Jump to content

johnsilver

Veteran Member
  • Posts

    726
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by johnsilver

  1. This is my second guitar to complete. It is modeled after a Gibson LP Supreme but with some modifications. It is for my oldest son. I received the assistance and encouragement of many people on this forum to complete this guitar. Thanks for that, and thanks for looking. Specs: Mahogany body (unchambered) and neck Curly maple top and back Ebony fretboard and headplate Gold MOP split block inlay on the fretboard and custom gold MOP inlay on the headstock 7 layer ivoroid / black binding on the top 5 layer ivoroid / black binding on the back 3 layer ivoroid / black mitered binding on the head Single-ply ivoroid binding in the fretboard Black MOP side dot markers Scale is 24 5/8" TonePros TOM bridge and tailpiece in gold Grover Deluxe Keystone tuners (gold) with vintage buttons Gold tone fret wire Bone nut Seymour Duncan Custom pickup with gold cover in the bridge Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickup with gold cover in the neck Single volume and tone (amber speed knobs) with 3 way switch Maple dyed with Colortone amber / yellow mix dye and covered with a toner coat of the same blend Gibson vintage style sunburst front and back in medium brown Nitrocellulose finish
  2. I've got 3 guitar building books. Go with Melvyn's. Complete, instructional and very readable.
  3. I like the mock-up. Shape is ok to me, and koa over mahogany has a nice warm look and will give you lots of finishing options as well. FWIW, and not that I've got a lot of guitars in the case already, but I started by building the whole thing. Not a policy decision on making necks or not making necks, its just the way I started. Having done it that way, I enjoy the whole process like Rich said. And I really like making the necks like Wes said. Like it a lot. More hand work I guess. Good luck, and enjoy.
  4. After a hiatus over the holidays, I finally returned to the LP to finish it up. I touched up a few finish imperfections, fitted, trimmed and slotted the bone nut and went through a setup procedure. The truss rod adjustments were minimal but it worked smoothly and well. For me as a non-player, I set it up basically to a Gibson factory spec but the action is slightly lower. When I take it to my son in a few weeks, he can tell me how it feels to him and we can go from there. Hopefully, I won't screw up any last minor adjustments such as blowing the nut or something. Here are a few pics. We finally had a nice sunny day in Houston. Hopefully, you can see the true color of the dark edge of the burst a bit better. It looks black in a lot of photos but really is a dark brown. All the hardware is gold as is the fret wire. Front body shot outside Back body shot outside Front close up inside Hardware close up inside Carve and hardware I hope you like it. I'm happy to have this one finished. I've already have the wood and ordered the parts for the guitar for my third and youngest son. He's patiently waited while his older two brothers got theirs. He wants a PRS style, single cut but in a 7 string. According to PRS, they don't make a 7 string singlecut. So, once I make some progress on that one, I'll show you all. Thanks.
  5. Congrats to all. An interesting compilation of design, use of wood, finishes. Vive' la difference. To me, it narrowed down quickly to the work of Skelf (lovely), Marcovis (classic) and Telenator (different). Ultimately, I went for the Ric.
  6. Compressed air is a good way to remove sanding dust that may be embedded in open pores, grain, etc. You can always use a fine brush as well. After I do that, I usually wipe it down with naphtha to clean.
  7. Supernova, glad you found something. After I posted, I did a couple of searches but didn't find what I was looking for. JoeGlow, good luck. And a beautiful piece of wood.
  8. I'm pretty sure that type of info is already in threads on this forum. Congrats on the new addition!
  9. +1 re Drak. I know I have read posts on this forum by Drak describing how he uses CA on spalted wood. It might be worth a quick search. Sounds like the piece you have is pretty spongy. Drak also advises that spalt, in addition to soaking up CA, will soak up tone as a guitar top, so its best to take that into account with a really soft piece. Good luck!
  10. Who knows? It may have been broken or damaged already. But tighter isn't better. The "correct" tightness is better. The book that comes with the saw gives instructions on how to tension the blade.
  11. +1 to Wes. I have the same saw. It's cheap and requires some careful attention to make it useful. Having said that, I've used the past 18 months to cut out bodies up to 2 1/2" and necks from laminated mahogany blanks up to 3". But when it breaks, its gone.
  12. IMHO, cutting wood without having your part on hand is poor practice and a recipe for disaster. The switch I'm holding now will fit into a 1/2" hole. It will also fit into a 31/64" and a 15/32" hole. Your switch may vary.
  13. Wes, TonePros makes locking studs to prevent that problem exactly. They are replacement studs for your bridge and lock up against the bridge to prevent it from lifting up. Here is a link that shows what they do. They sell for around $35.
  14. Excellent photographs. There's gotta be something useful in those photos for promotional purposes. Any beer involved?
  15. Terrible news. I enjoyed reading about his new shop and how things were going. He seemed like a good ole Texas boy. A gentleman with a sense of humor.
  16. LOL. That's exactly what I used to get the measurements I posted. I was too lazy to post a pic or a link.
  17. I measured the pot shafts I got from StewMac and not Allparts. They fit 5/16" hole - going 32nd higher would be 11/32" for an easy fit. Don't know about yours so agree with other responders best to measure or test fit. In my experience, switch shafts of the type you describe are much bigger than pot shafts. Again, I measured the one I got from StewMac, and it fit in a 15/32" hole - 1/2" would be a 32nd bigger. So, I don't think you can get away with 1 drill bit. I use 500k audio pots for my volume and tone pots for humbuckers. Different people use different values. The members who hang out in the electronics section of this forum have probably addressed this before so you can search and I think you will find plenty.
  18. Before I worried about it too much, I'd double check the maple's measurement with your supplier. It may be right, but I've never heard of anyone measuring wood in 15ths before. Even if all the measurements are EXACT and each piece is perfectly dimensioned, you are talking about less that 1/16" difference between 1.8" and 1.75" thick. 1.75" thick is your final target thickness, not your starting thickness.
  19. As Drak says, LMI sells a clear pore filler if you don't want to use CA or epoxy.
  20. I use Houston Hardwoods. It is as Wes describes - good for body and neck wood in lots of varieties. Not good for figured woods although they have a modest supply of curly or birdseye maple, but the figure isn't special.
  21. An update. I emailed Schaller. They don't make a 7 string wraparound or combination. Very timely and efficiently Germanic response. I quote "Hello, this bridge for 7 string is not available. Sorry." Unquote. I emailed TonePros. Ditto. However, they did offer to make one in their custom shop. It would be similar to the vintage Gibson non-individually intonatable bridges. Estimate was $80, more if I wanted a custom finish that I could specify. It would be ready in 1-2 weeks. Pretty cool actually if you were looking to make a 7 string with a vintage vibe (why, I'm not sure). They were very responsive and helpful. Even sent pics as examples. Very friendly and knowledgable. I called AllParts. They say the ABM bridge referenced by Fookgub is a wraparound with individually adjustable saddles. Very helpful but somewhat surfer-dude-like, like almost is close enough. So, I checked ABM's website and they don't reference the 7 string version but show a 6 string that looks similar and very nice. I emailed them to confirm but no response yet. Not timely or efficiently Germanic-like. I'll talk with my "customer" aka my third son, and see if he want to go with the ABM wraparound or with a TOM/tailpiece. TonePros makes one of those. I'm hoping he chooses the wraparound as I haven't used one of those yet. Thanks for the interest guys.
  22. 15 minutes of pondering 5 minutes to measure and re-measure 4 minutes for more pondering and re-measuring 30 seconds to drill 5 1/2 minutes to admire your workmanship
  23. Well, here is something I actually have some experience with. Here is a post of an SG I made with a maple top on mahogany. It describes and shows some pics of the finishing process i used. SG topic Basically, I sealed the whole guitar with vinyl sealer. I pore filled the mahogany with walnut brown paste filler. I dyed the maple with walnut brown dye and sanded back to hilite the grain. I rubbed walnut pore filler on the maple (didn't fill anything but did make the maple a consistent color to the mahogany. Then I sprayed the whole thing with cherry red toner. That applied a consistent cherry color over a consistent brown color. The result was a consistent color (duh). Anyway, the color was the same but the maple to mahogany transition was still visible because the toner is transparent. Some of that transition is hard to see because the maple was carved which increased the blending into the mahogany. Even the bits that weren't though looked cool (IMHO) because you could see the different grain of the maple vs the mahogany if you looked through the toner. I think if you try to darken the edge of the maple so you won't see it, then apply a cherry color over the whole thing, the darkened edge will stand out and not look great (again, IMHO). What I mean is that you will be able to see the wood grain all over except for the maple edge. Hope this helps.
×
×
  • Create New...