soapbarstrat

I hate that when a company plays dumb, because you're interested in a product they no longer sell ( like, "hey, maybe he'll be forced to buy something we DO sell" ). Then again, we're talking 15-20 years. Might be a completely different crew there now. Sounds like the guy answering questions just transfered over from a Burger King gig. The old LMI catalog also states that ' Zeta Systems' and ' Rammirez' have used phenolic fret-boards. I also remember LMI would not slot the phenolic boards for you. I'm assuming Steinberger used these same boards. In my experience with other materials from McMaster, they don't seem at all interested in cutting down smaller amounts for you. What about Modulus, are they still in business ?

LMI used to sell it long ago. I bought 2 blanks from them in the 90's and used them on two guitar necks. Still have this one It was a "resin impregnated paper". In the old LMI catalog it says that Charles Fox sometimes used these black phenolic boards and they show a photo of a Charles Fox phenolic board with big block inlays. The LMI blanks were 21" long. They werer 1/4" thick, but I did my first compound radius job on the one pictured above and didn't like my first results of that, so I ended up making the board thinner in my next attempts. Anyway, you can contact LMI or Charles Fox to possibly steer you in the right direction. I remember the stuff smelled like plastic mixed with newspaper, so I always assumed the paper was actually newspaper. Edit : I glued the phenolic to maple with 2 hour epoxy. Can't remember what I cleaned the parts with first. Maybe Acetone, Lacquer thinner or naptha. Don't know about the one neck that I sold long ago, but on the one I still have, absolutely no glue failure and this neck bends a lot when the whammy dive-bombs.

The workers at Gibson used to wear those hats. Every once in a while, someone would accidentally sit on one, then they'd use that as a pattern for a new body design.

Hmmm. Looks like everyone is too ashamed to admit they've leveled frets with a frozen stick of margarine. Here's an "odd" one I use a lot : Empty Elmer's wood glue bottle as a dust blower. I use it to blow wood dust out of fret slots and also to blow metal dust away when crowning frets, etc. Of course, when I want 100% of the dust gone, I use a real air compressor, but the bottle is good enough half the time. Here's another I don't use extremely often and I got the idea from someone else : Dead 9 volt battery wrapped with tape. It's a "jack" to put under a floyd trem when you want to keep it in the dive-bomb position while doing work on the guitar. Telephone books can sometimes make a decent caul.

I don't think anyone's gonna beat the rubiks cube as most odd (considering how uneven the sides of those usually are !) But I'll continue with the sanding block theme, only in this case, I'm talking about blocks for sanding inside contours. These 'sanding blocks' are both oval shape. Been using these for years. Then much later I realized these are a larger version. Do I have to point out you need to attach sandpaper around them (with double stick tape, or held by hand somehow) ? 'cause it's likely I'll get a PM from someone asking how these things on there own, can do any sanding.

Built like a tank : one of those 9005 Marshall ones made in the 90's. I used one when I was in a band. Heavy as hell, esecially after you have it in a rack cab, but I assume you can get a great deal on one these days, since the outside looks "out of style", for today, but the guts inside give you a true Marshall power amp section, especially when cranked up. Just don't flip the pentode/triode switch while it's on. Mine blew a fuse when I did that. I bought a used *mint* one in the mid 90's for $350.00. (thought it was too good to be true when I saw the ad in the trader paper, and hauled ass to go get it. Reading a road map while driving , LOL ) Sold it a few years later for $400.00 Main reason I sold it was because it was too heavy to haul around. It was cool of Marshall to send me a photo copy of the manual when I asked them how I could get one. I don't think they charged me anything for it. Doesn't sound like much, but I would certainly want to avoid products from another company that wouldn't be as nice about something like that.

The factory will also coil different sizes in different radii, so they can put one coil inside of another. I have bought it this way; one coil inside of another, then another coil inside that one. Still a donut hole in the middle though. Longest piece of coiled I ever straightened was about 6 feet long and then I just layed it across the top of hangers on my wall for storage. But then I kept being tempted to go fret my street with 6 foot long frets. Pimped out speed bumps, I guess.

perfect opportunity to try that trick in the last Stewmac email where dan has made a bunch of stained baking soda powders to get real close to a matching wood fill color. (problem with sawdust is it turns quite darker when saturated with glue)

All the ones I have are described as " metal complex ", but only the 'honey amber' has an added "known to cause cancer in the state of california", on the back label, And I'm quite sure at one time I saw on the internet, the stewmac 'tobacco brown" has (or at least *had*) the same cancer warning. From Transtint I have : Honey Amber, Dark Walnut, Cherry red. From StewMac I have : Orange, red mahogany

If I ever take up Golf, think I'll grab me one of those.

Good question. Have wondered about it myself, and just guessed. I *think* I bought 'dark walnut' (I'd have to go in my paint room to look, but I'll probably walk through a spider web, and would rather not do that right now) Since I never had an actual bottle of SM 'Tobacco brown' , I still don't know for sure if they're the same. I noticed once that Stew's TB had some kind of added health warning on it (the 'honey amber' has that same added health warning-- and this warning was not on any of the other colors, that I know of). Now, the 'Dark Walnut' I have does not have that added health warning, so that has made me think it's not exactly the same as the TB. The 'dark walnut' is very dark. I could use a lighter shade than this stuff. I've already written to the TV networks, suggesting a ' Secrets of Stew-Mac' TV show. William Shatner is interested in being the host.

It's not a scam. Fact is, what are the chances that the radius of the factory coiled wire is going to be the right radius for your neck ? I know it will be perfect for *some* necks, but I'm not about to let the coiled size of fret-wire dictate what radius I'm going to put on a fret-board. I think about an 8" radius is the tightest I've seen factory coils of fret-wire. Now, that's not going to be so nice when dealing with 7" radius boards. And at the other end, that 8" radius is going to be problematic on that 16" radius Martin or whatever. For stew-mac, the straight wire is just a way to package the wire in neat tubes. Dunlop also offers it in 2 foot straight lengths in tubes. A lot of DIY banjo/mandolin guys would be screwed if all the wire came coiled (a fret-wire *straightening* machine is harder to obtain than a radius bending machine) In the past, Stew-Mac did offer some bulk fret-wire in coils. A Stew-Mac fret-bender was one of my first fretting tools. I knew right away it was an important tool for doing the job right. "Expensive", but still under a hundred bucks, and it keeps working fine year after year, while other $100+ items bite the dust. There's always the weekend garage project bending machines too. Oh yeah, even though most of my fret-wire is coiled from the factory, I roll it straight and reradius before using it. Not just to put a different radius, but also to work harden it.

Jescar is Allied's supplier (in case some of you didn't know it)

Have you been measuring the tangs/beads ? Usually the fret dimensions are the most consistent thing in the whole operation. When cutting the slots, consider blade "run-out", blade sharpness ( I've seen "frayed" end grain in fret slots from what I assume was a dull blade, and that doesn't work great for holding down frets). You should just add glue (I'm assuming you're not, so far)

I would just redo that one fret. Sawdust fill will show up quite a lot on wood that light. You could also do some "splint" type fills with pieces of the same wood. Looks like that middle fret has some wood areas on the right side that want to pop up. Or maybe it just appears that way and is not actually the case. Anyway, knocking down the whole board to bring it down below the depth of some minor chips seems extreme to me.

Had the opposite experience with them. I talked with Jeff Silver through several emails and at least one phone call, and he was very patient with me, and friendly, and the packing job of the fret-wire he sent me was a better packing job than anything that's ever been shipped to me, plus the fact the wire he's selling is the best I've ever had my hands on. Ok, he's not totally in love with selling small amounts (less than a full pallet load), but just be thankful he decided to do that. StewMac's wire has been quite good too, at least what I last bought from them a few years ago.

John Suhr recently posted that he's working on the idea of alternatives to wood for guitars. He even mentioned the word *plastic*. It will be very interesting to me to see what he comes up with. I don't think he would just repeat what others like Steinberger have already done.

So few inlay threads that it's best if they are in with a more generalized area (as they already are). If I was in charge, the opposite would happen. I'd put the 'auction/web supplies' section in with the 'buy and sell' area, and the 'BP build' thread would be in with the 'in progress' area with the other builds. I'd also be tempted to put the ' voting' area in with another area (or actually do away with it, 'cause the only ones that make sense are the 'guitar of the month' ones, and those could be done in the 'current news' area or whatever that area is called.

Can't make up my mind if this would be an *innovation* or not, but if MOP inlays are supposed to be so cool, then imagine how cool MOP and BUCKET inlays would be !

No personal experience, and very unlikely there ever will be after what you said about it. Sounds like you now have some "classical guitar" fret-wire, although I'd probably still work harden it, otherwise those wounds on a classical might still be too much for it. Another "good use" : The last few frets (on the extension) on a non-cutaway acoustic.

I'm pretty sure I once took my radius gauges and found my hot water tank at home to have a 10" radius. But right now, I'm staying at an enormous house that has water heaters (yes, 2 of 'em) that appear to be 24" across, which would put a 12" radius on the outside. Guess I should have brought some sandpaper and wood blocks, but that would take away from time spent raiding their well stocked Liquor cabinet.

Even from the tiny picture of those nippers in the HF catalogs, I always thought the angle of the jaws looked very wrong, so I never went near them. I'm surprised if they are tough enough to handle stainless. I watched a DVD where a guy uses Channel lock brand nippers (at least that's what they looked like) to cut stainless fret-wire, and man , his nippers were getting trashed.

Haha. Man does that take me back. When I was a little kid, I loved cola at room temp, with all the fizz gone. Of course not long before that, I used to eat the ends of off match sticks (the part that burns) Now, I drink maybe 2-4 cans of soda a year. Pretty much always mixed with alcohol. Never diet stuff though.

Rust is one of the main reasons I decided to bond 1/4" thick glass on mine. I wanted to make the damn things and be done with it (no annoying rust removal later on, etc. Plus the glass surface is so easy to clean and I can tell right away if there's some unwanted debris stuck on the glass. Believe it or not, I got the metal tube for that leveler off of this. My neighbors just don't realize what an idustrial supply they end up being for me. haha When I ran out of metal from that gate, I then used metal tube legs off a glass topped coffee table I ended up breaking by "accident". Nice to have a bunch for different grits. 19" is the longest I've made any and the 1" x 1" hollow steel seems plenty strong for mine.

Yeah, the hole drilling is always a mess on the first one. I made a couple and had not discovered 'center-drills' yet, or discovered a good way to move the work-piece with the help of a digital caliper yet . So I assume the next one I build will look quite good. Here's my first try. As you can see, the drill bit wandered like hell on me when I drilled the "key holes" in the steel base plate. I made this bridge (and a couple other guitar bridges just like it) for industrial purposes only (for working on necks in the workshop). The main thing I needed was to be able to easily pop the strings off and on, and I gave myself two options with that : one option is the key-holes. The other is that on the "lip" of the base, there are T shaped openings, where the string ball-end goes down the middle, and then is pulled off to the side. Stays in place when string tension is applied. I got the idea from some big company bridge I saw photos of.