Please allow me to introduce myself...

[SawDust_Junkie]

Hello everyone !

I'm new here (just registered a couple of weeks ago) and would like to apologize if I have broken the forum etiquette by just now getting around to introducing myself.

I was simply overwhelmed by all of the information and talent that I found here. I got so excited I just jumped right in !

In any case, My name is David and I am brand new to the world of guitar building, but it is something that I have thought and dreamed about for many years.

I recently began working on my first project guitar and it is going well so far. I decided that I did not want to start with a "kit" guitar. I wanted to get my hands dirty and learn and see something form from nothing so to speak.

I am almost finished with the neck and will soon begin my body cavity routing. I am extremely happy to have found this site, as it has already kept me from making some mistakes.

I look forward to learning much from all of the veteran posters here and hope to be able to contribute myself one day !

Edited September 13, 2004 by Fender4me

[Jehle]

Well, wecome aboard. Diving in at the deep end and just going for it. I think that's great. Perhaps you can show us a picture of the guitar when it's all done and give us some sound clips too.

[Maiden69]

Welcome, , and may the guitar building gods help you on your first build from scratch... you are brave my friend. Be sure to post the pics of your progress in the inprogress area and ask any question you may have about on the same thread, it will be easier to get your information that way.

Good Luck.

[budman68]

Welcome aboard David! Hope you enjoy your stay

Dave->

[SawDust_Junkie]

Thanks for the wlecome guys !

I will post some pics soon. Just FYI I have always been partial to Strats, so its not surprising that my first try is going to be a Strat rip-off using my MIM Strat as a my template (along with much advice and many tips from this site and others as I go along).

I am using two pieces of Ash laminated for the body and Hard Maple for the neck, with a Rosewood fretboard ( I did cheat on that though, bought the fret-board pre-slotted from Stewart-Mac).

I know its kind of Vanilla, but I think I'm getting my feet wet pretty quickly here and did not want to make it too hard on myself. I would really love to do a French Polish on it for the finish, but methinks that might be a bit of over-reaching for my first time out of the gate. I think I had better not exceed my capabilities that far yet.

At this tme I have the neck assembled and just need to do the triming on the fret board and sand it to blend with neck. I also haven't done the shaping on the backof the neck yet, but I'm holding off on that until I get the frets installed.

My biggest problem is not having the proper tools, and not having the budget to really afford them. Luckily I have a great neighbor that I get along with really well and he has a band saw, belt sander, table saw etc... He's been really helpful so far.

So, I am struggling with whether to just get a the basic tools and hammer my frets in or go ahead and sink the money into Stewart-Mac's arbor press system. I know that this being my very first fret job, I would probably do better with the arbor press and cauls, but man its expensive. (and don't laugh at me for this being my first fret job, I know its biting off a huge chunk to chew on, but hey, we learn by doing!)

Maybe you guys can answer this question for me. I see the Stewart-Mac arbor press is like a 1/2 ton press. Is that amount of pressure really neccessary to seat the frets properly ? I had an idea of rigging up an old drill press adapter I have. You know one of those deals that takes a hand drill and turns it into a drill press. I figured I could rig up a 3/8" chuck or post of some kind on it and then just buy the Stewart-Mac arbor and cauls. Do you think this would work or am I dreaming ?

Also, if I get the Stewart-Mac arbor, What cauls do I need. The fret board I bought is a compound radius starting with a 10" radius at the nut and flattening to 16"radius at the heel. Would one 10" caul and one 16" caul be sufficient or would I need at least one in between, like a 12 " or a 12" and a 14" or maybe even more ?