mistermikev

until I saw the model on the bosch I thought you were eluding to "piece of fudge". I have no idea what's going on in here... but now there is documented proof I read it. also... you must seriously abuse your router? perhaps you hold it with grip of death (like we all should).

the spruce looks nice, but that spalted one is ooh la la. very nice finish, very nice piece of wood. that'd be my vote.

necrobump (that's what the kids call it right?)... lamenting right now that I can't have a da sander. my compressor isn't big enough. when I was 17/18/19 I worked as a sander at a cab shop. they pretty much only used dynabrade air sanders. I used one to remove the finish on my sg90 (neck break) and it was the greatest thing ever. never had issues sanding flat or sanding the profiles using that sander. idk if the dyna brade is just better, or if they use a better pad... but it was the absolute perfect tool for sanding detail work, and it could remove material in a heartbeat with a heavier grit - just an absolute pleasure to sand a guitar with (and I hate sanding). with that in mind... my electric sander is "ok". just a black and decker - bought it because it was low profile and thought that would be the closest to a da sander. I know they make electric da sanders that are like $300... but if I was gonna go that route I'd just buy a 80gal air tank and a da sander. the decker just isn't good at sanding profiles. on a da sander... the little edge that sticks out is flexible... making it ideal. I want something like that in an electric sander. Is it a unicorn? hopeless? what sander do you use, do you like it, and why?

this lends further credence to the idea of the issue being the glue join. if glue is properly joined... then the wood is going to crack vs the glue. a good glue join is stronger than the wood around it. so your problem was not just not-enough-glue... but more an issue of solid meeting of wood on wood after being glued.

here's my honest feedback... folks start playing classical (as opposed to anything else) for two reasons: the cheapest guitar in almost any music store (or at least in my experience working at music stores) is a classical. reason two: the strings are pretty easy on the fingers. further... I don't think kids want to play classical... in general - they want to play something cool. I think if you can trick them into classical - that'd be a huge win. I learned adelita ages ago... along with bouree and a few other classical pieces... but only because I first learned 'dee' by randy rhodes. but I digress.... honest feedback - you do a nice job covering basic things very thoroughly... and perhaps it's just because I've been playing for 36 years... but I would think the single biggest improvement you could make is to make it more exciting. esp if you are going to teach kids (undoubtedly most beginners are kids). very easy to understand, and very calm - so good for you. also, when you cut in with the backing music - very nice. that is exciting. you were hitting on all cylindars there. good for you. also, not sure this place is the place for your audience - not telling you you aren't welcome (in fact to the contrary - welcome!) just most folks here are well beyond this stage. hope something there was useful and uplifting!

I nominate you my official r&d department... you don't have a budget... but you don't have a mandate either!! I am genuinely interested in whatever you find whether it supports my own bias or not... in fact I'll prob learn more if not - seldom pleasant but always healthy.

in my humble o... it's art. can't be right or wrong you can only like it or not. I think lacquer checking is beautiful. Have often thought of doing it, then filling with a contrasting bright color (red) and then preserving it but glossing over and bring to a full shine... to get a brand new mirror finish with checking below. like anything else... there are one's that look amazing and one's that look lame. The amazing one's don't even have to be 'accurate' for me... my one requirement is 'pleasing to the eye'. guess that makes me a yay.

wow, i don't want to ugly up your thread but you really took that to the nth level. bravo and thank you. fascinating.

no expert but it sounds a lot like what happens when you build with wood that hasn't had enough time to actually dry. wood doesn't just shrink over time... it expands and contracts to a degree that gets less and less once the wood if fully dry and I'm told it can hit a low percentage at one point but still not be ready (ie seasoned). It has to get down to low moisture content and stay there consistently to be really considered workable. That said, it is entirely possible the neck pocket was just so tight when the neck was put in... that once it swelled a little bit it cracked. Keep in mind that wood glue itself will expand the wood via moisture... however, I've done my neck joints tight enough to lift a 5lb body with just a friction fit on the tenon... and have not had issues with it cracking so I would guestimate this is not the case here. to completely bust a glue join... I would have to assume it wasn't a great glue join to begin with - not throwing stones at all and please don't take offense. I've seen wood crack from expansion, but never seen anything even close to a neck popping completely out. just one simpletons' observations so... mix it with others and find the center.

like the headstock shape, like the creative use of bending stock, like the inlays... nicely done!!

lovely stuff. that fretboard looks really great against the frets. nice warm colors. Hope you don't mind me saying... black looks great but imo a wood pickguard would really sit well on this one. very nicely done.

nice work. i enjoyed your clip as well.

right on, I could see that, I guess if it's worth risking a lightening ride then you might as well build something decent! I'm sure with the docs they have it should make things pretty safe/do-able. I have played a couple amp kit builds and they sounded great so looking fwd to sound clips!!

noice... on my bucketlist of things to try... but have held off because I figured eventually I'd fry myself!! jealous. you got balls for diving right into a fairly complicated circuit. cudos. looking forward to checking in on it from time to time. looks like a very nice clean start.

generally speaking... your pickups should be grounded to the pots and the rotary just grounds itself through the physical contact with the control cavity shield. even a 5 way switch doesn't necc have to be grounded explicitly. if you don't need a ground connection on the switch (to say - split buckers for something) then you don't need it.

nicely done.

looking at this pic from their website tho... it looks an awful lot like they are using green for live, and black/bare for ground. red white together for series.

btw... this is/was what I'm looking at for reference: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Er7htD-vbt4/S0NSRfPMXwI/AAAAAAAAAN8/ThmYxGVFNaQ/s640/IMG_2484.JPG

looking at the blade site... these are supposed to be hum cancelling pickups. as such... my guess is there are two coils in there. looking at some gutshots from a few blade texas guitars... it looks like they use a fairly std wiring. looks like red and white go together to make the series link... black goes to live... green (and bare if there is one) go to ground. wire it up like this, and put your red/positive lead from a multimeter to the black... and black/negative lead to green/bare. I'm guessing you'll get in the 7-12k reading range using the ohm setting on your multimeter. (ohm setting should have a little picture that kid of looks like an "a" or a girls hair with curls if you will). now... assuming that works out... then clip the red/white wires to ground along with the green/bare wires and test again - should get about half of what you had before (this is if I have any idea what I'm doing... which seems unlikely).

my fav - allied lutherie. they have a new single action low profile that is really small and light - haven't tried it yet but have plans to use it in a wizard style neck at some point. afa neck/heel adjust... pretty much any rod (as mentioned) will do either but the direction to tighten flips to opposite depending. yes - the widened bit at the headstock. you may consider how it's going to fit in there and poke thru to let you adjust. I like to try to preserve that little bit above the rod at the end there... and instead of routing from the top I would drill into the hole to open it up. this is pretty common procedure for headstock adjust but then everyone does it dif.

reading your original post - I love the spirit of challenging yourself. good for you. I'm always thinking about this and freq I bite off more than I can chew... but it always improves me. nice save on the router snafu.

a freq issue is when the output jack itself is making contact with the cavity shielding. this can happen from the jack spinning into a dif position. if it's already broken... no harm in taking the jack out and inspecting it. could just be a cruddy connection... could be that the prong on the jack just needs to be bent to make better connection with the cable - all easy things to diagnose yourself. if you take the jack out of the guitar... and play it while it's out... still have problem? if not, likely making contact with the side and grounding the input.

nice work. some lovely stuff there. I have one flat board guitar... you actually can get better(lower) action with no radius. It's a great guitar for slide - that was its original intention. anywho... rawk on.

keeping in mind that right now I am mad from several days of cold medicine and awaiting covid testing results... ie I cannot be held responsible for anything I say/do... I remember that study and was under the impression that while the back and side didn't matter - the tops did. that's all... back to bed.

missed a golden opportunity to name this build "the buckwheat" and when folks ask you why you say "cause it's full of O-tay" (bacote, zircote). seriously thought mixing those too would be super busy but it looks amazing. i appreciate your thorough documentation too. nice job and thanks for sharing.