KeithHowell

You can make one yourself. Get the size you want and weld a piece of 5mm or 6mm rod onto the cutting end. Cut off the existing shaft if necessary Drill a hole through the wood put cutter through from inside guitar, chuck into drill and cut hole to depth required.

I would do it like this: Two metal strips, aluminium is good, long enough to stradle the f-hole. Drill a hole through centre of both for the switch mounting threaded section. Put some foam pads on the end of each metal strip. Put into guitar with one strip under sound board and one above, Switch through both pieces then put washers and nut onto switch and tighten carefully. Foam will stop any scratching of the finish. Just make sure it won't react with the finish on your guitar! Some types of foam do! Keith

I did it like this on Indian rosewood veneer: Sealed the raw veneer with 2 coats of modge Podge. Then wetsanded and buffed area where vinyl will be attached. Applied the logo, then applied modge podge over logo until edges disapeared. Then wet sand and buff modge podge to get a glass smooth surface. Then apply nitro over the top. I have used modge podge as a filler and sealer on the complete guitar before spraying with nitro as well. Modge podge has very good clear grain filling properties and wet sands to a very nice surface before spraying. Keith

From what I can see it seems the fret board is lifting from the neck. You could try running some ca glue in and then clamping. Else it would involve removing the fretboard cleaning up surfaces, regluing and refinishing neck. Keith

The "other" end should connect to some sort of shield, which would be at ground potential, in the pickup. If you could possibly post a picture it might be helpful to diagnose whats going on. Did you manage to get any specs? Keith

The "naked wire" is the sheild and is connected to ground both in the pickup and of course in the guitar and ultimately to the amplifier and through to the mains supply! Yes it should be connected as it will sheild the guitar from interference by shunting noise to ground. I suggest you find an Ohm meter and measure the coils for continuity. Don't know the specs of the pickups but you should get somewhere between 4k Ohm and 12k Ohm resistance if the coils are connected OK. I suggest as well you do a search on Google for the pickup specs. Good luck Keith

Yes you can substitute the power transformer with a 120v version, just as long as they both have the same power rating and output voltages. A lot of transformers do have both 220v and 120v inputs but you would have to check. Keith

The one I have is built very rigidly and works very well! My father bought it many years back and used it extensively. I remember it cost about as much as a cheap drill press at the time. So I guess you get what you pay for. He used it for drilling straight holes in furniture making where you can't get the whole cabinet into any drill press! There are very few drilling tasks on guitars that require anything other than a drill press with the exception of perhaps drilling the string through feral holes. So don't waste your time and money. Buy a drill press. Keith

I think everyone so far has missed the point. This is NOT a drill press but a drill GUIDE. It keeps the hand held drill square to the wood at all times. There is no load on the guide at all it simply sides up and down on the vertical bars. Keith

What I do is drill a hole from the control cavity into the TOM bridge post hole. I then push a piece of stranded wire with the end bared through to the post hole, then knock the post into place making sure of course that the wire pinches tightly between the wood and the post. Provided the post is conductive it works fine. You would probably have to clean the post up and remove some of the non-conductive layer otherwise, but if the whole bridge is covered in non-conductive black crap you could have a problem! Perhaps clean it off by stripping the bridge and putting all the parts in paint stripper then get the bare metal chromed somewhere. I don't know what that would cost you in your part of the world. The place around here had a minimum charge of around R50 (around 3 UK Pounds) about 10 years back so it might just pay you to buy a new TOM.

Diagram looks fine. Make sure none of your solder joints are dry. The back of the pots are usually a problem if you dont rough them up with bit of sandpaper or a file and then use a powerful enough iron to solder. I find smearing a bit of flux on the pot before soldering is preferable.

Make sure all your grounds are going to one point. (read up on star grounding) If not you could have a ground loop causing your hum!

Raw Linseed oil works wonders on cricket bats, which take a serious pounding, so on fretboards it should be more than adequate. Keith

Why make another one? Just pull the frets, reradius to 12" or whatever you want and refret! Keith

Thanks Russ. Much appreciated! Perhaps we could have the tut pinned? Brian or anyone else with the power? Keith

Someone started a thread/tutorial dealing with making up a blank for a laminated neck. Specifically dealing with tapering the laminates before gluing. I've searched but can't find the specific tut! Does anyone remember who wrote it or what it was called? Keith

I would suggest you shell out fot either a Weller Station or an Antex. My antex lasted over thirty years before I had to replace the tip and element and then at a fraction of the cost of a complete iron. Weller I have used professionally and they really are superb. Keith

Have a look here: [url=http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/other/0100800A/0100800APg1.pdf The drawing is in PDF format but can be easily converted to CAD format and scaled accordingly. Keith

What about sending them south for the winter like to Cape Town. Any way, I not yet met a tool (or plan for a tool) I have not liked! Cheers Keith

NEVER stick wires "through the hole and twist" If you need to take the wire off again for some reason you are giving yourself a headache. Heating and trying to pull the wire out will useally end with the insulation getting melted, your fingers getting burned and when the wire does pull loose it is likely to spray solder in all directions , including your eyes if you're not careful. (Ask me I know) When I was a young pupil technician, learning to solder, we were given a good bollocking for "sticking wires in holes" Keith

Make a small donation to Project Guitar and help yourself in the downloads section! Keith

Make a small donation to Project Guitar and help yourself in the download area. Keith

I'm not sure about JHB but Cape Town has plenty of resources! Rare Woods sells tone woods (Spruce tops and Indian Rose Wood backs and sides for acoustics) Hardware can be bought from any number of music stores as well as Terry's Importers. TOMS in JHB had a lot of spares as well last time I contacted them. Anything rare, not available locally,can be ordered from Stewart-Mcdonald via mail order. Power Tool Centre has tools, and books. Books can also be very easily ordered from Amazon.com. Marc Maingard rated in the top ten of luthiers worldwide operates locally out of Scarborough! Mervyn Davis, also a world class luthier operates, I think, out of Broederstroom, but definitely somewhere around Gauteng, so resources must be available. I have been building guitars on and off for over 30 years. I have built several electrics for myself and friends, some Bass Guitars, and a few acoustics. I have also been involved with Afri-Can Guitars which use Oil Cans for the bodies. Peter Buck of REM bought one when they were in SA. I have also done quite a few repairs on instruments, the last being a modification to the neck mounting of a 12 string Hofner for the Bass player for Kobus.

Have a look at Broken Headstock Repair Keith

Hi Adriaan I too am from South Africa (Cape Town) where are you living? You can order the book from Amazon. I received Benedettos Archtop book a while back with out any problem. If you are in the Cape area Tokai library has a copy of Melvyn's book. He's also a VIP member of this forum. Keith