factory5150

Here is one I completed last month. I call it Precious Moment It was based off of Joe Perry's white guitar. It is a solid body ES-335. Here are the specs: Body: 1 piece African Mahogany with Maple cap. Neck: 4A flame Maple with flame Maple fretboard Inlay: Tree of life - faux Turquoise for the big leafs, abalone shell for the small leafs, and Indian Rosewood for the stem. Turquoise and Abalone for my logo. Hardware: Gotoh tuners, bridge and tailpiece. Scale: 24 3/4 Pickups: EMG 81/85, standard vol and tone with 3 way switch. Paint: I did the base white and clear in 2k urethane, but the airbrushing was done by Mad Momma Designs out of Pittsburgh. The neck was finished with TruOil and waxed. Sorry I don't have a full guitar picture, my photographer hasn't sent me one yet. More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47467970@N05/ Hope you all enjoy it!

Im all for the CNC topic and sharing files. I have no problem trading out drawings for standard shapes. My CNC should be online next week, my gecko drive should be here Tuesday, and I am using a 1 1/2 MDF board as my temporary tabletop until my aluminum t slot one comes in. Cant wait to make some stuff lol.

Yeah the strat body is full size. I should be able to fit 3 bodies side by side to cut them in one setup. My gecko g540 should be here any day now and then it will be up and running. I am still waiting on the aluminum tabletop but I will use MDF as a temporary fix. I cant wait to make dust with this thing!

Just a quick update... I got my router last week from George.. Quality and construction is superb. It wasn't quite worth the 4 month wait, but close. The cost compared to a k2 router is not even in the same league. A 24x24ish router from K2 is 1400 plus motors and electronics. So I got a machine double the size for the same money and for that I am a happy camper. I hope to have it running in the next few weeks.

The Warmoth necks should fit, but you should really measure your neck pocket to make sure. If it doesn't fit, then no big deal a router will solve that problem. I doubt highly a Fender trem will bolt right onto your squier body. Weather its a 2 post or 6 hole vintage, either way there is a 25% shot of it fitting. Stew Mac sells a template that works for Fender trems for when you dowl the old holes and your ready to drill the new ones.

Even shoe polish on pick guards is a waste of time. It will eventually fade from the sun or wear off from you touching it. Airbrushing some "amber'd" lacquer onto the pick guard is the best way to go. As for tinting and aging the neck. Its best to spray the toned lacquer onto the neck rather rubbing concentrated stain. After all the sun is what changed the color of the clear coat. The old necks were never "orange" from the beginning, time did that to them. After your neck is sprayed you can mark the spots in between the strings and gently use a dremel with a wire wheel on it to wear through the paint. The fast way to make it look old is to mix up some sort of stain that mimics a dirty fingerboard. Or you can wait and let the natural oil and finger gunk wear into the exposed wood, but that could take a while.

I am going to do my best finishing the work Scott started. I joined late but from what I gather he was a well respected luthier on this board and I hope I don't let anybody down on the final product.

I really like those knobs you posted in your link. What would you guys get, black with blue cap or gold with blue cap?

Well the gold bridges came with the body and necks so I really didn't have a choice. I still have time to add a binding or purfling of some sort. I am open to opinions on what to do. I also agree the blue clashes with the limba and the gold hardware, but we will figure it out lol. Thanks for the kind comments, Chris

Its getting cleared. I would most definitely shed a tear if I painted a solid color over this beautiful wood.

Not much progress due to another project that I got going on. I started fretting the necks. I tried out some Stew Mac fret wire (was using Dunlop before) and I really like it. Also this tread isn't creating the buzz I thought it would when I revived it. Anyway here are the pics: The 6 string neck still needs leveled, dressed, polished, and the ends beveled. I think when I get some free time this weekend I will do that. I will probably place another order to Stew Mac next week for the ferrules and other hardware. It will be a while before I take the loan out to buy the tuners BTW that wierd "dent" on the treble side on the 12string at the first fret is a wierd cosmetic issue that I have no clue as to how it got there. But the fretboard is completely flat, so other then an annoying eye sore it shouldn't effect playability. Thats all for now. Chris

It was hard for me to justify the cost for all the fretting tools. Then I thought doing a few fret jobs for customers would pay for the tools, then its profit from then on out. I personally think its more fun building a neck then a body, its much more rewarding to me.

If your going to get a replacement body if the one you have is plywood...Just skip all the hassle of modifying a sss routed strat body and get "the frank" from this site: http://www.kneguitars.com/kit_bod.php

When I built my first franky I used one of those "saga" guitar kits and modified the hell out of it. I bought a mighty mite maple neck and routed for the Floyd Nut. I had a Seymour Duncan SH-11 in it, and it sounded pretty good. One word of advise, if you are going to take the effort to mask the guitar off and paint it. At least put the stripes in the right place. Here is my new franky that I made. Who would have thought buying vintage parts would be so costly *sarcasm*

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supp...and_Holder.html There ya go, just hook that thing up to a stand with a vice on it and your good to go. Im gonna pick one of those up because I am tired of holding heavy ass guitars on the end of a stick while spraying.