They were clearing up streets from old trees not far from the place I used as a workshop, and one of them was a type of Maple known as Box Elder. It’s often infected by bacteria that colors the wood, and this one was particularly colorful. I bought a small log, cut it up and left to dry for a while. It took a couple months to get a top-sized billet to dry properly.

The pattern of color was begging for an SG shape, so that’s what I did, plus I wanted to try a Gibson-style guitar.

I felt like this build should be a higher class, so all the hardware was a bit fancier, including a truss-rod. Not traditional, but I was never really constrained by tradition - the beauty of not having a guitar-related background.

Also, this was the guitar where I developed my logo

After gluing and routing the body blank it was time for carving bevels. This was so satisfying, I loved this process and that showed in my later work when I developed the Ennea bass.

Next I cleaned up the neck joint and carved the neck profile

Frets were in before gluing in the neck, but now was time for fretwork. Actually, now I’m doing fretwork right before assembly which makes more sense.

Next was grain filler and stain

And finally finishing

Unfortunately, the treble hors lost it’s grain pattern after shaping bevels, but the guitar looked gorgeous non the less.

In the end, this was my first “expensive’ guitar. I consigned it to a music store for $1200 USD 🤦‍♂ Ridiculous by any standard, but it still took about a year to sell.