avengers63

The next dude who tells me "It's not the heat, it's the humidity" gets punched in the nads. I don't care what it is, it's hot! Sweating when you're NOT ACTIVE AT ALL is just wrong.

I have some longhi & bloodwood, both 1" thick, that I'm wanting to match up into a body. We've all seen bloodwood made into thin caps, but... this would probably end up being 3/4" thick. Aside of weight, is there anything specific I need to worry about? As for longhi, has anyone ever made a body from it before? If so, what are your experiences with it as far as tone?

Oh, I wasn't trying to imply that the craftsmanship was any less. I'm just thinking about the extra effort that goes into prepping a heavily spalted top, lining up the crazy grain, extra pinstripe laminates, or some other time-consuming detail work. This alder body that'll be painted black would be a breeze in comparison.

Seriously... the chuck is just jammed onto the verticle axle? That seems hokey somehow. It seems to me that some kind of screw would be a much more effective means of holding it there than friction. Then again, I'm a network engineer, not a mechanical engineer,so I guess I'll just leace it to them. Maybe I'll try putting a piece of wood underneath it and lower the press hard onto the block to jam it into place.

I'm needing some standard sized back plates, specifically for a Les Paul. These aren't going onto a guitar, they're to make cutting/routing templates from. If anyone has some spares in their junk box they don't need or want, PLEASE PM me soon.

You gotta be kiddn' me. It broke, and the way to fix it is to hit it with a hammer? Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

I was hogging out some pup cavities this weekend when the bit started to have a nasey shimmy to it. When I stopped the drill and raised the thing back up, the chuch had fallen off!!! I looked and looked to see what happened, but I couldn't even find out how the thing was attached in the first place. By the looks of it, it was just mashed onto the turney-thing (real techincal, huh) and held on with a hope & a prayer. So... what do I do now?

Welcome aboard. What do you plan on it looking like when you're done with it?

With all of the amazing work you've done on the exotic woods, it must feel a little off to do one in a plain wood and just paint it black. It seems a little boring by comparison, but I'm sure it's a welcome change of pace.

BUBINGA PRS I got the bodt cut out & routed to shape, the edges given a 1/2" radius, and the pup cavities routed. I'm not going to carve the top of this one. I'm seriously considering giving it a forearm contour and a belly cut. I know that's more Strat than PRS, but it just seems like the right thing to do. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...a%201/bub04.jpg TULIP The second body was cut out, routed to shape, and the edges given a 1/2" radius. After (basically) naking two of these bodues, I can see the need for a little tweaking of the design. It needs to be a little longer and the neck pocket a little bigger. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...edesign/202.jpg ZEBRAWOOD TOP LP Except for the pup cavity recess and input jack, this one is done. It turned out looking pretty nice. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...3/LP1/wip07.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...3/LP1/wip08.jpg In other good news, I was talking with a dude I went to college with who now works at Guitat Center. He's interested in buying a PRS body from me. I'm taking the bubinga, zebrawood, and chechen bodies in for him to take a look at after work. We'll see what happens.

SCOTTYD: Unlike others, I don't care for the long neck joints on a bass. The rest of it looks fantastic, though. I particularly like the cavity cover. I can't explain exactly what about it I like, but I think it's really neat. CANUK BRIAN: This one isn't doing anything for me. There are a lot of little things which individually wouldn't be an issue, but collectively aren't appealing to me. ZYONSDREAM: I REALLY want to like this one. My initial looks were "Yea! That's pretty cool." Then I took some more looks at it. The stringers don't match up well with the top, nor does the f/b. From behind, the stringers DO work well with the limba, but not the neck. The pups really reach out and grab you, but they're a competing tone (color) with the paduk. Then there's the raised back plates. Sorry! DJHOLLOWMAN: I'm not a big fan of 7-strings. That being said, I absolutely LOVE this one. It's so clean, crisp, sleek, and simple... Clip off one string and put in some fret markers and it'd be perfect. RFR: Another nice ax. Like DJ's, it's clean. Where his went minimalist, you went classic. Both are very nice. I always have to question the usefulness of an electric 12-string. IIRC, the Byrds are the only ones that really used one very much. EVEGUITARS: I don't like the shape of this one. It's REALLY pretty, but there are too many points on it. For my taste, it needs to be either pointy or rounded, not both. Again, the wood and hardware combos look great. PUKKO: Your attention to detail won me over this month. I was really torn between yours & DJs, but all the little details you put into it won me over. EG: wenge jack plate, matching pattern on the f/b & control cavity cover, binding on the TRC & selector switch, etc. The trebel body horn does ZERO for me, but all the rest makes up the difference. JJUCIUS: I like this tele a lot. The neck pup ring is striking. Gold hardware looks much better than black on a red-toned wood. I'd like to see some binding around the top, but that'd force you to paint the sides & back. A nice clean guitar.

On the left is some longhi, on the right is bloodwood. Both are 1" thick. I believe this'll be another PRS, unless I can get ahold of another template in the next week or two. With a 1" thick bloodwood top, it'll be dang heavy. But, the yellow & red combo will look pretty nice. I'll most likely be carving the top. I'm seriously considering keeping this one. Also in the works: The zebrawood is all in the clamps. I'll be cutting the LP to final shape tomorrow. I don't know if I'll have time to do the pup routes or not. The bubinga gets glued to the maple/jatoba core tomorrow. A Tulip blank has been glued up. In the planning stages for a pair of mahogany LPs with burled redwood tops and cream binding. One would be for sale, one for me.

LIMBA & ZEBRANO LP Nothing unusual to report. The mahogany pinstripe is glued on, the body base cut out & routed to shape, and the control cavities & wiring channel have been routed. Today I'll be gluing on the zebrawood. I'll probably be able to finish the whole thing up tomorrow. If not, then by the end of the weekend.

This is weird. I had some dreams last night that this guitar got smashed up somehow. And that it was an acoustic.

Dang! Veneer or not, that's just plain sweet.

Clearly, you have a thing for Ace. That being the case, why didn't you go for a cherry-sunburst LP like Ace plays?

JUMPIN' BAJEEZERS!!!! What in the heck is this???? I got all the yellow sprayed even and sanded down smooth with some 320 grit. When I brushed on the first (and apparently LAST!) coat of lacquer, the paint wrinkled up like there's no tomorrow! Here's exactly what's on the wood in order: Colorplace spray can white primer Colorplace spray can grey primer (I ran out of white & didn't want to go back to the store) Krylon indoor/outdoor gloss Sun Yellow Minwax brush-on lacquer Why did it wrinkle up like that? When that happened, I put some brush-on poly on the headstock. I knew the poly wouldn't do anything to the paint because that's what I used on the Christmas Ax. By stark contrast, THIS went on just perfect. I know I'm hosed. I'm going to have to wait until the lacquer dries enough to sand it off. That's probably going to take a bunch of the paint with it, so repainting will be necessary. Clearly, I'm NEVER going to use lacquer on spray paint again, but I still need to know what happened.

I practically live here M-F 7:30AM-4:40PM CST. Really, I don't have a lot to do at work, so I check in a couple of times an hour. There are probably 5-6 boards I post on all the time. I'd be more than willing to do whatever I can to ease the workload of the "real" moderators. Sincerely, Avengersomethigorother FWIW: I've noticed that things have been VERY civil lately. I even made note of it in the plywood build thread. I have a couple of snarky reasons that I'm just itching to add, but I'll play nice instead.

With the pointy headstock, the 3+3 works. I agree with everyone else that it looks nice. Of course, you'll want to add some knobs & switches to it....

Your Boxer seems to approve too! I like the way the grain appears around the carve. We know better, but it almost looks like it's different pieces.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...%201/topdry.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...201/topwet2.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...01/topcarve.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...arveprofile.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...201/backdry.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...01/backwet1.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...01/backwet2.jpg My first PRS body is as done as it's gonna get. I still kinda wish I was keeping it, but i gotta fund this new obsession somehow. I owe my thanks to a certain member who helped me greatly through the PMs. You know who you are, and I greatly appreciate your help, input, and encouragement. If anyone is interested, I'll post a link to the listing when it goes up on eBay later today. Alternatively, you could do a seller name search for avengers63. This is just for curiosity - I'm not asking anyone here to buy what they could make themselves, and with better results to boot.

I'm really am blessed. My kids are with me this week, but every babysitter we had backed out on us. When I explained the situation to my bosses, that I was going to have to take a week without pay to stay home with them, they said I could work from home! Considering that my load at work isn't that great anyway, I'll be able to sneak into the basement for about 20-30 minutes a couple of times a day and get some REAL work done. I love my job. They're really great to work for. Even without these types of things, they let me take an hour or two when I need it for doctors appointments and whatnot WITHOUT taking personal time. Then this week happens. They're really great. LIMBA & ZEBRANO LP The second half of the zebrano comes out of the clamps today and the white limba goes in. No need to post any more boring pics of wood being clamped. The two halves of the double-bookmatched top will be planed even this afternoon. Tomorrow, I'll probably be able to rough cut the basic shape from the limba and glue down the mahogany pinstripe. I know this sounds a little out of order, but it really is necessary. I don't have a jointer yet, so the edges of my center joins aren't 100% square. They're off by about 1 degree. With anything of about an inch or more, it's enough to notice. So, after anything is joined, I have to run it through the planar to square out the top. So you're thinking "Why cut the basic shape before planing?" That's because my planar is 13.5" wide. It will barely accept a body width, not a full blank. My process is a little jimmied up, but it's working so far. So.... does anyone have a benchtop jointer they don't want? MYSTERY BUBINGA BODY The center lam camp out of the clamps and was planed level. It came out to be 3.75 wide. These two pics are of the center with both sides of the bubinga. Considering that only one side of one half of the bubinga has sapwood, I'll be trying to place it so that it will not be on the body. I only have three templates right now - LP, PRS, and firebird, and this thing will NOT fit a firebird. I'm thinking this should be a PRS because it's not a drop top. There's no way to do the traditional wiring channels for an LP w/o the drop top, and I'm just not experienced enough to rig it up. On a separate note, I have a question ablot the schematics & diagrams that are available for a donation. What format are they in? Can you print out auto-cad drawings from home in the right scale, or would I need to take them someplace?

I like the body shape too. It's like it's leaning forward.

So let's see some progress pics already! It's been over three weeks since you got the woods in. (impatiently taps foot and points to watch)

LAST NIGHT"S PROGRESS: The second half came out of the clamps. Both halved planed down to 1/4" thick. This will make a nice thickness for the pinstripe. A stuck the two zebrawood halfs together with some double-stick tape and trued up the sides as well as I was able on the table saw. I'm really looking forward to getting a jointer. I glued up a body blank from some cheap construction-grade pine. This will get planed down to about 1" and be made into a routing template. I have one now, but it's MDF and is only the outline. I want one a little more sturdy and that has the chanels for the innards as well. Also, doing this template will give me a practice run before doing the real thing. The bubinga came in. I cut it to length, trued the edges, and planed it down to 2". As I expected, there was no figuring in it, but that doesn't concern me in the least. The maple/jatoba core went into the clamps. I decided to go with the thicker strips of jatoba that were in the top of the picture. This widened the core to 3.75". Cheap putz that I am, the true purpose of this was to give me just a little bit more leftover bubinga that I can use on a box sometime in the future. I still have NO idea what I'll make from this. All I know for certain is that the blank will be 18" long, 15.5"-16" wide, and right at 2" thick. And it'll be pretty.