This is the first of the guitars that I have built with this body style. The body is a thinline semi-acoustic with a mahogany center strip. The sides and back are zebrano (or zebra wood). The sides are formed (bent with heat as is done in standard acoustic guitar construction). The top is quilted maple with a zebrano pick guard. The neck is a mahogany/maple/mahogany lamination, reinforced with carbon fiber rods; thin veneers of maple and  rosewood separate the laminations. The fingerboard and front

The body, sound hole, neck, and peg head are bound with cocobolo. My standard JeSt inlay at the 12th fret, and the jester inlay on the pick guard, are done with aluminum wire. The peg head inlay is abalone shell and wire.

By bending the sides rather than forming the body from a solid slab, as is conventionally done, I can lighten the body, since the sides are very thin. It also results in a different visual appearance, since there is no end grain anywhere on the body. The only downside (other than it is harder to do) is that I can’t incorporate body contours, such as forearm taper and tummy cut.

Pickups are PAF style Schaller humbuckers. Controls include a three way pickup switch and a stacked volume and tone control. The semi-hollow construction makes the guitar light, and coupled with the pickup selection, produces a nice humbucker growl with a sound that is a bit more open compared to a full solid body.

and back peg head laminations are cocobolo. My standard JeSt inlay at the 12th fret, and the jester inlay on the pick guard, are done with aluminum wire. The peg head inlay is abalone shell and wire.

wire. The peg head inlay is abalone shell and wire.

All in all I am happy with this model. It is light, resonant, and looks good. In fact, you will see that I repeated it with variations on the next guitar.