After a visit to Ochanomizu “Guitar street” in Tokyo, I realised I had to have a pure korina guitar as a sister to my black limba T-type.
Having found a suitable piece of korina, I set about preparing the body.
The cut lines could be cleaner, but they were at least outside the pencil lines.
The piece had a few unwelcome visitors nesting in it, which is sadly common with this wood, so while that was being treated, I got to work on the pickguard.
First I prepped and glued some wenge.
I then marked the pickguard using a template and cut it on the bandsaw. The offcuts were used for some wall mounts for my tools.
I then marked and drilled the various control and bridge holes, as well as holes for the pickup cutouts.
Next, I cut out the pickup holes with a piercing saw
Using the superglue and masking tape trick, I attached the template to the pickguard and took everything as close as possible to the edges using the Triton mini spindle sander
This step meant cleaning up the lines on the router table was a breeze, despite using a router on thin wenge!
I wanted to add an even chamfer to the pickguard and considering the material, I would rather not take any chances. My go-to for router bits has always been “Radian tools” and this bit even came with a free pick!
Well worth it, would recommend. Just look at that finish off the bit!
Some minor collateral damage to the template may have occurred
Next I used a file to square up the smaller control holes
At this point, I cleaned up the body outline on the router table.
This project has been on hold for a short while to allow me to finish other projects in progress and give this my full attention when it comes to developing a remix on this classic shape, deciding on carves, etc.