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That is some seriously golden advice, guitar chunk. The questions you have now are vague and uninformed. Just think of the number of questions you will have when you have "answered" the one's you have already posed. I don't want to appear as though I'm on a soapbox - I come here for answers same as you. I have found that informing myself as much as possible before asking a serious question yields much more productive results. Hiscock's book cost me $30 and saved me hundreds, not a bad buy at all. Good luck with your research, and welcome to the forum! Nate Robinson

No offense to Doug, look at his gotm, he knows what he's doing - but why not rough it out yourself? Marzocchi's right in that if you have the tools to do a body you have the tools to do a neck. My personal opinion being that the real finesse of a neck is in the fine tuning anyway.... Your call of course, just my thoughts on the matter. Nate Robinson

Without speaking for Marksound...Yes, that's the idea. You are basically moving the bridge back - at least for the specific strings you are having problems intonating. Never ceases to amaze me how such minute discrepencies can produce such noticeable differences. Nate Robinson EDIT: Welcome to the forum!

I'm really diggin that body sweep, looks cool and comfy. The neck laminates kind of remind me of a candy wrapper for some reason... not a bad thing, but certainly like nothing I've seen before. Very interested to see this one go the distance! Nate Robinson

Looks very nice. I can't help but like that simple (read: elegant) Tele look, especially with the nice warm glow that the shellac gives it. Just a shot in the dark here but did you use the Zinsser pre-mixed shellac? I would love to see the entire guitar, maybe even from a few angles. Nicely done, Nate Robinson

Tuts been modified to show the index pin in action a little better. If you see anything else that needs to be addressed just let me know. Nate Robinson

Glad to hear it went well, can't wait to see the pics. Nate Robinson

Zoso nailed it. That's exactly what I do. I have to use my router for so many things around the shop that it just isn't convenient to table it. So.... I use my cutoffs as a temp platform to hold the router a bit more stable. I should really just buy a router and dedicate it to the table. Oh well, somday... Nate Robinson

Well, it might work, I dunno as I've never tried it. I would think that the towels would still want to compress more towards the center of the fretboard, leaving less force on the fingerboard at the edges. If you don't have the time or inclination to make cauls then maybe a piece of 1/4" plywood or plexiglass. Just something that would be flexible to conform to the radius of the board, but rigid enough to give you a more even clamping pressure from the center of the board to its edge. Nate Robinson

Still a subjective question. What do you like to play? How long are your fingers? Do you keep a rigid wrist or do you like to roll it? Russ is spot on here. If you think you can play it build it. If you really like the design modify your playing to accomodate it. Nate Robinson P.S. I like the kickout at the top of the V, aesthetically(sp) speaking.

I am just running a poll for the sake of my own curiousity. I come across documented builds by some of the vets that recieve alot of attention, even though they may be less well documented than builds by newbs that seem to recieve little attention at all. Nate Robinson

I may be off base here, but it sounds like you might just need to work up a caul - or set of cauls - radiused to the fingerboard. Good luck, hope it turns out. Nate Robinson

I don't know if I agree with the 15 yr old - garage - sandpaper theory, per se. But I do think that a more precise line can be left with the router. So... if you have a router, why not use it? Personally I do my roundovers with a handheld router. I'm not advising doing it - it does get tricky around the horns. But it is within MY comfort level. To each their own, I suppose. Nate Robinson

Finally finished it up a month ago. Ended up Ok, sounds alot more "metal" than I thought it would. Don't realy know if that had to do with the pickups being so close together, or the purpleheart fingerboard, it does sound pretty bassy when the amp is equalized. But that is easy to take care of by blending the pickups a little different for lighter tones. Also decided to go with a boiled linseed oil and wax finish, as I don't have to drag it around to gigs or anything. All in all I'm happy with it. back head sorry for fuzzy pics my camera's in the shop, had to use the wifes. Nate Robinson

Why would you buy a cheap guitar. Add 50 hours to a kit or a couple hundred to a from scratch custom and you have a something that might, (in a few generations of design and workmanship) be worthy of gotm. You can buy a cheap guitar anywhere, why sink extra money and time into building one. The contradiction to this is IF you plan on building more than one, or THE PERFECT ONE. If you plan on building the perfect one you better do some serious homework. I personally expected my first build to be a complete toss of cash. Ya know just to see if I could do it. The real problem in my reasoning is that I thought I could produce a quality instrument for less than I could purchase it retail. I assume you are on a budget so... forget going to the movies, forget heading down to the beer gardens, forget tapping the cute sophmore down the...ok don't forget that (but you will be tied up in something that isn't so easy to walk away from). If you want a quality instrument then you need three things. Good Information Good Tools (and knowledge of how to use those tools) Patience Nate Robinson

My personal perspective is that you can be afraid of any damn thing you want....irrelevant....on a long enought time span we all die of cancer anyway. The kicker is that sometimes something beats cancer to the punch. HAVE A GREAT EVENING!! Nate Robinson

After having a close look at the work of Mattia, and Perry it appears that the design I have is suited to using a cap and that is about it. Small wonder that that is how PRS does it as well. I suppose that is why we draw out projects first, though, right? Anyway, thank you all for all the input and patience. Back to the drawing board, Nate Robinson

Mattia's method occured to me, but I won't be using a cap, so I was worried about dressing up the neck joint that will be visible between the neck hb and the single coil.... Perry: what would you say would be a safe surface area of glue for a set neck. I don't expect a precise number, obviously, just a ballpark number as a guide. I'm off to look at a few of the sites of our elite as suggested, (no idea why I didn't think of that myself) Thank you for you time and patience. Nate Robinson

I began drawing full scale blueprints for a modified PRS Macarty this weekend. Got the width at nut, width at bridge, width at body join, neck thickness, headstock angle, neck angle, dovetail tenon/mortise dimensions..... Then it occured to me that the neck humbucker is going to seriously impede the neck joint. The issue I see is that there is almost no bearing for the glue joint to hold the neck in place since the neck humbucker is tucked up next to the end of the fingerboard. This is my first attempt at a set neck. As I see it now, I have two solutions. 1) make a tenon that is long enought to go past the neck humbucker. This should give the stressed strength I need to keep the neck from snapping off, on the other hand it will make the joint visible and possibly a bitch to finish. 2) make a short but deep tenon that is covered by the humbucker, but is within the confines of the depth of the guitar. Guitar specs as stands: 25.5 scale HSH coil configuration Hipshot Baby Grand Hardtail Wizard II style neck 2" thick mahogony body that will be an uncapped solid finish I am just unsure as to which way to best address this problem on paper before I begin wasting wood. I ran searches across the forum and came up with some really good info (just nothing that was a solution to this quandry) Thanks for anything ya have to offer. Nate Robinson

Judging from your post (without any insight into your woodworking experience) it sounds like you could do it. It all boils down to how you feel about runnning a router, and how you feel about making/purchasing templates. If you own a router and a 1/4" straight bit you should be able to do this in about a half an hour. Just go slow make shallow passes and you should be fine. Make sure to double check the position of your template before routing (it REALLY sucks when you get carried away and go for the gusto without double checking your measurements/placements). Welcome to The Forum, and good luck with the build. Nate Robinson

I have used the Minwax hardener. I didn't get any cloudiness, but I grain filled after using the hardener and the grain fill seems to stand out a little more than I like. Grain fill was rottenstone and 2 lb. cut shellac. Don't know if that helps but its all I have on the subject. Nate Robinson

For both smee and bugman: The "Tonal Properties" of any kind of wood are a bit subjective. It is widely accepted that maple has a lighter tone than mahogony, and so on and so forth. The thing is that we all have a slightly different take on "tone". One persons perfect tone is trash to another. If you are looking for the sound of a specific artist, then find out what they play, then find out what the instrument is comprised of. As far as substituting one wood for another based on similar tonal properties.... It's a crap shoot. Experiment and find what you like, not what someone else says you should like because it sounds close to what they percieve the original sound to be. Good luck with the respective builds! Nate Robinson P.S. I'm a novice builder so take it for what it's worth.

Fret boards top to bottom: Cocobolo, Bubinga, Bubinga, Lacewood.

I agree with russ. I tend to use a 10" radius on my fretboards and 7" (give or take) prebend radius works well for me. Good Luck. Nate Robinson

I will get a pic of the fretboard with template attached this weekend. The purpose of having the pin offset 1/4" from the blade is just so you can't screw up and forget to change your blade depth, thus hitting the pin with the saw blade. Granted that is a pretty remote mistake but moron moments happen! That being said I see why you would ask that question. The fretboard blank should be a few inches longer than what you want it to end up being. This way the 1/4" offset doesn't interfere with the overall length of your fretboard, as you just trim it up after it is slotted. If you see anything else that needs addressed just let me know. Nate Robinson