johnsilver

Ouch. Ouch. Damn. And, Ouch. . . . . . . .

Alberto, another beautiful guitar. That SG of yours is still one of my favorites, but this tele is really good. Clean. How does it sound with that one-piece mahogany body and the StewMac HB? I don't know anything about that pickup. I bet a Duncan JB would sound great in that rig. Congrats.

Drezdin, there is a wise Korean philosopher and luthier who frequents this forum. His name is Hyunsu. I find his luthiery and philosophy both to be inspiring. Here are a few of his "pearls" that I have saved and keep next to my work table. These are relevant to your situation. "100 think and 1 action is good, it will decrease fail. And 1 failed is more value than 1 success. So try." "Many making will upgrade skill.....and more understand wood, and wood's choice result...." "I want to luthier.....it is my dream when I was 19 years old.....I think..it will be my last dream..." "Guitar making is allways happy work...."

I'm not sure what you have. The term "fat" in a tele or strat usually refers to a pickup configuration that includes a humbucker in the bridge instead of a single coil. I could be wrong about that. In any case, I suggest you contact Fender through their website or ask a dealer.

I use a cabinet scraper (similar to what Rob describes) for getting a binding flush to the body. There is a way to turn a hook on the edge, and the hook acts like a very fine plane. Works great. I'll use a single edge razor blade for minor adjustments or for scraping binding clean of a finish.

Oops. I meant to say acetone and not toluene. Guess I had a problem with my chemicals. A little alcohol (for me ) should correct the imbalance.

Rob, glad to hear it went well and you are happy with the results. Sounds like you did the right thing by using the backup piece of binding. To answer an earlier question although you don't need it now, it is possible to splice binding. I personally would try to avoid it on a body, but sometimes you must do it. A typical example is when binding a headstock with mitered corners. When splicing, it's important to get a good fit and cut without mishaping the binding. I use a tiny exacto saw with support for the binding and it works well. Also, you can cover up imperfections by dissolving a bit of the binding (if celluloid nitrate) in a little toluene to make a paste. You can apply the paste carefully to the area to be covered/filled and then clean it up with a scraper or razor blade.

Rocketrob, a Tele is a good choice for a first binding job I think. BTW, Stewmac has a very good binding tutorial on their site that's worth a read. In addition to ensuring your binding channel is as square as possible, it's advisable to examine your binding strips on the edges to see if they are rough or not. Typically, binding strips are cut to width from wider stock and the edges may not be smooth. If they aren't, dragging them lightly across a file will help flatten them and ensure a good fit in the channel. I also "degloss" the flat side of the binding on the side to be glued by scraping lightly with an exacto or single edge razor blade. That helps to ensure good glue adherance. When using Weld On, be careful how much you apply as it will squeeze out and have to be cleaned up. Be prepared for that and clean it up quickly. I use the binding tape that Stewmac and others sell as I find it has the right adherance qualities. IMHO, green painters tape isn't tacky enough. I do use a heat gun (actually an old cheap and not very powerful hair dryer) to help bend binding. You do have to be careful this way not to go too fast, but a little practice with the binding in advance will give you a good idea how much heat to use. Be extra careful if the binding material is celluloid nitrate as it is flammable, although I have never come close to having a problem. I find a heat gun gives me more control in specific critical areas without having to heat the entire strip at once or worry about water. In any case, have fun and share the results.

Nice. Pls tell me how you did the black finish on the body. Thanks.

Craig, beautiful. It's easy to see you love the subject matter. I would say unbelievable but since it exists it must be believable - just beyond the realm of normal. Now as an exercise in meditation, I must go and contemplate how to create inlaid fish lips. Or are they inset? Or are they scribed? My favorite is the angel fish. No, the tortoise.... No, the seahorse....

Amen to that Curtis. I ordered some alder from LMI in the summer and one piece looked like a corkscrew when it arrived. That's where I honed my hand plane skills since I have no jointer or planer.

Jimmy, weather in Houston has been hot. It was 80F last week although a more pleasant 60F right now. Where are you now? I'm in Kingwood. I don't think you are being overly ambitious given what you have said about your woodworking skills and your approach to researching and planning. I say go for it. I made my first from scratch - ruined one neck and had to start over but what the heck since it was just a piece of maple for a Tele neck. Second one came out great. Houston Hardwoods is a good source of wood here. It is located just off Hwy 290 on W. 34th. For your project, they will have all the hard maple and walnut you'll need. They sell it in varying thicknesses so you can build your laminates with thinner stock without much waste and also have thicker stock for your wings. They will also surface plane and edge joint for a reasonable milling fee. I've used them a lot. Prices are ok in my opinion. Anyway, good luck and post pics when you start construction.

CWoodall and Ooten2, I also live in Houston. I've used Houston Hardwoods a lot for mahogany mostly. They are good to deal with and and will mill to spec. I found a 6/4 piece of curly maple there and they resawed it very accurately and then planed it. Good stuff.

Thanks for doing this Bassman. I am interested in KTM-9 from LMIs catalog, so really interested in your experiences as you progress.

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I use those safety razor blades - the ones you can buy in packs at the hardware store. They have one sharp edge and the other edge is stiffened by a metal spine. Wrap some masking tape around the blade to leave exposed only enough blade on one end that matches or is very slightly narrower than the width of your binding. Hold the blade between your thumb and forefinger and draw the blade over the binding using your thumb/finger against the body to control the blade. Go carefully and it should work fine.

Jimmy, congratulations. You are way ahead of the game vs many folks who make their first post on this forum. You have thought about what you want and how to approach it. I guess it is that ME training and discipline. Trust me, you will get the support you need from many gifted folks on this forum (I'm not in that bunch - gifted that is) if you continue to do your homework and then ask as needed. Sharing successes and failures also goes a long way. Sorry I can't advise on your wood choice. There is at least one luthier who frequents this forum (Hyunsu) who works in walnut a lot and focuses on tone. Perhaps he can advise. Lastly, I agree with Idch. Only build your first if you are ready to build many more. Good luck.

Isn't this what individual guitar making is all about? I say go for it. Regarding construction, my suggestion is to research and approach this project basically as a neck-through design. You mentioned you plan to use a hardtail bridge so your idea of gluing on a fretboard (with associated routed out slot for a truss rod) should work similarly to a neck-through with a hard tail (that is, one with no neck angle). The wood will need to be flat along the entire surface plane of the guitar (watch out for flat sawn warpage), but you said you were prepared for that. I suggest drawing out the plane for the top to ensure your chosen bridge height matches up properly to your added fretboard taking into account string action, etc. You will also need to decide on a head construction. Unless you are planning on really thick lumber and a lot of wastage, I assume you will either construct a Fender-style head or you will need a scarf joint for an angled head. What I am trying to suggest is to think it through carefully and then go for it. Good luck.

I agree with GB - the Duncan Performers are worth a try for around that money. I paid $30 at Guitar Center for a Duncan Performer Buckshot (made to the same specs as the Seymour Duncan Distortion) and I like it. Also, as GB says, Schecter is putting these pups in some pretty nice guitars and you can hear them at Guitar Center among many other places.

Whereever I buy a plane, even new, I make sure the sole plate is flat or at least so very nearly flat that some light touch up will be sufficient to flatten the sole plate. If it ain't flat, it won't work well. I check plane sole plates with my precision straight edge. Also, it was a bonus if the plane iron you saw was already sharp but that won't last long. The quality of the steel is more important than the sharpness when purchased. Good luck.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by luthier machines, but I have several tools from Grizzly and I am quite happy with their quality and performance. There are many folks that access this forum who own Grizzly machines and they can relay their own experience. In addition to their main tool catalog, Grizzly produces a luthier catalog. In that catalog, there is a page that shows many guitar manufacturing companies (Gibson, Fender Custom Shop, Taylor, Collings, Suhr, Tacoma) that use Grizzly machines. Of course, they are using the high end machines most of which are out of reach for the typical home luthier.

I don't think 0.090 is too wide in the sense it will cause any fretboard or fretting problems, although you will have less fret tang in the board assuming you use that method of fretting i.e. trimming the fret tang. I think it is more a matter of looks. IMO, a single color binding that thick wouldn't look good but a laminated one like you suggest may. I assume you are putting the thin strip of ivoroid on the inside.

There was a thread on this recently - whether to radius then inlay, or vice versa. I just recently put block inlays into a non-radiused fretboard. They went in fine but when I radiused with a sanding block, I oversanded and some of the blocks cracked near the edge of the board. I had to replace them which was a pain. After that learning, my next fretboard with blocks came out great. Just be careful with the sanding if you inlay flat.

Well, I completed my second block inlay fretboard today and used the filler suggestions in this post. The quality of my routing was better than on my first board so fewer/smaller gaps. The filler methods suggested here worked great - much easier than what I first did. Thanks guys.

Well, here are the replacement blocks I inlaid (reinlaid) because the others were mismatched colors. It came out pretty well - the color and figure are much more consistent. As suggested, I took my time and was careful. I guess the positive side of this is I didn't ruin the board and got more practice inlaying. One other positive is that the blocks I replaced were real b*****ds to get out, so I must have put them in there ok. Thanks again for continued advice.