demonx

That looks awesome! Me personally I'd have avoided the stain on the binding but if we all did the same thing life would be boring. Great looking guitar!

Looks great. Inlays turned out great. That fingerboard timber is stunning.

Searls Guitars - Butterfly Tele This guitar has a bit of meaning behind it, I won't go onto the story here but in the build thread I touched on it a bit if you want a read. Build thread: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46244 Specs: Victorian Ash Body Mahogany, Indian Rosewood and Huon neck Sassafras Headstock Curly Maple binding Ebony board with Japanese Maple leaf inlays (pearl) Hipshot Baby Grand bridge Bone nut Gotoh Tuners EMG Select Pickups 25.5" scale 24 frets 16" radius 6150 Dunlop fretwire PPG 2k Paint All paint and Flake by myself with exception of the airbrushing by Bruce Terry.

Finally! Damn it's is a relief to have this one finished, on time and with a week and a half to spare !! Side note - this is the first and last time I'll ever use "Select" pickups, they are utter rubbish and sound like complete crap. A massive thanks goes out to Bruce for his awesome airbrushing, it is his skills that make this guitar what it is, without his art, it's nothing. Thanks Bruce.

Yeah - I was surprised. I remember I was off from work when I did this so it ws xmas time, I figured it'd get more attention but oh well.

****! I forgot all about these threads. Guess they can be closed! EDIT - it wont let me close or end the poll, either that or I just dont know how to. Anyway - verhoevenc is a clear winner! Congrats!

Well if we're playing this game...! I've got a 57 chevy (about 400hp) a Marshall half stack (had two stacks but have downsized over the last couple years) and two German Shepherds. I only drink Bourbon/Whiskey or Moonshine. My go to is Makers Mark. Guess this just became a pic thread! My Chev: My last car: Thats me in the drivers seat - outside the shed where I build my guitars The dogs: The Marshall (far left) and me with the white Warlock - pic taken eleven years ago whilst playing a gig in Melbourne supporting Anarazel and Hellspawn:

Just to clarify, I've started this thread for people to discuss the emotional ups and downs of building, not to have a sook or look for pats on the back. Most people have taken it that way!

I'm curious what others think about their own builds when they self evaluate. I know when I do something right I have the "**** I'm awesome" feelings, but this threads about the down side. Often when I screw up or something doesn't turn out the way I plan or simply doesn't meet the standard I strive to achive I have self doubts. I question if I'm wasting my time trying to build guitars and I wonder if I'm playing at a hobby where I should just give up and leave it to the professionals. Anyone else have similar thoughts or other sorts of self doubt they normally wouldn't talk about?

I got it back today and sprayed a couple coats of clear:

How do you plan to clamp the board to the neck if you've shaped it? Something to think about. Most people shape the fingerboard to size, glue it to the neck then carve the neck back to the fingerboard.

I've already run through a few things to make a laminate neckthru neck (mahogany with 2 maple stripes, the maple stripes bordered by four thin pieces or brazilian rosewood) I was a happy man!

Couldn't help myself, I set it up... It fit right into the scenrey as if it'd always been there. Less chance of the "finance department" asking questions that way!

Just got MMS'd this pic of the background - will hopefully be able to pick up the completed art tomorrow so I can start spraying some clear on this thing!

I do it this way on purpose. I prefer this look. If i carve a volute it'll sit just on the neck side of my scarf not the headstock side... I mean just fit, as it's right at the edge. My scarf joints end just after the first fret wire assuming there's no laminations.. Sure it's non traditional, but in today's methods the glue joint is a non issue in the strength discussion and it stands out as different from the pack making it different to the billion Chinese scarf joints pumped out every second. (RADs are different as he does scarf art). I like to be different. Non traditional. However when doing a multi lam scarf I do have to move it back otherwise at the end of the lam it might not curve as much as you want. I do this by making my last piece of lam the same color as the headstock. I haven't done as many of these as RAD but the ones I have done look pretty cool.

That board is going to look sweet once it's coated.

Thats as pretty neck... Really liking the color contrasts.

Yep, I'd be the guy! On a side note - mine just got delivered today and the guy unloaded it for me and trollied it to where I'll be assembling it, but I have a damaged elbow ligament at the moment so I can't even get the thing unboxed! I'm not happy right now. It's a massive tease tyo have a brand new boxed toy sitting in my shed and I can't even pull it out! I can't even work on guitars at the moment.

I feel your pain on the route moving. I had that happen to me recently on a truss slot. I scrapped the neck. I was trying a new way to route and it just didnt work. Back to the old way! My eyes jurt just looking at that inlay - I'm sure there was many stages where you had to keep blinking to refocus! Great work! It should finish up nice once the board is sealed.

Bet you'll never glue down a template again! hahahaha My necks are usually based around 19mm profile thickness at the first fret and around 20-21mm at the 12th and after. I just blend the heel in according to the body shape and feel not worrying about dimensions there. The width I always use a 42mm nut on standard scales and 53mm at the 12th fret. Ona six string guitar I'll aim for a 5mm blard thickness, on a 7 string I aim for 6mm and on the 8 string I'm building at the moment I made that 7mm. Reason being for anyone who's never built more than a 6 is that when you radius, the board gets thinner at the edge. So if you made an 8 string at the same board thickness of a 6 thring, you wouldnt have enough wood at the edge to fit a side dot in! The truss rods I use are 10mm at the deepest point and 1/4" wide. That leaves me with 4mm wood at my thinnest neck point. No secrets here. Cheers

Your inlay looks excellent, you should be super proud. Guitar looks like it's coming along nicely.

Definitely a lot fancier than the walls in my shed! Looks great. I just hang my clamps on the top hat section the colorbond wall is screwed too!

Basically... The questions to asked are very vague as in the answers will be completely different due to the near infinite approaches to building a guitar. My build process varies from many on this site, so you get different answers from different people, however you have to be smart enough to work out which is compatible with the build method you choose to use or you'll run into some trouble.

I have used lock nuts on most of my builds. I work to a 12 degree headstock angle. When building a guitar I always position the fingerboard so fret access is #1 importance. I usually work the body angle from the 16th fret, but this can change due to scale/ fretboard length etc I radius my boards at 80, then clean it up with 120 and then 320 before fretting. As I glue my frets I get a bit of glue clean up and paint bleeding at the paint stage, so I deal with making the fret spaces look nice at the end of the build.

At least you tried. Thanks anyway.