John Abbett

.. And if you spray a very light fine coat first, it will harden in a few seconds. It won't be a problem after that. If you spary a heavy first coat, it takes a while for the inside of the coat to harden and it will soften some plastics. I sprayed a guitar with a clear coat on the painted portion that when I sprayed the top with nitro, it melted the plastic type clear. The fix it easy, spray a light coat first. -john

My biggest noise maker is that darn dust collector. 3 hp 220 volt. It does a great job, but is loud. I build a little closet for it and cut the noise to a low hum. Maybe you can isolate some of the loud tools to a certain section of the shop, not underneath the living room or bedrooms which you can wall off separate and really soundproof just that area. It would give you a place to play guitar too! -john

Soundproofing for the wife makes sense, but not the baby. New babies like it loud, it's very loud in the womb. Stomach going on, heartbeat. My daughter would sleep through the TV, or the vaccume or anything. When we wanted her to sleep we turned her clock radio to the white noise between channels and turned it up. There is a point almost loud where it's like a switch, she went right to sleep. I would recommend that you don't make it quite in the house for the baby, because sudden noises will wake her/him. Play the radio for the baby. See the video "The Happiest Baby on the Block", it's amazing and works. You can pick it up at the library. Best investment of 1/2 hour you could make with a new baby. That being said, the first few months are mentally exhausting, and you will be tired. Be real careful about tools. There were many times when I couldn't think straight. It's like being drunk, you think, oh I'm fine, just a little tired, then you lose a finger for the "Quick little cut". For soundproofing I used to use 1 inch thick blue board. I used to live in a neighborhood in college and used to throw parties for 60-70 of my dearest friends. This old house had single pane windows. I cut blue board and pushed it into the window cavities, it reduced the outside noise dramatically. Instead of 50 ft, I had to get to 10 ft. Also, my neighbor had a theatre room put in, and they put noise blankets on his heat ducts. The stuff the put in your car to keep engine noise down. The installer said that the speakers would rattle the heat ducts and make rattle sounds upstairs. For what it's worth. -John

It wouldn't take much to clean out the bottom of that mortise with a chisel. I would clean it out a bit if it were me. I think it looks a little strange. However, I'm no expert on guitars. -John

I've made an offer via PM.

I plan on staining them deep red. So, if they get grungy, they will be grungy deep red. Not that big of a deal. I agree maple gets nasty. I have a ebony board that I put the Stu-Mac black dye on it, it doesn't come off on my fingers at all. Do any of you put finish on the fingerboard? I usually just oil and buff. -John

All, I inlaid my rosewood fingerboard with some hard maple, some little triangles on the base side of the neck. The look pretty nice. The guitar is all maple (335 type) and will be dyed yellow burst to dark red, or maybe just dark red. In any case, I was thinking I would dye the maple inlay to match the color of the body/neck/headstock face. I currently do most of my bending on the treble strings, so bending won't happen much on top of the maple. The frets are fairly large, I won't be pushing them down to the fretboard that much, do you thing I will have trouble with the dye scratching off? The transtint powder dye that I've been using goes pretty deep. Anyone ever done this? I can always touch it up. I'm not planning on putting a finish over the top. I don't want flaking problems in the future. -john

I can't easily take a picture. But I can describe it. I took a hunk of left ove ipe from a neighbors deck. 2 inch by 3 inch by 3/4 inch. This stuff is so dense it doesn't burn if you put a torch on it. Anyway I marked a 12 inch arc on it with a compass. Cut that out on a band saw. Now I had a rough neck radious. My press is a little thing that I got somwhere. It has a 1/2 inch rod that drops when you pull the handle. I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the side opposite the curve. I put some 100 grit sandpape on a screwed up fretboard and rubbed the press block on it until it was sanded out. I then drew a line down the middle longways where I wanted the fret to sit, and took my chisel and quickly cut shallow V's in the underside of the press block along the line. I just just enough so the fret wouldn't slip around. I ran some sandpaper in the groove so that it would be even. I made a little cradle for the neck under the press. I set the neck in the cradle, drop a fret in the slot, make sure the press is lined up (I have a line on the press where it's right) and pull the handle. Takes seconds each. -John

Peter. I suspect you are right about the force required. I um.. Probably used way too much force on it. After it fell out while I was using it, I wanted to make sure it was on there good.. I could have taken a block of wood and put it on the base, instead of the table, that would have kept me from damanging the table. The instructions tell you to use a block of wood and a hammer to knock the spindle in place. I of course didn't read the manual until after the thing broke. -John

I bought a couple of the PAF replica's, they sound great. The fit and finish is perfect and they were about 35 bucks each. Guitar Fetish is where they came from. -John

If you use it at too slow a speed, it does grab. Just like if you use a large drill bit at a very slow speed, it starts and then digs in. I use it at half speed of my little ryobi drill press. It's moving pretty fast. -John

Peter.. I would be very carefull with that advice.. Before I read the instructions I did that. I put a block of wood on the table, and pulled the handle trying to seat the chuck. The table broke off. It's cast iron on my press. Not a good idea to do that unless you've got a heavy duty table. 60 bucks later, I don't think I'll do that again. I'll try cleaning it. I did wipe it off, but maybe some cleaner would help. Thanks! -John

I have that Ryobi Benchtop drill press. I like it because it's small and does a great job. It tends to drop the chuck out of the spindle when I use the Safe T Plane. Not to steal this thread, but its sorta on topic. Is there a way to help that chuck stay in the spindle? Maybe light sanding or something? -John

Stu-Mac sells it. Great stuff. -John

I bought one. Works well. It does loosen my chuck and the chuck falls out of my drill press. Probably from the sideways pressure and vibration. I have a cheap drill press. Need to upgrade. -John

I made one out of ipe.. A very hard wood. Works great. I cut it on my bandsaw, and put a sheet of sandpaper on a screwed up fretboard and sanded it to shape by running it across the sandpaper. I took a little file and filed a slight 'V" shape in it so the fretwire wouldn't slip around when I use it. -J

One word.. Wing Nuts.. Ok, two words.. You also want to put a wooden or plastic ring around the top edge of the guitar, you don't want to indent that soft top. -John

I alway have the bridge and tail before I finish the guitar, so I can drill the holes before final sanding. I rarely have the pickups and the misc hardware before it's finished. Things like straplocks I pick up usually after the guitar is finished as part of an order for another guitar. I keep a broken pot, switch and jack on hand to be able to measure when I drill holes. I don't keep stock on them. -John

Oh one more big difference, my 335 type guitars are solid wood, no laminate.. That's a pretty big difference. -John

Thanks for chiming in. It sounds like intent has a lot to do with it. I intend to make guitars that are not exact copies (They end up not exact even if I try to make copies - ha! ) . I'm not going commercial or mass producing.. Just two or three a year, but they are starting to pile up. My little music room has guitars of varying quality hanging all over. I've started changing things, to get a feel for what I like. Head stock designs are a little different on each one, and the body shape is slightly changed. The thing is, I don't think you can improve much on the 335 body shape. It's pretty much right on the mark as far as I'm concerned. I do change the F-Holes to my own design now. Thanks for the info!

This may be too obvious, but is it possible you have a high fret, and when you fret at 5-9 you are hitting a fret and throwing it "Way" off? -J

I bought and installed one of those about a year ago, it was a decent neck for the price. The offset isn't a problem if you have the neck in hand before you lay out the neck pocket. -John

One more little thing, it doesn't take much. You get a little bottle and think you need to pour it on. Not the case. A little goes a LONG way. -John

Hi guys. I've built a few copies from plans on the net. I know they violate copywrite. Selling them would certainly be bad. I did it so I could learn how to do standard builds and what works and doesn't. But as I'm looking at building my own designs, I find that the hollowbodies that I want to make all look similar to the 335 or single cutaways. Does anyone know the rules for not violating copywrite? If I take a set of plans and modify them, does that violate copywrite? Do I have to start with a blank sheet and draw something up so I'm not using anything from anyone else? Designing my own headstock is a start, and the body shapes I like are slightly smaller then the standard 335.. Does using a Gibson fingerboard length make a diffrerence? I'm not a Fender guy, but I see a lot of guitars out there that have basically the same rought shape. Ibanez espeically. How do they get away with being so simliar to Fender? Anyway, does anyone have any input on this? -John

Someone else will chime in too... I used the stu-mac black dye on ebony and rosewood and it works great. It gives you a uniform black and penetrates deep on raw wood. You don't have to worry about the frets, just wipe it on, and when you are wiping off the excess it will wipe off the metal. If your fretboard is sealed with anything, you are out of luck. It won't stick and it will come off on your fingers every time you play. You need raw wood. Wear gloves. This stuff is very very persistant. -john