft

Home Depot and Lowes have lots of nice 3/4" maple as well. And you get to pick and choose.

These are the pickups I've settled on. Inexpensive toaster-style humbuckers, with no pole pieces to be misaligned with the strings. They look pretty Ric-ish. They're going to go in the classic 4001 spots, so they should sound pretty Ric-ish too. They're just two-wire leads, so I can't get all silly wiring them up. Instead ...

I want to put active controls in this project. That means volume-bass-treble. After playing around with it, I like the arrangement above, and I'm also going to use those Strat knobs. I actually like that better than the standard Ric setup. It's going to be a very Fender-y Ric. And that's all for today.