RHOADS-N-RONSON

Be careful you decide before you route that you find the tone you are looking for BEFORE you decide on the final placement of your pick up, as by moving the pick up location, you change whether the pick up is going to read and register the even-ordered harmonics (round, fat tones) or the Odd ordered harmonics (more biting, "jangley" sounding tones), then from there you should make your distance placement based on the overall color of THAT SERIES over overtones you want to be come the character of your guitars tone. In short it is a two part recipe, not just distance alone. Two guitars could both have their rear p.u. mounted in what appears to be essentially the same basic distance form the bridge, but one might be focused on the odd-order harmonics and the other guitar on the even order-harmonics,... hence two different overall sounding guitars. My two cents. Hope it helps. Jimmy K

Wow!, thanks for the input everybody. Yes, I will definetely check out these designs of the "hobby spray booth", and see if we can just increase the working dimensions to fit our gutiars (neck thru). I have already read that you need "explosion proof" fans and motors. Apparently spraying Nitro and using a K-Mart window fan for evacuation is a dangerious idea, as a spark from electrical charge "could" ignite the Nitro cloud. BTW Dave, thanks for asking, we are doing a Recreation of the Randy Rhoads/ Sandoval Polka Dot Flying V. Best Wishes, and thanks again guys! I will let you know what we find that is useful and works. Jimmy K.

Wondering if there is a tutorial on how to set up a small home spray booth. I saw a pic on the web of a guy who had this "spray booth" which was only a bit larger than the guitar. This really appealled to me. Can anyone help me out with some info, or point me in the right direction. Thanks again, as always. Jimmy K.

I was just reading up on this subject. The author suggests filling in as tighly as possibly with wood, then making up a mixture of 2-part epoxy thickened heavily with fine saw dust. This is essentially a home made "wood dough" filler which is sandable, paintable, ect. Hope this helps. Jimmy K.

Does anyone know for sure the scale length of the VINTAGE Danno guitars (i.e. not the re-issues)? I have heard conflicting info,... one guy told me that some are 25" while others of the same model were 25.5"? My suspicion is that "collectors and dealers" may not know, or even care about scale lengths. If anyone has an old Danno/Silvertone Coral Sitar, Firefly, or Hornet (Danno 6 in a line machine heads) would you please share the measurement with me. Thanks, Jimmy K.

Right Devon, the vellum is plain and actually somewhat clear, BUT you have to supply the grid paper underneath. I use 1/4" block grid paper supplied in 18 x 24" sheets taped down to the surface of my drawing board, then I over lay the clrea vellum on top of that. In a pinch, you can carefully tape together multiple smaller sheets to make one large grid if you have to. Just be real careful ALL your line are true, as any descrepancy with manifest itself on the dimensions of your finished drawing,... and ultimately be transferred to your finished project as well. Hope this helps, Good Luck. Jimmy K.

Devon, Vellum is a type of special paper used by draftsmen. It is semi-transparent, but pretty tough, and stands up well to multiple erasures (sp?). You will find it in the drafting supply section. Jimmy K

I agree with Danno. I use 18 x 24" (1" squares, 4 to an Inch) Grid Paper under 18 x 24" draftsmans vellum. That, along with my trusty scale ruler, T-Square, Traingle, circle templates, ect, ect, and my drawing board. I learned basic mechanical drafting in high school, crica 1980, so besides being a cranky old foul dude, I don't have the temperment, or time, to learn a computer program. Also, I like being able to use actual REAL guitar parts (mounting rings, bridge plates, ect.) as templates on my drawings. This allows me to be sure things are where they are suppossed to be and how I want them to look. Another plus is, I can cut out any body or headstock shape , and tape it to a REAL guitar and get a sense for playablity and astetics. Oh, and you can take a REAL body, lay it right on your paper (coping neck pockets, center point ofo intonation, any routings, ect.) and simply make changes to an already proved and working guitar model, rather than try to re-invent the wheel. All items you need are available at any good art supply house, or even your local Staples has a "drafting supplies" isle. Hope this helps. Jimmy K.

Exaclty as Frank says. Best thing, simply cut off a nice clean angle off the old headstock, jig the new "donor" wood onto the remaining old headstock section (dowel or biscut join for addded stability!), plane for thickness, lay your template, re-drill any holes for machine head posts which will be abscent, cut to shape, sand, seal, ect. My friend who I work with did a "Harpoon" style headstock conversion from a standard "Fender" - style headstock for me this way which came out stucturally (and artistically) perfect. Good luck. Jimmy K.

Excellent Guys, that's what I needed to find out. Well, so a Wilkenson it will be then. I will let you fellows know how it turns out (and plays) along with some pics. Again, thanks to everyone for their input. Jimmy K.

Thanks for the input Bryan. I would like to use something OTHER than a locking nut Floyd on the re-creation Sandoval Polka Dot V we talked about earlier,... as the stock Fender type bent plate tremolo like Randy actually had on his original just won't cut it for me, as I can't even look at one of those things without it going out of tune! So I am hoping that perhaps the Wilkenson/Gotoh might be a good alternative for me. Obviously, I would hate to put all this time and money into this project only to have a guitar which I can't keep in tune if I use the whammy bar. Thanks Again, Jimmy K.

I would really like to believe what the rep at Wilkenson tells me about their tremolo system,.... "it can everything a floyd can do,... aggressive Van Halen dive-bombs and all,... and comes back to pitch perfectly",..... Anyone have any experience with them, and is this true???? Thanks, Jimmy K.

Brian and Scott, thanks so much for the information! This project has been at a stand still while trying to figure out how to do this paint sceme correctly. Also Scott, I will email you the specifications on the lay out of the dot matrix as soon as I have double checked my calculations against my templates, thank you. Really glad I found this site, and I am looking forward to posting pics of projects of various recreations in the future. Jimmy K.

Wondering what method and materials are suggested to create these "screens" I am reading about for doing a recreation of a Sandoval Randy Rhoads POLKA DOT V (White dots on Black body) project guitar. I am totally clueless as to how to generate the symmatry of the pattern, so that the dispersion pattern of the dots is exact. Can a sign shop do this for me? and what should I use for the screens? Frisket paper? Silk screen mesh? Please help,... Thank you,... Jimmy K.

Wow, great site! I am really looking forward to learning alot about guitar Building/Refinishing. So happy I found this site! - and no,... I will not ask for any Logo decals or CAD programmes as a"new" person! LOL! Thanks for sharing all the great info and pics!, Jimmy K.