With laminboard fabricated, and templates made, we turned to constructing guitar bodies. The original Red Special was built using two 3/4" thick pieces of laminboard, with internal cavities for resonance and sustain, and to house the electronics. An oak block, shown below, provides internal strength for the guitar.
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| Laminboard cut roughly to shape on the bandsaw |
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| Templates ready to go! |
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| Using the drill press with a large Forstner bit to hollow out the internal cavities |
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| The router with a bearing to follow the template |
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| Guitar body with cavities and shape routed |
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| Installing the legendary knife edge tremolo system |
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| Veneer (Sapele here) glued and curing |
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| After routing and gluing the binding, it is scraped flush with the guitar body |
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| Guitar bodies ready for finishing |
Finishing means sanding, levelling, grain filling, sealing, staining (or not, for a natural finish), and clear coating the guitar. More about that later.
