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Project: Bobcat 3

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Day one:

Click pictures to enlarge

Clamping the mahogany. I went for a center block wide enough to mount the tailpiece bushings in. Seems like the way to go.

Clamping the wings  for the cap. What an incredible pain in the ass. I kept telling myself  "John Fisher could do this with a can opener and sone dental floss". Didn't make me feel much better.

The wood. Nice 2" mahogany I got at Macbeath in S. F., flamy maple I found at Discount Builders Supply for cheap.Split it on my table saw.

Seems to have stuck. I used screws around the perimeter as the cap wasn't perfectly flat and I didn't want to remove any more wood to flatten it. I think it'll be fine

Clamping the cap.

Cap planed, ready to cut. It's always cool when you can start to see the flame.

Day two:

Sanding the edges preparatory to cutting the binding channel.

...cuts like buttah!

The rickety $15 bandsaw of death...

My crude overarm pin routing setup. I clamped the router in my Workmate. It was kind of scary, but I think I can work with the results.

Setting up for making the dishtop. I got this method from Mr. Fisher. I'll cut concentric rings at increasing heights and then smooth it out with a chisel and disk sander.

Not too many scorchmarks, and pretty damn uniform if I do say so myself.

Cut the first ring, which was scary, as the maple's only about 3/8" thick and I had to get uncomfortably close to the mahogany in order to ultimately give me enough of a slope. Luckily, no disasters. Yet.

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So, I've already got two solidbodies with the same basic body shape (my friend Daryl Henline dubbed
it "The Bobcat". I can live with that), so why build another one? Well, the yellow one was an
improved version of one that I built in Detroit in '96. I was shooting for an SG/Melody Maker feel
with a Fender-scale neck and I think I pretty much nailed it. It's my workhorse and has remained
stable for a couple of years now. Then I saw an article by a guy named John Fisher about a dishtop he
built and I had to give it a shot (the guy's amazing; missionary in South America, built this
beautiful Les Paul copy, among other things, with, like, a Swiss Army Knife and a pair of pliers.
Plus he documents everything meticulously on his website. Thanks for the tips, John.).I went with a
thin basswood body and a maple neck, partly because I didn't feel like  doing a direct Les Paul
clone, and because it seemed like a good combination. I had two P-90s in it at first, but couldn't
handle the hum, and put a minibucker in the bridge position. I also used a Gibson scale length. It's
great for clean and slightly dirty tones, but gets kind of shrill with lots of distortion. So I
figured I'd do a third one that's closer to a Les Paul, but with the Fender scale lenghth, which
works better for me, feel and tonewise. We'll see how it goes.