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Building an Electric Guitar for the Los Lonely Boys A master luthier handcrafts an electric guitar for the Los Lonely Boys. From "Special Presentation" episode DLLB-S

(Continued from page 2)

Work continues on Henry's guitar with the routing of several cavities.

Completing the Body of the Guitar and Starting the Neck

Materials:

router table
templates
sandpaper
power sanders
spray gun
lacquer
band saw
maple and walnut stock
spoke shave
multi-carver pantograph

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	Figure D
	Figure E

1. Using a computer generated template, the staff of First Act Guitars routs several cavities from the body designed to hold the guitar's electronic components.

2. The crew sands the body's surface and rounds over the edges using a variety of power sanders designed to bring the dimensions to exact specs.

3. With the body's construction complete (figure D), Kelly takes it to the First Act spray booth to apply one coat of clear lacquer. The body will require a full day to dry so the staff begins construction of the neck.

4. Two 6"x36" pieces of eastern flame maple (2" thick) are glued up with a thin sheet of walnut in between. When it's dry it will serve as the blank used to create Henry's guitar.

5. A computer generated neck template is used to trace a rough approximation of a neck onto the neck blank. The shape is cut using a band saw.

6. The neck comes away from the band saw as a rough shape but it is brought closer to final specs using a spoke shave (a small planer) and a multi-carver (figure E).

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