mistermikev

well that is the funny thing about my above comments... inevitably it pushes me to choose something not recommended by the group. I respect the input... but sometimes it just drives me to what I truly wanted all along sometimes. anywho.

I thought for sure you were building a tube... relieved it's a guitar! afa decisions... this place is a great resource for such things. I suggest you post a thread w a vote in the design area. It has been my experience that inevitably folks will vote for the one I was least attached too... at which point I am ushered by my subconscious towards some other design that I secretly was leaning toward all along! It sounds redic... but it has seriously helped me!

that is a lovely piece of swamp ash. where did you get that wood (if you don't mind me asking). also, some jedi level jig saw skills above - nice work.

I don't think I'd spend a lot of money on it. truss rod replacement would depend on the builder. I know there are guys who build such that the rod will slide right out... but myself: I buy an expensive rod and purposely make it such that it will never move. Just two dif takes. further the issue is going to be finding a suitable replacement rod assuming you can get it out. it'd have to be the right dimensions and that is not guaranteed to be easy. Some guys use custom length rods. most rods are 1/4" wide and 3/8" depth if it's a two piece but even that - the dimensions might vary enough that your rod is rattling around in there. that said... it's not clear reading your post if this is a two way rod or perhaps a one way that just only loosens so far. I'm guessing one way but either way... the wood wants what the wood wants and you could try to bind it to something straight (or even reverse curve) and heat/steam it but IME that has about a 30% chance at working... bending it will def happen but bending it straight and to a specific dimension - pretty unlikely to pull that off. Even assuming you do pull that off... I've done it to a guitar once and a month later it just returned right back to where it was. heating the fretboard while it's bound straight might loosen the glue bond and allow it to re-attach in a way that straightens the neck... but it also might destroy the integrity of the glue and open up all sorts of other problems. assuming you make it through all that and straighten the neck you are likely going to need fret work. my gut says that when you've got "wild wood" it's just not worth it to fight it... but ymmv. hope something there helps make your decision easier.

note to self: avoid spanish cedar and def snag some bloodwood!

have no idea what that is but it's got really nice straight grain. the aaaaaaah FRICKEN mahog that i get tends to be a LOT more orange/pink. I know there is an asain variant that is supposed to be lighter in weight and tends to be more tan... never heard of it smelling different tho. mahog just smells so nice when you work it... sort of that cinnamon thing. that... walnut and oak are my fav smells! "these are a few of my favorite smells..." shout out to @MiKro ! truly is a treasure on this forum! a very generous individual indeed.

Hehe, true dat. if you aren't swearing at some point you probably aren't doing it right!!

well... I've got some ideas on how I can mitigate the issues... I hope they'll work! Having a cnc, should give me a leg up... I plan to cut the shape of the binding channel into some scrap and that way I can get the pieces bent and hopefully the angles cut before I try to glue them to the headstock. I also plan to go watch some tutorials on the mandolin sites. all that said i'm sure I'll swear!

Lovely stuff. inlays are great, inlay slot is "tighter than a fish's turd cutter" as they say. vnice. your clean shop keeps mocking me tho. I keep thinking I'll clean my shop... but then thing nah it'll just get all dirty again lol. rawk on.

you are spot on there. I went looking at old mandolin headstocks when I came up with that. Have always loved those mandolin scrolls. Going to be a real challenge to do multi layer binding on that with curved joins... not sure how I'm gonna pull that off but I'm committed to trying anyway!

have been on a deep dive afa building my next project which is going to based on the 59 lp burst. I've been pouring over several docs that I've found, pictures, threads on historically accurate dimensions, etc. It has been a pretty enlightening experience. I'm not interested in historically correct headstock shape... but intend to have the neck profile, body carve, scale length, headstock angle, and truss rod spot on to the original, Have purchased some historically accurate pickup rings, pickguard, cavity covers, inlays and binding that is "close". Using a gotoh abr-1, and have purchased some single piece body stock in genuine mahogany. Also have some qtr sawn genuine mahogany neck blanks. Have not found anything better than the granadillo pictured below for fretboard but that may change if something comes along soon. few things I've written down: Headstock Angle... 1904-66: 17 degree 1966-73: 14 degree 73-present: 17 degree Truss rod... 1959: straight channel 5/8 near bridge, 1/2 near nut 1960: curved truss rod channel Scale length... 1954: 24 3/4 1959: 24 9/16 1969: 24 5/8 1992: 24 9/16 Pickups... 53-56: P-90s 57: seth lover humbuckers introduced Bridge... pre 54: wrap-a-round 54: TOM ABR-1 (custom) 55: TOM ABR-1 (gold top) 62: TOM ABR-1 w/ retainer added 1970-1980: schaller harmonica bridge 1975: Nashville bridge introduced Models... 53: The custom aka black beauty and the goldtop 58: standard 61: standard discontinued and SG Custom introduced 68: lp re-introduced 1974: Norlin Era - volute introduced Was surprised to learn the vintage pauls of that time actually had a straight channel that had an angled depth. Earlier versions just had a straight channel (no angle) and in 1960 they started doing the radius'd channel. have finished my 'straight angled' channel version. Going to build my own truss rod for this one. (there is a great thread here about the process - thanks for that guys!) I'm still working out the details on a 60s slim line version I will do with the radius channel and vallute... but have purchased a stew mac stainless modern rod I'll use for that. there are a number of jigs I'll need for this build... one of them is a jig to do the rebate where the neck joins the body. I've done this by hand before using sandpaper strips and pulling them through the join... but figured it can be done more accurately with a little bit of thought so... doh! momentary lapse of senility here... this is for a 4.5 degree lip on a neck/body join... essentially the idea is you slide the neck into it and then ride the router around 3 sides to make the perfect neck/body fit. 59LPNeck_v1.9.pdf

i made a rule with myself a while back and am struggling sometimes to stick to it - "don't back down just because it's hard or unknown". it gets me into a LOT of trouble, but trouble is generally where I learn. That said you have to also know when you've gone too far beyond your own boundaries! Stainless... I get the sense you could pull it off.

i figured I'm building for "me in the future" who will, no doubt, find a way to hook up a battery backwards or use the wrong power supply!

so you didn't have diode reverse polarity protection... or the diode is now a white puff of smoke (hehe)? Ahh... on the max1044. I am aware of using it in that capacity and have used it for +-9, +18v, etc... my stage center was not powered via battery so... 2 + 2 = 13 - perhaps I did use that and just don't recall. Was a decent sounding reverb anyway. Idk if you are familiar with the belton reverb brick... but there are some pretty good circuit designs out there for it.

a while back I had messed around with the 'stage center reverb' which was a tank driver that was in some magazine article and has been modified in the pedal world by ggg. I had mounted the tank under the pedalboard I had at the time. that def did not use a charge pump (just ran at 9v)... what circuit were you using if you don't mind me asking?

interesting. as I understand welding ss is a much more rare skill. love the idea of a ss resonator.... have always loved those national guitars. zero welding skills here but you just reminded me that one thing I think I should try at some point is unconventional materials like carbon fiber cloth over wood, perhaps a carbon fiber neck, perhaps fiberglass wrap on wood... perhaps an epoxy/wood mix body and maybe a richlite fretboard at some point.

right on. dovetail is some challenging stuff... even with a jig! Everyone should do some dovetail at least once... adding it to my bucketlist!

my bad - push/push is prob more accurate... have never seen a momentary like that. pretty cool - I appreciate the link. 2) sorry for bringing it up! It just didn't seem normal for your recordings. neighbors/kids - got it! 3) congrats on your popularity!

so couple observations... #1 - love the kill button. you somehow have a momentary push pull? what part are you using there? love it. buckethead would be proud. #2 can't help but notice, and forgive me for pointing out, that there is an awful lot of noise going on there in the background? tone sounds good and playing is very nice, just couldn't help but notice. #3 Guitar looks amazing, that finish is my fav so far. Just a 10 - nice work.

you know... that little feature that accidentally manifested (the repair of the wood between neck cavity and pickup) - you really turned that into a net positive. the carpet matches the drapes as they say... nice work.

well i dunno if you've sourced stuff yet... but I've found this place to be good quality and fair pricing: dragonplate.com

my most recent builds - two 5 string basses... did carbin fiber reinforce on them. they are also multi-lams of really rigid wood. They most def are rigid. amazing the rigidity two 1/8 x 3/8 strips of carbon fiber will add. Other 5 strings I have seem like wet noodles compared.

right on, well it looks great.

finished - lol. There is a guy on facebook john tuzukanaka or something-like-that (not sure on last name)... he builds all the time from one piece with a skunk stripe down the back. I know he's built many out of maple but am not 100% sure if he's done any other woods. I have also seen a guy do it out of purpleheart but that ended up heavy... but not to say you couldn't build it thin and get reasonable weight relief. I have also seen a brazillian who does these crazy hollow body guitars that are one piece. he uses a fine bandsaw blade to cut them apart, carve them out, then re-assemble. he does it somehow where the seam is invisible and that is something I'd like to try someday. I've spent a lot of time making invisible seams using solid surface and feel like maybe I could pull it off. It would def require a much better bandsaw than i have... and perhaps following the grain with the cut... and a very thin blade. anywho, thanks for the response!

8 string... that's a good challenge. a lot of pressure on that neck. r u planning dual truss rod? some sort of carbin fiber reinforce? look fwd to seeing that thread. 12 string bari - another good challenge. I love cedar... one of my fav acoustics is a cedar top. stone - I've seen a video of some guys at namm that do stone tops. crazy stuff. In my younger days I ran a lot of routers thru corian/solid surface and it's not quite as hard but many of the sm challenges. need a big powerful router for that - used to use a 3.5hp. Perhaps with stone/marble you need slower... I used to run that thing full bore to do a single pass roundover on sinks. good times. some great goals there. appreciate you sharing.