cherokee6

I see that the strings do not go through the body a'la telecaster. My guess is that the ferrules are removable in order to insert the string akin to the pins used on an acoustic.

Yes, it's ugly, but then, there are a lot of guitars out there made by major manufacturers that I think are ugly, yet, they sell.

Those blanks are sher purty! Grizzly has dyes and supplies also.

Certain areas of a git body need to have a reverse cut, in other words guide your router in the opposite direction that you would normally use. If I can learn to load up a simple pic from my computer, I have a diagram for you!

The newer Squiers as with the Mexican Fender products are routed a bit differently to allow more flexibility in pickup configurations vs a specific routing for each type. It's a "one body fits all" type of thing. What you want to know. as mentioned earlier as where the body was made and in what year. The mid-80's Squiers made at Fender Japan are vastly superior to the modern ones, as their quality was on par with, if not better than the Fenders made in USA.

You also have to remeber that swamp ash was considered a useless wood until 50 or so years ago that it became useful in the elec. git trade. And, Leo was looking for the cheapest and most easily mass produced parts and components to put the gits together. So a "muttwood" as someone has descibed it may be ok, but the Fender Japan gits were alder, boxwood generally speaking. I'm suer there were a couple of others added tp the list. I have 4 of them and they all sound great!

Very nice. I like the natural wood look. What did you finish it with? Can we have closeups of the bridge and nut areas?

Great Choice! Sometimes Amazon has their stuff with no shipping. However, I've read some people weren't happy with delivery, time, customer service with Amazon, etc. Check their site.

That is sooooooooooo cool! :D

I used to just bang the back of the git on my workbench until they fell out. That would also save me time in doing the relic work later on. :D

OK, check this site:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Too...px?dir=Jointers

Good luck with your decision.

Point made; there's argument over the difference. I'm tempted to try brass, on my tele project. I'll let you know if I do it and can tell the difference.

Is there someone else doing the fret job? Otherwise I agree with aidlook and eddiewarlock. It seems more work than it may be worth. If you are look at it as a learning experience knowing from the beginning that this project may not turn out well, then go for it. It sounds as though you are trying to convince us , or more likely yourself, that this is a worthwhile project. If that's the case; what have you got to lose except time and some money on wood? But don't believe this is an easy swap job. It is also worth your while to invest in some tools. Acquire them when you need each one so you can spread out the cost and learn the use of each tool. My $.02. Good luck with it and let us know how it turns out.

I think a previous thread on this discussed the fact that there is little, if any, tonal difference: certainly not distinctive to most human ears. (I think there was some scientific data provided also). However, rollers or some of the man-made plastics, such as graphite seem to be better for gits with trems. There's even argument over that! I guess it boils down to what material you like to work and feel comfortable with.

Depending on the warp it may have no effect on what you are doing as you may be able to compensate as you level the board as soapbarstrat mentioned. Sounds as though you may just want to make your own neck! You will need to get the old board off, of course, but it can be tricky not to do any damage to the neck. Check the tutorials, but it usually entails softening the glue through the use of steam or heat and very sloooooowly prying the fret board off. Then you will have to get the glue off of the neck and probably sand it a bit if you've been careful, to make sure the new fit is flat and perfect. Check the truss rod while you're at it, maybe re-glue with silicon and attach the new board with titebond or such. You know the rest after that. Again check the tutorials and/or get a repair book as I am certainly no expert in this area.

I've been happy with tusq but may try graphite on the new build.

There are a couple of articles you can probably find on the web. One was recently from the annual tool issue from Fine woodworking and another from Wood mag. They both point to features you may want to compare. I heard rumor that Riggid may be getting out of the woodworking biz which is a potential problem for parts and support unless another company picks up that end of the biz.

Funny thing is the only Floyd I've got is on a strat with a locking nut!! But Les Paul has the Bigsby's on a few of his gits with no locking nut and he doesn't have a problem. Of course, he doesn't dive bomb either! Try it with just the locking tuners first without messing with the neck and see how it works out. You won't have to make any mods to anything that you may regret later. You can get the tuners through Brian at Universal Jems c/o this forum, at a discount. Check out Sambo's recommendation out if you have access to a copy of Melvyn's book. If you don't have it, get it: it's a must have. Melvyn is also a member here and I would think if you shoot him a PM, he'll be happy to answer some of your questions.

I think she got a wedgie.

Have a Happy and Healthy one, even though you're not 28 like the rest of us! (wannabes). :D

Welcome to the forum. We look forward to your insight and seeing your projects.

Try out a test model by using pine. That will give you a bit of confidence to "take the plunge".

Actually, originally the skunk stripe was made of koa, not walnut. I suppose they have used walnut. I know I would use walnut as it's cheaper and easier to get. I also, in my opinion, looks better. Besides, make it your own custom neck; why does it have to be a duplicate?

Bongiorno, Meme. If you look into Erno Zwaan's book, Animal Magnetism, half of it is devoted to bass building. He uses a 2 piece body, each with one side cut at about an 80 degree angle and then glued together where the angled sides of each piece meets. This gives about a 20 degree angle to help make the curve. Then he does his shaping. However, as a newbie, Zwaan recommend that you start with a one piece, or glued up flat piece say 2 inches or 51mm thick and carve it out as the others have suggested. Vincenzo e Garhanmann's idea is great. It's harder to do your routing with the pre-angled piece. Caio! - Tomaso

After writing this, I have a strange yearning for some espresso (NOT eXpresso) and biscotti (pronounced bis coat ie!)!

I noticed a lot of Bigsbys are retro fitted and don't have locking nuts. I've seen this on Teles (yes, I know the Bigsby curse in that you will never be able to correctly fit one on a tele) and on LP's and semi-hollows. It seems locking tuners will work fine with that system.

Duane Allman and his protoge, Derek Trucks play in open E. In fact they both use(d) open E for all of their guitar playing,not just slide. I think the lead guitarist in Black Crows also does all of his playing in open E. Try 'em all, they have a unique "feel" to them. Don't forget;: to play good blues you need to drink cheap bourbon, smoke cigs or cigars (cigars are more effective), get involved with fast women, and live hand-to-mouth! Sunglasses look cool also. :D

I think (DON'T quote me because my memory is a bit faulty on this) I spoke to Jeff awhile back as he's a local guy and he stated they were made in Indonesia under his specs and quality control. I was interested at the time in seeing one and trying it out, so it may have been 2 years ago. Similar to Guild building gits in China "under their quality control" and getting what you get, that's why they came out with a new line of American made ones. The last guitar of his I saw was the past fall/winter at Alto's in Middletown, NY (some of you may be familiar with the place).

Anyway, I'm trying not to rain on anyone's enthusiasm, it's just my very short experience with the product. The sale may a great deal, just make sure you can return it if not satisfied and with minimum cost to you. Good Luck in your search for a good acoustic!