lotass

what is dis/advantage over a two piece?

why is maple a good/bad neck wood?

why is bolt on good/bad?

why is the brand good/bad?

why is C shape good bad?

-benno

what is dis/advantage over a two piece?

normally you wouldnt have a two piece neck. More common would be three-piece laminate, or 5piece laminate (5piece usually uncludes this setup...say with maple and bubinga for example..M/B/M/B/M, or somthing of that sort) but I believe a lot of it has to do with neck strength.

why is maple a good/bad neck wood?

a lot of it is preference of look and sound. Maple can look very nice, and the sound is bright and crisp, and it's used on many guitars.

why is bolt on good/bad?

well theres lots of opinions on this. Bolt ons can come loose, whereas like my gluedon gibson neck is not gonna come out, but my strat copy neck can come a little loose.

why is the brand good/bad?

never heard of that brand

why is C shape good bad?

uhm C shape is the basic neck shape, some ibanez's and jackson's necks are a lot thinner and even can be curved towards the top and bottom and flat in the middle, but C shape is basically the shape of a neck...also provides good control because you have a lot to grip onto (if it's a thick C neck)

krazy koa

Guitarfrenzy- you're the first ive seen too, i live just outside of bryant, how bout you?

I live around 30 miles south of Pine Bluff. It's was hard when I started building guitars to find any local luthiers to talk to. I got interested in guitar building and repair after I took my dad's old Gibson J-45 banner year guitar to get it worked on and was charged over 300 dollars.. lol... Speaking of luthiers.. There's a couple good ones in Little Rock, and another in Batesville, but I haven't gotten to meet any to learn anything. I got a friend from Crossett who also is building guitars and we trade ideas. I always borrow his Stew Mac router bit to drill my truss rod channel out.. lol I'd also recommend you using a dual action rod even if it's not a stew mac one. They are much easier to install and work great.

would you reccomend the LMI (lmii.com) double action truss rod?

not bad, did you do the pickup rout's by hand though?

what kinda wood is that?

my only concern is the neck pocket, you're going ot have fun trying to rout it how that the horns are cut out

ouch

no they were with stewmacs templates, but some of the acrylic got pushed by before the ballbearing could ride against the template...if you know what i mean

and its mahagony

erm so if i have the 3/8" router bit from stewmac I should buy my truss rod from LMI so i can just use my bit I have for the channel?

question: how do you know how long your truss rod should be when you order it? something off of scale length? you have to have your neck made? etc?

Cool! What pickups do you plan to have in there? And if you like PRS' finish then check out these links, http://www.prsguitars.com/color/index.html http://www.prsguitars.com/info/back_colors.html

that's still undecided, I want a Dimarzio humbucker (Evo, Breed, or FRED) and I believe a Seymour- Duncan Single coil (not sure about the SC yet though)

ill check those out

Very nice work - especially for your first.  Keep it up.  One bit of advice - mahogany is tricky to finish, you need to seal it really well.  One of my first was mahogany and it took me 4 or 5 times to get the finish decent.  It is worth it when you get done though.  If I were you, I would go through the finishing forum here for advice.  I used a mahogany grain filler and sealer but there are lots of people here more talented and experienced than me.

Good luck,

Marty

thanks a lot for the advice, ill do that.

thanks

what kind of wood is that?

mahagony

i used a magical program called paint (stretch/scew function - ctrl + w)

i think that its looking pretty sweet for a first attempt, what finish are you planning for it?

-dan

I dunno...I really love the PRS look, not only their veneers or what not but their colors..I don't think it's too late to find a good top but other then that I think ill just paint it..(well erm, I want to paint it so you can see the wood under the paint...whatever that's called..I havent researched paints and finishes any yet)

thanks.....what program did you use for that ? and what do you think?

hey thanks.....i thought they'd be too big...try photobucket?

edit - removed links -- see pics below

If you want you could just use your router, but if that's a hassle, you could try a chisel, sandpaper, a drill, etc.

Hey, you live near the Wilson sisters, Ann and Nancy...they got lotsass!

hah well my name on other forums is usually lotas, but i typo'd and hit one to many s'.....

they work for me, one sec

hmm wont work on fullservesite either....theyre uploaded but when i goto the link it wont work..

u guys try it ?

edit-removed links...see pics below

Ok here is links to pics of my first guitar im building, they are HUGE and I mean huge...I apologize I tried cropping them and shrinking them and changing their resolution and everything but won't work for me. The body really hasnt been sanding at all, you'll notice lots of chunks of wood sticking out of the routed passages, that of course will all be taken care of, as will the edges of the cavities.

Ill label them for you so if you just want to see the basic shape you dont have to guess to see which one is which

I haven't routed the bridge yet ( i want to buy the bridge first...actually decide what kind of bridge I want first ) and I havent routed the neck pocket yet because I think it will be more accurate if I make the neck first...

this is my first time working with wood, or any tools associated with wood. Please dont give me a tough time on the back contouring, I did it by hand with a chisel and sandpaper, no powertools

tell me what you think

I dont want to start another topic cause i already have two on the first page and other peoples dont get read as much if they get bumped to the second so ill just post another question here..

Im going to route for my floyd bridge, but i want to make sure my measurements are right here. If i have a 24.75" scale length, and my neck is joined at the 16th fret then I took the left over from 16th fret - bridge and made a mark where that was. So that's where the beginning of the bridge would be correct? What happens if this is like 1/4" off? will the guitar be screwed?

#2...scale length is nut --- bridge right? does it vary for different types of bridges? like nut -- beginning of normal tremolo vs. nut -- middle of floating?

thanks I appreciate your help with my questions, couldnt build my guitar w/o you guys.

edit- bleh just found a topic on it, now im all scared.

yup, get one of those rubber blocks from wal-mart for getting a flat surface, what shape are you going for that needs so much work? don't tell me you're trying to carve by hand with sandpaper?

er on the backside where your body rests against it. I put some sandpaper on a 2x4 block, but I couldnt seem to get the right angle because of the shape, so I'll probably try a razor and once all the wood is level try the block again.

it's not that much work I dont think, only took about an hour today, ill take some pics tomorrow and post them.

Lotass- let's try to keep the "neon under clear pickguard" posts all in one thread.

Starting a new topic for each question really clutters up the board, and makes it hard for people to find info.

Thanks.

Sorry I just figured if it's a wiring question it will go in electronics and if its a guitar body routing question it should go into Solid Body Guitar stuff...won't happen again.

Yeah...it sets the mood for the goats....and they sell disco balls and......

No...it's for putting on the tractors and equipment...really bright ones

interesting, ill look for those...they just called mini-strobe lights?

otherguy : definetly post some pics, i'd love to see that.

Well I used a chisel and i got some strong sandpaper, but there is still some uneven wood in spots...like if I try to chisel it down some more, it ends up that the area i just chiseled becomes lower down then the original "low area", anyway I can get rid of the high places (sandpaper hasn't worked well yet, maybe if i use it excessively it might) but anything like a razor blade or the side of the chisel-type tool would help smooth it out?

If that's the look you're going for just get a single coil PU bobbin...or make one I think people here have templates...

the wiring shouldn't be too hard...

er bobbin, what exactly is that?

Well my guitar is S/H...So as you can imagine theres a bit of room between the two. I was going to use an acrylic pickguard and instead of routing individual cavities for each pickguard, just route the whole middle out and put some neons in there....instead I was thinking of this

I would route (in the middle) anoter pickup cavity, and put small 3mm Led's in a row(maybe even 6 of them if i could manage that, it'd probably be near impossible/hell to do in such a small space) to act as the magnets on a regular pickup..so it would look like theres a singlecoil there but the magnets would be lighting up...what do you guys think?

That could be funny...

you can get some good small strobes from a farm supply retailer...that's where I got mine when I was a DJ

wait why would a farm store have them ?

thanks guys, but can anyone help me with routing depth?

measure the depth, they are all slightly different

Erm I dont have my pickups yet...theyre either Dimarzio Evo or Breed, and Im undecided on the singlecoil because Im not sure whether to go with EMG or Seymour Duncan yet.

thanks guys, but can anyone help me with routing depth?