avengers63

All done except for finegaling the back plates into position. Pics to come later today.....

Same here. Even when I TRY to have everything ahead of time, there's always something I forgot or that changed along the way. Usually, I go to do the wiring and discover that I'm out of a pot type, caps, or jack.

You seriously want to cut down the whole thing because the nut you have is too narrow? DUDE!!!!! Buy a different nut!

Re-make the neck blank to fit the fretboard. Unless you've already glued it down. If that's the case, you're S.O.L.

It has taken me much longer than that, but that was with some super-hard rosewoods. I've recently done it in under 5 minutes with some flamed maple. None of that invalidates the point: it's not such a time consuming process that it's worth working around.

Assuming that butternut (white walnut) has the same sonic characteristics as regular walnut.... Butternut with a maple neck would be pretty bright, but with the extreme highs peeled off a bit. There's NOTHING wrong with a maple body. You already know that it'll be pretty bright, and that's great if that's what you want. If you want the whole thing really bright, go ahead with the maple neck. If you want it balanced out, go with a mahogany neck. Honestly, that's really the bottom line.

Sorry - no more info until I'm ready to unveil it.... or just show off again.

You & most of the folks here, buddy. It's OK. I know I'm in my own space for all that. It's hard being this cool, but I'm trying really hard to pull y'all up here with us.

Knowing me, those wouldn't be bad guesses. No, it's an art deco theme.

The inner lines are either the seam of the wood join or a detail line I cut. The outside lines are straight epoxy. The goal was to have as little line as possible. Maple is extremely unforgiving, so I chose mostly dark woods to help camouflage the lines as much as possible. I also made templates for every inlay. They obviously didn't work out perfectly, but I'm human, not a CNC machine. Still, they helped out more than you can imagine. Nope. You just can't see the whole thing in these pics. The current headstock paddle is about 9" long and 5"+ wide. Think archtop-style headstock. A big fat one (like my ex-wife).

I'm keeping the details of this one under wraps for a while. Still, I couldn't resist showing off. The fretboard is flamed maple. The fret markers are cocobolo and cherry. The girl is goncalo alves, cocobolo, ebony, and yellowheart. I LOVE my scrollsaw.

Is that the final shape of the insides of the cutaways, near the neck pocket? They look REALLY wide and cumbersome to play around.

If I could shred like Brad Paisley, who uses a Tele, I wouldn't HAVE to worry about being "metal enough".

KICK A$$!!!!! I landed some 70's Gibson pickups for $15.25 shipped. God bless eBay!!! Drak: I was planning on trying my hand at a full-blown acoustic archtop this summer. I was originally thinking to put two of the Teisco pups I have in it. Maybe these would be a better fit and save the Teiscos for a semi-acoustic.

That's an excellent question. There are a number of things that are going to stick with me from this one. In no particular order: It's OK to go thin on the body, especially a larger one. You can't go very thin with a back-bolt. Those will have to be reserved for bodies at least 1.75" or more. Don't taper the tongue of a back-bolt. Try like he11 to avoid having a finished back but not a finished front. The finish/plain transition is a b1tch to get smooth. Basswood kinda sucks to work with. It shapes & cuts easy, but is easily dinged. 5/16" fretboard blanks are 1/16" too thick when you're using a hardtail bridge. It leave very little room to work with for the action. Acrylic is a PIA to work with around the edges. The BOWWASCIITHTFPI was an amazing invention. "Pressing" the frets is not only easier, but gives me a MUCH better end result. I'm NEVER going to hammer another fret. MISTO works pretty dang good for spraying a clear finish.

Get it right, bub. It's blue quilted maple fanned fret bling-monsters.

I have to add something else here as well. These are easily the best singles I've ever had. Granted, I haven't had many, but these are fantastic. They were wound to be as hot as a P-90, but still retain all the character of a regular s/c. In some ways, they're better than P-90s. They have so much twang that they almost quack. The tone actually shifts slightly from string to string. It progresses from warm on the low E to middy to a lot of bite on the high E. Then factor in the jumper switch on the bridge pup and the phase reversal on the middle. DANG this is my new favorite ax. All I can say is if you've ever considered doing business with RestorationAD for pickups, you absolutely do NOT need to hesitate and wonder if they're worth it or if they sound good. Thank you SO much, RAD. These are awesome!

I know that it'll get scratched. There's just no avoiding it. The PDF booklet the manufacturer sent me actually told how to buff out the scratches. Essentially, you just sand it up as high as yuo can get, starting with a grit that's just barely able to work through them initially. To me, that sounds a LOT like buffing out the finish or polishing the fretboard. I guess that makes the short answer micro-mesh. Dust and fingerprints are going to be just part of the package as well. Thankfully, they're a lot easier to take care of with some Windex.

HemiCuda metallic green or metallic purple with the MOPAR butt-stripe. OR Super Bee yellow with multiple black butt-stripes.

Can we get a closer shot of the bridge pup? It looks like diamondplate from this angle.

OK, I fiddled around with the pups for a while, exploring with the multi-meter. I pulled the tape back and found a broken ground in the bridge pup. I still can't get anything from the middle though.

I kinda think that this one looks like crap too. I guess it's just not my thing. And that's OK too. God knows MY oddball aesthetics have a small fan base.