As I mentioned in this column last year, I decided to build some guitars again. After many years away from the guitar business, I got the “jones” again, and designed my newest guitar, The P-1. Over the next several months I thought that I would take you through the journey of building serial number 001, which was ordered by Mr. Eddie James (thanks Eddie!).

The original prototypes of the P-1 were what I would consider to be very “root” versions of the instruments. The materials I chose proved that my design sounded and looked the way I wanted it to, but they were simple. Eddie wanted his P-1 to be a bit more visually spectacular. The double contoured, chambered body will have a Honduran Mahogany back, 5A quilted maple top (that will be stained blue with black underlights), and the 5-piece maple/mahogany neck will sport a curly Brazilian Rosewood fretboard with an inlay that’s yet to be designed. A far cry from the simple Blond Ash prototypes. Number One should be stunning!

So I could either be talking about it forever or just show some pics with a few captions. I chose the latter.

[Note: Since there are 17 images below that would take a long time to load at full size with a dial-up connection, click on any of the thumbnails and a larger version will pop-up. If you would prefer the broadband, high-speed version, click HERE.]

After I kept the raw wood in my shop for about 60 days to acclimate, I glued up the body spread:

This (and the other spreads in process - photo below) will cure for 30-60 days prior to the next step.

Here’s the raw Quilted Maple block before I re-sawed it:

Unfortunately, no one was around when I re-sawed the quilt top for 001, but here’s a pic showing the process. The flame top I’m cutting here is for 005:

Here’s the quilt top being glue-up after the resawing. The bricks are on the seam to keep the top from warping under the clamping pressure.

Here’s the bookmatched, quilted top after glue-up:

The top will also cure now for 30 – 60 days:

After curing and thickness planning/sanding to thickness, I bandsaw out the rough perimeter of the body:

Then the top:

Then it’s time to bandsaw the back contour:

Then the top contour:

Next comes the swing sanding of the top contour to blend it into a smooth radius:

Time to make some serious sawdust! Pin-routing the acoustic chambers:

Here’s the top and back ready for glue-up. Note the thin black dyed veneer that will be an accent detail between the top and back:

Applying the glue:

The body assembly in the vacuum bag for glue-up. The bag is critical to suck the top down to match the body contour:

The final glued, rough body, ready for another 30 days of cure before the next series of building operations:

Well, that’s it for this first series of images. Hopefully, next time I’ll be showing the early stages of the neck building. If all goes as planned, you’ll be able to follow 001 throughout the entire process, including Eddie playing the final piece (if he’s not too camera shy).