MKGBass

Hmmm. This is just a shot in the dark, but what sandpaper progression are you using. If you skip from 100 grit to 400 grit without doing anything in between, you'd very likely be stuck with scars that you can't sand out with that fine of a grit. I've experienced something like this, but again without a pic, its hard to tell if im picturing the right thing.

Ok Greg....Your post as you said was somewhat hard to sort through, here's what I can sort through and my OPINIONS on how you should go about it. 1. I would glue the top and route the binding channel BEFORE you do the carve. I just did a body yesterday this way and it was much more relieving than the hollowbody I am working on in which I am forced to do the channel after the top is carved. I would also route the pickup cavities before you carve as well. This will give you a flat surface to route on and you wont have to worry about things like hand leveling the router. 2. Since your budget is dead, hmmmm. Do you have a drill press? If so, I suggest you follow Robert Benedetto's method of carving, I'm in the process of my 4th carve using this method and it has come out great so far every time. You just need to drill a series of concentric holes at ascending depths (from the outside). The go back with a chisel and hack away all the extra wood until you have a bunch of very shallow holes on a sloped top...From there I use my belt sander to get rid of the extra, so far this takes about 30-60 minutes, so virtually its hassle free. 3. I generally prefer to do the taper of the neck and fingerboard at the same time. The way derek describes sounds completely logical as well. IN the past I've had problems with trying to level them out and inadvertantly creating curves or dipes in the taper of the neck on accident. Definately profile last either way. I prefer to do the taper with a template and a template bit on my router, and just take small passes until its flush. 4. It MIGHT be simpler to inlay the fingerboard before you attach it. I believe I've seen a couple people on here that have done it this way, though, so far I haven't had a problem doing this after the neck is even profiled. I guess it depends on if you're just doing dots, or you've got something complex in mind. 5. Is there, in fact, an overhang on the end of the fingerboard? If so, you'll probably need to create some sort of guide for a router bit to ride on while you cut the binding channel. I would suggest doing this whole binding step before you do the rounding of the back simply because I think it would be easier to have a flat surface for a bit to ride on. Other than those things, which are just the way I would go about them, I've loved this project from day one, and I've actually kinda been wondering where you were! Also, just as a kinda "tips and tricks" thing. Wes showed in one of his threads how he used screws on the outside of an untapered fretboard to keep it from moving while it glued to the neck. This way, accidental sliding that could ruin your intonation is completly prevented. I've found this method very helpful. (thanks wes!)

wow those bridges are huge....is there going to be too much string height?

sorry if i pushed your wrong button anekretia! It was certainly not intentional as your work is obviously a high calibur. I was just merely pointing out the alembic (i thought) influence. I have no problem with your design structure, I infact when i was just in the drawing guitars stage, drew something extremely similar to an alembic, and i was told about them by a friend. I know where you're comin from Look forward to your future works.

can you say....alembic! Cool designs!

thats just stupid, fix that please

Primal, you're the man. I voted via the category thing mentioned in the contest thread. How many builds has the builder done? How much did he build? How original was it? How good of a jod did he do? By this logic: Primal, MzI and Boggs were the least experienced builders in the thread, they get a 1 up. From there they all get another 1 up for original shapes. After this is where the decisions are made: As far as I can tell (MzI didnt mention specifically i he made the neck or not, but by the pics on his site, it seems he didn't) Primal is the only one who built his own neck. His shape, other than Boggs's was the most original, and I think it was more aesthetically pleasing than the others. Everyone loves to vote for beatiful guitars (Drak ) but the fact of the matter is, he bought his neck just like any other joe, and Primal built his and it looks great, which sets him apart.

Point to quote 1. You're right, the reason they push it is because of commission sales. If PRS were to have a special contract with GC, it would mean that PRS would probably be paying out in the MILLIONS to make it so. In no way would their selling of guitars at Guitar Center alone make up for this. Anyway, its a non-point, the owners of GC choose what instruments to buy wholesale from PRS and then resell at their desired price, based on what amount of money they want to make off their purchase. It's how our economy works. Point to quote 2. They're just kids. And kids (like myself) have a tendency to like shiny things. Most of the people hired at places like GC don't really know what they're talking about, and don't really receive much training. I know cuz I have a friend who used to work there. He told me himself. That's why he quit. Guitar Center doesn't need well trained employees to make a profit, they need employees to give people cords, plug in amps, give them time to tinker and play, so that the person wants to come back, or buy the instrument, which eventually leads to some sort of sale either way. New point. Based on the numbers of guitars they said go out in a week at the PRS factory on the DVD, my friend and I calculated not too long ago the average amount of profit that comes out of the company per year. We included everything we could possibly think of, employee pay, salary employee pay, maintenance, insurance, utilities, employee benefits, the list goes on. And after all of the expenses and payouts PRS probably makes in a year, using the base (lowest) price for a new PRS as the standard, and NOT the average (we used $1100) we calculated the company sees somewhere around 4 million a year in pure profits. If their instruments are so over priced, surely they must be stupid. I mean come on, only 4 mil? EDIT:

I think I have a suspicion that Big D may be an ebay seller who puts things like "Custom Guitar, NOT [or like] PRS, Fender, Gibson" as the title so that it comes up in standard searches. I would be offended if someone was using my companies reputation to attract business to themself.

My opinion on the subject may contribute some sort of different light to whole argument. For one, having built a PRS copy I spent hours upon hours just studying what makes the PRS a PRS, my friend was nice enough to let me spec his entirely out, proding and digging to find what worked. Even though this guitar was the lowest end USA PRS (CE 22 Bolt-On...no figured wood) he coughed up some cash for it. The guitar plays wonderfully, even sitting down. I think many people look at the heel and think "GOD! That's incredible! How ridiculous!" Without actually giving it a chance. I've found that if you play the guitar how you're supposed to play it (thumb down the middle of the neck aligned with your first finger) that when your thumb hits that heel, your pinky finger rests comfortably on the last fret. PRS's are easy to play cuz they allow for low action without fret noise, and have a lower neck profile than a Fender or a Les Paul. The strings on a PRS seem to feel softer, looser, than the same strings on a Tele. This I can only attribute to a good setup, but in some ways it's inexplicable. I have the PRS factory DVD. In it, Mr. Smith himself tells a story about a kid who was complaining because the guitars were TOO easy to play. Mr. Smith explains that his guitars aren't for everyone, but that they were designed with the player specifically in mind. Basically the intent was for them to be easy to play on any level. The above i think is what a lot of people find wrong with a PRS, though i believe it is fairly subconscious. The guitars have such a neutral feel to them, that people playing them may come under the impression that the guitar has no character, when in fact, that is the guitars character. A point was brought up about the pickups. I dont remember who it was and i dont want to go back and check but Mr. go check the PRS website. They have specs on all of their pickups. It may depend on which guitar you pick up and play, you have to check the tag to find out what kind of pickup is in it. Some of their pickups are wound way hot, and others, hardly at all, its for the player's style, if you don't like a hot pickup, you've got a weak one to choose from. Rant, rant, blah blah.

I've got a device set up for when I can afford a dust collection system. It is just a hood, but you should see how much dust stays in it, compared to how much all over the dust was before i built it

I was doing a little cleaning today and decided to take some pics. Sorry about the quality, something was weird with the light. First a simple overview. Here's my pegboard, although it is quite large, you can see it's VERY full. Here's the main work space, I do all the finish sanding, gluing, inlaying, etc. here. You can see the clamping device I built. It's great for clamping 2 piece bodies, and works really well for holding pieces in place while you work on them. (In it right now is the archtop top that i was chiseling away at and am now sanding to shape) Here's a pic of where I put all the woods for the projects I am working on. I shoulda been smart enough to move the big mahogany boards in the foreground. (I'll get 4 necks out of em) If there's any questions about what you see here, I'll be happy to indulge. Now my bandsaw. And lastly my power tool station. This is very nice and took awhile to build. The blue tarp helps to keep most of the dust under control. In here I do routing, Drilling with the drill press, planing, and belt sanding (the belt sander is blocked by part of the picture). I installed a worklight onto a 6 plug power strip so all i have to do is flip the switch and the light comes on. Very bright, makes things easy to see. (I'm going to have to put one of these over the main work table too!) One of the plugs on the strip connects to an extension cord that leads outside the covered area. This powers my dremel & pad sander for the main table, and also powers the bandsaw when I'm using it. EDIT: Forgot this- Note the bucket in the hole under the power station, i can sweep all the extra shavings/dust into this when im done. Also note the bucket of woods, these are scraps that I think might come in handy, though most of it gets thrown away. As always, any questions or comments are quite welcome!

PANELLING! IT CAN MATCH MY MINIVAN!

is the headstock unthicknessed there, is it crooked? Maybe an illusion but the whole thing seems to tilt towards the treble....regardless, even pictures of some of your rigs and such have thus far inspired new ideas for me to expand on....beautiful work

scott, does that last one have holes in it?! haha...

I routed the cavities first. To me, it makes a difference, a big one. Once the top is carved, having a place to set your router so that it balances is difficult. If you can help it, route the pickups out first. In situations where the top angles down towards the neck, you have to route them after you carve the top, or they wont be in the right spot.

The carve depths, stops, and locations are something that is difficult to get a good grasp on and give measurements for. A lot of the work is by eye, and by feel. Robert Benedetto's book on building a Archtop is extremely detailed, and even he doesnt give depth measurements, or locations. He says "drill a series of holes at several different levels corresponding to the proposed outside arch" in other words, you decide how you want the carve to flow, etc. Generally, you have a point thats 0 depth, and at its deepest, the top will be 1/4" thick (around the edge) everything else is kinda up to you. Check Setch's Les Paul thread in the in progress section, he does a wonderful carve job and a pretty good job of showing how he does it as well.

Guitar Building Templates has exactly what you want. Even down to the nice bird inlays. Enjoy, a little pricy (if you're stingy like me) but dead accurate and well made. EDIT: I made this awhile ago

<=envy

curtis it's modelled after a parker, and i think it looks killer! is that a real Satch autograph? if so, what'd he thing of the guitar?!

check www.galleryhardwoods.com he doesn't have any pictures, but he does a great job getting it smoothed/planed/jointed and set up the way you want it. I got some of the nicest wenge i'd ever seen from him (it wasn't even enough for a neck-thru blank, and it weighed 15 lbs!) Also when he's doing a neck for you, he'll make sure its quartersawn usually, which is nice (but not necessarily required with wenge)

*** man, that is crazy! is that built from scratch or fom existing parts/guitars?

I was in my local woods shop last week and noticed they had a shipment in of macassar ebony, which they don't usually have. Ecstatic, I looked through the stock. There was just ONE board that was absolutely gorgeous, impeccable, even looked like it had a light quilt to it. Since i wanted macassar for one of my upcoming projects, I bought the sucker. It was a little thick so i had it resawn into these two boards... Each measures 4" x 42" x 1/4" just enough for 2 guitar fingerboards, a bass fingerboard, and a nice headstock laminate. and a close up of the "quilt/curly" type pattern So my question is this, when I dampen the board down, the quilt is invisible, granted, the board still looks amazing, but i was wondering if ebony can go unfinished or not. I would like this pattern to show up on the guitars.

man that is some godly quilt whered you get it?

kneebraska *but soon to be new orleans *