genbloke

Aluminium oxidised very quickly. The connections for the grounds will gain a lot of resistance because aluminium oxide is non-conductive, this is not good. I would have thought something like stainless steel would be a better bet. genbloke

I'm making a tele type guitar and this is the bridge I've purchased: schaller bridge The roller saddles are each mounted on a threaded pivot. It is possible to adjust the saddle spacing by quite a few milimetres on this. They're not cheap but I'm impressed by the quality, appearance and the adjustability. Genbloke

Thanks for the advice Johnsilver, I didn't thing the quality of the jigsawing was too important until now. I'll probably quickly belt sand the edges after jigsawing to make the cut more 'uniform'. genbloke

There's always the option of stacked humbuckers. These are the same size as single coil pick ups. genbloke

Cool, thanks krazyderek. So basically I need to get the 3/4" length cutter and route out the body following the template. After the 1st pass remove the template and use this initial route to guide the subsequent passes to finish off the 2" thick body. Genbloke

Hi guys, To cut out my swamp ash body I'm going to rough cut my blank with a jigsaw then use the 'template on top of the body' technique to finish off the shaping. My question is, what do I need to look out for when buying a router bit? I need to find a good quality cutter obviously, but what diameter/length would be the best choice for routing out bodies? I was looking out these cutter and wanted some advice before purchasing: "Perform" profile router cutters I have a router with a 1/4" collet. Thanks Genbloke

crafty, that makes sense. It'll be like wearing a bin bag and wonder why it's clammy/sweaty! genbloke

GuitarMaestro, I didn't see that on the website, Thanks The neck has arrived, I'm very impressed by the initial appearence. It's beutifully finished and as a bonus I comes with a side adjusting truss rod.

I've been informed that my Warmoth neck will be arriving tomorrow. It's taken exactly a month for my neck to be made and exported over here in England (not bad IMO). Spec is shorter 24-3/4" Scale, 22 Frets, with a 10 1/2" radius. Materials are flame maple, pau ferro fretboard with abalone dot inlays. I won't be able to put any finish on it for a few weeks (lack of spare time) so my question is how is the best way to store it to prevent warping? My idea was to remove any tension from the truss rod, then wrap it up in a plastic refuse bag, is this a good idea? Ta genbloke

bigtommyb, where are you getting your neck from? I'm in the UK to. I've ended ordering a shortscale tele neck from Warmoth in the US. Sorry to drag the thread off topic guys. Genbloke

I'm doing a 'thicker than normal' tele so I'm adding a rear contour and a arm contour on my tele. genbloke

Kench, Yeah timber merchants around my area only supply PVA type glues (wery cheaply as well), no one sells titebond or similar. I usually prefer not to buy from specialist places 'cos there's normally a mark up on prices. Immr, you might have gathered I'm quite tight fisted, I love getting a bargain Genbloke

HI All, You guys in American seem to get REALLY good bargains for tools, guitar hardware etc , where as in the UK everything seem to be a lot more expensive (twice the price compared with US stuff in a lot of cases). Count yourselves lucky! Anyway, I was looking for a source of titebond on the net and found this place> Titebond The prices seem to be a lot less than at luthier type shops and the stuff arrived next day after ordering. Hopefully this will be of use to some of you Brits out there. Genbloke ps no connection, just a satisfied customer.

Won't the string angles from the nut to the tuners be a bit steep with that design? What are the opinions of the experienced buiders out there? genbloke

Hi all, My intentions is to fit a piezo pickup to the underside of the bridge on the hybrid telecaster I'm buiding. After reading about the necessity of using a buffer amp, I did a search on the web and found this> Artec booster amp,at the bottom of this linked page Has anyone tried one of these yet? It seams ideal due to the following: The pots can be removed and wired up to fit the limited fitting depth of an electric body It has (If the claims are to be believed) a battery life of 4000hours! And to top it off has a tone control at a cost of only £13.99 (I'm in the UK) from Touchstone Tonewoods Ltd (part number 8887) Sounds good to me Genbloke

Brilliant, thanks again I'll take some piccies when I do the job and post them up here

Apparently Coca Cola is very good at stripping rust and some other finished from metal! (yep, I thought it was a joke too when I first heard it). There are several people who are into car restoration who swear by this technique to remove rust on small parts. Havn't tried it myself so can't vouch for it working. Genbloke

erikbojerik, Thanks for the replies. I've decided to go against doing a binding 'cos this is my 1st guitar build (doing the drop top is going to be a big challenge in itself!) To round up, after the reading the above replies (thanks everyone) and some more searches, the best method (when not using a vac bag) to bend a drop top is: 1. Dampen the surface of the wood (using de-ionised water to prevent minerals in tap water staining the wood) and leave it for a few minutes. 2. Steam the wood until pliable (avoiding the bookmatch join). 3. Apply glue to the body and put the top on it, using 'pins' to locate the bookmatch join correctly 3. Using more steam, bend the wood over slowly using LOADS of clamps. 4. Leave for several days (or weeks) to allow the glue to set. Does this sound good? Has anyone tried using a wallpaper stripper like one of these to generate the steam?: Wallpaper Steamer Also how 'bendy' should 7mm thick burl maple be before attempting to bend it? Thanks Again Genbloke

thanks everyone for the replies. I think I'm better armed to takle the job. Time to get some bobbin clamps made up I think

Cheers Daveq, That's cleared things up. In regards to using pins- I've always wondered how to align the join in the bookmatched top to the join on the 2 piece body, now I know . The thought of cracking my lovely piece of burl maple does scare me a bit (hence all these questions!) How much time do you normally get when working with Titebond/ Titebond Extend? Thanks again Genbloke

Thanks for the reply DannoG. I've just found the vacuum veenering tutorial on this project guitar site. I think this is beyond me. I'll go for the standard 'plenty of clamps technique. Is this correct?- Spay water on the surface of the wood, steam and then bend slowly a bit ot a time(avoiding the bookmatch join)? Do I need to wet / steam both sides of the wood or just the outer face that will get the main stress of the bending? Thanks Genbloke

The problem sounds like it's down to poor stringing techique because only 1 string is going out of tune, not all of them. Make sure you don't wind too 'much string' around the tuners (2-3 complete windings around the tuner is plenty), and that the string isn't slipping out through the tuner. New strings take time to bed in (mainly due to the slack around the tuner), so to speed up the bed in process I like to tune up to the correct pitch and 'waggle' the string up and down several times (about half way down the length of the string). Strings can normally take quite a bit of pulling so don't be too afraid of breaking it. Retune the guitar and repeat untill it seams quite stable. This should help matters. Genbloke

Hi All, I've done a search on the above subjects but couldn't find the information I needed (so please don't shoot me down!). My first quesion is What is the vacuum method Scott R. uses for applying his drop tops, Are there any links to detail how this is done? secondly, is a 7mm burl maple top too thick to bend? And lastly, if I wanted to apply a binding to the body, how would I rout out the arm contour section to accept the binding. Is the binding material flexible enough to bend 'downwards and around the arm contour easily? Thanks Genbloke

decalshopmike- yeah, compatibility did cross my mind. I once sprayed a car bonnet with cellulose (which had previously have been sprayed with acrylic). The resulting crackling effect wasn't very pleasent

Ok, Thanks guys. Things are starting to make sense now My timber should be arriving in the next few days, Wahoo! (I won't be at the finishing/lacquering stage for quite sometime now, but I least I Have a clue on where to start when I get there ) Genbloke