toddler68

Tommy Victor from Prong eBays, too. Although, I think he is broke.

Beautiful! The overall package is awesome, and I really like some of the little details like your thin fret and side markers and the headstock/neck contrast. Really nice work

Loookin good so far!

Didn't mean to come across to harsh about the lams; the customer is always right, eh?

I also like this burl a lot better than the last one. Keep up the good work!

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Thanks! I took no offense to your comments -you aren't the first one to call BS on me!

At some point, I definitely want to do one with the neck lams showing through capped wings.

As for the burl, yeah I really like this one. The customer picked it out on eBay and let me bid on it.

It's a burly explosion! I can't wait to see it with a finish.

Did you get over the trem issue toddler?

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Well, after consulting with the client about the action, I've decided to recess the bridge. I think he may want to switch over to an X bridge also (which I know very little about) I should probably wait on its arrival before I cut the recess.

throw in some binding!!!!!!

and maybe smooth out the neck/body intersect so the hand can go allll the way up

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Natural binding is in the plan. The client is very pleased with the upper fret access -it's got 26 frets!

Wait-- isn't the top burled, not spalted? I'm confused....

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Burled, yes. I don't believe spalt and burl are one and the same.

Toddler68, those little things mentioned to me are what give a completely handmade instrument individuality and character. Don't sweat it, man... My guitars will all have little "Character Flaws" in them too as we are not making CNC cookie-cutter instruments.

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That's what I keep telling myself... it's my new mantra. "It's OK man, it'll turn out fine. You'll never see it once it's got a finish on it. Don't cry..."

I am surprised that the top is so thick... I typically use 1/4 inch thick tops and backs or less for my chambered body guitars. Are you concerned that it may be a bit bright in tone with all that maple and being a neck-through? It should sustain to infinity and beyond though!! Boggs

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I used a 1/2 inch thick top on the first one and I love the way it sounds. Of course, this one's a little thicker but I think I lost about a third of the mass anyway when I did the carve. Maybe it's the nature of the burl, but it's not as bright as you might think.

I put strings on yesterday and it really sings... and yes, it sustains like a mutha!

My coworker tried it out this morning and I thought he was going to have a coronary. I've got him right where I want him

On a somewhat related topic, what size (length x width) piece of wood would you need for the top side?

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Using the scaled up drawing, I'm showing that you would need a piece 9.5 inches wide by 22 inches long... man that seems huge! Could that be right?

endview

On this pic the top looks a bit off the center in relation to the laminates, is it the pic?

Other than that, same as the other applies, very nice job

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I'm going to have to start taking crappier pictures because nothing gets past you guys! It is indeed slightly off -less than a 1/16th.

So Your Still not Going to show off that Neck thru the top

!!METAL MATT!!

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Believe me, I tried to talk the guy into it, but he said he wanted it EXACTLY like mine... except with dual pickups, a Strat tremolo, Sperzels, different laminate wood... blah, blah, blah

looks REAL nice, but does that 12th fret inlay seem crooked to you guys?? Must be me...

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It's not just you. The point peaks over the top on one side, and the bottom on the other. It's not really crooked, it only looks like it wants to be

Truth be told, after I finished it, I wished I'd just made it symmetrical.

I may have mentioned in some other threads that I'm building my next guitar for a co-worker. Since he knows I'm just learning, I've decided to build it to his specifications but I'm not holding him to the purchase until it's finished. If he likes the end product, he'll buy it. If not, I'll just keep it and consider it a learning experience -or I'll sell it to someone else.

Anyway, the design is identical to my first one except the accent laminate is purpleheart and it will have a tremolo, dual humbuckers and Sperzels. Body is mahogany with a 3/4 inch burl maple carved top which will eventually be finished with a transparent purple burst. Hope you like it!

tremolo routing

top laminated on

front view with top carved

endview

12th fret marker

If you're curious about the construction, see my previous thread: previous thread

But he wouldn't ask those prices if someone out there wasn't paying them.

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True, dat.

Great looking piece of lumber, tho!

There was another one like it that Buzzsaw has, but the BIN is $175.00 before shipping, and I got mine for $52.00. Yeah baby!

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Is it me or didn't Buzzsaw used to have much better prices?

Ok so a set of two it is, Now for the tuff question, I have never bookmatched anything, can it be done on my table saw then finished up with my band saw? My band saws tracking is not up to par for something of this size without some help. Also never have planed maple with my planer, I was told they leave a less than desirable job with figured wood. Should I attempt it or Would a cabinet shop be my best bet or would they "break the bank"?

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I'd use a band saw. A table saw will work but you're immediately losing 1/8" from the saw kerf and planing will remove even more. I would also recommend that you have the pieces thickness sanded -figured wood doesn't typically fare well when planed. Yes, find a cabinet shop in your area. It will probably cost you about $10 or $15 to have it sanded.

In fact, you might take the whole chunk of wood to the shop first and see what they'd charge to book it for you. I'll bet it's fairly reasonable and you'd probably be getting the most out of the wood if you let a pro do it. Just my $.02

Take a dremel tool with the cutting wheel and just cut the ones you already have down a bit.

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Ahhh... the beloved Dremel. Along with vise-grips and duct tape, it's one thing no shop should ever be without. I will give it a shot.

You said that your fingerboard wood 1/4"(.25) is all you have above the body.  Most standard Strats have a 1" width at the heel area and a 5/8" neck pocket, so that amounts to 3/8"(.375)of the neck above the body.  So that's 1/8" (.125) higher, so you can see why your having to lower your bridge so much to match.  Hopefully it won't be enough to mess anything up after you've fretted though.

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I measured with the calipers and it's exactly .275. I don't know how I could have been off by that much. Once it's fretted I think it will be right-on but with little room to lower the action.

btw... any suggestions on where to get shorter saddle adjustment allen screws?

My main concern is that I'm not leaving myself much wiggle room (upward mobility of the bridge) should I need it in the future. Also, the saddle height adjustment screws are backed way out and therefore sticking up. Do they make shorter ones? I don't want to mutilate my strumming hand

I will definitely take your advice though and wait until I install the frets before I fire up the router.

You are using Jumbo frets right?

I agree, you need to get the frets on the guitar before you adjust anything. Just curious, what is the distance between the top part of the neck and body top? You did calculate everything out before you started didn't you?

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As jumbo as I can find. I know the distance is the thickness of the fretboard -likely 1/4 inch. It worked out fine on my first one, but there have been some changes on this build and it seems I measured the bridge height wrong. I'm sure it's not a total loss, but I'd prefer to learn from this experience.

Yea and where are the progress pics too.

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Well, there are some gaps in my chronology. I've taken pics but they aren't posted yet. If you look at my last build, it is identical (except of course for the bridge )

What is your neck pocket depth and can it go any lower?  Standard neck pocket depth for a strat style guitar is 5/8".  Also how wide is your neck at the heel area?  I'm thinking you can just route the neck pocket out a bit deeper to fix this problem if you have room.

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I wish I had the option -it's a neck-through.

Wait till you have the frets in to see whats needed, remember that the frets are 2mm high plus your action which will be about 2-3mm too so as long as it is not 6 mm or something u will be ok.

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My main concern is that I'm not leaving myself much wiggle room (upward mobility of the bridge) should I need it in the future. Also, the saddle height adjustment screws are backed way out and therefore sticking up. Do they make shorter ones? I don't want to mutilate my strumming hand

I will definitely take your advice though and wait until I install the frets before I fire up the router.

I won't know for sure until I get the frets in, but I think I might need to recess the Strat-style bridge I'm using. The bridge itself and all the saddles are already set as low as I can get them and the strings are still sitting way off the fretboard. Does anybody know if I can I safely rout a recess to achieve the lower string height? Will it create any negative side effects? A problem which lowering the tremolo presents is that it will probably stick out below the bottom surface of the guitar -meaning I might have to have the trem block machined down I hate tremolos!! Thanks in advance for any help.

Todd

What strings do you use? If you use .10s or thicker, you'll generally want all 5 springs in, and you will need to tighten the screws for the claw a little to have the bridge flat on the body.

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Do you mean the bridge plate is actually touching the wood surface or it is just parallel? Right now I've got a Strat bridge installed where the bridge plate sits about 1/32" off the body but perfectly parallel to the body. Is this the way it's supposed to be?

LMII

thankyou.

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I agree with the above - while I don't see 24.75" scale on their list of fret slotting scales they've got 24.625" which is closer; I know they'll do 24 frets, I've had them do it on three fingerboards in the recent past, and they very well may be able to nail the exact scale you need; they've always been real good about trying their best to answer any wierd request, be it non-standard sized wood or requests for specific figure or whatever. I'd call them, they're real easy to deal with on the phone. The wood I've gotten from them is some of the prettiest I've seen.

How far off is that angled slot? Might the reworking be covered by the fret's crown? Inlay?

Working on sleep deprivation is a bummer though. I've been there.

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Call them up -I too had a very good experience with them. Just because it's not listed doesn't mean they can't do it. They've done a 26 fret board for me. Give it a shot!

Man, if I hadn't just bought a new house I'd be all over that thing! You are not even an hour away from me! Sheer torture... sigh.

Oh yeah, good luck with the surgery btw.

That pic may be crappy, but I really dig the composition... I hope you flushed first

Is the illustrator pen tool the same as the photoshop one? Cause I use that A LOT.

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Being that they are both Adobe products, I would assume they are the same tool. I don't use PhotoShop much for this kind of work though. I prefer vector based programs like Illustrator. Just prints out nicer and cleaner, especially in large scale.