avengers63

Thanks. I'll read through this at work next week. I mean, why waste perfectly good weekend time!

Believe me, Jon, I'm in NO WAY interested in an argument of any kind. I'm not trying to bash anyone's tastes or opinions. I just want to understand the thoughts behind the players. Believe it or not, I want knowledge and insight. Consider: How could one formulate an opinion from a neutral position without hearing all sides? Granted, I'm not 100% neutral, but I DO genuinely want to hear the thoughts of WHY someone would choose an extra-stringed instrument.

Dude. That right there... That's just messed up. I like it. Did you bend the sides as one big piece or separately & laminate them together?

I'm kinda with you on our thoughts about Vai. I think he has a little too much "bells & whistles" and not enough "meat" sometimes. I'm not a fan of his style, but I can appreciate the ability. He clearly knows what he's doing. I knew he plays a 7. I figured he's well qualified to make a statement like that. Satraini is a little hit & miss for me. But no, Joe wouldn't make comments like that. He's nowhere as arrogant as Steve. I just can't help looking at the greats like Chet Atkins & Les Paul, or modern greats like Van Halen & Clapton and think "If THEY didn't want 7, what real need is there?"

I'm not trying to be snarky here. Seriously... I'm not. Please don't read into this ANY level of insult. I don't get the fascination with 7 & 8 string guitars, and 6-9 (or more) string basses. I'm not suggesting we shouldn't branch out and explore lutherie areas yet to be explored, I just don't get this one. To me, it's best summed up with a Steve Vai quote: "Why would you want a 7th string when you can't play the 6 you already have". He was talking about some nu-metal wanna-be. (No, I'm not suggesting y'all can't play!) Yea, he was being pretty arrogant. But he has a point, too. I just don't get the fascination. Can someone please explain it to me?

Even if that's not it, that's a neat little trick I'll have to remember.

You're right - that blue really popped when the clear was applied. I'd still go with the brown, but not because the blue is flat. I just think the brown fits the style better. I've seen progress on carved tops before, but never with holes drilled around the contour. At least that's what they look like to me. What are they for?

That narrows it down to Cleveland or Milwaukee.

To answer the question, yes shellac will put an acceptable finish on wood. It won't be as durable as others, but it would be servicable. Also, it's likely to have a slight yellowing effect on the wood. This will really only be noticable on the lighter woods, though. If you go with shellac, get flakes & denatured alcohol & mis your own because shellac has a relatively short shelf life, which the pre-made cans are likely to have past. God bless Bob Flexner. If you don't know who he is, then you're probably in DIRE need of his book. Seek it out before you do anything to the wood. You'll thank yourself later.

Dude... why 'r you puttin' a Fender headstock on a Gibson body? Isn't that guitar making heresy? Seriously, I'm just curious because it looks a little out of place to me. I'm a little traditional sometimes.

I'm going to make everyone's Christmas presents this year. I know this sounds a little bit Kindergarden, but it'll be a wee bit more sophisticated than crayons & construction paper. Knowing how much time this is likely to take, the sooner I get started on these dozen or so woodworking projects, the better. The first thing on my list is for my father-in-law. He spent 27 years in the U.S. Air Force under the Air Mobility Command in the Air Weather Service. He was an A.F. meterologist. I wanted to honor him by making a marquerty plaque of his division badge. He has a love for wood and small woodworking items, so this is a natural fit fot him. Recently, I bought some wood and veneer.I know some of y'all don't like eBay, but I just love it. It's been very good to me. Here's what I picked out to do the symbol with. The color-to-wood translation will be: yellow = cherry white = maple blue = walnut black = walnut stained black The whole thing will be inlaid into a square piece of bloodwood. Other options for the plaque were poplar & padauk, but the bloodwood looked the best. I tell ya - this veneer is great. You can cut it with an x-acto. in two light passes, or one pass with a straightedge. My progress so far: It's just sitting on the bloodwood for right now. I'll be posting regular progress as it comes along.

Well, now that the telecaster is finished, I need something else to work on. Fortunately, I've had a few months to decide what to do. Yes, I'm going to post some pics of the finished tele. I haven't been able to take it outside and ger some nice pics yet due to the weather. This is my main guitar. It is a kit I bought from Carvin about 11-12 years ago. It's a fairly standard ax: alder body, maple neck, ebony f/b, chrome hardware, 2 Bartolini HBs. It was stained with a mustard-like yellow. I originally thought I finished it with tung oil & steel wool. I now believe it was a wiping varnish. You can feel the grain on everything. I really didn't do a very good job on it, but it's been OK so far. I'm bored to tears with the way it looks. I'm not overly fond of strat bodies anyway, but it is pretty light & comfortable to play, so I'll keep it. Plus, there's some sentimental value in it. BUT... having grown up in the era of hair metal , I have a sentimental desire for an ax that would do the era proud. This is a Charvel with a crackle finish. Yea... this'll do nicely. A nice crackle finish for a hair metal shredder ax. I'm having visions of poet shirts, leather pants, and mullets standing on end with Aqua Net. Mmmm - high school had some good memories. Anyway, these cans of paint are what I bought to do the deed. With the help of this tutorial on burst finishes, I plan on going from a yellow center to red edges with a black crackle over the whole thing. This'll be another great learning experience for me. Nothing like going off the deep end on your third finish, huh? I figure even if I hose it all up, I can just sand it all off and try something else.

60, 100, 150, 220. I haven't had to go past 100 to confirm if the grain is still raised or not.

Cool. I just need to sand the heck out of it. Thanks, guys!

YES!!! That's EXACTLY what's on mine. On one of the pieces, half the wood is dead flat, half is raised in spots. Seeing that, I KNOW it can be sanded perfectly smooth. I'm guessing a belt sander ot an orbital sander would be a lot easier, not to mention quicker. Now, if I just got it as smooth as I can by hand, but there's still some raised bits, how would it end up looking with a finish on it? If it's only noticable when you're looking for it, I might not worry about it so much.

Another reason I'd personally go for the tiger eye is the shape itself. It's a traditional style, and I just don't care for non-traditional colors on the classics. End the end, I'm sure it'll look great whichever route you take.

I just got ahold of some 4"x8" pieces of quilted maple. They were only cut - no other prep on them at all. As I'm trying to sand them smooth, I'm finding that some of the deeper figure just won't sand smooth. It stay's very rough with a lot of grain sticking straight up. Is this normal and quilted just needs a LOT of sanding to get it smooth? The alternative is that the pieces are crap and I wasted the money.

For my tastes, the tiger eye looks a lot better than the blue. There's a lot more depth in the brown. This would be accentuated if you sanded back just a little.

Is that to say that it wouldn't matter which direction it's sanded in?

I'm I figure doing some small woodworking projects involving burl veneer. I'm having trouble discerning the grain direction on the burl in the pics I've seen. I only want to use the stuff that's HIGHLY figured, so it's prety hard to tell which direction the grain is going for sanding purposes. Any suggestions?

I'm digging that 12th fret Firebird inlay. I'm having visions of "Smokey & The Bandit". I see... a leftie semi-hollow firebird. It's painted black with gold hardware & gold pinstriping. The guitarist is playing "Eastbound and Down" from Jerry Reed.

I buffed out the neck today. I wet-sand leveled it with 400, then to 800, 1000, 1200, and 1500. I stopped there, basically to see how it would shine up when I hit it with the Maguires. The headstock shined up nicely, but not as deep as the body, which I took to 3000 grit. The rest of the neck got buffed with 5/0 steel wool. I wanted a more slick, satin feel on the neck. I think that highly buffed necks are a bit "sticky". When I put it all back together, it took a while to get the action right. I adjusted the shims so many times my cordless screwdriver went dead. Granted, it wasn't on a full charge when I started, but still... My forearm is a little tender now from the twisting. Eventually, I got it adjusted pretty close, then tweaked the bridge height to the right action. If I can get the strings stretched out enough today, I'll be able to play it in tomorrow morning's service. It's about time, too. I've been working on this since November! I'll post pictures soon.

I've never understood something. Why would anyone make a bunch of little chambers? What's the advantage of that over large chambers that take up the whole side of the body, or even one large cavity that loops around the central core?

'Neck and Neck' was very fun. 'Chester & Lester' with Les Paul was nice too.

Looking around at some other Atkins clips, I was able to find some of him sweep picking. Tapping & sweeping? That's right: Chet Atkins, the original shredder! Up yours, Yngwie!!!