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Yeah, I'm planning on doing it but leaving a little more space as to not have to worry so much about the whole breaking thing... but I mean I KNOW it can be done, cause I got the idea to cut-up/section-off the pieces of the f-hole from this thorne guitars' f-hole: Chris

I did it on a mohogany/rosewood neck through a while back. I just used a surform rasp until i had it ABOUT right, and then I used a sander to flatten everything out, and sand it down to exactly how I wanted it. Chris

Actually no, i sanded it down in that area. The edges still flow nicely, there's NO indication anythign wrong ever happened. Only difference is that the "wall" between the outside and the hollow part is nown 1/8" thinner (ie: 1/2" now). But yeah, was salvaged 100% (and yes it will be natural lol) Chris

Well I only made the plans like that cause I thought I had to. If I can get away with making it thinner, then I'd jump at the opportunity. But yeah, alot of the neck blanks from fryovanni seem to be long enough to cut and glue that little extra thickness... and sicne it'll be right up by, and IN the neck joint... I guess it wouldn't be so bad. Chris

Ok, on the guitar I'm building I was basing the neck joint on my PRS CE22 which obviously is a bolt on, however the guitar that I'm building is a set neck. The thickness of the neck at the heel on the PRS is 1 3/8", so that's what I had planned to make as the thickness of the heel on my guitar. HOWEVER looking at some wood for sale for necks I've found most are like 7/8" and 13/16". So I'm guesssing I can make my glued in joint alot thinner than 1 3/8". What's ya'll's rule of thumb? Also, if I plan to cut the 13 degrees directly into the wood (ie: no scarf joint) how thick you guys think I should buy my wood? Thanks, Chris

no, sorry, I'm not a huge wall of death fan, and this CAN be fixed, and WILL be fixed in about an hour and will look like nothing ever hapened. Chris

Naw, I've use my calps and checked a bunch of times now, and it's still thick enough on the side that if I sand it down flush there'll still be a good 1/2" (which is safe for the side's thickness). HOWEVER, I checked the back's thickness too... .24" instead of .25"..... I'm really not shining through on this build... Chris (However, all my mistake will make GREAT "trouble shooting" self Q&A for the tutorial I'm writing with it...)

From the topic description you might think I cut off my finger routing... but no... it's worse. Ok, so on the bottom edge of my template there was a mistake, HOWEVER the bearing could still follow the TOP edge of the template and everything would go fine. HOWEVER when I changed from my short cutting head bit to my long cutter head bit I forgot to check that the bearing was riding high enough on the template!!! To make a long story short, the router cut into the body where it shouldn't have, HOWEVER I was able to catch it pretty early so the damage wasn't TOO deep. Up to the last pass I decided to just ignore that area until I had an idea of what I was going to do to fix it. So I thought, ya know, set the bit high enough to FOLLOW the mistake, so it's consistent for the WHOLE body, and then I'll just inlay some ebony or something so it'd flat again and call it a "beauty mark" like cindy crawford. So I go to do just that... and break one of my cardinal rules and route TOO deep in one pass, and sure enough, it breaks off this heafty chunk! What I am left with is this... Now luckily... there IS a half inch between the mistake (it's on the tip of the lower cut-away's horn) and the hollow cavity... so I guess I can just sand it down flush... but it just won't be the same!!!! WHY IS THERE NO CRYING FACE!?!?!?! Sadly, Chris

Hahahaha, i'm sorry, I honestly didn't even notice that lol. Chris

Here's the design for the F-hole that I'm planning to put on my guitar (looks like a cross between a tele thin-line and a Myka Dragonfly). What do you guy's think? I know the pics a little fuzzy (camera phone...) but it's basicaaly a SLIGHTLY distorted (in shape) version of a classic f-hole where the rounded ends are circles that are actually distached from the "shaft" of the f. And where the shaft and the ball ends are seperated, the shaft's ends sort of "craddle" the balls. Chris

We're talkin' IF I go christmas. So don't get TOO many hopes up. But if I go, I will. Also, there's a couple shop pics on his website if you peruse around and dig deep enough. Chris

HAHAHAHAHA, I just got his reply! It'll only cost me $100 more than the Santana copy. For a custom 24 (made hollowbody) with a McNaught style "Moonscape" inlay and headstock and fretboard binding to match the bodies is only $1200!! This rocks! When I go back to malaysia for christmas I'm SO making a trip up to Bangkok he said he'd give me a tour of the shop. Chris

Yeah, but the thread isn't about IMPOSSIBLE to build guitars, but merely guitars you want to build but will never get the time/equipment to. No one ever said this couldn't be done, just that it would be more difficult, but would also create a unique/different look. Why'd everyone have to blow my idea out of proportion... I just listed what I thought was a cool idea. Chris

If the word "archtop" slipped in there somewhere, sorry. I AM looking to build a hollowbody (somewhere between a Myka Dragon fly, which doesn't have the log down the center... but still doe4sn't have bend sides, and an ES-335). It's all just for fun. I like the idea of hollowbodies because I too think they give that fuller sound (IMO) that you described above, and also because I think f-holes (or soundholes in general) make the instrument look elegant. The reason I brought up this build Idea is because I thought that a hollowbody (or you can call it a heavily chambered electric, I don't care) where you couldn't see how they hollowed it out (because there'd be no line to see where the top and back joined) would look cool, and few would suspect the innocent bookmatched seem to be the culpret for where it was hollowed from. Yes, in the end it would have been a rock-a-billy type, hollow guitar, NOT a bent sides acoustic archtop. But I still think it would be extremely elegant looking, thought provoking, and hopefully full sounding. That is why I would like to build one. Chris PS: For those of you who still don't quite understand.... the principal would be like taking two wood blocks (however... shaped like guitar wings) and glueing them together along the seems where they're open. Creating a hollow wooden guitar shape, and straping a neck to it.

That makes absolutely NO sense for PRS hollowbodies to be done this way, so there's NO way they do that. They use a different wood for the top and the back so it'd just be retarded for them NOT to hollow out the parts they want to before they glue the top on. Regarding method.... you could get one of those dremel flex-shafts and really get down in there to hollow it out... that might work right. This would also be easier if done with a neck through, cause then it'd only be a semi hollow... so you wouldn't have to hollow as deep (only the wings) and wouldn't have to worry about the acoustic impact as much cause of the solid log down the center. OR... you could simply hollow them out like we were talking about before.... then when you glue them, insert a "tone block" that's about like.... 3-4" wide, and the whole length of the guitar that kinda holds the two hollow halves together and seals them off.... kinda like a giant rectangular prism dowel that runs the full length of the guitar. But you'd have to carve VERY exactly to work that... or cnc it.... lol (since it'd only have to be really accurate for like the first 1.5-2" on either side where the tone block would slide in. Chris

I've always thought it would be fun to make a body in this fashion: make a two piece hollow body. However, not like you would think. I'm saying take a bookmatched piece that's 1 3/4" thick, and then before glueing the two pieces together, hollow them out from where you would be glueing them together. Like from the inside out, it'd take FOREVER since you'd probably have to do much of it by hand cause there's NO router that'd go that deep. But I think the out come of a hollowbody make without a top or a back would be cool. Chris

Yes, in the "gallery" section SOME of the pics of past fliers have prices. The Custom 24 copies as 26,000 baht ($650) and the Sanatana copies are 45,000 baht ($1100). I just emailed him finding out how much a VERY nice COMPLICATED guitar would be. (hollowbody custom 24 with f-holes, bound headstock and fretboard as well, and a moonscape inlay like o n a Mcnaught)(I;'ll let ya'll know what he says). Chris

I've lived in asia almost my ENTIRE life. With several visits to thailand for musically, and none music related visits. YES, you do get a bunch of cheap rip-offs with poor quality, so yes, I WOULD check these out VERY thoroughly before throwing down that much money for them. HOWEVER, there are some AMAZING wood-workers over in that part of the world. Now I'm not saying guitars, but woodwork in general can be some of the finest in the world. So if these ARE actually as good as they seem, which he very well could be one of the amazing works I've mentioned, JUMP on it. Cause in that case, the reason he can charge so little for everything is because EVERYTHING (excluding US things he puts on like the tuners, etc.) are cheaper over there. Less government regulation of logging is going to make his wood dirt cheap, since he can live on next to nothing that makes his labour costs dirt cheap, his shell is probably directly from someone near him since he's so close to where it comes from, etc. Chances are, we may think that these prices are rediculously low... but he's probably laughing all the way to the thai bank, cause relatively, over there, he's making a fortune. Chris

sorry, I didn't read the "for adhesion" part. I just saw SANDING. Umm... that's what the samples are for! Try sanding those and seeing how far you get down into them before they get ruined, then you'll know how much sand you CAN do. Chris

Yeah, thermo-forming, vacuum forming, same diff. You heat it up, and then vacuum it down while it's soft. But yeah, as for what mister_honey was asking: yes it'll probably scratch... hense why i WOULD recomend spraying clear coat OVER it. That way the finish wouldn't react to scratching like a piece of plastic, it'd react like well... a normal finish, cuase it'd have one. As for contact cement, screw that, I'd go all out epoxy wild to hold this puppy down onto the guitar. Lastly,. I too have a sample pack from them, and I was playing with some of them today, sanding would be a BAD idea. Cause if you look at the stuff, it's got the design on one side, but on the other side it's either black or white. Which means the design does not go ALL the way through so sanding may kill the design and leave you with just black or white in the spot you sanded. Since you've already got the gear to do it, when do you plan on doing it? I'd love to get a step by step pictoral of it, and see how it turns out. Cause I don't plan to do it for QUITE some time, I've got a guitar to finish already, and other ideas to try before I venture here. Chris

Come to think of it... buy one of those Tamiya "on/off" cars that you build when you're a kid. They come with a small motor, a switch, and all you need is to make a hole in the top for the switch, find somewhere to place a casing for 2 double A's, then take your railed pickup system, put a chain loop from either side of the cavity, glue the chain to the bottom of the pickup, and tada, it moves with the push of a button. And that way you wouldn't need the "locking" mecanism for the pickup like if it was just manually on rails (cause you'd jump around and it'd slide around... but the motor would now keep it in place) Chris

I drive a Ford too!!! Two knocks at my originality! But yeah, that motorizing is a sweet idea. I have not the slightest idea how to get it done.... but a good idea none the less. But like they said, making it stop where you would want it to would be a bitch. I think you'd have to settle for just "move forward" or "move backward" and find where you want it manual (but still electronically).

And for a second I htought I was original Chris

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chris

I wasn't sure if this would go in electronics cause it deals with pickups, or building... cause it's MORE about building the apparatus.... so I put it here. My idea is this, route a LARGE cavity big enough for a pickup to be placed anywhere in between, (for this example we'll have a stationary bridge pickups) the neck position and the center position (the extremes of them). Then, custom make a pickup ring that kinda fits in a slot, then make slotted rails for the sides so that the pickups can be slid from one position to another (and find a way to lock it in place once at the position you want it). Then, put spring loaded rollers at either end with mose sort of material attached to them AND the pickup, that way, no matter where the pickup is, the gapping hole doesn't show because there's a tightly pulled (thanks to the spring loaded rolling thing) cover the hole. I think I may try and draw this out... more on the designing when i have a change. Chris