balooka

hi I am about to cut my scrafjoint and one thing is bugging me. My neckwood is 40 mm thick. I want a 15 degree angle and I have a dummy made out of cardboard. If I put the two pieces together, the seam is 80 mm from the start of the angle . will this cause any problems? I could shift the whole thing and get the seam at the start of the angle but that would mean my wood would have to grow overnight (since it will be too short then). T.i.a. JP

This is my first project and afther lurking here for a while (diggin' into the old archives aswell) I finally ordered some wood from a local lumberyard. I have a solid piece of plain maple now and the (requested) bubinga wasnt in yet. After I explained to an old dude that works there (and was VERY helpfull with planing and sanding it down to the correct thickness) what I wanted it for he said I could use oak aswell since its properties are kinda the same. I just know he doesnt have a clue about the tone etc, but he cut a piece of oak in the same thickness and length as the maple and the weight only differs a little. The only 'downside' to oak he said was the pores, but that could be taken care of. Is he correct in this? Is (good quality) oak as good as maple or is he just unaware of the differences? Also, since he didnt get my bubinga yet he offered a few pieces of black walnut for a decent price so i could experiment (7mm thick, planed and i think just enough for 3 tops). Now that I have them I kinda like it better than the bubinga I also bought the oak, so Im gonna use that to experiment first with a walnut top. Any chance this would sound any good? (the color combo of oak and walnut actually is real nice). hmm, long story but I would like to know about the oak vs. maple thing. TIA

hmm I thought the stylus should be the exact same size as the bit? anyway, I take your word on that since I never used it, but wouldnt that render an oversized copy? How long does it take for you the shape a neck, not including the setup. Doe you preshape prior to the actual uhm copycarving? tia jp hmmm so you already have the plans eh?

I have mailed the guy that sells the plans, asking about just that, acuracy. His answer was that it all depends on how well you construct your jig and the type of bit you use. Besides the fact that the site (for obvious commercial reasons) doesnt show how it exactly works in a fluent x,y,z motion it looks kinda oldfashioned. I'm gonna show the site to a friend that does the lasercutting for me and ask his opinion (since he'll have to build it for me lol), and if he says it could work im gonna order the plans and build it. Also, it seems that you can alter the measurements to your own needs so you can make it just small enough to fit your neck, or increase the size to do the neck and carved tops (or add another router to do 2 necks in one setup, which would be awesome). anyway... off to my friend now! JP

has anyone build a copycarver? or even purchased the buildingplans? If so, is it any good or should I keep away from it? the link -> CopyCarverSite jp

today there was a salesrep in my bro's paintshop and he was looking at my just finished routing jigs for my upcoming guitar and he asked my bro if it was gonna be a satch chromeboy... My bro is not the one to talk about when it comes to guitars but anyway, he said he has some kinda paint that will actually leave a chrome finish (over a deep black base and sealed with a bunch of clears). Have you ever seen this stuff? He'll be back in a few weeks to bring some samples to test with. It's somekind of 'complex' spaying to achieve the best result but it is not the stuff we used on our bikehelmets and get them hard-chromed (dipped ina bath). So it's chrome in a jar... I'm planning to use it on my crappy epiphone after i stripped and sanded it into a decent shape. ps. its the same dude that supplies my bro with metalflake, rainbow/holoflake etc.

just my 2cents... my bro owns an industrial coating company (spaypaint, powdercoat etc) and he uses those big flakes for the bikes of a team he sponsors. They are bright yellow ducati's with loads of huge flakes in the clears. They 'bright' will go away after the clear with the flakes is sprayed tho. So maybe yours is a purple/pink (?) base (bright) with only flakes in the clears. Should be obvious if you look over the coat at an angle. I asked him about repairing spots this small but he has no experience with repairing, he'd just redo the whole thing :/ hth jp

Guitarfrenzy, I just re-read your post for the third time before it kinda hit me. I assume you mean by getting radiusblocks for every fret that I want to turn my fretboard into a compound, but what i meant was I'm getting a pre-slotted compound board (well several to practice on) and I don't really know how to level the frets after they are seated. A friend of mine is now copying a comp. board into cad software to figure out the radius on each fret (since my math isn't THAT good) and he'll make the correct cauls for each fret. Heh, gotta go hunting for an arbor press now T.I.A. JP

thanks Guitarfrenzy, I was thinking about getting that kit (includes a free copy of the Dan Erlewine book btw), and from reading your post I understand that that book will solve a few mystories for me. One more question though, I was lookign at one of those arbor presses with the things you can attach for the correct radius (my english kinda sucks), anyway, how would that work with a compound radiused fingerboard? I should switch blocks every 3 or 4 frets or so? Is it worth the money to get one of those (I don't really like the idea of hammering on my brandnew fretboard ) t.i.a. JP

hi since there are smart ppl here that know what they are talking about I wonder if anyone can direct me to a tutorial about leveling and crowning frets. The tutorial on projectguitar.com has an invalid link. t.i.a. JP

what if you use a tom (with ot without roller saddles) and a string thru? is there a minimum distance? JP

thanks for the info, but I still have another question relating to binding; My top will be 1/4 thick (not sure what wood yet), and I want to bind it. But now that I'm thinking about it, and doing a search for routerbits (here in the netherlands) a question pops op about the height of a binding. Say my top is 1/4" and the binding is smaller (I don't want a 'fat' 1/4" binding on the sides) this will leave some of the tops sides unbound. I want to do a high contrast top/body thing and I now think it would look ugly to have the sides colored as binding/bit of top/body. How do you guys pull it off without ending up with a side thats 3 colors? TIA JP

erm... it's here in the netherlands, but they ship to foreign countries aswell. Site is also in English. -> Radius / Compound radius: Adjusting the radius / compound radius. Thanks to the unique routing techniques, it is possible to adjust the radius of the fingerboard as wanted by the customer, of course taking into account the restrictions of the instrument. For the maximum playing comfort the compound radius is used a lot nowadays. The most used compound radius for guitars goes from 10" at the top side to 16 " at the body side. In this way comfortable playing of full chords at the lower side of the neck can be combined with solo playing at the higher end of the fingerboard without problems of string rasping while bending the strings. Extremely low string heights without fret rattle is possible, a must for the actual playing techniques. Necks with a compound radius can not be sanded by hand without disturbing the surface of the compound radius. <- http://www.voxhumana.nl/uk/ukdewerkplaats1deel1.html HTH JP

thanks is there a difference in tone when installing it onto the fboard? I've asked the company that sells me the compound radiused and slotted fboard to slot a zero-fret in it, and another one that has 'regualar' slotting. I was thinking that using a zerofret only requires a nut to space the strings and not determine the height of the strings. I could be wrong though... Also, on some website they said that a zerofret should sound 'better' compared to any nut. Don't know if that's true or not and I really don't care that much either since most guitars are made with a nut and sound great. So that might be a myth, however, I like the idea of having a zerofret that is totally in tune with the other frets so I want to use it. Another question comes up while I writing this (partly with a dictionary since english isn't my first language heh)... Can I use a locked nut on a zerofretted board?? TIA JP Ps. I want to apologize for asking alot of newbie questions.

-sigh- I's still drawing my guitar and I'm in the process of finishing it. One thing I didnt spend too much (if any) time on is the placement of the nut... Since there will be a nut (duh) I want to place it as correct as possible. I could take measurements from the guitars I already own but I want to know how to install them. I'm planning to use graphite. TIA JP

FWIW, I've made a little 13 degree jig in which I clamp down the (unshaped) neck and only use my router with a medium/large bit in it to shape it. Then I turn the piece around, both hor. and vert. and do the same, with a different depth ofcourse. leaving me with a perfect 13 degree angled headstock in any thickness I want.... I'll post a pic if I can find a digicam somewhere. JP ps. The jig I copied from a guitarsite somewhere...

Hi, what materials can be used to bind a fretboard with (close to) 90 degree angles at the neckside? I don't want to make it nice and rounded but straight and clean. Can I bind without having to cut the matirial into several pieces? Whats the best mothod for this anyway, after its installed on the neck or prior to installing? TIA JP

heh kewl! Hmm maybe I should go for that then - probalby costs a tad mor the the original but I do like the clean look of that new thing... thanks JP

nice yob there on the routing, however, how are you gonna screw on the cavity covers? you didnt leave any wood to mount them on... Are you glueing those parts in? JP

thanks You are probably right. I've taken most of my measurements from a FR clone and used the Eggle as a reference for the neck (since I like it alot). I'm gonna order an OFR before I send the neckdrawings to the CNC company. I'll start working on my body first. BTW, on the Floyd Rose site the show the new speedloader trem. Is there someone here that aready installed one? Are the things to look out for? Oh and one more thing, is the speedloader suitable for headless necks without using the steinberger approach (which means making the back of your body butt-ugly)? TIA JP

Hi 'It' is indeed the neck, not the fingerboard. For now I'm planning to do the FR guitar and if that is going ok I would like to have one with a TOM and different hardware set-up. Routerjigs will be lasercut from half inch stainless steel by a company a friend of mine owns, so for that I have to be sure my drawings are 95% correct. I'm working on a jig to shape the neck contours and backshape but for that I have to decide wether or not I'll 'raise' the neck 3mm above body-surface... Am i making sense here? TIA JP

Thanks guys I'm not yet sure what bridge I'm gonna use (can't really decide) but I think it's gonna be an original Floyd or the new Speedloader Floyd. But my biggest problem is that I'm going to make a deep set neck and therefore wasn't planning on doing a neckangle (because on various sites 'they' say that on a Floyd you don't need the angle...) Correct me if I'm wrong but I reckon it's 'easier' to put on a recessed Floyd since there is more room for adjustment. Either way, if I set it to 3 mm above body surface I shoud be able to use TOM or Floyd right? This matter is *really* bugging me since my drawings are great (at least I think they are) and this is for now stopping me from starting to cut up some wood. Heh, when do you think you're gonna start that manual/chart thingy btw?? TIA JP

Hi, I'm new to guitarbuilding and have just begun to draw out my guitar. I've taken most measurements from a Patrick Eggle Berlin, except the bodyshape. I'm almost done with my guitardrawings on the computer and have calculated almost everything untill it was correct but now I stumble on something that I didn't look into at an earlier stage of the design job... I'm gonna build mine with a deep set neck. The neck on the Eggle is about 3mm above the bodysurface (not including the fingerboard). I *assumed* it was notmal since my other guitars have a similar construction, but the other have floyd rose's trems and the eggle has a tune-o-matic. Is there a rule or chart of some kind where I can see how the bridge and neckheight interact? Is is neccesary to have this or can the fingerboard be right on top of the boby surface?? TIA JP