HeavnerGuitarWorks

Dude.... you make me cry You make it look easier than if you were doing it on a CNC machine. I love all your jigs and your duplicator. I've been wanting to build one of those for awhile, but I can't seem to find the time in between building furniture and guitars and drums and stuff. One of these days... I love that thick Spruce top. Only complaint I have is.... YOU"RE MAKING THE REST OF US LOOK BAD!

Chrome hardware has a yellowish tint to it and nickel hardware has a bluish tint. I personally prefer nickel. Flame maple has somewhat straight lines across the grain. Quilted maple looks like clouds or water or bubbles or something to that affect. Most PRS's have flame maple caps. Quilted Maple Flame Maple Hope that helped!

Thanks! Let the fun begin!

Do not use a chemical stripper on a neck. The chemicals will most likely make the inlay fall out and will bleach the wood. If it is an ebony veneer, it will most likely fill the pores with bleached paint residue that is nearly impossible to remove and it would remove the original gloss coat anyway. Now, onto the serious problems. After working for Gibson for several years, I have to say they aren't cracked up to be what most people think. Gibson did use ebony veneers on some of the guitars, but they also used a black plastic laminate that looks exactly like ebony on some of them. It doesn't matter what model it is as to which type was used. It just depends on what they had in stock the day that guitar was manufactured. If it is a plastic laminate, and believe me you can't tell by looking at it, a chemical stripper would most likely melt it. That wouldn't look too great, now would it? My advice would be to strip it the old fashioned way.... sandpaper and elbow grease. 3M makes a sandpaper made for stipping paint and varnish... I can't remember the name but it is a light green colored paper. I used that to strip the finish on a strat body in under 20 minutes. It would be nearly impossible to stip the spray paint off and still have a gloss coat underneath, so the head will most likely have to be refinished anyway. Just sand it to remove the finish, fine sand, fill the pores, spray some clear coats, wet sand, and buff. It's way more work, but will look way better in the end.

Why would anyone prefer oak over ash for a guitar? Ash is one of the best sounding woods on the planet and you don't see any of the name brand companies making oak bodies. Swamp Ash is called swamp ash cause it grows in the wet low lands of the southern U.S. The only difference between it and normal ash is the weight. Swamp ash is considerably lighter, but you could acheive the same affect with northern ash by chambering the body. I am building a guitar for the carrieburst contest from northern ash with a figured maple cap. I will be chambering the body and putting f-holes on the top to reduce the weight. I will also be using a mahogany block that will be inside the body (not seen from the outside of the body) from the bridge to the neck to give a little warmth to the tone. It will be a bolt on neck, just because I prefer em'. After working for Gibson for several years and seeing the crappy neck joints and all the problems related to them, and after all the neck resets I've done, I would much rather use bolt ons. Afterall, I've seen many fenders smashed by countless musicians and not once have I seen one snap at the neck joint. Back to the point: There is nothing finer than a nice piece of ash!

I PM'd Brian and he said since he didn't create the contest for me to just ask whoever came up with the contest and the people involved. ANY PROBLEMS WITH ME JOINING THE CONTEST?

Would anyone have a problem with me joining the competition? I absolutely love carriebursts and was planing on finishing the guitar I'm working on right now with a kick arse carrieburst anyway. I'm a major fan of competition and seriously think I can kick all your butts!

Just a thought.... does anyone have any experience with the Wagner Power Painters or their HVLP systems? I finish my guitars by hand..... by choice, but I have been curious about these systems just from a price standpoint.

Due to other uses such as furniture making, I have a full woodshop at my disposal. When building guitars I use the same setup everytime though. I use my old Dremel Moto Shop scroll saw to cut the body. I prefer it over my band saw cause its easier in the tight curves, plus if it ever breaks down you can buy em' used on ebay for about $20-25. Quite a bit cheaper than replacing my bandsaw. I use my spindle sander to finish the edges of the body. I use my Delta floor model drill press to remove most of the wood in my pickup and control cavities and neck pocket, and for all the normal hole drilling. I then use my old Craftsman router to finish up all the cavities and neck pocket and for the truss rod channel. I use my Delta table saw for the fretboard and my Delta bandsaw for the neck. If I am making a carved top, I use my router and route steps going down to the desired depth and use rasps, sureforms and such for the final shaping. I use all hand tools for shaping the neck too, rasps, spokeshaves, sureforms and sanding blocks. I hand sand everything except the edges of the body because those need to be nice and straight. I know they were building guitars before the invention of electricity, but I couldn't imagine building a guitar without a router. It is a very important tool for all woodworking projects. If you really want to buy all the things in your first list, I say go for it. In the end, they will save you considerable time in the building process and you can use them in the future for many other projects as they come along. Before I bought my table saw, I had turned my $40.00 Skil Circular saw into a table saw. It took about $30.00 worth of 2"x4"s and a sheet of MDF and some other various parts, but it worked very well. It was a little difficult to adjust the blade height and angle, but still served its purpose. The only tool on that first list I would not get is the Dremel. I would definitly replace that with a decent router. BTW, has anyone seen that show that comes on PBS.... The Router Workshop. They build everything completely with a router. I watched them build an entertainment center with nothing more than a router. Great show.

Ansil, How much would you charge for one already assembled? Just on the chassis.... no enclosure or speaker? Marshalls rock!

I worked for Gibson for quite awhile and the way we did it in the plant was simple. We fed all the electronics through the bridge pickup hole. We used a very high tech tool made of a lenghty piece of heavy guage copper wire with a 1/4" male jack soldered to the end. Before we fed the electonics through the pickup hole, we would run the copper wire with the 1/4" jack through the jack hole on the body and out the bridge pickup hole and plug it into the output jack. We then used the copper wire contraption to help feed the electronics into the body so they didn't get all twisted up inside the body and stuff.We then used yet another custom made fork thingy made out of heavy guage copper wire (a lengthy straight piece with a U shaped piece soldered to the end) to lift and hold the electronics in their proper holes. That is the way I do it to this day. The great thing with the copper wire is it's cheap, strong enough to hold what you need it to hold, but pliable enough to easily bend to whatever shape you need it too to get it through the body. The entire time I worked there that is the only trick I ever learned. Oh yeah,... I learned how to use a CNC machine well too.

I just scored a butt load of figured Anegre veneer on the 'bay and have never worked with this wood. I'm interested in buying some thicker boards to use for carved tops. How is this wood to work with and what are the tonal characteristics? 1st auction 2nd auction Also, I bought a Hackberry board that is almost 14" wide x 3/4" thick and plenty long enough to get 2 bodies out of. I'm going to use a top and back made out of padauk and quilted maple on it. It's gonna' be sweet. Has anyone worked with Hackberry. I've read it is similar to white ash which I despise but I couldn't pass it up for the price.

I worked for Gibson for quite awhile. Got tired of building crap, so I quit. Anyway, SG stands for solid guitar. They weren't entirely designed by Les Paul, but by him and the Gibson design team. As everyone else pointed out, he didn't like it too much so he took his name off it. As for construction differences, they are quite different. Obviously, LPs are thicker than SGs, and have a carved maple top. The neck joint on SGs are considerably weaker due to the the lack of wood at the neck joint and not being set into the body deep enough. I saw many a neck pop off the SGs just sitting in the racks . The carved top is quite a task for a first guitar, but the contours of the SG are equally as hard. My suggestion is to practice both on scrap before ruining your pricey piece of whatever you have. My first guitar was a SG standard and my second was a 78 LP Custom Deluxe Silverburst, and man, I wish I still had my PRS. I've owned 64 guitars, 36 of which were Gibsons (mostly LPs and SGs) and I wouldn't own another one unless I built it myself, which I wouldn't. Triple grade A pieces of shite if you ask me. But, that's just my two cents worth and I'm guessin' it ain't worth that.