avengers63

You can try to bleach it. Experiment on some scrap if you decide to try. On a different note, that looks.... rich. Why did you go with flatwounds?

Dude.... That's AWSOME! Once it's all done, how do you get rid of the epoxy on the face? Does it leave a "wet spot" like yellow glue? What do you use to "outline" the pieces? Some of them seem to have a black outline. (Thus begins the torrent of questions. )

In my experience, width is more important than length. Wow... that sounded really gay. For me, the neck profile and nut width effects the playability more than scale length. (Yea - that sounded better) It's all relative to the size of your fingers. Long fingers would probably be more comfortable with a longer scale. Thicker fingers would probably like a wide spacing. Some guy that's 5'2" with fat fingers would probably need a 24" scale with a classical-width nut. Me, I'm 6'4", around 255lbs, with proportionately sized fingers & hands. However, because of my sheer size, they're much larger than the "average sized" guy of 5'10" & 165lbs. That makes me want a really wide neck with a longer scale. Add to all that the fact that some players, regardless of their size, will like a fat neck and some will like a thin. There's no real answer to the question other than personal taste. Your best bet is to go to a shop that has a wide variety of dimensions to choose from and play them all. See what you like from first-hand experience. Take a notebook with you and write down your findings. Then, when it's time to build your neck, you can have one that fits your likes & needs exactly.

First of all, I'd really like a better look at the marquetry on that acoustic. I'm getting into other woodworking, including inlay work. I might be hitting you up for tips. For the rest, I like the movement in the bust. I have an art background as well. A lot of it was in 2D pencil & paper. I went on to painting miniatures. Like Doug said - never stop expressing yourself, regardless of the medium used. That's why I love playing guitar. Music is such an emotional release... so theraputic. For me, it's the most versatile form of emptional release and self expression there is.

So are these headed off to eBay?

Did you ever consider getting a metal-cutting blade for your bandsaw? That might have worked better on the CF. Sure, you'd have had to hassle with changing the blades, but that's better than chewing through wood blades.

Inlay isn't a new art form. If they could do it before we even had electricty, we can do it now. I don't know that I'd advise it, but it's very do-able. We have better tools than they did back then and we like them for a reason. To cut out the cavity by hand (no electricity) is extremely possible. Using the "all X-Axto" method will take you forever. You'll definately want to scribe the outline deeply with the knife. After that, it's all hammer & chisel. Practice on some scrap before trying it on the real thing. If you go this route, PLEASE take lots of pics and show us how you manage. For cutting out the pattern, the jewler's saw is the way to go. You'll want a board with a V cut out to work with as well. This kit from Stew-Mac will work, but it certainly isn't necessary. Any thin piece with a cutout clamped to your workbench will do the trick.

Consider any other type of joinery. You want as much surface-to-surface contact as possible. When you glue up a body blank, you want two perfectly flat surfaces touching the entire length of the joint. You would never let the glue fill in the gaps. Now, with an inlay, there's more of a margain for error. The tolerances are WAY lower. A neck inlay won't have nearly the stress a body will have on it. The glue is commonly used to gap fill around the edges. Also, since it's a cavity, you can't be 100% positive about a 100% flat cavity like you can with a normal wood joint. That being said, you still want as flat a gluing surface as can be had. Another option for the edges is to first score the outline heavily eith an X-Acto, then CAREFULLY chisel out the edges. After that, you can rout the cafuty with impunity. Greg mentioned the chised possibility as a cleanup after routing, but it'd be just as good for the initial shaping of the cavity. FLON KLAR: How did you solve the control issues around the edges? Even at the lowest speed, I can't manage fine control freehand, but I can completely control it with the base.

I'll try that on the body. I blew up the headstock last night & started it over.

Sometimes it's easy to spot an Aussie.

The paint was >$4/can. Even if I run out, I'm not concerned. I'm not 100% sure how else to do this. The tutorial that's on this site said to use push pins about 1" from the sides of the template. After getting sunspots on the headstock, I tried doing the body, but with the pins at least 3" from the sides. I still got faint sunspots. I'm wondering if using straight pins might do the trick. Push them all the way through point down. The area for the spot would literally be the size of a pinpoint. I'm figuring to do a M.O.P. inlay on the headstock once the paint is finished. Thoughts?

As many entries as there are this month, it might not have been a bad idea to re-instate the two categories: pro & amateur.

I went forward with the headstock last night. Out came the red paint! Hmmmmm. That's pretty dark. But I have a plan! Let's reverse the templates, making a window for the yellow. Maybe the whole thing will be lightened up and the sunspots will be eliminated. Well, it's lighter. The sunspots are still there, but not so pronounced. Maybe the black crackle will give enough camoflage to hide it. Whaddya think, guys? Blow up & start over or hope for some crackle camo?

Y'all are on dope or sumpthin. This wood is great. There are all kinds of fun little things in there. For example: Cyclops Demon Pear!!!! A graven image of demonic posession of fruit, depicted in wood. That goes right next to the potato shaped like Abraham Lincoln and the Fiji Mermaid.

The body is all primered & smoothed out, and the center yellow has been sprayed. Last night, I cut out the templates. I did the initial outline, then did two more. The smallest is to cover the yellow when I spray the orange. After that, I'll tape the next one to the "core" and use that whole thing to do the red. Cool. I laid a fre coats of orange on the headstock. I'm trying it on the headstock first because if it gets totally hosed & I have to strip it, there's less to do. Anyway, the whole think looked OK... ... until I took the template off... WHOOPS!!!! OK... THAT didn't go according to plan. I'm going to try doing it backwards tonight. I'll put the other pieces together to make a window and try to put some more yellow onto the center. If htat doesn't work, I may strip it sown and start from scratch.

I tried a couple of things to fill in the gaps. Carving off splinters? they looked like poo. Sanding dust? It all dragged out with the tack-cloth. Sanding also had the effect of stripping off the ebony stain. Did it get wiped away like the "filler" dust? Nooooooooooo... It filled in the grain on the walnut, cherry, and maple! Typical. I don't mind so much on the walnut & cherry. It actually accents the wood. The maple, though, just looks dirty. Sanding it out isn't working either. Lesson learned! When I went back with a paintbrush to touch-up the stain that was removed, I stubmled accross one solution to the gaps. I filled them in with black stain! Problem solved. So, after that was all cut out, snaded flat, and the shape was fine-tuned, it was time to rout out the bloodwood plaque. God bless my Dremmel. I just love it to pieces. I routed the whole thing out, then evened out the edges & corners with a chisel-blade X-Acto knife. I needed two passes to get it to depth. I anticipated this. Better to be too shallow on the first cut. It's a heckuva lot easier to take out mor than it is to put some back. The fit isn't too bad. There are some small gaps. Here's the plan: I'm going to glue it in with 2-part epoxy. When it's mixed up, I'll mix in some of the dust from routing the cavity into the epoxy. This'll turn it the appropriate color. Then, when it oozes out a bit, the gaps will fill in with the right color.

Eh... You don't get what you don't ask for. It certainly couldn't hurt any!

Just like you.... anything to help. On the opposite end of the Steinberger world, the headless guitars & basses tune up a LOT easier than peg-wound guitars. The double-ball end strings slap into place like lightning. If the string was out of the packaging, you could change a string in about 20 seconds. They have plenty of room to stretch, too. Yea, the headless setup is much easier than these. And thanks for the praise. If you really like it, vote for it in GOTM!!!!

Ya think?!?! You just promised to have kids. Of course, you'll have to break that promise. Once you have kids, your guitat making time is GONE!

It's best to level it out before going to the next product. I'd use a sanding sponge at about 220-300 grit or so. A sponge will have more even pressure on the curves & edges than your hand, therefore less likely to sand through.

I'd pay to see you try and fit that thing in a little red & white ping-pong ball!

They work great. They'd be a nice alternative to a locking nut. The main drawback is the way they get strung anf stretching strings. Because of that, and that I don't use whammy bars, I'll never get them again. Stringing Steps 1. Feed the string through the post 2. Pull the string as tight as possible. I use pliars to get a better pull. 3. Tighten the clamping nut 4. Tune the string. Unlike winding the string around a post, these can only tune the string so far. The head rises and descends into the bushing. It can only descent so far. The high E stretched past the tuner's ability to tighten. I had to completely release the tension and re-string the high E, pulling the string taut after it had stretched. I had to do this TWICE before the high E stopped stretching. I only had to do it once for the other strings. That was WAY too much work. On the other side, the tuners have a 40:1 ratio. Most tuners are 14:1, 6:1, or the odd 18:1. That makes them extremely accurate, eliminating the need for fine-tuners on the bridge. They also eliminate the need for a locking nut. For what they do, they're very good. Their drawbacks don't even out for me, though. If you don't mind the stringing & stretching P.I.A., they'd be a GREAT option.

Thanks! For a tele, it's very warm. Mahogany does that. Unfortunatley, it weighs a ton. Mahogany does that as well. The Bill Lawrence pups are simply amazing. Plenty of bite and a ton of twang. It's not as harsh a bite as a regular tele, but it's still pretty defined.

Well, why not! I've named this The Temmp. It stands for TElecaster in Maple, Mahogany, & Padauk. SPECS Body: maple core mahogany wings with spalted maple tops and a padauk dividing layer padauk stringers between core & wings Neck: maple neck padauk fretboard padauk "J' inlay in headstock M.O.P. dot inlays Hardware: Steinberger gearless tuners Bigsby vibrato roller T.O.M. bridge electrosocket input cup custom padauk pickguard custom maple bridge pickup ring custom padauk knobs & switch tip Electronics: Bill Lawrence noiseless telecaster pickups 1 volume w/ trebel bleed mod 1 tone 4-way blade pickup switch: neck, both paralell, both series, bridge Finish: sanding sealer rattle-can lacquer on body, pickguard, and pup ring brush-on lacquer on neck wet-sanded to 3000 grit Maguires swirl remover The tone of the guitar is a nice mix of bite & warmth. It has all the twang and attack of a typical telecaster, but a lot of warm tone thanks to the mahogany. The sacrifice for that warm tone is a LOT of weight. It about as heavy as a Les Paul. In the pics, the padauk layer running between the spalted cap & mahogany wings doesn't show up very well. On the back, you'll notice one lonely, out of place spot of flame. You can't see it on the front - it's right under the bridge. This has been an extremely valuable learning experience for me. Thank you to everyone who chimed in with help or advice. Build Thread full front shot full back shot

The weather finally let up and time finally allowed me to ake some outside pics! http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...0Temmp/side.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...p/headstock.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...p/closeback.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av.../closefront.jpg