dpm99

WezV - Yeah, I knew that. It still looks cool though. Ok, you guys are talking me into it. You make good points, and I know you guys know what you're talking about. Thanks for trying to talk sense into me. Six String Theory - Yeah, that's what's great about rosewood necks. They're naturally oily, so the finish comes from the inside out. It's the same as with fingerboards. You wouldn't typically finish a rosewood or ebony fingerboard, because they're naturally oily, but you do finish a maple fingerboard.

Some people have reported problems with that stuff, but boat builders use teak all the time, and if the glue didn't hold, the boat would fall apart. From what I've read, it helps if you wipe it with acetone before you glue it. WezV, those pictures you put up were the look I was going for with the teak. All you guys with rosewood necks have straighter grain than me too. Meh. I'm still torn.

That would be the easiest way. If you're concerned about the appearance, there are probably better ways to go. If you did put a 2X4 in there, you could mount a pickup in it. And you could try to make it look pretty by painting it or covering it. I'd cover it with something cool looking.

I came across a pretty nice piece of neck wood today. It's an old and dry piece of East Indian Rosewood with a pretty straight grain. Here: The grain isn't perfectly straight down the neck, but it's close, as you can see from the picture. And that's about as close to quartersawn as it gets, up and down. I'm debating whether I should just leave it as a one piece neck or if I should rip it and make a laminate neck. I think it would be cool to put a 1/4" strip of teak right down the middle. Since both are oily woods, the neck wouldn't require a finish. My fear is that the glue might not hold. From a structural standpoint, what do you think would be safer here? Leave it as is, or do a laminate neck? Thanks, -Dave

I'm going to just reply to my own post in case anyone ever runs across it in a search. For this kind of work, I recommend John Hall from bluescreekguitars.com He's an awesome guy with a ton of experience, and in my case, he was more than glad to help. -Dave

+1 on the 2X4

Sick headstock! (And I mean that in a good way.)

<-- Dave I've never used one of those. Let us know how they work out!

If I had a little extra cash, I'd grab one of these: http://axehandle.net/gpage2.html The guy makes radius sanding blocks that are 16" long. That's almost as long as your entire fretboard. I figure that would save time and prevent error. I still use an 8" block, but it works ok for me.

Well, I'm on the other side of the country, but have you tried this place? http://kmhardwoods.com/ I just found it on a random Google search.

Ktrip, Where do you live? If you're in a populated area in the US, your best bet is probably to go local. -Dave

I'm having some trouble finding someone to make me a matching acoustic bridge and fingerboard. I'm not really looking for anything too special as far as the shape. I just want a Martin-style steel string bridge and a slotted fingerboard to match. I can even source the wood myself. The problem is that I want something more exotic than EIR or ebony, which is what most companies offer for completed bridges. Does anyone have a source? Even better, does anyone have a CNC machine set up to make acoustic bridges? Thanks for your time, Dave

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Own-Acoust...5572&sr=1-1 Available January 1st. I just came across on Amazon. I'm assuming some of you guys knew about this already. If it's as great as his electric guitar book, what a great resource! -Dave

Kenny's getting a CNC? Hmm.... Time to start figuring out how I'm going to take advantage of him. Ok, back to topic. Awesome stuff, Doug. All your stuff is awesome, but these last couple of projects have really surprised me.

Yeah, I've tried the Ryobi, and I'm sure the Delta is much better. However, I live in a second story apartment, and have to haul all my tools up and down the stair when I work. Plus, while the jigsaw can go in a drawer, the bandsaw would have to live in the recliner. Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Avengers, Are you planning on running everything into an electric amp, or will you use an A/B box to run acoustic sounds into something else? The answer to that question will likely help you answer a lot of others. -D

Yeah, I remember that crazy looking jigsaw! Does the blade move around much, or does it stay pretty well vertical? Everybody says the Bosch 1590 is the best. Anybody have experience there?

I figure just spend a whole lot of money and you're good, right? Bluesy, I remember somebody saying something like that about a new jigsaw recently. That was you, huh? I think you guys have answered my question. I want a new jigsaw. Now... What to get? Time for more research. Thanks!

I also think you can learn a lot by seeing what's been done. Probably the most widely purchased is the Taylor T5. Building on the Taylor Expression system, it uses a single body sensor located an inch or two below the bridge, an acoustic mag pickup buried beneath the fretboard, and a stacked humbucker in the bridge position. (It looks like a lipstick pickup, but it really is a humbucker.) This is what I play most of the time, and in my humble opinion, it's better at electric tones than acoustic ones. Run it through Taylor's K4 equalizer (a $500 investment, unless you get a deal), and it gets better, but still not awesome. An interesting variation is the Crafter SA. Crafter pretty much copied Taylor's design, but they put in an LR Baggs piezo pickup system. Reportedly, the acoustic sound is better than the Taylor guitar it copies, and it's much cheaper. The thing about a piezo pickup that I find interesting is that it sounds pretty similar from one guitar to another. A cheap guitar and a high end guitar sound pretty much the same. That's why piezo bridge saddles sound good. As long as something's vibrating, you get a pretty good piezo sound. That brings me to my next example. The Parker Fly is, I think, the best representative of a hybrid that uses a piezo pickup successfully. It's an electric guitar with piezo pickups build into the bridge saddles. Most of the big acoustic pickup builders are now making bridges just like this. Because these are typically six individual piezo pickups, you can run it hexaphonically into a synth. A poorer attempt at the same thing, in my opinion, is the Ovation VXT. It also uses a piezo bridge, which is fine, but I guess I expect more from a company that's been making acoustic guitars for as long as they have. Then there's the Anderson Crowdster Plus. To ears, this one actually sounds better as an acoustic than it does as an electric. A lot of that is probably because this is the only one mentioned so far that uses bronze strings. They built a humbucker designed for bronze strings that's unlike anything else I've heard of. Finally, there's the Ibanez Montage, which is your basic acoustic guitar with a humbucker stuck right where you'd expect the soundhole to go. I think it's helpful just to search for each of these on YouTube and see what they do. You can learn a lot that way. Obviously, there are a lot of hybrids out there I didn't mention. But that covers the major types of hybrids I know of. In the end, this is mostly experimental stuff. Like Rich says, you just have to have fun building something, and see what it sounds like when you're done. If you'd like me to point you toward some interesting reading I've found, let me know. Can't wait to see your build! Since you do build so much faster than me, I'm sure I'll learn a lot from it your build that I can apply toward mine. -Dave P.S. Oh yeah! Final example: Mikro's reso. From what I've gathered from him, a cone is a great substitute for a traditional soundboard.

I recently recovered an old jigsaw I'd bought sometime in the nineties. It's a cheap Black & Decker model. After putting in a new blade I tried to saw some 8/4 walnut with it the other day. It burned the wood. Lots. No problem for the project, as I was just cutting wood to length so I can make a body blank. But cutting across a 6" wide board was so tough that I really don't want to repeat the process on the rough cut of the body if the saw is the problem. With Christmas coming up, I bet I could talk my wife into buying me a new jigsaw. (A bandsaw is kind of out of the question, due to space constrictions.) I'm just curious as to the difference between a good jigsaw and a poor jigsaw. Is it just that the cheap one will break, or will a good one actually cut better? If so, how much better? Will it make cutting 8/4 walnut easy? Thanks, Dave

Well, let me go on record as saying that I voted for low end fuzz. The story behind that guitar is so great, and what's amazing about it is that he thought the same thing everyone is saying when the customer requested he do it. It accomplishes the goal of looking like something pulled out of the trash can, and still looks really nice. It just makes me smile. Anyway, props to everyone. -Dave

Rich - Thanks. You hit the nail on the head. Who knows what this is gonna do. I'm trying to make some educated guesses and arrive at something useful. In the end, it will hopefully at least be pretty, and it may be really great. But like you said, it's a crap shoot. Geo - I think you've got it. I play in church, and have to switch back and forth between electric and acoustic A LOT. If I have to switch guitars, the piano player starts going into crazy interludes to stall, and sometimes I need electric and acoustic within the same song. I do a good bit of solo finger picking, and you really good tone for that. From there, I might have to jump right into a heavily overdriven rhythm part, or solo my way through some crazy gospel song in Eb with nutty jazz chords. It's really too much to ask of a single guitar, but I find that a lot can be accomplished with electronics. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out. Hopefully it will at least sound comparable to my T5. We'll see.

I actually don't want more acoustic volume. The less the better. I just want good acoustic tone.

Well, if nothing else I'll have some research to share, and we can all learn from it. There are so many ways to go with this project as far as the thickness of the sides and back. But I made a choice today and bought enough walnut to make 21" X 18" X 3" body blank. It will involve gluing together seven pieces of 8/4 walnut, so making the body blank will a a big task in itself. But I think I've got a plan, and I think the walnut will be a good choice for the project. The pickups are Duncan P-Rails, which I think will do a lot to combat the thin tone. I don't know if you've seen the demo video for these, but the humbucker sound is almost too big. I'm interested to see how it'll sound on something like this. I should at least have a lot of tonal options.

Wow Doug. That's a really impressive guitar. You're a true artist.