avengers63

That looks really nice. I remember that guitar. Vinnie Vincent played it.

I've been thinking exactly along those lines, but with the yellowheart. The problem with the yellowheart and granadillo is that they don't match up well as a whole. The YH is great with the walnut, but not the limba. The gran is the opposite. I don't want anything bold, but it needs to match color-wise. I asked the wife about it last night. She's great for bouncing opinions off of because she has a completely different perspective and can articulate the reasons for her opinions. She feels the other side of the guyana rosewood is best because of the color variations - it has the tones of both the other woods so it ties them together. Right now, I'm centering on the cocobolo or the rosewood. I've been reading Hiscock's descriptions of the neck building process over and over for a few weeks now. Last night I started a checklist/order of operations taken directly from his steps. This is going to be a really big adventure for me because I'm usually not very meticulous in the detail I put into things. A neck needs that attention to detail. Now I need to go to Lowes/Home Depot for a sheet of MDF to make the template from.

Well. THAT wasn't cheap. Nice billet.

It's finally time to start working on the LPjr. Here's the rundown: 2 piece walnut body 1 piece white limba neck, 25.5" scale, inlays undetermined (probably dots) Gibson P-100 bridge pup chrome hardware 1 vol, 1 tone, wraparound bridge PRS 'One' style contouring black or tortoise pickguard So here's where I'm at right now. I have the body & neck woods nailed down, but I'm undecided on the fretboard. Here are the choices... yellowheart bocote Guyana rosewood with sapwood cocobolo granadillo Thoughts & opinions? This will be my first neck I'm really excited and scared to death. My woodworking instinct is to do something fancy. I'm intentionally doing the neck for this guitar first so I'll HAVE to keep it simple. I'm sure to be extremely tentative and ask a zillion questions, so brace for impact.

YAY!!! I've drug one more down into the depths with me. Better get crackin'. Judging starts 10 weeks from today.

So let's see what ya got!

Didn't see your responses - mixed in with mine. The 400 series is the most powerful they have, so if it won't do the trick through maple & rosewood, you're SOL. The carbide bits should do fine. When routing with a dremel, you HAVE to remember that it's basically a craft tool. The motor isn't designed to handle huge amounts of stress. If you do the routes too deep or try to force it to go through the wood faster than it wants to, you'll dork up the whole thing and risk burning out the tool. That being said, it's not only feasible to do inlay with a dremel, but it's done regularly and with great success. This is one of those crafts that it's really good at. You just have to be very aware of the limitations and capabilities of the tool.

I've never read it, so I can't say. But... I don't believe Stew-Mac would put out a book on guitar finishing that would have bad info in it. FWIW: Flexner's book is about the same price, but covers a LOT more info and territory than just finishing guitars. If you ever plan on doing any woodworking besides on guitars, get Flexner. Otherwise, I'm sure you'd be fine with Stew-Mac.

You probably won't be in danger so long as you're leaving a strip of wood between the purfling & the binding. Should you tough the binding with the bit, there COULD be trouble. Too many variables: which Dremel model, what type of wood, width of channel, quality of bit... Are you wanting to do it in one pass or multiple? IIRC, Stew-Mac (and others) have a product to address this issue. Does the guitar currently have a finish on it? If so, you should refinish the area. Get "Understanding Wood Finishing" by Bob Flexner and read it 46 times.

Hijack away! I'm all about using other stuff to do the same thing so long as it's cheaper & easier. I don't see why not. As long as the tool can make the channel the right width & depth, there's no reason to think it wouldn't work. Some rods need a more-or-less curved channel, but this could do that too.

I can't comment on their ability to make grooves in hard material. I don't doubt that they'd be unable to do so. What I can testify to is their ability to cut a graphite nut, which they did well. FWIW: I have a group of 6 pre-slotted nuts on the way, so I won't be using them right now anyway.

I already have a set of tip cleaners. $4 at Home Depot.

I landed a Stew-Mac fret cutting miter box, saw, and 25/25.5 template for $135 shipped. There are a couple of items on eBay that I'm bidding on right now... tang nippers, a set of 8" radius blocks, leveling file, diamond crowning file, and 3 tubes of fret wire. PLEASE don't bid against me!

The Wood Whisperer had a series of video podcasts in which he made a torsion box/assembly table. He made an additional top from hardboard. There were a number of reasons for this: low cost, flat surface, easily replaceable. He wanted something that it would be OK if it had paint, finish, glue, etc. dripped onto it or that got banged up through normal use. When it got too bad, it's cheap & easy to replace. Your table is a perfect candidate for a hardboard top.

ABOUT DANG TIME SOMEONE GETS SOMETHING DONE ON THESE THINGS!!!!!! I'm afraid it may have dwindled down to you & me.

Not acoustic, but not too far off from being a semi-. The body has a 2" frame with a solid core. It's getting a 1/4" back put on and a nice 1/8" top. The frame is +/- 3/8" thick. Anyway, yes, I know almost exactly what I want. The problem is that I don't know how to get it. The links in Pierce's thread (thanks!) show a number of TPs, none of which are a solid piece wrapping around the corner. In fact, the only trapeze I recall seeing that didn't have a hinge is the Selmer variety. Is there a reason for this other than ease of construction? Spoke... you mentioned that I should use a harder wood. Why?

I'm working on a flat-top guitar, TOM bridge. I want a trapeze tailpiece made from wood. It's +/- 9.25" from the bottom of the body to the intonation center. The body will be >2" thick and about 65%-75% hollow. I want the TP to hang over the back of the body 1.5-2" and screw into the bottom. The lip will match the contour of the body. I want the strings to go through the TP via metal ferrules. The body of the TP needs to be large enough to house a 3.5"x2.5" inlay. I'd like the outside edge to be bound to match the body. I would like, but it is not necessary to have, some king of keyholes for the top wood to show through. The TP will be made from poplar and painted black. So.... experience, input, or suggestions?

I think that the majority of American's know that metric is easier and more globally standard. The problem with switching is that we've been using imperial for a few hundred years. It's all we know. People are naturally resistant to change. The more significant the change, the more resistant we are to it. To have the entire nation change every form of distance or weight measurement just wouldn't happen - the change is too great. Even though we know metric might be easier, there's nothing wrong with imperial. It does work, and we know how to work it. Since it works and we understand it, there's no need to change. That would increase the resistance to the change.

What's the reasonable range of scale length that an 18" truss rod can support? I'm thinking about doing a 26" SL eventually. I don't believe going from 25.5 to 26 would make that much of a difference, but I've read that 27" does need a longer rod, so there's got to be a limit somewhere. Any experience or input?

And not it's all done and ready to go. I decided making it a square heel was easier in the long tun than trying to round it out.

I need some suggestions on which way to go. I'm in a long-term build. I'm taking the majority of the parts from the Avenger prototype and putting it to better use. Same shape, better bridge, home-made neck. The base is 1 1/4" - 1 3/8" goncalo alves. It's going to get a 1/2" - 3/4" cap which will be painted. I'm needing suggestions and input on what ti use for the cap and what to use for the neck. I'm wanting a balanced tone, leaning on the bright side. I THINK that goncalo alves is on the bright side, but that's based only on the feel & weight of the wood and a gut instinct. For the cap & neck, I'm thinking about maple & mahogany, but walnut is a possibility for the neck. The cap will be thick enough to effect the tone, so it has to be taken into consideration. I'm just not schooled enough in how the combinations effect the tone to be able to make the judgment call. Any help, input, or general opinions are appreciated.

Yes. The easiest solution is to have the back of all of the pots connected with a ground wire, then have ONE wire running to the jack ground. I have wiring issues on most of the guitars I do. What I started doing is taking it one piece at a time. It takes forever, but there are fewer issues in the long run. Start with the pup directly into the jack. If that works, add a volume pot. Then the tone, switch, second pup, and gadgets, testing it between every single component. It's SO much less of a headache overall because an issue is identified immediately and you know where it is without question.

I can say that it's one of the prettiest wood choices for the whole guitar i've every seen. I'd say that's the most disgustingly clean work area I've ever seen.

Thanks for the kind words. It'll show in next month's GOTM for sure. I didn't intend to make it any different than the original. I don't doubt that it may be narrower up top considering I basically eyeballed the template. All things considering, I think I got pretty close to the original.

After looking over Brian's tutorials for a home-made fret bender and beveling fine, I went to Home Depot. I already had the Dremel & cutoff disks, so the out-of-pocket expense would only be the wood & the file. The file was easy to find and only $7.00. The lumber however.... was in a sale bin for 85% off. It was all short cutoffs ot pieces that were really dorked up on the corners. The 6' long 2x4 for the beveling tool cost me $0.27. The 2' long 2x6 wasn't worth ringing up, so the lady just gave it to me. So when I'm all done, I'll have a $61 fret beveling file and a $90 bender (combined $151) for about $8.50 with tax. :D I also ordered a 12oz brass tipped deadblow hammer and a spokeshave from Grizzly. All of the fret hammers I saw were brass tipped. The instructions on SM's site as well as Hyscock's book said a brass-tipped deadblow was what you wanted. $9 through Grizzly is a LOT better than $24.50 from SM for the same dang thing! (check the links!) After it's all said and done, I'll have everything necessary to do this without getting a single tool from SM or LMI.