frank falbo

I did it to one guitar before the EVH Musicman came out, so I thought I was so smart, and I was going to revolutionize guitar necks forever. I do love it, and I have that first neck. It's one of my all time favorites. But I now know I wasn't the first of anything. Even SRV and other people who played the same guitar for years wore away finish and wood in the treble area over time. So they were playing asymmetrical necks anyway. As far as carving them, the easiest way is to start with a symmetrical profile and then remove whatever you feel like from the treble side. However, one of my 7-string necks started out assymmetrical, because instead of just removing more wood from the treble side, I actually set the thickest part of the neck under the D and A strings. Some 5 and 6 string basses are that way, where it's not just "worn in" but its actually offset.

Rat420- Three words: Highly trained termites. You'll spend a long time training them but once they're ready, you can just sit back and relax.

I don't know how far along you are on it, but there are already several good suggestions. Don't re-cut any slots. If you want a longer scale, get a new board pre-slotted from LMI or whomever. If it's a neck through, I would take it to the bandsaw and very carefully cut along the wings' joints on either side. You'll only lose about 1/8" if you do it right. If you're sloppy you'll lose maybe 1/4". After re-planing, you'll either have a slightly narrower body, or you can put 1/8-1/4" strips of fancy wood on either side of the thru-neck for some "stripes," kind of like the abalone stripes the Santana has. But this would allow you to properly reposition the wings farther up on the neck so your current fingerboard is long enough. Again, I don't know how far you are. If we saw pics we could probably tell you exactly how to fix it. Perhaps rather than a baritone, a 25 1/2" scale with an extra 1/2" or so at the headstock end wouldn't look so bad. You'd pick up an whole inch in bridge placement. You could mask it a little with an oversized nut blank.

I see a few things that haven't been discussed here. First, all cheapo guitars have high nuts, not filed to optimum height, so they don't have buzz problems from shifting and settling in transit. That'd be why all the cheapo guitars with zero frets have taller zeros. Not that a taller zero is bad, just that you wouldn't take nut height advice from a beginning asian guitar factory in the 60's or 70's, would you? Especially one using those brass frets! Second, when you fret a note you're usually toward the front of the fret, digging far more heavily into the "note fret" than the one behind it. That'd be why the zero fret would never have equal wear as 1-5 or whatever. Third, when you fret a note cleanly (or capo it for that matter) the downward pressure causes a slight elevation in the string just after the fret. Sort of an "up and over." This obviously is infinitely variable by string gauge, finger pressure, fretting location, action, etc. But it does occur, and large frets or scalloping makes it more prominent. To what degree is the variable. So in effect, whenever you fret a note, you are raising the action ever so slightly at that fret. You are not doing that on the zero fret. That'd be why you should want the zero fret a little higher. If that means its simply "unlevelled", that's fine. Or you can use a higher fret. Fourth, no one's really mentioning neck bow, either. Bow usually becomes more pronounced at the first few frets. So its also possible that with an equal height zero fret, the reality is that it is sitting "higher" than fret #1 simply because it's at the end of the "banana." Just some food for thought, but please understand that this post doesn't actually "disagree" with anyone. So far, everyone's had a fair view. (except the guy who forgot to tell us it was his "slide guitar" ) Nah I'm just kidding. As far as the wear and tear goes though, most of the time, a player's fretting pressure is far greater than the downward pressure of an angled headstock or string tree. It's that smashing and bending that wears the fret most quickly. So as the string lays more gently over the zero fret getting "wiggled" a little by all the playing, I think the zero fret is more likely to hold up. I could be wrong, but it would seem to me that if a hard plastic nut could hold up fairly well......

Some of the biggest "mistakes" I see in traditional strat variations (I realize they're not really mistakes if they're intentional) are that designers don't keep a consistency from one area to the next. When I design I like to do it with the "flow of the eye" in mind. For example, I like guitars where the top cutaway seems to flow right into the bottom cutaway. Most guitars do this but some seem to have the cutaways randomly placed, so the eye has to move over to follow the line. So I like to be able to make a "C" type line that flows from one cutaway to the other. The Ibanez BTB bass series is a perfect example of this. It also flows in the other directions too. You can take a line starting at the top strap button, and swoop it around in "orbit" to flow right into the lower bout. If you continue it all the way around it will flow from the elbow area across again, right around to the treble cutaway. And the beveled edge just enhances that. I don't know if they did this on purpose or if someone's "artwork" just happened to do it, but I like guitars that have a sense of flow. almost like if you took the lines all the way out it would make a sort of infinity sign. It would be stretched and offset, but lately I've been sort of "crosschecking" my designs that way. The "X" pattern through the middle usually intersects around the B string in between the neck and middle pickup. It's really interesting because I can take several of my rough designs that I like, and although they are very different, that X seems to end up right around the same spot. If I do rejected designs or factory guitars that I don't like, it's either somewhere else, or it's "off the map" because the guitar doesn't have a flow. Just a little info from a different perspective. I wish I could draw it out in a program to illustrate what I'm talking about.

I suppose you could also grind/sand the frets away so you were left with just tang filling the hole. Then you could sand and polish the board so you'd have silver fret lines. You could use 80 grit on a radius block until you just started to touch the fretboard, then switch to higher grades. Or if you're brave enough, take it to the belt sander for most of the work. I'm going to try a fretless guitar I just don't know when. I have a few decent necks with outdated headstock shapes around that I could use, or it would be easy enough to make a rear mount truss rod (skunk stripe) neck with no fretboard. I would think you'd want a thicker profile, more "V" shaped neck so you could really squeeze for a cleaner note.

Yeah that's true. I guess in a way basswood is like ALDER II: THE SEQUEL Maybe agathis will be the next basswood, and then some tree that is just now starting to be farmed heavily in some country will be the next agathis! There are generalizations that can be made that aren't opinion though, like "X" is brighter or darker than "Y" etc. So long as you have a reference point you can have somewhat meaningful discussions. Plus some other factual statements like "many basswood guitars suffer from tremolo studs pulling forward because of its softness" can be made. Like I said, it isn't bad, because no wood is inherehtly bad sounding, since art is subjective. I just find basswood to be very plain sounding, not really adding its own character to the sound. You know, like it posesses the absence of all that makes the other traditional woods sound unique. (doesn't have maple's brightness, mahogany's warmth, swamp ash's toothy attack, etc) Maybe that in itself is a "tonal character" that I just can't see because I'm looking for an exaggeration of a certain frequency area or attack characteristic.

Dave-what color is the RG? They had some metallics that were sort of a powdery undercoat with a gloss topcoat. The undercoat was soft and regardless of the wood type it was like painting a gloss coat over a piece of rubber. It dented really easily. And I have an alder Proline that has that finish and dents real easily. Alder's not much harder than basswood, but the point is, those metallics were sensitive no matter what the wood was. As for basswood, it is a wood of convenience. It is well known that the Asian factories didn't choose basswood for its rich tonal character. It was plentiful and cheap, and very easy on router bits. That said, it's not bad. But because of it's softness it can't reflect crisp, sharp highs or deep, extended lows. You can still capture those frequencies with your gear and pickups, but basswood is a sort of midrangey, "plain" sounding wood. Ten of my guitars are basswood Ibanez's. But I have them because I like other things about them. I've never built with basswood unless it was maple capped. With a maple top I think its great. The top puts the cutting attack back into the guitar, and it almost de-emphasizes the pronounced mids, because there is a lamination. The point is, many people like basswood and request it. It's a "favorite" for a lot of players, even famous endorsers. I'm just saying that's coincidence. It didn't start out as a highly revered tonewood. Plus, over the years, as the big factories have shovelled basswood at us consumers, we've come to accept it as a "normal" sound, and I feel that Dimarzio makes their pickups and descriptions with basswood in mind. As more artists used basswood, it became a sound we prefer. But if you look, it's mostly high gain or heavily processed players using basswood. Another thing that happened over the years is we used up "old growth" basswood. I like basswood that's a little darker tan color, and denser, while "new" basswood is real yellowish green, and softer.

You might try using the dark blue as your basecoat, then following up with a clear with some black pigment in it. Just enough so it looks smokey. It would be like the same amount of tint used to make a trans black finish over bare wood. That way when light passes directly through it it will be more blue than at an angle, as the tint of the clear compounds. So depending on your viewing angle, either your edges and contours will be darker or your flat surfaces will be darker. I agree that you definitely want something with more depth than a flat blue surface with no character. Carvin has a good pearl blue, if you like pearlized finishes.

It seems if you spend half the time cutting inlays as you spend trying to figure out how not to cut inlays, you'd have a few guitars done by now! I do like the idea of growing MOP in the right shapes. Perhaps rather than train the sea ceatures you could just farm them inside little cookie cutters like they raise veal. Then it would only be allowed to grow in the shape of the inlay.

That would make a great Ibanez Saber or Radius body, or Soundgear bass because the contours would reveal the maple stripe around the sides. As a matter of fact, if you carved and radiused the edges right, it could even look like maple body binding. The only thing that upsets me is the cross graining. There's no reason for it. So now if you use a rub-on stain, it will be darker on the Maple sides (endgrain) and then darker on the Korina top and bottom. At least if it was all parallel you'd have uniform color variances. So you'd want to do a spray on tint or something. Perhaps a sunburst, but then you wouldn't see the maple line as well, if at all. It's intriguing, but moreso it's making me want to make a blank like that myself with parallel grains, and maybe with a bigger contrast, like walnut and maple. Plus, with that kind of laminate, why not hollow out the maple part? You could hollow the maple and carve the top and back out from the inside to end up with a hollow core like the Ibanez Maxxas. Man I'm really thinking about this now.

Right now that's how my 7 string is set up: http://www.fvcc.com/music/guitar.html I bought the brass compression fittings for that guitar. One of the reasons I got the fittings is because you can tell in the pic that the D and G are slightly off. So I can reallign them by drilling out for the fittings. But I have done a few guitars with maple tops like this, and one trick is to make your hole, then angle or countersink it a little, then string it up. Over the next few days the high strings will press into the wood a little. Then you go back and re-do all the countersinks a little larger to match that point. So you've made your countersink to include the compression from the string. Then I soak the area in thin superglue to really lock it up. I've never had a problem after that. I think it's much harder on a mahogany, koa, alder, etc. because you really have to make the superglue do the job. That's when I thought about the stealth brass tubing. Then you would have the look of it rolling over the wood, but it would be protected. Like I said, I was all set to do that on this 7 string until I found the compression fittings.

That works to help stop chipping from the drill bit. But the threads themselves can lift the wood as you're first going into the hole. So I countersink the hole after I've drilled the pilot hole for the screw. The pilot hole size needs to be determined by the screw you're using. A good rule is to drill the hole the size of the core shaft of the screw, and let the threads bite in. On harder woods or with bigger screws you might have to go a little bigger.

Since you're talking about getting creative, I'll share my latest bridge. It's for a Satriani style guitar that I'm making, and I wanted to use Steinberger saddles I had. So I recessed a rectangle into the body as the area for the saddles, and I made a bridge out of figured walnut that was a mini replica of a JS body shape, split down the middle so half is on each side of the saddles. Along the back is a "quarter round" where the strings come up through the body and round over the walnut. Then I drilled and tapped each side of the bridge to put little allen bolts in there to squeeze the saddles like on a real Steinberger bridge. The point is for this bridge I chose to have the "round over" be done above the surface, instead of with grommets. So you could make any sort of fancy wooden piece above the surface as long as it has a smooth radius. It applies less downward pressure on the saddles, but that's okay because it's a solid flamed maple body so I don't need the extra sharp attack from the steep angle.

Yeah those are perfect! I saw those at the hardware store, too, but they only had chrome ones so I forgot about them. You could probably do some cool things with the various colors if the string rubbing didn't chip it off.

You should play your gigs in a fireman's suit. That would look right. I've always wanted to do a BBQ'd guitar. Not torched, but an actual BBQ, where you get an "X" pattern of charred grill marks. Then you could finish it with a caramel tinted clear so it looked like grilled chicken breast. And you wouldn't buff it out, you'd just slather it on with a brush and let it drip and sag like marinade. I imagine you couldn't really do it on a BBQ because the rest of the guitar would burn before the grill marks were left. You might have to make phony grill marks with a woodburning kit first, then torch it.

Electrical tape adhesive will also react to many stains and finishes, and its black. Its a lost cause. I did it like some of you with a little difference. I like to rub stain into the maple, and I did a darker forest green first, then sand back, then a custom mix of the forest green with a little emerald green for the final stain. Maple is dense enough that the stain only penetrates about 1/64". So I stained the top before I finished shaping the sides. They were about 1/8" oversized. So when I sanded the sides it revealed fresh white maple. Then I radiused the edge with a razor blade, not sandpaper. It left a perfect line between finished and unfinished. Sandpaper would've driven little green colored sawdust particles into the clean maple part, and blurred the line, or worse. Plus I could control the exact size and taper of the line. I wasn't a slave to bending masking tape, nor would I be let down by some tape lifting and stain bleeding. There was one spot where the green leaked into a pore, so it looked like a fine green hair about 1/8" long. I just scraped that out with the edge of a razor blade and let the lacquer fill it in, and you can't tell. I wouldn't do it with figured cherry or koa or anything with big pores. You really could do the same thing with the "tinted clear" method. You could seal the whole top (still oversized) and then shoot the colored clear. Then finish sizing the sides and radiusing the top in the same way. I just don't like trusting tape edges to give me a clean line. I did just recently see 1/8" masking tape in LMI though, and I'll probably try it the next time I want to do natural binding. The tape needs to be really pliable, and the smaller width helps, like the guy who used auto pinstriping.

I couldn't make them show up in the post, but here's the link: http://www.fvcc.com/music/guitar.html I wasn't there when my friend took the pics so he didn't get an angle where the quilt is lit up. I think he was going for a "no glare" pic and not a "look at how alive this quilt is" pic!

I just bought compression fittings from the hardware store for about $.75 per 2 in a package. They're brass, and they have a satiny finish on the inside. They're perfect. They fan out like a bugle. They don't come out and round over like a mushroom head. (like in your pic) I might cut them down because they're a bit long. They're in the plumbing aisle with all the brass connectors. I searched all over because I needed brass/gold. If you need chrome/silver/aluminum then there's all sorts of options. First, someone I know got Carvin to sell him some of theirs. But they acted like they weren't supposed to and that they weren't for sale. You can use the kind of rivets that have a nail through them and just take the nail out. Or you can get those mushroom shaped finishing washers and drill down with a brad point bit to match, then superglue them into place. Before I found the compression fittings I was going to just use brass tubing from the hobby shop to line the inside of the hole right up flush with the body top. Then you'd have the protection you needed but it would be "stealth." You could use aluminum or steel too. On one guitar I made over 10 years ago I routed a recess, like a rectangle, where the 6 holes came through. Then just in front of the holes I glued in a solid brass rod. So the strings came up and over the brass rod.

I always countersink them so they don't lift the wood away and crack the finish around there. And I drill past the depth of the screw, so that you don't have the end of the screw performing a splitting action when it reaches the end of it's travel. That's more important on the upper horn than the bottom. Otherwise it's the least of your worries.

I like DannoG's idea. I'd take it one step further, and drill your bridge mounting holes through it. In other words, place your bridge baseplate over the wood, (hardwood like maple) and drill all the holes, not just the string through holes. That way you can use the bridge mounting holes with some longer screws to screw your template to the body, locking it in place. And since you've used the actual baseplate, you should have perfect alignment when you install the bridge. I can't endorse using a router. I have that adjustable depth drill press that kd has pictured, and it's the greatest. If you're going to upgrade your drill press, definitely get one like that rather than one that's just barely big enough for bridge holes.

It's real easy to make the body holes in reverse. You just take the neck, and put little dowel centers into the holes. Then you press the neck into place and it will leave 4 starter indentations. If you can't get dowel centers (I never bothered to get any myself) then you can put pickguard screws into the holes. They will self-center because they are conical shaped, and when you press the neck into the pocket, you'll get four X's. Then "X" marks the spot where you drill. I countersink the neck holes just a little to stop the threads from lifting the wood out when you install the screws. That can cause creaks, or a less than tight fit. But the countersink also centers the pickguard screw perfectly.

That locking nut isn't going to have good nut slots to be used as the actual fulcrum point. As I remember, those slots are more for guiding the string. They aren't sized precisely to the different strings. I wouldn't move that nut up. Just put a regular nut in there instead. You can choose a material for the best tone instead of that "metal" sound. If you're going to put a lock nut against the board, I suggest buying a traditional lock nut made to go up there.

....unless the hole in the wood is smaller or equal in diameter than the hole in the center of the ferrule. Then anything that fits will just slide right on through.

I didn't read the other posts, so forgive me if this has been mentioned, but if it's a subtle enough curve like an S series, couldn't you use a few sandbags and some extra weight on top? That should give a similar effect as a vacuum press.