cherokee6

They're all great ideas. But as to your original issue: With that wood and its thickness, I'd prefer a carved top along the lines of an LP or PRS. I can't see wasting it on a strat or tele. You can always get a thinner piece for the tops of those. Good luck with your project. As stated by the others, don't rush the project. Patience is key. There's been some great guitars of the month that may give you some inspiration other than the norm. We look forward to seeing your progress in the forthcoming month.

There are books and sites for making effcts pedals, etc. That may be a good project. You could duplicate a Les Paul Recording wiring syatem which is a bit complicated. I know I had trouble repairing one as I'm basically a "this wire looks like it goes here" kind of guy! I think a small effects box, like the old fuzz boxes might be an easier and less costly way to go. By the way "Parts is Parts" has a site for amp stuff, particularly Korg.

It's great for practicing your building and repair techniques. You may have to level or dress the frets, which is good experience. The sunburst does nothing for the guitar, in my opinion, so a new, nicer finish will improve it. All black may look great, put on locking tuners, etc. and you may have a pretty decent git. Customize and make it yours. By the way, the plywood used in the industry is high grade no void material. You can even buy some from Aircraft Spruce. Acoording to Tom Doyle (Les Paul's guy) The es-335's were/ are all ply except for the neck and toneblock!

I agree with the group; alot of custom basses, and, as mentioned Warwick's have that countour. Work with it!! If you're going to paint it just use filler on the tearout and sand it well along with a sealer coat, etc. and it should be fine. A lot of pros get tearout also and fill the holes.

As my predecessors have stated, you'll be fine; afterall, most LP's, SG's and PRS's don't put in the extra carbon rods and they use mahogany necks. You might want to consider a scarf joint, though, which is a stronger joint at the head than just shaping the neck without it. Many an LP user of late has complained about broken peg heads. This is usually due to the way the necks are made without the scarf joint. When the guitar encounters unintentional stress, ie; player dropped the guitar or it fell off a stand, etc., the head will snap off at that weak point. Good luck with your project, show us a pic when you're done!

Yeah, it's featured in an issue of WOOD magazine from several months ago. I'll try to locate the issue the kit, if you go that route, its' avaiable from Schlabaugh & Sons. Type it into Google and their site will come up. Kathy Matsushita, on her web site has a sled for cutting scarf joints; I suppose you can use a compund miter saw for that. The jig you mentioned is great for tapering necks and fingerboards.

Check the Grizzly Industrial catalog, not the website. They have a number of pages devoted to guitar supplies and tools at resonable cost. The President of the company is a hobby luthier and his pushing his products for that market. They have billets an mother of pearl, abalone, etc. On the website go to the sale or outlet section. It sometimes has guitar supplies for sale.

Im about to start fretting a few guitar necks, and so far I have been putting the frets in hammering. I know fret pressing is easier, but is it worth the money to buy one. Are there any others besides the ones on stewmac that would be a little cheaper.

I have about $40 invested in this setup:

Harbor Freight 1/2 ton press (I had a machine shop drill the hole in the bottom of the square steel bar to inset the caul holder as I did not have a large enough drill press at the time)

homemade caul holder (complements of Jay5's instructions) clicky

Stewmac brass fret caul

It works like a charm.

There are a lot of cheap presses on ebay; some as little as $10 or $15. The cauls are a good investment. though and you won't be sorry after you use them. Just check the shipping on ebay as some people like to make up their profits by high cost shipping and handling.

I'm rebuilding a Les Paul Recording. The pots have very low values: 1K linear for treble; 2.5k linear for bass and a 2.5k "BD" (balanced?) pot says the scematics. There is only one volume control for the 2 pickups, so I'm suspecting its blended. I saw the tutorial on blended pots and I'm wondering if I can apply the same theory of using resistors and capacitors to covert a normal linear pot to a blended. Any thoughts and what values would I use? CTS doesn't make the blended pot anymore, in fact, I'll have to do a little extra soldering to convert an available 5k pot to a 2.5k pot `ala the tutorial that's linked to this forum. Any thoughts or assistance?

OK. I just acquired one of the "decade switches" from a guy who works for Heritage. It's CTS made and had Gibson's stock # as opposed to CTS's. It has 11 terminals (I couldn't tell from the pics on the web sites) and 11 denotes. I'll be in touch with new qusetions. The schematcs don't show 11 positions and makes it confusing. I even went to see Les Paul at the Iridium Club in NYC on his 89th b'day. His response is that you could easily put this together from stuff found at any electronics store. His associates thought otherwise and asked me to contact them on the whereabouts of parts. My next quest is for the pots: 1k and 2.5k. 2 are linear and one seems to be a blended(?) pot? One volume is for both pickups. The schematic says"L" on 2 of the pots and "BD" on another. I should be able to get the 1k from CTS or Mouser. I may have to bleed off a 5k to get the 2.5k value as I don't see any for 5k. The blended pot may be impossible.

I acquired a LP Recording carcass some years ago and I'm trying to rebuild it. I was able to secure a set of the lo-imp pickups. The rest is fairly straightforward. I acquired a clear schematic from Gibson and between 3 great website and with many of the parts suppliers can get most of it together. The problem is the rotary switch used for tonal qualities marketed by Gibson as the "decade switch". It's an 11 position rotary switch, probably a series 212 switch from CTS. It has 6 tabs and I'm not sure the # of poles. The impedance value changes at each position which is created by soldering on the various capacitors/ resistors. CTS will get me one or a close equivalent if I can get the part #. I've checked many, many souces to know avail. Anyone shed light on this or have a suitable alternative that will give me the same features?