This is for that customer in Washington (state). The chambered body is a Mantis model in koa and poplar. The neck will be maple and has a beautiful Ipe fingerboard which I will show when I am done with it... The finish on this has not been rubbed out yet and is Murdoch's Hard Oil which is a polymerized tung oil. This finish on a neck is just the slickest I have ever come across... Great stuff!

This small body style is actually the most popular in my lineup. Outstanding for a traveling instrument more than good enough to gig with or record with. Lightweight and extremely comfortable to play. Some folks can't get used to the visual and that's okay... These are alternatives to the same old same-old and extremely suitable for the traveling gigger or someone like me with a bad cervical spine, shoulder, and back... I can play these for hours at a time without discomfort. That's why I engineered them this way...

The shaping on the large while piece of lumber around the perimeter really makes a striking visual change to the look of the body. Much nicer..

Nice work.

Nice looking chunk o' lumber Boggs! What goodies came in yonder Carvin box? No secret I'm a huge Carvin fan. Can't wait to see more pics as you go.
L.B.

Just bits and pieces... Neck plates, strap buttons, output jacks... That kind of stuff... Thanks, guys! That koa is the last of my original koa I brought back from Hawaii... Believe it or not, the guy sold it to me as construction grade... This customer got a real bonus with the A to AA flame I managed to pull out of it...

My old Charvel model 6 has poplar sides and maple neck-one of the things I like about it. I can only wish koa was in the mix, anyway
fine work there. I`d love to try that small body style more, one guitar I was looking at a while back, it was also a small body type but a rock machine-called Selva. They were made for the Japan market, liked them but they just felt too light, too small for me.

Believe me, you'll get used to the small size in a heartbeat... These things are rediculously comfortable...

very nice Boggs....look'en good.

Now, will you put a nitro or other type of poly finish on it?

And it doesn't look "that" small to me...hard to tell without using it or seeing a compare picture...how does this body size compare to that of a Strat or Tele (which I find amazingly comfortable to play)?

MUCH smaller body. It is only 10" wide at the lower bout. It was originally designed to be a traveling studio type of instrument but I found it so incredibly comfortable to play, I mainstream it. I cannot play Strats or Teles or LPs because of my diseased and damaged spine and severely damaged left shoulder (which needs a replacement). My litmus test for comfort and playability is myself. I cannot play those other guitars for 15 minutes without the pain in the shoulder especially and the left arm going completely numb. Mine, I can play literally for hours at a time. Now, I am not knocking any of those other guitars. I just cannot play them.

Thre wil be no nitro on the finish. The Murdoch's Hard Oil (polymerized tung oil) will be the final finish.

Cool, thanks for the info (and it looks AWESOME!)

Fully setup, what's the final weight of such guitar?

Boogsy, do you brush, spray, or rub on the Murdoch's on?

Who is this "Boogsy" fellow? :lol:

Initially, I apply it very thin and rub it in with a lint-free cloth. I keep cutting it back and re-applying to try and get it to fill and seal the grain. I then use a fine taper cut brush as thin as possible and application. I'll still likely get some bubbles from unfilled pores and wet-sand it back very lightly with 1000 grit. Apply again with the fine and repeat rubbing it out after the last (at least 10) application. This customer wants the finish thinner so the top will resonate better. This guitar should come in at around 6-lbs or maybe a little less.

hey boggs...it looks really cool (as do your other guitars) !

They seem to me a little reminiscent of those turner guitars Lindsey Buckinham plays, which I also like.

Just wondering they balance on a strap, given the lack of an upper boat...for example my dbl cutaway Hamer sunburst (kinda double cut lp style) is a bit neck heavy due to the strap placement

Well, here is a sister guitar to the one in this thread and it is 25.5" scale with a 6-inline headstock and the picture shows it balances just fine. The one in this thread is 24.75" scale and 3+3 headstock config which will more than compensate for the lighter poplar midsection compared to the Cuban mahogany used in the midsection of the other one... Understandable concern...

Boy, I like that natural finish on that Mantis.
Love the way the poplar and koa shine through

I should also say that if I were to play a Mantis, I would prefer a 3+3 headstock with 24.75" scale simply because I'm more comfortable with a symmetric headstock on a symmetric body. Maybe it's just me...

I know you like using some semi-exotic woods on your guitars and the nice oil finish.

I would love to see one with a "cheaper" wood, but painted. I think that model you have would look so cool JET BLACK high-gloss with gold hardware

If I didn't just have to resign my job, I would probably buy one

The woods are not the huge contributor to cost... I just hate painting the really pretty stuff... I don't have a spray booth, so I have to contract out the painting. I do spend a lot of time on prepping the instrument for painting though. Did you ever see the pics of the poplar/birch Mantis with the 3D Kanji character on the front and the graphic on the back? It is a blackburst over a kind of pomegranite red... Your idea of gold on black does sound really classy though...

Nice balancing act! Looks great, too. Are they carvin pickups?

Cheers

In that particular one, yes. H22N in the neck position and C22B in the bridge position. That guitar has my proprietory electronics package which allows for selection of any individual or combination of coils. That was the first Mantis made.

Well, I think they're fine!

I've been on this forum maybe 2 years and if I recall, seems you were just starting into making guitars.

I have a feeling that if you get one to the right person at the right time, you may be the next Paul Reed Smith...GOOD LUCK!!!!

Doubt it very highly, but thanks for the vote of confidence! I am much more of a niche builder than PRS...

Boggsy, if you wanted to make an ultra-lightweight and very resonant solid body guitar, what wood or woods would you use?

I'm asking because Fender is selling pine-bodied Tele "reissues", and it seems to me that I've heard about other companies(of the "el cheapo" sort) that use softer woods like that for solid body electrics. I had a Galveston P bass copy for a while with a very very light body, and it was so resonant you didn't need to plug it in to play it and hear it.

I build them with kelela and will sometimes cap the kelela with padauk (absolutely KILLER tone) or possibly one of my 7-piece or 9 piece varietal laminated tops and backs... I have also used alder and padauk as well as poplar and birch.

Further update...I have just made the truss rod cover and the finish is stll wet. I'll ad a pic of that later once I decide on the black one or the cocobolo one I made. I haven't strung it yet as the customer for this wants specific strings he is sending me. Pickups are Manlius and are tapped. Pots are pull-switches on each (volume and tone).