avengers63

Don't ever stop trying to be helpful here. What's obvious to you is oblivious to someone else. Inlace would be a lot easier to work with than a piece of scrap countertop laminate. You wouldn't need to cut it. It'f be worth the cost to me ($35 vs. free scrap) to not have to cut it to shape. So no, I suppose cost isn't the ONLY factor - ease of use factors heavily in there as well.

I had a thought today. We all know that's dangerous enough as-is, but hear me out anyway. Some ground info needs to be established. If I'm off on any of this, please LMK so we can get on the right track. For a semi-acoustic, there needs to be a solid block for the pups & bridge to mount on. This is because of feedback. To the best of my knowledge, this applies to chambered solid-bodies as well. Acoustics have very thin wood which vibrates, this amplifying & shaping the sound. It requires bracing due to the lack of thickness. Chambered electrics have thicker sides & tops, and therefore do not require bracing. From a topic I posted some months ago, the thinnedt you should go with a chambered electric is about 1/4". Beyond that and the wood might be too thin. So... Let's take a solid body electric, and chamber it. Nothing new. Let's only leave a small block inside at the neck pocket, just big enough to have a neck pup as well. We'll also leave a small block for the bridge. EVERYTHING else is hollowed out to aboy 1/4"-3/8". We'll have a 1/4" cap, or maybe a 1/2" that has been carved. Instead of f-holes, let's put a big round acoustic hole between the neck pup & the bridge. How would you predict this would sound acoustically? Clearly it wouldn't be anywhere as loud as a real acoustic, but with some heavier gauge strings, it could be OK. At minimum, it'd be a pretty sweet jazz guitar. Let's take it a little further. Let's say it's 2 1/2" thick. That'd leave you just under 2" for the sound box. Then let's put in a true acoustic pup system. NOW what happens when it's plugged in? Since we've gone that far, let's NOT leave the solid block under the bridge. Instead, let's put in a TOM bridge mounted on a piece of rosewood/ebony like an archtop. NOW what happens?

+2 I just re-read the chapter on shellac in Flexner's book. After chiding folks for not wanting to use shellac as a finish anymore, he went to great lengths to describe it's properties. Among these are that it excells as a sealer to stop sap & oil. It also sticks to any other finish very well, so useing poly over the shellac sealer would be fine. That being said, I agree with Erik: don't finish or seal it if it's for the fretboard. It's just fine as-is, or maybe with some oil rubbed in.

Can you tell a difference between the pieces? If so, PLEASE shoot me your thoughts and observations. My wife offered up some input that I hadn't thought of that was really useful, so ANY input is really great.

No. I'm trying to do two things: cut cost and have a unique feature. If I used traditional pearl, abalone, etc., a full half of the material cost of the guitar I'm planning would be in inlay material. I've done a LOT of shopping, and the cheapest I can see for the extensive amount of purfling & inlay I'll be doing is around $200-$250. A single box of Inlace is +/- $35 shipped, and will do the whole thing. Second, the Inlace is available is a wide range of colors and looks. We see shell/pearl inlay all the time. While it always looks good (when done well), it's a little common. This would allow me to have a fairly unique look while accomplishing the same effect.

Here are some test pieces that have been stained black and sanded back. Note that the pieces weren't 100% level, so there will be some irregularities in some places. I'm only looking for how the grain and overall appearance is effected. More pics later today.

When I was still working in restaurants, I would frequently make pop culture references to things that happened before some of my co-workers were born. I started playing guitar in 1987, so I've been playing longer than some posters here have been alive. I've owned my Steinberger longer than some as well (1989). The first time I felt old I was only 20 (1990). I was seeing a girl that was 16. She didn't know who Speed Racer was. Then I saw Star Wars in the theater for it's 20th anniversary re-release (1997). I had seen it in the theaters the first time around (1977). Here's a point to ponder: This year's college graduating class will bot remember a time when there was NOT CDs, cordless phones, cable TV, remote controls, a Walkman, and home computers. They will not remember when there WAS: the Berlin Wall, casettes, a black Michael Jackson, or an MTV that played videos.

I've been seeing something similar in one of the ads in the back of Guitar World. I was wondering when someone would give it a shot. The work is nice & clean, but I wouldn't have used paduk. When it turns brown, the effect will be lost. I was thinking to cut it out with a scroll saw, do it in flamed maple and stain the flames red.

You wouldn't want to sand bloodwood & maple side by side. You'd have a really hard time getting the bloodwood dust out of the maple's grain. I haven't noticed maple's smell being good or bad. It's a kind of pity that longhi smells so bad. It's cheap, easy to work with, and is a neutral olive-yellow that contrasts very well with many other woods. I actually like working with it, but I just can't stand the smell.

After working with it for a while, I can clearly state that Longhi, while being VERY easy to work and has a nice neutral yellow-ish color, smells like a$$. There's no better way to put it - it just smells like a$$. Dirty a$$ at that. Yea - bocote smelled OK, and was pretty easy to work. Looks nice too. Hella-expensive, though.

I could have that in about half the time.

I'm 38 - almost 39. I've had ponytail length hair on two separate occasions. It's currently pretty "high & tight", but that's not by personal choice. I'd rather have it at shoulder length. Think "Bee Gees" or Peter Frampton. Once I shaved my head. It was a lesson in "don't do it when you're drunk and REALLY upset". Fortunately it was just hair and it grew back - nothing permanent. My current job is on a government contract doing work for the AFCA at Scott AFB. They wouldn't take it too well if I had longer hair and wanted to work for the Air Force. I also have an agreement with my wife, a former licensed stylist who does my hair. She wants short hair for herself and likes short hair on men, I'm the opposite liking long hair on women and longer hair for me. The deal is that she can keep my hair short but che can't cut hers.

Does anyone have any experience with Inlace? http://www.inlaceonline.com/ I'm contemplating (99% there) using it for purfling nexy year and I was hoping for some first-hand experience.

Since the dyes I ordered in at the bedinning of October aren't coming in anytime soon (http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=39033&st=0&#entry402607), I'll be going a different direction. I picked up some hunter green stain and some wood conditioner (wash coat) the other day and I'll be going at it that way. I'm going to experiment on some scrap first. My plan is to hit it with some ebony stain then sand it back so the grain is clearly defined. Then I'll hit it with the green. When I get something to show, I'll post some pics.

I have not. I didn't know what the procedures would be - whether I should do it it a mod. I'll do it today. Someone else may be, but not me. I know exactly who I wrote the check to, which website I ordered from, and who is shafting me. This is the ILS in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

With such a glowing history of customer service, shall we try and convince Brian to remove them from the site's directory of suppliers? That's how I got their info in the first place. It's not Brian's fault by any means, but removing them from the list of recommended sellers might stop this from happening to someone else.

Don't worry - I'm not about to invest any money in getting back $35. If the USPS doesn't want to do anything, then there's probably not much to be done. I might talk to my back just to see what they're willing to do, but that's as far as it'd go. Maybe a $10-$15 fee, but certainly no more.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not sure this is where it should be posted. All events are true and accurate and are told as a personal experience and warning to others. When I joined this board, I went to the main page and found a number of mail order retailers that sell guitar parts. The ones I likes were bookmarked for future use. This is my experience about International Luthier Supply. I placed an order with them on 10/3/08 through the mail. I had to use the mail because their website had no shopping cart system. The total came to $36.70. I printed out the order form, filled it out, mailed it in along with the check, and waited. The website clearly stated that orders paid by check would be held until the check cleared. Assuming the check is deposited immediately, it should have taken only a week or a little longer for the check to clear, taking mail time into account. The check didn't clear until 10/28/08, three weeks later. OK... they're just slow or the mail is slow or they were on vacation. No big deal - they're back and I'll be getting by stuff inside a week. A week passed with no package. I called the number listed on the website to check up on it. The number has been disconnected. This is a bad sign. I emailed them to the address listed on the website. After a week, I had no response. I then went onto Whois to look up the info for the domain registration. There was a name and phone number listed, as well as a physical address. The address matched the address listed on the website, but the phone number did not. I called it - it was disconnected too. This past Saturday I went back on the website. It is no longer up. Re-checking the Whois listing, the domain name registration expires on 11/20/08. There is still a contact email listed. Using that address AND the one listed in the Whois file, I fired off another letter to them stating the facts I found, their lack of responses, and my suspicions of mail fraud. I told them that if I did not hear from them somehow by C.O.B. today (11/17/08), I would file a complaint with the USPS for mail fraud. I included my home phone number in the email. I was hoping that the threat would scare them into action. No response came. Today when I got home from work, I filed my complaint with the USPS.

The center of the squares will be filled in with redwood burl, which is very soft. I don't believe for one second that redwood burl will hold up with just oil. The pieces I have are already impregnated with Ploycryl. It's a stabalizing agent for burls which makes it able to be turned without disintegrating. At this point, they should be able to be finished, but I have no confidence in it holding up to the wear it'd suffer on a fretboard. My thoughts were to bulletproof it with some poly, then fit it to the hollow block inlays.

So this guitar I'm planning on doing in the spring... The last thing I'm up in the air about are the inlays in the ebony f/b. My thought was to take some "hollow block" inlays and fill the blocks with the same wood as the cap. The only problem I'm having in doing this is that the interior wood will have to be finished while the ebony will not. Even if it's a very matte finish, it'll still look radically different than the rest of the f/b. What issues would be run into with this operation? Does anyone have any thoughts or input? Has anyone done something like this? If so, what were your experiences?

The heel/pocket is the normal 3". It looks a lot bigger because 1) it's pretty shallow in the body and 2) the body blank was only 12x16. With a smaller scale body the normal sized pieces look bigger than normal. It's a smaller version of the Danelectro "Bowtie". LMK when/if you find the car chrome that will work. I looked all over and came up empty.

And finally, here it is after some leveling & smoothing. Today I'm doing all of the drilling. There are some new (for me) items I'm working on, so look for the pics tonight or tomorrow. I'm also testing some light stain on some scrap ash. I'm looking for that "Fender amber" look without using dyes. I'm PLANNING on doing the inlay for the headstock, but I don't know if I'll have the time or the attention span.

Here it is after some fun with the angle grinder, but before a LOT of time with a mini-plane, 1/4" chisel (paring, not chiseling), and some 40 grit. Outside pics are so much better, but it started raining, so inside were all I could get.

I decided to rout off the binding, but try to leave enough to give the illusion of a double layer. I thought it was a great idea. The router didn't agree, so it ripped off a big piece of binding just to prove it's point. I'm glad it didn't take any wood with it. So here's the body re-bound and ready to be carved.

The sides didn't stick the way I needed them to. Along with being sidetracked on other projects, I had to get the sides glued on properly. Learning curves are always so time consuming. So I figured it out and got the binding on the first one. It's not perfect, but I didn't expect the first one to be. The next ones will be much better. As of these pics, the binding hasn't been scraped flush.