Before I start I wanted to ask you if there are particular builds you want me to cover in this format. Please comment and let me know.

This build was for a competition on local guitar-maker forum, and it won in one of the categories - for approach to craftsmanship.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a log from an apricot tree and it was enough for a couple tops and a neck. Turns out apricot wood is traditionally used for some woodwind instruments like Armenian Duduk, so I thought it would be a good experiment. For body wood I chose Mahogany and the whole concept was a carved top Tele.

I glued the blanks and planed them. Apricot was so nice to work with because of the smell - slightly fruity, a bit like a fresh pear. Interesting that I remember it now - 13 years later :)

After I glued them together I planed the neck angle

And routed for binding

The neck was a single piece, so the truss rod went in from the back:

Unfortunately the router ripped a piece out of the end of the headstock, so I had to do a glued headstock and add veneers from both sides. It actually turned out even prettier.

Back to the body. My first top carving! So much fun!

Wood veneer binding

Then I went back to carving and enjoyed it way too much :) That’s when I fell in love with scrapers.

And so I went to do the same on the back

Then fitted the back cover

After gluing in the neck I finished carving and then it was spraying time

I was trying nitro lacquer for the first time. It took ages but looked great in the end.

Then buffing, fretting and assembly!

It turned out so PRS-que, that I traded for some original PRS pickups.

In the end, it was the first guitar I was really proud of. Made perfectly, felt amazing and had a very lovely tone. I really liked the way apricot sounded - midrange-crispy with lots of overtones. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind of wood that can be sourced reliably and so I never used it again.

And here you can watch this guitar together with my very first one - the Stainless tele.