Martin’s son finished this hollow body over a weekend, wired it himself, and then gave it to his father.
The top is spalted maple. The black lines running through spalted wood are the boundaries between fungal colonies, and instead of working around them, they stained the shapes those lines enclose.
We decided to stain the parts enclosed by the black lines of the spalting, to make it look somewhat like an aerial view of a canyon with water running through it.
Under Tru Oil the blue reads closer to dark turquoise in person. It is a genuinely original idea, and it works because someone looked at the wood first and decided what it was already trying to be.
The wiring is the part worth pausing on. He rewired the harness from the modern layout to the fifties layout, soldered it, and installed it himself.
His solder joints were better than most I see in factory guitars. He then also installed the harness himself.
Martin guided him, and was clear about who did the work.
Of course I guided him, but in the end he did it himself. I’m really proud of him.
Then came the part that makes this our favourite build story of the year. He gave the finished guitar to his dad.
He then gifted the guitar to me, so I also had NGD! I guess I have the best son in the world!
Beautiful work. If an 11 year old can wire a hollow body, the rest of us are out of excuses.
At his father’s request we are crediting the builder as Martin’s son rather than by name.
What is the youngest builder in your house, and what did they take on first?