dead_lizard

Dude, just make your own covers. Get some scratchplate material (or any suitable plastic) and cut it out and sand the edges. If you want to reproduce the ibanez cover shapes, just find a decent photo of the cavities, print those and cut around them.

Just wanted to share with you an idea an engineer friend of mine gave me. I was trying to track down an allen key holder for the back of the headstock, but they were difficult to get hold of and expensive. He suggested I get three button magnets and arrange them in an L-shape on the back of the headstock. You just drill three shallow holes and superglue them in. Make sure the magnets you get aren't too strong or you risk pulling them out/not being able to rip the allen key off. Works like a charm and never falls off. Actually looks quite good too and solves the age old Floyd problem of the elusive allen key floating around somewhere in the gig bag.

Are you going to put a laminate on the headstock? You can get these for under five bucks.

Might I suggest also buying some sort of tremsetter (a device which allows you to bend or even break strings without affecting the others), not sure how effective these are on 7strings though, guess you have to tweak it. Personally I would go for the edgepro. It's got saddle chips, a more aerodynamic shape and you can string-thru body. Plus everytime you look at it you won't have to think "i wonder what the expensive model is like". I agree with the above about cavity holes. Have you got your plastic for the covers yet (stewmac)? With regards to the neck, i assume you are not going to carve the back just yet, before the truss channel and fingerboard glueing? By the way, did you decide to get a longer truss rod? Keep up the good work.

Stainless steel fretwire is good, if you can get your hands on it. As far as glue goes, remeber that most of these glues will set stronger than the surrounding wood, so as long as it can withstand reasonable temperatures, go with whatever suits the join. Finishing ideas; you may thank me or curse me for opening up this can of worms (maybe both), but if you go to alsacorp.com you will find some finishes which will BLOW YOUR MIND. Tell us about the truss rod perhaps. I recommend body-end adjustment, looks better, gives more strength at the nut, functions the same way. The only downside is that you have to take off the neck to adjust it. But seriously, how often do you expect to be adjusting the neck bow.....don't answer that

What about the fingerboard? Have you obtained the fretwire? What kind of inlays will you use? I recommend simple abalone or mother of pearl dots for your first guitar. PS: for any other parts or even for some little tutorials, check out stewmac.com

How well it lines up when you flip it over depends on how well you MAKE it line up. The more reference points you give yourself the better it will line up. Some ideas to think about: Drill holes through the body on areas which will be cut out later; use these as reference points. Trace your body shape onto a piece of tracing paper. Put this onto the wood. Mark all four corners onto the tracing paper. When you flip the body over, aligning the corners (four corners can't lie!) will prove that the shape is in the right place. I guess what everyone is trying to hint to you is this: the body shape doesn't have to be exact - the neck pocket does. The body shape can be sanded and fooled around with if you don't like it - the neck pocket can't. You've waited this long to build your guitar. Don't let impatience be the undoing of a great instrument. Don't feel we are trying to pressure you or stifle you. We all want your guitar to turn out great! By the way, how's the neck going?

I can explain how you can have the best of both worlds in one sentence: rout the neck pocket first, then use your body template on THE BACK OF THE GUITAR. Just flip her over. If you mark your centre lines and such, then they will align perfectly on the back. I also agree with getting all your parts (or as many as you can) before doing any serious work. I know it's hard with all of those lumps of wood staring at you wanting to be worked, but the fact is you can't play it until the parts arrive, so in the meantime, just chill. Do you have access to a bench drill. If so, I can teach you a number of tricks. Joining the body timbers: a hint. Instead of sash clamps, buy yourself two slabs of 1/2" timber which are as long, and slightly wider than the thickness of the body wood. Buy 4 or more lengths of threaded rod, some nuts and some wingnuts. Drill holes in the timber put the rods though and you have yourself a homemade clamp, adjustable with the wingnuts. If this is unclear, I can show you with pictures. Good luck!!!

If I can offer some advice to you: Rout the neck pocket out BEFORE you cut out the body shape. Actually try to do as much routing as you can while the body is still a solid block. The reason for this is to give the router a nice flat base tow work off. When routing the neck pocket, set the router up with "rails", ie. lightly glue or nail (be careful to nail on areas you will cut later) some straight pieces of timber for your router to run along. All you need to do is draw the neck pocket onto the body and with the router off, set up the rails so that the router blade will follow your sketched lines. As far as cutting your body without a bandsaw; I don't have a bandsaw either, but if you have a bench drill you can drill several holes and join them with a coping saw, then file off the excess. Beware of jigsaws; while they are cheap, they are prone to drifting. Buy some bradpoint drill bits: good for inlays and tuner holes. That's all I can think of for now, but if you have any questions or if you get into trouble email me at dead_lizard@hotmail.com Ben