jch4v

Here are some pics of a work in progress. The body is walnut with butternut control panels, cherry top, tiger maple/walnut neck, tiger maple headstock, rosewood fretboard (dyed black to look like ebony and to cover up some crappy purpleheart inlays I did). It's all finished with formby's tung oil. I'm gonna wax it later. Let me know what you think! Thanks! J P.S - this is my first "from scratch" guitar. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jch4v/album?.dir=/5bc7

I am making a les paul copy with a cherry top. I want to rub tung oil into the top and wax it a bit after it dries. Once I rub the tung oil on (a scrap piece of cherry), it comes out looking sort of blotchy. What can I do to fix this problem? Thanks! J

I have abelone shell... though I haven't put it in yet. Should I stain the board black and then put the shell in? Or somehow try to mask the shell off? I could drill the holes for the shell (dot inlays) and then stain and then put the shell in. The only problem I see with that is when I go to sand the shell down a bit, wouldn't I sand off the stain? What should I do?

Have you used this stuff before? I want the board to be JET BLACK! Also... will this stuff stain the shell too? I don't want that. J

I read a few posts about using vinegar to ebonize wood. Well, last night, I stuffed a mason jar full of 0000 steel wool, poured a bottle of white vinegar in and closed the top. That was about 15 hours ago. I expected to see some change in the color of the vinegar this morning, but it's still as clear as it was originally. Is there something I am missing in this formula? I know you're supposed to leave it for a few days, but I expected to see some change... Thanks! J

Hello! I am working on a les paul copy. I glued the neck in a week ago, and there is a small gap between the heel of the neck and the guitar body. It's probably around 1/32". I want to fill this gap with a mixture of glue and wood dust, but I want to find out what kind of glue would take the finish the best. I am planning to use stain and tung oil for the finish....what should I use? Thanks! j

My thing is this: The fretboard will not sit flush with the top of the guitar unless the top is angled the same way that the neck is. What will end up happening is that the fretboard will be sticking up a little bit on the end and then will angle back. I just wanted to see if this was the normal procedure, or if there was another way to do this? When the guitar is carved, this does not occur.

Hello! Here's my question: I am building a Les Paul (Like) guitar. Actually, it's going to look a lot like the Bob Marley Les Paul Custom... I don't want a carved top. I like the look of a flat top. BUT.. I do want to use a tune-o-matic bridge... so I know that I will have to use a neck angle. I understand how to cut the angle in the pocket or on the neck itself. That's not my problem. My problem is that, if I am understanding this correctly, when you usually angle a neck, you have to carve the top to hide the angle, and so that the fretboard can rest on top of the body nice and flat. My question is this... I know that there are some FLAT TOPP Les Pauls... at least they look flat to me. So, if I don't carve the top, how am I supposed to hide the angle? Do I still have to sand an angle into the top portion of the body? Has anyone done this before? Do I just sand the shape of the fretboard into the body - at an angle? Maybe I am making this more complicated than it has to be... I just can't seem to grasp the concept in my head. Any help would be appreciated greatly! Thanks, J P.S I did a search and didn't really come up with anything. My apologies if this question has been asked before!

Thanks guys... I ended up figuring this out yesterday by trial and error! Your advice was really helpful though. I thought I was just doing something wrong.. I am glad (not really) that it is a common problem and I am not just crazy! J

Hello. I have a stanley block plane. It works great. I used it to plane some 8/4 rough sawn walnut into a body blank for a les paul. Worked like a charm. Now, I bought some supposedly "figured" walnut and maple, and on both of those woods, when I try to use the hand plane, it makes a VERY ROUGH cut into the wood, leaving the wood looking something like how router tear out looks. What's the deal? Is it harder to plane figured woods? I tried it again on a regular piece of walnut and it worked fine. I am confused!! Let me know if you would like pics, but I think i described it pretty well! Thanks, J

Actually, PM me when you know the dimensions and I will look at what I have! J

What size piece do you need? If it is small and I have it, then I will send to you for FREE! J P.S I have a bunch of scrap mahogany left over from a body I did recently.

ACTUALLY, try this link instead: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jch4v/my_photos Thanks!

So here's what I did: you can view photos at http://photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos First I took off the pickguard and covered the body in masking tape and a strip all along the neck. Then I took a straight edge to both sides of the neck and extended it by drawing lines along the body of the guitar... This was advice that I received previously to find the center line of the body. I then found the middle between these two lines to find the center line. There are pics of this process. Then I drew a centerline down the neck too. And as you can see from the pics, the two lines matched up perfectly. I could look down the body to the neck and see a perfectly straight line. That meant that the neck was indeed straight! Good thing I didn't just sand the neck pocket.. it would have been disasterous. OK, so then I took off the bridge and noticed that the holes were indeed NOT centered on the centerline... it was a bit off to the right, which would totally explain the strings shifting!! SO... I drilled the holes bigger and plugged them with dowels. Then this morning, I cut the dowels flush and sanded them a bit. I didn't bother refinishing because I was really careful to not scar any of the finish not covered by the bridge! Then I measured 25 1/4" from the nut as was suggested and drew a line perpendicular to the centerline. Then I set the bridge in the RIGHT place and marked the holes. I drilled and then screwed in the bridge... As you can see in the pics, the strings are pretty much dead on!!! My only complaint is that now I have to reshape the pickguard a little. It is from StewMAc and as with another guitar I bought A pickguard for, it doesn't quite match up. Is this common? I still have to set up the guitar and wrap up a few odds and ends... Then it will be FINISHED!!! Thanks again guys!

Do you mean this reranch:? http://home.flash.net/~guitars/index.html J

I never said it was hefner's fault... I was just giving a bit of background to the situation... I am sure that this problem is the result of my inexperience... I am not asking anyone to solve my problem for me... Just for some advice from maybe someone who has made a similar mistake... I am sure I will be able to figure it out. Thanks for all your help guys. J

OK, I am going INSANE with this. Here are some pics: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jch4v/album?...jch4v/my_photos Something is definetly out of line. My question is, should I just shave a little off the neck pocket and re allign the neck? I lined the pickguard with the neck pocket. It fit perfectly. Then I alligned the bridge with the pickguard. Again perfect fit. I guess I went about this all wrong... I really don't want to ruin my paint job trying to fix this, and I am figuring that moving the neck would be the easiest... what do you guys think? j

Hey, I am going to try to do what was suggested... Try to re-allign the neck. Maybe I drilled the holes wrong... but I really don't think so. There really was no room to move the neck around... it fit so snugly in the pockett. Unfortunately, I don't think that the B. Hefner co will take it back though. Their customer service is less than stellar. I will take some picures and try to figure it out. I will post again soon! J

Hello, So in September I received a body and neck from the B. Hefner Co. It took over 2 months to arrive... so I was really surprised that it actually came, and more surprised that the stuff looked really good. I pre-assembled it with all the component parts and the neck slid into the body like a knife through butter... tight as a glove! I then proceeded to paint and then just finished assembling it the other day. Looks GREAT! Only one problem. The strings are not traveling up the neck straight. What I mean is that the Low E for example starts out a certain distance from the edge of the fretboard, and as you travel down, that distance increases. The neck dots are not even centered between the two middle strings. Is the neck crooked? I had no choice as far as positioning goes because it fit the pocket perfectly... Is the pocket crooked? What do I do? Thanks, J

Hey, I have a plan. If anyone has ever done this, or knows about this kind of stuff, I would appreciate your input! I want to route out a chanel with my NEW dremel on a piece of walnut (going to be a les paul special body) using a Celtic graphic. Then, instead of using pearl or some other kind of inlay, I was thinking of filling it with clay. Something like this: http://www.dickblick.com/zz332/18/products...am=0&ig_id=2020 Do you guys have any idea how this would work? Also, as a side note... with any kind of inlay, after you have glued in the inlay.... what do you do about finishing the surrounding wood? Lets say you inlay on a guitar body and then want to paint/stain the body... how do you go about covering up your inlay? Thanks! J

what does that mean?

Thank you thank you! This is exactly the kind of advice I am looking for. You are right about me being on a budget... It's not that I don't have the money to spend, it's just that until I have a few builds under my belt, I am not going to shoot for top notch stuff... There is no sense wasting my money... If I don't have the skills, there is no amount of hardware (expensive or cheap) that is going to make up for it. The reason why I am shooting for the Jr/Special deal is because I have never done a set neck... and I want to first get good at making a mortise and tennon joint before I jump into neck angles and body carving... plus, I think the simplicity of Jr's/Specials is what makes them so cool! Thanks again man! J

Well... I keep looking at these LP specials and thinking to myself that they look so cool... and seemingly easily constructed. As someone said on one of my earlier posts, they thought that the bridges that were used then were different than the tuneomatic setup that we use now. I don't want to carve the top... and I don't know of another way of angling the neck.. and to me it looks like neck and fretboard sits flush on top of the flat guitar top. I want to do the same thing.

Geez... $80!!! There has got to be some other way of doing this. I want to make a flat top, LP style guitar... with NO neck angle... is this not something that has been done before? j

OK... So I didn't really get a clear answer as to whether or not a LP special has a neck angle... I got contrasting answers anyway. So, this is what I want to do specifically: I have a walnut body. No top. I want it to be FLAT. Let's say i just install one of these bridges: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailp...cs.html#details Meaning one of these... with NO tune - o- matic. This looks like how the original Specials and Jr's were done. If I do this... do I still need a neck angle? The reason why I am so concerned with this is because I want the top to be flat... then I can't hide the neck angle. So I would like to avoid one if I can... OK so to reiterate: If I install just a stop bar tailpiece, do I still need a neck angle? Second Question(s): What are the drawbacks of using just the tailpiece without the second tuneomatic part? Is the tuneomatic part what gives it the height that a neck angle compinsates? Last one: Do I just install the tailpiece in the same location as the Tune o matic would be installed... with the same slanted angle? Thanks guys! J