Sneft

hmm. im currently working on a merbau guitar and yes it is very dense and heavy(but then again i havent started routing yet..) its grain is pretty course so it does have to be filled i think. Merbau is mostly harvested from my country and its used a lot in construction. very hard wood. hopefully it will sound nice.

love your tone Hyunsu

a friend of mine is restoring an old guitar of hers and wants to get rid of some spray paint thats on her guitar. it doesnt cover very much. She doesnt want to damage the original finish so sandpaper is out of the question. it has a clearcoat on beneath the spray paint. are there any stripping chemicals that can take of the spray paint(the usual stuff you find in those little shake cans) and not damage the underlieing finish?

ahh okay. thanks a bunch:D

is there anyway i can make use of my handy dandy spokeshave?

Okay, so this morning i went over to my uncles workshop and we cut out the basic shape of my soon to be guitar, an Ibanez jem. We used an oscilating sander to sand down the ruff edges and all. Now im going to start work on the contours of the guitar( the tummy cut and arm rest) unfortunately, i dont have acces to my uncles shop cause he has other work to do so i have to do everything from home.

The tools i have to work with are a spokeshave, rasps, and sandpaper

I would really appreciate any insight on how to carve the contours that you guys can provide me with. Right now i havent the slightes clue how to start. I have the countour lines and everything though... thanks

hey hyunshu. where do you get your wood from? i live in asia too and i have no idea where to get exotic woods like yours.

it says i have to login?? btw, i saw this on UG too, nice work!

^^ by useing a template?

btw, i love that cherry. tis beautiful wood!

hey hyunsu, you use alot of asian woods right?

From your experience, what are some of the better asian woods for building guitars?

I come from a country (Malaysia) that produces practically hundreds of different species of timber woods. The only problem is, people haven’t been using them for musical instruments for hundreds of years so people don’t know their tonal qualities. When getting wood for guitars, what kind of characteristics would you look for?(density,strength etc.)

some of the common species that can be found here include

Merbau(intsia spp.)

keruing(dipterocarpus spp.)

merawan(Hopea spp.)

rengas(gluta spp./Melanohcyla spp.)

jelutong(dyera spp.)

ketapang(teminalia spp.)

meranti of practically every kind(shorea spp.)

Agathis

and countless others.

Thats a realy nice guitar you have there. i love the maple top. What kind of colours did you use ?

You said you can get maple in Malaysia? I know we're a timber producing country but i didnt know you can find maple here?

Your using agathis as the back of your explorer. Is it a good tone wood?

im not 100% sure i can use that but thanks.

Hello everyone ,

I have just started my holidays(a whopping 3 months) and have decided to make use of my time by building my first guitar(and Ibanez RG). Now, i dont plan to build a whole guitar, just the body. This is going to be sort of a test guitar to give me a little experience and to improve my wood working skills.

I plan to do most of my work with my uncles help. He runs a carving/carpentry shop so he should have most of the tools and supplies that i need.

However, i do have a few questions(and problems for that matter) before i start

1. How thick should the wood i use be? I measured my strat and its about 2" thick.Does the RG have the same thickness? Also, how long should i cut the planks for the body?

2. I have dowloaded the template for the RG off Guitarbuild.com. The problem is, The Drawing doesnt really give me much information on the size of the guitar and thuss printing the template out is sort of a problem for me

3. Another problem with the template is that it doesnt show any of the cavities(pickups,neck or control) so thats sort of a problem too.

I have posted my questions about the guitar template on the forums at Guitarbuild.com but i havent received any replys.

Anyways, that should do for now. I really would appreciate any help and advice. Thanks

hey, thanks a bunch. i really appreciate your help.

Im thinking of giving my quitar a laminated maple veneer but there are a few things im not sure about. First of all, will i need to raise all the cavities after putting on the veneer. Im afraid that my trem or pickups wont be high enough.

another thing is, in what order should i paint,clear coat,dye and glue?

should i paint the back first, or should i dye the veneer first? should i dye the veneer before or after attaching it to the guitar? Can i put the clear coats on both the back and the veneer at the same time. thats about it. Sorry for troubleing you guys. thanks.

that looks really good. well done.

the reason i ask is because there are quite a few korina trees where i live which are truly horrible to look at.Its nice to know that they arent totally useless.

just out of curiousity, is korina(terminalia) a good tone wood?

Hey, thats some great work. I had a look at your other guitars and they too, are really nice .Especially that Ibanez copy.Infact im planning to build an RG(the body atleast) myself so im looking for a template.Do you know where i can find any good ones online.Also, can i use a normal bolt on neck with an AANJ? thanks for the input and once again, well done.