Hoser Rob

I don't think they start at $15K but I'm sure you could go that far. Alembic was probably the first company that produced a really high end bass ... Teles, Strats and Les Pauls have never really been improved upon (unless you like Floyd Roses which I don't) but the basses needed a bit of help. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing like a good Precision or Jazz but there was room for improvement. The first one I actually heard in person was back in the 70s and its sound just blew me away. BTW ... Les Claypool actually uses Carl Thompson custom basses.

You could try www.timelessinstruments.com ... they're in Saskatchewan. I don't know if they have lacquer, and that area isn't known for its exotic timber forests, but I hear they're pretty good. Lee Valley should have lacquer.

It's possible to shave the neck down so it's thinner from front to back but it wouldn't be easy. If you have a bunch of guitars and you've shaped necks before it may be worth a try. It'd have to be refinished too. There's a limit to how much thinner you can make a neck, depending on the depth of the truss rod slot. If you remove too much the truss rod won't work anymore.

I've never heard buzzing called "string slap", and I'm assuming that's what you mean ... If you're getting buzzing by the nut, isn't that a sign your neck has too little relief? That's what relief is for ... to prevent buzzing in the lower position be matching the neck curve to the arc of a vibrating string. The way I check my relief is to play all the notes on the 1st string from the 6th or 7th fret on down, and play hard enough to make them buzz. The onset of buzzing should be the same on all frets. If it's worse at the 7th fret there's too much relief and if it's worse near the nut there's too little. So you may need a bit more of a ski slope, not less. Proper relief adjustment is the first thing you should do, before nut height and saddle height (in that order). This assumes a level fretboard and even fret height. A high fret near the nut will cause some buzzing too. I've learned a lot of this stuff is knowing what you have to work with.

Hey, Thanks for all of the input guys. You Rock Hmmm...well, if you don't want a bright and tinny guitar, especially a Tele, then don't build it with Walnut and Maple, for starters. My feelings exactly. Why on earth would you want to build a guitar where the pickups have to work against the design rather than with it?

I'd learn how to cut a standard nut before getting into compensated ones ... it's tricky and a couple of thou are going to make a real difference. Too high fiddly factor for me. The Buzz Feiten nut system is not new at all, he just trademarked it. I first heard of it being done by classical makers at least 15 years ago and it wasn't new then. It involves moving the nut about .2 mm towards the bridge and compensating at the saddle too. It's not going to give you perfect intonation either ... the guitar is an equal tempered instrument and so that's impossible. It's just redistributing the out of tuneness differently. The ideal is to get a guitar playing reasonably in tune and then being able to play it in tune. I've known guys who can play guitars that are hopelessly off key for me in tune. And what if you want to use a capo? I've never seen a classical player use them so I guess it doesn't matter to them but I like capos myself.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking too. If the bridge is lower to the body it'll give you more saddle room. And if it's been played and not refretted for a while I'm sure the fret tops are worn, and haning crowned frets is crucial for intonation.

I definitely believe in the 'wood = tone' thing ... I learned years ago to try an electric unplugged first. If it doesn't sound good that way it won't sound good with any kind of pickup. That said, I don't think basswood is all that bad a tone wood. It sounds a lot better than poplar and I've heard some pretty nice sounding basswood guitars. I'd be more comcerned about how many pieces there are at that price. And at that price I'd be way more concerned about the neck and fretboard than pickups too. Especially if you want it for high gain playing ... it's critical with a lot of distortion that the intonation be spot on and having electric style saddle adjustment isn't good enough. For that you need a level fingerboard, which is a gamble with guitars you can't sight the neck of, and pristine, level, well crowned frets. You also need a neck that goes into controlled relief properly. You may get decent fretwork for $129 but I'd be shocked. Many cheap guitars have flat fret tops from a levelling grinder if they're level at all. Give it a try if you like but myself I'd plan to budget for a fingerboard levelling block and a fret file before getting pickups.

A couple of really good guitarists I know who have both played a ton of gigs in the last 25 or more years swear that the Deluxe size (20 watts) is the ideal size for a tube amp. They're small enough to turn up all the way at small gigs without overpowering everyone else, and in larger gigs you just mic them into the PA. And they're loud enough to be heard onstage then. 100 watt (or more) amps were invented before they had decent PAs like they do today. You don't need that much power now. Kiss used to actually route the guitar signal to small Fender amps and mike them. The wall of Marshalls were just for show. Micing a small amp as opposed to blasting a 100-200W one right behind you is a lot better for your hearing too.

I'm assuming you want to use bolts closer together so they'd be out of the way when playing ... I can't think of any other reason to want to do it. If so, why don't you just countersink the holes in the body and use ferrules and shorter neck attachment screws? www.stewmac.com has them, I'm sure.

They look cool, but I'd strongly suggest getting rid of the pointy things on the lower side. Anyone who tries out something like that sitting down is going to find it painful and they'll never buy it.

You're talking about using a strat neck with nylon strings? They're pretty thick ... I would probably find them too tightly spaced with that nut width. It'd probably work with a UST but a humbucker isn't going to pick up the vibrations of nylon strings. They're not conductive. Sounds like a good steel string project but I wouldn't use nylon ones personally.

www.lmii.com sells P90 style pickups.

Yes, a normal violin is much louder than a guitar. If you don't know that you haven't been around them too much. For that matter, a mandolin is louder too. That's why bluegrass players have heavy strings and high action ... they have to play hard to get heard over them. Just because the guitar is bigger doesn't mean it's louder. Having a bigger box means more bass response but not more volume per se. For one thing, they're moveable bridge instruments. It's more efficient ... if you've ever tried an archtop guitar you'll notice they project pretty well. Also, with guitars only the top is making sound. The back of a mandolin acts as a sound pump, not just the top. And violins produce sound over their whole area. As for building a guitar with a horn ... what the hell for? There's a reason you don't see violins with them very much. As was said before, make a real guitar (or 2 or 50) and then start inventing.

That's exactly what I was trying to suggest ...there's a dip or hump in there somewhere. Hopefully fret levelling will work ... levelling fingerboards on a neck with a non-adjustable rod is not for the faint hearted. However, I still think you'd have to be able to get the neck a bit straighter than it probably is. Usually the best idea is to use heating irons, though one big enough to cover the whole fretboard ain't going to be cheap. LMI's is over $250US. That's why people use kettles, though I realize it's not good for the finish. I've seen it. Fortunately, for slide the playability requirements aren't the same. Something like that I'd be tempted to leave well enough alone and play lap slide with an extension nut.

First off, there may very well not be a nut at the neck heel ... you can't assume an old guitar will have an adjustable rod. Putting the whole neck in the oven may soften the glue joint between the fretboard and neck, but it'll also soften any other lamination that may be there and ruin the finish too. I think you're supposed to apply heat just to the fretboard itself and then clamp it. I've known of people using steam from a kettle, and it works, but this'll cloud the finish too. However, I don't think the problem is just a simple bow, though I'm not suggesting there's not too much relief. How would too much relief make it fret out above the 12th fret? It sounds to me like there's a hump or dip in the surface of the fingerboard near where the neck joins the body. That'd have to be fixed by fret or fingerboard levelling. Have you really looked at it with a straightedge? There's a good article on evaluating necks at www.coloradoluthiers.org with a good graphic illustrating the sorts of problems you can have. Also see www.frets.com ... it's the best web source there is for this sort of stuff, but I'm not sure your particular problem is there though.

I'd do pretty much as described, except that you should check the neck relief first, then the nut, and then the saddle height. The way I adjust the relief is to adjust the rod such that if I hit the B string (it usually has the least tension) hard enough to buzz, it does so equally from the 1st fret up to the 7th fret or so. If it buzzes more easily near the nut you have too little relief and vice versa. However, if the rod doesn't tighten easily with the guitar tuned to pitch, you may not want to mess with it if you aren't experienced with that sort of thing. One thing you really don't want to do is overtighten the rod. In fact, the first thing you should do is loosen it. It may be tightened all the way now. I don't do nut work myself ... it's fiddly (a few thou doesn't make a difference at the saddle but certainly does at the nut) and, frankly, I can get a whole new nut made by a professional for less than what nut slotting files cost. If you're not going to take this step, when you're measuring the action put a capo on the 1st fret and measure at the 13th fret instead of the 12th. As for the saddle, you didn't specify how high the strings are off the frets. The thing about doing this sort of thing yourself is that it's pretty straighforward to do a lot of it, but the trick is being able to tell what you've got to work with. If you want low action you'll have to have a level fretboard with controlled relief and without uneven frets. It'll also be more sensitive to humidity changes. And you may very well get a change in tone. BTW ... IMO 1/16" is a bit much to shave off at first. Start with 1/32". That's be lowering the action by 1/64" at the 12th fret, which is quite noticeable. Unlike electrics, it's a lot easier to lower action on an acoustic than to raise it. One more thing ... when lowering a saddle I freehand it until I'm close to the line and then use a small square to finish sanding. It's fairly easy to stay parallel to the line lengthwise (it's about 3" long but 1/8" or 3/32" wide) but not crossways. It's extremely important the bottom be square and it's not easy to do freehand. I guarantee your tone will suffer if you don't get the bottom flat.

For $350, Seagull or Simon & Patrick (which are made by the same people and their necks aren't quite as big ... I loke logs but many don't). They may cost a hair more but they're worth it. I play one but I'll also recommend Yamahas. You all are quite right about pawn shops ... they used to be pretty good places to go but not anymore. I could tell stories that'd make some of the younger players here weep but they've gone too far in the opposite direction. With ebay access they all know what the stuff is going for and they're not going to get a penny less. A friend of mine went to a Mon and POp owned pawn shop recently and saw one of theose Epi bolt on Les Paul style guitars. His next stop was the music store down the street, who were selling the exact same guitar for the exact same price. That doesn't mean you shouldn't get used though.

Go back to their site and look under "Nut Sizes" ... all the radii are there.

You should read www.frets.com ... they may have some insight there. I'd use an inspection mirror to really see the bridge plate myself. As mentioned, you use heat to soften the glue joint. I think 250 deg. F is about right. Hopefully it isn't epoxied on ...

I don't think double stick tape is the preferred way to do it usually. If you want the bridge to make proper contact with the arched top you should look at www.stewmac.com ... they sell a jig for fitting them. It has a pair of roller on it and you clamp the bridge onto it, put sandpaper on the top, and sand it to fit.

Sorry mate, but the guy's guitar teacher was dead right ... buzzing can indeed be caused by plucking the string vertically instead of horizontally. If you don't believe me go to Frank Ford's www.frets.com and look up "Buzz Diagnosis". That is the best single site on maintenance there is, written by one of the top guitar technical people in the world, and is an unimpeachable source.

Sorry, but he's absolutely right. BTW - do you realize the reason there are so few acoustic basses out there is that you will still need to use an amp - even with the jumbo style ones, let alone a small body? It is simply not possible to get a low E fundamental at a reasonable volume with anything near a guitar size. Have you ever seen a mariachi band? That thing that the size of a cello turned sideways is a guitarron (if I remember right) - the Latin version of an acoustic bass. Even it's not loud enough. There's a reason upright basses are that size ...

I think you've brought up a lot of the difficulties - the back is structurally a big part of the assembly. It's glued to a lot of parts, including the blocks. It must be plywood, since there's no bracing on it, and it's arched (like most backs). You may have trouble getting the arch right when reassembling too. Most likely you'd need to remove the binding 1st. Frankly, I have never heard of anybody removing the back to fix top braces. Aren't you just multiplying the difficulty? There's an art to working inside the guitar that perhaps you should acquire - or maybe take it to a shop that knows what they're doing. That may be best for structural things like internal braces. Many luthiers make a good part of their living fixing incompetently done repairs. If you really want to do it yourself, see www.frets.com - it's the best single resource out there, absolutely bar none. I think there's something in it re. removing tops, which'd probably be like removing backs, if you must. I wouldn't.

I don't think binding necessarily fits perfectly anyway ... you'll probably have to use a scraper and do some finish touchup anyway. There's probably a lot of information on this at www.frets.com - that's the web source you should be looking at. However, you're not going to get a tutorial that explains every little detail. I hope it works ... take your time if you've never done this kind of stuff before and do as much research as you can. Find some books too. Many luthiers make a good part of their living fixing home repairs. For a replacement rod try www.lmii.com - they seem to have the best selection.