themikestro

My first visit to Project Guitar in several years! I'm really pleased to see its still up and running and people keep churning out quality work, this forum was a giant help to me while I was making my first efforts

I haven't touched a router or buffed a finish since as I moved house and have no garden or shed to play around in, but I hope to remedy that soon and recapture the guitar bug!

Anyway, I just popped back here to fix my image links in case anyone was interested.

it's funny I should post now i'm not likely to build anything for a while.

I'm Mike, from sunny Lincoln, UK.

I'm 24 and have been a "player" (not playa) since i was 16, no joke, i'm way worse than I should be. I am a terrible guitarist! I have no previous experience of wood working and to be honest i'm a bit of a pen pusher.

I've built two guitars, a solid ash firebird/tele thing and a semi hollow SG thing that got me an undeserved GOTM! I make do with less tools and space than most people and haven't attempted a neck as yet, I'm way off pro standard but getting better with practice.

My philosphy is you should try something new with every build and certainly not go out of your way to copy other designs, originality is the fun part, thickness planing and routing for the first time is NOT the fun part.

I'm about to move to a flat with no shed or garden so maybe the art of the luthier will be on hold, the missus won't like the kitchen full of sawdust.....

Edit: This makes me sound REALLY talentless! It's not as bad as all that, I know my guitars and have plenty of experience in modifying and repair work.

Tooooooooooooooot!! imaginary birthday brew to you.

Birthday best wishes too!

Great site, job well done.

I'd have to say when it comes to a combination of tone and vlaue for money i've never been able to beat Kent Armstrong pickups, not the best in the world obviously but half the price of Seymour Duncans and DiMarzio's and a good 8/10ths of the tone at worst.

The sensible, tight fisted guys choice.

Isn't Lacewood an Aussie wood?; or silky oak as it gets called. Supposed to be similar to Alder in tone and weight but looks much nicer (if you like lizard skin) I'm going to be using some on my next project, looks like a lot of "fun" to get a nice smooth finish on it....

Thanks, so a 1" in top planed would be the right choice I guess.

Cheers!

Y'alright PG members?

Quick question, how thick (normally) is the maple cap on a Les Paul? Roughly how much wood depth is removed from the edge on a "standard" carve?

I'm only asking because my options for a top wood seem to be 1" or 3/8th" one seems excessive and the other a bit thin. i used a 3/8th on my last guitar but left it flat, I want to give a carve a go this time around. I just inherited a full set of VERY fine carving tools so i'm looking forward to giving them a go.

Tips and advice please!

True enough, my bass should be massively neck heavy, but because of it's giant upper horn it balances a treat. I've heard that ebony can be a pain to fret but I really want the look of the ebony without postion markers...

After two guitars i'm really keen to get everything about this one just right. The previous two have had good points and bad points, this one has got to be a bit special, not $10,000 special, i'm not a good enough player to warrant it, but special all the same.

W00T! it's my birthday! It even says so at the bottom of the site, hooray! Birthday greetings to everyone!

Sorry, nothing to do with guitars or wood though!

hmmm, the Sycamore i've seen is sometimes not all that different to lacewood (in looks), and has been used in acoustic instrument construction forever, so i'm guessing it sounds alright, I don't know much about it though. Regarding the neck weight perhaps you guys are all right about the bubinga/ebony combo. I'd quite like to get all my wood from craftsupplies when I pay them a visit.

The fingerboard choices (pre-slotted) I'm new to necks) are- ebony, santos, indian and violet rosewood.

And neck materials are the obvious maple and mahogany, amazaque, bubinga, purpleheart, wenge, paduak and zebrano, or laminations of pretty much anything. I was after something quite dark just because I like the look of dark, natural necks. Like the rosewood PRS...

I'm after something not too demanding as this will be my first neck/fingerboard.

Keep 'em coming!

Aha, thanks for all the advice, points taken, swamp ash is king.

I made a semi hollow for my last project so i'm thinking i'll stay away from the that route, I guess the best thing would be to keep the body a little thinner, the trouble is i'm using an old fashioned hand plane so it'll keep me thin as well.

i didn't realise cherry would be so heavy, shows what I know!

The cost thing isn't too much of an issue but you'd be surprised how some of the more flashy woods, particularly from craft supplies are cheaper than the more utilitarian stuff, swamp ash is twice the price of wenge or bubinga for instance.

I'm recycling the pickups (kent armstrong humbuckersand a through body) and bridge from my first project, an insanely heavy all ash (not swamp) guitar, i'm just looking to keep the weight down, i'm not a weakling but I find very heavy guitars a bit unapealing to pick up and play especially as I have an ibanez Talman that weighs nothing sat next to it.

Good point, and i have been looking into shipping from the US.

I've been getting my wood from craft supplies in the UK and the one piece blanks I got for my last guitar was great value, high quality and half the price of other places here. I'm not trying to be cheap per-se just that I'm not interested in buying the most expensive woods just for the sake of it, i'm not a good enough craftsman to do the really special stuff justice. I'm trying to stay away from very heavy, probably quite rare exotic woods (except the neck ) It just seems there is less written about the acoustic properties of woods like sycamore and cherry, pergaps because people see them as a bit boring!

hmmmm, I'm not sure I want to deal with the mob! I could call him on the day of his daughters wedding....

Seriously though, thanks for the advice.

pffft. I haven't posted in months, but the warmer months are coming up and it's time to turn my mind back to six stringed outdoor fun.

I have a dream, and that dream is of a *fairly* PRS style axe with a bubinga neck, ebony fretboard and a lacewood top. The only bit i'm not sure about is the main body wood.

i'm after something that isn't going to weigh a ton as both my previous guitars have been REALLY heavy, For some reason in the uk, nice normal woods like alder that would usually be a no brainer are pretty pricey, so i've narrowed it down to some other woods that might be suitable. just fishing around for people who've worked with them, i'd like to know a bit about the weight, workability and ease of finishing please.

Anyhow..... Here's the woods, Sycamore (english), Lime (bit like Basswood aparantly) Cherry (US) i'm open to suggestions though, all of these can be had for around £30 GBP for a one piece so i'm keeping the costs down.

Thanks guys!

Right, I can play a bass, but know much less about the sound properties of different pickups than I do about regular guitars and I was hoping someone could clue me up. I'm just looking for some general summing up for the four main kinds of Bass pickup when used passive. Jazz, Precision, soapbar and stingray/humbucker.

Thanks in advance.....

I feel your pain, I only ever seem to do dumb things once the whole project is near completion! Have a virtual pat on the back and a "there-there" from me and good luck in getting it fixed up.

Hey, that looks quite a bit like what I had in mind..... niiiice.

Hi folks, I've not posted for about two months, but a new project is about to get underway.

I'm making a fretless bass, a *bit* like a Warwick, it's going to be a minimalist thing with just the one pickup and a bolt neck, the neck will be made from mahogany and maple, with a rosewood fingerboard.

I already have a bass suited to the rocking side of life, so i'm after a more warm, jazzy sound with flatwound or half wound strings.

My question is what wood should I use? I'd like it to be one of the following really because I'm going for a natural finish and they're all real purdy, but not expensive; Amazaque, Lacewood, Walnut or Zebrano, doesn anybody know how well these woods would suit my purposes?

Cheers,

Mike

Looks good, but i'd consider revising the headstock shape, to either a conventional 3-a-side or something a little "pointier" if you stay in-line. Mind you if it was black it'd probably look cool the way it is.

If you've got a bolt on neck with a curved end (like a strat) make sure you re-measure the scale length when you've got the shape of the neck pocket right 'cos it's bound to be further into the body than you planned after you try and get it tidied up with chisels and a dremel. Or at least it was with me and now my intonation is permanently off!

Aha,

The South Yorkshire luthiers guild, I was born in Rotherham for my sins, home of the chukle brothers and David Seaman.

I work at Lincoln uni, and we have the finest workshop, I have never seen a bigger bandsaw than the one here, and bunging a few pounds the way of the workshop goes down very well.

As everyone has said, craft supplies are brilliant, but you'll need the soundwood catalogue there is much more in there than the regular one. One piece body blanks for £28? Fantastic.

It's also worth checking out, www.highlystrung.co.uk, great service, very friendly folk and www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk.

Have fun with your first build and play safe.

I've got some apple wood ply boxes, seems like tough stuff, but very open grained, probably more so than ash even. I don't know if it's a neck wood, thats an elite group of very hard woods!

Nice Samoyedes, nice guitars too, they just grow like that right?

Anyone noticed the smiling face in the figure on the guitar 2nd from left?

Probably have more luck in one of the other forums, as far as I know it's the same thickness as the Strat, plenty less than two inches, plenty more than one inch! Terrible answer I know.

The trem is a funny mount and doesn't go through the body so they can stay quite thin.

0-5 and then only by mistake.

What the hell is a woodchuck anyway, I'm guessing we don't have them in England, some kind of muscualr squirrel?