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Project S9 Continued...


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Ok. we all agree pine is killer tone. However it has several gotchas.

These blanks sat in my shop for a year because this wasn't my first Pine rodeo.

These blanks were made from very clear sections of the boards with very little knots.

This particular blank is a 4 piece blank by default (mess ups on my part) and the grain is now properly aligned.

It dents every time you look at it wrong. This blank fell off the drum sander and picked up 2 horrendous dents I couldn't get out. I dropped the battery drill behind the bridge and got a nice cross dent that is so deep it won't come out. I laid it on the bench and a stray fret end cause tons of damage to the back as it rolled around under it. You get the idea...

If you don't let it dry properly it will be a nightmare. My bench 2x4s were only 3 weeks removed from lowes. They ruined every piece of sand paper I put to them. Very expensive when we are talking 60" belt sanders and 22" drum sanders (or the new 19-38).

I sealed every knot with thick CA. Because I have dealt with unstable wood before I know better.

Coating a piece of Pine in epoxy is a mixed bag. It might turn out ok it might not.

Oil finish on Pine == Stupid. Bad things will ensue. Use nitro.

It is light. Making it easy to build a neck heavy guitar. I consider myself pretty good at the light guitar and I almost ended up with a neck heavy monster on this one. The added Tele hardware (control plate, vol tone sw, bridge) saved me.

I knew this would work because my hero Benedetto proved that it is the luthier that makes a guitar not the wood.

http://benedettoguitars.com/2011/09/16/flashback-friday-knot-so-bad/

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I don't know why everyone assumes people hate pine because of tone voodoo.We all know pine sounds just fine because almost all of us built out first practice guitar from it.

The other considerations Rad mentions are why it isn't used much.I personally feel a Pine Explorer would be awesome because the huge body needs a lighter wood than mahogany IMO.I would use white pine though,not construction grade yellow unless it was REALLY old.Old enough to turn grey

There is no conspiracy against pine,but every time it is used it comes up as if there is.

I think the tele looks awesome.

Edited by westhemann
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I personally feel a Pine Explorer would be awesome because the huge body needs a lighter wood than mahogany IMO.

Yes. This would be the bomb. Thanks Wes for adding another project to my list.

I am feeling a traditional Explorer with pickguard and traditional explorer routes made from Lowes white pine.

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There was a video on youtube that I was trying to find (to reply to this "pine tone discussion"- but its gone now- its of Arlo West and a pinecaster either he made or had made- it had a cocked wah set up - it had one pickup- something like- pickup only, pickup with regular tone and cocked wah tone. That thing was freaking amazing sounding. The cocked wah sounded like shitte clean- but with distortion it was like instant Michael Schenker (albeit with a single coil pickup)- very very cool. That video had him playing "just got paid" and it was so bad ass sounding. Completely changed my mind about pine.

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Needed a switch knob for the Blackguard. I could order one but this is a cheap prototype so lets grab a piece of ABS and make a knob. Can't be that hard. I didn't use the drill press to drill the hole so the first 2 ended up being a bit crooked. After finally getting a straight hole I rounded it on the belt sander, sanded it with a 180 grit sponge and buffed it on the buffer wheel.

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Have you decided that the cnc is the way to go for multi-scale fret slots?

SR

Not yet. I liked my other method. But I broke the template when I dropped it on the ground. Instead of cutting a new template I just cut a fretboard as an experiment.

I have yet to string up a guitar that I slotted using the CNC. Hopefully soon I will and we can talk about it. All the measurements are dead on so we will see moving forward. It takes the CNC 15 minutes or so to cut a board plus a little setup time but it is nice to be able to do other things while it is cutting.

Knowing I can push the .026 bit through the board without breaking it is good. Being overly cautious I left the slots shallow on the first couple of boards and I still have to finish the slots with a hand saw. The Dozuki is really sharp and easily cuts wherever it wants sometimes that can lead to errors which makes me nervous.

If the CNC proves it can reliably cut slots I may let it. But you know how it likes to go astray at the worst possible time on the most exotic woods...

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