erikbojerik

After you agree to specs, here's a better way to proceed: 50% down non-refundable at time of order (filters out the guys who only want to kick the tires, and covers your inital costs in wood & hardware if customer decides to back out) 50% upon completion, due in 30 days or you retain ownership of the instrument (puts a deadline on the final payment so you don't get strung along, and if he stiffs you then you still have something to sell) Make shipping part of the final cost X-year warranty against workmanship, during which you fix for free (you split the shipping) All of the above + build specs are put down in writing and customer signs it - this becomes the work order and a binding contract (avoids the "that's not what I told you" arguments down the road, and customer feels like you're bound in writing to build his instrument)

I dunno - with the possible exception of the Bigsby - to me a Les Paul with a tremolo looks about the same as a les8ian holding a fishing pole.

The Graphtech Ghost system will do everything you want - you need the Acoustiphonic preamp & Quickswitch (3-way mini toggle). Your magnetic pickup hot (the very end of your magnetic signal chain) will solder to a terminal right on the preamp, and the combined mag/piezo output will go to a stereo jack where your magnetic & piezo signals will come out on ring & tip (but I forget which is which). Plug in with a stereo guitar cable and at the other end rout the signals wherever you want them to go (different amps, etc). I believe it will come with a volume pot for piezo volume, and there's a trim pot on the preamp to adjust your piezo output to match (or not) your magnetic output. Use a Graphtech piezo bridge and there will be very little soldering to do (mostly things just plug right into the preamp board). I installed this system in an 8-string and I am very happy with it. No need to cobble together various parts, they have everything you've described already packaged up. They are also really good over the phone (but be aware that you're calling to Canada ).

I might be interested - is it kiln dried? Air dried? Not dried? Photos?

Daytime geologist here. Obsidian is easy to get but not so easy to work - as the others have said, it is black volcanic glass. You need a diamond-studded wafering saw just to cut it to proper shape. Thicknessing is not easy - best again to wafer saw it to required thickness. http://www.buehler.com/productinfo/Printer.../IsoMetLSPF.pdf Regular sandpaper will still wear it down once you inlay it, but you want to get it as close to shape as possible before you glue it in - if you sand too much after its glued in, the wood will erode much faster than the obsidian and the inlays will stand up above the level of the fretboard. Black MOP is WAY easier to deal with.

First I make sure the blank is square on both edges and uniform width (which LMI blanks are often not!). I radius first because I do it with the radius router bits - they tear out if I try to radius a slotted board. Then I slot, paying attention to the slot depth where I think the taper will fall. Then I cut the taper *just* outside the line underneath the outer strings, and check the slot depths (deepening by hand at the edges if I need to), then plane both edges flat on the jointer (1 ultra-thin pass on each side is enough), then either bind with the offcuts of the same board, or with a contrasting wood (rarely plastic). I do NOT want the slots exposed on the edge of the board. Then rout to final taper using a neck taper template - then fret the board off the neck and flex out any back-bow. At this point I also have a centerline on the board, but its a bit moot as I glue (epoxy) to a neck that is also already tapered using the same neck taper template.

Either the neck is not straight, or the bridge is in the wrong place (or both).

If at all possible, try to see if it can be fixed without removing the back - if its just a loose brace, these are often easily reglued. You can even shape braces from inside the box - not easy, but easier than removing the back, regluing, rebinding and refinishing. It depends on what the bracing issues are - you don't want to remove the engine just to change the spark plugs.

45° is actually the worst orientation for a neck. If its not thick enough to plane it quartersawn, I'd try to find some QS stock.

Check to see that your copper paint and/or tape is not touching a hot somewhere (pot or pickup).

Nothing is required on rosewood - just finish-sand, buff and treat regularly with one of any number of different thin oils (I use lemon oil). For maple, anything that can (and has) been used as a clear coat can be used - lacquer is "vintage" Fender but wears thru easily (which is what you want if, for example, you're doing an accurate vintage repro). Poly works great. You could certainly use epoxy like the fretless bass guys (System 3 Mirror Coat), but then you either need to slot through it, or keep it out of the slots if you slot before.

LOL four year old thread... Interesting how many guys are still here.....wonder where Goreki went? Heavy bottom 10-54 for me - I buy a 7-string set and either use the 54 on the low-E or drop out the wound-26 (intended for D). Fairly high action - heavy right hand.

I have a standard bass truss rod in a 36" scale neck (neckthru) and it works fine. Mine adjusts at the headstock. There's no reason to not go with CF bars - you'll spend way more on the rest of the hardware. They will keep the neck stable over time, and because they are stiffer than any equivalent amount of wood, you can make the neck a little thinner if you like (just be careful to plan the bar thickness and the back contour carefully so that you don't carve into the bars when carving the neck).

No.

Zpoxy finishing resin. http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/paa/paapt40.htm That's a good price too, about the cheapest I've seen it.

What kind of wood is the neck made from? Usually when you're sanding the finish, you'll get white powder on the sandpaper (if you're just sanding clear coat) or sawdust the color of the wood when you get through to the underlying wood. Also, the wood will start to look like a lighter color when you get through the clear and into the wood. But you don't necessarily need to go all the way down to wood - normally, just raise and sand the dings (as you're doing) and the ones that don't sand out, just fill with clear epoxy. Then just rough up the entire surface with 320 or 400 grit paper, and start shooting your clear coat. The only reason for going all the way down to bare wood is if you want to use an oil finish.

DO NOT wipe with acetone - you will end up with pink maple (I'm surprised its not already pink from sanding). Acetone will not prevent the padauk from becoming darker with the epoxy - it will only spread the oils onto the maple. The darkening will happen with any epoxy, in fact it would happen even if you applied clear coat with no epoxy filler. That's just the color of finished padauk - more toward burgundy than the orange of the freshly sanded wood. And it will continue to darken slowly over time (less quickly if you keep it out of the sun). Zpoxy will work with any clear coat.

Perry, at OregonWW try looking through the back & side sets for acoustics, the back sets are generally quartersawn and more along the lines of what you're looking for. They will be thinner than the standard 1/4" drop top, but will be bookmatched and ready to joint. You could make a 4-piece top from the sides - if matched correctly along the right grain lines, you'd have a hard time telling. West Penn Hardwoods has a fair bit of wide curly purpleheart - you won't find it on the website - get them on the phone and they can hook you up.

A Grizzly with the Shelix cutters is a VERY nice planer - it will indeed make a nice surface, and shave off thickness in amounts almost as fine as the drum sander - but I have never heard how well they do on figured woods (a straight-knife planer will cause tear-out on figured wood). That's one reason I personally went with a cheap planer (RIGID) and the 16-32 drum sander. The other reason is that I find that drum sanders gum up really badly on oily woods (cocobolo, bocote and ziricote are especially bad for me when trying to plane back & side sets for acoustic guitars). I have heard this can be overcome by using a hook & loop system on the drum, but I've not tried this - these days I just send the oily woods on a pine sled (100 grit sand paper on one side) through the thickness planer.

A 12" planer is fine for almost everything - the only thing you can't do is some 1-piece bodies. The planer takes the thickness down WAY faster than a thickness sander - you will want to use it for quick dimensioning of wood, then use the thickness sander to sneak up on the final thickness after glue-up. I use both regularly - I have my planer on a cheap mobile base made of stacked 3/4" ply and some locking casters, so I can move it out of the way when I don't need it. Also a planer can save you some money in wood costs if you can find a place that sells lumber in the rough - always cheaper than S2S.

That turned out really great! I'd never seen that guitar on MTV. Vinnie Vincent is to you what Steve Stevens is to me (the dual-name similarity being a total coincidence), he's the first guitar player I really remember digging on MTV.

I have a Fuzz Factory and when I use it, I actually use it in the effects loop of my Triaxis - so fuzz on top of various amounts of distortion. It's interesting - and yeah, you can get some pretty rude noises out of it. I also have a 2nd gen Ooh Wah which I like - but its also not one of those commonly used things.

East Indian Rosewood is not nearly as oily as cocobolo - you should have no problems gluing and finishing it. I am finishing an acoustic with EIR back & sides - no problems at all (apart from my spraying technique... ).

+1 for Oregon Wild Wood - they have some very nice Bastogne walnut as well. This build is going really well so far. I would second the notion for master or concentric V & T pots, having played a Les Paul for years and years, I personally have never used both volumes to mix the pickups.

+1 on the router table space. +1 also on the flat surface recommendation - you probably don't need enough to cover the entire table, maybe just one end - a slab of Corian would probably work well.