ray

So can I find out who the supplier is or do I have to PM you?

I never even heard of local guys selling tops besides Gilet down in Sydney. I also usually have my stuff imported from the states and Canada. Wouldn't mind having a look at whoever this is though, he might have good stuff if you check it out in person.

sure pm me - any one else as well - its a hot topic at the minute

i emailed in a complaint to let em know about it and got a pretty over the top response threatening legal action

virtually told me f#$*k off......i will be posting some pics of the boards in a day or so with more detail

you guys can make up up your own minds

keep watching

just opened up a pack containing a droptop bookmatched set of qld maple to be thouroughly dissapointed. I received it from a well known and I thought highly respected queensland supplier of guitar parts, tonewood etc.

the boards were described as 1/4" and in parts are as thin 4mil - there is tearout all over 1 side of one piece and no matter how i cut it, it will never make a decent bookmatched pair

unfortunately i never unpacked it when it arrived which was in april so i guess i cant go flying off the handle at them requesting a refund or exchange etc...why didt i open em up when they arrived?? well i was pretty busy and i was led to belive they had a top reputation so i just put it away for later trusting it would right.

i paid $65 for the set and when I compare it to the superb sets of big leaf maple i am bringing in from canada at around US$55.00 a set landed i wonder why i bothered with these guys and i for sure wont be buying from them again

Just be carefull who you buyin off specially from qld - if you are thinking of it PM me for who not to buy off

posted this on another forum and i thought here would a good place to air it as well - i know theres a few aussies hang out in pgf

when it arrives post up some detail pics and measurements

i would be interested to follow this one through

i have doubts about using spalted timber in a guitar again even though it looks pretty

i used it as a top in one job and found it soft and dead. i just poured hepas of laquer on the top and luckily the worst of it was where the neck pocket was cut out

guitar turned out great but i thought the spalted timber just half rotten

well thats what it is isnt it - half rottend timber

get a mity mite, warmoth or allparts neck to make your suire into a real guitar - it will bolt right in

also while ur at it get some good paickups as well

they did have a very primitive and particularly ghastly whammy

mmm that big hole.....prolly for the whammy spring you'll need to find a way to cover that up plus the screw holes

a schaller 3d might cover it but i doubt it but what about a bigsby???

not ideal but that night do it

you'll have to rout the neck pocket to standard so you can buy a neck easy and cheap

you couldn't play it stock standard mate it would be one for the bar wall so go for a functional player

i would say again the body looks like good wood

you will have a hard job stripping off the finish i think they used some indestructable 2 pack stuff

but if its soft lacquer strip plug the holes and refinish

sounds like a fun project wish ida seen it i woulda grabbed it like nuthin

stringthrough gives a little more snap and bite specially with 25.5" fret scale

overall it makes a small differnce in a little more attack but really i dont know whether it makes a differnce you can really hear....i dont know whether any one has done A-B test with identcal body neck & pickups but that would prove it

both TOM and stringthrough are a pain- a schaller 3d roller bridge works great and is 3 wood screws to mount and this bridge sounds killer. easy to fit adjusts up/down/forward/back and it can be easily shifted if you get it wrong

i remember eko guitars in the late 60's

they were try hard guitars and players seen using them were of a specific type [crap] who didnt know how to choose or couldnt afford a proper guitar. they were made by an italian accordion maker which says it all.

howver you are lucky you just got the body the rest would be a waste of freight and the previous owner did the right thing by throwing the neck/ pickups etc in the dumpster where it always belonged.

you have a good solid body there so put a good neck and some decent pickpus and you will have a cool guitar

hi tom

buy direct from warmoth

you will have the best fender licensed body and neck

used these guys plenty and their stuff is top grade

usa custom guitars and allparts are also recognised as top dealers

you'll find prices are similar to the ebay dudes

stratosphere buys guitars and breaks em up and sells the parts so it is all fender but pretty pricey

body and neck are stuck together with finish or the neck pocket is real tight

stabilise the body on a bench with clamps [carefully] with the front of the neck pocket on the edge of the table

hold the headstock and gently work it up and down

when a gap appears at the font between the pocket and neck slide in a credit card and wedge the neck up with a broad flat knife blade or similar and keep rocking it until it frees up. if the pocket is real tight the only way the neck will come out is vertically. if your are freaking out go to a tech. the cracking will be the finish tearing or slipping. i doubt that any wood is breaking.

once you get it free you might want to give the finish on the pocket a clean up with some fine wet n dry

if any chips appear cover them with lacquer. clear nail polish is fine

6 new builds - you getting pretty serious

i started with 6 builds and still workin on the last one now after 2 years

the ideas i had at the time i started this last one have largely become irrelavent so its just a experimental [emphasis on mental] project to try some ideas... from now on i am doing 1 at a time and will begin a newie when the previous one is hung up curing. i dont really have the space to tackle that many and i have a big stack of wood which i am wanting to dive into...

I was going to mention part of what you said Mattia, about it might not necessarily mean anything(tap tone). I really don't have the art down, but I read an interesting thread in another board about monkey pod and how many people have said it has very poor tap top, even as far as being called wet cardboard. Yet once fully assembled the stuff wins the blind listening test and as offered by Yong, it was not a fluke set, all following sets have followed suit. Anyhow, I just found that tid bit very interesting and wonder what other wet cardboards out there might actually work alright. J

well heres a thread i found over at TDPRI expanding on the wet cardboard idea.....

going through the boards at a yard i sometimes give them a tap with a small hammer to see how they ring. i find pretty much any board in any species including crapiata [pinus radiata] will give a musical type tone when rested on edge at a single point midway through the board and given a solid tap. some give a tight high ringing tone others seem to resonate deeper through the whole board. I havent built enough yet to know exactly what i am looking for. i bought by species and look early on and bought quite a few boards.

be interested to hear any thoughts observations on this subject

do you cut the angle on the neck heel or on the neck pocket??

Hi Ray. Good to see you bouncing around on PG finally !!!!

You can either route the angle in your body or have it in your neck tenon. Horses for courses.

I do mine in the body and use an angled routing template I made up for my specific angle.

Cheers, Stu

technically easier on the neck with a safetyplaner

practically if i do it on the body any strat neck will fit

will decide on that today

btw stu hows that new build going??

I use this bridge all the time... The studs need to be moved farther from the nut than a TOM so lay it out. I use 1-1/2* for neck angle, though you might want to use 2 depending on your whole setup. Adjust the neck angle with the bridge lowered all the way. I use a straightedge down the neck with a pointer attached where the bridge goes. Once the angle adjustment makes the pointer touch the body that's it. You can place the bridge with 2 sided tape(not carpet tape though) to the body then use the straight edge to get your neck angle. That would represent your lowest possible string height, too low actually. Since your strings only "go up" from there the neck angle is just right.

-Doug

I drew it all out again and it looks pretty much like 2 deg

mmm not quite sure i follow your method doug....

do you cut the angle on the neck heel or on the neck pocket??

yes - i am a little worried - my initial calculations show 2 degrees

i didn't put that "i need to route the neck pocket at two degrees" exactly the right way i guess it should be more like "i think i need to route the neck pocket at two degrees but want ask advice first"

i want to make real sure before i go cutting anything

i am going to check out that link now thanks mattia

built 5 fender style guitars so far but the current build is a little different

i want to use a gotoh 510UB wrap around / TOM 1 piece bridge which is really neat but to get enough rise to meet the break point on the bridge i need to route the neck pocket at two degrees

see the bridge here

I have drawn it out and worked out the angle but I am wondering exactly where to plot the line to and from

to the top of the centre saddles with the bridge right down or up a little?

is the fingerboard the line?

is the break point on the nut the line?

I want to ensure there is plenty of adjustment available to get the finished action as low as possible with adjustment to allow for relief and heavier/lighter strings

i am also not sure what angle to place the bridge [25.5" scale lenght]

the bridge has grub screws to kick the bridge out at the studs so it does have a bit of leeway

many questions - thanks in advance for answers

Maybe at the ripe age of 35 I'm finally starting to find the simplicity of the telecaster shape appealing.

This could be a major undercurrent flowing it's way to the surface...................Oh well, I guess I shouldn't fight it.

Well done, Wes on the tele to date, and the colour and burst came up a treat. Really suits it. !!!

cheers,Stu

aha stu

everyone comes to the tele eventually

its like the frst time you ever witness the truth

cheers from the ole picker

one piece is more likely to be unstable

if you choose the board carefully and join them cunningly it will look cool

1, 2, 3 piece = no difference in tone

the more bits the more stable it be

dont expect the stewmac templates to be right for strat cos it aint

I take your point

selling a lot of guitars like that is not a problem for me so i look at it from my perspective of builds it - plays it

the idea of the threaded inserts has got me thinking though as I am a great advocate of bolt on necks

i guess the trick is making that neck sit dead straight when driiling the guide holes for the plugs

I wanted to see if anyone else bought the 70s strat templates from guitarbuildingtemplates.com? I noticed the neck pocket and the neck templates do not fit together at all, I have to take out about 1/16th of an inch out to get it close to getting in the pocket. Is this normal with laser cut templates, or is it just mine?

im going to say its just yours. you should contact ronni, hes great about fixing problems. i have ordered numerous sets, and all of them fit exactly. you might have got a mismatched set by accident.

i got several sets and the fit on the strat template is crap the pocket is way bigger than the neck template

the tele not much better

i found the pockets on ronkims go with templates from guitarbuildingtemplates.com sets weird huh

now i am making my own necks i will cut my own pocket template from a laser cut of the design drawing

i put one on a blueshawk copy and its fine

i mean how many times do you need to take the neck off??

if you take it off there needs to be a good reason like its broken

if you taking ur neck off every other week you just foolin around

i got a tele i had since '83' and the neck off that has been off twice

once for refret and refinish [maple neck] once for major routing work on the body

both occaisions it was unavoidable

sure maple is tougher but screw a piece of mahogany onto a piece of wood with 4 neck bolts through a steel plate and see how easy it is to rip it off--------------it aint that easy

just wondering how you guys/guyettes cut your pockets

i have cut mine pretty tight in the builds i have done [workin on number 5 now] and i have trouble getting the neck in after the finish is on even though I mask up the neck pocket after its sealed. i end up have to sand a bit to make em fit which is a PIA

I got some sets of templates [ronkim and guitarbuildingetc.com] ronkims seem nice and tight but the GBT.com ones seem pretty loose fit around a mil either side of a standard neck...i got the pocket template from stewmac and it was pretty loose fit as well....a bit more than the thickness of finish i reckon

so how do you cut em loose, tight ???

Some people use oak for bodies and necks, so it has to be OK for tops too.

Can't tell anything about the American oak, though.

Is it at least relatively close to the common European oak?

hers a pic of the board

looks like swamp ash till you touch it - nice and silky - hard dense - nice tap tone