AlGeeEater

You shouldn't have problems if you grain fill the body.

Regular clear lacquer is fine as a sealer. I believe 'sanding sealers' are just regular lacquer with soap added to it for sanding's sake. It may be a little more high solids but probaly not much.

I'd personally go with nitro. Why? I'm used to it. It's got a lot of great pros towards it like you mentioned. Layer melting, quick drying times, cheap, ect. Nitro doesnt yellow as much as you think, as long as you don't keep your guitar in an open window with constant sunlight on it no problem! Also checking shouldnt be an immediate issue but posisbly one over time as it's exposed to different climates. Nitro is a very forgiving paint too, great for beginners!

Why couldnt you?

I use a jigsaw, works fine for what I need it for. Takes me maybe 45 minutes tops to cut out a body with it, but I don't mind. I don't need to rush it or anything. Just make sure you leave a bit of wood around the body because the blade will wander and bend sometimes. You can also use a hand saw, if you want to look like Popeye at the end of your 2 hour cutting period

Also keep in mind that becomming a 'professional' luthier isn't just about building guitars. There's always the buisness side to -any- buisness, whether large or small. I suggest taking a buisness course if you're still in High School, and maybe take buisness in college. You should also have a backup job just incase things dont work out.

1) Do you find the current companies have sufficient options available on their guitars? b ) No 2) What do you find is the area that these companies could improve most in? a) Wood choice 3) What do you find is the second most crucial area these companies could improve in? b ) Pickups choice and variety in terms of styles, function, brands, etc. 4) Do you find that when companies do offer extra options outside their common methods that they are reasonablly priced (ie: benefit equals or outways the cost)? b ) No 5) Do you have any other comments, suggestions, criticisms, or complaints about the current guitar market that you feel this survey did not address? Nope! Like Russ pretty much says, it's hard to do this poll on a forum for those who build custom guitars, and rarely play stock big guitars. You might want to sign up for the forum at www.ultimate-guitar.com and post it there, there's a TON of players there (almost 800 people browsing the forum right now!).

Nope, there shouldnt be any problems with that! Glad you're using the heatbox, and it's working good!

Looks great! I love the photo album thing too, good way to show the process of the build. How thick was that top before carving, 3/4" ?

Lighter fluid(naptha) works pretty well to clean it also (use some common sense here people).

I'm pretty positive i'll be sending him and LP and Tele template set.

I've got LP and Tele templates...

As an alternative to angle'ing a neck, you can recess the bridge. I recess most of my T.O.M. bridges as it's easier and less precise than doing a neck angle. You'd still have to draw everything out full size and to scale to find how deep to recess the bridge. With a neck angle jig and all i'm sure it's WAY easier, but I really like the look of recessed bridges anyways.

Here's a shot of the back, wetted with a damp rag. Sorry about the crap lighting, makes everything orangish. I'm diggin' the black strip of dark grain in the back. I've also changed my mind on the finish, i'm going to be dying the top red, scraping the binding and keeping the mahogany natural. It should look killer with the black pore filler.

Got the body routed flush today. Next on the agenda is cutting the mortise, doing the control cavity and possibly hollowing out a few parts of the body. Oh yeah, the channel for the wires and the control knob too! Before all that i've got to do a ton of hand sanding, despite how good it looks already. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/AlG...er/DSC02129.jpg See ya guys! Chris

Yep, it's 42mm across the nut, but i'll take you up on that free neck blank either way. Here's the blank before diggin' into it: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/AlG...er/DSC02122.jpg Rough cut:

I never thought about that, thanks john!! I'll compare them with the templates now. I've got the body 3/4 cut out now, I will probaly have it rough cut out by tonight.

Well, the neck width is pretty much the same as the tele templates i've got except the tele gets a little thicker as it goes down the neck. I'll e-mail him and measure.

Sweet... I just gotta e-mail Ronny and ask him if the neck width is including the binding or not. If any of you guys know, let me know it will save me an e-mail!

Hmm, that's what you get for just looking at pictures I guess!

Wow, that thing is suh-weeeeet man. Awesome job on, it looks great!! BTW, is it just me or does it look like the truss rod cover is on the wrong way? Or is that how it's supposed to be, I think it'd look better the other way, but what do I know?

Haha, it wasn't Setch who changed my mind; I knew it would work. I'm just thinking of getting the 3/4" for the sake of carving the top pretty deeply.

Hey thanks for all the replies and encouragement! Mickguard - What I mean is they're not locking tuners with thumbscrews or locking thing-a-ma-bobs mammoth - thanks for the offer, but I got the board smooth this weekend. I really had no work to do today, so I went at the board with my planes, surform and sandpaper and it's perfectly flat. I love working with my hands It would have been nice to have a perfectly flat neck for that money, but i'll take it in stride. John - I was planning on using a 5/8" top, but I think i'm going to swing the money for a 3/4" top. I wan't to leave about 1/4" on the side of the top, which would give me 2", hence a typical LP. I know Setch used a 5/8" top on his LP, and I could too probaly but i'll most likely end up telling Larry I want a 3/4" one I'm STILL waiting for the templates, I haven't gotten an e-mail from Ronny on the shipping yet Chris

Looks to me like you sanded through the factory sealer coat. You didn't "eat" through wood. All those really light spots are actualy wood, and the other spots (minus the black) are sealed with the sealer (basically clear coat). You can do one of two things, drop fill those area with high solids clear/bondo, or strip the whole body down to barewood and seal it from there. Personally, i'd just drop fill the spots, they're only on the horns. Be more careful when you're stripping! And FWIW, unless you're doing a natural finish, there's not reason to strip off the factory paint, it's perfectly fine to accept new paint as long as you scuff sand it with 220 grit.

Carl, have you seen this? http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=16098 Crafty, no that's not a huge crack, it's just a real looong dark strip of grain. I'll try to get a closer picture of it so you can see what I mean, but it's not a crack. I don't think Larry would send me a blank with a crack in it, and I'd send it right back for a new one if it did. Also, i'm not using 'locking tuners' per se, just the grover 'locking tuners', they're not sperzel locking tuners or anything. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,...r_Machines.html