darren wilson

Thanks for the book suggestion! I'll check it out.

Yeah, i learned to not trust the manufacturer's claims. Everything i read said that after a few coats of the matte sealer/finish, the pores would be sufficiently filled. LIES! Next time i'm using a proper pore filler first. I agree that matte generally looks better with oil finishes. However, with every coat i put on, the figure in the wood looked amazing when wet, and the matte finish diffuses enough light when dry that it just killed the 3D quality of the figure. So i impulsively decided to throw on a coat of gloss and got the pop i was looking for with the figure, but it did highlight the open pores. Ah, well... that's why it's a prototype! Maybe in the summer i'll sand it back, fill it and re-finish it properly.

You guys will be happy to know that the guitar now has a new control cavity cover on it, courtesy of Dave Wescott at Frets On The Net.

To my knowledge, they haven't been made for a few years. There was news that they were looking for a new factory to produce them, but i don't recall hearing anyting come of that.

It's been my experience that some people read the title and first post and jump straight to "FAST REPLY" without reading any of the previous responses.

EBMM (like Anderson and Suhr) is buying roasted maple lumber that's been treated in an autoclave at high temperature and pressure in a near vacuum, not "baking" necks after they're made.

As a side note, composite-neck Steinbergers also have no truss rod.

But if your neck backbows, you're screwed.

The truss rod isn't there for strength, it's there to allow you to make adjustments to your neck relief as the wood expands and contracts with seasonal temperature and humidity changes. You can build necks without truss rods, but if they're made of wood, you run the risk of them being unplayable for at least part of the year.

Heh. That's what i thought, too! My only idea was that "vulcanizing" is named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, and since the wood is modified through a baking process...

Gorgeous work! I love the P-Rails.

My understanding is that purpleheart is VERY bright, so you may want to go with something warmer like mahogany if you want a more balanced tone. I wouldn't go by aesthetics alone... if you think the woods don't look good together, consider dyeing the back wood. Maybe a veneer of maple or rosewood between the purpleheart and whatever back wood you choose would help offset the visual difference between the woods. Other suggestions might be basswood, white or black limba, even rosewood, but that would make it a pretty heavy body.

Thanks for doing this! It's great to see someone actually undertaking a little research project like this to come up with some empirical data, rather than simply continuing to spout the same myths that get recycled over and over. The whole "pickup under a harmonic node" idea makes me laugh. My Tele has its neck pickup under the 24th fret harmonic node, and as a result, open-string 5th-fret natural harmonics are inaudible when played through the neck pickup. At first, i thought the guitar had dead spots, but then it occurred to me that it was the "harmonic node" in action.

Yep, i've gotta pick one up as well.

Princess Auto has a 1-ton Arbor Press for about $80. http://www.princessauto.com/shop-garage/fa...ton-arbor-press Apparently all you need to do is drill out the collet for the slightly larger shank of the StewMac caul and you're good to go.