GregP

I just got them from Universal Jems. Click the link for "covers" (the picture shows 3 single coils, but there are 'bucker covers in there, too) and discover every combination you could need. ;-) Greg

I got impatient, as I am wont to. I ordered without holes. What's the worst thing that could happen? I hate it and order replacements? Life will not end and I'll have a set of hole-free covers for a future project. More likely, I'll think they look sweet. Greg

Heheheh! A jigsaw was NOT the tool I expected! You may not be a beefy man, but you are still a more patient man than I! <laff> I'm funny in that I would have spent a week looking for a bandsaw to rough out the neck with, rather than simply spend a day of labour with a jigsaw. If you haven't used the microplane rasp yet, I suspect it may be a good friend to you. ;-) (not for THAT stage... hell no! But in the near future...) Greg

You're a braver man than I. The chiselling of that neck, and that veneer insert are testament to that fact.

I can't decide between classic nickel humbucker covers with holes, or nickel covers without holes. I know it's a personal thing, and it's up to me, and all that... but I'm torn. For the sake of argument, assume that the guitar is an all-black 335. Would no holes look cool? Would the tone be adversely affected? Opinions? Observations? Greg

Nice jigsaw setup! You sure that's not a sabre-saw? Hyunsu, every time you post an update, I know I'm going to get a feast of pictures. I love it!

Sweet! Now you just need to layer a searing but soaring solo over top of that technical insanity.

I was considering a recessed TOM for my guitar, but I think that an angled neck will balance both the look and feel of the guitar out a bit more. If anything, it'll likely be easier than recessing the bridge. Greg.

Schaller strap locks. They're a bit unwieldly, truth be known... but they provide me with a sense of safety that regular old straps don't. I've used cheap straps AND good straps, and in the end, I always forget that the regular old strap isn't always that secure. When I hang my guitar around my body in interesting ways, posing down like a fake rock star, they still always slip off. No major mishaps yet-- no broken guitars... But ever since switching to Straploks, I haven't looked back. Greg

Sorry. I'd like to know the same thing, but for the Ottawa area.

If I had a plane, that is. Decent planes seem to run about a hundred bucks. Although I haven't given myself a strict budget, that seems a bit extravagent at this stage of my guitar-building career.

My Godin uses the recessed TOM style and it works groovy. No need for a neck angle if you do it that way. Keep in mind, though that the Godin for one (not sure about other brands) goes string-through right into the body in order to get enough downward angle from the strings after the bridge. If you try to go into a stop tailpiece, you won't get the right string angle and all will be lost. Greg

I only just noticed that Otter's up to thread-revival shenanigans. Weirdo.

Thanks, guys! 1. The finish will be gloss black. After some recent discussions, I'll probably go with acrylic lacquer, though I haven't decided between spray and brush. Probably brush, even though it'll require more elbow grease. 2. The tricky part about shaving away the edges will be getting them to mate up square with the body. My first thought was that shaving away the edges would be the best course of action, but then I got stuck on how to do it precisely for a good glue join. I'll try clamping dry before I try clamping steamed. Any other opinions on the steaming? Still not sure why it'd be a 'bad' idea necessarily, but I don't intend to start a debate on this thread. 3. The Grovers aren't locking. When I purchased them, I asked the guitar tech his opinion, which was: "On a non-tremolo guitar, locking tuners are kind of like putting a wind foil on a garbage truck." He figured that there's a positive enough action on the Grovers that they won't 'slip', and if I'm not using a whammy I don't have to worry about the extra wraps shifting around. Sounded about right, so I just went with regular machine heads. I am quite glad that I am practicing on MDF, but soon I shall have to do some real work. I figure the next step will be drawing the hardware on the limba and routing out the hollow chambers. If my neck hasn't arrived, the step after that will be to glue and start carving the top (provided I get it to match up). Before I do that, a few questions-- a) I've noticed a few sites that have done the neck pocket AFTER the carve. I'm worried that if I do this, I'll have a hard time getting the neck pocket square, so I wanted (originally) to do the neck pocket first. b ) Do you reckon the carve should go all the way around (ie. where the neck pocket 'would' be, and thus necessitating a curved humbucker ring at the neck (at least)? I'm leaning toward a more flat appearance, with the height at the neck joint being level with the pickups, which are level with the bridge, and then doing the carve 'around' all that instead of through it. It might be a wee bit less 'authentic', but it seems like it'll make my life a lot easier. (we really need to make the icon respond to instead of the bracket right after the b which creates )! I don't know if that question was very clear-- what I mean is 'how domed should this sucker be, or is it ok to have the very top -flat-?' c) Same question as 'a)', really, I think-- should I rout the pickup cavities before or after the carve? My common sense tells me -after-, to avoid tear-outs; however that brings me back to the predicament of having a flat surface from which to base my routs. A plunge router atop a carved surface seems like a world of inaccuracy waiting to happen. d) Someone else asked this recently, but I think Brian's response of 'I leave it natural' was the only one: should I use a sealant or lacquer inside the hollow chambers? My instinct is that it won't matter one way or the other, but I suspect that using some sort of finish will help prevent any warping due to changes in humidity. Scientifically, it shouldn't affect the tone in any noticeable way, as the way the wood 'under' the finish will still resonate the same way. The thick coats of lacquer on the outside will affect the tone, I'm sure, but a thin sealer coat shouldn't really. Thanks for looking and helping! Greg

Are you gonna sip Bacardi like it's your birthday? (OK.. the expiry date on that lame joke was sometime last November) Greg

That's it? Even though it's 5/8" thick? I hope so, because that sounds like a plan. Any advice for technique? I have... er... a steam iron for clothes, or a bathroom with a tub... <laff>. Excuse my ignorance.

Freakin' WICKED! Not everyone appreciates that kind of tone, but I'm loving it like I'm loving Oreo cookies and milk. Greg. [EDIT: Holy crap what a buttload of wicked schematics, too. I wish I knew how to build something with them... when people talk about it, it doesn't SEEM all that tricky (designing is another story)... but I haven't a clue what I'm doing. Note to self: one obsession at a time. Build the guitar THEN consider building this stuff]

It does look that way, doesn't it? Hrm... somehow in-person it looked like the joint, but in the picture it looks to be the maple. Perhaps the 'objective' view of a 2D photo made the truth more apparent. That said, I'm a bit hesitant to use glue to try to 'bully' it into staying in place. Figure I should order some new wood? I'm pretty sure it was flat when it arrived, though I didn't check as closely as I should have; in either case, I'd feel bad complaining with no proof that it came that way, as wood WILL change shape in different climates. Of course, the next problem is that another piece that I order may end up the same way. Any advice, anybody? Greg

I'm 30. I discovered last weekend that I'm too old to go bar-hopping... it was boring as heck. Pub-crawling "yes", bar-hopping "no". On the other hand, I'm too young to stay at home on a Friday night when an out-of-town friend comes to visit. Oh, the dilemna.

Having done that, I figured it was about time to re-evaluate my wood. I wish I had done this earlier, because I found 2 problems: 1. The limba is too thick. Between the Limba and the maple top, I would have had an overall thickness of 2.5". Now, that's not EXTREMELY thick, but to my eyes it seemed a bit much and didn't fit in with my vision of the guitar. Solution: After phoning around a bit and realizing I didn't know anyone who could thickness plane it, I swallowed my pride and burned $20 by getting a local commercial mill to thickness it down to 1 3/8" for a total thickness of 2". Speaking of burned... (the wood in the picture is labelled because the lack of contrast made it visually confusing at first): 2. The maple, which arrive flat, has now warped a bit. Maybe "warped" isn't the right word since it's still flat lengthwise, but I now have a curve along the width, likely due to the joining process. On a flat surface, the gap is exactly 3mm at its widest point: Solution: I have no fricking idea. If I try to thickness plane it, there won't be enough left over for carving. Nobody around has a 13" wide jointer, so I'd have to saw it in half, get it all planed up again, and re-join them. Who knows, it might end up curved again!? Besides that, it'd cost less just to order a new top. The guy at the commercial mill seemed to think that when it's glued up, it'll hold, but he's not an instrument-maker, so I dunno if he's considered all the miniscule details. What do you folks figure? I'm thinking that if necessary, I can form the limba to accomodate the maple...? Since it'll be chambered out, it'll only be the edges and the hunk in the middle that I'd have to add a curve to. It'd be laborious, though, and I'd rather just glue it down if the pros here think it'll hold. As a real-world reference, I can hold the pieces together with a bit of work from one hand... but they don't just 'easily' mate up by doing that, it does take a bit of main force. Thanks for any responses! Greg PS, why write this in 3 parts? I dunno... they seem like little 'breaths' to me. <grin>

After sitting around for a while, and actually making a few contacts with people that could help me (Yay! Bandsaw access will be mine!!), I was still sort of 'stuck' in the mode of "I don't know what the hell to do without the rest of my stuff". Having read a million times that a template is infinitely useful in shaping a body out of hardwood (using a router and the router bit I don't have yet!), I elected to waste some MDF I had lying around in an attempt to make a template for the body. First, I tweaked Keith Howell's 335 CAD file a bit (any comments about the headstock?): And then printed just the body part out, taped it together, glued it to some bristol board, and traced it out on a hunk of MDF: Next, instead of using the excuse that I don't have a bandsaw, and knowing that with MDF, I don't really NEED a bandsaw, I hopped over to the scroll saw and cut out a rough of the body: I learned 2 things about using a scroll saw: 1. Tighten the blade before beginning. I had no mishaps, but I lost accuracy by having a loose-ish blade. 2. When I think I can curve enough before getting too close to the line (during tight curves), I should think again and approach from another angle. Too many times I came right up to the line when I thought I wouldn't. Speaking of accuracy, how's this?: I have one word for that: ouch! Well, I had cut out the rough... and it was REALLY rough. In most places, I was about 2-3 mm away from the line. Well, I had new tools, and it was time to use them: Using a combination of the flat attachment and the round one, I really went through that MDF, but I still felt like I had a lot of control. The guy at Lee Valley had recommended it for 2 reasons: 1. the offset handle would make it more convenient in situations where my knuckles would be hitting the wood otherwise; and 2. it goes through a lot of wood without leaving a lot of rough marks. It only took me a short while to rasp the outline down to size. By doing it by hand, it wasn't always exactly 'square', but when it comes time to rout out the body, it'll be pretty close. I didn't get the whole thing absolutely perfect (a few flaws circled in the picture), because there'll be some shaping steps to be done after the rout anyhow. I was more concerned with leaving a half-mm around the edges than going right perfectly to the line. Still, MDF is easier to work than hardwood, so the better the template is to begin with, the less work I'll have to do later. Perhaps before I get to the rout, I'll touch it up a bit. Until then, this seems OK:

He's an english teacher It's true enough!! My specialties-- essay-writing and literature. <grin> Well, here's the next novel-lengthed installment. Nothing new and exciting, I'm afraid, but I promised "Every Smelly Step of the Way", so here are the next few smelly steps: Step... er... whatever... I'm going to give up on numbering them!: What to Buy? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All right. So those of you who live in Canada or who live abroad know that sometimes parts aren't as easy to get a hold of as we would like. Were I smart, I would have done what another forum member did, and scour eBay for good deals, and build a guitar for $147. Instead, I've already spent that much on wood, plus another $100CDN for a pair of pickups. I actually took heart from the credo "It's cheaper just to buy a new one" because it always reminds me that I'm not doing this to save money, but to try a new challenge. The good news is that if I totally mess this guitar up, most parts (except the wood, I guess!) will be salvageable for the next project. Still, I was thinking that I don't want to just THROW my money away, and since paying shipping costs from multiple suppliers was the equivalent of lighting dollar bills (or $5 bills, for Canadians) on fire, I wanted to limit myself to which suppliers I ordered from. In a rare case of organization and preparation, I developed an Excel spreadsheet which listed all the parts I still need (or at least the ones I could remember at the time), and began tracking down prices on a few of the more prominent and recommended websites: Highlighted parts indicate the supplier I'll likely order from, and shadowed lines show parts I've already obtained or ordered. This list is now out-of-date, but since it's just an example, I didn't bother uploading a newer version. As it turns out, there are some limitations and unexpected twists. For example, I wanted a pre-radiused, pre-slotted fretboard with a 15" radius. The only supplier I found for a reasonable rate was LMI. I ordered one up for my next project while I was at it, to save a WEE bit on future shipping costs. I also got my fretwire from them while I was at it. A trip to the local music shop also proved fruitful, as I found some tuners, a football jack, speed knobs, and a nickel Straplok. The pickups in the picture are Seymour Duncans-- a JB for the bridge and a Jazz for the neck. I bought them used as a pair from someone on the UK's Guitarist forum for a reasonable price. I'll have to add new wire to the Jazz's wires, I believe. I'm OK with a soldering gun, though, so no worries. So here's my hardware to date: Another unexpected twist was the lack of availability of nickel pickup covers. Universal Jems seems to be the only place that I can find them, but someone pointed out that they have hole-less ones, too, which may make for an interesting look for my guitar. Haven't decided yet. The Right Tools? We'll see. -------------------------------- Well, I find myself bogged down with wanting to do this 'too right', and 'in the right order'. I don't have my fingerboard yet, so I didn't want to start my neck, and I didn't want to start my body without an accurate neck for the neck pocket, and I don't have mounting rings, and blah blah BLAH! What's worse, I've convinced myself that I can't do ANYTHING until I get the right tools. So what do I do? Hopped up on GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) from all the hardware I bought the previous day, I run out to Lee Valley Tools to get a flush-trim router bit, which will be the main 'tool' I'll need for this project. I did NOT in fact get a flush trim router bit (I'm still wondering where to get a Freud that was recommended by Jeff), but I walked away with the following: What we have here are: - Burnisher/Scraper set - MicroPlane Rasp with extra round attachment - Contour Planes. C'mon. Look at the Lee Valley picture... tell me it doesn't scream "make a neck with me!"? Well, I'm not convinced that the scraper and contour planes were money well spent, but I can guarantee that the Microplane rasp beats the hell out of what I was going to use, which was a rusty old four-in-one, pictured here: Satisfied, I brought my purchases home, bemoaned the fact that without a router bit, I was still "incapable" of really starting the project, and threw everything into a plastic bucket for later.

I read somewhere that most binding is made with HIGHLY FLAMMABLE material. Your heat gun will ignite it, for sure, if that's the case. Binding is relatively cheap-- I'm sure there's a way to get around the binding issue, but I say 'flame on!', take the necessary safety precautions for igniting something highly flammable, and replace the binding with new stuff. ;-) That's definitely not technical advice, though... I'm sure someone here could advise you on a way to remove the binding if you want to keep it. As for where to get it, you can try any number of places, including StewMac and LMI. Cheers, Greg

Audacity will also work as a multitracker.

I for one am glad that people are willing to humour newbies a bit. If I was told "do a forum search" EVERY time I asked a question, I would think, "F this... it's a discussion forum after all" and not waste my time on such an unfriendly lot. As it is, all I'm saying is that even if you're worn out on newbie questions, take a break from them for a bit because we newbies sure do appreciate it when you DO decide to respond. Greg