avengers63

If you go with DiMarzio, my suggestion would be either a super distortion or an X2N. If you play more rock, go for the SD, If you're a metal player, go for the X2N. Personally, I need versatility, do I'd go for the SD.

Extremely nice looking work. You should be proud.

Thanks guys. I'm sure everyone has been waylaid at the last minute, so the frustration is understood. Who'd have expected this on their first build! There is a positive to all this. Since I don't have a lathe, and I have a pretty big chunk of padauk to play with, I have plenty of time to carve out a switch tip.

I talked with him when I got home today. He wants me to mail the neck back to him and he'll make a new one for me. FLAMING MONKEY POO!!! I was finally done with it, and now it'll be another 4-6 weeks minimum. At lease he's standing behind his work.

He emailed me back wanting me to give a couple of things a whirl. He also gave me his home phone number and an assurance that he'll stand behind his work. Cool. I like a stand-up guy. There are so few left with integrity. We'll see how things pan out.

I called three different repair shops in the area this morning. One of them, Gravity Strings, is the only shop in St. Louis to ba an authorized Gibson, Fender, and Martin repair shop, so I trust their opinions. All three agree that there's something wrong with the truss rod itself and that it's most likely damaged or faulty. It was this referal that led me to get a neck from him in the first place: So I emailed him today explaining the situation. We'll see how he handles it and if he's worth any further recomendations. FWIW: The neck feels great in my hand. Were it not for a faulty truss rod, I'm positive it'd be a first-class piece. I'm really hoping he'll stand behind his work. I'll let y'all know one way or the other.

WOW but TKG Knobs is really expensive! Truss rod: This just ain't right! I have the neck off & I'm trying to tighten the truss rod & straighten everything out. When I turn the screw, the tension from the neck un-turns it!. I screw the nut to the right, it unscrews itself back where I started. So what do I do now?

I remember a thread a few months ago where someone made an ax out of chipboard. He posted sound clips of that guitar and two other "real" guitars. The vast majority could NOT tell the difference. So, the moral of the story is: use whatever you want.

Thanks for the link. I should have looked there first. The Steinberger tuners have their good & bad points. At this stage, I can't give a full testimonial since I really haven't had the experience with them. The only thing I can say so far is DON'T cut the string until AFTER they've stretched. The tuner only descends into the headstock so far, unlike normal "winding" tuners. The way they work, you pull the string through the tuner as hard as you can and clamp it down. The "peg" lowers into the headstock, tightening the pull on the string. The high E stretched so far that I had to re-string it twice so far. I'm going to give it about a week before I trim the ends. What I CAN say, though, is that Bigsby's are a royal PIA to string up! Any suggestions on tips on making a switch tip?

Thanks, IRS. I appreciate the kind words. Neck issue: It's a little bowed right now. The neck bows towards the front at about the 5th fret. I know this requires a truss rod adjustment, but I've never done one before. From the way it's bowed, do I tighten or loosen it, and how much should I try at a time?

I began working on it around 9AM. I finished the assembly around 6PM, cleaned up my enormous mess, made dinner for everyone with my 13yo step-daughter, ate, then did the set-up. I was finally able to sit down and play it around 9PM or so. This has been a very fulfilling day. The day's pics as promised: Sanding the finish - all images are the back of the body. lacquered wet sanding 1 wet sanding 2 wet sanding 3 wet sanding 4 wet sanding 5 polished I love seeing the pics in series of the wet sanding & polishing. I just think it's way cool seeing the finish mirror out. When I pounded in the bushings, I did have a minor amount of damage to the finish. It came up from the body about 1/4 inch around the hole, but didn't chip off. So... I'm not going to worry about it. It's still there, I'm OK. Next, I shileded the cavities. The wiring wasn't photographed before the plate & jack were screwed in. I used a 4-way switch set up to get both pups singly, in series, and in parallel. On the volume knob, I used the .01 cap & 100meg resistor to not affect the tone when the volume is low. For the tone pot, I used a standard .47 cap. All the hardware screwed on. Finally, here she is in all her glory! All I need to do is make the switch cap & she's complete. As is, I'll be taking it to use on Sunday service instead of the one I have now. The current ax is getting a crackle finish!

Three hours later and the body has been sanded up to 3000 grit. One thing is certain: I'm NEVER doing anything ever again without filling the grain, nor will I be using spalted maple ever again. Between the padauk & the mahogany, there are a zillion little lines that never buffed out. The spalted maple has such an uneven surface that it wasn't impossible to buff, but it was never going to be 100% flat. Way too much effort was spent on the spalt surfaces.

I'm really jazzed up for today. I have the day off due to a federal holiday, so I'm going to finish up the guitar as much as possible. My wonderful wife did NOT leave me a "honey-do" list. She instead actually suggested that I work on it today! DUDE! The neck was buffed out last week and the Steinberger tuners were installed. I didn't post any pics cuz I didn't figure it was really worth posting. The finish on the body is finally dry & cured, so the waiting is finally over. Here's what's left to do: wet sand the body & buff it out shield both pup cavities & control cavity pound in the studs for the TOM roller-bridge For this one, I'm figuring to "bevel" the edged of the hole with a dremmel sanding drum. The purpose will be to clear a bit of finish from the edge of the hole. I'm hoping that this will prevent the bushings from damaging the finish when they're pounded in - no direct contact with the finish. If it doesn't work, then I guess I'm just going to be pretty ticked. screw all the hardware together - Bigsby, bridge, pickguard, bridge pup ring do the wiring shim the neck I'm assuming this will be necessary. The whole thing is routed for a standard tele. This is using a TOM bridge instead of the normal one-piece tele bridge, so the angle is probably a shade off. Good thing I went through the process with that cheap-o earlier, huh? It was there that I learned how to do shims. The dude I bought a pair of Padauk knobs from sent me a chunk of scrap Padauk. I had asked him if he could make a Fender-style pup-selector knob, but he only did Gibson. I asked if he'd be willing to sell me some scrap with a couple of knobs, but he just gave it to me instead. It's a fairly decent piece of scrap; he could have made 2 more knobs out of it. But, that means I have plenty to play with to try to make the switch tip. Does anyone have any suggestion on making one? Any pitfalls to avoid or tips to make things a LOT easier? I'll be posting pics when I'm all done. Here goes nothing!

+1 to Xanthus' suggestion of selling bodies on eBay. Actually, -1 to that! That's my plan on how to finance my builds and I don't need the competition. (j/k) Just as an example: look back at your post #20. There's nothing really to respond to. It's just a spec sheet. How many of the posts are just statements or something similar which don't really need a response? Where I see responses is if there's a question or a real need, not just random comments on updates. You should definitely NOT stop posting updates & pics pf your work.

Please don't! "Watching" it happen is part of the reason I'm here. I get a TON of ideas & insight from watching other folk's progress.

If the FB was painted, wouldn't there be other issues? First, there's the thickness of the paint. Second, there's the thickness of the finish. Third, the strings & fingers rubbing on the thicker finish & paint. Wouldn't it all eventually rub through? I'd think stained FBs would be much easier in the long run.

Actually, it was titles "Love Song", but you're absolutely right. It had a great acoustic/classical intro. This might have been the second best power ballad of the era. Sister Christian was hands-down the best.

Bum luck, dude. Don't give up on the black paint.

For those of you who have used these before: I've seen in the build threads some folks using Rare Earth magnets to secure their control cavity & truss rod covers. Which magnets did you use? What type of glue did you use? I'm guessing that the 1/4"/6.4mm disk would be a safe diameter, but the thickness is up in the air. Any input?

You're gonnal take a LP, give it an upper body horn and a belly cut... How exactly would that be different that a strat body with 2 HB's? Aside from being heavy, that is.

"It's time for androgeny... It's Pat."

hmmm. why? did i sell you something, or did you sell me something? Nope. I want to put you on my "Favorite Sellers" list. I have aspirations of selling bodies on eBay to fund my builds. I have a rough idea what they might go for from watching a HUGE number of auctions. Knowing that you do good work, I'm interested in seeing what your stuff goes for in comparison to others. For privacy's sake, (If you don't mind, of course) will you PM your ID to me?

Mickguard: Yes, there is a significant change of some tearout when the control cavity is breached. My statement to that is "So what - it's inside the cavity and won't be seen." And you are correct in my thoughts of angling the drill bit from within the post hole. I didn't say it wouldn't be an awkward angle, just that this way would have the least chance of missing. This is exactly what I had to do on my tele, and I did have some tearout. Again, it was inside the control cavity, so who cares.

What's your eBay user name?

Ahh... Gotcha. You mean the Toto Neorest. http://www.totoneorest.com/home.html HOLY POOPERS!!! That is just icing on the cake. Easily the funniest thing I've seen in a while, considering the tangent this thread is on. The dude in the next cube needed an explanation on why I burst into lysterical laughter. Thanks, Trynity. That made my day.