schnarf

Dowels, definitely. As much wood and as little glue as possible. It would even be better to get a dowel that is slightly oversized, and sand it down to ensure a very snug fit.

Sounds good, thanks!

Last year when I built my guitars, I drilled the trem spring holes too high up, and the claw hangs out of the cavity just a bit, so I can't put a cover on it. It's no big deal, but I'm thinking about trying to fix it up.

I'd need to fill the holes, and then redrill them. There's not a whole lot of room, so it's possible that the newly drilled holes would partially overlap the old filled holes. That being said, is wood glue + toothpicks a decent way to do this, or is there a better way? Dowels? Or is it risky and I should just leave it as is?

Every time I set up electronics it seems like I end up with a tangle of wires. Anybody got any tricks for some really nice clean wiring? This is for a rear-routed guitar with no pickguard.

The bridge will certainly factor into this... despite it being a quality unit, it's still governed by certain design principles. Your money might be better spent getting something like a tremsetter, but that's just an out-of-the-blue suggestion from someone who's never played the guitar in question.

Cool, I'm sold on the tremsetter. Just ordered one. That being said, think the nut will do any good?

I've got a zero fret and a standard graphite nut. My headstock is angled back; I've got Schaller locking tuners, and a Wilkinson trem. My tuning stability isn't perfect. Would it be worth it to move to a roller nut, or would it make no difference?

I need to enlarge a hole I already drilled for a jack to be big enough to fit the 1/8" jack. Apparently I need about a 3/4" hole. The hole is something like 1/2" inch right now. Would this bit work for enlarging the hole?

By the way, anybody know where I can get a long enough drill bit for drilling the holes for the tremolo spring claw thing?

hmm.. I think you will have a hard time finding a 3/4" drill bit... 1/2" is the biggest 'commonly' used bit. You will have to look into industrial grade bits. I might be wrong. It's not everyday you need such a huge drillbit.

I'm curious about why you need a 3/4" hole for a jack? I've never seen a jack hole bigger than 1/2".. The jack you want to use needs a 3/8" hole..

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...tput_Jacks.html

The reason I need the big hole is that I don't have the inside cavity routed in such a way that there's space for the body of the jack. I need to drill a big enough hole that the jack body will fit inside it.

Anywhere I can buy a 3/4" non forstner bit? All I see are forstner bits in any size above 1/2".

The other thing I should mention is that I've already drilled a 1/2 inch hole. Can I safely use a forstner bit or does it need the center to be there?

Thanks everyone. Looks like I've gotta go find a 3/4" bit, cause my set only goes up to 1/2". On that same topic, does anybody have a good way to shape those football plates? The curvature on my guitar is slightly different from how the plate comes by default.

I'm going to be installing this type of jack: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Swi...Jack?sku=335002

I'll be putting a football-style cover on top of it. What size drillbit should I be using to fit the body of the jack?

Thanks so much for the help!

I've been practicing routing my humbucker cavities on scrap wood and have been having some trouble. I'm using a handheld router and the stewmac template bit and humbucker template. Somehow I sometimes have a problem where the bit or bearing eats through the template, causing the route to get screwed up and making me need a new template. Any tips on not doing this? I tried making sure the teflon tube which holds the bearing in place was cut flush, and using some 3 in 1 oil on the template.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had been looking at Dimarzio's site and PAFs looked good to me, nice to see some confirmation. I think I'll be going with those.

I'm making a custom built guitar. The neck is maple with two bubinga stripes and a pau ferro fretboard; the body wings (it's neck through) are mahogany. I'm trying to decide on pickups to use, there'll be one bridge and one neck, probably both humbuckers. I already have an EBMM JPM and I'm not looking for that kind of tone because I've already got it; I'm looking for something a little more vintage and fat sounding, which is why I made the body mahogany. I also will probably be wiring one pot to be pull so instead of mixing the two center coils in the middle position, it will be coil tapped for a single coil sound as on the JPM. So, anybody have any suggestions on pickups? Thanks!

Also, why are his neck-through necks so much more expensive than the set neck? Is the extra wood really worth $55?

Carvin and Stew-Mac both have this too

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I don't see any real options on carvin's website for ordering a neck. Can you choose woods and stuff or no?

Any other places? I'd like to compare a bit.

I started building a guitar before but had some bad planning mixed with a lack of understanding of just how difficult building the neck would be. Rather than continue with a few errors, I'm starting again this summer. I plan to buy a neck and build everything else.

I already have a bunch of guitars. I want a six string. The guitars I all have are mostly basswood bodies and maple necks. I think I want to go with something different, maybe mahogany? I'd also tool around with the idea of a maple fretboard. I've already got some good locking tuners and a wilkinson trem for hardware. Is a graphite nut a good choice or is there something better for holding tuning? I think I want to go neck through for sustain.

Where's a good, reasonably priced place to buy a custom neck with these sorts of options? I might also want the Ibanez JPM or Prestige inlays, where the dots are small and between the E and A strings. I play a lot of metal but I also play jazz so I don't want a purely shred axe; I want good tone and sustain, but low action without buzz. As far as shape, I really like the shape of the EBMM John Petrucci neck. Fast and somewhat thin but not so thin that chording hurts.

Basically, suggestions for where I can buy a neck and for what types of woods I might want to look into?

This issue just occurred to me. I haven't progressed far enough that I've messed anything up, I just want to make sure.

I'm using a Wilkinson bridge. My neck will be 42mm at the nut and 56mm at the 21st fret. The scale length is 25.5". Will string spacing be an issue?

I really like the finish on the back of the EBMM John Petrucci. EBMM won't specify exactly what that finish is. What sort of finish would give me that smooth matte feel?

I'm making a neck through. I glued it yesterday. I glued in the neck blank without having cut it out, shaped it, or anything. I realized today when I went to draw stuff on it, that I made the neck-through part 5 cm, and my neck is meant to be 5.6 cm at the 21st fret. Basically, I see two options: I could shift the entire thing back so the bridge will be closer to the neck joint and the 24th fret will be at the very top of the neck joint. This would look bad. The other thing I'm considering is using some scrap from the neck blank to widen the joint where it meets the body. Would this work? Are there any other better solutions?

You dont need carbon fibre in maple necks. Name a big company thats doing ti standard, then show me proof they are having problems with the necks not being string enough.

Guitarfrenzy.... that wasnt my point at all, it was that birdseye can be flat or quarter sawn.

I don't believe the wood is quarter-sawn. Would you put the rods in if it weren't quarter-sawn. I want to be safe, but at the same time I don't want to drop $40 on carbon fiber and the router bit if I don't have to. -

Ok, so the general consensus is that I should get two carbon fiber neck rods and position them very close to the truss rod cavity?

Which size do I get?

In a guitar tutorial westhemann did he used 2 carbon fiber rods, with a truss rod. I THINK he may have used eaither birdseye maple, or flame maple for the neck. How much warp is there?

There was very little, just a very slight bow. I'm just going to set a heavy object on it for a bit and see what happens.