six_stringer

The reason I asked about the string height is because I am currently painting a strat style body that is routed for one humbucker and a non recessed Floyd Rose. I like low action but I don't like the strings too high off of the body. I'm not sure If I will like playing the guitar with the Floyd Rose non recessed as much since it was previously on a body that had the recessed route. I enjoyed playing it that way for a couple of years but I will have to give the non recessed a try before I mod it also. Thanks, Jeff

That really looks good! Did you put a shim under the neck to give you a slight neck angle? What is your string height at the body where the fretboard ends? Jeff

I think this is covered in Melvyn Hiscock's "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" book however I loaned my book to a friend so I can't double check. On my flat top T.O.M. bridge guitar I put the angle on my neck tenon instead of in the body mortise. I set my neck in dry and marked the sides with masking tape where the tenon's shoulder (fretboard) contacted the body. Then I removed the neck and used a chisel to remove small amounts of wood from the body until the neck and fretboard fit was correct. Good Luck, Jeff

Their prices sure have gone up. I wish I had bought a dozen sets just to sell later when their price's went up. I was lucky in the past having purchased two EMG-ZW sets at Guitar Center for $160 each when they were selling them for $200 each. At the time Ed Roman was selling EMG-ZW sets online for $160 so the GC salesman honored that price. I would imagine that Guitar Center would sell them for less than the best deal online to get the sale. Since I have three EMG-ZW's, an 81, an 85, three 707's and a 81-7 I won't be needing to buy any more EMG's any time soon. Jeff

Here is the picture I talked about in the other thread about my EMG's. You can see that I don't like to trim down my wires. http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c352/six...r/EMGWiring.jpg

I have wired three of my guitar's with EMG's and only had one problem, I forgot to put the battery in one. I followed the instructions that came with them and it worked out fine. If wired correctly, good battery is installed and the pickup is correctly plugged in then maybe there is something wrong with the pickups. However, I doubt that the pickups are bad. If I have some time I will try to take a closeup picture of how my EMG's are wired and post it.

You could just do the notes at the normal fret marker locations. Third fret D, G, C, F, A#, D, G. Fifth fret E, A, D, G, C, E, A. Seventh fret etc. IMO it would look more normal and finding your positions would still be just as easy. You would know the notes at those positions and hopefully in between them also. Jeff

I made my own temporary template using MDF(medium density fibreboard) square 1.5" wide moulding strips from Home Depot. I cut them to length, add double stick tape to the bottom of the MDF, form the template and then route. I got the tape from Home Depot but I hear Stew Mac's tape is better. Sometime I will make an actual template using this method but for now it works for me. Jeff

Something that I forgot to mention is that I have seen Gibson Les Paul's with their bridge saddles notched offset instead of dead center. If you can get replacement saddles for your bridge that aren't notched you might be able to bring the string spacing in more for your liking by notching them yourself. Glad to see you are giving it a go. Good luck, Jeff

I was going to use Walnut on my current 7-string baritone project to make it an all Walnut guitar. However, I had heard that it just wasn't a good choice for a fretboard and I didn't want to put a finish on it so I went another direction. I believe I heard that at the MIMF and here, not completely sure though. Some hardwoods are available in a stabilized format from Larry Davis of Gallery Hardwoods. Whether Walnut is one of the possibilities I can't say. Jeff

Take a break, relax and come back to guitar building when you feel ready. I still make mistakes and it's frustrating. Some people can build their first or second guitar like a pro while others can make dozens before they get to that level. That guitar body your building looks fantastic to me so I wouldn't give up. I have four completed with four in the finishing process and a half a dozen body blanks and neck blanks waiting to be worked on. I'm still not there yet in my build quality but I'm slowly getting better. Some people only build guitar bodies and purchase pre-made necks and I see nothing wrong with that at all. Many times I have considered doing this myself to save time and some headaches. I have even used a couple of those Carvin NT6 neckthroughs to build with myself and I really like their quality. I didn't start building to make money.(I haven't!) I started because I wanted a PRS guitar but I didn't have the money for it. However, I had some woodworking skills so I thought that I would give it a try. After two bad neck builds I gave up and stuck to buying factory guitar's. 15 years later I started to build again and hope to continue to do so. In the end I could have probably bought at least two PRS guitar's for the amount of money I spent on tools and materials not even counting all of the time I have invested in it. My only regret is that I didn't stick to building 15 years ago because I enjoy building so much and I imagine my skills would be greatly improved. Will I ever get to that level of building high quality instruments like many here have? I hope so but only time will tell. A friend of mine asked me why I build guitar's when I can afford to buy them. I asked him why would he pay someone to play golf for him so he doesn't have to himself. We do what we do because we enjoy it. Good luck, Jeff

Is there an adjustable saddle (string spacing) bridge that would work with that neck of yours? Like a Schaller Rollerbridge. It can be adjusted from 1-29/32" to 2-1/4" string spacing. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailp...ler_Bridge.html I can't tell for sure from your picture but it looks like the D and G string peghead holes are close to the edge on your peghead. I can only imagine that the tuners were back to back at that point of the peghead not allowing adjustment. Good luck, Jeff

Just an update. I went back to Rockler yesterday with the intent on using my 22% off coupon for purchasing a piece of that Ebony colored Alowood. However, I noticed that some of the Ebony colored Alowood looked like it was warping and blotchy in color. The stuff I looked at previously looked clean, straight and uniform in color. I asked a salesman/woodworker who I know has been working there for several years about the problem. He said that they and other stores had to throw out some of their Alowood stock due to warping. He also said that they called Alowood and asked why it was warping because it's suppose to be stable. They didn't have an answer yet. I know for a fact that it looked good the first time I saw it but looked bad the other day. I trust the salesman/woodworker even though I can't prove what he said is true and not just gossip so for now I will stick to my hardwoods for necks etc. Jeff

I heard about this Alowood sometime last year but until today I had never seen it in person. I went to my not so local Rockler and they had it in stock. It looks interesting and I am considering using it for a neck and possibly a fretboard. I like the looks of the ebony colored Alowood the most. Has anyone seen it or considered using it for a neck and or a fretboard? Here are some links to what I'm talking about. http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=18182 or http://www.alowood.com/ If I try it I will post my results but for now I have 4 or 5 neck blanks glued up of regular hardwoods so it will be a while. Jeff

The pictures don't show up for me but here is the link you are probably looking for. http://web.archive.org/web/20050313011337/.../LEDinstall.htm Good Luck, Jeff

syxxstring and jrjr, Have either of you used your Killer Can paint from Alsa yet? I am interested in how well the Speed Clear(2k) works. Has anyone else tried it? Jeff

That small jig works great for cutting the taper on fingerboards. However, you need to make sure you use a high quality smooth cut carbide tipped blade that's still in good shape. Also, you have to have a table saw that has a long table (distance from the front of the table to the start of the blade) and fence. Some table saws have a short table so the fretboard would hang off of the front of the table and the fretboard would not rest against the fence the way the jig was designed. If you have a short table you can make a table/fence extention for that jig to work. I have used it on four or five fretboards and will continue to do so.

I agree with Willy78 for keeping it original unless the paint is scratched and chipped or you just can't stand it anymore. However, it's hard to tell from those two pictures. If the finish is in bad shape then a refinish would make it nice again. I'm with guitar2005 as I wouldn't completely strip it. I would lightly sand(prep) it leaving most of the original color as a base and paint it black or some other color that works with what you have in mind. You have to make sure the paint you use is compatible on that finish though. Some of the woods used in finished necks and bodies are paint grade and don't look good natural in my opinion. You might strip it down to bare wood only to find out that the wood is ugly unfinished or worse yet it may have knots, filler or other cosmetic problems that were covered up by the finish. There is a lot of information on this forum so use the Search button and read away. Good Luck, Jeff

Applying a finish is one of my weakest skills when building my guitar's. If I had a proper spray booth I believe I could do much better. I have tried applying dye by hand and have had mixed results so when I saw this video I thought that it might be of interest to others here. Sometimes seeing the process can help to explain things better, at least thats how it works for me. Something like this may have been posted before but I thought that it was an interesting video so here it is; http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Ski...e.aspx?id=30182 Jeff

He can't do that because the surface that the router place will be running on isn't flat - it's radiused. The binding channel wouldn't be cut properly. Stewmac sold an attachment that attached to a Dremmel that could be used to route binding on archtops and other non flat setups. It's called the Binding Router Guide and can be found on their website. I have one but I haven't tried it on a fretboard yet. Good Luck, Jeff

If you want to use a basic Strat style neck joint then you should just make it a bolt on and skip the glue. However, If you are going to make the neck and body then you have many more options. You can mod a Strat body to make the pocket deep and long for your custom neck. However, if the neck attachment holes are drilled in the body they will show and need to be plugged. I would make the pocket deeper than a standard Fender Strat but would also make it longer so that the neck tenon would go under the neck pickup. It would depend on the thickness of your guitar body so if you are building the neck and body I would suggest that you draw the whole guitar out on paper to see how it looks. If you are going to use a pickguard like the guitar in the link you provided you can make the neck tenon longer and it will be easier to hide. In that picture that guitar has extra wood added to the heel area of the neck to make it thicker and add a decorative touch. You could also add a piece of quartersawn wood to the heel of a 1" piece to make it the thickness you need so your tenon can extend to or even under the pickup that you use. Most of the tenon style necks that I have made have the extra wood glued on to make the tenon bigger as opposed to using a bigger piece of wood. Good Luck, Jeff

I use the guitar's I built for blues, rock, metal, jazz or even country. My main everyday guitar is my third handmade which is a Tele...ish body. I originally designed it as an RG type body but before I cut the shape out I modded the drawn lines to make it sort of a dinky style Tele. It is a three piece body made from Maple/Walnut/Maple with active EMG's in it. The neck is a five piece Walnut/Maple/Purple Heart/Maple/Walnut with an Ebony fretboard and a reverse Ibanez style peghead. It is a 25" scale guitar. The other guitar I use has the same woods for the neck but with a Maple fretboard and it was entered in the GOTM in Feb. 05. It was based on an undersized Ibanez RG with a 25" scale, active EMG's and was the fourth guitar that I built. My first guitar had passives which were wired so I could split the coils but I decided to cannibalize it's parts for a future build. It played great for a first guitar but just didn't have the quality that I was going for in my builds. It was also a 25" scale and was good for blues and jazz. My second guitar is a 25" scale 7-string with active EMG's(I must like them!) that actually sounds more bluesy or jazzy than rock or metal. It has a Poplar body with a 4 pc. neck consisting of Maple/Zircote/Zircote/Maple and a Rosewood fretboard. I have three guitar's waiting on a finish, an ESP style Viper(with a Carvin neckthrough), a Gibson style V(with a Carvin neckthrough) and an Ash PRS style guitar with a Maple bolt in neck and an Ebony fretboard. I'm currently working on a Walnut neckthrough Ibanez S style 27" baritone 7-string and have at least six other necks and bodies in various stages from the last couple of years.

This is one of those question's that will get various answers as everyone has an opinion on what works best. My opinion is that Titebond works just fine and I have never had any problems using it for gluing fretboards down. I am sure you will find other's who have had problems with it for some reason or another. I have never used epoxy before for fretboards but I will try it soon to see which I prefer. I have some scrap wood that I might try an epoxy test on with a scrap fretboard so I don't waste a good board. As with Titebond I am sure other's have had problems with epoxy before. Who knows, maybe epoxy will turn out to be the best way for me but that doesn't mean it's the best way for other's. In the end you will have to decide which is the best way for you to glue fretboard's to your neck. I started with Titebond but I am open to trying epoxy. Good Luck, Jeff

Search this site for "router sled". There is alot of information about this here. Look at this post: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...;hl=router+sled Without being able to cut the excess off of your neck blank you will have to waste that section by using your router. Hand tools can be used but for that much wood removal it would take more time. I bandsaw mine but I have used my router and a homemade router sled to thickness the back of some of my necks and bodies. There are a couple of different ways to do this. 1) Make a wide router base out of plywood and add pieces to the ends of the base so that it is raised up high enough to go over your neck blank or whatever else you need to thickness down. You will need a flat level area that is large enough to place your neck so that the jig can slide around over the work piece. I doublestick tape my work piece down to keep it steady. or 2) Build a router thickness jig like in the link above. It has a sturdy base and has sides (rails) but is open on the ends. You still need a router base that is long enough to go past each rail for the router to attach to. It doesn't have to be very complicated but it should be sturdy and the sides should be the same height. This jig can be used to thickness bodies, backs of necks, backs of pegheads and neck pockets. "I got another idea to make things easier. Simply glue a 1" X 40" board to another 1" X 16" board for the body." I suppose that could be done but I think you should stick with the thicker stock. It's easier to smooth the neck to heel transition with thicker stock in my opinion and you don't see where the wood joins up. Good Luck, Jeff

Hi, I have an Electra X930 in charcoal burst with the original hard shell case. The only modules I have are the phase shifter and power overdrive ones. At one time I had the frognose which was a practice amp and I believe I had a flanger, I just don't remember. My Dad bought this guitar for me 3/8/80 as an upgrade to my Kay SG style student guitar. Many many years later (and before I started to build guitar's myself) I removed the original pickups and installed DiMarzio DP100's in it to change the sound. I liked the new sound but kept the old pickups just in case. This guitar still plays and sounds great even though it doesn't get used much anymore. The frets are showing some wear and it has quite a few dings here and there but overall is still nice. The biggest downside to this guitar is that it seems very heavy to me compared to the guitar's that I build. Also, I changed the tuners because one or two of them were not working too well. BE CAREFUL changing them out because the tuner bushings can pull up the finish material from the front of the peghead. Also, you may find you have more screw holes on the back of the peghead because the new tuners secure with less than the original. I just screwed the old screws in the exposed holes to avoid having to plug them. I have seen modules and some MPC guitar's for sale on Ebay every once in a while. I have the original receipt showing it was purchased 3/8/80 for $460 and my serial number on the guitar and the receipt is 27151. Good luck with your guitar. Jeff