MzI

the best way to go is to squeeze the whole thing out at once then you know you will have equal parts mixed. I got a smalled tube of it so I could do one side at a time and then let it dry then sand it off. Its kind of a pain to try and get the stuff on there when the guitar is hanging in the air. MzI

i just rough mine out on the bandsaw then finished it based on my fretboard by hand with a rasp MzI

do you mean the tape through the body?? Genreally I leave mine straight and just tape the actual neck MzI

the body looks pretty badass, i think it would pretty cool with a reverse jackson style headstock MzI Ps just maybe ill see what it looks like in cad

the wood is more then likely popular with the green tint in it MzI

If you like the marshall sound I say go for it. I personally dont like the Marshall sound, thats why I bought a Mesa, but I still have my Marshall Cab. Theres really no point in trying to emulate a particular sound when you can just go and get the real thing and do it correctly. MzI

THe reason I bought a pack was to try it. I didnt have enough other stuff to place a full order from stewmac. 26 pieces came in the pack so there is more then enough in case of mess ups. I only had a 22 fret boards so 4 spare is more then enough and I didnt have any scew ups. I have a fret bender and its really not that hard to cut fret wire into little pieces. So if I was working on more then one guitar at a time and had enough to place an order at stew mac then I would just buy a bunch of fretwire. It doesnt take that long to radius and cut it. MzI

i got a package of the gibson stuff. 26 pieces for $10 precut and preradiused for 12". it feels like a medium/jumbo fret wire. not like a normal jumbo of today. no complaints here so far MzI

make a donation to the site and ill do it MzI

no, dont use plywood MzI

looks nice, but i really dont like the way people bid ebay, jumping from 190 to 425 is that really necessary when your outbidding yourself or your just raising your own bid ok im done ranting MzI

The router bits I use are from woodcraft. Double flute pattern bits. I started using a 1/2 shank by 2 inch cut with the bearing on the end. That one created major kick back and got to be really dangerous. Plus I destroyed the first one I had. The purple heart actually chipped the bit. I beleive there is some pictures in my thread of the chipped bit. I bought another of the same bit and even brand new it was still kicking back. So I moved to a smaller pattern bit. Two flutes again. This one is only a 1 inch cut length 1/4 shaft with the bearing on the shaft itself. They are carbide bits. Heres the link to them Woodcraft bits. The only thing I dont like about the woodcraft bits is they dont have a warranty on them. Although part of the collar on my 1 inch bit lost a set screw so I called them up and they sent a brand new collar for free to me. I honestly dont understand all those angled and spiral bits. I stick to the straight flute ones because I know they work. I only got one real small bit of tear out using the 1 inch bit and that was because I was going against the grain and there was some stress cracking in the wood. But it isnt that bad it will be fairly easy to hide. MzI

A robo sander wont do you much good. It will just burn the wood. The best way is to get within 3/16 of an inch. You dont want to go too close because purple heart likes to chip when cutting it with a bandsaw similar to ebony. All you really can do with a sander is touch the surface of purple heart. When you do have to sand use 60 grit or lower, when your trying to take wood off. Finish sanding is the same as always. When I did my tummy cut, I found the best way to do it was with a rasp. After that I cleaned it up with a sanding disk on a grinder. The grinder barely touched the wood. That was with a 50 grit disk too. Also I drive a Ford and have no problems with it whatsoever. MzI

Thought id post a couple more pics of what I did tonight. Control cavity cover Control layout Headstock I got the control cavity cover cut. The wood came from the same board as the neck lams and also the top from my first guitar. There isnt any napatha or anything on that wood thats how it actually looks. I removed the trace paper from the headstock. Took a bit of sanding cuz it was on there for so long. Now I just hafta drill the holes for the tuners. Going to wait on that for a lil bit because I havent decided what kind of tuners im going to use yet. The headstock is actually 3 pieces but the lamination came out well I cant find the glue lines. I had no luck in finding my router bit to cut the binding channel so ill have to look some more tomorrow. Its finally getting close to finish. As of now im thinking that this may be the last new guitar I start for the summer. Ill end up finishing my Purple heart V and that will be it. This guitar I will prolly end up entering into my local woodworking show next april. My bass actually came in 3rd place in the novice category. It can be found here Bass Pictures , click the 2005 winners, Then click the novie category to see a picture of the top 3 winners. Just to let you know. The violin was built by a professional and the cabinet that came in second place was also built by a professional. MzI

I shall warn you now about purple heart. Do not try to route the full body depth in one pass because your router will kick back and you will also get a lot of tear out. Just really take your time. The way I ended up doing mine was only routing 1 inch passes at a time. Also be careful around the horn areas as they can be a pain MzI

Im not quite sure if i could fit a barrel jack on the front and recess it. Right now the body is only 1 1/2" thick its kinda slim. Ill definetly look into it because as of right now I have no idea on what to do with the input jack. I really dont wanna go with the traditional lp plate on the side. Im not a big fan of the plates. Plus im going with a very minimalist approach to this guitar as a whole. MzI Edit: Matt, I looked at that recessed jack picture you put up in your thread. The one problem for me is that I use right angle cables so burying the jack too far into the body wont work for me.

Update time. This time for the Purple Heart Soloist. The body shaping is done. Body contouring is done. Neck joint is just about done. Gotta clean it up a bit theres a couple small lil dents here and there. I have a lil more work to do on the headstock, mainly drilling tuner holes and cleaning up the transition area. Next couple things I have to do are the input jack, havent decided if im going with a barrel or just a regular one. Drilling holes for the volume and tone and 3 way toggle. Make a control cavity cover. And I still dont have a fretboard. I decided im gonna go with ebony though with no inlays for a nice clear look. I thought about doing reverse shark fins but decided it be too much like a jackson and itd take away from the rest of the guitar. As for parts I have pretty much none. I have pickups which are gonna be duncan distortions, yea this guitar is gonna rip, and a tune o matic bridge from carvin, one of the slim designs. O and I have some precut and preradiused fret wire that I found at my local shop. The fretwire is actually from Gibson. Its a package of 26 pieces. 12" radius, and I believe it to be a medium jumbo wire. It was like $10 so I thought id try it. All my hardware will be gold, pickup rings will be black and itll be strings thru. And heres the pictures. Front full Back full Back close up Tummy cut Yes that is carved Purple heart Heel 1 Heel 2 Control cavity cover and top binding MzI Edit: Forgot to tell ya the current weight, just over 7 Lbs. Yes 7. And thats without a fretboard and truss rod. Im guessing this will end up in the 9 pound range by the time im done with it.

looks like that V washburn made for dime. you can prolly find a picture of it online somewhere and trace it to get the general proportions. Also dont shorten the lower leg to make it easier to play sitting down having 2 equal legs works just fine playing sitting down MzI

I havent done much on the soloist and the V. The router bit im using i lost the set screw that holds part of it together. I should be getting them in tomarrow from woodcraft. I will say that their costumer service is great. I told them what happened and they are sending me a couple extras free of charge and they are taking care of the shipping costs. Anyways here are two projects im working on right now. They are just refins but good experience none the less. Explorer back headstock back of the neck with flash its my old ltd exp 200 it was originally black. I sanded it down to the sanding sealer sprayed some primer and then some white. The white i used was wimbeldon white for 64-69 fords. Yes like the best white ever. Im also refinishing a cheap strat copy that one will be gloss black. I didnt get a chance to spray any black on that. It was a little too late tonight to start it. Ill spray it tomarrow. As for clear im waiting for a logo for the explorer should be in in a day or too and then ill spray both guitars at the same time. I also picked up a buncha wood for really cheap. An old lady down the street from me was getting rid of some stuff from her husband who passed away not too long ago. Its all rough sawn but there is a lot there. I believe there is some cherry and some ash. And just maybe some maple. Well see when I plane it down this week. Anyways here a couple pictures of the pile all stacked up and in the back of the truck when I got it home. 1 2 3 4 More pictures tomarrow MzI

its ok to use the original paint as a base. If its a gibson tho you might consider sanding it down to the sealer, their lacquer tends to check after time and will show up in the new paint job. If you are gonna sand it down 60 grit on a palm sander works wonders and is extremely quick MzI

guitarbuild.com

you hafta be a lil more specific then saying just a gibson headstock, they have quite a few different ones. for example, lp, explorer, flying v 67 flying v 59, firebird etc etc MzI

if you down tune at all even half a step youll want the maple. Dont forget that you cant eq a guitar to sound brighter but you can always tone it down a bit. Id personally go with regular 500k pots if your using buckers. Another advantage to the maple is its stiffer MzI

why make a guitar with a solid body of purple heart? to do it. I am actually working on 2 right now. No chambers in my guitars MzI

It really is. Everytime I go to work on it something happens. It really dont help motivate me to work on it. Itll get finished eventually. Plus on the bright side, because this purple heart is so hard that anything else I use like maple will be a breeze in comparison. MzI