awilcox

I like the shape and the wood. Will you be carving the top?

Finally, I am finished the building part of these two guitars - next on to the finishing. I think I am going with translucent black on the double cut and not sure about the single cut yet - any suggestions? Here are a few pictures of the single cut before I strip it down and get at the finishing. Flame maple bound cavity cover: Medium sized gold fretwire (warmoth)

Nice looking guitar. That is a good looking chunk of wood. Congratulaions on the great job!

Yes, I got the inlays and truss rod covers from Andy. He has a good selection of stuff, good quality too. I also got a sea snail nut blank from him to try on one of tthese guitars. I actually got two, one for each, and actually got one all shaped and then dropped in on the concrete floor and it broke in 2 pieces...and it was the nicer of the two. Nice figure, almost like MOP and it had green streeks in it - I might have to order a few more.

Thanks for all of the positive comments. I got some work done on the double cut this past weekend - radiused the freatboard, installed the frets (6100), installed all of the hardware (except for the pickups which I haven't decided on yet), and strung it up. I was pleased that the frets came out dead flat - with the action set low I only encountered buzzing in 2 spots on the high e string, and I found the the next fret up in these positions was not seated properly on the binding (I will simply replace these 2 frets - I found the 6100 fret wire harder to work with than the 6105). Now I just need to complete single cut and it is on to finishing. Here are a few pictures:

Cool, now I am thinking I will call the finish one of these guitars "Lure-burst" - haha.

^ The binding is stewmac .090" x .250" - I find it a real pain to install, but i like the look of binding. Do you think sunburst flamed maple fishing lures would sell - haha...but really, I didn't get the fishing reference (I don't fish).

Hello all, I am quite new to guitar building. I built my first guitar last fall. I played around with a lot of designs and settled on one that I thought looked like it could be "commercially accepted" while still slightly original. I found this was quite hard though as anything fitting this description ended up bearing some resemblance in some way to a Strat, Tele or Les Paul seeing how my favorite guitar is the Les Paul, mine ended up looking a little like that. The whole time I was working on the first one I was promising myself - never again. But after it was finished, I was out buying more wood to build two more. I am still working on these two at the moment - and have already aquired all of the supplies to make a flying V (which will be my next project). I think I am addicted. You can check out my first build under the guitar build link of my website http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/awilcox/ Anyway, I learned a lot from this website when doing my first build so I though I would start posting my progress on my two current builds - one of which is the same design as the first one and the other is also the same - except it is a double cut. Mahogany body and neck, ebony fretbords, figured maple tops, figured maple headstock laminate, single white binding around the whole thing. Here are pictures of my progress so far. Pretty much just need to finish shaping the necks, fret, install the bridge/tailpiece, and finish. one will be finished this way - yellow/burgundy burst and the other this way - amber/brown burst

I melt the Stewmac ABS plastic binding in acetone and use it for binding glue - if that is what you are using it for. I use small bits of scrap, cut up in about 1/8" inch pieces. I usually save any shavings from scraping and throw that in too. I put in a small glass jar with some acetone, and stir it often (every 20 minutes or so) and I find that it is usually ready to use in about 3 hours. I try to get it about the consistancy of maple syrup, thick enough that it doesn't run too bad. I use a small paint brush, paint it into the binding channel, and press the binding in place and tape it with masking tape. Leave it for about 12 hours.

I "melt" small pieces of the Stewmac binding in acetone to make a binding paste. It works great, plus it is the same color as the binding so if the binding is not perfectly tight against the channel, it fills in the crack and dries the same color. I got this idea off of the Stewmac website. I also tried CA and DUCO, but for seamless binding, I find the binding paste the best for me.

I was wondering if anybody has tried to do a Rootbeer finish (ala Gibson Les Paul). If so, how did it turn out and would you share the recipe? I am thinking maybe dark brown, sand back and then amber/light brown?

They are filed to 35 degrees - but they do look steep in that picture for some reason. I always used 45 degrees before, but I tried 35 on this one and I like it a little better. As long as the ends are dressed good (no sharp edges) it is not noticeable when playing and it does give just a hair more fret on the edges - which I prefer.

Another thing to consider with the gibson style of fretting/binding is that there is less fret between the edge of the neck and outer "E" stings and these strings can slide off of the edge of the neck a little easier when doing vibrato or pull offs - especially with the way gibson ramps there frets down to meet the binding. I recently purchase a new Les Paul and this was such a problem that I refretted it myself - sanding the binding nibs off and undercutting the frets. It plays much nicer now - but this is all personal preference I guess. Here is a before and after pic:

I would like to enter the guitar of the Month contest. This is my first homebuilt guitar. It is an original design - which is the result of my interpretation of a cross between a strat and a les paul. The Neck is a Maple/Oak/Maple Laminate, ebony fingerboard, Primavera body, maple top. Top is dyed with analine dye, back was sprayed with Mohawk dark red mahogany toner aerosol, then clearcoated with Mohawk nitro areosol, wetsanded and buffed. The pickups are overwound Golden Age humbuckers from Stewart Macdonald. Gotoh Bridge, Ping tuners. Gold fretwire. For more information on the build, check out my website (the Guitar Build Link) at http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/awilcox/ Building this guitar was a learning experience for me, and I used this website as a source for learning every step of the way. Now, hopefully I will be able to contribute back with some of the things I learned along the way. Thanks Andrew Wilcox