GregP

I, too, could be getting my guitar lore wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that the name "Slinky" came about simply because back in the day they were one of the first companies to make light guage strings. The actual strings themselves are the same as any other string of the material and same guage. Greg

Is the new bridge a match for the radius of the fingerboard?

I was in the area, so it was mostly on a whim. It's right across the street from the Chapters where I was picking up an out-of-town friend for a visit. I dragged him in with me. You walk in there, though, and it's like "Whhhhooooo-haaaaahhhh!" I think this location must be the flagship location for all of Canada or something. It's not only stocked to the boobies with great goods, but it's an amazing layout. It gives you the sensation, "If I can't find it here, I can't find it anywhere." Yeah right. Setch: I definitely wouldn't sweat the 0.02mm. I'll look into getting that bearing anyhow. It's not like the StewMac bit's going to last forever! Cheers for the catalogue number. Greg

Yeah, we have Wal-Mart, but I strongly suspect that our Wal-Mart is a bit different from your Wal-Mart. Ours is more like a standard Zeller's/Woolworth's/K-Mart kind of thing. A bit bigger, but not really any greater of a selection. I'll have a peek, though-- you just never know! My router (SpinSaw outfit, actually!) didn't come with a flush bit, but I own one from buying seperately. The binding is only 0.06" thick (whatever that works out to be in mm). Someone had already told me about putting a new bearing on, but I can't remember what the problem was at the time-- either the channel was going to be too wide, or at the time I simply couldn't find the bearing. I have the cheapo StewMac solution now, though. Ah well. Greg

I don't see what difference the 'gliding' direction would make, since in theory it's all uniformly smooth. If you can feel a 'bump' and you're sliding around, you've done something horribly wrong. Your joint should be just as strong. I suspect part of the reason Ibanez does it the other way is simply that it looks a bit better with the visible 'curve' going that direction. Attention to detail and all that stuff. Looking good so far! Greg

You go into Lee Valley tools, and they have about a million wonderful things that a guy can buy. Many of them applicable to guitar-craft. However, today I only got very little satisfaction: Do you guys carry Robo-Sander, or something similar? -Sorry, we don't carry electric tools. It's just a specialty sanding drum for your drill press -Never heard of it, but I'll look it up... nope, nothing. Do you carry Saf-T planers? -Never heard of it (describes it) -Nope, nothing like that. How about flap discs? -Whazzits? Flap discs. They're angle grinder attachments. Overlapping flaps of sanding surface. -Not these? Nope. Not a regular flap sander; a flap disc. Nope, not a star sander either. -(looks it up)... Nope, don't have those, either. (sighs) Fine, I'll just take this router bit and one of those table-saw jigs you guys sell, for cutting wood at an angle. -(looks it up) Any idea what it's called? Yeah, it's a 'something' jig and it's for table saws. I don't remember the exact name. -(starts searching with no luck) I KNOW you guys have these, they were in the last catalog. -(looks, looks, and looks some more)... I haven't found it yet, but I think I know what you're talking about. (looks more and more) Aha! It's called a taper jig. Yes, that's the one. I'll take one of those and the router bit. Bah. I previous time, I had gone looking for a combination of bit and bearing that would accomplish the job of routing a binding channel. No luck there, either. This is why I don't always have the easiest tools for the job. Greg

As an aside-- it's no secret that I know I've bitten off more than I can chew with this project, but I'm stubborn enough to keep at it. Sure wish I had chosen more easily workable woods, and a much simpler project. Once this one's done, whether it's a success or a failure, my next 3 or 4 will be much more simple. Greg

Cheers for the replies. I can understand the benefits of all the various approaches, particularly with sizing the fretboard to accomodate the binding, rather than routing a binding channel. I simply worry that I don't have the right techniques or tools to be so precise with my fretboard. I bought the Lee Valley tablesaw taper jig, so that'll do the bulk of my next neck (and like Devon, the router will barely if ever touch the neck), and for now I'm considering using it for the fretboard. I need to see if I can get a hold of a blade with the right kind of teeth so that I don't hack up my project, though. I know even less about table saw blades than I do about inlaying a fretboard, though, so I'm a bit gun-shy (visions of the board splintering into a thousand pieces as it contacts the blade). So, as it stands, it's looking like I'm going to go with a slightly riskier (due to the tools I have available) procedure. Any final comments or alternative suggestions are still welcome, as I don't think I'm going to get to it tomorrow or anything... I've still got to inlay the fingerboard, which will be a long time in completing as well (I still need to practice on scrap before I get right in there). Anyhow, the current decision unless intervening information changes it: 1. Bring the maple of the neck to near-final taper 2. Rough cut (after buying a less wandery scroll saw blade perhaps!) and then inlay the fretboard 3. Glue the fretboard using the 'snipped staples' (or 'snipped finishing nails') method of keeping it properly in place. 4. Use a sanding block OR orbital sander (depending on how much material I end up needing to remove) to get the ebony very close to the maple, but since I have no robo-sander, not bringing it flush. 5. Use a flush-trim router bit to bring it flush with the maple, praying mightily for few or no splinters. Hopefully the fact that it's glued up to the maple and already very close to the maple taper will lend it the extra stability and a "base" to help prevent splintering and chipping 6. Rout the binding channel. Cheers, Greg

What do you mean a thin back? Like to make the whole thing thin and removable? A removable back? I guess that's one option. Not the one I'd choose, that's for sure. Whatever the 'majority' of your guitar is going to be, that's what should probably be mahogany. A thick slab of maple and doing the main part of the body with it is a problem waiting to happen, though, imo. The tone will likely suffer for it, too, and won't be Les-Paul like. Greg

<smacks head> Makes sense. That's how I plan to do it, too. Greg

Cheers for the replies, folks. I'm not sure that I have a blade for the table saw that will be any gentler on the ebony than a router bit would. The one currently installed has fairly large wide teeth (for cutting large quantities of construction-grade material) and I'm fairly certain that it would rip the sh** out of the ebony even more than the router bit would. Mostly, no matter what method I go with, I'm glad that other people have confirmed that I'm doing fine. It was just reading that thread and the lambasting that Litch got for attaching the fretboard after doing the taper. I do have a scroll saw, but it's tricky to cut straight with. Still might be worthwhile for rough shaping and then I can use sandpaper/scrapers to bring it to flush. I don't have a robo-sander and there doesn't seem to be any place to get one locally. It seems like a great thing to have around so it's probably worth ordering one, but it's getting tiresome ordering from the States all the time. Cheers for the replies! Greg

I could've sworn most people recommend making the neck and THEN the pocket, but as long as you end up with a player, power to you. Greg

You can use a guide on the bandsaw, too... but I dunno, dude. If you have the right jig, I would think a table saw would be more reliable. If it worked for you, why dick with the formula? My next neck, I'm getting one of those $30 Lee Valley angle-cutting jigs for table-saws. And that'll be that. Greg

Cheers for the reply. So what you're saying is that the fretboard is shaped to exact specifications and then you use IT (the fretboard) as a guide for bringing the rest of the neck to shape? Regarding the inlay, it's larger-- standard LP-style block inlays. That's your longest post yet? Looks like my short posts. <laff> Greg

OK, after briefly perusing that Guitar Builders' thread, I'm suddenly paranoid. Part of the conversation back in September revolved around the correct order in which to do things when making a neck. Judging by some of the comments, I have effed up. Probably not irreperably, but I wouldn't mind some advice. Here's the neck as it stands: I have tapered BEFORE putting the fretboard on, which seems to be a point of contention with people. Now, I would normally prefer putting it on first; however, it is a pre-radiused fretboard and whatever way I could imagine doing it wasn't turning out to be easy. Plus, I don't have a bandsaw in order to hack through all that rock maple AND ebony at the same time when rough-cutting. I asked for some advice on my main thread, and it seemed as though the option I chose is at least acceptable... or not: Now that the neck is tapered* (see note below), the idea was to glue the fretboard, and then rough cut the fretboard down to size, and then use a router to bring it to final size, flush with the existing taper of the neck. At that point in time, I would swap out for my binding router bit and cut the binding channel. The other option given to me was to shape the fretboard completely before attaching it, so that I wouldn't need to go through the painful and dodgy process of using a router bit on ebony. The problem with that, and the reason so far I'm avoiding it is that I'm not confident that I'll shape it exactly the right size. I'd rather just cut the binding channel into it afterwards, so that I'll know it's 'perfect'. Any comments, concerns, or advice? A separate issue: I still need to inlay my fretboard markers. Should I do that before or after gluing the fretboard? Instinct tells me to do it before since if I royally screw up my fretboard I can just order another one. *regarding the taper-- it's about 1-2mm wide right now, and I was thinking of keeping pretty close to that (I like a wide fretboard), but I do have a bit of "wiggle room" if needed. Thanks, Greg

I'm already worried that my neck isn't straight and that it won't line up with my body. <laff> I don't know how you guys do such clean work. Awesome. Greg

Stunning! I hadn't seen that one before. A bit too much figure (I know for some of you that's blasphemy) for my tastes, but it's the execution again, ya know? Flawless. Greg

I'd be on it like Cartman on a pie, except that I don't have any sort of cash flow right now. The price seems like a good price, though. Greg

That's simply not true. I don't know anybody on this site who ONLY focuses on finish over playability issues. Some people love a nice finish, and they might talk about it because that's all they can really 'show off', but that doesn't mean that when they're away from the forum, they're not working on playability issues. You're absolutely right that all we can judge by is the visual aspect, but that doesn't mean it's what our entrants focus on. Greg

If I had the money, it'd be a spruce-top Dragonfly. Greg

It's not notoriously a super-lucrative occupation for most people that I'm aware of, but if you develop a reputation, I don't see why you couldn't make a go of it. That's what dreams are all about! I say go for it, but it doesn't hurt to have a second career option open to you, either. The other side of that would be, "if you really want to do it, don't get tied down to a second career, go for this one with all your will." Something to be said for that, too. Greg

That's normally what compensation is for, yes, but you're playing fretless. You should be using your ear to guide your intonation, which is really one of the main benefits (and also difficulties) of a fretless instrument. If you are using an ACTUAL nut, and not a zero fret, I'm not sure that I'd bother compensating (see above short paragraph), but I can understand why you might want to. It seems to me that I've seen some fretless bass guitars lately that use zero fret... as people here know ( ) I'm a big fan of the zero fret anyhow, regardless of whether the instrument is fretless or fretted. But, I'm also a rank amateur, so my opinion doesn't count for a whole lot. Greg

- Compensation is a separate issue. You are not using it, so don't worry about it. - As long as you know where you're putting your zero fret, the extra wood between the "guide nut" and the zero fret is irrelevant. Use whatever amount you need to feel that it looks good and seems stable Greg

Nah, G. I'm a procrastinator, but not a quitter. This'll get done eventually. Greg

I always vote for the guitar I like best, too. Categorization? Phaw. I don't think anybody, "pro" or "amateur" should sweat it either way. When my guitar's done, I'm entering it whether it has orange peel, a binding that's come loose from the body, an off-centre pickup, or WHATEVER, because that'll just be my way of saying, "well, it's done! Here it is!" Greg