This is what I mean by hand carved!

Below are some pictures I took to show the hand carving process in a Karlin guitar. This usually takes a solid days work. As I have stated before, the use of certain tools, such as a bandsaw, router, and planer are involved to increase accuracy where needed, But All of the contouring, and ergonomic shaping of the body and neck, are done with basic hand tools. Thats right, I do things the hard way. I could get this part of the job done in under an hour, if I wanted to use machines, But I like doing things the old fashioned way. This lets me be in touch with the guitar, and brings some human-ness to the build. Here you go....

Step 1. Planning the basic carve

Step 2, using the spoke shave to get the chamfer out of the front.

Step 3, getting started on the back

Step 4, planing the back, to achieve my comfort carve.

As you can see in the picture below, the back is not flat, like on many other guitars. This guitar actually, leans into you while playing!

Step 5, chiseling out the cutaways, for upper fret access.

Rough carving nearly complete....

Step 6, using random orbit sander to clean up tool marks.

Step 7, Finally, we can set the neck!

After the neck is set, we can start shaping the neck heel, and blending the neck into the body.

Once that is close to done, then we flip the guitar over, and blend the neck into the front of the body.

And. as before, we use th random orbit sander to clan up tool marks.

 Here is a shot of my carving bench

 There is still along way to go, Including fret installation, pickup winding, more shaping with neck on (Blended neck heel!) Logo application,  Finish sanding, application of finish, Assembly, and probably some stuff I forgot to list here! Also, I didn't have any pictures of me carving the neck, but if  I find some, I will post them here. Believe me, It is just as much fun as the body!