John Abbett

Thanks, and it was actually very easy to get shop time. It's amazing how much time you get when it's a project for your little girl. -John

http://abbett2.blogspot.com/ This is a 19.10 inch scale guitar for my daughter. It has a split rails humbucker with a volume control that is also coil tap for the HB. To make it very light weight, it's white cedar core with 1/8 inch plywood on the front and back to give it some strength and smoother sanding. It's painted pink with pink sparkles (Pink and silver glitter) included in the nitro. It has 4 coats of the sparkles and a few coats of just clear nitro. It's blinding in the sun. The nut and bridge are standard width, she probably won't be able to fret all the strings. It has inexpensive hardware, but stays in tune and have a pretty good sound. I can play it pretty well until I get to about the 10th fret and then it gets pretty tight. A three finger A gets tight around the 5th or 6th fret. Single note leads are really easy, everything is close! The neck is quarter sawn poplar with a purpleheart fretboard. We are having lessons each night before bed. 5 minutes. She is learning open strings, and counting 1, 2, 3, 4. She's actually doing well. We will be ready to start fretting next week. She loves it. -John

Hi all. I applied large amounts of water based stain on my project, it's been drying for three days. It's been raining for three days. How well does it need to dry before I can apply a washcoat of nitro? If I rub my fingers over the stain, I get a little color on my fingers. I'm assuming that if it was perfectly dry, I wouldn't get color off - is that right? Will I still get color off if it's perfectly dry, can I use that as a test? I'm using the powder analine dye from woodcraft. I'm just ready to get on with it. -John

You don't have to. It will be soft, so you would have to let it cure before sanding between coats. Would take a while. I would only sand if you got something in your finish you need to sand out. Put on several coats, let it cure well. (Could take a couple of weeks or more depending on climate) and then sand. -John

All, I was thinking it might be helpful to start a thread describing the various pickups. There are questions about pickups all over, everyone wants to know which pickup to buy. Of course this is purely subjective. If we each chimed in, and described the positive and negative of favorite pickups, it would give people a starting point to find something that works for them. A dictionary of Pickups in one spot. My .02 I love the Gibson Burst Bucker Pro. It's a Passive humbucker pickup. Available for about 110.00 U.S. each from Guitar center. Much Less on Ebay. This is the HB pickup that goes in the Gibson SG currently being produced. It gives a really great tone, sounds like Gibson should. It comes in a matched neck and bridge configuration. You can get a nice growl out of it if you turn up the gain, and works for Blues, Rock. I don't play anything else so I don't know if it's good for other types. When I play these, the tone is bright, powerful and has amazing tone. The only downside is that it's "Vintage" wiring, no coil split unless you want to take it apart. It's wax potted so that's probably not a good idea. Oh, and it's a bit pricy. You pay for the name. Who's next? I would like to hear about active pickups too! What's the best/favorite? -J

Each set of plans shows the neck angle for that particular guitar. Fender types have almost no angle, Gibson types have more. I've built Gibson types with a 3 and a 4 degree angle. Check out your plan, see what neck angle you have and go from there. If it doesn't say, you will have to measure it from the plan. If you are designing your own, you will have to choose and draw the angle in. I find it's easier to make a neck pocket if the top of the guitar has a top that is carved/angled to match the angle of the neck, like a Les Paul. That way when you cut your neck pocket, you can follow the top of the guitar and get the correct angled slot automatically. Less screwing around that way. Another way to figure this out, if you have the dimensions of the bridge and the guitar is alreay put together -or drawn is you can put a long straight edgle along the fingerboard, with a shim under it to give you a line where the strings would be. You can measure where the strings would land at the bridge. Then it's simple to take that measurement and make sure the bridge that you buy is adjustable to that height. -john

You shouldn't have any problems with just drilling a corretly sized hole in the wood. Too tight, the wood will split, too loose and the knob won't stay on. Aim for a nice snug fit that you have to press on with some pressure. The same fit as a neck joint. Tight, but not so tight as to cause damage. The set screw would help if you had a tendency to be rough with it. Normal use shouldn't be a problem. I've made knobs out of ebony pen blanks, it wasn't a problem at all. -John

All. I don't know this company, but they have some nice looking wood. Thought you might be interested for comparison purposes anyway. http://rochester.craigslist.org/mat/777345065.html I would buy some, but I don't need 100 bf of curly maple. It's more then I'd ever use. -John

I've got one of those curves spokeshaves. It does a nice job on mahogany necks and boat oars. Kinda tough to sharpen to a razor edge though. -John

Since we're talking about scrapers and spokeshaves I had an observation the other day. I've been using handplanes for a long time, have several all tuned up and ready to go. I've somehow gotten into the habbit of using my power tools for everything. The other night I had a template taped to a fingerboard blank, and looked at the clock, it was my daughters bedtime. Drats, it will have to wait until tommorrow. Then I had a thought, I grabbed my #5 baily and in about 5 minutes had the fingerboard matching the plywood template perfectly. It was nice and quiet, didn't take any effort, and I enjoyed the shavings as opposed to the cloud of dust my router creates. I don't know why I grab my router first, the hand plane is a much more enjoyable tool. I figure by the time I put in the pattern bit with the bearing, and got it adjusted and figured out how I was going to get it to stay level on a curved fingerboard, I would have been able to do two or three by hand. I have since moved my hand plane to a nice place within reach on the bench instead of on the wall where it was hard to get to. I just can't figure out why I havn't been using it all along. It's the obvious choice. -John

I'm no expert on this.. Isn't the reason we use Nitro over Poly is that Nitro dissolves layers where poly is additive? If you need to touch up Nitro you can drop fill, or respray and it will dissolve the top layer, blending in without any lines. Polly adds in layers as far as I know and would be much more difficult to blend, especially for repair work. Again I'm no expert, but that's what I was led to believe. If I'm off base someone will certainly strighten me out quick. =) -John

I'll take them. -J

40 bucks plus shipping for a ryobi 10 inch table model. About 1/4 the cost of a new unit. Ah well, live and learn. Not the first stupid thing I've done. -John

Your bushings don't spin without a nut on it, and you can't pry it out with your fingernails - depending on what kind of tuners you have I would say you are doing really well. Once you fasten the tuner to the headstock, it won't go anywhere. There must be some sort of way to lock the tuner down, either screws, or a top bushing that either screws down or is press fit. Maybe a nut that locks it down. You typically don't rely on the fit of the tuner in the headstock for all of your security. I guess I'm missing the question, because what you described is a perfect fit. -John

Without seeing your plane, it's hard to diagnose... But. You do realize that you have to turn the screw that holds the level cap, to adjust the tightness - right?. Basically you tighten it to adjust the pressure of the lever. If it's too tight you can't work the lever, if it's too loose, the lever doesn't hold the blade firmly Even if the lever is rounded, you should be able to tighten the screw down to lock the blade down without using the lever if there was a problem with the lever. That just means you would have to loosen it to adjust the blade. Oh, you don't want it so tight that you can't use the thumbwheel or the level that moves the blade, just enough to be firmly in place. The reason I'm looking at alternate solutions is that I have several planes that are very old - 100 plus year, and there is almost no wear on any of the parts. Unless you have a defective newly made plane, I'm guessing it's a setup issue. -John

I agree with you, if doing this takes you away from making more money then by all means pony up and get the stuff that you need to make money. Some of us, (Myself) don't make money, and in fact, it costs me quite a bit to build a guitar. So, if I can trade some time for saving some cash, and end up the same end result I'm all for it. My only problem is what am I going to do with all of these guitars that I can't part with. I'm getting quite a collection. -John

DON'T LOWER the chuck onto the table to push it back in place. The table is cast iron and not designed to handle that kind of stress. Ask me how I know. -John

Another option is to go to your local hardware store ( I went to Tractor Supply Co.) and get a set of welding torch files. They are a set of varying sized round wire files. They will match your strings almost perfectly. I paid 6 bucks and I belive there are about 15 files in the set. They come in a little metal case. They might take a little longer, but you can't beat the price. -John

What you want to do is make a sled that will straddle the neck and then take off what you want a little at a time. Like an upside down U that rides on the table with the router screwed to it. Lower the bit a little at a time. Not a big deal. I length of 1/2 inch plywood with a couple of blocks on each end will do the job. -John

I ordered a rosewood fingerboard from Stu-Mac this week (Among other stuff), it came in with a hairline crack along the grain. Hard to see. Anyway, I called them up, they are sending out a replacement today. They are a good company to work with. Some companies would make you send back the defective one, then and only then would they send you a replacement. Stu-Mac said "Toss that one, we'll get you another fed-ex." They are a little more pricy then shopping around and getting a little here and a little there, but they stand behind their products. I don't have anything bad to say about them. -John

Hi, I'll take a stab at these. I always level and finish the frets before installing the neck. The metal from filing and sanding the frets seems to like to get into my wood. If you already have the neck installed, I would cover the guitar with a cloth, tape up the neck between the frets to keep you from having to clean/sand it again. I wouldn't worry about your neck warping if you don't have it changing climates. I would be careful about 100 degree's in the shop, high humidity and then bring it into the air conditioner with low humidity. Without finish that might cause you problems. With finish that is still rough on any wood. You can put sanding sealer on it if you are concerned (As long as you are not applying Dye or oil finish in the future) and that will seal it up. I've not used glue on the ends of any of the frets on any of the 4 fingerboards I've fretted. They stay down fine. Make sure you pre-curve the frets, so the ends hit the fingerboard first, then work toward the middle. That will put the most pressure at the ends. I've only put frets in where they've been removed a couple of times, so I'm not really the right person to ask. Where I've had to pull a couple of frets (I didn't get it all the way to the edge), they seated fine the second time. I might consider a drop or two of glue in that situation. Maybe a drop in the middle and one on each end? Someone else will have to give you a better opinion. Straight edge. I wouldn't use wood. It might be straight right after you joint it. It wouldn't be the next day. I use some metal rulers I got somewhere. I check them on the cast iron tablesaw to make sure they are straight before I do anything important with them. I've got several different sized ones. Everyone has a different tollerance for accuracy (HA). For longer spans I have some metal stock that I got at home depot, it about 3 feet long. I would use metal, not wood. Just check it on the jointer or tablesaw, something you know is straight. -John

NOT a PAYING GIG? Drats, Foiled again! This board is great. I even love when people ask the same questions over and over. It at least shows that people are trying to build guitars. So many people never try anything. I can put up with a lot as long as people give it a shot. There are plenty of volunteers. Sounds like we need a lotto with all the volunteers. Count me in! -John

I sit at a PC all day and check the board every couple of hours EST time zone. I would be happy to help remove the junk, but not moderate content. -john

You are so right about new wood being a problem. I cut a neck blank out of "Kiln Dried" maple and it warped 1/8 inch over it's length. Nothing like wood that is done with it's movement. I built my radius block out of some old mahogany I had in the shed, it's been there for at least 5 years. Gets HOT in there, it's done what it's going to do after 5 season changes from very hot to damn cold. It was too narrow for a neck blank.. Too bad on that one. -John

I made a 12 inch radius pattern and put it up against my new block to make sure I had the radius correct. It made a nice tight fit all along the pattern. If it's off, I can't see it. -John