Thistle

Hey. Firstly welcome . Yep you have the wrong bridge there. In the early 80s sometime fender did a 5 hole string thru bridge unit. The spacing on yours looks very similar. Have a rake on Google for dimensions so you can double check but looks like that to me. Try around '83ish if I remember correctly. That would also possibly relocate the pickup hole to the correct space and have the string holes line up. The neck is another thing entirely. Is that a strat neck?

Good news guys. The very friendly and helpful man at the hardwoods place has agreed to test a new steam kiln he has recently installed. He's putting my slabs in with the first run as a bit of a test. Have agreed to take up some slabs from all the species we have and dry them to 6-8% moisture content. I guess it's a good first test for him, my friend gets some lumber dried and I get some really nice local wood with a bit of a story for the cost of a couple tanks of fuel ? . Also found out the nice lighter coloured stuff in the pics is figured sycamore. Is it any good for necks or tele/strat bodies maybe?

Rhoads.. Those new Gibsons are horrible. What's with the headsock logo? Yuk.

Thanks again for all the info guys. I've ordered pin and pad testers and it'll be interesting to see what various pieces of stock I have collected from different sources actually are. So 6-8% is perfect 15+ is bad and unusable. On Saturday im taking a trip up to a guy who sells exotic hardwoods and has a kiln. Obviously my friend has a huge amount so he is hoping to strike a deal to dry it all in exchange for a percentage of the lumber. Looks like I've been nominated to go ask the guy so we will see haha. Don't know if he'll go for it but if he does I'll get first pick at the usable stuff for guitars in exchange for a tele built out of the woods for my friend. If the kiln guy doesn't want to do it I'll be air drying maybe 20-30 choice slabs for myself, enough to keep me in tonewood for years and his tele will just have to wait till its dry. Scotland is inline with Alaska on the globe, it's not a dry arrid place exactly. As I look out my window I see grey skies and that fine rain that gets you wet in seconds, we call it scotch mist but really it's just frickin rain lol. Bout 8*C and this is suppose to be the end of spring really. I've looked into possibly building something at the bottom of the garden, sorry yard ?, but I don't know if it's worth the time effort and expense of it all for a one time use. I understand density of the individual wood etc will all have an effect on the time it takes to dry but how long does it take to dry in a kiln?

First of us having a dry enough day to get stuck in about these logs was Sunday there. Boarded out a few different looking pieces. Couple of them were very plain but some are very pretty including some figure and colouring. Here's the few pieces I lifted, all are 2 1/4" thick slabs. The purple/brown is defo yew. Not sure what the lighter stuff is tbh, we think beech but I'm not sure. Probly around 100 large logs/trunks still to cut up and sort, think I need to build a kiln lol. Thanks for the advice on drying.

This thread was an interesting read with my morning coffee. I've not been building guitars for long but I am not new to the guitar. My uncle started one of the UKs biggest gear chains when I was a boy and most of my close family are either collectors or players. We experimented with this lots over the decades. I don't care what anyone says, the wood a guitar is made from affects it's tone. Take an alder and an ash strat or tele, weight is the same, with the same pickups set at max and play them through the same amp.. They do have a different tone, not wildly different but there is a tonal difference. And this translates across to solid mahogany LPs vs maple cap and many others over the years. Ok so most of that can be totally changed or replicated by turning a tone knob or other amps and settings but the fact remains in an A-B test the difference is there. I will say this, what one sounds better is all down to personal tastes and preference. Does a set of pickups, new amp or a set of flat wounds change the sound more.. Yes. Ofcourse it does, but each wood type having a slightly different character gives a builder the oppertunity to build in an intended sound. Here's an analogy. An expensive race car is tuned from the ground up. Each component is looked at and fettled, strengthened, lightened and aerodynamically shaped. Does that one little fin make the car fast.. No. Would a different set of tyres change it more.. Yes. But it's the sum of all parts that makes a championship winning car. Why should a guitar be any different. Put a set of cheap and nasty pickups in anything it will sound bad. As a builder of both cars, and guitars now, I will always use the best materials I can source for the specific task at hand, end of story. Thistle.

Heres a good tutorial for the water based dyes used in a burst. I know it's a different colour. There's a black burst video in there too but this guy explains each step of the process very well, beautiful top actually. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ56p-3_SXE The dude in that does the sanding with an orbital and on a flat surface its the way to go for speed. On a LP im with Peter and SR on this. Do it by hand. Think the finest grit discs ive seen are p320 and you'll get them from a car/auto paint supplies place cheap. Keep the pics coming man.

@Zack. Bout the same here. Around £600gbp in parts/materials total for a nice tele or strat and add anywhere between £100-£200 for a flame top in a LP or PRS style build. Could buy cheaper woods and pickups etc but I don't see the point, same amount of work resulting in a lesser instrument. Only my opinion tho lol.

I would suggest trying a scalloped fretboard before you go for that idea man. Personally I hate it and I would doubt the inlays are thick enough for a proper scallop anyway. 240 grit is fine enough for first sanding before grain fill/sealing and there's no need for a random orbital if your elbows work lol. If it were mine I would go with a coloured top. How about a silvertop rather than gold? Just a suggestion.. Don't see many Oh yeah.. Put the belt sander away for now. I use one for removing material sometimes but your father is spot on, you'll just make a mess with that.

It always amazes me how little these kits cost. 98euros including all parts! Can't imagine the pickups will be up to much lol. I hope you will let us know how good it actually is when it arrives. The finishing process is the only thing you can mess up here hendrik, but worst case you can always sand back and redo it. It's a very personal choice on the finish oil,laquer,paint etc but anything is possible really, get the grain filled niceley and it makes the next stages easier. Filling the grain with say a dark walnut filler first will pick out some grain for you then a blue sunburst (iceburst?) could be cool! Welcome to the forum.

Any decent auto workshop will have a tap'n'die set you could ask to do the job. Or alternatively you could just buy the size you need at a much cheaper cost. Honestly ive been an engineer for over twenty years and seen some cheap taps in my time but a stoptail insert isn't the hardest of materials so a cheap tap and die from your local hardware store will be more than up for the task. Again any local engineering place or good mechanic would be able to retap this in a couple of minutes.. My advice would be buy a cheap set yourself, they come in handy for all sorts of stuff.

Yep sounds cross threaded to me. Use the other one to measure and get the correct thread then tap the insert. You may need to run a die nut down the post also.

Thanks for the tip. I'll invest in a couple different testers. Going along Saturday to have a look, won't take anything that isn't a really nice grain or figure.

Thanks Scott. Inch a year sounds plausible and possible. Will just stash it all in my loft and forget about it if it's only a couple of years, it's free so why not. Will do some more research. Could always ask the wood place to stick it in his kiln next time it's on. Not sure if he'd be up for that but no harm in asking eh ?

I have a friend who is clearing a nineteenth century hotel grounds for redevelopment, I already snagged some Purple Heart, mahogany and various species that made up the only two remaining window frames after a fire took out most of the building in the mid 1980s but he is now begining to fell what is best described as a small Forrest of very large trees. He's got an Alaskan mill and has told me that he would happily cut me some boards of the various types. Yew, beech, walnut and others like oak and holly (which I've never seen so big) all in 2" boards more than guitar body in width and effectivly quarter sawn. My question is, what's a ball park figure for time in drying it? Is it worth even getting from him in that raw state or am I barking up the wrong tree ?

Yeah from my research 1/4" or around 6-7mm seems to be the general consensus of opinion for minimum thickness in this type build, but I'll aim for 10 Incase i go a little far somewhere lol. Thanks again.

Yeah it is a neckthru Prostheta, one piece this time round from a nice bit Brazil mahogany. Found it as 100 year old stock in a little woodshop up north and got a bargain, got enough for four neckthru blanks and wings. Already started.. I'll do a build thread once I'm a bit further in. One question... How thick do I need to leave the back and sides? I'd like to get as much volume im the sound cavities as possible.

Will do guys.

If you are still having problems, try these guys.... http://www.guitardecals.co.uk They will make anything you need and seem to be good quality. My experience with them has been fast and friendly overall so i would reccomend.

I have some Brazilian mahogany in my store that would probably give it a better acoustic sound but after much thought im going to attempt a repair after my current build. If you've ever heard one of these you will know acoustically they don't sound great but plugged in its a different story but I want to keep it as original as possible.. I'm hoping the removal and refitting won't affect it too much. I've been doing a lot of research and ive now seen way worse that's been repaired very well. Will take my time and do it with love and attention and we will see what happens lol.

Thanks for all the input guys. Been reading lots of guitar design stuff over the last few days. I'm not on a computer all that often so cad or photoshop designing would take an age for me. @psiko, I prefer drawing at 1:1 scale. My drawing board is a sheet of plywood and my canvas is a roll of lining paper so I'm about as low tech as possible in the design stage. It has now morphed into a chambered thruneck with f holes. Still working on it tho. Better??

Better pic. Just found out an iPhone fits in an f hole lol, and it's worse than I thought. To me that looks like expanding foam or something that's been used to fill out the holes.

Ok so I've had this '66 es125 in my collection for a long time now, it was a hand me down from my father and the damage to the back was there when he bought it in the eighties. It's a rough old dog but plays beautifully and is something I would never sell. I've thought about taking the back off and attempting a repair but looking inside it apears the inner laminate of the back has separated lots. Looking at the pics do you guys think I would be better making a new back from solid maple or trying to repair the old Kalamazoo ply wood? Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated also. Brian.

Lol, I take it that's a no then.

Yeah I too have watched those videos lots. Check out the guy Ben from Crimson Guitars on YouTube also. I picked up a few good little tips from those too. They do luthier tools aswell for any guys in the uk, decent stuff and saves on postage from stewmac etc. Again it's a great looking axe so well done, What's next??