Bad woodwork:
When someone brings me an instrument, I always look it over closely to see if there is something other than what the client is asking for, that may need addressing. In this case I had to point out something wrong with almost every part of the instrument, and that I was sure to find more once I get working on it and open it up.
Let's just start with something less important yet still undesirable in a good instrument: bad woodwork: For starters, none of the contours of the instrument were refined, as in smoothly blended together, most notably the transition of the arm cutaway to the upper horn. It is not plainly visible in my pictures, but the body contour is sort of faceted, not well sculpted, and the edges are bumpy and not sanded smooth. Some spots even showed tooling marks from a router, saws and course sandpaper, and there is a crack in the neck pocket, from forcing the neck into position, because it was cut out of alignment. There is a gap in between the two parts of the un-book matched flamed maple top, that is visible on closer look. This 1/2" thick and very heavy maple top was not carved to an arch, which is the only reason to use a top that thick in the first place, but only had a slight radius around the edge. It did have an arm cutaway, but it too had to sharp of an edge to provide comfort and prevent cutting off blood circulation, which is what it is for.
The two piece body was 2" thick, and the joint between the pieces is so good, that I have to assume that he used a prefab body blank that came that way. In itself it is thick enough to easily make an electric guitar, and with a 1/2" top, it should have been planed down quite a bit, or he should have just started with a thinner body to begin with.
The control cavity cover is a page out of JLH's book of genius. First of all it is made out of walnut, and does not match anything else on the instrument. As you can see above it has no screws, but is press fit instead, with a cutout in the body where you are supposed to just use a finger to pry it out. Sounds like a good idea right? Well, there is no need to get quick access to a control cavity, and because of environmental conditions, the lid may be hard to remove one day, and fall out the next, as well as warp over time. I had to use a screwdriver to pry it open, so much for thinking things through.
Where it came to woodwork, the neck was the worst, beside a huge and obvious saw cut near the heel, it had no definition at all, and resembled a caveman's club, that had been used for a decade. Mr. X requested the "Endure Neck Profile" that required a purchased license from "Ola Strandberg" it's inventor. The Endure neck profile is ergonomic, and besides lessening fatigue and repetitive stress injury, it promotes a more consistent hand posture, and therefore promotes better playing and learning. It should look close to this:
When you purchase the license, Ola Strandberg sends you CAD files for a standard neck size. For a neck with different dimensions, you can stretch the drawing to fit, or use some math to fit the profile custom to the scale length and fingerboard width of the neck you are making. Either way you have to use your head to make it fit the instrument, as well as the player for best results. I don't think JLH had a CAD program that could open the files, or understand the math... or may have never purchased the license in the first place. To me it looked like he got his dimensions by looking at pictures on the Internet, and still failed to get even remotely the right profile. Here is what JLH's looked like:
I do admit here that I started contouring the transition between the neck and headstock, before I remembered to take a "Before" picture, but It was just a few strokes with the rasp, all other ugliness is original JLH "world class" construction.
Bad finishing:
We move on to the finish, the stained top was finished in a near glass hard and brittle polyurethane, that besides being buffed and polished but not sanded smooth first, already had checks and dings, mainly around the edges. it did not transition well to the finish of the rest of the body which I describe a few paragraphs down.
The forest green stain he may have had left over from doing the fence, did not cover the side portion of the maple, except for around the arm cutaway, and no where was there a clean sharp transition between the stained and unstained part. It did not look professional at all, but more like a high school art project.
The mahogany back was finished with what I think was supposed to be an oil finish, that may have been thinned with the wrong solvent, as it was not cured by the time I got the instrument months after the build, and therefore it never would cure. Parts of it were worn off completely, and what was left was so sticky, that fuzz from the case was stuck to it. When you put it over your leg to play it, you had to peel it off of your pants when done. It kept sticking to the soft mat on my workbench, and did a number on it too. See what I mean?
The rosewood neck had no finish at all, and although some woods including rosewood are less susceptible to climate and moisture, they are still susceptible, and although a fingerboard is not much of a problem if left unfinished when attached to a finished and more stable neck, and oiled once in a while, leaving a whole neck unfinished is not good, as it will oxidize and lose its good looks, as well as get caked with grime deep into the pores, becoming a health hazard. Finishing the rosewood in oil would have made the grain pop, and given it a fine luster, which you may see later.
Take one more look at this finish, as it will be gone. Also right above the way large JLH logo plate, is a better view of the ugly transition from the arm cutaway to the upper horn, the whale hump as I called it.