Our big news is that Jason Z. Schroeder Guitars has offered to donate a custom-built guitar for Team Josie to raffle and give away at the 2010 Relay For Life event in Grand Forks! Being huge guitar fans, we here at Team Josie are super excited about this gift! Thanks to Jason, his wife and business partner Elizabeth, and Schroeder Guitars for this extraordinary contribution in the fight against cancer!

The work in progress!

Jason Z. Schroeder says: “It is uncarved at this point. You can see that I chose a top that is highly figured toward the neck to show off the purple quilt, but it has less accentuated figure at the butt of the guitar where the opaque paint will be. Should work out really nicely. The back is Black Limba which is very popular these days.”

“I start by cutting the main contour in the very butt of the guitar with my angle grinder.”

“Then I cut four additional contours around the belly of the guitar to the edge. Note the rabbet cut around the perimeter of the body at the proper depth where I will terminate the carve at the edge of the guitar.”

“Here I connect those contours, again with the angle grinder. Note the contour is predominantly convex with the recurve area near the edge of the guitar transitioning to concave.”

“I move on to the waist and horns, switching from predominantly convex to concave contours.”

“Rough in is complete. Note the flat area near the pickups and neck pocket (face angle) is untouched.”

“Some work here in the lower horn and I mark the body with pencil to guide me through the rest of the shaping process.”

“Tummy cut is roughed in and back cavities are complete.”

“Top is rough sanded. I got the top wet to show off a bit of the figure. You can probably see now why I chose this top for this guitar. The figure is oriented very much like the shape of the purple scallop that will be featured on Josie’s guitar.”

“Another angle to show the contours. The guitar is now ready for binding channel and control holes.”

“Here are a couple pics of the binding channel being routed on the pin router.”

“Here is a pic of Josie’s inlay. It is not sanded flush with the fingerboard yet. I will wait until it is glued to the neck before I re-radius the fingerboard. Hope you like it. [Jason – we love it!] Josie’s name is cut from real silver. The ribbon is purple recon stone. I will do my best to stain the top to match this color purple.”

“I am using a sharp chisel to scrape away squeeze-out after gluing the fingerboard to the neck blank in preparation for the binding. This is a method that Bob Benedetto uses to bind his fingerboards. Makes for a really clean binding joint.”

“The squeeze-out is cleaned out here. I will now cut the fret slots where the inlay covered them and it will be ready for binding.”

“The following picture shows the rudimentary clamping jig to glue the binding. I am binding the fingerboard with ebony here. Seems strange to bind an ebony board with ebony but the result is that the binding covers the fret slots and the fret tang. I then use frets with nipped tangs so that I there is no tang exposed at the fingerboard edge. This is a much more comfortable neck to play and eliminates the issue of frets poking out if the guitar enters a dry climate and the board shrinks slightly (a common problem with necks). Note that the slots are now cut through the ribbon inlay.”

“I had to come check on the fingerboard after dinner tonight! I was really excited about seeing it unclamped. That is the good and bad of living where you work! Things look just as expected. Tomorrow, it is on to re-radiusing the fingerboard and then fretting and neck shaping.”

“Here are a couple pics of the binding going on the guitar… Just have a small piece to do in the cutaway.”

“Here is a pic of the side dots being drilled using a simple jig that maintains the proper distance from the bottom of the fretboard.”

“Headstock shape is cut using the pin router.”

“Neck meets the body for the first time.”

“Neck is fit and it is starting to look like a guitar.”

“Inlaying ‘S’ on headstock”

“Here the neck has been thicknessed front to back and the sharp edge has been rounded over.”

“I have taken it to the belt sander to rough in a bit of the round shape.”

“I have used the rasp to get it to spec. Pencil marks will guide me to where there are low spots.”

“A long flat sanding block is used perpendicular to the grain to remove file marks and smooth the round neck shape. In the process I am removing the pencil marks. Any spot where pencil marks are left is a low spot.”

“Shape is complete and it is on to final sanding…”

“Here I am placing the neck in the pocket to check the angle relative to the bridge. A couple of cool inlays on fingerboard in the foreground including a Chopper inlay. This is how this model got its name, from a guitar I built in the late 90s with this body shape and a chopper (similar to the one in the photo) inlaid on the fingerboard.”

“I am using a homemade jig to check the angle here. When the jig lays on all frets and leaves enough room that the block at the bridge location sits just above the body I know the angle is correct.”

“And the woodwork is basically complete. Ready for final sanding and neck glue. Here also notice that the section is cut off the end of the neck in the area of the neck pickup, leaving the tongue of the neck at the bottom of the pickup cavity.”

“The back with all kinds of pretty grain and figure on the Black Limba. Note the flame running through the neck.”

“First pics of the purple stain.”

“A couple more of the finish process. Here is the top with vinyl seal on it and then the [following pics] the purple scallop is masked and the white primer is applied to the bottom of the guitar. Almost ready for the pinstripe and then clearcoating.”

Thanks Jason! Wow!!! Excuse us while we wipe our chin!