John Abbett

I buy the red throw away filters from harbor freight. They go on sale occasionally. They are all plastic and I use one per guitar. They come in two packs for about 3 bucks. They are about the size of a tennis ball and fit between your sprayer and your compressor hose. I use a spray gun that was on sale for 20 bucks or so. It's got a white plastic top feed and a gun. I got a detail sprayer in the pack, two sprayers. I don't think it was more then 25 bucks, it had all kinds of stuff like a stand and cleaning kit, etc. I think you can get just the larger sprayer for 10 bucks or so... It is a gravity feed, I also have one with a metal jar that fits under which is a siphon feed. I don't like it as much. It's a little harder to clean. To clean the gravity feed one, you empty it, take about 1/2 of a shot glass full of laquer thinner and put in it the gravity feed cup, swirl it around and without the compressor on, pull the trigger into a waste jar. It drains right out. Easy. -J

Wow.. I want to be your best pal now! =) This is very obsessive. I just finished a really nice red curly maple 335. Now I have to build a Firebird. Do I NEED another guitar.. YES! I spent a few minutes in the shop, looking under workbenches for wood stashes and scraps. I'm thinking cherry with maple stripes. Cherry isn't normally a guitar wood, but several people have done it. It burnishes and oils to a very nice depth and offsets the maple nice. It's also not too heavy. Plus I have some! Thanks everyone for their input. I think If I follow the tips listed here I can balance it out pretty well. -John

If you want to make sure you don't get any junk in the hole, take a small baloon and blow it up while in the hole. It will tighten around the cut out. If you stuff a rag in there, it doesn't keep junk for working it's way in there.

Check out the fingerboard dye that Stu-Mac sells. It's BLACK. It soaks in well. I used it on a ebony fingerboard that was brown and orange it was jet black. If you use it on maple, don't sand to 1000 grit then use it, put it on when you have sanded to 220 or 320, let it soak in and then finish sand. It will soak in deep enough you can finish sand with fine grits. It's marked as leather dye on the bottle. You know those black belts you buy, they don't start out black... This stuff works. Once dry it doesn't come off on my fingers, even on the fingerboards. A little goes a LONG way. You could probably do an entire guitar with one bottle. I did a fingerboard and a 4 ft by 4 ft picture frame that is 4 inches wide inside and out and I still have 1/2 of a bottle. -John

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15318670@N06/3116288209/ Black Walnut SG http://www.flickr.com/photos/15318670@N06/3117115280/ Blue 335 http://www.flickr.com/photos/15318670@N06/...57603745242624/ Blue LP http://www.flickr.com/photos/15318670@N06/2747298547/ My Daughters 19.1 inch scale Pink Sparkle

Holy CRAP. Firebird Heaven! That's some really nice work there. Very impressive.. How many can you play at once again?? I know, I can't talk, I've got 7 guitars at this point. I start pulling out plans and the wife just shakes her head in wonderment. I tell her if I don't build guitars all the money spent on tools is wasted! It makes sense in a strange sort of way. -John

I have a gravity feed spray gun from Harbor freight tools. I have a pancake compressor that came as a set with a porter cable nail gun. It does the job for a guitar. I spray one side, let the compressor catch up for 20 seconds or so, spray the other side, etc. I'm only spraying at 35-40 psi, it keeps up pretty good. The gravity feed spray gun goes on sale for about 25 bucks, not the best on the market, but works great. It does leave orange peel, but I can't say if that's me, or the gun. It does cover the guitar well, a little sanding and it leaves a great finish. Oh, I'm spraying Nitro.. Don't know how it works with other materials. An expensive set would probably leave the guitar with no orange peel and more consistant coats. Again, the operator probably has a lot to do with that. -John

I just finished my second 335, it's very doable. That being said I have a full woodworking shop in my garage with all the needed tools. To do the sides you can do it your self, I bought a Chracoal Grill Starter Wand, it's a heating element that you put in a charcoal grill and it starts it up. It gets red hot in about 1 minute. I bought a section of pipe (3" x 12") and threaded some threaded rod on it for legs. I out a heavy duty dimmer switch on it for control. There are plans for it somewhere, google for home made pipe bender. I think the total cost was about 30 bucks. It works fine. I used solid wood, and not carved. I did that because I don't have the paitience to carve out the top, I would invariably start taking off more and more until I take off too much. I glued up 3/16 bookmatched hard curly maple stock together and bent it around a formed center block and with hot steaming towels on top of it, clamped it down with a large selection of bar clamps and wood wedges to get the wood to conform to the center block. Once that cooled, I glued and clamped the center, then the edges. It works well, but again, you need the clamps, the center block and a way to make thin wood that is smooth. I have a drum sander that took it down to the required thickness. If you try to do 1/4 inch, it's a huge difference in bending capability from 3/16. Can you use pine. Sure, you can use anything. Benedetto did an all pine guitar (It's in his book) to prove that an acoustic can be made out of construction grade lumber. The difference is that he is a master, and knows what he is doing without thinking about it. So, yes, you can do it. Make a mold for the sides, build a pipe bender, play with it for a couple of hours until you get the hang of it and there is a pile of broken sides on the floor.. The thing is, if you don't have the right tools, it's going to be a time consuming job, and probably frustrating. I once knew a guy who built a very serviceable 19 foot sail boat with nothing more then scrap playwood, and two by fours and a hammer and nails. He used house paint to finish it off. He didn't have any money and wanted a boat real bad. It came out great. Anything is possible. -j

Thanks for the tip, but the strap button doesn't weigh enough to balance out the guitar.. =) I usually sit while playing, so it needs to balance on my knee. Changing the center of gravity will fix that. I'm actually not that worried about it with a strap, you can always adjust it to work. -John

I hadn't thought about the B5. That's a great solution. It will add weight to the tail. I looked at the link for the banjo tuners, they sell them individually also.. It's going to be 100 bucks for the 6 tuners.. Ouch. I was planning on hard rock maple for the neck, but I might switch to some soft maple, it's going to be maple, mahogany, maple laminate for the neck, so it soft (Curly) maple should be plenty strong. (I typically use hard rock curly maple, it doesn't move much at all ever). So with the B5, and the soft maple instead of hard maple it should be a bit better. The Firebird has a pretty large fingerguard that covers the lower section toward the headstock. I can remove some weight there if I need to also. Hollow some of that out a bit. Any other ideas? I think we're getting there. -John

I'm not associated with this in any way. Came across it while surfing. http://www.pickpunch.com/ It's a punch which you can use like a paper hole punch to punch picks out of whatever material you have. Old credit cards or plastic sheet or whatever. It's a novelty, but I think it's pretty cool. Take those crap plastic cards and turn them into picks of all different colors and thicknesses. I think it comes with some sample celluloid stock too. Anyway, I thought this might appeal to some. -John

Hi all. I'm starting to think about another build. I thought I was done for a while, but I just can't help myself. Anyway, I got hold of some plans, and am thinking about doing a mix of wood to give it the look of the stripes on an AC Cobra. It'll be a neck through, the center section will be 2 inches of maple, 1 inch of Mahogany, and 2 Inches of Maple. The wings will be mahogany. The neck will of course be maple with a 1 inch stripe of mahogany down the middle since it's a neck through.. So I went to the local Guitar Center, and played the real deal. A nice off white Gibson Firebird ($ 1695.00 ). I was impressed with the sustain and the tone. The neck weight however bothered me a bit. It had a very pronounced neck dive. The tuners were the banjo style that are stright through to the back, and the headstock is pretty heavy. Anyone have any suggestions on fixing the neck dive, if not all the way, some? I'm guessing the problem is the center of gravity on the body is too far forward, but that is what gives you the look. If I mess with that, I mess with the whole look. I could maybe add some weight to the tail, a tremolo would add some weight, but I can't add a bigsby because the end of the guitar is not square with the center line. (I would like to do that, I love Bigsbys). I could use some heavier wood for the wings, but if the center of gravity is off for the body, that would only make it worse. I could try to find lighter tuners, but they may add to the sustain.. or not.. I could do a thinner headstock, since it's the furthest out from the center of gravity it would have the most impact. Lead shot epoxy'd into the bottom of the guitar? Any suggestions? -John

What about wings? I'm just starting a Firebird, and it's got a neck through, everyone says that because it's a neck trhough it has more sustain then a glue neck. It has wings however. Does that matter? Is it just the neck and the neck through that matters? I think that if you do a nice job, and get the glue right, it doesn't matter if you have layers or a samwhich or a jig saw puzzle. -John

Go very light and use a sanding block. It's very easy to have lighter and darker spots where you sanded just a little more. If you went heavy with the stain, it's less likely you will have this problem, the stain goes deeper. My last guitar, I put the stain on heavy and went over it with 600 grit, just to smooth it up a bit. It makes the curly maple pop a little more. very light!

If you give up send it to me... I'll take it and use it for something or other! Nice hunk of wood. Worth taking the time to fix. -John

Two a day at work, plus maybe a third. Then another in the evening. Crap, I have a problem. 4 a day x 30 days = 120 Cokes a months. It's a wonder I'm still alive! I didn't think about how expensive this is either. Too bad I'm addicted to the stuff. I'll have to cut back after I finish this one. -John

My search for "Gibson" worked.

led won't work. It has to be 4 characters min... -John

There goes my fantasy of holding a 52 Gold Top.. Thanks a lot =) Ok, Maybe the wood was from a 52. I can say that! -john

http://www.bernunzio.com/item.php?sku=0811821 Ahh, the top was refinished in 1980. Not all original.

http://www.bernunzio.com/ You can still grab it. =) It's prbably a good investment unless Billy Gibbons unloads 50 of them or Slash or somebody has a garage sale. The bridge was loose. Needed reseating (Probably filling, drilling, etc). Other then that, it just looked like a cool old guitar. -John

Hard to believe a guitar can be worth half a million. But anything is worth what people are willing to pay I guess. I look at new guitars, the price range is vast by maker name. Anything with Gibson on it is so much more expensive. I know that opinions vary on this, but there are guitars that are just as nice as a Gibson Les Paul for a lot less money. I have an Epiphone Les Paul that I paid about 600 bucks for, it's a custom with quilted maple top, fretboard binding, with a nice case. It's great. The same guitar in a Gibson brand would have been a lot more. What I'm saying is when you start to get into collectable guitars, the price seems to be about the collectable part, not the quality part. A 63 Gibson Les Paul may be the guitar people want, but it's costly because of collectability and rarity. Anyway.. I wouldn't throw it out if they were giving it away =) -John

I went to a local music store that sells collectable guitars. There it was, a 1952 gold top Les Paul. They were asking 25,600 for it, I ended up buying new strings. The bridge was loose and the finish was worn out. If it wern't collectable it would be worth 50 bucks plus need a couple hundred in fix ups. My buddy said I would kick myself in 20 years for not buying the guitar that's worth 150K for only 26k. I said I could afford new strings, dug out a five and some singles. Such is life. -J

I got one a few weeks ago, the blemish was a little scratch on the bottom area of the plate about 1/4 inch long. It's probably the nicest tool I own, everything I have is beat up. Great deal here. -J

Has anyone seen plans for a Full hollowbody like a 6120? I'm looking at building one up. -John