westhemann

What I have discovered is that if I finish a guitar after covering up a mistake all I do is stare at it and I can't play it because I know it sucks and I can't sell it because I know it sucks. So I just am not going to do it anymore.If I can't fix a mistake to be better than before I made the mistake then it gets destroyed...no exceptions.It's the only way to keep myself honest,not to mention sane.

So why titebond? I did some testing.I sometimes have to fill pinholes in a glue bond with CA where the glue wicks in and starves part of the joint,so I did some simulations since this always worried me.What I did was I titebonded a small piece of bocote with a lot of breaking leverage to a piece of rock maple.When the titebond was only about 4 hours cured I broke the joint clean at the glue line,then waited for the glue to dry on both pieces apart.Then I stuck it BACK together with CA glue without removing the dried titebond.... This is the result after cure As you can see it was extremely strong.The CA bonded to the titebond,which was bonded to the woods,and the resulting bond was such that the bocote broke rather than give at the bond.Very unscientific,but I am quite thoroughly satisfied that even in a slightly less than perfect joint that would require filling pinholes with CA after titebond cured that the resulting joint would still be stronger than the wood..even bocote,which is so strong that even with all that leverage against less than a square inch of surface area it was all I could do to break it by hand. So,my faith renewed, I used titebond And now I only have to wait

Thanks,I am moving forward. This is some fine mahogany Mikro sold me a few months back...very straight grained and rings like a bell. Cut in half and set side by side Titebond

That's not it.The pup cavity is not centered.The pup rout for the emg 81-7 moved a good 1/8" in the clamps but I neverr saw it because the template is wood.Those routing dings are nothing,that's just where I shaved down the bocote to match the top earlier but had not sanded it before routing. At this point I still think I need to cut the neck off and make a set neck.I can save the body wings for another neck through in the future and just scrap the bocote mid section.When the template slipped it also went a bit crooked so I just can't see how to make the rout look nice at this point.

I think I have it figured out.Easy fix

Nope.I am not going to build a half ass guitar on purpose.I am only waiting until tomorrow so I can run through other ideas beforehand,but so far I don't like any of the ideas I have had.

Failure...at some point the template slipped in the clamps and now it is a major problem.Most likely tomorrow I will cut the neck out and start the body over as a set neck or bolt on.I hate that.

Bridge routing done Don't worry that it appears that the one allen bolt hits the back of the rout,because it actually is screwed out further than it will be when the string lock is in that saddle and the bridge sits further forward a hair besides. The router mark you see is from leveling the bocote to match the wings.It's shallow and will sand out when I block level the top.Obviously I haven't even cleaned off the glue yet. Next step will be routing for pups and battery,then I'll block sand everything level before I start the contouring

Stewmac shipping is awesome.Ordered Friday afternoon and arrived this morning.Ohio to Texas..they don't mess around.

In fact,it occurs to me that the guitar itself is disgustingly traditional..I mean...pushing on STRINGS for music...ugh.always having to change strings...killing trees to make sounds? I think we have all been taken in.You can get a plastic guitar shaped thing and play music through your video game system..I have a keyboard that has a guitar setting on it and takes much less skill to operate. Man...I can't believe I have been duped by tradition all these years. The fresh,new guitar of the future...perfection in plastic

Carbon fiber moves.Anyone who ever put CF rods in to aid stiffness can tell you that you can still adjust the neck via truss rod...very easily in fact.The only thing CF has that wood does not is an added "memory" so that it tends to try to stay straight.Some woods are stiffer than CF. Only the truss rod gives you the ability to actually move the neck to counter movement that may come up due to humidity,temperature,or even just an eventual refretting. "Tradition" is just a keyword being used in this topic to explain away the fear of routing a simple channel.When you say "tradition" you mean "old" and the inference is that you have fresh,new ideas... No such thing.I have been on this site 10 years and have heard the same exact assertion from almost every guy who starts without woodworking experience..including myself.Without a truss rod your guitar will be less useful than a similar guitar with one.It is a cold,hard truth.Once you get over your fear and lack of skill,you will laugh at yourself for ever thinking it was difficult. Like Pros said, It was invented to counter a specific problem and it does it well,and the two way rod is so simple to install and use that you would be foolish not to.Hack at wood and cry about tradition all you want,but without a truss rod all you will have built is a guitar shaped piece of art for the wall that anyone who buys will only curse you for selling them once the need arises for adjustment. If you want to be "fresh and new",invent a thinner,stronger two way rod that still installs in a straight channel

There is a lot of truth in what Avengers posted.Fretboards are the one exception because of the water in the glue making it curl away from the joint.It makes it tough for me because my boards come pre-radiused and pre-slotted.I have no such issue with epoxy

I like the 26" scale,I just put the project aside to take up later.It is totally salvageable,I just need to approach it with a good attitude towards sanding off the entire epoxy sealer coat. I had a 27.5" scale 6 string ESP a while back.It sounded really,really nice.

Looks great.is there a finish on it yet?

Actually it's my second F,but I never finished the first.I will some day though.it is a 26" scale and I fell out of love with it when I needed to sand the epoxy sealer coat back to wood and start over,and the volute looked funny.

Regardless,hopefully the bridge inserts I ordered will be in tomorrow so I can rout my bridge.

I like pointy guitars

I don't care much about "hijacking"...as long as it has some sort of semblance to being on topic or whatever it's fine with me Discussing the merits of the epoxy I am using vs other epoxies seems quite relevant to me.

I am appalled...don't even know what to say. I just can't see that ever happening here without serious repercussions.The media would be all over it.I guess that is one good thing about the media being the way it is...

Let's be honest here...the only reason to try to build without a truss rod is because you are scared of it because you lack the skills to feel comfortable or you are trying to create a marketing scheme which will make you stand out like Ed Roman. Man up and stop being so scared of everything.There are enough useless guitars and wasted wood in the world without falling prey to this,which is as I said before the trap every single newb falls into out of fear...the need to come up with a solution for a non-problem in which the solution itself is always more complicated than just doing it the correct way. Truss rod=correct No truss rod= not correct

Gotta have better pics to get the votes.Might be closer....I personally just could not vote for a guitar that I could not even judge the craftsmanship on because of a lack pf good pictures even though it looks like a good overall design with nice woods

I do the same thing.I use mixol quite often with mine for weird things like side dots or accented glue lines...it always cures just fine.I know nothing of "Araldite"

http://www.systemthree.com/reslibrary/tds/T-88_TDS.pdf I think you are talking of lap shear strength?on what material? T88 is 1800 psi on maple,and the maple failed first.Just for comparison

By the way as an update...I am waiting on some new Floyd inserts because I somehow misplaced the ones that came with this bridge when I bought it 9 years ago.

Curing time is not the only consideration as to whether an epoxy is good for use on wood.Obviously it's feasible to have a very thin epoxy formula that would penetrate the wood and create a strong bond in a shorter time frame than 24 hours. All of the quality epoxies I have used are 24 hour cure and all of the 5 to 20 minute varieties have been crap...but the main issue with "5 minute epoxy" is that when people say 5 minute epoxy they mean that Loctite crap you get at your garden variety big box store...and that stuff is only good for use on stuff that doesn't matter to anyone.