mistermikev

thanks brother that's pretty much what I've been doing (using masking tape/superglue trick)... and then "don't breath while you use a scalpel to pick them up"! adventures in tiny letters... these things are so incredibly delicate... had to use "the force" to not break them getting them into a bag. I've now got logos, .25" dot markers, .09375" side dots, .4" 'Twang Master', and .175" pickup pole piece covers. Have never liked the silver pickup poles of single pickups clashing with gold hardware... so going to attempt to make maple pickup overlays with recon turquoise pole pieces. Next up I need to make letters for the toggle switch washer and there will be some very thin lines forming a circle around the design. Then a switch tip and am planning recon "dome inserts" for my gold knobs with wood letters inlaid into them. Was up late last night cutting these in hopes of getting to milling my neck this or next weekend.

lovely stuff!

i remember these guitars... and the 'crackle finish' craze. don't care for that color... but always kind of like the crackle finishes esp on some of the jackson/esp. They (epi crackle) have sort of an underground following and get $250-450 in decent condition. Might want to re-think the refin and consider selling it on evilbay and buying something more to your liking... just sayin'. Someone somewhere is bound to love that color scheme (perhaps a stryper fan). If you refin it - it will be worth much less when done. all that said... I wouldn't go near the binding with heat as the cheaper epis tend to have thin/chinese binding that will melt if you look at it wrong. I wouldn't do stripper either as that will def make short work of binding. The only way I see you getting that finish off w/o ruining the binding is with good old fashioned sanding. And I suspect that finish is going to be really thick. Further, I wouldn't expect the top under that to look nice. just one knucklehead's o.

I wondered about that with this bridge given that the saddles are a graph tech mystery material. I am facing a similar issue (in my head) with my bass as I contemplate a wooden bridge. Maybe y'all have thought of this but some things to consider: A) if you are grounded only to one string... not the end of the world... but obviously unless you are touching that string you get the ground hum. It's actually pretty hard to not touch the high E(at least for me)! B ) if you use a brass nut... problems solved. ground is applied to one string and transfered to the others via the brass nut. I hear ya... is a very pretty design and quite functional and well thought out. I wouldn't say I buy into the tone voodoo either but I'm certain that every little thing helps. If it's a .00000001% difference... great. More importantly that bridge is so comfortable, and amazingly stable afa tuning. I get your point about opposite... and it illuminates something I didn't realize was a selling point for the hannes - stability but complete separation between strings. That could be cool. thanks for that.

thank you sir. I thought about releasing the backer by soaking in acetone... or just degrading the veneer with water... but this stuff is so brittle that I think I'm going to keep the backer and just cut my inlay channel that much deeper. that said, that thought may come in handy in the future. I imagine that the carpet tape I use would have released pretty easily with a little heat. tonight: adventures in some very small letters for the headstock name, and for some inserts for the gold knobs I have.

so first off, shout out to member @Clavin. I reached out to him regarding recon stone and he def pushed me in the right direction and I'm very thankful. As I understand he hadn't visited us for some 10 years or more so... very much appreciate his response. He has some amazing inlay work on instagram. ( craig_lavin_inlay ) anywho, adventures in inlay... finally got one good solid logo out. What did I learn: well my first run gave me great detail right off the bat and no broken bits... but I had used carpet tape and my inlay crumbled as I took it off the mounting. I was at .068" thick. I had some ideas that maybe I could super glue a backer of thick veneer to it, and instead of using carpet tape do the masking tape/ca glue trick. Clavin had reinforced the idea of a backer and that gave me the confidence to go that route. well, unfortunately my depth wasn't deep enough to break the veneer... so about 1.5hrs with a scalpel and finally freed the inner parts. Hard as hell and brittle as hell at the sm time!!

hehe, but..... I want all those things too! seriously tho... I hope you go fwd w it... you've piqued my interest. schaller has a pretty rock solid rep so... at the least it's pretty, comfy, and reliable.

no exp using this bridge so can't contribute much but perhaps you'll convince me. I get the attraction to coupling the saddle with the wood... it's what attracted me to babicz. It certainly is an attractive bridge and looks very comfy. looking at the tech docs I don't see how it works. it looks like a saddle rides on another piece of metal that makes contact with the wood? Not sure why that would promote better coupling? "Your guitar will sound much more harmonious." ok, I want to believe but this kind is pushing me away! so, perhaps in convincing me you'll strengthen your need for it...

for the record as your therapist I recommend to take a nice long relaxing stroll through ebay. Try to think happy thoughts while you put bits, new tools, pickups, bridges, tuners and other guitar accessories in your basket. Find your center as you hit the buy-it-now button.

looks lovely brother. specially the smooth pic. all my builds are therapy sessions! Not sure the therapy is working but it sure makes me forget about life!!

so... I've got my recon stone split up... ended up finding the diamond jewelers saw pretty time consuming so bought some bigger diamond wheels for the dremel and now my garage looks like a meth lab. (worse yet I was trying to preserve all my dust and now I look like a meth dealer being careful not to drop/loose any!) need to do some inlays with this and hoped to do it on the cnc... wondering... will shell bits work? the diamond wheels cut this pretty easy so I don't think it's all THAT hard... and actual diamond bits are unobtanium expensive. I know I've read some old threads here with lots of helpful advice regarding recon stone... but no one ever mentions how they cut it (I'm guessing by hand). what say you?

congrats on a very deserving win. a fantastic example of greatness!!

well... having looked at your pictures I'm going to resolve myself to the old addage "it's not the size of your machinery"... hehe. jeebus you have some industrail sized cnc and bandsaw!! lovely wood. I'm certain it's the grain pattern playing tricks on me... but I cannot see that last one without thinking the left side veneer/laminate is tapering towards the start of the headstock. look fwd to seeing the 'money shots'. cheers

you can't drop something like that and not post a link? sounds pretty interesting... I've often thought about how wood figure can look so much better depending on how it was cut. out of my planer after some 1/64" cuts it looks pretty good... but then sanded looks terrible. usually the pieces I get - if they have a surface that isn't rough - the figure looks really good - then you cut it and it's not quite as good. It's like the weathering of sitting in a yard does something for it and I've often wondered what that is or how to achieve that effect. Perhaps I need to get some fork lift diesel exhaust in a jar! further, have often thought about taking a paint brush and tru oil or dilluted dye... trying to trace the figure and accentuate it. Something wrong with that if your trying to turn a turd into gold... but as an option to do something unique and just enhance figure that is there... could be cool.

I..... I make..... I make fretboard (alternate lyrics to rammstein's du hast) so bookmatched them and the seam is pretty much invisible AFTER radius and pretty happy about that. beginner's luck I guess. had some issues with following the radius with the slot so switched to just cutting them and will have to touch them up a hair with my fret saw. all in all - went pretty smooth thanks to a little help from my friends (thanks @MiKro and @curtisa!!)

WELCOME!! my guess is it would probably be totally fine... and hate to be a debbie downer... but what if it's not? at the end of x hours of guitar building I'd hate to have something like that ruin me. top doesn't have a lot of heavy lifting to do but I would have all kinds of concerns about hiding it after there is some filler in there as bizman alluded to above. If it were me... I'd measure to see if I can cut out that area - looks like you'd only loose 1/2". I don't know what kind of tools you have... but I'd draw a diagonal line on both sides, chop that off with a bandsaw or jig saw, then use a router and straight edge to clean them up/ join them. You may also draw out your templates/design on it and see if you can get it to sit in a pickup route or at least under the bridge. hope something there is usefull.

beautiful instruments, beautiful music... 2 distinct types of lovely there.

guitar has a pretty specific backstory... love it.

just a follow up... got a few more tops here and there but this one... had to share.

his didn't have maple fretboard... yours is forbidden fruit. pretty rare lp. love/hated, perhaps you know all that. I had never seen one before a few years ago and one of the guys I worked with mentioned he had an lp with maple fretboard. I was floored and didn't believe him. he brought it in to work and sure enough. vcool.

fir would be poplar around those parts...

this is so true... and there is a good lesson there... between those two the plain maple is beautiful, but a bit of a unicorn - like a flat gloss guitar! I want to do a painted guitar at some point too... but it's hard to do as my instincts are to use beautiful wood!! all good to know. I'll tell you - it turns reg bbq into magic bbq! note to self - remember to appreciate simple beauty!! all of the sudden I want a plain top lp soo bad!! hehe, oh I'll have wood. side note apparently there is a strip club somewhere called the lumber yard - "where real men go to get wood". Hope the strippers don't look like lumberjacks! (mega diversion in 3.... 2.... 1....)

believe it has the most to do with what is easily avail near you!! I can't get quilt anywhere other than online so for me... it's an ooh la la. sm with any burl. alder - we have in scores here. sm w flamed maple.

komodos 5 rules of when to buy - I like it. well, in this respect... it's mediocre pretty... structural... well I would guess yes except for the potential weathering at the edges. need... I have a rediculous pile of flamed maple! enough mahog to do probably 10 guitars... enough ash for another 5... quite a few tops... none of them are sippo, nor any sissoo... so yes... I DO need it! hehe I have a lumber yard 4 blocks from my work... been pulling all kinds of good stuff out of there and what's more I can hit it on my lunch time and relieve some work stress. At this point I'm running out of space... so my taste in terms of what makes me pull the trigger have changed. Keep asking myself - is this something that I'd be happy with if I used it for a top? If so... hard to pass. I'd like to be at a place where any thing I use I know has been through one summer in my garage. thank you for the reply and (I think) the enabling!!

hehe. you got me there cause you were all serious right up to the last few words! well, here in az I see mesquite logs offered everywhere. that stuff grows like weeds here and in texas as I understand. people sell wheelbarrels of it for firewood for $10 so... gonna keep my eye out for a decent sized piece... or perhaps take my changes on a big log. worste case scenario I get a lifetime supply of salmon planks.