DOWNSIZING Without Sacrificing TONE

[TOM MAIER]

I recently designed and routed this Headless Wonder out of a mahogany slab. It is similar to the Traveler Guitars that I have bought in the past. The Travelers are great and are well worth the investment if you are looking for portability and ease of toting a (full scale neck) guitar around. Since I can build my own guitars I have always wanted a portable axe with a pair of passive, high-end pups of my choosing. I also wanted a portable guitar body that was slightly wider and more ergonomically fit my body. So, this guitar is actually the same length, (30.5"), as my Traveler Guitar Mark III but it has all the design options that I built into the guitar. It is slightly wider than the Mark III and has ergonomically friendly forearm trim on the front and belly cut on the back.

The guitar has: mahogany body, maple neck, Lollar Gold Foil pickups and locking tuners.
The TONE is absolutely awesome with the Lollar pups which I have now installed in two of my personal guitar builds. I am also finding that I like the added comfort of the shorter reach while playing up and down the neck on this portable guitar. The folks at Traveler sold me the bolt-on maple neck but they don't sell you the aluminum neck cap. Since I have a Shopbot router I designed and milled my own aluminum neck cap. I also shaped the tuning head ports to flow more cohesively with the overall shape of the guitar body. This guitar now gets more than equal playing time with my other guitars.

I am showing the Headless Wonder with my Timber Rattler Tele which has the same Lollar Gold Foils on it. The Headless Wonder may be little but it actually belts out BIG TONE. When I travel I carry this guitar and a gym bag with one or two Roland MicroCUBES. For me, two CUBES offer a wide range of tones that keep me happy while playing.

 

[John]

Great work, looks awesome.

 

[Raiyn]

 

[Shadow Explorer]

Great stuff! well done mate, they look really nice and unique!!!

 

[Shadow Explorer]

May I ask the kind of mahogany? Looks a lot like Quartersawn sipo\sapele.

 

[TOM MAIER]

May I ask the kind of mahogany? Looks a lot like Quartersawn sipo\sapele.

 

[Shadow Explorer]

It Does look like it's one of those, beautiful! very elaborate design as well!

 

[TOM MAIER]

Thanks for the compliments. I ordered this mahogany blank from a dealer in Washington. I did have some tear out when routing along the sides but it is nothing that I can't fix. Structurally though, this is now the most durable guitar I own since I am not worrying about dinging or cracking a headstock and the tuners are below the surface of the guitar body. This guitar weighs exactly 7 lbs.

 

[Shadow Explorer]

But it's really great! Sipo and Sapele (african mahoganies) have those distinctive ribbons when quartersawnn (epis are using them for veneers) thus I assumed It's one of them.

I'm aiming to be able to build guitars as well, for now a good friend of mine is doing most of the dirty work, but I did the templates, designs, logos etc.

 

[TOM MAIER]

But it's really great! Sipo and Sapele (african mahoganies) have those distinctive ribbons when quartersawnn (epis are using them for veneers) thus I assumed It's one of them.

I'm aiming to be able to build guitars as well, for now a good friend of mine is doing most of the dirty work, but I did the templates, designs, logos etc.

I know you will enjoy building them as much as I do. I have some sapele stock here in my studio. The sapele is patterned like the guitar body but is a softer wood. The Headless Wonder body is so dense I could use the guitar as a weapon!

 

[Shadow Explorer]

Yes I'm sure, I really like the process, and have done some work here and there, Maybe I will do more on the next one
Now I can't wait to play and hear the one we are doing

Sipo is moderate, our maple though is weapon material as well

 

[Stuart]

That’s some really impressive work Tom

 

[Davis Sharp]

Outstanding.

 

[Jay Bones]

Really cool!!!

If I didn't already have one that I can travel with I'd be all over this!