dh7892

I think I got them from here: Link Once I am happy with my primary bevel (perhaps a belt sander or some other powered method would save a lot of time/effort here but I only really need to do it rarely), I just tune up the blades with a few passes on the 5, 1 and 0.1 micron papers in turn (increasing the angle slightly for each paper using my Veritas jig) and remembering to do the backs. Mirror shine and hair saving sharpness in about 1 minute. I also use a drop of baby oil (apparently this is the same as mineral oil but it's cheaper and smells nice!).

Good work. I've just done a similar veneer on my current build. I wish I'd used the same method as you (rather than trying to clamp/caul). I've eneded up a with a few areas that have not stuck as well as I'd have liked. I would have tried a vacuum storage bag (I've actually got some already) but I was worried about some of the issues that Wood Is Good raised. In particular, I was worried about keeping the veneer in place as the bag started to press on the sides. I see you used tape to keep the two veneers together did you do anything to stop the whole lot sliding or was this just not a danger? Nice job.

Nope. Actually, it never worked even straight out of the box. Any idea where I can get new bulbs from?

Update on progress: Added binding on body (ebony), routed cavities, finished shaping of the body. Two coats of Danish so far. I'm in a bit of a hurry to get it finished now as I'm going to be moving house so I'll have to stop then.

Here ya go. I posted a similar thread the other day. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...ket+routing+jig http://www.mykaguitars.com/tools/neckpocketjig/ That link's great. I must have missed that one. That's just the kind of thing that would have made my neck pocket a whole lot better than I actaully got it in the end! Nevermind, I'll try it next build. Thanks for all the replies guys.

Just thought I'd canvas opinion on how people make their neck pockets. I particular, so that you get a nice snug fit. On my current build, I pretty much finished building the neck before starting on the body. So I made the pocket to fit the neck. I made a template and used a flush cut router bit with bearing to cut the pocket to the template. Then I did a bit of fine-tuning with a chisel until the neck fitted. I occurs to me now that it might have been easier to get the final fit by removing material from the neck. Also, how do you get the pocket template made so that the neck will line up with the body at the right angle (in the plane of the body, I'm not talking about anlged necks here). I just waited until I'd fitted the neck before working out the position of the bridge/pickups. Also, how to people go about making templates? I just drew around the end of the neck and cut/drum-sanded my way up to just short of the lines.

Yeah, kind of. It's not as flat as it looks from the photos. I think the flash squared the sides a bit. I just shaped the neck by hand until I was happy with how it felt. Shaping the neck was one of my favorite parts of the build.

As requested, more pics of the scarf:

Actually, I've glanced at them a few times and thought: If they'd been a little more refined it would have made quite a good shape. Maybe another time I'll try it.

Yup, I remember seeing your post (I PM'd you about it if you remember) and I was one of the builds that inspired me to make a VG guitar. I was originally going to make a much more interesting body design sort of like you did but, as I said above, decided to play safe to ensure I got a working guitar. I confess that I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to fit the pickup yet. I'm going to route from the back for the main electronics but I wanted to see how much clearance I had from bridge to body before seeing if I have to recess the pickup or can just flush mount it. I will install the pickup "upside down" with the cable pointing towards the bottom rather than the top of the guitar (otherwise it gets in the way of where I put my palm). Then I just reverse the string order in the VG setup so it knows that the 1st string is actually the 6th etc. This is how I have my external kit mounted on my Jem.

Yep, I was thinking about binding the body as I agree that it would look better. I was thinking about a black binding. Will I have problems doing the arm contour though? I never use my amp. It seems a shame to have all that stereo goodness only to throw it away by sending it through a single channel amp. Most of the time I use headphones. I can get much better control of the sound that way. Yup, I'll post it tonight when I get home. I thought about that when the (presumably American) spell checker didn't like it. I couldn't think of a better word!

That's what I thought. Sounds good to me.

Looks like it's coming together. I like the F/B where did you get it? I'm not sure what holly is like (it's a light wood isn't it?). I'm thinking light rather than dark binding would be good. But not bright white like plastic.

Should have no problems removing the bits off the body. I'll bandsaw most of it off then use a spokeshave to get a nice flowing curve. That's why I put the "knobbles" on the convex parts of the body. That way I can use the spokeshave. If I'd put them on concave parts, I'd have to use rasps etc and I find the spokeshave gives a much nicer shape. I'll need to go around the body anyway as it's a bit rough from the router. I meant to say that the neck has already had several coats of Danish oil and I'm planning to do the same with the body (i.e. a natural looking finish). Any suggestions on how to get the best out of the grain on the maple would be appreciated. It still needs a lot of sanding/scraping but I'm not entirely sure on the process for raising the grain/sanding/oiling etc.

I've been building this for about 8 months now (I know, I'm very slow) and I've been meaning to start a thread about it and I've finally got my act together and done it! Technically this is my second build but my first is an unplayable mess. Now I've got shed to work in, I'm having a more serious crack this time. The idea is that I needed a new work-horse guitar to replace my aging (and frankly falling apart) Jem 555. If I touch the trem it goes out of tune and there is a dodgy connection on the pickup selector so I can't always get any sound out of it. But I loved the feel of the neck and how it plays so I wanted to have something similar. The other thing is that I recently bought a roland VG-99 effects box/guitar synth and (since I'm very much a bedroom player) I now get all my sounds from that (i.e. I don't even use the Jem pickups, just the GK-3 hex pickup). So, I wanted a new guitar that had a working trem and stable tuning; slim, fast neck; and only a hex pickup (so I could show off the wood without having to cut horrible pickups into it). I originally had delusions of grandeur and was planning a neck-through with a crazy body design but, as I got going, I quickly realised the limits of my skills and decided to play it safe in order to have a working guitar at the end of it. So the final thing is going to end up quite a lot like an SG-type guitar but with a few tweaks here and there. Most notably: Single hex pickup (internal GK-3 kit) Wilkinson (non-locking trem) Wilkinson locking tuners LSR roller nut 24-frets but with extra (up to 27 frets for some strings - I want to play some Bumblefoot tunes and don't have a thimble to tap above 24th). Double bound fretboard (outside ebony, inside maple to give "tramline" effect) Maple, purpleheart, maple, purpleheart, maple laminate for the neck Thin quilt maple top (backed with dyed black backing) bent around arm contour. Mahogany body. So, here are some pics: Firstly, the ubiquitous shot of raw wood: I thought I took more WIP pics but I can't find them so here is the neck after laminating, scarfing (put black fillet in scarf to accent it) and rough shaping. Pick of headstock after rough shaping. Fingerboard and frets in place Detail showing the binding, I'm rather pleased with how this turned out. I just cut thin strips of maple and ebony on the bandsaw and glued them (with some planing to get smooth edges). For the body, I made a template (I used dowels to keep it aligned to the body so I can replace the template exactly later for cavity routes etc). Then I had to shape the arm contour before gluing the maple and backing and bending it over the curve. Then I used a bearing bit on the router to follow the template. You can see the protruding bits on the edges where the dowels go. I'll remove these by hand when I don't need the template anymore. Close-up of the arm curve. That's where I'm up to so far. Still a fair bit to do but I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along. Let me know what you think. I know there are some mistakes and details that show me up as a beginner but I think I'm going to end up with a guitar that I really cherish.