hy_dro66

How high is your action? If you some room to lower it, that will help. If you still can't get it, do what brian said. It's easy to do.

I also joined the military when I graduated high school, except I tried college for a couple semesters, only I was working fulltime and doing college. That didn't work out so well so I joined the AF. I was a hydrualics mechanic/chopper crew chief. I enjoyed most of it but I'm not the military type. When I got out I took a year off(thanks to a great wife) to spend with my daughter. I then went to Roberto-Venn. And dispite what you've heard there are some grants and financial aid that you can get for there. I actually got the GI bill to pay for half of the tuition. A lot of the guys got financial aid and/or student loans. I am not in the least bit trying to sway you into going there. But I loved it and learned a sh*#load of stuff. When I showed the guitars that I built at R-V to the repair shop owner I work for now, he hired me almost instantly. I never gave him a resume, filled out an application or signed anything. I started work the next week and I've been working like crazy ever since. I also am in the process of building my first five guitars under my business name and 2 will be sold the day they are finished. So however you can do it, live your dream. I disagree with the money statement made earlier as well. Granted, it'll get you stuff and some security. If that is what makes you happy then get a job that will make you lots of money. I don't have a lot and I'm happy and so are my wife and kid. We save what we can and don't buy what we don't need. It might be viewed by others as a simple life but I'm as happy as I'll ever be. On the flip side you can make a lot of money in the repair business. We charge $75.00/hour labor at our shop. I don't take all of that but I get a chunk. If you get fast you can easily make 30 dollars an hour in guitar repair. You've recieved a lot of sincere comments from these guys. Take the advice and do what you need to do. You'll be great at what ever you choose.

I'm not trying to discourage you in anyway, but even if you get the ones from stew-mac there is still a lot of practice needed to pull of a nice nut slot. Personally, I have a set of stew-mac nut files...however I do repair work as my job, so they're worth every penny. I've already made my money back and them some. Another way to go is a triangle file. They work very well and I still use them for basses. The slot ends up trianglular but after you're finished slotting you will sand the top of the nut off and you can't even tell. A triangle file probably costs, at the most, a few bucks for a good one(you don't need a large t-file, small ones actually work best). Get a few different sizes and see which you like. Really it all comes down to which feels most comforatable for you. Honestly, if you aren't planing on making nuts on a regular basis then you might not want to spend the money on the stew mac stuff. Have fun with your first project!

Wow!

definately epoxy

Totally agree. All about the amp.

What's your plan for carving the top? or should I say...what are you going to use to carve the top? Also you could just use a thicker body blank instead adding a top. It'll save money.

The most basic explaination I can give is that the higher the ohm reading, the hotter the pickup is. Typically low resistance gives a more vintage sound and high resistance gives a more modern sound, but neither of those is entirely true. A lot of it depends on how the pickup is constructed and what materials are used. What are looking for in a pup exactly?

Have fun dude. When you play your first guitar you'll be hooked. Not only will it be a good guitar, it'll be different than what everyone else is playing. Welcome. Oh...I use ebony quite a bit and it doesn't seem that difficult to work with to me. It's just messy and oily. Plus you can inlay ebony with little skill and get great results. As far as hardware goes, you can track that stuff down really easy on the net. One last thing...the tricky part is neck carving. If you have never done it than you might want to practice carving scraps first. You'll do great. Enjoy your first project!

I would definately try the pine body. If it turns out you don't like it then build the next guitar. A guy just ordered a 6-string custom bass from me and he handed me this 8/4 piece of Teke(which is commonly used in fine funiture). It's very oily and extremely heavy. It's definately not a typical instrument building wood, but that's what he wants. I know that it's going to be a great playing and high quality instrument and he's going to love it. Point being, you can build an electric guitar out of almost anything and make it work. And if it doesn't work than you can learn from your mistake and move on. Even the acoustic building world has expanded to using different woods that would never have been used years ago.

I'm just wondering how you all do drop tops with a top plate. I've only ever tried doing it using a vacuum system. If you guys haven't tried it that way I'd say at least give it a try. It took a few busted bags before I got the setup working properly, but it's up and running now.

Looks good to me.

The third octave would have some tight fret spacing. That would take some getting used to. Consider the number of frets over the body, the bridge will move towards the upper bout as you change which fret is at the body joint. I guess you could just do a super cutaway.

We are carrying Walden acoustics right now. They sound great and run about 500 to 600 bucks with a nice case. Solid top, scalloped X-Bracing, wood tuner knobs to match the body, fishman piezo with preamp and overall great sound for the price. The issues I've noticed with them right out of the box is they need a setup and the nut is a little unfinished looking. Some of them have developed severe humpitis(hump at the neck/body joint). So we've had to level a bunch of them. However they sound the best of any we carry at our store(dean, ovation, aria, takmine, micheal kelly).

Wiring up any set of pickups with a simple pup selector, volume control and tone control isn't that difficult. On top of that it would be good to learn that stuff if you are planning on building or customizing guitars. It doesn't take much research. Look at some wiring diagrams(posted everywhere on the net), analyze them and use them and eventually you'll be comfortable with it. Tone controls are almost useless unless you are playing jazz or you need knobs to mess with when your playing a gig. The hardest part is learning how to solder. You can do it!

Well done dude. Looks good.

I don't see why you couldn't.

I have no clue. You could always test fit in a scrap piece of wood.

That would be fun. I don't know enough about them though. I don't think it would be too hard if you had one to analyze.

Typically two piece bodies are cheaper and if your doing a solid color than who cares if there are two pieces? If they are joined clean I think it looks cool.

American Deluxe Fat Strat Modded Tele And a few I've built

What's crazy is that McApline can play the keys as good as he can play the guitar. He's a killer classical piano player.

Started playing piano at age 6, I got bored at age 18 and picked up the guitar. It's great. Can't stop playing.

Drop top.

Yeah, that's clever.