gosh

Ahhh. Sorry for my misreading that. Gotcha. I'll take a look at the web link you posted and If I can get it here in britain or at least contact them to see if they ship or at least tell me an equivalent, I'll follow your advice. Thank you friend. Much appreciated. Paul

Thanks for your reply. Both the body and the neck are currently in the raw state with no finish at all of any kind. I'm still working on both of them. BUT, when i'm finished and put it together, i need them to be closer in colour, if not identical BEFORE I start applying colour and finish. Your suggestion of a stain like miniwax, worries me because of the word "WAX" i think. Surely that would react with anything I try to paint over the top of it?? Like the colour coat and lacquers? That's why I wondered if there was any water based colouring dye to match a mahogany colour. I might also require a supplier in the UK as shipping materials like this is a problem for some suppliers these days. Of course, you are right, I have two necks, one to try tests on and i can even use my actual neck in places like the tenon for testing. Good idea. Any further thoughts from guys who are experienced at this kind of problem would be great.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_3Z2Az_8GYNs/Ry310G...-h/IMG_1309.JPG As previously mentioned, I'm building a replica 59 LP. We've already established that the neck I have is Maple and the body is Mahogany. A 59 would have been built using a Mahogany neck too. Both coloured red on the back before the top clear coats. My question is, As MY neck is lighter than the body, I need to have them as close in colour as possible BEFORE the colour is applied and the top clear coats. So I'm pretty sure the neck will have to be painted with wood dye? before anything else to get the two closer. What is the best advice I can get to make my neck match the mahogany body? I'm thinking I'll have to apply some mahogany coloured wood dye and try to get as close as possible. Water based dye? Any other method? I'm clueless as to achieve what I'm after. Here's a model similar to what I'm building and you can clearly see the neck and body match: http://www.provide.net/~cfh/lpsun.html I need to get my two pieces of different woods to look the same before finishing. Any help at all would be great. Thank you.

Well I agree with others in this thread. I'd definitely get a nice veneer that either compliments the colour of the guitar, fingerboard and body OR is a nice contrast and then add it to the headstock. Good luck mate.

Why not make a template of the headstock shape out of MDF, apply the veneer, pop the template over the top to make a sandwich and clamp it all tight? That's assuming your headstock surface is flat. Should work fine.

http://bp2.blogger.com/_3Z2Az_8GYNs/Ry3zDG...-h/IMG_1323.JPG I have all the correct measurements from original plans if you need them. Let me know. The cavities are not measured 'apart' from each other, they are measured from a set position starting from the top of the body. But someone here has already answered correctly. With the surround in place, there is a 1mm gap between IT and the end of the fingerboard.

http://www.beardguitars.com/Merchant2/merc...tegory_Code=BGK http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rosewood-headstock-v...7QQcmdZViewItem

Gosh, and your suggestion for using dowels is what? Dowels will leave him with ENDGRAIN. Just about as useless as filler. Use PLUGS cut correctly( straight not tapered) and glued correctly and it will work. Just my 02 cents. MK Wow, people do get tetchy and sensitive on here don't they? I think I should look for some place a little more welcoming. I'm not keen on the one-upmanship, see who's smartest thing. I thought people here were supposed to help one another. That's what I tried to do. So I made a mistake by mentioning measurements because I was sat at work. The basic principle of my suggestion was sound and was a solution. But I've been attacked now by three people on details. I said nothing about end grain or cutting tapers. Oh I give up. Have a great time between yourselves. I see you all stick together and this is no place for newbies. Fine. Lucky I didn't hit that "Donate" button yet.

You quoted it,why do you not understand it? With all due respect to your many many posts, moderator status and presumably, good guitar building skills.... I understand it PERFECTLY!! He says: The 4 holes drilled in the neck are too big for the Fender screws. So he clearly wishes to retain the fender screws. He says: I do not want to drill out the P-bass body to accommodate the larger screws So your suggestion won't work as doesn't want to drill out his existing body to use those huge allen type heads You started your post in this thread with the words "Better yet". But your answer was neither better or an answer to the problem. I'm not claiming mine is perfect, but at least I'm not just trying to cause an argument or be discourteous.

I purposely didn't suggest that because he stated that he wished to keep the current, original fender screws.

Like this:

Some pictures would be helpfull, but here's what I would do based on what you have told us so far. Get some hard wood dowel and cut to slightly overlenght the depth of the neck joint. Using a bench drill, re-drill the holes wider to accept the dowels. glue and tap in the dowel pegs. when dry, sand the dowels flush and paint, laquer, finish. (whatever) Re-drill the much smaller holes to accept your original screws. If possible, your new dowels need to be MUCH wider than the current holes. So if the holes are now, say 3mm, then the dowels should be around 10mm you get the drift? hope that helps. PS: Do NOT, under any circumstances use filler. It isn't strong enough and over time, your neck will go wobbly.

I'm very sorry to hear that Sir. I will certainly keep my eyes open for you too and report here. Part of my day job invovles copyright, so I know where you are coming from. By the way, I just ordered and OFFICIAL copy a few days ago. Can't wait to read it. THANK YOU for putting it together. All the best, Paul

He's right you know! It comes from Africa mostly. http://www.bunnybass.com/e-zine/wood/bubinga/bubinga.shtml

There are a lot of places that sell them. Including Ebay. However, if your budget is so tight you are restricted to getting them for free, you may struggle to complete your project. It's not going to be cheap.

Congratulations. You chose a beautiful name for her.

Yeah, that's the idea... I remember seeing a photo of someone's Strat...he used the Fender logo, but drew on "Not a " in front of that...it looked pretty cool. Also do a search for the Jellycaster, if the photos are still up... LOL. That's very cool. Thanks for the heads up mate http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/logo.htm Which refreshed my memories of these: I'd love to have one of those. Thanks.

For me, it HAS to be Burstbuckers. That would suit the sound you want perfectly. http://www.gibson.com/whatsnew/pressrelease/2002/jan4b.html There are loads of people selling them now: http://www.zzounds.com/item--GIBAIM57ANH http://www.stevesmusiccenter.com/GibsonPUPBurstBucker.html

It's kind of frowned upon here, using a company's logo for your own build. On the other hand, since you already bought the headplate, there are plenty of ways of making it your own --you could alter one or more letters (looks like MOP inlay, shouldn't be too hard to match that). Or add in something that will make it perfectly obvious and at first glance that it's a fake (or hommage, as you prefer!) Now you have my creative juices flowing...what about... A Gibson - as the top logo, exactly as is but with the letter 'A' added By Paul - where it would normally say 'Les Paul' in the same scripty lettering. Waddaya think?

Looks nice. But I would cover up my lovely maple top wouldn't I? Very cool guitar though.

You mean like the old Mod thing? Can you explain?

Hey, thanks for the comments buddy. I appreciate your note about the headstock. That's worth thinking about. My day job is Graphic Design, so maybe I can come up with something groovy for the head logo instead. I'll certainly think about it. And yes, you are right about the necks. I just got back from talking to a guy who makes and repairs instruments near where I work. He told me both necks are indeed Maple and I didn't even notice the "ears" on the head were extra bits stuck on. But they are 3 pieces. There is also a Rosewood strip covering the truss rod. Although he obviously couldn't say for sure they are genuine, his advice was that because of the way they have been manufactured, it appears to look like a professional job and something that was created en mass. He reckons they will be fine and the wood is top quality. The general opinion seems to be they are Gibson necks. As both sellers, individually assured me they were. Thanks again all.

Tell you what, we have a luthier near to where I work. I'll take them both in with me and ask him to verify the wood for me. I'm no expert on these things but he will know.

Those are the ones I'm using to build mine. Good luck friend. http://59gibsonlespaul.blogspot.com/