Take a look at the Prototype 1 page for the full progress of this build.

The weather was beautiful this weekend, so i carved the neck on Prototype 1.

On the second day of carving, i slimmed it down quite a bit and made it a lot less blocky. The contour i ended up with actually surprised me a little, because it’s almost exactly the opposite of what i had in mind when i started.

My original plan was to have a soft “V” at the nut end of the neck, and have it gradually flatten out into a thin even “C” toward the body. But theory and practice often yield different results, and as i sat and carved the neck, using nothing but my left hand as a guide for its shape, the neck profile took an unexpected turn.

At the nut, it’s a nice slim even “C” shape, nicely rounded across the whole profile. I’m not a big fan of the “flat in the middle” feel of most thinner “D” type shredder necks. I’ll have to throw the calipers on it to see exactly what the depth of the neck is after i sanded the radius into the fretboard, but my guess is it’s around 21 or 22 mm.

As you move up the neck, it gets slightly thicker, but the shoulders of the neck start to taper down a little bit. Around the 7th fret, things really start to change. The neck starts to get a little more asymmetrical, and a soft “ridge” starts to reveal itself. By about the 12th fret, it’s an asymmetrical soft “V” shape. And it feels wonderful. It’s almost as if the neck is molded from an extruded cylinder of clay, and then shaped to fit a shifting hand shape as you move up the neck. The mass of wood beneath the hand feels the same, but it’s just distributed differently depending on where you are on the neck.

In my experience, i tend to play with my thumb over the neck when playing open-position chords and more complex voicings slightly higher up on the neck. As i move up the neck, my wrist naturally rotates downward toward the floor. The transition from the even “C” to the soft asymmetrical “V” essentially tracks along with my thumb on the bass side of the neck. I’ve never felt a neck quite like this, and i can’t wait to play it. After sitting with the neck bolted to the body, i really think it may be the best neck profile for me. Being primarily a rhythm player, i need good leverage all across the neck to hold down tricky chords and have them ring true without buzzing. I think this neck profile with accomplish that.

Look at more build pics on the Proto 1 page.

More progress…

For full detail on the build, see the Proto 1 page.

Proto 1 and Proto 2 inched one step closer to completion over the weekend, with the neck joints being drilled, T-nuts inserted and a test bolt-up of the necks and bodies.

This is the first time we’ve actually been able to sit down with both of these body styles as (more or less) actual instruments. The ergonomics are fantastic, even without the neck and body carves done. Balance seems to be excellent, and playing position of the Javelin in a seated position is perfect.

The Aviator is stunningly lightweight, though the white limba body and neck is quite soft, and this guitar will require a good hard clearcoat to keep it from damage.

The Javelin is the complete opposite… the solid East Indian rosewood neck and 2″ thick figured walnut body make for a hefty instrument. But it’s important to note that neither the neck nor body have been carved yet, so it will likely lose about 1/3 of its mass. (We have some fairly dramatic carving ideas for these bodies.)

Stay tuned!

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