frank falbo

The rounded rasp doesn't take long either, but you're in for a workout. If you're angry at anyone that's the perfect time to use the round rasp. It cuts aggressively, and makes a great "aggression reducing" sound, too! I use the rasp and then finish on the edge of the belt sander or with a random orbit sander. You have to finesse the random orbit sander so you don't get uneven dips and lumps, but its not hard once you get the hang of it. I've done them on the belt sander but it takes too long and makes too much airborne sawdust. The shavings from the rasp just fall to the ground.

There won't be a touch up paint, since it's a three part process. You can try to get the base color coat, but it could just be a tinted clear over the silver. I couldn't tell you without seeing it. Even if they used silver with tint over it, getting a solid color that matches would still probably be fine. It's what you do in the flaked clear coat that really matters. Some of those comparison pics were very "metallic" in that you could tell the flake was in the color. But yours is a base coat (that could also be sparkly) with flakes on top of it. What jefm is saying is more true for a metallic finish where the flakes are smaller and whipped into the color coat.

Well, Don Lace Sr passed away in '92. But the way I understood it was that his brother Mel actually held most of the patents, and sadly, Don, with the help of Fender, sued Mel and lost. (brother against brother ) Like Mel was saying "hey, what are you doing? A lot of that stuff is from my ideas" and they panicked, and went for blood. Obviously they're making Lace Sensors today because they have the right to do certain things, and because there was a settlement reached, and I think that money is what helped Mel start adder plus corp. I just found the website for APC (www.adderplus.com) It's a weak site and I don't know how much pickup making they're doing. They're making carts, too. And he was designing power conditioners, too. But they are good, kind people, and Mel is a genious. When I say "without a script" what I mean is like if you didn't have great computer knowledge, but you took someone else's motherboard and then tried to make a computer out of it, through trial and error. It seemed to me that the lace sensor takes some of what they can do with the patents they held, but not actually doing everything that could be done. Its APC that realized the true potential of this design. I have a few and they're fantastic. They all have big personality so you can't judge them all from hearing one. But I was good friends with those guys for awhile and I have some custom pups too. So I'm not saying that the people who started Lace left, but rather that it was started with some "borrowed" ideas. As I understand it the gold lace sensor was the original, and closest to some of Mel's ideas. As they made other pickups it was like they were going into new territory without Mel, and getting farther away from what made the gold lace sensor a good pickup. I haven't heard the Hot Gold ones, maybe they're great. And I'm not saying they suck either, but there's reasons that some people find them sort of blah. Many people swear by them, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters. The rest is fodder. But it explains why I don't really like any of them except the gold ones. Sorry for the long rant but you asked me to expand

We can do it here if you're in the area. I'll be taking a vacation around the week of the 18th (anniversary) but if I'm around we'll do it. It shouldn't be hard once you match the color and the flake size to make a good fill. You could look for nail polish, but it's so soft that a CA fill on top of it can be unstable. Apply it thin, too, just thick enough to block out the wood. Or put a "primer" of black or white CA if you have any. That price is firm, by the way. No negotiating. After all, I have to take a vacation in May!

To prevent it from getting worse you get a little thin CA in there to seal the cracks and to lock it back down to the wood. To repair it, you could probably find the same pinkish base color and put that on, then use medium CA to fill it, after you sprinkled some flakes down. Then sprinkle a couple more down right after so they're more randomly placed in the CA fill, and not all just resting flat on the bottom of the base color. I don't know how big your dent is, but if it's like a grain of rice, then just the pink would probably be fine, becuase it looks like the flakes are pretty sparse. If it's the size of a coin then you'd do like what I said, unless I'm missing something from the pic, like the pink is a flip/flop color or maybe there's really more flakes than the pic shows, due to lighting. Or send it to me and I will do it for $1700

If the neck has holes in it already, then the centerline is irrelevant so long as it lines up the way you have it. In other words, some neck pockets are loose on one side and hug the other side. Then you'd want to glue veneer to just one side. Even if both sides are loose, or you haven't drilled yet so you want equal addition to both sides, I still would say to glue and clamp veneer in there on either side and shave away what you need to. You might make custom glueing cauls that have the little 1/2" radius in them at the base of the neck pocket. When I did one instead of veneer I used the same wood from the body blank, and lined up the grain pretty close. It was about 1/4" thick so I could really re-route the edge once it was in, rather than try to shave off a little bit. I cut the curve of the neck pocket into the piece, so it followed around into the turn. On that guitar, I made it for one neck, then changed my mind, only to find out the new one was much thinner. I was so mad! But it was worth it. Plus its a sunburst so now you can't really tell whether it was the same piece. I could've used zebrawood and it wouldn't have mattered!

I'm a self-proclaimed quack expert, and the gold lace sensors are the only ones I can tolerate. I knew Don Lace's brother, and it turns out, he's the brains behind the whole idea, and he holds the patents. He made APC brand pickups for awhile. The way I see it is that Don and the other people at lace were sort of "performing a play without the script." They had some of the genious but not all of it. As a result, when they started branching out to different sounds they made some bad pickups. The golds are sort of the "originals" and they are okay. They are not icy clean, like a '57 for example, so if you have an old fender or plexi amp that gets crunchy, squeaky overdrive sound from strat pickups, you'll notice a little loss in the top end that makes strats so glassy. For example, they made Buddy Guy have the lace sensors in his signature strat, but he still recorded with the vintage stuff, and when he was on TV or at a big gig he'd have the signature model. The smoothness of them does make for a smoother or "better" overdrive, though. They're more polished sounding. There is some sort of natural decrease in output on the higher strings that the APC guys told me about, so you will probably find yourself running them closer to the strings on the treble side than the bass side.

I put the taper into my fretboard before I attatch it. I'll also put binding on before attatchment too sometimes. That way you have a "built in" template if you're using a pattern cutting router bit, or if you are just going to bandsaw close and sand the rest, you know to stop when you hit the board! If you use a hard, straight sanding block to finish off you'll have a straight edge. I use a straight file to finish off that area, not unlike the file you'd use to bevel the fret ends. But I don't mix them because otherwise you'd push metal shavings from the frets into the wood or binding unless you seriously cleaned your files.

I don't like the way they look. HA! Sorry, but I have not tried them, and that was just too easy.

Wes, you poor soul! First, for your neck pickup preference, but second for agreeing with me! But seriously the PRS 24 fret sound is great, and I have a couple 24 fretters with humbuckers. I liked the original Jems with PAF Pros, too. But I like a really pronounced "Ooooh" sound with a fat attack and sort of a "wow" to the swell of the notes, and I think the 24 fretters have a flatter, more nasal sound, cleaner for high gain shredding, too. And coil splits with a 2 or 3 pickup 24 fret guitar have a different type of cluck that's very useful.

Nice! Now my midiclorians can JAM!

Okay It has no bearing acoustically, nor does it affect your ability to produce them, but in a strat with three identical pickups, the pinch harmonics come through stronger on the bridge pickup, then middle, then neck. Assuming your playing is identical. (and skip the 2 and 4 positions) It's because of the competing frequencies. The bridge pickup is hearing more of that bandwidth due to its location. So if it's true from the bridge to the neck position, then it must be incrementally true (even if negligible or inaudible to most) for movements within the bridge pickup's location.

You could, but if there's no binding I see little need. My Stew-mac nipper puts a little bend in the tang right where it cuts. Fine with binding but if you're trying to cut them "just right" then the ends will look strange. But from your post I think I'll try nipping them to within 1mm, so when I trim the fret ends I don't have to cut through both. But I like the look of a cleanly filed and polished tang. I don't like the look of wood filler in the slot with just the crown. Plus, I just set up an Ibanez with the prestige neck. They are "hiding" the tangs now. So on this one, the fret ends stuck out just a little because of shrinkage. Well, the underside of that crown was like a razor blade! With the tang there, it would've been worse in that the whole tang probably would've been sticking out. But at least it wouldn't cut you. Plus everybody wants their ends to stay down. I would think that nipping the tang early could foster loose ends. Although it's not an epidemic in guitars with binding so maybe I'm wrong.

-Neck pickup sidebar: I like the idea of using the 24th fret as your location for the neck pickup. But even there, using the "double octave" point as justification also proved (to me) to be untrue. In other words, on most standard 21 or 22 fret guitars, that's right about where the pickup sits comfortably anyway, so we're used to it being there. On guitars where I've pushed it even closer to the nut, including 20 fretters, it sounded "even better" to me. It had even more of the qualities that I love about the neck pickup tone.

I don't want to start anything, but I have trouble believing that all of a sudden, certain harmonics will jump out at a specific location. I believe it's a gradual change in sound as you move closer to the bridge. The sweet spot would only be where you like the balance of smoothness to screachiness. I prefer a darker bridge sound, but I have "close to bridge" guitars that scream, too. The problem I have with the "harmonics locating" is only with the bridge pickup, not the neck by the way. Because as you get farther out from the bridge, the differences are more pronounced in my opinion. Like I can't stand a 24 fret guitar's neck pickup tone. There's a sweetness and "bluesiness" that is totally lost, and you get more of a middle pickup sound. I like the coil cut/combination sounds on a 24 though. But there is nothing you can possibly do to make that neck pickup behave like a 22 fretter. But so much of the bridge pickup's tone is occupied by that upper midrange that I think trying to locate a harmonic point is pointless because the magnetic field is so large on a humbucker that there really isn't a specific location that it "hears." And the actual aperture changes as you raise and lower the pickup. I'm not minimizing the difference of moving the pickup. I think it makes a huge difference. But justifying the exact location with harmonic points is overanalyzing in my opinion. Within a humbucker's aperture you'll cancel out as many harmonics as you enhance. The increase in pinch harmonics is traceable to the distance from the saddle. As you get closer, the more harmonics come out. It's more about the pickup hearing less and less of the low frequencies, which are competing with the harmonics for the same "space" as you move it back. A neck pickup has reduced pinched harmonics. Acoustically the harmonics haven't gotten softer, the pickup is just overpowered by other frequencies in competition with the harmonics. By the way, I'm ready to agree to disagree and concede that opposing viewpoints might be right, etc. before anyone even responds. It's just the way I see it, having made guitars, been responsible for this type of thing on production instruments, and owning and playing lots of guitars too.

Sometimes fretwire is inconsistent. If you're getting pre-cuts in a package it can be more obvious. If you use rolls or straight wire, just make sure you cut them "in order." But springy frets are common, too. You can press or hammer 'till you compress the wood but the barbs make a groove on the way down. So sometimes the fret just wants to sit a little higher. You might not be able to see it, but it's higher. So when you press it down it just bounces back up. You can check for a flush fit by trying to slide the edge of some tissue paper under the fret. But if that's the case, then when you glue them it you're locking them in high. That's fine by the way. So long as you level them down they won't go anywhere. If that's your problem reducing the barbs would worsen it. If I get that I'll hold the fret down with a tool I made as I slip the CA in there, spritz the accellerator, and wait for it to dry. The fret isn't so strong that it can't be held down with the CA forever. If you have good ears, you can hear a loose fret when you go over them with a file. Its a high pitched whistle. If it's loose enough you can feel it if you touch it while going against it with the file. I find loose frets when I'm roughing in the edge angle, not when I'm leveling the tops. If I can see that it's seated right but just loose I'll get CA in there without holding it down. Otherwise I'll hold it down. The "fretting is so hard" mantra is valid, in that excellent fretwork is very difficult. Manipulating compression to repair warped or twisted necks, for example, is very serious business. "Regular" fretting or fretting a new board is much easier, and most of the difference between a "master fretter" and a hobbyist comes out in the levelling process, so it's no big deal. I still play my first refret guitar from over a decade ago, and since I had done a lot of fret dressing work before that, it wasn't really a big deal. It turned out fine, and has had only one level since. But I can see all sorts of things I'm embarassed about, mostly in the seating. Plus the tangs were a little thinner so the truss rod has to work too hard. All rookie mistakes, based on ignorance. "Had I known......" It's like golf I imagine. The better you get, the more you realize you need to improve! I imagine most newbies will be proud of their fretwork.

Graphtech might sell you 7 individual saddles you can use on a 7-string strat style trem or hardtail.

You could also just make your template Drak's way. Start with a 1/4" piece of something, and scroll saw your backplate shape. Now you have a backplate template you can attatch to your material and pattern cut around it, plus the "hole" template for the recessed plate cavity. The scroll saw width is just perfect. You don't actually want the exact same measurement otherwise the plate wouldn't fit properly, plus as the wood expands and contracts it could get stuck in there, or crack. I've made a few wooded backplates, and I laminate mine to plastic or lexan. That way I know the plate won't warp.

Its a wonderful design. They also leave the two halves for awhile before planing them and glueing them, so if there were any "hidden tensions" within that piece, they'll show themselves once it's been cut in half. It's more stable than a one piece I think. There were some old peavey necks where they just took 2 seperate pieces of maple and joined them down the middle. That was dumb. I mean you could have the treble piece warping into a backbow while the bass piece was in an S curve because you couldn't use the truss rod properly to get the neck straight. Each piece had a mind of it's own. I think it has to be the same piece so you are matching density and grain direction. And you can't flip one of the pieces around. That's almost asking for a twist. On a three piece neck you can flip the middle piece because its flanked by those other two, and its symmetrical.

It's probably a little more dangerous, but I've always just planted one edge firm and lowered the bit in on an angle. I've found it less likely to kick because as you're plunging down you're coming in with the corner of the bit, and the side blades too, rather than the bottom cutting surface which can kick out if you're coming straight down. I'll also start right away in an oval pattern before the base is planted all the way. So it doesn't catch anywhere as I'm coming down.

If you're spraying nitro, I think the refrigerator boxes with the space heater would work out just fine until you passed gas. Talk about combustion! Seroiusly I wouldn't introduce a space heater to a nitro cloud under any circumstance.

It looks like an old Cort, either way back from japan or the early Korean stuff. Both Japan and Korea had those narrow neckplates, but I believe those tuners are Korean. That's a headstock that was on some Corts. Cort made/makes product for almost everyone at some point, so it could be an Arbor, Aria, or even specifically made to have no brand recognition.

That much wood, without any laminations, would be prone to too many movements left unchecked by the laminations we currently use in building. I'd wager your strings would go out of alignment, or you'd be more succeptable to a change in your neck angle than with a neck through. Its a nice thought, though I wouldn't want to be the one to have to build it. Plus you can't combine woods, so you have to use mahogany, maple, or some other wood suitable for both body and neck construction. If you make one let us know how it goes.

Its not terribly hard to calculate. I don't use formulas (I never did in math classes either) But you figure how deep your neck will sit on the body. In other words, how much height will you get from the fretboard and the fret tops? Then look at how much height you want at the bridge saddles. I figure a little high because if the guitar settles in, or you like a little relief, you always want room to go lower. But the difference between the two heights is what makes your triangle. Then the distance from the neck pocket to the bridge is your length. You can make it an Isosceles triangle to simplify the math. When I say I don't use formulas, I mean that I don't care what that angle is, because I route my neck angles by shimming the body, so I just recreate the dimensions of that triangle with my shims. Even if I knew what the angle was it wouldn't help me with the labor of cutting it.

It's an okay idea, but if you are going to use a fretboard then install it from the top. Since its a flat rod, you don't need a filler strip to fill in the fact that you cut a curved channel, like on a traditional rod. So you'd be putting in a filler strip that could have just as easily been avoided. It would look cool to have flipped the flames. I have a solid rosewood neck with a skunk stripe made from the same board, and it looks neat. But if you hadn't put your board on yet, the channel you cut would essentially go right through the neck blank to the other side, since double rods are meant to be flush against the board the whole way. And a skunk stripe is finished off with a hole drilled up to the peghead. You'd need your stripe to go all the way to the nut area since you need a rectangle at the end, not a round hole. I don't know how you could get a rectangle cut inside there. Even if you used the neck side adjustment, you'd still have the butt end of the rod back by the nut. Finally, if you did use an extended skunk stripe as soon as you adjusted the rod I believe it would pop out the skunk stripe at the nut.