Dylanwad

I cleaned my acoustics fretboard and frets with steel wool and then applied some lemon oil last night. It looks great but the frets feel a bit rough while playing. Where am I going wrong with this?

I can't wait to see this!

Nice! Takes me back to my teenage years.

Every thing about this is screaming class! Very, very nice work Simo.

It's cool when things work out like that. Welcome dude.

The paint is a good idea. The truth is I'd rather not go any where near it! I used to be a sound man with television crues (PSC) and we ended up filming the old asylum in Denbigh one day. The place was covered in signs saying WARNING! ASBESTOS!, none of us were very happy to be there since the place is crumbling. I've been a bit weary of asbestos since then!

Would ther be enough room to work in a 6x6ft or 6x8ft garden shed?

Joiners shop, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks jaycee.

How does the Mitch-o-caster sound Mitch? Looks good.

i see a whale... not a corvus

It took me a while to see a whale! That's a wild guitar, fair play! I actually quite like the matt orange finish.

I bought a Squire Showmaster cheap off Ebay a while back and it has this kind of heel. The carve fits nicely into the palm of the hand, once the corner is taken off the rest of the heel isn't in the way at all. I'm not sure removing the rest of the wood would make a difference. Try to find a guitar that has this heel and play it to see if you need to take the extra wood off. It's probably more about how you want it to look, I think both would be just as functional. Just my opinion, if you want to take it all off you should go for it, it's your guitar after all!

I'm in the process of doing the same thing, it makes a world of difference for the higher fret access.

I've checked out the yellow pages and I've been googling. I've sent an e mail to Huws Gray Fitlock twice but they still haven't answered me (I might go have a look to see what they have, but I think it's a bog standard wood for the building trade sort of place), there is actually about 5-6 of them in the area! I used this too: http://www.coetirclwyd.co.uk/English/wood-directory.asp . These are the places that I mentioned as being further away from me, might get writing some more e mails tonight.

This place is in the other direction and is about a mile from a friends house: http://www.glasfrynfencing.co.uk/index.php

It must be cool having a wood yard on your doorstep Mitch.

Thanks for the replies guys, great info. I've been looking for local sawmills but I'm having trouble finding anything nearer than about 60 miles away! (most make fence posts and such). It seems to me that wood is something you want to see before you buy, seems a bit far to go on the off chance of finding what you want. Any one know of somewhere that sells these woods in North Wales (Bangor/Anglesey area)?

I'll make sure to let you know when I sus this better, I really do fancy trying building a guitar with British wood. Support your local trees!

I have mentioned before that I am possibly going to be using a coner of my parents garage for a workshop. I am a bit worried tough, the roof in the "out of the way corner" I could use is made of asbestos (old garage) and would be inches above ny head, would drill presses and bandsaws and the like vibrating cause probems with the roof? I really don't want to be breathing it! The other thing is that there is no heating and most times it's really cold in there, could this cause problems for wood and machinery?

Thanks.

Ok, good to know. Excuse my ignorance but what brands are considered quality? How much should I be looking at spending on decent tools, specificaly a router, drill press, planer and band saw?

Have you ever made a guitar from uk wood only? I'm playing which the idea, thought it might be cheaper. What's good? Which species should I avoid

Is any one familiar with the brand Silverline? I was wondering if the tools are any good, especially the drill press, planer and band saw.

http://www.silverlinetools.com/shop/PowerT...hPower/d9/sd232

Are they cheap for a reason or are they ok?

O my god! Tha wood is amazing Rick!

I like the sandwich look on a guitar, two pieces of wood with a different colour wood in between.

I was wondering if it's possible to get this effect by masking off the body (all alder) and appling tru oil to stop the middle section be stained then taking off the masking to stain the body. Would this work? Would the stain creep under the oil / stain the oil? Would the oil go through the masking tape?

Does alder look anything like maple when oiled (colour wise)?

How hard would it be to stain hard maple? I've heard it doesn't take stain well, does that mean it's a lot of work or just not possible?

Thanks.

At the moment I'm just learning and seeing what's possible. How come some woods don't get used for fretboards then? I've never heard of a Walnut fretboard for instance but I've seen Walnut bodies and necks.

I've also been considering the cost of highly figured wood (body size in particular), veneering seems like an option to look fancy with a smaller price tag in these lean times.

A nice walnut burl veneered fretboard would be awsome.

I was wondering if anyone has used a thin veneer on a fretboard. You'd have to radius the fretboard first and then glue the venner (maybe using a sand bag as weight on it to follow the curve of the board) and then cut the fret slots. Would it work? If it did you could get some pretty wild boards.

Gold frets are awsome, the perfect compliment to the gold hardware. I'm looking forward to seeing this.

Thanks dude! At least its teaching me the importance of using the right tool for the job. When I've got some cash I'm definately investing in some tools, I'm just using what I've got at the moment.

Wild dude! Nice.

I had a chance to take a few pics.

Here's the neck and body together.

The heel marked for shaping.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dy...ck-pencil-2.jpg

Dodgy job on the neck pocket!

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dy...d/front-gap.jpg

Even after getting the neck to fit there's still a little over hang.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dy...Back-pencil.jpg

Hopefully I can drill the holes and shape the heel during the week, and I can also give sanding one last go to finish off the last off the sealer.