Agape Guitars

Hello and a happy day! Hope things are swell.

Here’s a quick update on the Junia I’m building for me. I took a couple days in the shop recently to get some work done on it, and it’s coming together nicely. Since the last post on it, much has been done to the pickguard and the neck. The pickguard has had all 5(!) pickup routes done and controls laid out. Wire holes are drilled on the body. Got a good bunch of the neck carve done, and the frets are in and beveled. Just glued up a veneer for the headstock…it’ll be getting the same burst as the body. Can. Not. WAIT to play this one! *evil giggle* Thanks for checking it out!

Posted in My Junia

Alrighty then..part 2 of the massive update-a-thon. Go!

So, since we last saw Andrew’s neck for his crazy mandolin-shaped guitar, it was getting its fingerboard radiused. It’s now polished, fretted, carved and capped (Hmmm…almost sounds like a Waffle House order)! I put a catalpa headstock veneer on last week, and started the carve today. Andrew came over to check the carve, and how the neck fit to the body. We ended up with him routing his neck pocket, with some help from my templates. It’s looking pretty good! Just have to finalize the headstock carves, as well as the neck carve, then we’ll be leveling/crowning the frets and away it goes! Thanks for checking it out!

Posted in Andrew's Neck

The back story on this one is both long and full of crazy. Maybe you’ll hear it someday…but not today.

So anyway, short short version:  my buddy Deral wanted a bass, asked me about it, and I set to making it. Things were discussed, then specs got changed…you know the drill. First it was a 4-string, now it’s a 5-string, that kinda thing. This one is my Thump design…assuming that’s the name I stick with. Tried a few on, but I think I like this one. We’ll see. Specs:

• Thump body shape, 5-string
• Alder body, curly maple neck, rosewood fretboard.
• Solid white finish, black hardware
• Bartolini J pickups, Bartolini preamp running at 9v

This one’s almost ready for paint.  All routing is done, just have to caress the shape in a place or two and do finish sanding. VERY excited to get this one done. Here’s a few pics of the body. More will be on the way. Thanks for looking!

Posted in Deral's Thump

A while back, got a call from a friend of mine. He was interested in building a guitar for himself, but wasn’t sure about making his own neck. He wondered if I’d be interested, and it turns out I was.

Really interesting project. Andrew’s a fan of all things vintage and/or old-time-y , so he decided to enlarge an F-style mandolin into guitar form. Seen the headstocks on those things??! Really big relative to the body.  The final design of the headstock ended up a bit over 9 inches long(!).

But! It’s turning out to be a cool project. Andrew chose a nice piece of Bolivian rosewood for the neck, and I scored a killer cocobolo fretboard for this neck. We’re also going to use a bit of the catalpa wood he cut the body out of for a headstock veneer to tie the piece together.

Got the fretboard radiused yesterday, and should have it polished today, along with two other necks I’m doing batch-style.  Here’s some pics in the meantime. Have a great week!

Posted in Andrew's Neck

To begin with the sad story, my guitar died a violent death a couple months ago.  MY guitar…the one that started it all. If you’ve read my ‘about’ page, this is the one born from the ash body blank that Misty bought me for my birthday several years ago, when I’d kept talking about wanting to build my own guitar. The first one I’d ever applied a band saw to. Etc. Here’s a pic of it in happier days:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Sadly, however, our time was to be short. To make an agonizing story more brief/less detailed,  it fell off its stand in the middle of a gig and suffered irreparable damage. I cried.

But! On to new and happier days, in which I started working on a new ‘my guitar’.  I love my new Junia singlecut design, so started with one of those. This one is gonna be a doozy.  The specs:

•  Swamp ash body with a “dragonburst” finish
• Zebrawood pickguard
• locally grown cherry neck, glued in; ziricote fretboard, 22 frets. No dots on the front…this ziricote is gorgeous.
• Super-Vee Bladerunner tremolo
• Electronics: this is where things get fun. I’m going to try something kooky. I want an entire LP-style 2 humbuckers/3-way AND an S-style 3 single coils/5-way switch in the same guitar. It’s involved some careful planning, but I’ve got it straightened out. Going to have Dimarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton for the single coil-sized humbuckers, and most likely Dimarzio Area pickups for the single coil circuit. 2 volumes, a Stellartone Tonestyler for the single coils, 5-way switch, mini 3-way switch, and a small DPDT switch to control which set is active. Lastly, a kill switch. I’m trying to get this as uncluttered as possible, given all the stuff I have to work with.

Here is a pictorial history of my work so far on it, ending  with pics from yesterday’s progress.  Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for looking!

Posted in My Junia

Hey y’all (or youns if you’re from PA). Everything well?

Finished up Alec’s Revelator last week, and took a week to let the wood settle, etc. Field tested it at church last weekend with great results. So great, in fact, that in my traditional fashion, I was loathe to give it to its owner. I’d grown attached. But, right is right, and I couldn’t with a good conscience off him for a guitar. Therefore, he picked it up yesterday, and from what he tells me, is one happy camper. However! Before I got it to him, I decided to shoot some video of the guitar and its many sweet tones. While I was doing that, I asked Rick if he’d be so kind to let me borrow his Protos for a day or two and let me take pics and videos of it, as well. Being the pal that he is, he acquiesced. Being the joker that he is, he gave it to me directly after a gig, sweat and all. Woo to the hoo for cleaning off someone else’s sweat. But anyway, here are the videos. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading/watching.    

Posted in Alec's Revelator, Rick's Protos