demonx

I wouldn't stress about what you described. I don't use sealers, I have, but I dont anymore. I've ben playing recently with the timber mate stuff, you can see a couple pics of it at the start of my "experimenting" thread. I put it on the raw neck, sanded and cleared. No other products. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46396&hl=%2Bsearls+%2Bexperimenting Hope those pics ease your mind.

Haven't you ever watched highlander?

More template making today. I whipped up a MDF carve top template that I'm hoping will work well with my marlin. Probably not, but I'll try it. After this I thought I'd radius the board, but I can't find my neck caul to lay the neck into. I looked all through my workshop for over half an hour, sorted through all the scrap timber, every shelf, drawer and bench that is in there, the bloody trhings just vanished but it doesnt make sense. Might have to make or buy a new one.

Forget number of the beast - It's the number of my dog - evil, pure crazy evil! Her eye is my avatar!

Nearly everything I paint is candy simply because it's so nice! Sucks in photos though, you can never quite capture it. Nice clean builds you have there. Congrats.

I've never liked gibson's necks so I don't bother to pick them up, but at a recent trip to the guitar store I saw a white LP which was around four or five grand, (guitars are way more expensive in Australia) and the paint on it was terrible. It made me feel better about my paint jobs. I didn't even touch the guitar so I can't comment on the other issues.

I'm thinking now your obligated to do a "carve top veneer vacuum bag" tutorial. I'd watch it!

One that works. No need to spend hundreds unless you have money to burn. There are some areas where you do need to make sure you buy top shelf and I'm not saying buy the crappest pair you can find, but you don't need to go overboard if you get my drift. I'm pretty fussy with my tools and I couldnt even tell you what brand mine are, I know they are digital and the batteries keep running flat even though I turn it off. More expensive ones turn themselves off to save batteries.

Made this little template today. Basically its a routing template for my cavity covers, cut from MDF with a bit of scrap mahogany as a handle so I dont have my fingers too close to the router bit. Simply double sided tape my bit of perspex, timber or whatever I'm making the cavity cover out of to the bottom and jobs done. No longer cutting them by hand.

The humbucker sounds (in my opinion) very much like an old Dimarzio Super Distortion. In fact I plugged a 80's BC Rich with a factory super distortion installed after this guitar and the pickup sounds very similar. Great for neo classical, solo work and thrash metal. Contact RAD if you wanna try a set, these are his Destroyer model and they are reasonably priced: guitarlogistics@gmail.com

That thought had crossed my mind too - I've made a couple carved/radiused top guitars and really like the look/feel I also considered the bound flat tops idea - I'd like to do that also. When I bought the pile which is 18 pieces he's had sitting around since 1983 and a coiple since the late 70's, he also threw in a Master grade bookmatched set of rosewood back which he'd already joined but then it split in a small part (which wont effect me as a supertrat is much smaller than a dreadnought) so I don't plan on risking messing up that one, it'll definitely be a flat top. Probably not even bound, maybe round the edge so it reveals the timber behind it like a framed binding look without binding. So many options!

Where all this is coming from is I bought a pile of Indian rosewood back sets at a price I couldn't refuse and now I'm looking for uses for it all rather than just scarf joint art and headstock caps

Heres a hack job mobile phone video of the Bio 1 guitar and RADS pickups (dont blame rads pickups for the sound - its a mobile phone video! First half is a gain channel, second half is clean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXx3FYEjFaI&feature=plcp

I know that one - prime example my Blackwood/huon guitar.

Seems to be fixed. I don't envy your job and I'd like to take a second to say thankyou for your efforts.

I'd be happy if my inlays were an all round 1/32" gap ... But they're not. I don't have a steady hand. My biggest problem is my impatience. I've got books on inlay and studied their pic and methods, quality I could only dream of. I know inlay is one of my short falls and each time I butcher a board by inlaying it I know it's something I need to work on.

I am on this site on my iPhone. No app. It's ok but I wouldn't try posting pics etc on one. Desktop for that.

What he said! I'm really liking the color choices. Very classy.

Dont know, I really can't answer that. It was this guy: http://www.richardsguitars.com.au/ I just went through his site, he used to have a list of builds numbered from #1 through to several hundred, but theyve all gone. The site is completely condensed now. He's also got a,line of amps you can see on the site SWD amps.

Looks pretty cool. Blue and white just work so well! I'm digging the fretboard end, looks very much like a BC.Rich Bernie Sr Commemorative model which were very big buck guitars (not sure what other brands do this but I know I liked it when BCR did it.) Dont know if I like the rear binding, but seeing the back of the guitar might make me change my mind. On the upper stripe near the neck side strap pin, was that when you peeled the tape back? I once was taught a trick to stop that happening by peeling the tape back over itself. It's supposed to help. Some people say that peeling it back while still tacky helps this also. If you had've noticed it before clear you couldve just taped the are and shot it very lightly with the airbrush to hide it. I've had to do this several times, both on guitar and on a car. I really hate cleaning my airbrush though but they are so handy for fixing stuff like this. Still looks awesome though. If the customer asks just say, you get things like this on handmade guitars, makes them stand out from the chinese ones!

Ive seen that video before, they have some great methods for various stages - these are hollow body so its a complete different build theory. I want to do it as a solid body

I just edited one of my posts to add more info and it didnt launch in to html this time. Edited as text.

I'm very turned off by veneer for this use. I've owned a guitar that had a vacuum bagged veneer that turned bad. It looked great for say the first four/five years, but after that the veneer started cracking and peeling. Hense why I'm thinking something thicker to prevent this. I'd hate to sell a guitar that looked awesome and it fell apart after a decade. EDIT: I should add that the veneer was vacuum glued by a professional luthier who's been in the business of building guitars for longer than I've been alive, so it wasn't a hack job like myself! It was done prefessionally with professional equiptment. So I question the longevity of veneer for this purpose, especially when the other guitar had a very slight curve and was basically flat..

I agree with Dean, this month was massive compared to previous months. Many guitars and all of them are brilliant in their own way. Very diverse collection also which is great for us to learn from and simply admire! There is not one guitar here that would not deserve a spot on stage or in a guitar shop. They all achieve that professional standard and they all deserve a standing applause. Congrats everyone. ANDYT - I commend you on the snakeskin - I've seen it done before with snake skin and cow skin and all sorts of other stuff, but to have the balls to do it, congrats. On top of that you pulled it off, so thumbs up. It's not a guitar I'd want to own, but it's great and the build quality is up to par with what forum members have come to expect from you. bghk6581 - Nice build. I'm not a lefty so it looks disslexic to me, but the timber choices and binding color all work. Not a fan of the missmatched cavity covers, but many people like this look. As a finished piece though = Nice guitar. Juntunen - You know I like this one. Only thing that I can nit pick (which is just my preference) is I'm not a fan of the headstock shape, other than that, this guitar is pure class and it shows you have a great gift. Mitch - If you're only 17 and building guitars like this already - you have a great future ahead of you. You must have some sort of mentor helping you? There a few things that jump out at me (taste wise) that I don't like, but man, you're 17 and you built this. I hope you hang around the forum and keep posting your builds, it'd be great to see them evolve over the years. hooglebug I disslike the shape, but everything else is excellent. Very very professional build. Everything seems perfect. Good work Bukoffshy - THe workmanship seems top shelf, but like all your builds it's a little too plain for my tastes. For those that like plain however I'm sure they'll bow down to your skills. postal - It's been a while since I've seen one of your builds, good to see you're still at it and screaming ahead by the looks of it. This guitar is pretty cool, it's loud, the color contrasts are great. Shame the pics are too small to see detail. Sardine - This is a guitar that if I saw it in the shop I'd pick it up to admire. Excellent everything on all accounts. If I had to find something I didnt like the bridge stands out to me, but I hate bigsbys and those style too, all over though this thing is brilliant. Awesome work. pauliemc - Why'd it have to be a leftie that commissioned this! Great looking guitar on all accounts, Leftie and the middle pickup kill it for me, but other than that it's a beatiful guitar and very well made. Makes me wat to build something similar! oblaty - I'm not a bass player so I find it hard to like basses unless teres something that really stands out about them. I've never really followed fender and similar guitars so I don't know if the scratch plate is a stock style or something you come up with, but it looks too big for my tastes, not a fan of the headstock, but the build as a whole looks well executed and finished nicely. whalehazard - I've always liked white with lack binding, screams sexy. I disslike gibson V shapes, I like pointy v's and I dont like the headstock shape, but somehow the white with black binding seems to mellow out the things I dont like. Overall great build.

Searls Guitars - BIO1 Mahogany body & neck Ebony board with binding 24 frets @ 25.5" scale, 16" radius, 6150 fretwire Grover tuners Original Floyd Rose "special" bridge Brett Smith Destroyer Pickups (made by RAD of this forum) Trans black cavity cover All paint done by myself in Automotive 2k PPG Build thread: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46396&hl=%2Bsearls+%2Bexperimenting