Blackdog

Sorry guys for the late reply. Sometimes my employers seem to expect me to do some work... Hi K, It's only a matter of starting, then soon you find out you can't stop !!! If you have read my first build thread you've seen how it started for me. I dreamt about doing this for a long time too. And now, even before finishing #2, my builds #3 and #4 have already timidly started... Thanks, but you should witness the fights for shop space too !!! Jokes apart, space is limited and my wife's own hobby is Tiffany and Glass in Lead. Sometimes we need to find some equilibrium as activities are not always compatible... Anyway, she's a great help with the inlay work and many other not-too-heavy tasks. Peacock feathers are a classic in Tiffany work, and I'm told that they are quite challenging. And inlay work has a lot in common with Tiffany... Anyway, the feathers theme ends with this guitar. Hi Wim, no secrets. They are indeed fragile. I just happen to have a set of ebony rings (can be seen earlier in this thread) that I bought from CrazyParts.de that I used as templates. I thicknessed (Safe-T-Planer) and sanded to 5mm a piece of RW and screwed the template to it. With the jewellers saw I use for cutting pearl I roughly cut the outside and inside. I found that the bearing that came with a flush-cut router bit I have had basically the same diameter of the smaller Dremel sanding drums. So I improvised a micro-robosander of sorts for the Dremel. With this I trimmed the RW to the same size of the template. With the template still in place I drilled the height-adj screw holes and the mounting screw holes by removing the screws holding the template in place, one by one. And that was it. Not too difficult actually. Thanks again for the kind words. A pic for the fans: Double staining the top sounded like a great idea on scrap pieces, but on the real thing it took a loooot of sanding.... I give you the worn red-jean effect.

I live in Oegstgeest, so only a short bike ride away. And I must say, normally I'm not into inlays on the top of a body too much, but this one and the one on your first build look real good. Close indeed, as a matter of fact I lived in Oegstgeest until a Jan 07 !! Depending on which of the two AH you were doing your shopping at, I might have actually met you !!!

Thank you guys for the nice words (and bringing this thread back to life...). Some progress has been made. Geo: I'm glad you like the inlays, because there are more.... While my wife was busy with the inlay on the top I made a set of rosewood pickup rings and switch knob. The rosewood knobs I bought from an ebay shop. Hopefully, with a few coats of Danish Oil, they'll all look similarly dark. Closeup of the inlay. With the top stained deep cherry it should look quite impressive. Right now the top and the back of the body are masked and the faux binding has been lacquered. Next steps will be pore filling of the back and then staining of the top. Maurits: Where are you located ??

Thanks for the fast and comprehensive replies. So it's a candidate for a poly or nitro type of finish. I'm now seriously thinking about using one topset (instead of maple) on one of my very next builds, which will be a honduras mahogany hollowbody. So not exactly an acoustic type top, but carved in and out would still be more significant than a top on a solidbody. I guess this wood might add favourably to the sound balance of this build. So not good for FB. Not a problem, I have IRW, ebony and pauferro in-house to work with. Thanks again.

Hello, I am buying some curly redwood topsets for future builds. I'm thinking carved tops over mahogany or white limba, as I've seen it used in this way already. What can you tell me about the wood: - How is it to work with (as compared to maple or mahogany) ?? - What can I expect tonewise, what is it likely to add to the tone recipe ?? - I read it can be left unfinished, would it be good at all for a fretboard ?? Thanks in advance. Luis

By all means replace the truss rod with a new one. A double action rod will need a flat channel, maybe you're better off putting a modern one-way rod in there: less work. What is going to solve your problems is re-planing the fretboard surface of the neck to make it straight. Properly cleaning the fretboard so it seats flat on the neck (or a new board), and a good fret dressing (or refret), to make it all straight again. Then the TR only needs to compensate string tension, as it should.

Hi, I have never dealt with any of these guys, but was checking their offerings and found this inlaid neck. I believe it is more than just my personal opinion, but there's a lot more to a neck than a fancy inlay. It should be structurally sound, feel good, have a good fretjob, etc. I see an off-center truss rod there. That's a major issue in my book. Makes me doubt about all the rest about this neck's construction. And talking about the inlay itself, it's a rather poor job. Big pools filled with epoxy, crooked pieces, etc. Inlays should ideally provide position markers too, these only provide confusion. Look at this design for example: The inlays are indeed designed to act as position markers, however they all fall slightly off their respective positions, like if they were designed for a different scale. They look inexpensive, but they might just be cheap... I'd go for a much simpler design, but much better implementation, myself. My 2 cents...

Wow, when ? I´m not a kid... I worked for TIA in Don Torcuato, from 1977 to 1988, in the engineering department. During that time we devloped a few POST for specific applications. I remember now a Quiniela system for Chubut province (this must have been around 1982/83, in the times of the pre-punched cards). And around 1987 a restaurant terminal (adicioteca).

Amazing coincidence.... I used to develop POST for Texas Instruments Argentina in a previous life, a looong time ago.... Sewing to relax is probably OK, knitting might still be. But if it comes to this I would start to worry:

Looking great !!!! Really looking forward to seeing it finished. Obviously you have experience in electronics, that shows. And you said you didn't have metal working experience ?? C'mon !!! Stop kidding us !!! Great work so far !!! Luis

Please allow me to ask some very obvious questions: - Are you sure the guitar cable (lead) you're using works ?? - Are you sure the amp works ?? As a matter of fact I wouldn't continue the troubleshooting until I can make sure these two work OK. Other than these, the only reasons I see for getting nothing are: - You're not closing the circuit properly with the battery and the jack. Remove the battery clip black wire from the jack and temporarily solder it directly to the case of the volume pot and check. - I don't know the pinout of the "quick connect" on the pickup, I hope EMG has done it in a clever way, but there's the possibility that you have killed the electronics in the pickupt when you connected it upside-down. Unlikely, but after reading the thread I cannot think of anything else. Hope it is of any help.

It's a nice looking LP, I'm happy that you're going to finish it !! Sometimes I feel completely fed up too. But a couple of days off to other things normally cure it. What was the problem with the neck, anyway ?? From the two pics above I see everything aligns quite well... Is it too narrow at the nut or something like that ??

Thank you guys !!!

Ouch !!

I'm looking into this one as a glossier alternative to Danish oil. Is this product (or an equivalent) available in Europe ?? Thanks.

Ok, some progress has been made. Frets are in. Not as smooth a task as I had expected (check post #13) but still much better than my first attemp. Now I temporarily put the neck in the pocket (it fits quite tight), a couple of tuners, a cheapo nut, the bridge in place and run a couple of strings with minimum tension to see how everything aligns... Looking good I'd say. The pieces for the body-top inlay are already cut. And I'm already doing some color tests on maple off-cuts, I think I will go for just one color this time (no sunburst)...

I am serious !! I never joke with my work, double-O seven !! What you see is the difference between two kind of switches. The pictures below ("borrowed" from allparts.com) show both types, the plastic bodied on the left and the more traditional CRL style on the right. Do you notice the numbering of the lugs on the plastic body of the left one ?? I added the equivalent numbers to the switch on the right. If you now follow both diagrams you'll see they are exactly the same, electrically speaking: Strat switching options (N, N+M, M, M+B, on a H-S-H configuration, with the HBs in single-coil mode (split) on the in-between positions (2 and 4). Hope this clarifies your doubts. EDIT: There is an additional wiring difference, but it is electrically irrelevant. In the diagram by DiMarzio, the tone capacitor is connected between the center lug of the tone pot and the case, then the side lug of this pot goes to the volume control. The two tone pot lugs connections are reversed in the Jem diagram. Since in this application the tone pot is used just as a variable resistor, this reversal is irrelevant.

Yes. That's all you need to do. Connect the top resistor end to the +9V point of the preamp diagram and the bottom LED terminal to ground.

Maybe asking your question in the electronics section will generate a better response therefore no need to BUMP!!! Just a suggestion MK Electrically speaking, both diagrams show the same wiring, it's just a different type of switch. The only thing missing in the DiMarzio diagram is the treble bypass cap on the volume pot (331 or 330pF in your first diagram), but that is all. You switch seems to look like the one on the DiMarzio diagram, so you'd be safe if you stick to that one.

So the frets are in. But this wasn't exactly a trivial job. Many things I learned here, while it is definitely a better job than on my first attempt, there's lot's of room for improvement in several places. I need a proper arbor press. - The hand-drill attachment I used was a pain for my first build, as the whole drill would slide up, out of it's support (only held by friction), when trying to apply some pressure to the frets. This time I took the hand-drill out completely. I made a wooden piece that holds the caul in place and attaches to the device. Now that it couldn't slip at all at that point, other things began to slip. And even the lever bent and begun to crack !!! This device was not meant to be used in any stress involving situations. Finally it completely collapsed. Fortunately I bought me a proper drill press last week. Nothing fancy, but much better, as the one depicted never had any precision (too much free play in every direction). Why didn't I use the new drill press for fretting ?? Well, it's new and looks reasonably well built and solid but it is still chinese manufacture. Right now it works perfectly, very accurate, so I didn't want to mess with that. I wanted to retire the above shown device for arbor press duties... I guess it was not good for that either. I need a flat back for fretting - A lot of force was lost in defective and uneven support of the neck. I have made a couple of wooden neck supports, about 4cm long, with some rubber padding, quite good for many operations. But the neck wanted to roll within the support when applying pressure, and the frets that seated the best (and easiest) were those at the end of the fretboard, where the heel provided positive and flat support. I'm thinking that the next time I will fret when the back of the neck is still uncarved (flat) or better still: I'll fret the fingerboard before glueing to the neck, like obviously some of you do. I don't have to over-radius the frets too much - I buy the fretwire from SMD straight in 2ft lenghts and am using a radiusing device similar to the one SMD stocks to gently radius the frets a little more than the fretboard. I thought it wasn't really enough so some of the frets I overradiused more. These frets kept wanting to spring out of the slots. I had to radius another 2ft of wire gently as before and re-cut new frets to use instead of the springy ones. Sometimes a little goes a long way... So, many lessons learned and still not a major disaster. Some levelling is in order, hopefully much less than in my first one. It should be quite workable. Next time will be even better. Thanks for the help.

Thank you guys for the replies. Yesterday I fnished prepping the fretboard according to your instructions. Left it as perfectly straight as I can tell with my straightedge, and lightly beveled the slots with the triangular file too. Next time I order something from SMD I'll get me one of those radius gauges then, but measuring with the caul, the radiusing looks perfect. I would guess it's probably close enough for this time. So I will be glueing the frets with TB, then. I guess I'm looking at a very small amount of the stuff, right ?? I was thinking a syringe might help in applying this. I've read about the Rick Turner method before. It seems quite clever and I might use it. Hopefully I won't be needing a lot of fret leveling after following your advices. I might be cutting the fretwire pieces tonight. Will keep you posted on the progress, many, many thanks !!

Erikbojerik: Very comprehensive indeed !!! Thanks for that. To check the radius of the FB I'm using the same fret caul I'll use for pressing the frets in. Other than that I have the radiused sanding block, but that's not so great for checking the final results. I have a real straightedge, 50cm (20") long. While not really covering the complete FB should still be enough, right ?? I like the trick of the triangular file to bevel the slots, will do that. I'll be pressing the frets in with the SMD caul and a drill press. I also liked the idea of flexing the neck a bit after the frets are in (to drive the tangs into the slots sides) and compensate the backbow, will definitely do that too. So in a nutshell: with TR loose, board as perfectly flat as possible, radius as perfect as possible. Carefully press frets in, flex a bit to compensate backbow and that should be it (if done properly). I understand that you implement the fallaway at the fret levelling stage and not at the fretboard preparations stage. And you don't say anything about glueing the frets in (I'm not planning to use glue, unless there's a clear advantage in doing so). Doug: Tell me about pre-stressing ?? How do you do it, I guess is with the TR... Sounds interesting. Too late now, as the FB is already glued to the neck, but would like to know for the next one... When I glued the FB on the neck I kept the TR loose and planed the surface as perfect as possible. Then glued on and clamped tight. Thanks again.

So this is my second ever fretting attempt. The first one went OK, it took a few hours of leveling/tweaking and it's quite nice and playable in the end. But I would like to plan a few details in afvance for this one to try to minimize the afterwork. To put things in context, this is a rosewood neck for a set-neck guitar, RW fingerboard slotted and radiused (12"), with maple binding, 24 frets. It has twin CF reinforcements and a HotRod TR. It is not yet attached to the guitar. i.e. this guy here. After the inlay work I have made sure that the radius is close to perfect and that the fret slots are still more than deep enough. It is now pretty close to straight too, but need your expertise to settle a few small details before I start pressing the frets in. So my questions to you, experience fretters, are the following: 1- How perfectly straight should I leave the fingerboard: Should I build-in a little "up-bow" to allow for the back-bow that inserting the frets sometime cause (how much, if this is the case) ?? Or should I work it straight and assume any fret-tang-in-slot induced back-bow will self compensate with string pull and/or TR adjustment ?? 2- I usually hear about leaving a "drop" on the fretboard at the upper frets. From which fret should this apply ?? How much "drop" are we talking about ?? 3- Where should I leave the TR for all this ?? I'm assuming it should not be excerting any pressure in any direction for this, right ?? Many thanks in advance.

Thank you Kiki, about the tuner : First I put the tuner jaw in the place nearest the hardtail (remember that the tuners are placed under the hardtail). Then I pass the string through the jaw. If you look in detail next pic you can see a hole in the jaw (the bigger one) to hold the ball end of the string. Then the string pass through the hardtail directly to the nut and then to the headpiece. The headpiece has screws to hold the strings. Now I have to use the tuner pegs to intonate the strings. That´s all ! Yesterday I left the tuners for the chromium plate, they will be ready in the middle of next week. I am really intrigued about your tuner design. Looking forward to see how well they perform. The metal frame that keep the tuners together looks like aluminum, will it be stiff enough under string tension ?? Lovely work on the body design, will look killer. So you have basically eliminated the Fender Clean models from your GT2 !?!? So it's going to be all gain and saturation !?!?! Shame on you !!!!

Thanks, Al !! I've repaired the tear-offs at the front edge of the neck pocket with some pieces of mahogany and maple glued on and sculpted back to shape. Now the neck fits tight again. So I did the mockup thing once again, for the pictures of course, and to check the string geometry. I run a couple of strings (outermost positions) from the bridge up to their expected locations at the nut, and they align perfectly with the edges of the fingerboard: I'm veeeeery happy and relieved. Yesterday I finished inlaying the fingerboard. Closeup 1 Closeup 2 Closeup 3 Not nearly perfect (my wife does a much cleaner job, but she was busy with a Tiffany Lamp project...), but close enough. Inlay on rosewood is much more forgiving than on maple. The body inlay will (hopfully) be done by her. So now I will start fretting. Second time ever, and first time with binding... Wish me luck.