fryovanni

John, If you flood the exposed runnout(end grain, in the face of the board) with dark color, you will effectively paint on the shadows in the right spots. However if you move that board around the shadows should shift and change with the reflection angles. Some people like that painted on figure look, and it takes a good picture, but I prefer to see more natural reflection and movement. A base coat of dye or even sealer coat will bring out up the figure and still allow for some nice movement in the reflection. Dye black and sand back, will paint the shadows, and they will look the same at any angle. Tinted clears will act more like lenses on a camera, allowing you to see the natural reflections. You can't go too heavy though with the tinting or you will make it pretty opaque. Rich P.S. You guys should ask a guy like Perry about this stuff. He is does amazing finishes.

How will you know if this guitar you plan to sell is going to be a competantly build instrument? From reading your thread and noting your selection of wood, it would seem that you are not building using traditional guidence, or solid understanding of wood. How solid is your understanding of the functional design aspects of an instrument? I am not going to harp on this, but I would focus on learning and developing your skills. Stop focusing on cheap materials, and selling what you do not know how to build yet. Stay on the task of learning and developing skills, you may have a chance at building a halfway decent guitar that way(your likely heading down the road to having major functional flaws, and poorly fit and finished bits and pieces). FWIW, Rich

Sounds like you have a well thought out plan, and I am betting you will do very well. I usually slot first. I trim my inlay back a bit from the slot(fret covers the tiny gap, and tang can pose no issue, and there is no real advantage in having a smooth tang slide against pearl). I use a small strip of teflon in each slot to prevent glue from filling the slot. You can wick a bit of CA under the fret after pressing if you are over a large bit of inlay(much as you do with fret ends on bound fretboards). Don't worry about pressing the inlay(if your route is too tight it can create problems with the inlay not seating, but a proper route will allow the inlay to seat with hand pressure). What you do want to do is avoid bubbles(watch out for geeting too many bubbles when you mix your epoxy) as much as possible. I use a fairly slow setting epoxy, as it will allow bubbles to escape better, but you will inevatably need to drop fill a few bubbles. I sometimes use saw dust, sometimes use dye, and sometimes use lamp black(kinda depends on the wood I am inlaying). Rich

I think it looks great We are just talking about a tint issue. You probably could play with your initial wiped dye tint to back it off a bit. Use the tinted clears to develop a better range of color and depth. Look at the tinted blue on the left side of the waist. You can really see a nice shade of blue coming through. The nice thing about the tinted clears is that you can control the shade much better than with wiped dye, and you retain the depth and movement in the figure. Looks to me like you just need to play with your shading a bit and you can achieve just what you want. Peace,Rich

Finish the fit up on the dovetail, and take pics along the way. Then you could do a full photo tut. That would probably be more helpful to people who may use it. Personally, I am with Mattia on the bolt on. I have no interest in doing any other form of joint other than bolt on. It just has so much flexability during fit up, ease of reset(which I really believe is less damaging to the instrument when that reset occurs). Plus I have seen nothing that tells me there is any loss in function. I suppose glueing a dovetail is a little cheaper(no hardware), but the little extra cost seems well worth it(especially for the owner of that instrument come reset time). How many low value(but decent sounding)guitars hit the dumpster because a reset is too expensive to justify. How many people put off a reset for as long as possible and play a poorly functioning insrument because resets are a little ruff on guitars as well as costly. Rich

It is more for looks than anything. You reinforce the area with bracing from the back side. The edge of the soundhole (exposed endgrain), is not modified by the typical rosette. The wood or shell used for the typical rosette is not selected for strength or stability. Looks

I wiped the dye. I did lightly tint the clear with blue, and finished with clear, would spraying the dye give better results? It depends, if you were able to get a good even base coat of dye then spraying wouldn't help. If you tinted and sprayed to add the burst (this would have been my suggestion if you had not). Tinted clear will keep the figure lively. The "stain black and sand back" will give you a look that does not move as well as the light plays on it(you are painting the shadows on), although it looks good in a picture. How about a picture of what you came up with. You may have a knockout look, and we are just talking about a subtle shading adjustment.

Did you spray or wipe the base coats of dye, then tint your clears for the burst, then finish with clear?

Personally, I would pull the neck, adjust the heel to get the right angle, and glue it back up. Funny thing about this issue is that you have the tool in your picture, and know how to use it to detect whether you had the angle correct. If the glue is fresh you should be able to soften it with heat and pull the neck without too much trouble. Rich

How did you apply your color?

Shooting board is the way to go if you don't have a jointer. Actually, I have two jointers and I still use a shooting board to make sure there are no glitches(jointers can leave a little glitch here or there). If you do not have a well tuned plane, you can use sandpaper attached to a perfectly square block(sand in only one direction, with even pressure). If you sand blow it down with air or brush and dry wipe it well, then a quick wipe with naptha or alcohol to get a nice clean surface. Don't forget to give the board a quick wipe with a moist(water) towel before you apply your wood glue(I am ussuming your using Titebond). Solvents tend to draw out moisture, and a dry surface is not going to help your wood glue bond and cure evenly. Good luck, Rich

Extra subtle I guess. It was not directed at you in any way. When I wrote this, the whole thing was relating what I have seen over the years from new builders. You can go look at some build threads by first time builders and see what you think for yourself. FWIW; I used to have no opinion on waiting to build a neck, and tip toed around what I said when I was talking to people when I made suggestions about making a neck early on. To be honest my opinion changed completely after several people I knew who had held off on necks for their first few guitars were in an awquard spot(because they could not build a neck, never developed the skills.). They could build a fine body, and do a bang up job of finishing, but could not build a complete instrument. It also left holes in their knowledge of instrument construction, set up, troubleshooting and so forth. I really do understand where you are coming from, I had much more neutral opinion before also. My current belief may be too strong, and you may be spot on. Like I said though, my thoughts have developed from what I have seen people go through. My first from scratch build was a neck through bass, so I never fully knew what the difference was first hand. I am going to say this, to be absolutlely clear. I will state my opinion, it is just that, my opinion(I believe it to be true, otherwise it would not be my honest opinion). I will also say this. I am just a hobbiest weekend builder, just like most of you(beginners and pro's not withstanding) and that is about what my opinion is worth. No better or worse than anyone else. I often feel like I should explain my thinking, mainly because there is no reason for anyone to take what I say as anything more than the opinion of a part time hobbiest(maybe if I did this for a living there would be some safe assumptions someone could draw by me just saying it is so, but that is not the case). Rich

Kenny, If at all possible look the machines over in person. I have heard good things about the Rikon also. I will cover the items that made me lean twards the Steel city. Open the upper housing and look at the additional steel stiffiners welded to the frame, note the dual tensioning springs(this has proved to tension my larger carbide blades very smoothly) that is about all I noticed in that area. Next compair the guide bearings. I have Carter bearings on my 14" and hate dinking around with adjusting them. Note the steel city adjustment is done by rotating then setting the shaft(much easier to fine tune for me at least). Now open the lower housing. First thing that will jump at you is the nice tight seal on the steel city(you actually can't open it when you have your dust collector hooked up because it seals so well). Now the Rikon has dual 4" dust ports, and if you have a large enough dust collection system, this could be a plus for the rikon. Note the foot break on the steel city, I don't believe the Rikon is equiped with a brake, and I like this feature very much. In terms of power you will do well with either. Blade length is very close. As much as I don't think either has a wonderful fence(both absolutely require mods for resawing), I lean tward the Steel City, but you can use your own judgement on that one(I don't feel strongly either way). For about the price of the bandsaw you are looking at. Laguna makes a power feed and fence system that looks appealing(but that is not really something you need to look at). The Steel City has a five year warrenty, and they back it up from my experience. I am not sure if Rikon offers the same(may want to look into that). I paid $1299 for my Steel City, and they run specials so watch for rebates or special offers. Rikon's 18" was $1099 when I was looking, but again look for sales and special offers. See if you can negotiate a deal on your first blade purchase when you are picking up your bandsaw, often you can talk them into a 10-20% discount(after all your spending a fair amount of money, and they have plenty of margin to make you a deal on blades). Good luck, and enjoy! Rich

Consider yourself Railed! BTW; What do you mean by "railed" This is why you need your book, and plans before you even think about shopping. Two pieces that size are not going to give you the grain orientation or dimensions you need. However, for what it is worth Genuine Mahogany in 8/4 will run about $10 bd. ft.(so his price is normal for the market). There is also the option of a full kit. You can get kits for this style guitar(pre-built neck, routed body, hardware, figured top, carved top and all that jazz) for less than $300. There is no reason to fear making a guitar completely from scratch, but there is a learning curve. What ever suits you from full scratch building to kit or bolt together project, just choose what suits you. If a person wants to continue to build, build your neck, there is no good reason not to(again if you want to keep building). Seriously, the guys who absolutely knock there first build out of the park, do not dink around. They plan well, buy quality materials(nothing wrong with buying in volume or buying the right parts that are a solid value, but avoid compramises in quality), use solid equipment and tools, are self starters, do not need much more than a nudge in the right direction to track down info or materials, do not dodge tasks because they are afraid of mistakes(they do what it takes to plan and exicute well),and are very independant. People who seem to have the most trouble ask for advise about the smallest things, try to cut corners, buy poor materials, try to use the wrong tools for a task, don't make proper jigs or learn to use tools properly, rush tasks, and wind up fighting mistakes or sloppy work throughout a project. You should always keep that in your mind. Keep asking if what you are doing falls into the "knock it out of the park" catagory, or the "troublesome" path. Think of it like this. One guy has a couple chunks of 4/4 Khaya setting around. He decides he will surface them and joint them to make a body blank so he doesn't have to buy a piece of 8/4 stock. That is a "troublesome" path to take. As it will take time, glue, wear and tear on tools, actually the same amount of material(which is really not that much money for the right stock). Then there is the guy who does not plan well and know what he needs. He goes out to buy a hunk of 8/4 khaya for the strat he is building and buys 8" stock(enough for 24" blanks) because he does not know for sure how wide it has to be(wastes money), then decides to pick up a cool looking piece of maple for a cap(again oversized) and never even thinks about using thinner khaya stock since the cap will add thickness. If this fella spent $6 bd. ft. for the khaya and $10 for the figured maple, he could have bought $30 bd. ft. high grade figured maple(or just knocked 40% off the cost of the same material with less waste) with properly dimensioned bits of wood for the same price and had less prep. work to boot. Planning and doing your dilligence will control cost and give you better results every time. Rich

Agreed I really don't want to come across as being unsupportive here, and I don't want get into a grand debate. My goal was to make sure you understood it is not cheaper to build your own until you have invested a lot of money in tools and have the experience to use them. Off the rack guitars are inexpensive and built pretty dang well. People who have never built before often time look at high end guitars to compair values, and it is not a good comparison. The prices for materials that have been listed are very doable for home brew builds. What you choose to use can vary the overall cost, and most first time builders use less expensive materials to get their feet wet(very smart approach, as long as they pay attension to low priced woods that are still good cuts and very well dried and stable). I absolutely love this hobby, and hope that you will love building also. I think the concept of what can be had off the shelf(so you can start playing with garenteed results) vs what you may be able to build is hopefully clear. This is what could be had for around $600-PRS SE Custom, this would be the best option if your interest is mainly in having a guitar to play. Your first build will cost that much if not more in materials and tools. It will take between 6 months and a year and a half to build. If your build plays as well, and it's fit and finish is as good. You will have done as well builders with a couple guitars or more under their belt(some can't pull off that clean a build on their 10th plus build). Nuff said about that. As far as your build, again get that book. Go look around at plans and templates that are available. You will likely find what you are looking for. Before you buy any wood, parts, tools. Read the book that you pick up, this should give you insights into selecting wood, and make sure you are clear on considerations for different hardware. Buy your plans, and study them to determine the dimenional requirements for your wood. If you choose to make your own templates from the set of plans as opposed to purchasing them, focus on that taking great care to be accurate(better your templates the better and easier your results will be. It is a good idea to have all your hardware and parts on hand to verify the accuracy of your jigs and templates. When you get around to selecting wood, you would do well to choose woods that are easy to work with as well as reasonably priced. African Mahogany(Khaya) is a good choice, and is not too difficult to obtain. You should look in the yellow pages or do a web search for hardwood or lumber dealers near you. You will be able to save yourself the cost of shipping, and hand select based on what you learn from your book. If you decide to go for a figured maple top, you can look locally and if you are able resaw a set. If you have no luck locally, 3D hardwoods, Gilmer wood, Gallery hardwoods are all pretty good places to look around. Rich

Is that one piece of wood you used for the sides? Looks like you bent the wood around the neck block area. Very nice job bending A uke is a smaller intrument and the curves are much tighter than say an acoustic flatop, and it's a cut to boot. Very cool. Rich

Unexpectedly naive How happy would you be if your first could hold its own for fit and finish with an import PRS? How would you say your current builds do against a PRS import(and be real, those guitars do not have much in the way of blemishes)? How many people can honestly pull off fit and finish as good as a PRS import by their 3rd full build? An import PRS is not a sloppy guitar, and getting to that level of accuracy and consistency in your fit and finish is not easy(certainly respectable). The parts list you have up there is dandy, but look at what you are listing. Neck- Built in a production shop(which is no better tooled up, or experienced than PRS's import factories), the neck is not assembled or adjusted for this guitar, you honestly have no control over material selection and care. What is it equal to? Why is it better than an import PRS neck? Wood selection, The wood selection for this build is going to be done by a person who understands wood for instruments as well as PRS? Will wood purchased from the lumber yard be seasoned prior to use? Where would the ten top be found(you missed it in your list), and how much will that run? Plans and templates from that source, Are those plans and the jigs and templates made from those plans going to be as accurate as the tooling and jigs used at the PRS import factory? Finishing supplies, Your not buying the finishing supplies that are equal to the finish on the import PRS for $20. Maybe you are thinking a few sheets of sandpaper and a couple rattle cans? or is this a hand wiped poly/oil finish? For what it is worth, a good , thin, professionally applied catalized poly could be outsourced for $300-$400 plus shipping, and I would conceed that would be comperable, but that is a natural clear. Special coloring and tinting could run a couple bucks more. The reality is, as you full well know. You can outsource much of the build. If great care is taken and research is done as well as some practice, the assembly can go pretty good(although the lack of experience or rushing could easily become costly and hurt the results). In the end, you can have a guitar that is on par with many low end models(and you can jazz it up with some features you can't get in the import lines), but the guitar will have less resale value than an import. The cost of the materials and outsourcing will bring the cost up to or higher than the import. You can't compair your first build to a high end guitar(the labor rate for experience, and production knowledge/ cost are not cheap). The differences between a PRS custom top 10 and a lower priced PRS line are subtle, and that holds true with $15,000 dollar customs also. The name on the guitar also helps with resale value, and that in the end changes the oportunity cost. Either way, I hope his motivations are not to try to save a buck, and instead to enjoy the process of building something with his hands. Beginners who start by focusing on saving money, cutting corners, or unrealistic value comparisons, or even worse selling their builds right off the bat. Are usually sadly disapointed. Peace,Rich

I didn't read reviews before buying. I used what I knew to be true of bandsaws as my guide, and did a side by side comparison. The choice was clear to me, price was not a consideration, there is a pretty large group of saws in basically the same price range. I was looking for improvements that I knew as a user count. I am happy with my choice. The next step up for me will be a horizontal band. I tossed around the idea of power feed on a larger vertical, but fighting gravity doesn't make much sense. I recall looking at reviews on the performax 16/32. Many posted issue with belt tracking. That is another case of "I just can't relate", as I have never had the slightest hint of an issue with my 16/32, and man I drive a lot of material through it. Peace,Rich

Kenny, Go here and do a little comparison shopping. You will find plenty of options. -link I looked at the review they had for the steel city 18". Not very flattering. I can tell you I have used mine with very good results, and I work that machine harder than most people would(thousands of 8"+ resaws since purchasing it), so I think I have a good sense of how it performs. When I purchased mine, I looked at several brands in the local stores. I opted for the Steel city over others because of a few construction details(springs, guides, seal on lower cab, brake, added reinforcements where they seemed logical to reduce flex). I have had one issue with the fence(a part broke, under heavy abuse). I called steel city, they sent me a replacement part no questions asked(well I had to give them my shipping address), and the new part was on the machine less than a week. Can't complain about that. I have heard good things about the Rikon, as the lowest priced option. Grizzly offers a lot of bandsaws and they are cheap, but the people I know that own and use them(drive them moderately hard) have hit and miss reviews. If you are staying with the 14" format. The Laguna is a great machine. Peace,Rich

Well, an off the rack PRS costs around 3.5g's (for the one I want), so I don't see how this guitar could even come close. And, I know used is cheaper, but I just can't stomach spending that much for something that isn't brand spanking new... I haven't taken a look for a book, but I will, thanks for the heads up. Ok, your first will be equal to a PRS Custom top 10, and you will build it for the cost of materials, total buget less than $3500. Good luck with the build! and have fun. Rich

Your first build will not be cheaper than an off the rack PRS(FWIW). You may be able to find a good deal used, if that is what you really want(and it will have a resale value, when that is considered it is by far cheaper than a first build). Ok, I had to say that. You need to start with a good book. Don't try to pick up bits and pieces off the web, if this is a summer project. Look for possible classes at your local colleges(build a guitar type classes). They are not cheap, but are designed to take you through the process, with access to specialty tools and materials. This would be a good option and give you a real good shot at a decent instrument at the end of the day. It will also speed up the learning curve(if you decide to continue building). If you decide to wing it, and use a warmoth neck. Talk to them about the joint and pocket requirements, as well as other neck specs. Just my thoughts and suggestions, Rich

Yeah. I imagine I could also use the 3-pos control from a box fan. I actually found a hillbilly way to control the temperature... just dribble about a teaspoon or two of water on the iron when it's too hot. The steam-off cools the pipe down and there's a window of oppurtunity as the pipe heats up when you can bend. I know, what a ridiculous hassle, but it works and I don't have to spend any more money! I bent one side and left it clamped up to shape while it cools/dries. It will need touch-up I'm sure, because the bend at the waist was ornery and kept relaxing a little. edit: here's some pictures. Don't laugh. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...ar/IMG_0712.jpg http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...ar/IMG_0713.jpg Keep a spray bottle with distilled water handy while your bending. You can spritz the side as you bend and dry the wood. This generates steam that helps tranfer heat deep into the wood so you can get a good bend, and prevents scortching. This usually cools down the pipe anyway(and why I mentioned you should check to make sure your pipe could keep up). If you are getting a lot of spingback, there is a good chance your not getting the wood hot enough to soften and then set the bend. I can't really tell if you are using much force to hold the shape of the side in your clamped form, but don't use much force, that is what cracks sides. The wood should heat up, at the right temp it softens and bends with very very little force, hold that steady for a few seconds, then go right back to the pipe and move forward. You need to keep a steady flow going as you work a bend. Then re-spritz, and get the process rolling again. Not sure if that is how your bending, but if not, maybe that will help. A steel slat over the area your bending will help keep the heat even and prevent cracking as well as help keep your bends smooth. It is also really important to use a good form to hold the sides in place, not so much to set the bend as it cools(that happens in a few seconds for the most part), but to help prevent the sides from distorting as the moisture equalizes after bending(some areas will be over dry, some will be overly moist from the water used to bend). This may sound like little issues and close enough is fine, but trust me, when it is time to touch up the sides to make sure they are dead square before cutting your binding channels(indexing the sides * this is why they have to be dead on) all those tiny glitches become a pain in the butt. I don't really use the pipe for much more than touch up these days. The side bending form and heat blanket method is just so much more consistent and reliable(as well as makes things go much quicker when it is time to true everthing up). A good mold also pays off big time. Keep up the good work! Rich

practice a little with the pipe to make sure it will recover fast enough. You need to be able to keep the pipe hot or you will not be able to keep the wood hot enough(this is not a heat up one spot kinda thing, you need to keep overlapping and advancing or you will get a lumpy bend). You should be able to spritz the pipe with water at all times and have the water sputter and pop as it evaperates quickly(hold like 290-325 degrees). Rich

Do you still have the part you cut out the for the sound hole? I usually use the centering hole to act as a guide to route for the rosette, and then cut the soundhole afterwords(makes it much easier to keep things aligned). Might want to cap the end of the pipe(it will help keep the heat up). Good luck with your project, and have fun Rich

Using the general properties measured for various woods should not really be considered for more than what it is. A fair, but small sampling of typical charictoristics that can vary significantly from piece to piece. So that said, if we are going to make use of this data to help us feel our way around what may have potential. We have a few tests that would seem to be most relavent. Modulus of elasticity would be the more useful number as it is measuring resistance to deflection without permenant deformation or failure. A good clue as to stiffness. Density is also useful to some extent, but again both of these are going to vary from piece to piece(so take them for what they are worth). So from my point of view, knowing nothing more about the wood, and not having the actual pieces in my shop. I would start by looking at those numbers to approximate viability(of course compairing generic numbers of other commonly used woods gives us a sense of contrast). FWIW(and stricktly My opinion), Never try to micro critique woods based on general properties. There is WAY to much variation, and major consideration relating to grain orientation and possible flaws will apply(even factors which are difficult to detect such as micro fractures, face runnout, possible damage by bacteria during growth, heat stress.... the list goes on). Evaluate each bit individually. Peace,Rich