soapbarstrat

Oh sure, now that winters comin', they suddenly want to fly south. Hehe If you can get all the republicans to go up there, I'll see what I can do to get you down here.

I think the advantage of the stew-mac one (which I bought many years ago), is that it has a longer than normal shank, which allows you to get to the bottom depth of pickup cavities while also riding on top of a template. Now if one of you guys knows where to get carbide tipped bits, of the same size, same shank length (or longer, because you could cut it down, or leave it long-might be even better), then I'd look into that, because if Stew-mac offers extra bearings, then we know it's pretty darn easy to install our own bearings if we find a bearingless bit. All you gotta do is measure the bit cutters with calipers and get a bearing the same size. The 3/8" is actually too big for tight pickup corners, like a humbucker hole in a pickguard, so you have to do the corners with a drill bit of the right size, before using the 3/8 bit.

Heat 'em up with a soldering iron to break the glue bond and pull 'em with the properly ground end-nippers. Then, the hard part is getting all the glue out, and you can easily put a deep scratch on the fret-board if one of your glue picking tools slips out of the slot. Be careful. I get some out with a tapered dental type bit in the dremel, then a really short saw blade (about 3/8" long blade), then x-acto type blades. If it's not so bad, just level the frets. Anyway, if you're new to fret leveling, you might have to re-level anyway. Maybe you should string it up to see how good you did, and just don't bend notes where the scratches are. Just some ideas. Solder-iron heat works well on super-glued frets too, because it really doesn't take a lot of heat to break the bond. I also use yellow wood glue sometimes. Water thin super glue is great for those import necks that have loose frets that you can't tell by looking.

All you can do is level them over until the scratches are removed from the top of the frets. That is , if you want 'em all level, with no scratches. You could also replace just the scratched ones, then level them all, which should keep them higher than leveling the scratched ones instead. I did that years ago. rounding off any sharp edges on the file helps

What kind of glue did you use ? (if super glue, water thin, medium or gel ?). I'm thinking about trying the gel type, because I assume less of the glue goes soaking far into the wood.

Should work fine. After all, it's an ebony board, that's never had frets before, right ? I wouldn't be surprised if you still get a little backbow if the fret tang beads are around .037". If it was me, I'd probably even mash the beads down , but we won't get into that, becaue I don't know the exact specs of your frets, or what kind of system you are using to install them. With the old-style hammer-in method, they even expect some backbow, and plan to loosen the truss-rod later to get the necks as straight as they can, to mill the fret-tops. problem is that it usually doesn't get perfectly straight, so they have to mill a little more off the fret-tops to get them all level. Yes, you'll need glue, because you'll have quite a gap between the slot walls and fret tang. Or you can look for other fret-wire, if you don't like that big gap. I guess I wouldn't like a gap like that either. On a .026" slot, on Ebony, I would prefer a tang width of .0255". I've never had that size slot, though, so it would be something new. I guess I'd have to order wire from Martin Co, with a tang width of .0275", and shave it down to .0255" and then even punch some new beads in, and shave those down to be no more than .027 wide, for my fretting method, but your method might be different. But, I should stop writing about what I prefer, because it's not the only way. If you want to master the old hammer-in method, you might be better off to not even read my fretting style preferences. Dan Erlewine did sound transmission tests on various fretting styles, and came to the conclusion that frets that had no glue at all, had the most poor reading on the meter.

Don't forget about bits ! CARBIDE tipped bits. Forget about getting your money's worth out of hss bits. Hardwood just wears them out in no time. I do fine with my Craftsman 1-1/2 hp router, which I very seldom even look at the numbers on the depth gauge adjustment. If I had to do it over, I would want something better than a Craftsman, although it has been doing me fine for over 10 years now. I especially like using it as a planer with a 3/4" carbide tipped bit, with the router up on supports and the wood piece to be planed, held firmly below, on a flat table underneath. A contracter I work with has a Ryobi that he hasn't even had that long, and the bearings are shot , and he hardly ever uses anything other than soft pine.

Brian, I hope you mean fret " beads" and not the tang, because on Ebony, even a 1:1 match of tang width and slot width is probably going to cause a little backbow. I'd want the tang width a half a thousanth smaller. ie: .0240" fret board slot / .0235" tang width. The beads are probably around .032", but I'd shave 'em down to the fret-slot width, for my method ,and use super-glue. They'll hold without glue if you leave 'em, but there's the backbow problem again. He's got to measure his slots and tang width and bead width.

Forstner bits are good, but if you want a pro look on a solid-body, you need a router. Or you can do the 'old world crafstmanship' way and use chisels, but it will take you at least a few years to know how to use them in a way that won't require a bunch of wood-filler to cover all your mistakes. How can you afford all the rest of the stuff to build a guitar and not the router ? I wouldn't go diving into a nice piece of wood, until you got the stuff to do it right. Starts with good reference tools (straightedge, ruler, calipers, squares) If you can only afford a fraction of the tools it takes to build a guitar, then you should stick with fixing already existing guitars for now, and get the tools needed for that, because those same tools are ones you'll need for building as well. Don't let God's damn mocking make you do things backwards !

Looked in an old Luthier supply catalog, and it says the treble side of the Novax fret-boards were 24.5 " scale. But I think I remember it said they were 24" in an issue of 'American Lutherie', but I sold that mag last year.

I don't know what scale lengths are on those basses, but when the Novax fanned fret system came out in the early 90's, the Guitar version that Ralph Novak was building had 25.5" scale for the low E, and 24" scale for the high E. I do sort of prefer the sound of the high E on one of my 24" scale guitars over the high E on my 25.5", for certain songs, but I can't say that I prefer a 25.5" scale low E any more than a 24 3/4" or 25" scale. A 24" low E isn't so great, though. I think a 25" is a good compromise. Ralph has a patent on this fannned fret design, but Sheldon Dingwall must think it's pretty good to pay the fees to Ralph for using it. Interesting that Sheldon is putting phenolic nuts on his basses. I have done that and think it suits basses very well. I've had mixed results with it on guitar, though.

Derek, I sort of did that, on a scaled-down stratish body that was very heavy and didn't sound that great to me. It had a pickguard, so I only drilled what the pickguard would hide. As many 3/4" inch holes as I could get in there with a forstner(sp?) bit. I then made my first wood pickguard, which was actually plywood, with a nice looking oak veneer on the outside. The guitar sounded better and I sold it within a year. I think my alder body strat with a "swimming pool" rout sounds much better, so I think I'll stick with that variation for my strat bodies with pickguards. You wouldn't have to saw the top of a body off, you could just sand/plane the top to fresh bare wood, perform the 'Canadian chamber hole massacre', then glue a top over it. Problem would be if it's a body with contours, so I'm really thinking a tele body would be best. I'm wondering with drilling several holes, instead of a big "pool" rout, if you make the guitar sound bigger ? Because there's so much more area for the sound vibration to travel. I could be all wrong, because I don't really know how that stuff works (if the sound travels to every outer edge of wood and if that makes anything worthwhile or noticable to the sound). Then theres the option of removing wood between bridge and neck, or to the sides of that (thinline) or both ? I think there is such a thing as taking away too much wood. At least I got that idea from an article I read about John Mooney modding his strats with an over-sized "pool" rout under the pickguard, to simulate the sound of his other guitars, which were less road-worthy National hollow-bodies. He was quite pleased at how close he got the strats to sound like those hollowbodies, but he said a company that routed some bodies for him, actually routed out too much wood, and he glued some wood back in. How he knew what the right amount to take out is, is a mystery to me. I didn't rout my strats quite as much as a photo of his looks, just to be safe. Maybe I'll rout a little more out on another body and see.

The hollow and semi-hollow body sound will probably always be sought after by players and listeners, even if we have periods, such as the 80's, where the sterile solid body, hot humbucker, floyd rose sound is very popular, people's ears will seek for the hollow-body sound again and again. The electric guitar has become pretty boring, since everything that can be done with it, has been done. It started out way back, as an acoustic with a pickup, with not much sustain, then the 80's took the sustain as far as it could go, so it has kind of gone backwards now. Maybe it comes down to the fact that electric lead guitar appeal has worn very thin, and creative rhythm playing is more important. You don't need solid body sustain for good rhythm playing, and a hollow-body sounds more interesting for rhythm. Chambering is a fast and cheap way of making a solid-body sound more like a hollow/semi-hollow body. It's also much more stable. A hollow body electric can be hard to keep a consistant string action on, because the body is affected by weather changes and moves, causing the string action to rise and fall a little, so you end up leaving it a little higher than you would on a more stable solid-body. Maybe someday, they'll create a geat sounding synthetic wood that can be molded into hollow-body shapes, and allow a great sounding hollow-body to sell really cheap.

I wish Hela rang a bell, because I had a hell of a time trying to find good tools at good prices there. I can't remember all the shops names, but I did go to Hartmann (expensive), Toom, Hornbach and Obi. Not sure if I spelled them all right. Obi seemed to have the best prices, at least on the stuff I bought. If there's a better shop that I haven't been to (maybe Hela would be just that), then I hope I can go there next time. Unfortunately , I've become spoiled in the US, with being able to buy stuff, such as Chinese dial indicators for only 7 dollars. It also seems like I have paid less for tools made in Germany that I bought in the US, then what I've seen them selling for in Germany. I know I got off the sandpaper subject.

I'm not a fan of piezo pickup sound, but it's pretty impressive, especially since when I first saw Bear's photo of the strat body routed all to hell, I thought, "oh no, what did he do ? " Would be interested to hear how another version would sound, with regular guitar pick-ups in it, and maybe a bridge with a little metal on it, to make a strat sound more like a typical electric hollow-body. That's sort of what I did on my main guitar with putting a wood pick-guard on a "swimming pool" rout body. I think I got pretty close, but other more extreme mods, like Bear's latest project, might be even better to make a strat sound very close, or the same, as say a Gretsch Hollow-body.

Hi Ace, I copied this from a website: "When talking about sandpaper "grit" is a reference to the number of abrasive particles per inch of sandpaper. The lower the grit the rougher the sandpaper and conversely, the higher the grit number the smoother the sandpaper. This makes sense if you imagine how small the particles on an 800-grit sandpaper would need to be to fit into a 1" square. Sandpaper is referred to by the size of its grit (i.e. 150-grit sandpaper)." 1 inch = 25.4 millimeter 1 inch = 2.54 centimeter I live in Germany part-time (Frankfurt--not too far from you). I'm not in Germany right now, though. I did quite a lot of house rennovation work while I was there for 6 months this year, and of course, used some sandpaper (mostly used a scraper), but didn't pay attention to what was written on the back of the sandpaper that I bought there, and actually the sanding blocks I used most, were ones I brought from here (USA), but, they have German, cloth-backed sandpaper, made from a company called Klingspor. I bought this German made sandpaper here in the USA, pretty cheap as a "bargain box". Maybe Klingspor also makes sandpaper here in the USA, but I don't know, and I doubt it , because the quality seems too high. It has the same grit sizes printed on the back of the sandpaper as American sandpaper, as far as I can tell. And I don't know, if this same sandpaper was bought in Germany, that it would have the very same numbers printed on it. Now I'm wondering if this sandpaper grading system is international. We have people on this board from all different countries that might be able to answer this. I have just assumed it's the same everywhere. Micro-mesh "sandpaper" has it's own grit grading system, though. Rob

I think I've seen ads in the papers for them, but always had an uneasy feeling about going to one. Maybe cuz many years ago when I wanted a pickup truck and wanted to stretch my money as far is it would go, I went to a government car aution, and what I saw was not good. About 30 USDA pickup trucks that had dried mud caked everywhere inside the engine compartment. They were just totally beat to ****, so I left right away and didn't get to witness how the thing works, how much someone would actually pay for a piece of junk like that. A while ago, I did a google newsgroup search (groups) on tool auctions, and several threads say many people end up paying more for the tools at auction than they can buy them somewhere else (catalog, etc). There's a breed of people who just like the event so much, they'll pay extra for the experience ! And if that ain't enough to prove some people ain't hooked up right, I heard that Harbor Freight tools has ebay auctions, and people sometimes bid higher than what they can get the same item from HF, from their regular website, or HF retail store in their town ! Maybe SmokeyJo should get paid extra just for having to hang out with those bozos for a day.

I guess these type of auctions go on in every town, but I've never gone to one. I figured I'd go there and not have a clue how it works. I'd also hate to have to sit there for a long time waiting to bid on something and then get out-bidded by someone else. If you have any tips for someone going to a tool auction for the first time, I'd appreciate hearing them.

I bought 5 of those pointy Kramer necks about 8 years ago, but I sold all except one and he's on a body

with all the used necks around, including many on ebay, why would you want to match up a good old body with a honky new neck ?

Not sure about Hiscock (damn, that sounds weird), but Martin Koch can be reached easily by e-mail, and I'm sure if there happens to be anything in his book you have a question about, he would gladly try to answer your question by e-mail. Here is Martin's website : http://www.buildyourguitar.com/

Since those specialized nut-slotting files are damn expensive, it's not so nice to wear the hell out of them on a steel nut, but I've done it anyway. But then there's the theory that some materials are better for transmitting tone, such as aluminum, brass and synthetic nut materials, while other materials like steel alter tone and don't let much of the true tone go through them. But a nut supposedly has very little influence on the tone of the guitar, so wear-reistance becomes more important. I'm interested in a harder aluminum than what I've used in the past for guitar nuts. Anyone know of an aluminum type that would be very wear resistant as a guitar nut material ? Warmoth offers nuts made of nickel, and I'm wondering why they chose nickel. I might have to try that. I like brass bridge saddles, so maybe I should try brass nuts. Only that brass has a high friction rate on steel strings. The main think about a nut is how well the slots have been cut, and that can have a drastic effect on tone and playibility on a guitar. A good slotted nut made of plexi would be better than a poorly slotted nut made from Tusc or the standard materials. The plexi would get crappy fast though.

Bandsaw would prolly be best. I often drill small holes all the way around then snap the excess pieces off, then drum sand, file, etc. Besides roughing it out with the B-saw, it is best to use a template and a router with template following ball-bearing bit. Jig saw, could mess it up. Better be a smooth running J-saw with the right kind of blade, and work area firmly clamped down (J-saws often cause cracks when the material being cut is able to flop around or up and down)

I consider myself to be rather green about the whole ebay thing, since I've never bought or sold there, or even read up on all the "rules". But I think if there's a "reserve", that means there is an unkown minimum amount the seller must get. It says the reserve has not been met, so you can't get it for just 3. Or do I have it wrong ? I just looked at the link again and the " buy it now" price is 21, so I think it's safe to say that 21 is the reserve amount. I don't have the English pound symbol on my keyboard, so that's why I left it out.

I can't see the photos. I wouldn't do it for free, but if someone does it for free, I'd like to suggest that they clamp it dry first, drill a couple holes at each end in one of the fret slots (hopefully it ain't got frets installed already) with a bit about .022". drill the holes through the fret-board into the neck. Later when there's wet glue, the fret-board is going to slide all over the place. To avoid that being a problem, you put some small rods into those drilled holes to position the fret-board. leave them there. Later they can be taken out by clamping a pair of vise-grips on 'em and twisting while pulling. they can be heated to make it easier. If the frets have to be put in the board, well, that's a whole fret-job right there, minus the pulling of the old frets. That ain't cheap if done by a pro. If it was mine, I'd install the fret-board. then rig it up to a junk body, strung to pitch, and leave it that way for many months(keeping it in tune and adjusting the truss-rod), before I'd do the fret-job.