Congratulations
Tim S. of Edina, MN
Winner of the
Team Josie
Chopper!
Thank you to all who participated!
Your contributions to the American Cancer Society’s fight against cancer are greatly and sincerely appreciated.
The American Cancer Society on behalf of Team Josie.
The Team Josie Chopper

Artist's rendering of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
designed by Jason Z. Schroeder Guitars
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.”

Maple body front of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Black Limba body back of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“I start by cutting the main contour in the very butt of the guitar with my angle grinder.”

Main contour cut in body butt of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Four additional contour cuts around the belly of the Team Josie Chopper 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.”

Convex contour transitions to concave contour at the edge of the body of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“I move on to the waist and horns, switching from predominantly convex to concave contours.”

Cut contours of the waist and horns of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Rough in is complete. Note the flat area near the pickups and neck pocket (face angle) is untouched.”

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

Refined lower horn and pencil markings to guide fine shaping of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Tummy cut is roughed in and back cavities are complete.”

Black Limba body back of the Team Josie Chopper guitar with tummy contour and wiring cavities
“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.”

Sanded, beautifully quilted top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Another angle to show the contours. The guitar is now ready for binding channel and control holes.”

Maple top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Here are a couple pics of the binding channel being routed on the pin router.”

Detail of binding channel on the Team Josie Chopper body as cut with a pin router

Binding channel on the body top of the Team Josie Chopper
“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.”

Silver “Josie” with purple cancer awareness ribbon inlaid on the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Silver “Josie” with purple cancer awareness ribbon inlaid on the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Scraping away excess glue on the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar in preparation for the binding
“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.”

Ready to cut the fret slots through the custom inlay on the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Neck is all clamped up with nowhere to go! Glue is drying on the ebony binding
“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.”

Glue is dry, binding secured, now feast your eyes on the unclamped fingerboard of the Team Josie Chopper guitar!
“Here are a couple pics of the binding going on the guitar… Just have a small piece to do in the cutaway.”

Binding applied to the maple top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Binding applied to the maple top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Drilling the side dots in the fretboard of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Headstock shape is cut using the pin router.”

Headstock shape is sculpted out of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Neck meets the body for the first time.”

This magic moment!!! Neck meets body, body meets neck, Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Neck is fit and it is starting to look like a guitar.”

Nick is fit upon body of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Inlaying ‘S’ on headstock”



The Schroeder Guitars ‘S’ is inlaid in the headstock of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Here the neck has been thicknessed front to back and the sharp edge has been rounded over.”

Rough cuts to begin carving the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“I have taken it to the belt sander to rough in a bit of the round shape.”

Neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar rounded with a belt sander
“I have used the rasp to get it to spec. Pencil marks will guide me to where there are low spots.”

Pencil marks on the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar help guide smooth shaping
“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.”

Sanding the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Sanding the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“Shape is complete and it is on to final sanding…”

Finishing sanding touches on the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Neck fits in body pocket of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Angling the neck of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Woodwork is complete on the Team Josie Chopper guitar!
“The back with all kinds of pretty grain and figure on the Black Limba. Note the flame running through the neck.”

Flamed Black Limba back of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Flamed Black Limba back of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“First pics of the purple stain.”

Taping off the scallop contour for painting on the top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar.

First dabs of purple stain on the top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Just look at that beautiful quilted maple shine through the purple stain of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Purple stained top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Purple stained top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar
“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.”

Vinyl seal over the purple stained top of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

White primer on the top butt of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Removing the masking tape off of the Team Josie Chopper guitar

Team Josie Chopper guitar ready for pinstripe and clearcoating
Thanks Jason! Wow!!! Excuse us while we wipe our chin!
WIN JOSIE’S GUITAR!
Congratulations
Tim S. of Edina, MN
Winner of the
Team Josie
Chopper!
Thank you to all who participated!
Your contributions to the American Cancer Society’s fight against cancer are greatly and sincerely appreciated.
All proceeds from the raffle will be donated to
The American Cancer Society on behalf of Team Josie.