Quarter

The measurements you need are there with a little math. The face of the saddle sits .232" in from the face of the base. So ... the face of the bridge base is 22.268 from the face of the nut, or 565.6 mm.

I cant see any easy way to repair that and not have it show. I'd fill it, then try and find a way to cover it with a graphic, inlay, or such.

Make sure to post back and let us know what its like.

Give it a thump and see how it sounds, if it makes you smile then take it home. There are lots of non traditional woods suitable for building a great guitar, though not all have the desired properties for necks and fingerboards.

- how do you guide the drilling to perfectly hit the bottom of the brige post hole??

Go the other direction, drill from the post hole to the cavity, a much bigger target and easy enough to hit freehand.

I was advised on this site to use Titebond to fix a laminate front to a guitar.

How thick of a laminate? Tightbond and other pva glues should not be used on thin veneers as it can soak through. With a veneer, its best to use a veneer glue.

Even though I sanded the whole guitar with great care, every little spec of remaining Titebond has resisted the stain

You can take all the care you want, but not getting the glue sanded off is hardly the glues fault.

I've buried waterslides under True Oil just fine. As was mentioned, TO will build a film thickness and cam be lightly wet sanded and leveled.

If your set on a simple Danish oil, you might re think the logo, lots of cool things you can do other than waterslide or decals. Engraved, inlayed, laser etched. use a branding iron, molded, cast, metal. plastic, colored epoxy ......

I generally like maple bodys and the brightness of maple can vary from piece tp piece or species to species. A lot can be done to tame the beast with good pickup and electronics selections too.

I like it

I use an old wash cloth, wet, but not dripping. Wipe the wood down enough to make the surface wet, but not soaking. Let dry then very lightly sand with a fine grade paper, 320 - 400 works well. Again, sand very lightly, take one pass and feel for whiskers, if its smooth, your done.

would a place like Home Depot do that?

They should, I got mine at Lowes. Just tell them what your up to and they generally are very helpful.

did you find that being water-based it raised any of the grain?

Not really, but I did pre-wet and knocked the whiskers off.

Strait pigment needs a binder to stay stuck so I doubt mixing it with alcohol will be very effective.

... I have used True Oil over the Minxax water based stain on a test piece with good results. Just know that the Minxax water based stain is heavily pigmented and will obscure some grain. For my experiment I was shooting for a trans butterscotchy Mary Kaye type washed out look.

The Minxax water based stain pigment base is very heavy on the white and will give you the MK vibe you want. Most colors they mix up on the spot and in at least my case were happy to do some custom mixing for my experiment. What I'd suggest is that if its a strait white that you want, pick the Winter White color and have them punch it into their computer, the formula will be x amount of white and assorted other pigments. I'd simply have then add up the remainder volume of non white pigments and substitute that volume for additional white.

True Oil contains mineral spirits so it may pull up an oil based product. Water or alchohol based dye would be best for clarity.

I have used True Oil over the Minxax water based stain on a test piece with good results. Just know that the Minxax water based stain is heavily pigmented and will obscure some grain. For my experiment I was shooting for a trans butterscotchy Mary Kaye type washed out look.

I'd stay with something not too busy or complicated, maybe a nice set of mop ovals.

Having radiused many fretboards, the natural inclination - if you're doing it by hand with a radiused sanding block - is to remove more material from the middle. You have to consciously work the ends and check yourself if you don't want it to happen.

That makes sence and may be what is going on. When hand sanding anything actually, if you use the typical back and forth / up and down action, the ends naturally have less sandpaper contact time than the middle areas.

But I wonder why it's called a 'no finish zone' so often and manufacturers keep it unfinished?

There is a difference between just sealing wood and a full blown finish. The "no finish" idea is about not developing a substantial / thick film thickness in those areas.

There are some fantastic Aussie woods for building. If it were me, I'd be hunting down some blackwood, a close cousin to koa.

I'm certainly no expert, but I'd probably not bleach, I don't think you will get all the black out of the dark half. I'd probably strip the finish, sand it down, dye it all black, sand back, then do the red. A little black in the grain won't hurt and will make the figure stand out a bit more. Again, the trick here will be getting the whole top one even shade first.

Man ... tough month! All excellent entry's.

That looks great, real rich and deep color

Those portable tanks are handy for low volume stuff like an air brush, but its not going to be enough for a regular type gun. You could plumb a couple of them together for more storage, but your starting to get into less bang for the buck return on your $.

Somewhat related, a neat solution for more air storage if you have a smaller compressor is to find a scratch and dent water heater at the local supply house and plumb it inline. Water heaters are rated for 150Lbs and an extra 40 - 50 gal of storage can come in handy if you have a smaller compressor.

No problem Ron, glad to help if I can. ... For the feeler gauges, I'd suggest the steel as they will be harder and more suited to using them for cutting. Most any auto parts store will have some and I've seen the torch tip cleaners in Lowes, Home Depot too.

All of these are fine for a project or two, but in the end, its hard to beat a set of real nut files if you do much nut work.

That looks great Ron, I like your recurve on top.

There have been a bunch of threads here over the years on alternative nut slotting tools. Feeler gauges with teeth notched in them and welding torch tip cleaners seem to come up quite often. Needle files can work fine if you find a set with the right sizes, in particular, a joint round edge style is helpful. A joint edge file is basically what nut files are and come in gauged sizes. Those Xacto razor saws are great for starting the slot.

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fngrpepr ... an acoustic bridge certainly could work, but my reservations on that style is that I believe its radiused on the bottom and designed as a floating bridge. Other issues you may have is the overall height and grounding of the strings.

... The only thing I really don't like about it is that you can only get blades from Sears at that size.

Many places will make them up for you, I've bought from ToolCenter.com and been satisfied, got a 1/2" Lenox Diemaster and it cuts quite well.

http://www.toolcenter.com/070_5_Band_saw_Blades.html

Here is a place to get the 6 x 19 mm bearings when yours fail

http://stores.ebay.com/VXB-Bearings-Skateb...p;submit=Search

I have one, got it a couple years ago for a bit over $100 on sale. All in all its better than nothing and cuts ok with a good blade and setup. The worst trouble I've had with it is the guide bearings are crap. VBX Bearings sell 20 of the 6 x 19 mm for about $20 and I've gone through about 15 of them so far.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably shop around on Craigs List for a good deal on a 14".