soapbarstrat

I swear I can smell oak dust when I look at those pics. Those boards look exactly like the old oak I have after I plane them flat. I've been turning them into sanding blocks, so far. I think I might bring my idea to make an oak steinberger type guitar back form the dead.

What makes oak harder to work with, at least for me, is that it's hardness varies, even on the same piece. For example, you sand it on a drum sander, and put a certain amount of pressure on it, then move the piece a bit, and suddenly there's an area that's softer, and then sands much faster. I had that trouble when I made a few oak pickguards, but with each one, I started to learn how to deal with the inconsistancy of the wood better. hyunsu, your neck looks great. I'd like to know how this oak neck compares to a maple neck, in terms of tone, weight, feel, etc. Looking at it, I'm surprised how "normal" it looks. I had thought a Strat type neck made of oak, would really stand out as looking different, but it doesn't.

The padding can't be that soft. Hard plastic is about as soft as you should go for "padding". you could just lay a flat piece of brass on top of the frets and hit that with a regular hammer. The hammered side of the brass would get messed up fast and the brass plate should be thick enough not to bend from being hammerd, although 'hammer' shouldn't be used, cuz when using a hammer, you need to think of 'tapping'. You might even be able to use a piece of steel instead of brass. Make sure all the edges are rounded, so there's no sharp edges to make marks on the softer frets below it. This all takes a lot of skill. Having experimented with hammering frets now and then, but mainly using various clamping methods instead for 16 years, I can say that the hammer method seems sloppy compared to clamp-pressing. Even when I've seen guys like Mike Stevens hammer frets, I still think it's kind of sloppy, even though he's a master at the hammer method. Especially if you have a fret-bender that puts a perfect radius into the fret. Why go "roughing up" that perfect radius with hammer-taps, which make the fret-wire want to flatten at the spot where the hammer makes contact ? I can see where in the old days, when you had to bend the radius with you hand and a pair of pliers, and the radius wasn't perfect, so you would over-radius the wire, then hammer the frets into the board, and at the same time, using the fret-board as an anvil to get the radius just right, which it would be (if done right) when the fret crowns bottom makes full contact with the fret-board surface. For that to work out, you need a pretty tight fret to fret-slot match. Tight enough, that it's likely the neck will backbow from the tight frets. But they compensated for that by adjusting the truss-rod to take out the back-bow, and before the fret-board was sanded, they had to adjust the truss-rod, so that it could be made looser later and still have tension on it.

Most, if not all, the current Oak is a lot different than Oak from over 30 years ago. It just doesn't seem to be very tight grained anymore. They probably speed up the growing process of the trees. I have a bunch of pretty damn old Oak, off old furniture. Not even good furniture, this stuff was underneath the fabric, etc. Some couches from the 1940's and even a real sleazy looking red sofa/bed thing from the early 70's. Got all these dense-grained oak pieces out of these things. Most of it is warped, but it's very done with warping now. Haven't made any necks with it, but have some of the bigger pieces on standy-by in case I decide to do that. I also have some boxes of more current oak flooring pieces and it's like 2 totally different woods. The modern pieces are very porous, whereas the old stuff is hardly porous at all. Next time you're driving down the road and there's a shitty old couch out in someone's trash, it might very well have some oak pieces better suited for a guitar than the pretty stuff at the lumber yard/hardwood dealer. Out of some other furniture, I have gotten all these pieces of what seems very much to be Alder wood. Does anyone know if it was common to use alder in cheap furniture in the past ? I don't have a lot, and am being careful how I use it. I think it could come in very handy for making "fill-in" pieces on alder guitar bodys, such as converting a Trem bridge to a hardtail, etc. It's old and super unlikely to warp. Every new piece of wood I ever bought, ended up changing shape quite a lot after a few years.

As long as you tighten the chuck properly, I can't think of how it could cause much wear and tear. You shouldn't have such a tight fitting fret, that it's a real effort to press them in with a drill press rig. I think the original fret-presser was probably better. It was about half as long and swiveled on a pin. You " walk across the fret" with it. Yes, you have to move the neck a lot then, but I've seen the system that Stewmac sells in use, and I have to laugh when they end up having to use a hammer anyway to tap the middle of the frets down. Seems a bit half-assed, then. at least with the original shorter one, I think the hammer could be left in the drawer. I think you're better off using some radius blocks with a strip of hard rubber under the block to conform to the fret-board radius, and clamps to clamp the deal together. Plus, you know damn well you ain't doing anything weird to your drill press, then. Actually, the more I think about it, it might do a little damage to a drill press after a hundred fret-jobs. I had a factory job making satellite parts when I was in my late teens, and often used one of those little arbor presses all day, so I can't help but think it's kind of a cheap and dirty method. Quick, factory-run type stuff.

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Thanks for that info rocket ! Does this apply for their bulk fret-wire too ? I mean, on their site, a bulk amount of 6105 is 76.20 http://www.jimdunlop.com/maintenence/accufrets.html I can order that through guitar center for less than 76.20 ?

If you want 'em perfect, then you should level them. Fret-wire varies in height, it's not extremely precise. There's some Japanese wire that's supposed to be more accurate. I level mine, even though they go in perfectly. It's the only way to take care of the variations in the wire itself. I guess I take off about .002" on a total refret, where I've prepped the board, etc. But, for every total refret I do, I do about 4 "fret mills" on guitars that still have the factory frets on, or some other luthiers fret-job on it. On those I have to take off more, because of the fret-wear, and the fact that they were not installed totally perfect to begin with, and also those frets probably had height variations (maybe even worse than what is made now). If they want it done on the neck-jig, it might mean a little more is taken off, cuz the board was never prepped in that same state. Experiment. Install them, then string up and play for a few days , or weeks. Then do a leveling job on 'em. I think you'll like 'em better after being leveled, assuming you do it right. Part of "doing it right" to me, means using accurate straight-edges to find any high or low spots first, knocking down the high spots, THEN going over the whole length of the neck with a good, long sanding block. Staight edges are precision ground, not just a freakin' metal ruler that seems "good enough". If you want high action (no lower than 1/16" at the 12th fret), then you might do fine without leveling them. But if you want the high E down to about 1/32" and the low E down to about 3/64" at the 12th fret, then I'm pretty sure you are going to need to level them to keep it smooth and buzz-free.

Perhaps a couple years ago I could have got something like a floyd cheaper over here, when 1 US dollar was worth 1.23 German marks, but, the value of the US Dollar is now lower in value, PLUS, Germany converted to the euro, and when they did, it seems they made EVERYTHING more expensive. So, I don't know what a Floyd is going for here. I have a couple catalogs for the most popular German guitar parts places and there's no real floyd in them. Just Shaller (who would of thought ?) and Gotoh. A chrome Shaller Floyd--169 euro Also, when I was still back home, I thought I'd be able to get some cheap nut files here, since those Grobet one's that Stew-mac sells are from Holland or somewhere like that, I figure they'd be much cheaper here, but they cost 14 euro each. A set of Sperzels are 85 euro. Sperzel's are made in Germany , right ? Well, a couple hours ago I was driving being some truck that said Sperzel on the back, but I think it was a construction company. But I assume it's a German name cuz of that. All the German luthiers I have contacted here, tend to buy mostly from StewMac.

Nah, we just have to move to Australia, that's all. If the SS wire is being made in Germany, someone might want to let me know, since I'm still in Germany for another month.

rhoads56, you're in Australia, right ?

Maybe not too smart of Warmoth, because they probably buy enough that they could sell it for what Stewmac will sell if for (when they finally sell it), so , they could get a couple hundred bucks out of me by selling me bulk SS fret-wire, because I'm never going to buy a new guitar neck from them, when I'd have to pull the frets and reshape the fret-board under simulated string tension. I only buy freakin' used necks and do that (a hell of a lot cheaper). It's just like regular fret-wire when I was starting out. Went to one local repair guy and he wouldn't sell me any, not only that, but I think he thought he had a real clever idea to try to discourage me from getting into guitar repair. When I called him and said I'm looking for Dunlop 6105 fretwire, he said, "wait, let me ask Jim Dunlop if it's ok for you to buy some, and I'll call you back". He calls back 10 minutes later and says Jim Dunlop told him I can't buy Dunlop fretwire. But he screwed himself out of about 30 bucks, cuz I then called another local guy who was glad to sell me a enough Dunlop 6105 to refret several guitars. I actually would have been better off to buy a bulk amount direct from Dunlop, but didn't realize I would be refretting one guitar after another and didn't think I needed so much. So, you just watch. As soon as Stewmac starts selling SS, warmoth will sell it again too ( I say AGAIN, because I know guys who have bought SS wire from them, then suddenly they wouldn't let anymore of it go), but it wil be too late, cuz, if stewmac is selling it at around the same price, more people will choose stewmac, cuz, since they're paying all that shipping, they'll buy some other stuff that stewmac sells and warmoth doesn't. Doesn't warmoth sell nut files ? If so, HOW FREAKIN' NICE OF THEM ! Gee, I wonder if they let their nut files go, only cuz other places sell them. I guess they wish no one else sold nut files, then they would make you buy one of their necks to be able to buy the file.

55 bucks for enough wire for one neck is nuts . I figure this stuff should cost maybe 3 times regular wire max, so it should be under 30 for one neck's worth. So, that's what I'm looking for, and I'll keep looking . I'm pretty sure Stewmac will have it soon, and it shouldn't be outrageously expensive . I want to try it on my own guitar. The pedal-steel like bending I'm doing on the first couple frets it wearing the hell out of them . And I have some customers very interested in having SS put on some necks . I don't feel like looking at warmop's site, but don't they just charge something like 20 bucks extra for SS frets ? I remember seeing that, but I could be wrong . Let 'em wear out my strings. I'm too busy fretting other people's gits to be messing with my own that much. I can change my strings during a break.

The conspiracy continues. Anyone come up with any new leads on where to get SS fret-wire ?

The first time they came out with the current version, with the 1 strap, I though " oh, ****, somebody's gonna **** something up with that" . Next catalog I got, they showed 2 straps being used, so I suspect I might have been right. If I make one, I'm putting a "t-slot" table top on it like my big one, with little "hold downs" that can be used anywhere on the table. As for wood, if I make another, since it's a tool, I'm gonna search hard through my stock of old wood, maybe Oak, maybe even an old pine 2x4 ripped out of a house, since it's probably 30 years old and not likely to warp because of that. I guess I'd rather use old softer wood, than new hard wood. Big beams like that almost always warp. I have an idea for a mini version of the current model also, but I'm keeping that idea to myself for now. I also don't trust a 4-6" wide vise holding a big Jig deal on it, with a customers guitar on top of that. I just don't have that much trust in vises (if it's a Chinese vise, I'll even spy on it from around the corner to watch it trying to mess with me). You know the current neck-jig is being held with a little vise. I have to surpass that, or I'll have a nervous break-down while I have someone's guitar on there.

Yes, they only had plans for the older version, and the plans were actually needed, because a big workbench like that is hard to guess the dimensions, etc. The current version is very simple to figure out, although I still see it being "experimental" since Dan Erlewine is making new tweaks and changes to it about ever 6 months. I see some things about the new one that I don't like, like using a band clamp across the middle of a guitar body. I just don't think I would trust that on a customers guitar. If you are mechanically inclined and/or have woodworking experience, you can make a neck-jig, and with that same experience, be able to USE it. It's not as fool-proof as advertised. You have to know how to do fret-work before the neck-jig is a workable tool for you. And, unfortunately, all the books and videos on fretting leave a few important things out.

The plans they sold (and I still have mine, but I'm at my vacation house now, so they are far away ) were for the big , heavy "luthiers workstation" model, which includes a "neck-jig". That neck-jig does not have the dial calipers, but I'm soon adding them to mine. I see some advantages of the current model and I'm tempted to build one ( I can do fret-work on 2 guitars at a time then !), but I could never do without my "luthiers workstation" for all types of guitar repair, not just fretting. You'd be much better to build one out of older wood, so it won't go changing shape on you with age, even if the wood isn't real pretty. If you want to see one heavily abused "luthiers workstation" go to the Driskill guitars website (I might have spelled the name wrong) and click on one of his link, I think the one where he cuts a rosewood log. I have to laugh when I see what he's done to that workbench . That guy is a mad man ! Says he works 14-18 hours a day, 7 days a week. I don't want to accuse him of doing coke, but damn ! Here's a pic of mine: http://onlinerock.com/services/soapbarstra.../neck-jig2b.jpg

I would try to do it so it's reversible, in case you don't like it fret-less or ever decide to sell it, the buyer would probably prefer that the mod is reversible. I'd measure the fret tang widths (not including the "beads") then find a material that same thickness , so it can be tapped in the slots with a snug fit that doesn't need glue to keep it in there. Aluminum is my first thought, but plastic or wood would do too. I guess If you were to use wood, a LITTLE glue might be good. I would just put a dab of glue at a couple spots, so later most of the "filler strip" could be popped out and a saw or knife blade could get the glued spots out. You can make the inlay strips by using thicker material and shaving it down. Would be best to sand one side of it dead flat, double stick tape it to a board (the flatter, the better), then use a router on raised supports to rout the material thinner. This might not work so good on anything harder than wood. Probably not good to use the router on aluminum, although, if you buy a bit that can handle it, go ahead. Of course, if you decide the fret-board needs to be made tougher, then it's going to get a lot more irreversible, if you coat the board with epoxy. Another idea is to put a phenolic fret-board on the neck. I'd look for a neck with a trashed fret-board and put a new fret-board on that. I saw an 80's Schecter neck on ebay the other day that had been scalloped. Something like that might be good (if it's cheap enough)

A flat block at least 13" long. Along with using your head, checking the board with accurate radius gauges, checking straightness along the neck from end to end with a precision ground straight edge. Try it with radius blocks, and you end up sanding off more wood than you should be. Radius blocks are good for roughing in the radius on a new, flat board, but for the best playing neck (neck relief under total control of your leveling), a long flat block should be used. The block should be very flat, within .005" of being dead flat.

Using no glue requires a rather tight fit of the fret tang into the fret-slot. The big disadvantage of that is that it's very hard, if not impossible, to create a perfectly straight neck under string tension this way. You usually have to loosen the truss-rod to take out the back-bow, which often isn't consistent along the entire length of the neck,up to the body-joint. You'd have to have a precision straight-edge on the fret-board and measure with feeler gauges to see what I mean. With the old no glue, hammer method, you very likely get measurable gap differences at different parts of the neck. This is why the "old school" hammer fret-jobs usually require .012" of relief, instead of .002"-.005" of relief which is what I get, using a "neck-jig" to level the board under simulated string tension. I have to be careful not to have too tight fitting frets, or all my accurate fret-board leveling goes out the window in the end. It's a fine line, to keep the frets tight enough to need very little glue and to keep the tone that tight frets create. I used to always use epoxy, but don't anymore, usually, because I do leave the fret-slots .019"-.023" and shave the fret-tang "beads" instead of routing the slots wider, like I used to. I now use super-glue or yellow wood glue, which both work fine. The yellow glue is cheaper and wipes away with a damp rag. Some have run test about how the different glues affect tone, and it resulted in the frets with no glue having the most "dead" sound. I'll have to rely on such test by others, because I sure as hell ain't running my own tests of this. I guess epoxy is rather thick, has to be mixed properly, and isn't as cheap as wood glue. If you have a full clamp and caul supply, the wood glue method will only take one or 2 nights for all the frets to dry while being clamped. All the mentioned glues bonds are broken (enough) by applying soldering iron heat to the frets. I think super-glue is the hardest bond to break with heat, but it's still not much of a problem. Most guitars already have pieces put together with yellow wood glue, plus epoxy has a reputation for being thought of as plastic by pro players with "gifted" ears, so I tend to use wood glue for these reasons , also. A lot of the "old school" fretters often use white glue, which I would think isn't as brittle as yellow glue and wouldn't sound as good.

I think it will be too bright. Try an aluminum one if the steel doesn't work out. It won't be very easy to make from steel , but it's easy with aluminum. Silver is supposed to sound good on some acoustics. You'd have to have someone make a cast silver saddle. I doubt it's worth that. Brass is probably better sounding for steel on an acoustic. Probably like aluminum, but different sounding.

How to clean wood prior to painting : 1- Thinner ( Lacquer thinner or Naptha) 2-Alcohol 3-Mineral Spirits 4- Amonia mixed with water Use 'em in that order. Each removes something the previous substance doesn't always remove. I learned this from Dan Erlewine years ago and I keep it posted on my shop wall the same as he did/does. If anyone knows of a better procedure, I'm all ears, although I think no finish, or a light oil finish beats the hell out of paint any day. No finish on a neck can cause problems, but I think it's ok on a body (yeah, it'll get dirty, but no one ever said Rock 'n' roll is supposed to be squeaky clean) Your fingers leave oil behind when you touch something, so watch out for that too.

Hello from Germany, The best way I've found to cut such plastic is to rough saw by hand about 1/32" outside the line, then use a router (or dremel). the router bits work much better when they have very little to cut and especially when just one side of the bit is against material and the other side of the bit is just hitting air. If you want the enges of the PG tapered, you better research what kind of bit you really should get for that.

Well, if the replacements don't work out, maybe you can sand and buff the yellowed ones ? I know you have the talent to do it right. I'd also like to say so-long to everyone for quite a while. I might be able to pop in now and then, but probably won't be a regular again for over 6 months. Going off to a foreign land in a few days.

Well, that's a surprise to hear and I'll be careful to check out what others are saying before I do business with Roman. Any negative comments about him have gotten by me, so far. His shop does repairs for some famous guitar players and he doesn't seem to be out to get money anyway he can, like Torres does. I guess I've seen several "hints" that he's honest, but haven't had hardly any experience dealing with him. You've got me curious about this and I'll try to find out more about negative claims against him. Maybe he's like Steve Angela. Some people take it very personal when Steve can't take much time to answer a specific question. They are right to be mad, coz I wouldn't expect anyone to like it when they inquire about my services and I would act like that. As far "cheap knock-offs", Ibanez better get after him if he's selling fake "ibanez" necks. Scott is right; Buyer beware