DougK

Are you trying to resaw on the table saw in 1 pass? If your table saw is up to it, just put the board on end and cut through 1 half. Then flip it over and cut the other half.

Or work the blade up a little at a time to take most of the load off the blade.

I bought this cheap squire a few years back. It had an unfinished maple neck. While in the grand scheme of things the over all process I did was probably wrong (I sprayed it like I would a customers kitchen cabinets) I do have 1 trick. If you can find really cheap "contractor grade" lacquer, basically the **** they use in really cheap track homes it will spray very yellow. It worked pretty well. Not quite as amber as my 56 RI but it actually matches my original 74 strat's coloring pretty well.

- worth a shot I guess.

Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

-subscribed-

Well this is kind of a lame bump, but a bump none the less lol. So I've had mono for the last few weeks so all my projects have come to a halt. Tonight was the first time I could actually stand to play guitar with out my head exploding. So I plugged the "mcsoapy" in and I finally started having some luck getting some good tone out of it. I ended up through random luck I ended up putting on some Chicago and cranked up "I'm a Man". This thing rocked out spot on for that sound, I was freaking stoked. Ended up playing most of that album and then through on the live version of "Lazy" by Deep Purple.

So I think whats been fighting me was the fact I've never had a p90 guitar that was worth a ****. Finally starting to get this thing figured out. For the first time since I've plugged it in Im REALLY happy with how it sounds!

/lame update over

/fake edit: I forgot to mention that the tone pots are wired up. Still can't find my screws for the rear pickup but thats fine for now.

I absolutely can tell the difference between between my real heavy gauge monster cable and my really cheap, almost broken anyways cables.

But between a variety of what would be consider "quality cables" I can't really tell much difference. Then again, I always hear the phone ringing for a couple hours after I play guitar anyways so Im probably not the best judge

LOL ^^^

Im going to go break a bottle of champagne against something just for you Fantastic job! I kind of wish I had built mine with triple p90s

I like the kite thats pretty cool

Looks good, although the armrest looks too 'short' (doesn't extend into the body far enough), which makes it look slightly oddly angled. Might be the way the pic was taken though...

Probably a fair amount of it. Honestly, I used 3-4 strats as my guides (an original 74, a 50's reissue which has a way different contour, a late 90's am'standard and a couple squire bodies) and each one was different. I just kind of split the middle and figured if I wanted to add more later I'd just do it by hand.

-or I go back and add 5-6 more lines to the program, no big deal there.

I was wondering what do you guys think about the Chinese manufactured 170 dollar Starcaster by Fender. (No not the jazz hollow body)

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is, why do you guys think that Fender bothered to put a humbucker in the bridge if its a 170 dollar guitar, when the American Deluxe Strat (which has a 1,000 price tag) Has the exact same setup?

-Thanks,

OrenG

Its probably made of plywood http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=33206

Well after about 60 hours and 7-8 trial versions finally have the body program dialed in. Made 2 of them today, both hard tails for Steve and I. There is absolutely more programming time on the CNC but once the program is dialed in, I made both guitar bodies as they sit now in about an hour. IF you were trying to copy a shape exact it wouldn't take nearly as long.

Bright picture (flash on)

back shot

profile shot

Now Steves we machined a bit differently. He wasn't looking to build a super authentic strat this time around so we made a few changes. We routed the pickup cavity as a large rectangle for any pup combo and shaved 1/4" off the back side through the time saver. We'll use flush screws on his neck attachment. His came out cleaner than mine did as I made a few revisions on the order in which the cnc did its thing. No biggie on mine, its getting painted Olympia white (and will get relic'ed eventually). Same thing with the knot on the back, I'll either make a plug or just fill it with epoxy/bondo till its gone.

I've got 2 more super clean pieces of alder ready for sunburst guitars and 1 that has some iffy grain through what will probably be the top horn. Tomorrow Im going to cut one of the nice ones as I want to build a clone of my dads original 74 strat as a Christmas gift to him this year. Only I think he's been talking about having a strat with a left head stock, I think I'll do it that way.

His guitar \/ \/ \/

So with a little luck, I might have the necks roughly figured out tomorrow as well

I would use a hole saw to just start the hole so you didn't get any chip out, and then go with either a spade bit or a forstner bit. The forstner bit would give you a better more controlled depth of cut. I'd try different ways on scrap first.

On my S470, I've always wondered how they made that hole, they probably have some type of jig for it, but it makes a very clean looking jack.

IF ibanez is cutting their guitars on a CNC (which Im sure they are) I'd use a cove/ball mill bit and program it in that way. Would be alot easier, then just come back and drill the actual output jack hole.

You could make a template for a plunge router to do the same thing by hand possibly. Drilling into the wood on an angle like that scares me.

Your comment about the 12th fret inlay got me to thinking about a series of scattered faux "bullet hits" down the fretboard.

Might be a little cliche since all the tweakers started sticking them on their cars but if it's done right I think it would look awesome.

Friends with a metal shop? buy some bullets (not the entire round) and have them slice them into fret markers for you

either way works, could be very cool

So I've got my P90 guitar pretty far along to the point where Im playing it now and making any tweaks before I do the finishing. As I mentioned in this thread I got the itch to strip down and refinish one of the beater strats I had laying around. Well when it turned out to be plywood, just decided to start programming my CNC to make my own body.

Now in all fairness, my CNC is so old that the newest version of Autocad it can import from is R14 so I have to actually program it, not just surf the net for a cad drawing and import it. Well I started up over the weekend a bit and got the body close. Tonight I started making some tweaks and finally decided that Im ready to start building my own necks. I revised the program to draw the entire neck and head stock as well, fret locations, 6mm inlays ect. I did the outlines and such then programmed it to cut it out of a piece of 3/4 scrap I had laying around. The intention was to use my v-grooving bit (smallest one chucked up in the tool changer atm) to just leave a pencil line but whatever schmuk replaced the bit last set it to deep so some of the lines are goofed.

Over all, Im pretty close. I think another hour of tweaking and I should be set. I had it mill the "body" down a 1/4" so I could see the neck shape and make sure it was cool (to bad the v-groove bit goofed that up).

Anyways, so pretty close

full body shot

headstock

The picture is kind of washed out but it gives the idea. Over all, I have a couple tweaks to make on the horns and probably another half hour of messing with the head stock and it should be mostly set. I have the contour programs written, just not the back side of the neck (I think I can do the back rough shaping on the machine).

I think I'll be ready to start cutting bodies friday. I have enough alder glued up to make 5 bodies (glued to 97" x 7" 8/4 blanks together then ran em through the time saver till they netted at 1 3/4" thick). Have some birdseye maple and rosewood coming in soon too. I think I might have to give strats as xmas gifts this year.

Hopefully have some good updates by end of the weekend.

That is really sweet. I agree with everyone about the wood choices potential to be overwhelming but I'd say you pulled it off

That is fantastic! I love walnut... its probably why it always shows up in furniture pieces I make

Very awesome, very lucky son

I did the exact same thing this weekend. Took a beater shitty squire strat I had laying around (I dont even remember how I got it) and finished sanding the back to find out it was plywood!

so I just wrote my own CNC program to make my own strat bodies LOL.

Being a practice project with a near POS axe body -- I thot what the heck, it's fun to see what evil lurks beneath the shiny exterior -- and perhaps redeem the foul truth into a thing of odd beauty.

And then sell it on eBay for 3 or 4X what I had in it.

So, you sell these homemade Strat bodies???

Pretty much exactly what I thought. I needed a diversion from the p90 guitar i've been building for the day so I figured ***, why not. Then I saw it was plywood and just started laughing my ass off.

dont know if I'll be selling "strat" (dont sue me fender) bodies. Probably not ... well maybe.

Thanks guys I figured it'd tame down some once its really wired in (hopefully atleast LOL). As it sits its like having the bright switch on all the time.

Over all though the guitar plays fantastic and really resonates well.

I absolutely like the "alien letter" (lol) truss rod cover best. But hey, it only took 2 minutes extra to make the dk one so I figured why not right!

fake edit:// You know one really nice thing about trying this guitar direct with no wiring is it'll really help me see how the tone pots ect really effect the over all tone. I've never really done any messing with the wiring of a guitar.

I use the router upside down in a router table, or with a real wide base upside down, clamped in a vice.

Watch your fingers!

Router in a router table = Very Good Idea

Router upside down, clamped in a vise = EXTREMELY BAD IDEA.

Your fingers would be the least of your worries if that baby comes loose. If you don't want to buy an expensive router table, make a cheap one. A few cheap shelving legs and a piece of 2ft x 2ft melamine should set you back less than $10 and will work just fine. Another couple bucks and you can put a dust hood to hook your shop vac up to. Ohh yeah and about $2 worth of wood screws. So for less the $15 you can have a router table and save yourself a trip to the emergency room.

Absolutely. Dad lost the tip of his finger when the last guy who used the router table never tightened the bit. He fired it up and the bit came flying out and took the tip of his finger with it. Absolutely dont jimmyrig anything with a router. Build a table and keep clear of it when you turn the thing on.

I on the other hand, :knocks on wood: 10 years and counting and still have all my finger tips.

I did the exact same thing this weekend. Took a beater shitty squire strat I had laying around (I dont even remember how I got it) and finished sanding the back to find out it was plywood!

so I just wrote my own CNC program to make my own strat bodies LOL.

Well, had a pretty successful weekend. Got the bridge FINALLY squared away. Got the E's to intonate correctly called it good enough. Still have to do a final setup on the rest but its damn close. So then finished up the nut side of the deal. The action is fantastic Could probably drop the bridge a bit more still.

Then I got ancy and wired the front p90 right to a bum cord and decided to let it rip Man this thing is BRIGHT! Has absolutely insane mid-range. The high E is a bit bright but it'll probably mellow out some when I actually wire it in. Overall I am very pleased though I have to admit it does sound a bit different than I anticipated.

close up

head stock close up

I also did something else today. I made an "mdf-caster". I've been itching into building a relic-strat so I wrote CNC codes to start making one. For the first go around its almost dialed in. About 30 minutes of messing around and it'll be set. The total on machine time front and back is about 21 minutes (including doing the 2 sculpted parts). Im going to order up a chunk of Alder tomorrow, hopefully have a strat body ready by end of the weekend as well

-cant just have 1 project going right LOL

absolutely fantastic Good motivation for me to start making forward progress on mine again

Use this as an excuse to buy/build another guitar. No one needs just 1 guitar.

good job. how much of the work did you really do. not to be negative but there is no way that you completeted this yourself. you just said your teacher is finishing up one as well. how much did he do...really?

I dont know but that seemed pretty harsh to me.

nah, definately not comfortable. It may be tolerated for the look but it wouldnt be comfortable with normal clothes - maybe the secret is to wear armor plating with it or something like that, it would certainly match the look of the guitar

so that rules wearing just my leopard print speedo out