avengers63

But you make yours into cinders on purpose whenever you get pissed off at them. I'm looking at spontaneous combustion here when things seem to be going good. All it took was a scroll saw, a thin spiral blade, and a bit of patience. I also rigged up a zero-clearance cover for the scroll saw table. We don't want any tearout on the face, now do we.

I've had one in the words for a while that's going to be dyed.

Thanks guys. It means a lot coming from the veterans. It's really odd. Making the Dragon and the LPjr right now... I've made a few guitars now. I've made quite a few bodies and sold them on eBay. That has led to a few commission bodies. I've even taken two commissions for entire guitars. I've been overconfident, in over my head, hoping that I can pull it off, and just went for it and flew by the seat of my pants. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. None if them came out exactly like I intended. But these two... It's the first time I genuinely feel like I know what I'm doing; like I have the entire situation under control. There hasn't been a single surprise so far - nothing that I either wasn't expecting or didn't have a contingency plan ready for. Even with my first neck over on Junior, things turned out just like they were supposed to. It's really strange. I just have a brand new calm confidence that I finally have it all together. Now having said that, both bodies are going to spontaneously crack in two or burst into flames or something.

You don't know that Drak is the Master if the Scroll Saw!!! He uses it for EVERYTHING! BTW, great pieces Drak! I always loved spalt, but always feared all the care needed to rout and work with it! Nice job! A man after my own heart. The more I use mine, the more I love it.

I take it this was done an a scroll saw? If not, what did you use?

And now we have a pickguard. I'm using lacquer this time. I'm getting pretty high from it. Lacquer in an enclosed space... benefit... drawback... who's to say? I'm wiping it onto the neck instead of brushing. I want it nice & natural feeling while still having some protection. I'm not overly concerned about the neck getting darkened from use - It's a sign of a long-played instrument, not dirt.

Getting back to the body....... f-hole stencil pattern spray-painted onto the inside of the body beginning to cut the dragons

I was thinking last night as I went to bed about a maple Tele body dyed blue. I have some rosewood I re-sawd into a 3/8" bookmatched top. I have some other rosewood that a neck could be made from. It'd be pretty heavy, so the body would have to be chambered. The rosewood & the gold hardware would be pretty sharp. Maybe not blue maple... If I can get the covers off, the caps in the pups could be made to match the fretboard. But what to make the body from then? I don't want ash - I already have 3 ash guitars, I don't need or want a 4th. But it'd need to be something light in color - contrasting to the dark rosewood. Maple? White Limba? Alder? Maybe a trip to the lumber yard is in order.

Not so good with the paint. I'm still restricted to spray cans.

+1 Carvin makes some REALLY good stuff. I have a kit from Carvin - the neck is outstanding.

Any of those you mentioned would be fine. A used Jackson on eBay would probably be your cheapest route. There is nothing wrong with Mighty Mite necks. If you don't want the plastic nut, then replace it. It's unbelievably easy. Warmoth would be your most reliable & predictable option, but as you said, not the cheapest. My suggestion is decide what your priority is and go with that. If cost is #1, look on eBay. If you don't want a used neck but still don't want to pay a lot, then use a MM. If money isn't the issue, then go to Warmoth.

Gibson's design, not mine. I tweaked it to fit, but that's it.

So I need a TRC and I just HAPPEN to have this piece of rosewood that was a cutoff from the end of the fretboard. What is a wood junkie to do? I reasw the bit, cut it to shape, and sand/buff it from 100 to 12,000. Presto: one rosewood TRC with grain matching the fretboard. If you're asking why I made it so big, pic #3 in this post is why. When I was cutting the channel, which was my first, I made the end run right into the headstock. Rookie mistake - I had NO idea it would be that far out. Also, there was a slight mishap that I caught before it turned into a major disaster: I lost control of the board for a moment and nicked the face a bit. That's why the TRC is so wide. It all works out in the end.

Not a lot going on with this one today. I'm working on the Dragon for the most part. that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything with it... template for the pickguard... ...and I need a truss rod cover

Well yea... we don't EXPECT problems, but they still happen. But all that unexpected frustration sure makes us grow by leaps & bounds, huh. Aint nutin' wrong with sapele. It sounds a little darker tone than mahogany, it's easy to work with, has a GREAT color, and has a nice ribboning if it's cut right. And as a bonus, it's a little cheaper than mahogany.

The f/b inlays are bloodwood, just like the cap. dragon inlay scribed dust blower rigged up too hard to see - filled in the outlines with chalk hole routed & inlay sitting in place white dots drilled out

Or I could get a 3rd pup like this and do a Firebird. No... those are supposed to have 3 mini-hums. Rickenbacker 600 series?

I'm still liking the idea of an all white Iceman with the Ibanez-ish 3-3 headstock. It's hard to envision the white guitat with gold hardware (which always looks really classy), but with a hint of black here & there as well as some white pearl on the pups, p/g, and inlays. I keep thinking about black binding as well.

I didn't notice that at first. I like it too.

Would this look like crap on a Gibson V?

Not like I'm telling you anything new, but... Bubinga is pretty heavy. Make sure the body is substantial enough and balanced to avoid neck dive.

Keegan: I like that. It'd have to be a 3+3 headstock, but that wouldn't look out of place on a tele. That's the real problem - getting it to work with the blue. The pearl covers are inside the covers, which are attached to the pup bases. How would one safely detach the covers w/o dorking up the pups?

I don't think it'd look good with the teal formica, dark blue pups, and gold hardware. I could probably get other formica, but it's $60/sheet.

First I removed the nut - it was REALLY in the way. That left me a little space between the f/b & the headstock. After setting the height of the binding bit on the router table, I basically had to hold the neck on the edge of the radius, doing my best to keep the round surface as level as possible. It was a tricky proposition that in hindsight I wish I hadn't done. But once it was done, all I could do was try and make it work. The headstock was pretty easy. Since it's a tiltback, the nut was off, AND there was extra thickness from the headplate, it sat flat on the face of the headstock. I just had to watch really closely when I got to the nut area so that I didn't go into the f/b. I went backwards most of the time, trying not to have any tearout. It seemed to work OK.

Yea... sorry. It was a bit late. Are they the blemished benders as described in the first post available for $40 shipped to the US?