VanKirk

I would suggest routing the neck pocket before carving and before routing anything else. Here's what my inexperienced butt would do: 1: Complete the neck (so you can get an accurate neck pocket measurement) 2. route the neck pocket 3. measure & install bridge posts 4. route the pickup cavities 5. then start the carve This was suggested to me by a friend who said it's much easier to route clean cuts when the router has a flat surface to rest on. Also, the neck pocket and bridge are the 2 most crucial things as far as measuring distances for scale length. Everything after can be adjusted to fit between these two points. I just cut, planed and joined my top today and will glue it on the body soon. I'll have to check out the spool clamp idea. Looking good Greg! Remember to point, laugh and call me stupid if any pros find what I post to be a buncha BS.

Fender's Limited Edition SRV Tribute Strat Here ya go Litch ...Good news! I got the price wrong. It's $10,000 Now if you were gonna go buy it you can get 3 instead of 1

Those Graphtech saddles? When you say SRV pick-ups do you mean Fender Texas Specials from the Fender sig strat? If so then if you get a chance check out a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless. I went with the Noisless after a side by side with the Texas Specials. The neck in particular had a more Stevie sound than the Special's did and sounded a little hotter too. Surprised me since the Specials are in the SRV sig strat. Anyways, I agree with 'making the guitar your own' thing but it's not like it's your only guitar build so for a one-of-many project I think it's cool and if your gonna show tribute to anyone then I totally respect that you chose SRV. COOL!

Hello & welcome man_in_the_b0x! Building is a blast! I'm a newbie too but I'm so hooked that I already have plans on a second guitar before my first is even finished, LoL There's a good chance that alot of your potential questions have been asked and answered regarding guitar building at this info-packed site and using the 'search' function should point you there. Good luck!

pic hosting at photobucket.com Make sure to use the search function. Pic hosting has been discussed before and when I enter "pic host" in the search it shows this thread: pic host thread

Morben's tutorial rocked and so does Myka's! That link isn't working right for me Morben so I thought I'd post it again Morben's sunburst dye tutorial

hehehe, cool all you need is a left handed bridge and it would look like the real thing. Stevie's sunburst was so scratched you could barely tell it was a sunburst anyways. Can you believe that Fender took the exact specs of all the nics, scratches and burn marks off Stevie's #1 and replicated it for a limited run. It was at the NAMM show selling for.....$30000! For that kinda cash the damn thing shoulda had SRV's blood and sweat and channel his soul into the player!

ahhh crap! Sorry to hear that, man. Better to not work there than hate it & be miserable. I always tell myself "f'm ...I was looking for a job when I found this one" Good luck on the hunt!

Drak gave some good advice on how to sharpen a cabinet scraper and now I can remove alot of wood with good control pretty quickly. It leaves a very smooth surface too so final sanding is easier. Good luck

Nicely groomed 'fret hand' fingernails there ed I hate when I stupidly solder a component on the lead side of the board while my finger is touching the component on the other duh As for dropping the iron, I always make sure I set the iron in the holder and make sure the cord is out of the way so it doesn't get yanked. It's also is a good idea to have a workbench that's high enough so that if the iron falls it won't touch the ground. (nasty burn marks on the floor of another tech's work area )

Oh sweet! The K2500 & K2600 series are the main units I work on. Do you have any upgrades? PM me and I can set you up PG forum style!

I found this link that has a used Yamaha SPX 90 for sale. Not sure it's what you want though.

First, I would check warranty coverage and then the cost on a replacement. Second, I would get several quotes from qualified service repair centers then compare the two to see if it's worth having fixed... Sorry, I don't know of any UK repair centers. If it's not under warranty, you could take a look at it yourself but understand that you might make things worse instead of fixing the problem which can increase repair costs. In my experiences, I've found a smoking power supply is often caused by rectifier diodes in the power supply section going out. More often than not it is identifiable by burn marks or smell. There's a good chance that this blew the fuses as well. Open it up carefully with the unit off and unplugged and take a close visual inspection inside. You can used canned air to blow out any dust. Dust is made up of all kinds of things and sometimes it's conductive causing a short so clean it up carefully and once you start be sure you get as much as possible out or you may just move the potentially conductive dust/material to another area causing more problems. It could be many things but I find, as an electronic instrument repair technician for Kurweil Music Systems that these are common problems.

WoW! Those are cheap. I'd deffinately like to know what they sound like. Thanks for the link.

Looks like a yagi antenna After you play it you could hook it up to your cell phone or CB for better reception. Imagine playing that thing on stage in a lightning storm! YIKES!

If you've built a Saga kit then maybe you could order the body, neck and hardware from somewhere like USA Custom Guitars, Warmoth or even stew-mac and assemble it yourself for alot less money and more satisfaction?

Oooohhh! That's puuuurdy!

I have the tab and tuning he uses for that if anyone's interested. PM me

I had a chance to play one of these at GC where the builder's son works. They sound and feel like good quality instruments (of the 2 I played). I was surprised at how well it sounded with the brushed aluminum top. I couldn't help but laugh when I visited the site. It seems like their "fine handcrafted instruments might be mistaken for a mass-produced product put out by a big name manufacturer." I noticed that all the headstocks on the pics of their guitars were blacked out with their logo. I guess they should feel proud that Fender (I mean, big name manufacturer) felt the need to contact them? gigliottiguitars.com

I liked the reference to "Chef" Catchy tune too

I thought about auto tuning pegs before but not on a bridge. Pricey but a cool idea for the tone deaf or if you need fast alternate tunings on the fly. Auto tuning bridge

WoW, I'm not very observant. I see it now. Ooops At least it should play just fine. Great work!

Any problem with paint affecting the sound? Seems like if you put a finish on as thick as a solid body it would deaden the sound board but I haven't done it so it's just a guess.

"HEY GRANDMA! Listen to this......Grandma? GRANDMA?! " Yeah! That rocks!

Here's a link to a thread started here a couple months ago. Soldering advice That may help. Good luck! A good rule I've been taught before: "A good electrical connection begins with a good mechanical connection." A common mistake I see: DO NOT BLOW ON THE SOLDERED AREA TO COOL IT QUICKLY. This is another cause of cold solder joints. This cools the outer surface of your solder faster than the inside of the solder and very small cracks can develop at this point causing possible signal loss. I also use flux to help transfer heat from the iron to the material and to help the solder flow better. I just make sure to clean it off when I'm done. When removing wire shielding before tinning I leave a little more shielding than what I need because when the wire is heated the shielding will shrink back a little. When using 60/40 solder I run my iron at 600-650 degrees. I solder some very small and fragile stuff at work and have learned to heat up the area quickly but with only the amount of heat needed to heat the component and surface enough then flow the solder and get outta there when it's done. Too much heat can damage components and I've also found pre-programmed chips can have their memory damaged when too much heat is applied. I've seen some pots with plastic guts that can melt too. For added safety, since I solder so often, I exhale (don't blow) as I solder so that I'm not inhaling the solder fumes (tin & lead fumes can't be good for the brain).