LeviJames

I use colored wood filler, it works very nice. I just put a dab on in each little hole, and come back to it in a couple minutes and sand it down with some fine grit paper, and there ya go, some nice little and easy dots.

hey iskim86, i dont have experience with refretting fretboards, but i have some experience making them. The only tools i have for fretting is a hammer, a small block of wood ( a small rubber mallet would be much better to use) and a piece of mdf cut to the radius of the fretboard. Now, I dont know what you would do to go about taking out the frets without ripping the wood bad, but to get new ones in shouldnt be too hard to do with the tools i listed above. I generally order 6 ft of fretwire from stew-mac, and then i bring it to my bending jig, which is simply a piece of mdf with a Convex curve of the fretboard radius on it, and a slot running down the center just a bit wider then the tang of the fret. I bend the frets by hand until it fits in the jig, with a very similar curve to it ( its not hard to do and doesnt take too much time, just be careful not to bend it sideways). After i have my fretwire bent, i start on the first fret, and line the fret up so i can cut the fretwire with only a small amount of extra fret on either side of the board. then i place my wooden block on top of the fret and carefully tap it in until it is snug down to the fretboard, and continue with all the frets. then i file down the sides of the frets level, and then bevel the edges by hand. Hopefully that process helps you, if not im sure someone else has ideas. That process made an almost perfect fretboard for my guitar, there was only 1 slightly high fret on the whole fretboard. Anyway, hope that helps. LeviJames

Hey everyone, i am planning to start my second project ( in september ) but i am starting to plan it right now. So far i am planning to make a resonator guitar, with a bloodwood neck and head, and a 22 fret, 24 3/4" scale purpleheart fretboard. What im planning for the body is its going to be steel, with a traditional acoustic shape, and a resonator cone. (i dont know if anyone has had experience making a steel bodied guitar) but some questions i have are: 1) What would the best steel to use be, a lower or higher carbon steel, or stainless steel. ( i was thinking stainless would be the best.) 2) Should i use an aluminum cone or make my own steel one to go with the body. ( i figure the aluminum would work the best ) 3) I have 1/8" material in mind, but if not that, what would be a better thickness? I played a steel guitar at a guitar store and it sounded awesome, and i looked at the specs, and the body material is steel. Its like the steel bodied guitar Mark Knopfler sometimes plays. By the way, i know what i am doing working with metal, so that is not an issue. I have access to torches and a plasma cutter, as well as stick, mig, and tig welders and can use them all. as well as a metal lathe, milling machine and all the bending tools i should need. I have experience with fretboards, necks and everything to do with it so that is not an issue either. Thanks for your input, i hope this project will turn out as well as my last.

Here are a couple more pictures: The head now that its finished. And the back of the body with the cavity cover. http://robd.homelinux.net:4000/~levi/back.jpg sorry the quality is so crappy, i took the pics with my phone.

the old ibanez that i used the parts from is now sitting in my closet, waiting until i have time to restore it it a whole new project.

surprisingly yes it is comfortable to play, the neck is thinner farther down, but thicker near the head but it suits how i hold the guitar so it works

Here is the new guitar i made, its my first guitar and i made it from scratch. It has a bloodwood top, an alder back, and bloodwood for the neck and head, as well as a walnut fretboard. It surprisingly has an awesome tone to it. there is still some finishing on the head and neck left to be done in this picture. The guitar has a 24 3/4" fretscale with Stewmac mdium-high frets, there are 22 frets. Most of the hardware came from an old ibanez except the tailpiece. http://robd.homelinux.net:4000/~levi/Angle.jpg http://robd.homelinux.net:4000/~levi/Bodyclose.jpg http://robd.homelinux.net:4000/~levi/me1.jpg So, what do you think for a first effort? It took me about 5 months to build it, and its my first guitar, other than a saga les paul kit. Thanks to the resources here on project guitar EDIT: I added some more pictures