Sand Paper

It's caused by the trem not returning to dead center. Filing the knife edges sharp again sometimes helps, as well as a little lube there probably. You could also try replacing the springs. Sometimes my trems get weird like that so I do this. Tune up, do a big dive down and let it return, then tune again. This way if you pull up and it goes sharp all you have to do is push down and let it return and you're pretty much back in tune.

I favor heavier strings for faster speed picking and such. Tuned down a whole step to D-standard I use 11's. When in half step down or standard I use 10's. The guitar I mostly ignore is tuned down two whole steps to C-standard and it has 12 half-rounds on it with a wound G. I do not like the wound G for bending but it gives a nice sound. As for the brand's I use, I have two right now, DR and D'Addario. D'Addario makes a decent string cheaply, I like their feel and sound so I use them as general workhorse strings. For shows I only use the coated black beauties from DR. DR's really do seem to break in faster and last a little bit longer, and I pick really hard.

I'd go with one of these two. Use a heat gun on medium to high heat and a flat putty knife to peel off the finish. You can play with the heat and sometimes get the stuff to peel up like a sheet of plastic. After that I would clean up with a strong stripper and follow its wash instructions for the final clean up. The other method is to buy a good paint stripper and go at it with just that. Flo-Strip 1826 is what we use at work. This will remove pretty much anything, however it isn't a paste so you'd need something to wash the guitar in while you work with it. If that's not your cup of tea then there are a ton of strippers at hardware stores. Always buy the strongest one you can find, usually called Paint Stripper or something like that.

Seymour Duncan Blackouts and the Dave Mustaine Livewire signature actives are killer. I'd go with those over EMG's any day. They seem a lot more transparent sounding and can actually deliver some good attack and nuance that I find EMG's do not have. I'd definitely give them a listen and a try. As for thin necks, I have a 1995 Ibanez S with the Wizard (I or II, I can't remember) neck and I hate it for metal. A few people on here, as well as myself, find that it tires out your hand and it sometimes gives me cramps. Super thick necks feel cumbersome to me, but awesome to others. I like the ESP/LTD "Thin U" profile, it's a nice feeling no frills easy design that's fast yet comfortable. When I started looking into building I took a whole day and went to a guitar store and tried a ton of stuff. I started noticing that a lot of guitars have some pretty bad flaws. Not just in the finishes either, but their inherent designs. Just pick your favorite features from a bunch of models and make them into one thing.

Anthracite coal was cut and polished like gem stones back in the olden days. It was called Jet, which is where "Jet Black" comes from. I found a pic of a necklace on wikipedia with jet stones cut and polished and that looked amazing. You might look into that as well. Plus it's free if you live by railroad tracks, which is a bonus.

There's some haters on this one. I think it came out fine for a first try. As long as it plays then whatever. There's always some improvements to be had, but that should discourage no one. I want to hear this guitar just because it's oak and i have not heard an oak guitar before.

1. Not a whole lot 2. A few 3. It will say on the can 4. It will say on the can.

After reading the comment about the Fullerplast stuff, I kind of want to strip a body that has been filled with it. We get the industrial paint stripper in 55gal drums at work, plus we have heat guns. We've yet to have something come in that couldn't be stripped in one way or another.

The fill on the post hole looks like a knot, well done. You can always bust out some stain and glaze that during finishing and no one but you and us would know.

As stated, the fretboard is unique and awesome. However, I wouldn't want to have that on a stage, that would be confusing as all out. Sometimes you can't see the side markers in certain (or no) lights. None the less, that design is sweet.

Dude, you have to make the truss rod cover look like the lower spike (if you do decide it needs one)... Seriously

New peterson strobo tuners do not use Strobes. It is a computer program and an LCD display. The difference is its made by peterson and is accurate enough to set up guitars and not just tune up a guitar to play. For than any old $30 tuner will do. Try looking at their web site. +1 My strobo-stomp is awesome.

That stewmac copper tape says it accepts solder, so i'd go with that.

What stripper are you using? Chemical strippers sometimes have a hard time with that thick plastic-like surfacer that companies use. I'd take the majority of that off with heat and then use the stripper as a final cleanup. As my idiotic general rule, if the stripper doesn't burn like crazy when it gets on you, it's too weak.

I'd strip the whole body and go from there. I did a floyd to kahler fill and rerout job a while back. I didn't strip the paint but I wish I had, it would have made it a whole lot easier.

I Agree, I'd much rather make my own design than let some company make cheap knockoffs of my vision and sell them at a huge inflated price. With the internet and social sites and whatnot, all it takes is a few pics of the guitar to get some attention. While I'm sure no one here gets a 1000 unit demand within a week of completing a project, you might eventually find some people who would like to have one. At that point, if you have the skills and time, you could take an order or two, make a small profit, and know that everything about your design is yours and that it's been done right. That's just my take on it.

Exactly, do whatever maximizes the look of the wood. I might experiment with two different stains for the back and top. You mentioned that the walnut has some green in it, so you can counter that with a more of a red/brown based stain. The top is red anyway just by it's self so you could go with something lighter to make it pop. I'd check out something with a lot of golden/amber color to it. I'd think that an amber tone would make everything pop without doing away with the natural tones of the wood. Definitely play around with some colors of stain and see what works. Buying $30 worth of stains for a test could have you end up with a finish that is priceless. Explore all options and never settle for less than awesome.

From someone who deals with refinishing furniture, I stain wood into that color range almost every day. People love that look for some reason. We go through gallons of red mahogany stain to a single quart of the other colors. With that said, I may be biased when I say that I think a better color choice could be made, but that's just me. Like said above I'd do some samples with just a clear over them and then see what I'm working with from that. Even just an amber color over those dark woods is going to add some depth and darkness to the color. From the pictures, that stain looks like it has a bit too much red in it for my taste.

agreed the reason I'D build something i can buy off the shelf is because its cheaper. i tallied up the cost for the guitar build im doing right now and it came out to about 550 bucks. im going to do a prs copy. but 550 is a lot cheaper than 3000 :-P Agreed, if you like it, and can make it for a whole lot less, then go for it.

Looks like a check in the finish. It's not that big of a deal really. I wouldn't do anything to it, but if it bothers you I guess you could have at it with some solvent or some CA glue.

I play Hughes & Kettner because I'm a freak and I love their sound. However, Splawn is putting out some awesome stuff, same with Madison amps. The Carvin V3 is really nice as well. I've played on a Line 6 Vetta II a couple of times. My opinion on modeling amps is that they always seem like more of a toy or gadget rather than a musical instrument. Yeah 10000 presets is sweet, but most people can make all of those presets sound stupid with some tubes and a couple pedals. With the cash you'd drop on a new amp you could get some nice effects and maybe play around with some mods for your amp or something. From my own personal experience, some days I just don't like my amp at all. Heck, some months I wish I could sell it and buy something else. Then I listen to or play on other amps and realize that my amp makes the sound that I think my guitar should sound like. Then I'm happy with it again. Never compromise just because something seems bigger, better, nicer, etc. You love the fullness of your fender, so why abandon the fullness for some bells and whistles? No one ever comes up at and show and says "Wow that preset with the chorus and reverb is the best ever!" It's always the way the amp sounds that's important. The fuller the sound, the better it is to listen to in the audience.

Similar to the pic above... You could just make a fence out of plywood or something cut at say 45 degrees and then push it up against the saws fence. This moves the saws perpendicular cut to 45 degrees. Then the saw is adjustable to a full 90 degree parallel cut using it's own mechanism.

The DTM primer we sometimes use at work is thick enough to be like a sprayed on filler/surfacer kind of thing. However the pores of the mahogany can be tiny sometimes so it may not soak into those. That probably won't matter too much though. I'd grab a small scrap of mahogany and do some experiments with it. If the DTM seals that, sands smooth, and makes a good finish then I would skip pore filler.

I never worry about my own playing anymore. I've personally bombed shows only to have people come up right after and say how amazing it was. I tend to freak out before shows because I want everything to be perfect. Guitars, amps, picks, cables, etc. The best shows my band has played are the ones where we somehow just didn't care about much. Not that the show wasn't important it's just that it didn't seem like a huge giant big deal those times. Relaxing is a major part in playing well and presenting a good musical experience on stage. If you're having fun, the audience is having fun.

This is what works for me, and I've been known to be an idiot at times. I just do a normal cleaning and setup type thing. I also put the black DR coated strings on the black guitars for extra metal points and difficulty on a dark stage. I check out the electronics and hardware and fix any issues I've found. I Play the guitars a little bit to make sure they stay in tune and then just put them away until the show. When we arrive at the venue we like to get the gear in ASAP so it can acclimate. I'd say a lot of the fine tuning and any issues happen at the venue it's self. After it's all loaded in I usually open stuff and check it out, including guitars. Then I go drink Guinness (or any good beer the bar stocks) for a little bit (do not get drunk in advance). Depending on how much beer I have drank I may stop drinking an hour or so before we go on. 30 minutes before our set I bust out the guitars and start tuning them. I then play through all the difficult parts of the songs so I can warm up and practice those at the same time. With about 5 minutes left to go, sometimes I feel sleepy because my buzz from the Guinness is wearing off. There's two types of this, one is you just feel sluggish. This is normal and can be fixed with my awesome ritual. One shot of Wild Turkey and then chug a beer for a chaser. That'll bring the buzz back fast and the turkey will get you rowdy. However you can always go for the super win with ritual #2. Make the bartender get you a cup of coffee and then pour Wild Turkey into that and then sugar and cream to taste. A double shot will do it on the booze. This brings the buzz back, gets you rowdy, and then gets you speeding on the awesomely strong bar coffee. Then you just go and play and then you load out and that's it. Now you can get drunk.