VanKirk

From this VERY cool site I found this useful tutorial on routing Project Guitar Router Tutorial If you browse these forums enough you'll learn ALOT about routing

If you enter that one next month setch it will be tough for anyone to beat it!

That ROX!!! Glad to hear the good news!

Cocobolo is a very oily wood that doesn't take an oil finish well.

I agree. Pics are needed. I had to do alot of looking around to see how it looks as a finished product on different types of wood.

I've seen some posts that talk a little about using tru-oil. I found this site very useful for applying this kind of finish and thought others could use it as well. I'm gonna use it for the first time on my project. Applying a Tru-Oil Finish

Are there any woodworking businesses around your area? Maybe a community college with a wood shop? If the employees/teachers are cool you may be able to use there equipment long enough to cut out a body and neck. Sometimes a six pack of beer helps I've gotten to know some guys at the City Building in my town. They seem excited to see my project and help out by letting me use their equipment. They have a full woodworking and metal shop there.

Some MIM Strats are made from Poplar. IMO, not as nice a tone as ash or alder but not bad for a cheap alternative.

LoL, Yeah there a bit larger than an RG. Maybe you could wire the guitar to keep the stock volume and tone controls and then with a switch have the pickup signal run through your distortion circuit? Hopefully you wouldn't have too many knobs or switches that can be confusing to play if on stage. Let me know how it goes!

Whitewood is another name for Poplar

Ahhhh... Your last pic looks alot like a Gibson ES335. Very nice jazz/blues guitar. VERY nice sounding cleen or with slight distortion. I have to admit I agree with your Dad. I wouldn't put a distortion circuit in that particular guitar. That mod on that guitar would draw away from the tone that guitar is known for IMHO. I really like the double-cut Les Paul in your first pic. The ES335 & Les Paul are different sizes. The ES335 has alot bigger body than the Les Paul. ES335 body style is similar to Lucille (BB King's guitar but I think he plays a ES355). As for the by-pass switch I mean that when the switch is engaged (or disengaged depending on how you wire it) the pickup signal will be routed around the distortion circuit. IMHO, I would have the switch just in case you'd like a different distortion sound in the future. It wouldn't be very hard to do and parts would still be cheap and your guitar would be more versatile in the future. I change different distortion sounds quite often myself so I would get bored with the same distortion sound after a short time. BTW...IMHO clean sounds are sweet sounding on a ES335 style guitar. Almost forgot... Without a by-pass switch your guitar will distort and eventually have no output at all as the battery goes dead.

I was thinking about on-board effects as well until I thought about the work involved. I'm an electronic tech by trade so it's not outta my range to design a circuit (lotsa on-line DIY sites too) but I looked at my Line 6 PODxt and thought "too much trouble". The PODxt is portable enough and has lotsa cool effects. I also have the Pandora's box which is about the size of a cassette tape and has cool effects as well. I am still thinking about making an on-board dB boost similar to the Seymour Duncan SFX-1 pedal. Then I can overdrive the amps front end and get better sounding distortion at lower volumes (so I don't piss off the neighbors). Let us know how it goes and any problems you may encounter. Cool idea BTW...are you gonna have a true by-pass switch (maybe push-pull pot)? Oh! DOUBLE-CUT I think is definately COOL

I have Sperzels on my G&L and loved them enough to put on my custom neck. I've been using them for 10 years now. As far as I know they only come in satin finish so you dont get the shiny chrome or gold look like other tuners but I like the satin look.

I'm using a hard-tail bridge that has a fixed 11.5" radius. I like the bridge but it doesn't have height adjustable saddles. My neck has a 12" radius. Would it cause any problems using this bridge even though the radius of each is different? I've never seen a neck with a 11.5" radius so I'm just guessing that they chose a generic, close-enough radius. It's a Hipshot "Babygrand".

I agree with krazyderek Also, many pup manufacturers still make vintage replacements so this route would still be necessary. As for the black painted pup route, most of what I've seen isn't black paint but shielding paint that comes in black. It can be found at Stewart-MacDonald

Deffinately a unique guitar. More artwork than instrument IMHO. I would think you'd need an engine hoist just to lift it to play.

Very cool idea with the carved flames. I also like the control layout. Not too many dials or switches and the ones there look like they're easy to get to without getting in the way What's the control function layout?

Can anyone tell me the best way to ground a top-mount hardtail bridge on a rear route body? It's a Hipshot 'Babygrand' bridge. I was thinking that after I drill the stud holes I could drill another hole that runs from the bridge pup cavity to the stud hole and run the ground wire from the bridge post to the bridge pup wire route and into the rear control cavity. Does this seem like the right way to ground this bridge? Hipshot Products

Thanks Litchfield! Good, affordable source for wood.

On my first project, I found a pic with the body shape and pups that I wanted on a website. Then I saved the image and opened in paint. After that, I inverted the colors to get more of an outline of the pic. I enlarged the pic enough to fit on 1 piece of paper then I enlarged it on the copier at work. I measured the pups on my strat so I knew when I'd enlarged the pic enough. I took the inverted, enlarged pic and cut it out and it made a great template to xfer to a 1/4" piece of acrylic that I bought at an art supply shop. Hope this helps Paulie! BTW...If your printer or copier can't print the whole pic in 1 pass you can just print out top & bottom or left & right and just line up the pieces and tape them together.

Kids got patience, perseverence & ingenuity (I have no spelling skills). When I was 13 all I was doing was riding my bike and playing video games....wait a minute!!! I'm 30 now and that's still all I do Sad...so sad

Jumbo fret wire, heavier gauge strings, hard-tail bridge, string-through body. IMHO, each of these things should help him achieve more sustain. Heavier strings and hard-tail bridge I would think would be the easiest things to implement.

I'm doing my first project now with sandpaper, rasp and wood chisels to do a carve top. I've learned that using a strip of sandpaper about 2 inches wide by 2 feet long I can get at the hard to reach areas like inside the horns easily. What I do is place two fingers over the sandpaper and pull the sandpaper towards me. There may be better ways but this has worked well for me so far. I then use a scrap piece of maple as a sanding block for the convex, flat sections. I even have stickyback sandBy looking and feeling the edges I've gotten a pretty smooth surface. I'm no CNC machine but even with basic tools it's looking good. I think it can be done right with these limited tools but it will take longer. I'm in no hurry though. I never work on it when I'm tired or on too much caffiene

14 years but only slightly better than I was after first 3 years of playin'. Talk about a rut! been playin pretty close to the same crap for the last 10 years! Not enough time or motivation but it's still fun and relaxing.

If it's your hand that's hurting then, like everyone else says, try raising your strap. I found my hand started hurting when standing when I played my thin-necked strat. I've since installed a custom made neck that is MUCH fatter and my hand fatigue is WAY less. IMO, neck size matters as much as strap adjustment. (If you have the dough to swap the neck)