John Abbett

That should stop this thread dead in it's tracks, how do you respond to that one? -j

I read this post before I saw the Pic. I nearly fell out of my chair. Thanks I'm glad I could provide some amusement. I do buy glue by the gallon... Maybe I use a bit too much.. Nah, the messier the better.. -John

Link to the source for the guitar neck. http://www.guitarpartsusa.com/item--Les-Pa...r-Neck--PROD472 Price: $79.95 Arrived flawless.

Thanks. The first build I purchased the neck, I'm finding out it was a great deal. It was 89 bucks inlaid and fretted with the nut. It was is a great neck. I'm building up the neck in my second build, finding out that by the time you buy all the parts, not to mention all the tools, building necks is not a inexpensive propostion. When done though, I'll be the only one on my block with a black walnut SG with a black walnut neck, ebony fretboard. All gold hardware, including the frets. It should look great. We'll see how it sounds. Black walnut neck and ebony fretboard will be pretty dense. I thought that this one was going to be heavy, but by the time I carved the edges, it's ended up perfect. Substantial, but not heavy. -John You can't sell your first build can you? In 20 years, it would be nice to look back at that one and say - that's what my first build looked like.. I'm halfway through my second build now. Ready to install the frets. I bet I can get a lot of glue in those little slots. (Just kiddiing). I think that first builds have more value to the builder then any buyer. It took more hours then the guitar is worth to anyone else. I think I'll keep it. Have you guys sold your guitars? I mean, those of you who build one or two here and there for enjoyment? -John I would not sell any of my guitars ,much less my first build....totally agree...just a suggestion.Sounds like your fixing the problem in your second build.Good luck with your build,and I like your first one ,too.

You can't sell your first build can you? In 20 years, it would be nice to look back at that one and say - that's what my first build looked like.. I'm halfway through my second build now. Ready to install the frets. I bet I can get a lot of glue in those little slots. (Just kiddiing). I think that first builds have more value to the builder then any buyer. It took more hours then the guitar is worth to anyone else. I think I'll keep it. Have you guys sold your guitars? I mean, those of you who build one or two here and there for enjoyment? -John Here is some picks of my second build http://abbett2.blogspot.com/search/label/guitar%20building Scroll down a bit.

You can't sell your first build can you? In 20 years, it would be nice to look back at that one and say - that's what my first build looked like.. I'm halfway through my second build now. Ready to install the frets. I bet I can get a lot of glue in those little slots. (Just kiddiing). I think that first builds have more value to the builder then any buyer. It took more hours then the guitar is worth to anyone else. I think I'll keep it. Have you guys sold your guitars? I mean, those of you who build one or two here and there for enjoyment? -John

Yup.. Too bad I couldn't get more glue on there to hold it better! The glue was cold, it came out real thick. I was using binding, didn't worry about it too much. Look at it this way, I don't worry about dry spots... The pics are early progress pictures. It's pretty well finished and set up now. It just had a rough coat of paint on the body. So it will need sanded, and recoated. The paint I used in the garage smelled up the house. It has a very strong odor to the propellant. (Hobby paint in small spray cans). I can't even consider repainting until it's warm enough to open the garage door. I think I'm going to drill a couple of 1 1/2 inch holes in the body from the back, through the body to the top, then put a thin cap on it. I'll be sure to use enough glue to keep it in place. Sand it flush and respray this spring. Very little risk to that, and it should drop the weight considerably. The other thing I was thinking about doing to take a little weight off, is to use a slot cutter and undercut the pickup cavities. take 3/4 inch out from around the pickup cavity, say leaving 3/8 material at the surface. Plenty strong, but removing some weight. -John John, Sound.... No idea. Not sure how thick the body is at this point, not really sure what wood you actually used (Genuine Mahogany decking?, I am assuming this is a generic name for the wood and is not really a true mahogany). It looks like you have made your job challenging if you have attached the neck, and of course now you have to remove all that paint and prep the body for finishing. As far as removing wood. Depending on how thick the body is you may want to take some thickness off. You could add some carves to the back (tummy cut and what have ya), If you are going to drill holes and chambers. It may be worth while to add a back plate or a clean look (say 1/8-3/16" thick, figured wood or a plain wood if your painting it a solid color). If you are concerned about the jack you could fill and re-drill(if it will be a solid color) or skip removing thickness to the overall body(don't really know what thickness you are at?). The strap buttons are the same situation. No matter what yo are going to need to contend with the neck during whatever you do. Don't take shortcuts in protecting it, while you go about your fixes. Fixes are tuff, so lessons learned will help you on the next build. Planning well, and choosing materials/ design elements are really going to help a lot on the next build. P.S. wow that is a lot of glue, but I guess you have heard that. Don't forget to scrape those sides to level out the side to the binding, looks like you have a bit of a lip there. Peace,Rich

Oh, here is a couple of links to pictures to help understand what I'm talking about. http://bp3.blogger.com/_p0NuWfXXLt8/R0oduF...-h/IMG_1274.JPG http://bp2.blogger.com/_p0NuWfXXLt8/R0odu1...-h/IMG_1333.JPG http://bp1.blogger.com/_p0NuWfXXLt8/R0ocPl...-h/IMG_1370.JPG -John

Hi all. I finished my first project, a guitar similar to the LP. It has a maple top, and mahogany body, which is laminated from strips 1" wide and the height of the body. (Lots of thin strips). Turns out that the plans I have call for a thick body, I thinned it a bit when I built it, because it was heavy, but after playing it a while, it's still way too heavy. It sounds great, sustains forever, but it's a sholder breaker. Because it's winter, I just have a coat of paint on the body, without any finish work. It will have to be sanded and finished this spring when I can spray with the garage door open. My question: As I see it, I have two choices. 1. (My second Choice), is to thin the body, using the jointer and handplane. I could take 1/4 inch off the thickness of the body. That would put my jack plate and strap buttons off center. I would also have to reroute my cavity covers. Lots of work here. 2. Drill or route some large holes in the upper section of the guitar from the back, and put a wooden cover flush with the outside and finish it smooth. So, if I do #2, how will that affect the sound? It's an easy fix, but I'm sort of making a hollowbody in a small way. Note that the wood on this guitar is very very hard and dense. It was leftover mahogany decking. Heavy stuff. Taking some body away won't affect the strength of the guitar. Thanks in advance. _john

Thanks for the link to Frets.com. Somehow I missed that site. The info on truss rods is great. I have a much better understanding now. Plus the tips are great. -John

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will pick up a copy of the recommended book. I will get a dual action trussrod. or the other that is recommended. I'll look into it. I'm not trying to be overly cheap, but my attitude was that if a single action truss rod would do the job, and has been used in many guitars, why spend money on more then is needed? No need to waste money.. But I understand that it's worth it if it makes installation easier. This is my second guitar. The first came out real nice. But I purchased the neck with the frets and truss rod installed. So, this is my first attempt at the neck. -John

I purchased a single truss rod from StuMac, the reason for this was I thought I could have a smaller route, so that I would have to remove less wood. Also, it was only 10 bucks or so. Like the price. If I don't spend a lot of green, I can build more guitars, and thus build more experience. I did read the neck building faq on here. It's really great. But I didn't see where it says how deep to make the route. I took from it to route just enough for the truss rod to fit under the fingerboard. If that is the case, I would be slightly forward of center of the wood mass combination of neck/fingerboard. Tightening would pull the neck toward the strings, not away. I still think I'm missing something, but in my mind, if the truss rod is forward of the center line by any amount and you tighten it it will pull toward the strings.. So, it needs to be slightly back of the centerline.. right? -John

All, Ok, you are probably sick of truss rod questions, but I just don't get it. Here is my confusion. I have a new nice neck, with a fingerboard. The fingerboard is 1/4 inch, and the neck is somewhere around 1 inch. If I understand the way it works, you tighten the truss rod, and it puts tension on the wood, which pulls it backwards compensating the tension of the strings. All that makes sense, but my confusion is, don't I have to be further back in the neck then center to pull it backwards? Everything I've ready says put a route in the neck, to fit the truss rod and put the fingerboard on, if I do that I will be slightly off center in the wrong direction, and tightening should pull the neck in the wrong direction. So I'm guessing I need to route as deep as possible so that the truss rod can be as far back toward the back of the neck as possible to get the leverage. Doing that will greatly reduce the strength of the neck, it will have a deep hole the entire length of the neck. Sorry to be a pain, but I'm missing something here. -John

Oh yeah, push pull pot type thing, never heard of that. Ok, so they don't make it. I can see it in my head though, a shaft that goes through both pots, with knerled (sp?) spots, so when you push it down, it engages the bottom pot, when you pull it up, it engages the upper. Is't smooth when it's not engaed, so when it leaves the one you are not selecting where it was. Seems simple in my head. Probably too expensive to manufacture, but it would be great for tone/volume. Pull the swich out to adjust the tone, normal position for the volume. Once you set the tone it stays where you left it. Now only if I had the money to manufacture a few hundred thousand and talk gibson into putting them in their production line. Two less holes to route, simpler profile. Cleaner looking. Many santa will get his elves to build me a few and drop them in my stocking. Santa can do anything! -John

It's amazing how much variation you can get with such a simple circuit. A coil going to an amp, put a cap and a pot in there, and it's completely different. I'll have to play with some caps to see what I get. I've not done that before, should be interesting. -John

Ok, I'm going for the neck slot. I can always route the second slot later, I have to go past there with my wiring channel anyway, it would be easy to add once my finish was rock hard. Since this is a neck through body design, I can route the channel in the side of the neck through before I glue the wings on. I'm putting the cover plates on the back like an LP. My thing is, I want to get one pickup that works well, the minimum amount of controls, and was even thinking about string through body instead of tailstop. I'm looking to make it as simplistic as possible so the wood really shows, the wood as art without all the clutter. Thanks for all the suggestions!

I want to be able to have volume with it pushed in, and pull it out for tone. One Pot to do both. I would assume they are stacked pots. I haven't seen this, but it has to be out there somewhere. 500k? -John

I'm new to guitar building, but have been woodworking for many years. Wood shrinks and swells with humidity changes. It will swell in the summer, and shrink in the winter. An infinished hunk of wood will absorb quicker, possibly causing cracks because the wood won't shrink or swell at the same rate. If the wood is quarter sawn, which means the grain runs up and down (Fretboard to back of neck), the neck shouldn't bend that much, but if the grain is diagonal to the neck, as the wood shrinks and swells it will have a tendency to warp. Now, if you put a stain on it, it's not doing much to protect the wood. It's a color that gets absorbed into the wood, the fluid that the color is disolved in, water or alchohol will evaporate and leave the color. Not good for protection. If you only stain a pine chair and stick it outside, it's doomed in a few years. If you put a sealer on it, eiter several coats of a penetrating oil, or a varnish (Which lays on top of the wood, absorbing a ver small amount), or poly, this seals the wood. It doesn't allow moisture to get in there for the most part. This being said, no matter what you do, the wood will change moisture content. Epoxy, and Poly will allow some moisture to get through, the trick is to slow it down to where it doesn't affect the wood. If you slow it down enough, the dramatic changes in moisture won't affect you. Does that answer your question? You want some kind of finish to keep the dramatic humidity changes from warping your neck.. Doesn't have to be a lot. -John

Photobucket. The site provides both direct links and embedded image links for the pics, it's free, and it's easy. http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lphw1.jpg

Here is a picture of my first build. It's a LP style, plans from Stu-Mac. It needs some finish work, it's too cold here to paint, the fumes are much too strong to do. I tried to paint in the shop, open the doors to vent, then shut them, but it cools the shop, and the paint doesn't flow right. This has a built up body, from 1 x 4 mahogany scraps laminated. As you can imagine, it sustains for-ever. Almost too much. I find I mute a whole lot with this guitar. The tops is bookmatch special gnarly maple that I had in the wood shed. The neck I bought from Guitar Parts USA, it was 79 bucks I think, with the inlays and the nut. I added the gnarly maple head veneer. The binding (White) comes on it, I will have to redo that sometime, but I don't have the tools yet to pull and replace the frets. The Black Binding I did. It has two Made in USA Gibson HB's which I got from Craigs list for 75 bucks for the pair. I think they are 490 & 498 or some number close to that. Supposedly from the 70's. It plays great and sounds like a Gibson. Deep, warm with tons of sustain. Oh Grover Tuners. Most of the hardware came from Stu-Mac. Oh, You have to have a image hosting service to display pictures. I'll have to work on that. What does everyone use? Free, Easy?

You are right of course. I was hoping everyone would just say "Put it here or there" because that was the right way of doing it, and save me the trouble. I'll go play some SG's. On my two LP types, I like the neck pickup a little better, not so twangy. I can get rid of some of the twang with the tone knob, but I hate doing that, it makes it muddy. I wish these pickups were 30 bucks. I want to shop where you shop. It was 100 bucks on sale. Gibson Burst Bucker Pro.. I was going for a simple look, less cluttered. I was planning on one pickup, a stacked tone/volume and a 5 way Rotary switch for the different combinations of the HB. It's going to have black hardware, blackwalnut body with stained-(dark red) maple neck through with blackwalnut/maple accents. It'll have an ebony fingerboard. It should be pretty dark and sinister looking. The wood I have for the body has a very pronounced 2 ft circular grain pattern to it, it's lumber from the trunk that went past a 2 ft branch, and it basically has a 2 ft knot in it. It's 4 ft long and 15 inches wide.. It will swirl up toward the dual cutaways. Anyway, thanks for the input. Always looking for wisdom from somebody who's been there, done that. -John

Hi all. I am building a neck through SG type out of black walnut, with a built-up black walnut/maple neck (Mostly maple with walnut on the outside edges). I have a Gibson Burst Bucker Pro to put in it, and am planning on a 5 way rotary switch to give me single N/ single S / series / parallel and / out of phase options as viewed at http://www.guitarelectronics.com/product/WDUH5R0001 . I really don't want to spend the money on the second pickup. The pickup I have is sold as a neck pickup. If you are only putting in one pickup, where is the best place to put it? I'm looking for blues and darker warmer tones. The pickup will deliver that, but placement can make a big impact on the sound. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. -John