LGM Guitars

seems to me I was saying how great poly's were in the spray gun post Poly has made my life so much easier, it can be tricky to work with, but it's amazing paint. I love it.

If you are going to use mahogany for a bass neck, due to the length and thickness of bass necks, I would suggest using some graphite rods in it for strenght. Mahogany isn't really the best choice for a bass neck. Stew Mac sells graphite strips that are like .125 x .250 that you can put into the neck for added strength. Nothing would suck worse than building your first neck, having it look great, and finding out it's not strong enough. For what it's worth, if that wood is very light, it won't be maple I don't think, more likely a poplar or basswood.

e.g. I dont like Fender guitars I don't either

I still think giving away the swirl secret is like the 12 year old brother telling his 5 year old sibling santa isn't real. Swirls were kind of a magical finish, not really all that tough to figure out, but a magical finish, now that's shot.

I would suspect (I have never used it) it would be harder to get a smooth even surface, and you'd be far more prone to runs on the sides, filling of screw holes, dripping into cavities etc. There is a reason that spraying is used in shops. You don't need to have a full spray gun set up, some very beautiful finishes can be acheived with a spray can. This guitar was all done with a spray can and polished out

of course you did

yup, brass around the edge, abalone shell for the rest except the wing.

Here it is, all inlayed, ready for polishing, lots of time before clear though

Basically there is no secret to a factory finish, just lots of patience, practice and elbow grease. First step is to make a trip to www.stewmac.com and buy the product Micro Mesh. Second step is to decide on your clear coat, I use Poly Urethane 2 part automotive clears. (PPG, DuPont, RM etc) Now, Step 3 is patience, you need to spray and sand. I Spray a few coats (even coverage) on the body, waiting about 30 minutes in between coats, these coats are important to get on fairly thick, or in the next step you'll take off color finish on the corners. So spray them on thick, then let them cure for 24 hours. Start with 600 Grit sandpaper wet with water, DON'T ADD SOAP like some people say. Unless you use only Ivory bar soap, it has no oil in it, anything with an oil in it, you will not get a good finish in the next steps. So, take your sandpaper (block it with a hard block) and sand the body with the 600 until it is totally flat, no runs, no bumps, nothing. There will be little tiny scratches everywhere, thousands of them. Next, take 800 grit and repeat the process. If you had the clear spray out nice, this should only take about 2 hours. If you've got runs, and lots of bumps, more like 4 probably. Careful on all the edges or you'll end up right through your color coat. Step 4, ok, now your arm is sooooo sore, you won't wanna spray another coat, to bad, we want to get the next coats on withing 36 hours of spraying the first ones. So, I generally spray 3 more "wet" coats on at this point. Then, guess what, you do it all over again, starting with the 600 grit, only this time, after we finish with the 800, we jump to the micromesh, start with the 2400, 3200, 3600 and then 4000. Each time being sure not to change grits until you've taken out all the scratches from the last grit. at 4000, it will be looking pretty good, but not factory. So......... Step 5, now we spray again, I do 2 coats at this point, only sprayed on a little thinner. Careful, we don't want runs at this stage. You can start with the 2400, and work your way to the 4000 again after these 2 coats. Step 6, now we've done all our spraying and sanded to 4000 again. Then go after it with the 6000, 8000, and 12,000 grit, you'll want to push hard with the 8000, and 12000, this is more like burnishing than sanding. MAKE SURE ALL THE SCRATCHES FROM PREVIOUS GRITS ARE OUT!!!!!!!! if they aren't, all you'll do is magnify the scratches with the polished coats. Step 7, ok, last step (hmmmm, and 7? LOL) while you were ordering from stew mac, you can order some swirl remover, I like to apply it with the foam buffing pad you can buy and chuck in your dril. . once you've got it all polished with the swirl remover, leave it sit another 3 or 4 days, then, put your guitar back togehter, and enjoy it. The process is the same with laquer only you'll end up spraying about 15 or 16 coats of laquer, and you want to wait a good 2 weeks before you do your final sanding and polishing, laquer shrinks forever. GOOD LUCK!

they are scribed in by hand, and will be filled with a black (or dark color) epoxy fill once inlayed, right now they were just drawn in with a ink pen so you could see them.

Wasn't sure whether to put this here or the acoustic thread, but as it's just an inlay right now, I'll leave it here. The pieces aren't inlayed yet, but here they are cut out for the headstock. The inlay is all abalone, except the 3 feathers, they are spruce, and cedar.

No no no, you read it wrong, it was 3 parts clear, 1 part hardener, and 1 part reducer!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!! There's no secret to any of this, I only wish I'd had someone tell me some of what I now know when I started (and I've only just been doing this a year) I used to spray nitro only, then I had something go wrong, I had to strip 3 bodies I'd done. 2 bodies I had 20 hours a piece into (one of which is the body in the above picture) and one had almost 40 hours of airbrushing and **** into it. That was the day I said NEVER AGAIN to Nitro. The other downside to Nitro, is wait a good 3 weeks before you polish, it will take AT LEAST that long to stop shrinking enough that you won't polish and come back a week later and say, funny, this thing used to be smooth. The other GREAT thing with the Poly, is I use it to seal all my bodies with now too. Just spray on a couple good coats, let it cure, it gives you a wonderful surface for paint afterwards.

Hey dude, Poly Urethane is a 2 part plus reducer paint. I use PPG or RM Diamont. Yes, it is that expensive unfortunately. The smalles about I've been able to get was a quart of the clear, a pint of hardener, and a quart of reducer, that was about $100. The paint mixes 3:1:1 for the RM and 2:1:1 for the PPG. I spray primarily either automotive base coat paint, or Createx Auto Air airbrush paint for color, and use the Poly only for clear. You could try going to a body shop and purchasing a small amount, you only have about a 3 hour pot life once it's mixed though, and if they do sell you a small amount, even unmixed, you have to use it soon, or make damn sure it's sealed well. The hardener has a very short shelf life if not sealed well. I can't remember the name of the gun I use right now, and it's out in the shop and it's -22 degrees here right now, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for me to tell you the name LOL. one other thing, if you want to save yourself many headaches, invest in a water trap for your airline as well, nothing is worse than moisture in your finish....

Hey dude, here are the benefits of a bigger gun like I recommended. First of all, the larger pot allows you to make sure you don't run out of paint, nothing sucks worse than having to mix a new batch of paint halfway through a job. Plus, if you ever want to do an acoustic, or a neck thru guitar, you will be spread very thin with 4oz. If you are spraying nitro (I hate nitro, and it's probably illegal in Arizona which is why you can't get it, I know it's illegal in Minnesota) you don't want to run out, you don't want to have a coat flash before you get the next on. The other huge bonus to the 32oz cup, is, I usually mix 12oz and do 2 bodies at once, I lay my bodies flat when I spray, and flip them from front to back. No matter how you do it, you will inevetabley have to tilt the gun forwards at some point, with the larger cup, you can have it half full, and still tip a long way before the paint gets to the top of the cup and gets the lid all sticky. Also, those little guns are fine, and as Brian told me last night, you can afford to throw them away, but, really, 8 of those little guns, and you've paid for a big one. The big one offers you more versatility. Eventually, I'm sure you'll find more than a guitar you want to spray hehehe. As for HVLP, they are primarily for industrial use it seems. A couple friends in autobody here bought them for cars, and promplty sold them, they spray the paint on thick, without overspray, but the paint just doesnt' lay out as nice, and requires alot more polishing. Most companies are using Poly Urethane's now. It's a 2 part automotive clear, it's expensive, about $200 a gallon, but it's worth the money, you'll get about a dozen guitars out of that amount. you can buy less, but it's cheaper to buy a gallon. Here is a guitar just out of the booth that I sprayed, with poly, no polishing yet, just the clear. I'd say a good gun is worth it's weight in gold

You don't want HVLP unless you are spraying large large items, they are useless for guitars. I've owned them. Also, you can't use a regular compressor with 90% of them, you have to buy a complete system. Also, getting paint to lay smooth with HVLP is very hard. I've owned HVLP's, gravity feed, syphon feed, airbrushes, you name it LOL!!!!. My recommendation, is get a small automotive gravity feed gun, something with a 32oz pot is nice. Reason for gravity feed? you use ALL the paint, you don't have to throw away a little bit. With the cost of some paints, you don't want to be tossing anything. As for a small gun, I recommend the Paasche H series airbrush, they will still do a fairly wide pass with the #5 tip (about 1.5") and can do down to less than 1/16" pass with the #1 tip if you are **** about your paint consistency. As for the big gun, the big trick is to make sure your compressor will keep up with it, when I upgraded the gun, I didn't have a big enough compressor with my regular one, thankfully I had a second larger one that I am using now. Look to spend around $125 for an average gravity feed gun, and about $90 to $100 for the airbrush. I don't recommend ebay for this stuff, you don't want a gun that someone has used, and didn't clean properly. Some of the 2 part paints will not clean out once they've cured. I don't like buying someone else's headache. The other thing you MUST consider if you don't already have one, is buying a carbon filter respirator. Laquers are bad, you want a respirator for them, Poly Urethanes are deadly, you HAVE To use a respirator for them. I use a full suit, and generally a fresh air respirator system. You can respray a guitar if you screw up, but you can't rebuild your health once you damage it with that stuff. Also, if you are going to be spraying laquers or poly urethanes, check your local codes to make sure you aren't breaking any laws spraying in a garage or something. Laquer is fine up here, but I know it is illegal to buy laquer in quite a few states, Poly's are easily bought, but most places require it to be sprayed in a proper filtered booth. Chances are you would never get caught, but all it takes is one upset neighbor with a dead cat

Nah, I don't think he forgot, cuz he stated "manufacturers" which home brew guys aren't. I prefer LGM Guitars work LOL!!!!!!! But Ibanez is my favorite manufacturer

I'll chime in as an avid Jem lover, The Jem has a few things about it that NO other guitar has, which, are only useful if it's what you want. Well, honestly, not just the Jem. The Jem is like the "elite" RG, and the RG's, have one thing far and above better than any other guitar on the market, IF it's what you need. If you are a whammy bar user, The Edge, and Lo Pro Edge trem is second to none. It is simply the most accurate trem system on the market for heavy bar use. now, having said that, There are 2 other trems I've used that are just as accurate, but in my books, still not as useful, here is what and why The ball bearing trem on the Vigier Excalibur, and the Parker Fly floating trem. Both are deadly accurate, but neither one allow the intense pull ups and deep dive bombs as the Edge system. I have either owned, or installed most kinds of floating bridges in guitars, from Kahlers, Schallers, Peavey's, OFR's, lo pro FLoyd roses, Edge's, Lo Pro Edge's, Wilkinson, Standard strat style, TRS's, Lo TRS's, and blah blah blah. None, are as accurate as the Edge systems. Having said that, the Edge can also be one of the most finicky to set up as it is so smooth, but, like a finely tuned Ferrari, once it's set up, it's pedal to the metal and go. To me, this is the biggest benefit to the RG/JEM/Universe/S/JS, and all higher end Ibanez guitars. Pickups, well, the Jems come with a pretty high end pickup, but, still, not all people like them. Pickups are not a really valid consideration because they are easily changed. The Jem neck, to ME is perfect, there is no other guitar with a neck like it. The Jem was also kind of the first Mainstream shred guitar to have funky inlays, it also sported new exciting colors, the neons, flowers, and then swirls (admittedly, swirls were first done by ATD on fenders in the early 80's) but popularized on the Universe and jems. The Jem isn't necessarily better than alot of other guitars, but doing Jem style inlays, and Jem finishes comprises the majority of my business. I even have a customer sending me a OM10 Larrivee for a Jem vine (not my personal choice on a Larrivee) so it's obviously a popular vine, however, it was not original, it was first seen in the 70's on the Bob Weir Ibanez. So, bottom line, are Jems perfect? for me yes, for you, maybe not, are they better than most guitars? for their intended purpose, I think so, huge whammy antics and shred abuse is what the Jem is designed for. Are they versatile? yes, very, they have amazing tonal variety with the pickups they use. They also offer one of the best access neck joints on a bolt on neck guitar. Are they worth the money? well, if it's what you want, they are. PRS's aren't worth $5000 either, but they get it. If you consider what a Jem costs, vs building a guitar yourself, or even modding an RG to look like a Jem, they aren't that bad a price, certainly comparable to a USA strat, or any Les Paul if not a little less money, for what is IMO a far more versatile guitar. No, I'm not a Jem or Ibanez snob, I just love the guitars I play, and I play them, because they are the best guitar for me. I've owned a lot of guitars, and the Jem's, Universe's, and RG's just do it best for me. I think they are worth the money, and will continue to play them until I find something better.

Happy Bday duder!!!!!!! player rock

most marbelizing kits use a feather to put the marble veins in, it's actually stupidly easy once you read the instructions, Ed Roman could make a frickin production out of picking your nose too

I'll take em, sent ya an email

well, some good news, Ebay has removed the Negative feedback he left me, I'm back to my all positive rating. Well, as much as I'd like to see this guy removed from the planet, at this point, I'm back to my honest rating, I'm happy...

my personal recommendation is stay away from the stew mac fretwire. It's not as hard as the Dunlop wire, and it's also their own kooky sizes. It doesn't match the dunlop. You can buy a pack of 24 precut 2 5/8" lengths of fret wire from dunlop. You should easily be able to measure up your existing frets and find the size you need. Dunlop products

that guitar is beautiful, I had to keep looking back though, I kept thinking it says Dave Weiner, and I was like, damn, the guy can rip it up with Vai AND build a sweet guitar???????? LOL!!!!!!!!!

The list has dwindled a bit recently, but still not doing badly, Ibanez JEM911USA (custom jem, red white and blue swirl, red white and blue pyramid inlays, nearing completion) JEM7VWH JEM777SK UV7BK UV777VSK (customized UV7BK) UV7BK (soon to be a UV77MC, new body and inlays) some Ibanez strat thing, customized American Master (soon to be completed) RG550 in various pieces RG550 in more pieces Guild D25 custom built acoustic Gilmore "dolphin" steel string Gilmore "dolphin sister" nylon string Amps and effects Rack: Rexx 1602 Rexx 1602 Quadraverb GT Eventide H3000D/SX BBE 482 sonic maximizer Korg DTR2 tuner Furman power conditioner Cabinets: Carvin 2x12 (two of them in stereo) Floor: Morley Bad Horsey Morley Super Distortion wah (with Distortion channel removed) Digitech XP100 Whammy ART X15 midi pedal (to eventide) ADA midi pedal (to quadraverb) Boss DS1 (currently MIA) and a partridge in a pear tree............

project is underway