kench

The thread was about solid bodies and I was talking about POPULAR woods. Like Alder, Ash, Maple, Poplar, etc... Rosewood is way too far from being a popular wood to build a solid body. (I know its been used.. but not mainly) I know mahogany is not the warmest sounding wood in whole botany. And you can build a very bright sounding electric guitar out of it. But the mahogany itself, as a solid body tonewood, can't be considered as "bright".

I remember someone built a solid body guitar using pine. Must be somewhere in "In Progress" Forum. But that was an experimental project if I remember correctly. I wouldn't recommend pine either. It is soft and not dense enough. You can also see that by comparing its weight to the mahogany. The density affects the tone and sustain. Also, you may have troubles with the hardware on it. It mey not strong enough to hold the screwed hardware, especially the bridge and strap holders. Although there are some types of pine. The one we call "Red Pine" here are a bit more harder than regulars. They grow in higher plateus. But that is not dense enough for solid body either. But then again. If that is your first built and you want to have experince, Pine would be a nice choice to start, without expecting a good sounding and long-life guitar. Btw.. You are wrong about Mahogany has a bright tone. It has a warm tone. Probably the warmest in popular tone woods.

Acetone is great for removing Super Glue or CA glue. Even from your hands. The thinners and alcohol dont work at all. But I am also wondering if the NAPHTHA used on finishing, is exactly the same thing with the Zippo fluid? Zippo contents are: Petroleum Distillate and Naphtha. I have zippo fluid but I can't find naphtha solvent here, probably because i don't know what to search, it must have a different name here. I've been also told that Zippo fluids are the same thing with the fluid that watchmakers use to clean and repair watches. I have access to that liquid.. But I thought they were Kerosene, White Gas or Aeroplane fuel.

Ink Jet Printers and Laser Printers work COMPLETELY DIFFERENT to each other. If the paper is for ink jet use you might get a good result from a Laser Printer as well. Laser printers can work almost any kind of paper even on PVC. But if it is for laser, or a regular transparent paper, don't expect any good result from an ink jet printer. The ink will not get dry and even hours later, you can remove it from the paper by just rubbing it with your finger tip. I would like to leave some info here on printers for the people who are interested. InkJets use liquid inks in 4 colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black- CMYK). The inks are simply sprayed on paper to print the image. The papers which are developed for ink jets are able to suck the ink in a very short time. And they much more expensive than regular papers. But the color graphics and photos look much better than a laser printer work if the corrects components and settings are used. Laser Printers are more comlicated. And it is similar to offset press process in some ways. But they use POWDER, not inks and there are few drums in it. The image is drawn on the first drum with laser. Then powder is applied to the drum but it only sticks to the areas which are drawn with laser. Then the paper rolls on this drum and the powder pass on the paper. Then the paper is treated by heat and the powder melts on the paper.. A small fan cools down the paper and the printing is complete. Inkjets are much more costy. Inks and papers are expensive and inks dont last very long. But they are excellent for printing color images and photographs on a specific papers and they give professional results. But they make dramatically worse prints on regular papers. Laser Printers work approximately 10 times faster than ink jets. The images are always sharp. The powder cardidges are a bit expensive but you can print thousands of papers with only one. So it is much cheaper way. They are excellent for printing text and other documentary stuff when the photographic quality isnt a issue. For printing headstock decals, laser printer is highly recommended.

Taping the channel with any kind of tape will do it... but!.. i would advice to attach some foil or paper under the tape if the channels are too tight. Because the wires can stick to the tape when you're trying to wire your guitar. It can be a problem when you have to pass the wires thru the tight channels especially if your tape is strongly sticky. When I was gluing my maple top to my Les Paul guitar, I had already routed out the control cavities so I placed a wet cloth inside the channels.. After 5 minutes I clamped the top, I pulled the wet cloth off the channel. It brought all the glue out of the channel. But the channels I routed were a bit more complicated than a regular LP. They were not straight and I had routed separate channels for each pickups, etc... But Tele routing is very simple, short channels.. I'd go with a tape.

My Crybaby's switch doesn't work anymore. It is always on. Only way to bypass the signal is to unplug the wah and do the bypass "physically". I haven't changed the switch yet as I'm not using it often. But I wonder if it is a common problem with Crybabies or other Jim Dunlop products???? Because my older Tubescreamer and Boss pedals still work great even though I used them much more often and unpolitely than I used my wah.

Yes I agree on Westtheman. 98% humidity in an attic doesn't sound real. Even if you live in a very wet location. According to my knowledge, attics are the most dry places in a building and cellars are the dampest. Humidity here is generally between 50-75% in summers and sometimes it hits 95% and around 30-40% in winters. My attic stays hot as hell but dry. I live in an apartment and I was storing my woods in a wooden closet with lots of silica gels in it. I was not sure silica gels were useful on storing woods though. It is the same stuff we use to store thin glass sheets in the factory to prevent them to stick to each other and they work very good there. But then I placed my woods and stuff in my parents house in their attic. It is better there.

Yes I know the custom work can be pricey... and it must be much more expensive in US than in Turkey. The workmanship is a lot cheaper around here. Maybe that's why I find some StewMac prices are too high. If StewMac made their tools in far east, the prices were much cheaper. Even if it was made with the same materials and the same production quality. But then it wasn't "Made in USA". It can also be much more expensive. We are also the distributor of BERGEON in Turkey. It's a Swiss company that makes excellent tools for watch and jewellery making. Well those tools are jewellery itself!! lol... The prices are extremely high as well. Mini screwdriver sets for instance. A Bergeon set can be from $100 to $200, the others are $20 to $50 and Indian screw drivers are just $1.5 for each. Swiss tools are usually 7 to 10 times more expensive than its Chinese and Indian rivals. But the difference in quality is very very obvious. If your work needs quality and if it is going to pay you back in long term, it's best to buy the good one. But both has its own market. Few weeks ago we received on order from one of our clients. They wanted two Beko-Birkenstock desks for their watch repair jobs. The desks came from Germany. Think of all shipping and taxes. Not sure about the exact prices as my uncle who is dealing with that part of our business but they paid nearly $10.000 for the order. For me, they are just desks with two elbow pads. But they are opening a new watch & jewellery store in a very high society. And the image on their customers are very important to them. So they thought it was necessary. My critics on StewMac tools are just on some particular products that I'm having hard time to imagine its price/performance ratio. But telling you again, StewMac is a good shop. PS: The maple and other hardwoods here are coming from Europe and Russia mostly.. and other exotic woods like ebony, zebrawood, rosewood and mahogany are from Africa. Honduran mahogany can also be found. But they usually import it when they get a good order.

To LGM Guitars I started reading your post but after few lines I realized that it could not be posted for me. So I gave up reading. But my curiosity. I just read it now. It doesn't seem to refute or support my post. You're talking about something else. Totally different things. I agree on most of it, except your passion to disagree, refute me. But I'm not going to talk about it. I may be wrong about some costs in US though, like on making that radius beams. But generally, I still think the same. Yeah the woods are that cheap in Turkey.

"Form follows function" I love Telecaster design. Even if you've never heard the Tele sound before, you can guess that guitar going to twang! Because of its huge metal hardware I guess. So the Tele design suits the Tele function perfectly. And I really like its overall design, its fat horns, pickguard shape, control plate and simple electronics. And I really love its headstock too. I like Tele better than Strat.. that may just because of Strats were copied too much in the past (Soloists, Superstrats, etc..). But Tele is still unique. And very classy.

Yeah I remember your radius block. It was very simple and clever. But I wasn't sure it will give the exact radius you want. I made a jig to make radius blocks with scrap woods. A pendulum with a router motor attached and a simple channel on bottom that you can move your scrap wood back and forth. You can adjust the lenght of the pendulum+router bit matching the radius you want. Then it will route the scrap surface to a perfect radius. All you have to make is a stiff, strong jig that wont bend during the routing.

Tiger straps is what I want for my guitar also.. But I am planning to stain the maple first with waterbased dyes, probably with a reddish yellow and then apply clear nitrocellulose lacquer coats. I've never thought of satin lacquer for my top but I will definitely use satin for the back of the neck. I've never seen any info about Satin finish on a flame maple either. But the oldest rule always work.. "Test on scrap" You may find out that satin finish couldn't handle that fuzzy look you want. Then you may want to test some scraps with Matte finish. Then you may not be satisfied with the color, then you may decide to stain the wood first for a deeper looking colors. Then maybe you will end up something else that you've never planned to.. but something you'll love.. If you have enough amount of scrap pieces of your maple, it won't be too hard to achieve the finish you want with a little effort on experimenting.

English isn't my mother language but I believe my sentence in the second quote is clear enough. I was trying to say that it is StewMac who can make that tool for around $5 maybe for a little more but most probably for a less. And since I know that.. it is ME who is not going to pay that money. I really don't understand your temper for my post. You know your business better than I do. If you think $116.95 for each radius beams worth it, then I say go for it. You can make that tool... but yes.. you should have or have access to few machinery that are expensive. The result will not look fancy and it might not have that comfortable handle side that StewMac's tool has. But a tool that does the same work can be done for a reasonable price compared to $116.95 Well I'm not a luthier and not planning to start a professional career on anything about guitars. But I produce 0.75 mm thick glasses for watch and jewellery industry which needs 100 times more accuracy than a fret work. And all the machines in our factory are made by us. Except the 20 year-old big lathe that we use to make our machine parts. So I know what you can do with tools. Although StewMac makes some very good tools and jigs for a very reasonable price, let's take a look at this fancy tool: Machine Head Drill Jig = $44.63 And another $44.63 if you need both two bushing sizes. Is it really hard to make a jig that keeps your drill aligned to the peghead? Or is it really hard to drill a peghead nicely by hand? And 16-ounce bottle of Titebond Glue = $7.97. The 1 quart of it (32 ounces) is for $6.50 in a local lumber store. Quartersawn mahogany neck blank StewMac price = $22.90 Lumberstore price for Honduran Mahogany (Swietenia Macrophylla) = around $15 Lumberstore price for African Mahogany= $10 (Khaya Ivorensis) and $6.50 (Sapele - Etandrophragma cylindricum) Lumberstore price for 200 cm*20 cm*5 cm of Flame Maple is for $20!!! Well StewMac is generally an expensive shop. Some of their products are cheap but some are just robbery. But as long as I build my own guitars, I will keep buying some stuff from them. I admire creativity and none of the other shops or luthiers do such effort on development.

PRICES ARE TOO HIGH!!! Well.. it's sure that StewMac has a great creative staff, developing tools for the business. I really respect that and I believe they deserve some amount of that price for their development, creative work. But since I know that the production cost of that tool for StewMac is not more than $5, I cannot pay $116 for an aluminium radius block. That is too much!!. Also I admire their photographer. Those rough hand tools couldn't look fancier than they look on those photos. They really say "buy me.. buy me...".. Great new tools again... and thanks to StewMac for the effort of the development.. but the prices are not that fair.

Those holes were used in the finishing process.. To hold and hang the body. But yours look somehow larger than the ones I've seen before. But not too much.

I'm living in Turkey and I've found 1 quart (32 oz.) bottle of Titebond for like $6.6 here on a lumber store. It is a lot more expensive on StewMac or other luthier shops in USA. 16 oz. bottles are $7.97 on StewMac for instance. But unfortunately that lumber store is now only carrying Titebond II. And I haven't found any other place that sells Titebond-original.

The "American Standard" series of 1996 are made of alder, not poplar. Since 2000 or 2001 Fender is not presenting "American Standard" Strats.. but naming them as "American Series" with some difference on pickups and electronics. This causes some confusions. American Standards made in 90's were different than normal Standards. Also, your guitar must have a "50 years of excellence" logo at the back of the headstock. As the year 1996 was the 50th anniversary of Fender. And the serial number must start with N6...... (Ninety 6). If your guitar is an Am.Std, it must have steel saddles (normal Standards had vintage style saddles and they still do) and 2 string retainers at the headstock holding 4 treble strings. But normal Standard series of 1996 might be made of poplar though, and they might be made in Mexico. I don't know much about those.

Yes I recommend that too. Rubbing a steel wool or sand a little with extra fine grits, like 1200 grit. I think 600 grit will be too coarse on a high gloss finish if you care how the transition areas look. That will give you the slippery feel on Fender necks. The finish on late Fender necks are "satin" lacquer.

I would just shoot few coats of clear on that stripped guitar, probably matte lacquer. That stripped guitar looks awesome! Much better than that hammered finish in my opinion...

I've carved a maple top with my angle grinder and with flap sanding discs. It was very easy and I was very satisfied with the result. Now I can't think of any other cheap way to carve a top. I was advised to use ordinary sanding discs but I realized that flap discs(looks like a fan) with lower grits like 40-80 grits work much better, like a lancelot tool. Because what you want to do here is to CUT the wood, NOT TO SAND it to the desired shape. Lower grits cut better without burning the wood. Use higher grits near the edges. But like in every tool, it needs a little practice. After the final shape with the grinder it will need some hand sanding to smooth the transition areas, starting with 80 grit. Another advise I can give is to start from the edges with a router. Route the whole side to the depth before starting to carve. I didn't do this and I ended up with deeper carve on the edge. Once you accidentally carve too much in a little area on the sides, you have to carve the whole to the the same depth. So you better do it first with a router.

Yes.. I want it for the challange actually. I'm not expecting them to sound very good... maybe a little better than it does right now. Right now all I can hear is a full of bass from the front speakers instead of any detail. That's why I want to make a separate woofer box And I'm not planning to sell them because they worth no money. I've read some articles about this on net and found out that the dimensions and the design of the boxes are very important so I think I will just find a speaker design for my drivers' specs and copy it.

Ok.. this time it is not about building guitars...but listening to them... I have an old Sony brand Dolby Prologic (not digital) home theatre system with two main speakers with 14,5 cm woofers and 5,5 cm drivers and few tweeters, a center speaker and two satellite speakers in plastic boxes. What I want to do is to separate woofer drivers from the main speakers and place them in another cabinet and make better cabinets for all speakers. And also have a 5.1 speaker set for a digital A/V receiver. Practically it can be done easily ofcourse, but will it work good? I'm not expecting a high-end quality. I only want to have better sound and more room around the TV.

Hmm.. I know Bison brand super glues. But they are sold in very small tubes. Other than super glue, there are epoxies in double-tubes. How do you prepare them? Just prepare them in a pot and wipe it on the wood? or do I have to mix or thin them with something. If I'm correct, I've seen Guitarfrenzy used black epoxy from StewMac and mixed with the grain filler? What I want is to fill few damages on the wood and also fill the grain to level the surface. Do you think I should use both wood filler and grain filler (ca glue, epoxy or actual grain filler that I can't seem to find here )

I've heard that some people are using epoxy or CA glue to fill the grain on porous woods. How do you prepare them to work as grain filler? And what is CA Glue? I was looking for a grain filler to fill the pores on my Sapele (a kind of African mahogany). But the fillers that are sold in here (Turkey) are all pastes that are meant to fill the gaps or cracks on the wood. Some of them are quite strong fillers but some of them can be thinned with water, alcohol or thinners. I tested a water-based one with thinning it with water but I saw that huge amount of filler was sucked into the wood after dried. It says on the can "apply several thin coats to fill the big gaps, with 15-20 minutes apart". Do you think it can be used as a grain filler when its thinned with water or alcohol? And it doesn't look very strong to me. You can scrape the dried surface with your nail. Is this normal? I'm planning to shoot Aerosol Nitro lacquer on it.

Hello. I visited a lumber store yesterday and found a zebrawood timber (180x20x5 cm for $50) suitable for a solidbody guitar. At first I thought of using it as a LP or PRS style cap, instead of maple. But then I realized that it would look much better if I use it for the whole body. It has a beatiful grain both on the surface and the sides. I haven't bought it yet. But I am thinking. I've heard that its tone is similar to hard maple so it must be bright. That is not what I really like. I like warm sounding guitars with a good mid-range. Any of you guys worked with Zebrawood? and can you compare its tone to the most used woods like mahogany, maple, alder, ash? And if I use pickups with alnico magnets, do you think I can warm up its tone? I already have two SD Alnico II Pro humbuckers for both neck and bridge pos. Another problem about zebrawood is that it has a very open grain. Any finishing experiences??