jer7440

I met up with PRS Man (aka Russ), for the first time, about a month ago. Its awesome to actually be able to talk face to face with someone else about guitar building! We've gotten together a couple of times now and I really enjoy it.

It's actually the same outline shape as an actual les paul. The carve is different. It looks bottom heavy in these pictures because of the way it was leaning against the wall.

I was grabbing any jar I could find to mix up dye in! Thanks for the compliments.

Here are some more pics. The binding finished. The frets pressed in. The body and neck just dry assembled (front and back).

I would stick with models in the 14" size range(or bigger) if you can afford it. I would expect a decent unit to start around $400.00, and go up from there depending on features.

Hey Jmrentis, I went with the craftsman for a couple of reasons. First was I could see it locally. Second was everything I read about it online was positve except the the guide bearings, and those are easy to upgrade. (Ive had mine for a month or so and had no problems yet) On sale I actually got this saw cheaper than I could get the grizzly. The one advantage the grizzly 14" saws had was the riser block option. My craftsman saw has 8" of resaw capacity, which is plenty for most solid body guitar work. Not quite enough for 2 pc acoustic tops though. I have a buddy with a saw that will resaw 12", so I guess I will go to his place if I need to do that.

An old trick from my model airplane days was to put a plastic sandwich bag over your finger and spread the CA with that. The glue won't stick to the baggie.

If you are having trouble seeing the charles fox site, try using IE instead of Firefox. It wouldn't work for me in ff but it worked fine in IE

Hey, I have a ton of questions for you! What cnc are you using? What software are you programming with? Do you have a 3d cad file of that neck? I have the surface file for the JEM body, but not the neck. Would you be willing to share? Looking great!

Hey dude, check out this thread

ash strat

This guy did a killer finish on ash. From what I've read Ash does not take stain very well. If you try to stain the wood directly it will typically come out blotchy. The guy in the thread above used a blue tinted lacquer over a black grain filler. The pics in that thread are missing but someone has reposted them elsewhere. You have to do a little extra clicking to see the pics.

I know, I know....the wife (who had surgery 2 times in the last year), the 2 little boys (it's hard work trying to be a good husband and father) and the lack of budget have made my progress slow. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I have all my hardware and finishing supplies, I just need to get this stupid binding right. Hoping to be close to spraying finish by memorial day...we'll see

Just a quick update. I have the neck pocket cut and fitting nice and tight. I cut the binding channel and tried to glue in the abs binding. Needless to say I screwed up the first binding attempt. So I set the body up 1 more time and cut out the first plastic binding. I'll take another crack at the binding tonight.

Guitar fetish sells the prewired strat pickguards as well. They have them in several configurations (s/s/s, H/s/s or h/h). They seemed to be pretty economical as well.

If the first batch is sold already, you must have a price figured out. What will one of these sweet little amps run? It sounds awesome.

I can't wait to see how you saw up a log like that, and how you decide how to cut up a log. Should be very interesting

If you have trouble with your tape releasing, try a little denatured alcohol. Just pry up the edge and squirt a little alcohol in the crack. Capillary action will wick the alcohol in and it will release the tape. Check first that the alcohol won't discolor your wood.

I'm telling you guys, try the permacel! You will not have anymore tape issues.

Here is my setup... Some may call it cheating I don't know what I'd do without my mill. It's very quick & accurate:

Heck yeah man! The mill rules!

cool thanks for the ideas!

Soundat11...what do those limba neck strips look like? I was kind of thinking about a laminated neck anyway....

could you post a picture on your cnc setup without the guard? Primarily the die grinder and the cutter.

If you haven't given up completely on the double sided tape idea, try this stuff

pemacel

This stuff is awesome! It is pressure sensitive, so the harder you push on it the more it sticks. This is what I use for holding down pieces and parts in the CNC machine. This stuff will hold a body blank against a 3/4" endmill cutting .25"deep at about 200 ipm...it should hold a template against a router.

Man you don't have a secret stash of black limba do ya? I would really like a body and neck blank...

My guitar is a string through TOM w/top and bottom string through ferrules. I would really like to check everything out before I finish, but I don't want all the hardware to be stuck either.

Who does a test assembly of their guitars before finishing? If you do, how to you remove bridge bushings and string through ferrules before finishing. Those items seem to fit very tightly on my guitar. I don't want to ding up the guitar trying to get them back out.