Traveler

this is coming along very nicely.....will follow this build with much interest.

I've had one since about 1997 and it's proven to be a solid, stable, neck. If I remember right it had a small sticker or stamp on the heel that said "product of Canada" and "lacquer finish". It's been a mule neck for many projects and been refinned a few times so those markings are long gone otherwise I'd check to verify. anyway, not a bad neck for $89 or so back then.

impressive material selection, and execution. Jack Butler is green with envy.

consider using dyed baking soda set in CYA, check Stew Macs website for this tip on filling chips/dents, you don't want to pull frets and grind your fb down to fix that. what is happening in your fretting process that is causing the chipping???

just finished my second scratch built neck and I prepped the slots as Mikro said above, and the frets seated much better than my first neck which I didn't bevel the slots. I noticed frets 1-12 seemed to be pooched up a bit right in the center so I clamped a strip of maple over the board and added a drop of CYA down both sides of the fret and it's turned out great with 100% of fret wire fully seated.

I cut my FB using Stew table saw blade, Stew fret wire. I did have to deepen my slots a bit after radiusing and I used my LMI hand fret saw to touch this up, supposed to be .023 kerf and measures out a bit over this so I found it slightly larger than the StewMac .023 kerf saw blade.

I'm only exp. using nitro, and find the benefits for my climate quite good so.....I have a friend who is an exceptional airbrush artist and would like him to do a graphic on a body for me, what kind of paint is ok for him to use over a nitro color coated body then I'll finish with clear coats of nitro??? obvious answer would be nitro but I'm hoping more readily avail paints commonly used by airbrush guys will be compatable with nitro. thanks.

simply beautiful work you 've done there.....

which blue powder are you using?? I'm looking for something that will be pretty bright.

what a pair of beauties!!!! I'm in the middle of my first LP build and while not for this project, I would love to know about your dye recipe.

great post here....I agree 100% with John's findings and if I can add that I use min spirits to wet sand vs. water to avoid ruining a finish with water creeping underneath, ask me how I know! I made up a crude rotating fixture that allows me to spray one side and the sides then turn it over so it can flash with minimal crap landing when it's wet. flip, and do the reverse. my first 'real' quality finish was a shoreline gold strat body that recieved 10 thin to medium coats of clear then blocked with 1000G and polished using 3M product with my PorterCable orbital set at 1500 rpm.

Thanks Traveler! The Vibrola is new, found it at Allparts.

I couldn't find it on their site....do you have a part # maybe I could reference? thanks.

that is wicked cool, I sound like a 20 year old from Boston when I say it but ***. Is the body shape an original Gretch design? please add it to the downloads so I can make a 12 string version with some TV's!

what a beauty.....love the tobacco burst you went with. is that tremelo scavanged from something or did you source it some place and where if I may ask. I'm looking for a Maestro to do an SG at some point and haven't found an aftermarket version yet.

constructing my first neck....at what point does one usually radius the fb, before or after tapering or does it matter? will their be a diff in thickness or height when looking at the tapered product after radiusing from the nut vs. the heel end considering the width diff?

just went thru this recently, switched out my 1/4 to a 3tpi 1/2" blade which is the max my 15 year old low buck Delta can run. tune up to proper tension, and set the guides and bearings as described above and it cut my first ever birdseye fretboards straight as an arrow.

I'm still in process with my first LP type but I rolled up part of an old t-shirt that fit snug in the channel and after I glued the top on I pulled the tee from the control cavity thru and out thru the switch cavity thus cleaning out the glue that would have potentially fouled the channel.

I'm at the stage in my first set neck build of an LP and need to know when you bore the holes for the pots?? from what I can see on the tutorials is it's done after the top is carved but I'm in the dark on how one would properly locate them. Are they done from the cavity outward allowing for any angle to meet the top angle?? If so, how do you do it cleanly when the bit breaks thru? thanks, Matt

seriously cool piece you built there.....where did you source the bridge??

thanks fellas, I wouldn't of thought of doing the bookmatch technique. are the veneers avail obviously in rolls or long strips? haven't really looked at my local Woodworkers Source I'm sure they probably have something like this. thanks again.

after viewing the fantastic creations displayed by members here, I'm wondering how you go about creating the ultra thin strips I've seen in multi-piece neck laminates? some appear as thin as 1/16th, maybe less.

the only thing I can think is to rip a strip off of a board then some how try to sand it uniformly enough down it's length to be properly prepped to glue up. am I far off base here? thanks.

I agree with the obvious shortcomings of the 'vintage' spec Gibson and others have done, and haven't done it on the 2 builds I've done using neck binding but I'd like to do a period correct LP and this is something I'm gonna have to tackle.

I understand the frets are to be left un-beveled, then place the binding 'hump' to extend the fret shape thru to the edge of the binding strip apparantly from the post above??

sounds like possible long term shrinking leads to a gap forming between it and the fret end to deal with also. wouldn't it be easier to set the top of the binding to the height of the fret and then scrape the areas between flush to the fb?

I sold my LP several years ago and don't have another example of this style of finishing the binding over the fret ends like Gibson does. anyone that can provide a basic tutorial on the process will make my xmas card list. thank you.

here in Phx, last December I finished my first guitar in nitro. I generously cleaned and vac'd my shop very clean then lined the walls, cabinets, shop tools, in 4 mil sheeting. I sprayed my pieces using a small step ladder as a tree to hold the pieces just inside the door leading to the yard.

I've found with nitro and at the fast rate that it kicks, I obtained a fantastic finish by painting one side of a body for ex., flipping it upside down so no dust or bugs to settle down into the wet surface, waiting a few minutes for it to flash to a point that anything that may land on it will easily remove once fully cured, then spray the other side repeating the process of inverting it once finish is layed on.

If you tend to spray with a heavy hand than this process will probably net you some paint runs, but if you're using a moderate to light coat then I've found it to work well. I obtain cross ventilation by having the overhead garage door and the side yard door open during spraying then close them when not to stop the air flow and the increased chance of foreign material finding it's way into the finish. I layed drop cloths over my bikes and parked the cars outside away from any flow of over spray. This is an Opie Taylor way of doing it but it worked very well, and the weather here is great for painting.

what a beauty!!!

as always, great advice from great people. most of my blades are in good condition ie no nicks to really have to grind back down to, just needing a nice sharp edge put back in to do the job. so one of the 8000G water stones maybe a honing guide?? any other basics I should be looking at??