Construction:
I used High tech glues on all wood joinery, eliminating all of the problems of traditional wood joints. You would have to use extreme force to break the neck off, and it is more likely for the wood itself to give up before the glue joint. Doing so also allowed me to use a heelless design, which has only shown up on a few brands and models of guitars in the last decade. I may not have been the first one to think of it, but I am one of the first to implement it. The heel of the neck is shaped just like a bolt on, and the joint is so precisely fit that I assembled and strung up the guitar and played it prior to gluing the neck in.
The neck is 13/16ths of an inch thick including the fingerboard at the thinnest spot, which to some players seems massive, but it is very sturdy and its mass adds to the sound and sustain of the instrument. It is still a really fast playing neck, because the wood is burnished, finished in oil, and finely polished, so it is not sticky at all like lacquered necks tend to be.
The truss rod is made of true 400 series stainless steel and much stronger and more stable than those found on any famous makers instruments. It is adjustable from the heel of the neck, not through the head stock, but without having to disassemble half of the guitar like the idiotic design of some Fender's, since the adjustment nut is drilled through its side twice to accommodate a rod that is 3/16ths of an inch or less in diameter. It can be adjusted with the strings on and tuned to pitch, but so far has only needed a slight adjustment on very rare occasion.
The fingerboard is generously spaced with a string spread of 1 7/16" at the nut and 1 15/16" at the bridge, and a 25.5" scale length. It has a varying radius that is in between a Les Paul and a Stratocaster, but not to any exact measurement, as I carved it to feel good and right at minimal action, with more bow under the bass strings than the treble strings, which is technically correct but almost always ignored by builders and manufacturers alike.
One of its most noticeable features is that the binding not only follows the curvature around the body, but also the dip of the arm cutaway. The recess needed was meticulously cut by hand, and the binding strips had to have a complex curve in them. They were cut to fit from large sheets of veneers, as the wood could not be bent to follow the curvature without breaking. Bending the binding around the lower horn was also a bitch because of its rather small radius
All contours are gracefully curved, and carved by hand with form and function in mind, and the drop top was bent to follow the complex curvature of the arm cut away.
Most of the guitar is finished with a polymerized oil, except for the top, headstock faceplate, buttons and knobs, because padauk is a known allergen. Those are finished in water based poly urethane that was supposed to prevent the padauk from oxidizing; it did not, otherwise it would still be bright orange, instead of the burnt sienna it is now. As for the bright filler in the pores of the padauk, it is on purpose, and supposed to look like stars when going into warp speed, as the theme of the instrument is based on space travel, and yes, I got the idea from watching Star Treck!
The Hardware:
The tuners are Grover's, and the locking nut is a black Floyd rose with one mismatched gold lock, I hand machined the string retainer of brass. The strap holders are of the locking kind made by Schaller, and the one attached to the upper bout is extended out for balance, and is made of some kind of lever I had laying around. I was going to make one out of brass, but so far I have put it off since I decided never to sell the instrument, and it does not bother me as it is. One of these days I will make one of brass.
The massive bridge is a Kahler made in U.S.A., and although a stud mounted replacement for a "Tuneomatic" equipped guitar like a Gibson Les Paul, I surface mounted it to fit this guitar. I bought it used for way under market value, but it did not include the tremolo bar, so I machined my own. Originally it was all black, but when I discovered that it was made of brass, I stripped part of it to add to the esthetic of the light and dark contrasting theme of the instrument. I had ultra heavy gauge strings on it until 2017, one of the string holders, which are also fine tune levers, broke under the tension in 2001, so I machined all new ones of stronger steel, and also altered the design slightly for strength, you can read about that here.
The jumbo size stainless steel frets, show almost no sign of wear, and the instrument is a daily player, over 33 years old now!