Building JS-7 copy

[RGGR]

When you have an itch it's mostly best to scratch it.

Over the last months I have been reading all the good info on projectguitar.com (and other sites) and finally I have given in and started building my own guitar.

Ieeeeks!!

I just started playing last year and playing my Ibanez RG2550EX GK just makes me a happy camper. (still learning to play though)

Most of my friends who play guitars all have pretty nice collection of them. I guess ONE of these babies is never enough....

Big question was....what to buy/build next to my RG. I looked at Fender '59 copy (warmoth neck, USA Custom Guitar body, Fralin pick-ups), I looked at older RG 550 and replacing body with JEM style body......I looked at buying JS-100 and chroming it, JS-1000, RG1527, RG7620.....

Till it finally hit me. I really like the JS style body (sexy looking body). I also would like to have a 7 string. Just for the fun of it, and as I just started playing it will just add to the confusion. ;-) Knowing Ibanez is in process of releasing their JS-7 (not making good progress though), I thought it would be cool beating them to it.

I think Ibanez makes nice guitars, and the finish of my RG Prestige is awesome, still I think it's possible to do better (choice of wood for body/neck, etc.)

The shopping list:

Body - 2pc. Korina (Limba) wood - from what I understand this is one of the best sounding woods available. For more on Korina (limba) check:

http://www.higginshardwoods.com/products.p...hardwoods/limba

Local woodsupply company luckily had small supply of this available. I pickup Radius 540R Autocad designs floating around on this site, as template. Adjusted designs by changing old style neck joint into AANJ style.

Neck: 3 piece maple - I like the 3 piece maple neck on my RG. The 3 maple pieces glued together make for a thin and strong neck. Older Ibanez guitars sometimes have neck problems. Thin top of the neck combined with truss rod groove, and the top lock nuts going through body, makes this a vulnerable area. Not surprising to see so many older RG's with cracks in the area. Not a fan of one piece necks as I think a 3 piece neck will always beat it construction wise (tone wise I'm not so sure).

My newer RG has top lock nuts that doesn't go all the way through neck. I like this feature. To support neck even more I was thinking creating two thick sheets of carbon fiber and glue them visible in the neck, so you would have maple/carbon/maple/carbon/maple when looking at the back of neck. I love the high tech look of carbon fiber, and thought the two black bands would contrast nicely with rest of the maple. I saw this construction on bass neck before.

The carbon layered to right thickness, in combination with the epoxy proved to be too expensive.....(maybe for my next built.) I see a great future for carbon in guitars, if only this stuff wasn't so darn expensive.

My local woodsupply company had cheap piece of Wenge (nice darkwood) available, I'm gonna use this instead. For more on Wenge check:

http://www.higginshardwoods.com/products.p...hardwoods/wenge

Same visual effect (maybe not so strong and high tech).

Now my neck will have maple/wenge/maple/wenge/maple in it. Will see how this turns out. On this Conklin 8 string something similar definitely looks great.

http://www.conklinguitars.com/bizarregalle...ckdescript.html

Neck shape I will copy from a RG1527. Copied info from ibanez.com. This guitar has similar thin neck profile as my RG2550, but this time as 7 string version.

Headshape: A regular JS doesn't have a tilted headstock. Personally I like the way a 13 degree headstock looks. I will incorporate a 13 degree tilted headstock in my design. I copied the headshape of my RG in combination with picture of RG-7 head I found on the net.

Finger Board: Ebony. Will use a 25.5 scale with 24 frets on finger board. The 18 Rule, Excell and Autocad made it possible to make prefect template of the fret distances and final neck shape. Will get the ebony fingerboard from lmii.com pre slotted and with 16 degree radius. Saves me some headache and work.

Frets: Dunlop 6105

Tuners: Gotoh/Schaller type

Pickups: Not sure yet. Dimarzio TZ-7 & AN-7 or 7 string Paf Pro & Freds (if I can get my hand on those. I know Dimarzio has them, not sure if they will release them to me)

Tremolo: Ibanez Edge Pro 7. Really like look of new ZR design but first wanna play it to be sure how it behaves. To my recollection Ibanez doesn't have 7 string ZR trem available yet.

Bought all woods, have some friends saw and plane it for me. Made MDF template of body. Will make template of neck this weekend. Passed the point of no return, I guess.

I have no further woodworking experience or any fancy machines availabe, so this could be fun. Haven't even bought a router yet, but will soon.

Pics will follow as I go along, so others can comment on my screw-ups......

:-)

Edited January 24, 2005 by RGGR

[RGGR]

Made little progress. Here is pic of raw wood. Maple neck still uncut, Wenge & Limba not planed to thickness.

I want to incorporate an AANJ in my JS-7 so I adjusted the Radius cad design I had available. Here image of body template.

Template

From lmii.com I ordered two 500K push/pull control pots, a truss rod and an ebony fretboard. Currently waiting on arrival.

Neck and wood is currently being cut and planed. Had hard time locating Titebond glue in Holland. Local Luthier adviced using Bison Extra strong woodglue, as proper alternative.

Also made templetes for control cavities, only to discover later that Radius and JS, have slightly different control cavity. Luckily I discovered it now, and not after routing cavity in body. Also have to make sure JS control cavity and bigger holes for Edge Pro 7 trem work together nicely.

I have to keep thinking as I go along and not follow Radius cad designs blindly.

More later.

Edited January 24, 2005 by RGGR

[swirlslave]

hi ,

very promising project you got there i cant wait to see the thing taking shape and the final result, i love the js guitar.

how do you plan on doing the carving on the body?

keep us to date along the way, also do you have a picture of the ibanez prototype or something?

thanks

[RGGR]

how do you plan on doing the carving on the body?

In a perfect world I would have used a Radius, JS-100/1000 body and make copy on dupli carver. Unfortunately I don't have a dupli carver. This means I have to shape the body by hand, using a spokeshave, surform, rasp, and lots of elbow grease.

A bandsander would come handy too, but I first wanna try without one.

The Limba (Korina) wood I got for the body is incredible hard wood. It's harder than anything I have seen before (this is probably why it has such a great tone).

Except from cutting to dimensions and planing I'm planning to do everything with minimal tools. (what doesn't mean I don't make smart selection of those tools)

[dead_lizard]

If I can offer some advice to you:

Rout the neck pocket out BEFORE you cut out the body shape. Actually try to do as much routing as you can while the body is still a solid block. The reason for this is to give the router a nice flat base tow work off. When routing the neck pocket, set the router up with "rails", ie. lightly glue or nail (be careful to nail on areas you will cut later) some straight pieces of timber for your router to run along. All you need to do is draw the neck pocket onto the body and with the router off, set up the rails so that the router blade will follow your sketched lines.

As far as cutting your body without a bandsaw; I don't have a bandsaw either, but if you have a bench drill you can drill several holes and join them with a coping saw, then file off the excess. Beware of jigsaws; while they are cheap, they are prone to drifting.

Buy some bradpoint drill bits: good for inlays and tuner holes.

That's all I can think of for now, but if you have any questions or if you get into trouble email me at dead_lizard@hotmail.com

Ben

[RGGR]

Thanks for the advice. I have read the tutorials of people saying to route the neck pocket first. Normally I would have agreed with them. Trouble is, I want to cut the body shape using router and templete. (template on top of wood). If I route the neck pocket first I will have trouble routing right body AANJ shape afterwards.

I was thinking routing AANJ shape first. All way through body, but doing the horns of body half way through. This way I will have flat piece of wood next to routing hole.

(I will shoot pics as I go along, so pics will tell what I'm trying to explain.)

Normally I would have routed pickups, trem and control cavity first, but I don't have the Edge Pro trem yet. With trem I can design trem cavity. With trem cavity (7 string trem) routed I can design control cavity. It's natural progression of doing things as they come available.

I do agree a flat routing space is advisable. With templates I hope to extend flat work space a bit.

Procedure now will be.

Route body shape. (some areas half way through)

Route neck pocket.

Complete routing body shape.

Route trem cavity.

Route control cavity.

Route pick up cavities.

Shape body.

At least that's the theory.

[litchfield]

I'd go neck, then body. It would not be a bad idea to wait on the hardware to route, then cut.

[RGGR]

I think there are multiple ways to get to same result.

See following links:

http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/pocket/

http://users.pandora.be/marnix.ghesquiere/bodywork.html

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/body.htm

http://members.accesswave.ca/%7Ederekn/rou...(templates).htm

[litchfield]

I believe it. But in a perfect world......you know. We live in reality.

[RGGR]

Hey, will ya stop giving me a hard time. Let me make my own screw ups will ya.

I will post pics as I go along. Will there be alternative ways of doing things? Sure.

But in reality I'm the one building this puppy and that means I have control over how things are done. ;-)~

My reasoning for routing body shape first is simple. If I would route the neck pocket before the routing the body shape, I have no template to run the router along at the area cut out for the neck pocket. Routing the body shape first, I can use MDF template to route body shape, after couple of passes take of the template off and use already routed grove as template for the rest. On parts of body I will only cut groove half way through body so on these areas I will have flat area (thinking of horns, control cavity area)

Sound reasonable, right?

For pickup cavities I think I have plenty of flat wood left after cuting body.

For control cavity it would be wise leaving wood block as it is (or route half way through), as this will give me more flat routing area to work with. I can only do the control cavity after I do trem cavity. And as I don't have trem yet, this has to wait.

I'm planning on using template on control cavity and that will give me plenty of flat area anyway.

Again, never done this before. Above statements are all reasonings and not hard proven facts. If anyone wants to do it in different sequence. Be my guest.

I won't argue with you. I do have taken notice of your comments and do appreciate them. (makes me think again of how to do things.)

[ThePlague]

i don't see anyone giving you a hard time. i see people trying to help because they've been through what you're doing, and know what worked for them and what didn't. of course you can do it however you want. they're just trying to help.

it looks like you've done a good amount of planning on this. i'm eager to see how this turns out.

[bowser]

like jeff said, why don't you go with the neck first? If you plan to build that too, its probably something that you could get out of the way while waiting for the bridge, etc.

in the end though, do it the way you want, you're the one building it and you will have to deal with any problems that you happen to run across. but it will also be the way that you understand the best.

[dead_lizard]

I can explain how you can have the best of both worlds in one sentence: rout the neck pocket first, then use your body template on THE BACK OF THE GUITAR. Just flip her over. If you mark your centre lines and such, then they will align perfectly on the back.

I also agree with getting all your parts (or as many as you can) before doing any serious work. I know it's hard with all of those lumps of wood staring at you wanting to be worked, but the fact is you can't play it until the parts arrive, so in the meantime, just chill.

Do you have access to a bench drill. If so, I can teach you a number of tricks.

Joining the body timbers: a hint.

Instead of sash clamps, buy yourself two slabs of 1/2" timber which are as long, and slightly wider than the thickness of the body wood. Buy 4 or more lengths of threaded rod, some nuts and some wingnuts. Drill holes in the timber put the rods though and you have yourself a homemade clamp, adjustable with the wingnuts. If this is unclear, I can show you with pictures.

Good luck!!!

[RGGR]

I actually have thought of routing body AFTER routing neck pocket by attaching templete to bottom of the wood block. I'm just afraid how well this works for lining up top and bottom.

And you guys are absolutely right. I have an urge to dig in the piece of wood and get the body shape out. Maybe it's the natural itch that all newbies have.

I think I have worked out a sequence (theoretically) that makes me route body shape first, before neck pocket. Just call me pigheaded. We will see how it pends out. ;-)

Currently waiting on wood to return from planing, can't wait to get it back so I can start glueing. In mean time I have bought router. Now I have to source propper routing bits.

[dead_lizard]

How well it lines up when you flip it over depends on how well you MAKE it line up. The more reference points you give yourself the better it will line up. Some ideas to think about: Drill holes through the body on areas which will be cut out later; use these as reference points.

Trace your body shape onto a piece of tracing paper. Put this onto the wood. Mark all four corners onto the tracing paper. When you flip the body over, aligning the corners (four corners can't lie!) will prove that the shape is in the right place.

I guess what everyone is trying to hint to you is this: the body shape doesn't have to be exact - the neck pocket does. The body shape can be sanded and fooled around with if you don't like it - the neck pocket can't.

You've waited this long to build your guitar. Don't let impatience be the undoing of a great instrument. Don't feel we are trying to pressure you or stifle you. We all want your guitar to turn out great! By the way, how's the neck going?

[RGGR]

I guess what everyone is trying to hint to you is this: the body shape doesn't have to be exact - the neck pocket does. The body shape can be sanded and fooled around with if you don't like it - the neck pocket can't.

Your comment about importance of routing neck pocket have hit home.

Will be carefull as ****.

By the way, how's the neck going?

I'm still waiting on wood to come back from planing. Local company promised to do this, but it's low priority for them. Hopefully will pick up wood tomorrow.

Then I can glue body parts together.

Also my pieces of Wenge are currently 10mm thick, and I want to bring 'm down to 6mm thick (laminated in neck). Planer in local company had hard time with going lower than 10mm, so I probably rent electric shaving machine and take 2mm of both sides.

Bought Japanse saw, coping saw and spookeshave in last couple of days.

Played around with spookeshave today. Guy in store told me to take brims (is that how you call it??? Those little pieces on just sharpened edges) off and do good setup of baby before using it on real piece. I had some practise runs on scrap piece of wood. Once setup nicely I'm really impressed how nice you can shape a piece of wood. Will be pleasure shaping neck this way.

Waiting on router bits. (Pattern/Flush trim bit; 1/2" D, 1/2" long, 1/4" shaft, with bearing at top, and Flush Trimming Bit 1/2" D, 1" long, 1/4" shaft, with bearing on bottom). Ordered them from www.mlcswoodworking.com

Once router bit's are in I will do some test runs with router. Just wanna have some practise before real deal.

Can't wait to get going again. Wait is also good to source and order other parts. Think about what pick-ups to use, etc.

Will post more pics as work progresses.

[krazyderek]

less typing, more pics

[dead_lizard]

What about the fingerboard? Have you obtained the fretwire? What kind of inlays will you use? I recommend simple abalone or mother of pearl dots for your first guitar.

PS: for any other parts or even for some little tutorials, check out stewmac.com

[spheroid]

Nice project, can't wait to see how it turns out. I like the idea of a 7-string radius.

Titebond can be purchased from Vox Humana (voxhumana.nl), online-shop under 'gereedschappen en lijm' but is expensive (€15). It's also available from Stew Mac for $7.97 and isn't listed as flammable, so if you need other parts from them as well it might be an option.

[RGGR]

less typing, more pics

I know, I know.....next thread will have more pics. Guys in wood company hadn't started on planing my wood yet. They promised monday. Once I have wood back I will start glueing and clamping.

What about the fingerboard? Have you obtained the fretwire? What kind of inlays will you use? I recommend simple abalone or mother of pearl dots for your first guitar.

Will be using Ebony fretboard with 24 frets. Ordered from lmii.com, preslotted, pre-radiused 16 degrees. I am waiting arrival.

Fretwire I haven't made up my mind yet. Wanna use Dunlop 6105 style fretwire, but haven't made decision on where I would order it. Stewmac has it, Universaljem has it, even stainless variant. Anyone experience with Stewmacs' wire??? Stainless???

For inlay I first was thinking leds. Stepped away from that thought as it might be little much for first project. And although I like the vine (Jem) style inlay, I never would want it on JS style guitar. So I'm thinking keeping in simple with off center white pearl 4mm inlays. Very similar to this

Tutorial

check out last pics in thread. I haven't decided yet on small side dots, but think of leaving them out.

Titebond can be purchased from Vox Humana (voxhumana.nl), online-shop under 'gereedschappen en lijm' but is expensive (€15). It's also available from Stew Mac for $7.97 and isn't listed as flammable, so if you need other parts from them as well it might be an option.

There are multiple sources to order Titebond glue. Stewmac, voxhumana.nl, craft-supplies.co.uk, ASPEguitars.com, etc. Jasper from ASPE suggested using Bison Extra strong as perfect alternative. Available in almost every store in Holland, and not expensive. So I will use Bison instead of Titebond (living dangerously, I guess).

As I'm waiting on wood to return, I have had some time to think of how to finish my guitar. As I have quite some experience in custom bike building, my first thought was doing something wild.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

As I know Joe has flame painted JS too.

Flamed JS

But with JS body already nice and curvy I'm not so sure yet. Could do guitar more harm than good. I really like the new JS-1200 CA. That Candy Apple paint really looks nice on JS. Definitely think JS line could do with more color. I know House of Kolor has awesome Candy Apple red in their series. Probably will use that, and decide later if I paint some flames on there. Can always bump coolness factor up a notch.

But hear me, already thinking of finishing when I have actually started properly. Waiting on the wood will give me some time to order the other parts.

Edited January 24, 2005 by RGGR

[dead_lizard]

Stainless steel fretwire is good, if you can get your hands on it. As far as glue goes, remeber that most of these glues will set stronger than the surrounding wood, so as long as it can withstand reasonable temperatures, go with whatever suits the join.

Finishing ideas; you may thank me or curse me for opening up this can of worms (maybe both), but if you go to alsacorp.com you will find some finishes which will BLOW YOUR MIND.

Tell us about the truss rod perhaps. I recommend body-end adjustment, looks better, gives more strength at the nut, functions the same way. The only downside is that you have to take off the neck to adjust it. But seriously, how often do you expect to be adjusting the neck bow.....don't answer that

[RGGR]

Haven't made much progress since last update.

I haven't even gotten my wood back from my local woodsupply company. They promised to plane my Limba body wood and cut the maple neck to size. But three weeks have passed and they still haven't finished it. ;-(

No time, no interest, no whatever........It just pisses me off. It's just 5 min. work for them.....but then again, what's in it for them I guess?? Should have send my girlfriend in short dress I guess.

Got my order in from lmii.com. My friends at customs decide to spike me up with heafthy import tax fee and US Postal has charged an heafty fee to collect it. Next time I'll have my orders send to my friends in the US, who may forward it to me marked; gift, returned from repair, or product sample.....

This way I don't have to deal with my friends in customs. Strangely not ever order from outside Europe has these fees.....sometimes orders pass unharmed. So it's bit of lottery. Guess I won this time. ;-(

A standard trussrod, a grade B ebony fretboard and two push/pull 500k pots arrived. After ordering it, I discovered you have linear and audio taper volume and control pots and was affraid I ordered the wrong ones. Checked Ibanez.com

http://www.ibanez.com/parts/2004_PARTS/el_...index_spec.html

to see that on JS series the vol/tone potentiometers are the same (Item# 3VR1JS500AS). I know for volume control you use audio control instead of linear control as the ear hears sounds in logaritmic scale. (Or something like that.) So I guess I have the right ones. Pffffff......From what I now understand the volume pots are always of the audio type, whereas the tone pot is on rare occasions of the linear type.

Must say the trussrod looks awefully small. Ieeeksss!!! Now I have one in my hand, I realize I could have made one myself. It doesn't look very complicated. With correct measurements I can start looking for Dremel router bits, to route the right groove in neck. See Dremel bits 652, 654 and 115 will do the trick.

Word on Ebony fretboard Lmii send me. It's pre-radiused and pre-slotted. So far so good. The thing I'm not happy with is that there is a light color change in the wood near the 23-24th fret.

Fingerboard

The luthier who worked on this could have slotted the fingerboard from other side, so this light wood would be on the "near the headstock" part of fingerboard instead of "the near bridge" part. This way the light color definitely would have been in cut off zone with the tapering of the fretboard. Luckily for me, currently with tapering only small part will show. I know I can color the wood, but this is not why I ordered the grade "B" Ebony to begin with. I am almost ready to return this fingerboard to lmii. ;-(

I know I'm bitching.......but I'm just a bit disappointed. It's nothing that can't be corrected, but rather have things right the first time. Specially if you order from specialist company like lmii.com.

From fretsonthenet.com I ordered two polished aluminum pickup rings. There is a few months delivery time one these but that's okay as I haven't made any progress anyhow.

From Soniccraft.com I have ordered a 0.022mF Sonicap capacitor. I know a lot of people use cheaper ceramic caps, or orange cap caps, and I know there is a lot of BS in "high quality" audio electronics sector......but decided to order these Sonicaps any how after reading the following article.

http://ldsg.snippets.org/appdx-ec.php3

I take good care getting the right tone wood for body, neck, fingerboard. I take good care ordering electronics and planning to do good shielding job, so why not go the extra mile and order some better quality caps. They're not whoppingly expensive, but honestly I doubt if I ever hear the difference. Sometimes you have to indulce yourself a little, right???

From Conrad.nl I have ordered some 330pf polyprop capacitor, a soldering gun and some high silver content solder. They had min order of 20 Euros so all these things nicely fell into place. The 330pf polyprop capacitor is again better quality polypropylene capacitor.

Checked with Serlui.nl (importer of Ibanez in Holland) and they told me a Chrome Universe type toplock nut (incl. string retainer) was 45 Euro, and Chrome Edge Pro Tremolo was 299 Euro. Darn, didn't know these Edge Pro trems were so expensive.

(Was hoping to get one under 200 Euros.)

For 299 Euros, you can almost get a secondhand RG1527 (with Edge Pro) on ebay. Rich, from Ibanezrules.com, told me he couldn't get a hold of one at all. Ibanez US doesn't sell 'm seperately yet. Must be an US policy. Wonder if you can order it direct from Gotoh, as I understand they make all Ibanez hardware.

http://hosco.co.jp/www/HOSCO_ENGLISH/Pages...otoh%20Hardware

I still want one cause I think it's one of the best looking trems out there (besided the Zr trem, but they don't make those in a 7 String version).......... I guess this has to wait a little. Got my router bits coming in next week, finished template of headstock, and will commerce with template of neck taper soon.

All this waiting is a bitch, but then again, I can't do anything untill I have my wood back. (got wood???)

From Stewmac I'm planning to order; in/output Jack, the knobs, the fretwire, the black felt strap button thingy's, the pre-cut 4mm pearl dots, the gotoh schaller tuners, and the pickup mounting screws. Still searching for AANJ mounting screws. Should be Ibanez item# YE694, but somehow can't get a hold of them.

From Allparts I'm planning to order the strap bottons, and the 3 way switch.

Last part is pickups. Read on this site and jemsite that in Mahagony (read Limba) body wood the Dimarzio Blaze (br) and Air Norton (neck) pick up is awesome combination. (http://www.jemsite.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=33889)

Was first thinking of trying to get my hands on 7 string Paf Pro and Fred pickups, but decided against that.

I will probably get JS-1000 in next coming years, so with this guitar I will have this Fred/Paf Pro pickup combination. I'm also on the look out for older RG550 to sink some Evo (br)/HS2/Breed(neck) pups in that one. Next to my beloved RG2550EXGK this will be great combination of guitars/pickups I guess. If I like the 7 string, I wil look for Rg1527. My most expensive mistress uptill now is flying, so why not have some cheaper ones also, right???

But first I need to get my darn wood back. Honey???

Edited January 24, 2005 by RGGR

[GuitarMaestro]

The Limba (Korina) wood I got for the body is incredible hard wood. It's harder than anything I have seen before (this is probably why it has such a great tone).

Thats VERY strange. Korina is one of the softest woods considered hardwood. All Korina I worked with so far was not hard at all. You usually can easily press a dent in Korina with a fingernail. If the maple you have is not much harder and denser than your Korina somethings really strange....

I know I can color the wood, but this is not why I ordered the grade B Ebony to begin with.

From lmii's page:

*Our "B" grade is what is known as first grade to the factories. Defect free, with thin streaks. Normally the streaks are straight. These are our best value in ebony these days.

If you want a streak free board you need to order 1st grade. I always did that and recieved streak free boards so far.

[RGGR]

Thats VERY strange. Korina is one of the softest woods considered hardwood. All Korina I worked with so far was not hard at all. You usually can easily press a dent in Korina with a fingernail. If the maple you have is not much harder and denser than your Korina somethings really strange....

I must confess I have never worked on "hard" wood before. Haven't worked much on wood before anyhow. Most wood I have worked with has been plywood or pine. This Limba Korina is just hard in my perception. Probably "soft" hard wood compaired to Mahagony or other hard woods. Again, no expert here.

I just picked up from multiple sources that Limba is a great tone wood.

Most guitar manufacturers use Mahogany in it's place but nothing sounds as sweet a real African Limba Korina." Quote - Ed Roman.

(And I know lot of Ibanez fans don't use his name cause he said bad things about their beloved guitar, but I think Ed knows his stuff and I respect his opinion).

Local fine woodsupply company had supply of it (www.af.nl). I got real good deal on it, so I'm a happy camper. Wood is at planer now, so can't check fingernail denting trick. It just felt/feels hard and heavy.

From lmii's page:

*Our "B" grade is what is known as first grade to the factories. Defect free, with thin streaks. Normally the streaks are straight. These are our best value in ebony these days.

This wording is exactly how I expected it. First grade, defect free, best value!!! There are light streaks in ebony over the board. This doesn't effect me, I may even like it. Gives liveliness to dark ebony.

The light coloring in bottom of the ebony fretboard is an irregularity. Looking at the wood in more detail I can see it was deeper in the wood and just appeared after sanding radius on it. The guys at Lmii didn't see it when he/she cut the slots in it. It must have appeared after sanding. As I suspect they first cut slots and then sand the radius. Currently it's simply not defect free and shouldn't have been send off as a grade "B" defect free, first grade, ebony fretboard. I will send lmii email and ask them about it.

Like I said before. When tapering the fretboard you will hardly see it. But my first reaction was.......WHAT THE F*CK!!!!.......and that's not the way to create a loyal new customer.

Just my $0.02.

Edited September 8, 2004 by RGGR

[GuitarMaestro]

The light coloring in bottom of the ebony fretboard is an irregularity.

Thats true. It's not okay what they sold you as grade B. I just would order the 1st grade. It's not much more expensive and definately defect free.

But my first reaction was.......WHAT THE F*CK!!!!.......and that's not the way to create a loyal new customer.

They are a strange company. Sometimes they really do everything to please the customer and other times they don't care. For example they sent me 50$ rasp I already had canceled because it was not in stock at the time of my order. They sent it to me anyway and I complained as I already had bought one somewhere else and did not need it anymore. Guess what? They simple told me to keep the rasp as a present and I did not have to pay anything for it. But then they made me wait for a radiused fingerboard 2 months and sent me the wrong one after that time....I guess they are really motivated and nice but simply a little chaotic....