Hey guys - sorry I have not been around all that much in the last year or so, I got pretty deep into making my own guitars a few years ago and in the last couple of years I\'ve been pretty heads down working on some of my own ideas - with plenty of inspiration from Parker, Fender, Gibson; coupled with my own OCD regarding things I\'ve never liked as well as things that make any guitar special... it\'s been a pretty intense few years.
Anyways, so when I started making my own guitars I started looking at some of the things that Parker had done with Fly and NiteFly guitars - especially the back side, the arch across the top and deep carving - keeping everything in a flowing line - all of those ideas were combined with the more conventional designs and I finally cranked out one that I think captures more of my Parker influences. I put some of my more Parker inspired ideas into this build. Obviously, the Fender outlines dominate - but the body contouring, the 22 fret neck, neck heel width are what made this guitar fun to design and make.
BTW - I don\'t have any intention of selling anything... this is just a hobby that keeps me out of trouble [:I] I just thought I would share this with you guys since nearly everyone over at the TDPRI forum - where I did this build - does not get all that excited about Ken\'s initial ideas or the current Parkers: Great, great people over there, but that connection can only be found here...
This is the link to the build:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/2012-tdpri-tele-build-challenge/317883-mojotrons-2012-challenge-build-thread-completed.htmlI started off with this nasty beam that I ripped out of one of my walls when I was moving some walls around - I had to take 20 nails out if it before I stuck it in my planer:

Ended up being this super dense, but extremely resonant piece of Douglas-Fir. I had to get kind of creative when making the body blank so I added some other old growth Douglas-fir to the back side and got this body blank:

Yes indeed - that just looks like some kind of Fender thing... but wait there is more...
So I did some analysis on the shape of the top of the NiteFly, then how the top of the Fly was shaped, then the back of the Fly. Then, I figured out how far could I take this with the modified Fender-like thing you see above. Then, I made some shaping jigs and did a lot of math to figure out how to make the convex and concave curves on the top and bottom of the body: Basically what I came up with was a poor-man\'s CNC - although it\'s just plan manual - instead of \"Computer Numerically Controlled\" I guess one would call this \"Manually Numerically Controlled\" - really just using my table saw fence, router and some plywood it does a good job of getting a rough shape.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHoPdbeSCzw

Then, some work with some rasps and one of those tiny Ken Parker planes:


Then I did the top - the final shape came out as:



Well, to make a long story no longer - here\'s the final guitar - I finished it Monday:

Here\'s a video I did - playing it: Note that I had to meet a deadline sunday night - so I had not slept for a few days when I made this - but I got it done before the deadline:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOvXh5Mrn7E&feature=endscreen&NR=1I know - I don\'t mention Parker in the video... I was tired and lost my notes under a pile of wood or tools or both.

I mention Parker ideas and what I was shooting for in the build thread a lot though.
Anyways - I thought I would share this with you guys, especially since I have not been around that much lately - this is what I\'ve been up to.