Customer "Demo" model....

[Mike Kolb]

A local school gave me a batch of older guitars to "repair economically" if possible, but one (a Cort acoustic) had a side that was smashed beyond any reasonable hope of being worth the cost, so they told me to keep it for whatever. 

I stripped the usable parts off (pickup system, tuners, etc) and the plan WAS going to be to take the carcass out to the back forty for some target practice, but since one side was OK, I cut the whole thing down the middle, did some rearranging of a few parts and made a handy 'demo' guitar.

It's proven helpful in discussing various repairs with customers, as they can get a better visual idea of what's involved with bridge plate repairs, neck resets, bracing issues, etc.  Waste not, want not!

[Mike Kolb]

Addendum.  Seems the photos weren't loading right as attachments, so maybe this works better.....

[Roger Häggström]

Good idea, I could use the other half :-)

[Mike Cornwall]

Cool!!!

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

Mike,

That's great!. Obviously it took some planning, not just introducing it to Mr. Bandsaw.

Good for you.

Joshua

[Mike Kolb]

Thanks!  Yeah, I was looking for something modest & manageable in size, so I popped the fretboard and bridge off first.  Then cut the fretboard length down ( it comes on & off with little magnets) then epoxy'd the bridge back on after cutting it down width-wise. 

It all comes down to being cheap and hating to toss anything away!

[Andrew]

What did you use to cut through the body so cleanly Mike? I cant stand throwing things out either. I bet your customers love this.

[Mike Kolb]

After taking off the fretboard & bridge, I used masking tape for a reference line and (as Joshua succinctly mentioned) just "introduced it to Mr. Bandsaw".

The blade was relatively new so it made a clean cut, then I deburred the cut-line with a bit of 220 paper and there we go. 

Sure, it's more of a conversation piece, but does have it uses for explaining some jobs.

[Richard Bales]

I have a similar guitar body and a couple of necks cut lengthwise to show different truss rod configurations.  And another neck (electric bass in this case) that is fretted with a variety of fret sizes - useful when a customer wants a refret but is unsure of the profile.  The fret neck also has one side with a nice rolled edge on the fretboard while the other edge is not rolled.  This also has helped a few customers decide about this feature.  And all of these pieces were from what otherwise would have ended up in the junk pile.

[Mike Cornwall]

Another great idea!

[Jonathan W Landers]

Wow what a great idea next time I get something similar I believe I'll be doing the same.  Being able to show the customer the nature of the beast is something that will save me a lot of time.