avengers63

With a 24.75" scale length and 24 frets, there wasn't enough room for all three pickups. The only answer was to remove two frets and reshape the heel. shortening the neck original thread

I'll answer some questions now. 3 Airline "Kleenex box" reproduction single coils Honestly, I'm still a little up in the air on that one. I want to put my J on it, but I don't want to throw off the theme I'll have going. Fortunately, I have time to consider what's to be done. 24.75" I blended two shapes into the same guitar, then extended one of the horns. body specs 1 piece poplar 14" wide 19" long 2" thick more to be revealed through the thread....

Unlike a table saw, the band saw blade is thin and will drift. For reasons I don't understand, the blade drifts in, towards the back of the saw. The longer the space between the two sets of rollers, the more drift you can have. For pretty obvious reasons, this isn't an issue until you begin re-sawing lumber. You want a fence that will allow the wood to feed at an angle, following the drift. FWIW: The best way I've found to help counteract this so far is 1) use a new blade if you're going to do some tall re-sawing or on dense woods, 2) lube up the blade liberally before each cut, and 3) feed it in as slow as you possibly can. Doing this, I managed to re-saw 4" bloodwood on a low-powered Ryobi band saw with almost no drift.

It'll match the body. Vague enough for ya?

I'm not building the neck on this one, but I AM performing major surgery on the one I'm using. reshaping the headstock - sanded clean reshaping the headstock - outside & horns reshaping the headstock - center point rounded over

FRET PULLERS Is there any way to avoid getting Stew-Mac's or Brian Calvert's? I'm just looking for a cheaper option that will do the same job just as well. If it's fiddely and I have to wrestle with them, then I'm not interested.

FWIW: I have a 13" planer. It's NOT a great one (Ryobi), but it's more than adequate for my needs. Whenever I make a body that is >13" wide, I'll run it through the planer just to make 100% that it's level on both sides. THEN it gets routed to the template.

[tease]Wait 'till tomorrow.[/tease]

body routed to shape 14" wide, 19" long, 2" thick, 1 solid piece of poplar pickups lying in place 3 Airline "Kleenex box" reproduction single coils

Alright, so I have a basic plan for a jig (thanks DC), so that gets built first. It seems to make the most sense that I resaw the headstock to thickness after the scarf is glued. Am I on the right track?

I don't think anyone would argue that lighter guitars are more comfortable to play. It's all subjective to what one considers light, but taking that into consideration, lighter generally feels better. The main drawback I can see is that in some cases, a light body can become unbalanced if mated with a heavy neck. A lot od this can be rectified (or at least fought off somewhat) with body design, but the possibility remains. BUT... it's clear that weight and comfort to play aren't nearly as important to some as sound, as evidenced with the long-term popularity of the Les Paul. BUT... some still prefer style over substance. The reverse Firebird is completely unbalanced, yet remains a favorite to some. Likewise, some Vs have balance issues. The BC Rich Warlock is DANG heavy, but has the right look, so it's been a great seller. BUT... some prefer substance over style, hence the Klein-inspired ergonomic designs. So, like pretty much everything else in life, it's all a matter of personal taste and what's important to you.

Of all the jigs in the links, that one looks like the best option. Easily adjustable and versatile. Thanks!

I spent over an hour yesterday trying to figure out how to get a 13-degree scarf cut into the wood when the tools all come at it from the wrong direction. With a fantastic amount of jiggery, I managed to cobble together a prototype that will do it. Now I just need to make it bigger & more sturdy. How do y'all manage to do it without sawing it by hand?

pickups to be used concept drawings

Pinstriping onto natural wood doesn't sound very appealing visually.

A year ago I'd have thought you were off your rocker with that statement.

Build Thread THE YELLOW AND BLACK ATTACK Direct recreation of the original Corvus shape, or at least as near as I could get without having an original to copy. MODS: headless redesign shelf in cutaway for tuners rear routed control cavity radiusing of the leg curve slight belly cut BODY: 1 1/2" thick 2-piece poplar poplar control cavity cover all-access neck joint with 3-degree neck angle 1/2" shelf along bottom cutaway for rear-mounted tuners gunslinger style angled pickup route NECK: maple neck rosewood fretboard 25.5" scale 22 frets re-shaped headless design tab-mounted string ferrules HARDWARE & ELECTRONICS: chrome hardware TOM bridge 1 volume lug-nut knob side-mounted football jack plate Steinberger gearless tuners standard strap buttons Kramer Quad-Rail humbucker puckup FINISH: 2 coats of sanding sealer 3 coats of rattle can gray primer, sanded with 220 after each coat 4 coats of black or harvest gold rattle can paint, sanded with 220 after each coat 12 coats of rattle can polyurethane, wetsanded & leveled with 400 after every 3 coats 2 coats of matte top coat back close up back left back right down the neck up from the bottom front close front left front right tuners from the back headstock from the back

DAVVO Clearly the leader of the pack this month. The green lacewood really stands out. The flawless finish doesn't hurt any either. I like the black accents as well. JADEN I'm not for 7-strings. I like the way your headstock inlay resembles Foghat's logo. AVENGERS63 LOW END FUZZ Poor pics aren't helping you any. From what I can see, it's a little dark. Like Wez said - more contrast. And I'm clear on the stripy headstock - I don't care for them. CHOPS It's a little off, but I can't pinpoint exactly where. I agree that the square edges don't do it any favors. MITCH I like the roundness, but I think it should have been even more rounded over no the edges. It seems like it's starting to slide into a great curve, then abruptly hits a corner in some places. The carved initial is a great idea. I'm sure it wasn't easy to pull off. There's nothing wrong with a 3+3 headstock on a Tele, but this one is a bit clunky. Lastly, the knobs seem to blend into the wood. Perhaps cream knobs would help that without having them really stand out too much.

Here's what I have going on... Maple neck with a re-shaped headstock, bloodwood face plate. The neck will be painted black, matching the body. I want the headstock to further match the body and have white binding. The horns don't come to a sharp point, but they're pretty close. Were they to come to a sharp point, the only real option would be to cut & bevel the binding to the angle. Since these are slightly rounded, I'm probably going to have to heat & bend the plastic around the tip. So, with the points on the horns of the headstock, what pitfalls do I need to look out for? Any suggestions or experience binding this much of a point?

There are a couple of unidentified variables which will change that list. Which wood is the body made from? Is it an open grained wood or closed? If it's a closed grain wood, yo don't need to fill. Is the filler stainable? If so, you won't need to color the filler at all. Once the grain is filled, the only purpose I can see for sanding sealer is to prevent the finish from bleeding out the dye. If you use aniline dyes, I don't believe this will be an issue, but I'm not positive. Dye a piece of scrap but don't seal it. Test the finish on it. If the dye doesn't bleed out, you've saved a step. If you DO use it, be extremely careful when sanding it smooth NOT TO SAND THROUGH. You could easily go through the dye as well. You can't seal the wood first before applying the dye to avoid the risk, either. If it's sealed, the dye can't penetrate into the wood. You're a LOT better off in this case if you don't have to use the sanding sealer. Any and every film finish (which lacquer is) penetrates into and seals the wood great with the first coat. Alternately, you can use sealer to fill the grain. Many of us have done this with great success. With a dyed top, this could be a risky proposition, as I described above, but it COULD be done. You'd simply apply coat after coat, sanding between coats, until the grain is all filed up. I've done this a few times and it works great. Again though - if you use grain giller and the finish doesn't bleed the dye, you don't need to use the sanding sealer. Just to throw a wrench in the gears... you can use shellac as a sealer. It will seal the wood great and it doesn't have the occasional adhesion problem with finishes that sanding sealer can have. The only problem is that it doesn't sand well. Now take some pics and show us what you're working on!

But mine's all done. And it doesn't have a headstock.

Or drink too much to be in Metallica. -cough-Dave Mustaine-cough

Now I want to put a thin little lam of walnut in the scarf. [internal struggle]Gotta... keep it... simple.[/internal struggle]

The string trees aren't an issue for me. I was figuring that eliminating the scarf would be one less thing to do. I'm trying hard to keep mt first neck as simple as humanly possible. With that in mind, what do y'all think is harder: a scarf or a Fender-style? I'll go with whatever the consensus thinks is the easiest.

I have all of the major power tools, so that one isn't an issue. It's to be a 3+3 Gibson-ish headstock, but with fender-style construction. That means a one-piece, no scarf, no tilt-back. The blank is 15/16" thick after planing it smooth.