dpm99

Won't the ladies be upside-down while you're playing?

Really impressive work on those bobbins.

The hybrid is a steel string with walnut and bearclaw sitka. It's turning out to be an ambitious project, but I'm making slow progress. -Dave

I'm working on a hybrid, but I haven't put up a build thread yet. I'm waiting until I've made some decent progress. I'm looking forward to seeing the work you guys have been doing though. -Dave

Congratulations! Looks good!

It could have been a lot worse. I once had a guitar fall like that and the headstock broke off completely. You have a fairly easy fix there. Make sure you use a good glue. Titebond original would be best, but any decent (yellow) wood glue should be fine. You just need clamps. -Dave

Nice B&W Ebony guys. I wonder why no one ever uses the stuff. Maybe it's just the rarity of it. Believe it or not, I have a local source for the stuff. -Dave

Welcome slay!

I look forward to seeing anything built out of that stuff.

LMI has binding up to 1/2" thick. http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts....Plastic+Binding A couple other ideas would be a purfling strip (not easy to do, I'd think), or fill it and paint a pinstripe. Whatever you do, you're going to acquire skills in the repair. -Dave

Go to your local hardwood store and see what you can find! You might find something you really like within your price range. Some of the cheaper woods to consider are basswood, maple, and African mahogany. If you really want to keep your budget down, go with mdf, pine, or plywood for your body. It works. You'll need a decent piece of wood for your neck. Maple is an excellent choice, as is mahogany. Make sure it's free from flaws. -Dave

If I understand what you're saying, I've done that, and I like the results. I leave a bunch of extra wood there. Once I have the neck in place, I'll use the side of the neck like a router template, and the body ends up perfectly flush to it. -Dave

Nice find! Are you sure it's missing a bridge? Sometimes on inexpensive small scale guitars you'll see a combination tailpiece/bridge that works, but isn't awesome. You can find out really quickly by determining the scale length. Measure from the nut to the twelfth fret, and then measure from the twelfth fret to the tailpiece. If the distances are the same, the tailpiece is doubling as the bridge. If not, the bridge should be located at wherever that point would be...if that makes sense. Look forward to seeing your progress! -Dave

Because I work with limited space, I try to limit my jigs. I'd considered building one myself, but in the end, I don't think I'll regret buying one. On my particular build, I won't need one for the back anyway. I think you just tell him the radius you want and he builds it to order. -Dave EDIT: Incidentally, he makes 16" long radius sanding block too, and at a pretty reasonable price!

Exactly! We're good at stupid and immature! -Dave

Yeah, I'm familiar with all that. For some reason, I was thinking you use the radius dish directly on the top and back. That's probably why I could never find good information. I kept looking for pictures of people trying to sand down their tops with a radius dish. I guess that's one of those things I'll look back on and laugh someday. Incidentally, if anyone knows of a cheaper source for a radius dish than this guy, I'm all ears: http://www.axehandle.net/gpage1.html Thanks for the help, -Dave

Why can't you use an external preamp?

The top starts as a thin bookmatched piece and then the braces are radiused and then glued on and after they're glued on it makes it radiused Woah woah woah! Light bulb. So you don't actually radius the top. You radius the braces, and then you bend the top over the radiused braces, right? Do you radius all the braces? It seems like it would be hard to bend the top in all four directions at the same time.

I think I may have a solution for you. I agree with Pete about your image. Along those lines, I suggest you take a picture of yourself facing forward and let people photoshop guitars in front of you. Who knows? We might even be able to make some stage costuming suggestions.

Ok, I have a related question. When you're radiusing a top, do you radius the inside and the outside surfaces? If so, I'm assuming the process it to thin the top, then radius it, then brace it, right? I'm kinda lost on this point. -Dave

Let me just throw this out there. Please understand that I have no affiliation with or personal interest in this resource, but John Hall at Blues Creek Guitars is a really awesome guy. We've emailed back and forth a good bit, and he really has a heart for helping other builders. If you ever find yourself looking into a kit (or a number of other things), his stuff is worth checking out: http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/ -Dave

Does the W stand for walnut? If so, let me just say what a joy walnut is to work with. It's also a great counterpart to maple, and makes a good contrast. -Dave

I don't know. It's a weird idea, and I don't know that I'd do it myself necessarily. But it would give you a mini neck to match you mini body. You could travel with it, play it in the car, whatever, and it would still be a fully functional axe (minus five frets). I wouldn't try to talk you into it. Just thought it was interesting.

Let me just throw out a very off the wall suggestion that I'm almost positive no one will like except me. What if you chopped off the first five frets or so? It would require fretboard removal, and I'm not sure what you'd do about a truss rod, but it would sure be a fun little guitar with a huge sound.

[Picture deleted.] Not the best picture, but it gets the idea across. I've used a sled similar to the one that Dave posts pictures of - but I feel like this design could be made quite large if need be. For the pieces of lumber we're using, it's probably not an issue, but I'm always a fan of over-designing things. Wow. That's an awesome sled design. I actually already use router rails. They're metal, and they work great on small pieces. They're just not as long as I need them to be. They were given to me with the admission that they were a bit short. That being said, I did some reading and watched some YouTube videos last night. Then I spend an hour or two really trying to tune up my plane. It's a cheap one from Home Depot. By the end of the night, I was still just mucking up my wood. Then I thought about it a little at work today, and figured out a few things I could tweak to make it work better. It worked. Hello beautiful shavings. Hello large flat surface. I think I'm starting to love my hand plane. +1 Hand Plane from me too. -Dave