SawDust_Junkie

I have to say double cut-away. I'm a Strat man myslef, but if I had to choose between a LP and double cut-away LP, I think I would have to go with the double cut-away.

You know RGGR, I did think about that, I don't know why I didn't do it though. I guess its all part of the learning curve like I said.

Hello Immr, I downloaded Voloviewer like you recommended. Is it capable of printing the .dwg file out in actual scale on multiple pages ?

I donwloaded that plan also, and the free viewer like you said, but I cannot figure out how to turn the .dxf file into a usable template. The plans from guitarbuild.com had not measurements, and the free viewr I downloaded (by BRAVA) does not have a print function. So how are you actually going to created a template frm these plans ?

Nice to see you back frenzy ! Again a beautiful job on the ghost flames ! Really top notch job!

Yeah I know about the sloppy pickup cavities. My problem was a used the wrong router bit for that. I used a 1/2" diameter template bit, but it had a cut length of 1". This meant that I was almost to my desired depth on the cavities before the bearing on the bit started maing contact with my template. This made for a good of free hand routing and that caused me to make a few mistakes. The good thing is none of that will be visible after the pickgaurd is installed, and I learned a lesson about using the proper tool for the job. I did get better on the tremolo cavity. I will also use the method described of routing my heel pocket a bit smaller than required and finishing with sandpaper or chisels. Its all a learning process, but thats the fun part for me. Oh, a little info on materials. Everything is pretty standard, two piece Ash body, Hard Maple neck with a Rosewood fretboard, and a Walnut skunk stripe down the back of the neck. I was actually very pleased with how the skunk stripe turned out, considering it was the second routing job I did after routing the truss rod channel.

Hey Joe ! Good luck on your project. Sorry but I'm a newbie myself so I can't really offer any advice or tips. Would you mind telling me where you found the free .dxf/.dwr template at ? I would love to try an SG in the future myself

Thanks RGGR ! I'm stll getting the post straightened out. Did you get IMAG0056 through IMAG0061 ? That's odd though, in my browser I can click on the links.

Allright, I finally got around to loading some pictures. Remember, I am a guitarist and wannabe Luthier, not a photographer ! The pictures are lousy I know, but at least I now have some proof that am actually buildng a guitar. http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/IMAG0056.JPG http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/IMAG0057.JPG http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/IMAG0058.JPG http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/IMAG0059.JPG http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/IMAG0060.JPG http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/IMAG0061.JPG I don't have the patience to figure out the "hot link" thing right now, so you'll have click on the links. Please be gentle with me guys ! This is my first project. I really don't think any of you can be any harder on me than I already am on myself. I think I'm doing okay for my first attempt, but there few things I'm not happy with. I really didn't get as good of a fit in the heel pocket as I should have. (chalk that up to an inexperienced router) and I'll let all of you figure out the rest of my mistakes ! As you can see, I still have to do the fretting, and cut peg head down to the level for the tuners. I also have to shape the back of the neck, and do the round over of the edges and the body contours.

Thanks to you too for the history lesson crafty ! I am a new member here, and haven't been a member very long at that, but it has yet to amaze me the wealth of knowledge and willingness to help fellow builders that I have found here. I have learned so much in the short time I have been coming here that I believe this hobby may become life long one !

Thanks MzI. I was reading in the tutorial section westhemann's thread on building his neckthrough guitar. It looks to me like a neckthrough design also incorporates the neck into the body and the rest of the body is in two pieces on either side of the neck. Do you have any opinion on which design is better tonally ? It seems to me that the set neck might be better tonally but the nechkthrough would have more structural stability.

I was looking at the CAD drawings on the guitarbuild.com site and they have drawings for a Gibson SG, but the drawings say they are for a neckthrough instead of a standard setneck. I know this is a newbie question, but what is the difference ? I was under the impression that all Gibson guitars were "neckthrough", or at least glued on necks instead of bolt on. Is the setneck a configuration where the neck is set with a dovetail joint at the heel to body intersection and the neckthrough where the neck is actually glued into a cavity routed the length of the body ?

The thing is javacody, when I was laying the guitar out I took the sustain block off of the trem before I had the through body route done and centered the bridge plate and positioned it for the proper scale length. When I got all the routing done and wanted to see how the trem and pickguard and neck were all going to match up, I discovered the problem with the trem not being able to be moved forward enough to meet my marks for it due to it hitting the back of the pickguard. Well, I thought, no big deal I could use my Dremel tool to grind the pick guard down a little and, viola, problem solved. That is when I discovered that since the chepo trem I was using did not have the same recess depth as the Fender one, the distance from the front of the bridge plate to the sustain block was shorter also. This meant that if I moved the trem forward enough to meet my scale length, the sustain block hits the front of the through body cavity. I really think though that the problem is this chepo trem from this early '80s Strat knock-off guitar I am trying to use. I am optimistic that when I go to Guitar Center this weekend I will find that the newer after market vintage trems are made to the same diminsions as the Fenders.

Hey Perry ! I am in the middle of my first build from scratch project right now, and that is exactly what I did. I bought a compound radius Rosewood fretboard, pre-slotted rom Stewart-Mac. I am thinking about down the road, when I do my next project. I do want to build a guitar doing all the cuts myself, and that's why I was just wanting to make sure that I really understood the process behind making the fretboard. I'm really kind of lucky. I found a local Woodcrafters store that sells Rosewood blanks that are 24" long by 3" wide and they have various thicknesses from 1/8" up to 1/4". These will be perfect for trying out my touch on making a fretboard from scratch, and the great thing is they sell them really cheap. They range from about $7.00 to $11.00. Since I made a set of radius blocks, if I can slot and radius the fretboards myself, it will be about half the cost of the pre-slotted ones from Stewart-Mac. Like I said, I am just thinking down the road. Like I also said:

Hey crafty ! Well really I'm just using the MIM Strat as my template to make things easier for myself as this is my first build ever. I figured that way I would have a ready made template to compare to and be less likely to run into these kind of problems. ( I guess that's what I get for assuming too many things huh ?) Also, I was going to re-use this old trem just to try and keep costs down for this "learning project of mine. As I am using other parts I already have to reduce costs. Like an old Fat Strat pickguard I have and the original MIM pickups and pots and knobs from my MIM Strat. Anyway, I made my template for routing the pickup cavities and the tremolo through body routing based on my MIM and never even considered that the trem I had was made differently. Well lo and behold after routing everything out, I start placing the pickguard and the trem in place on the body just to see how everything lines up and that is when I discovered my mistake. But, hey that is what this first run is all about for me. I am in it to learn the ups and downs and pit falls and make mistakes. My goal is to one day be able to design and build a quality custom guitar of my own design. And, so far, between my mistakes and all of the knowledge I have gathered here, I am learning tons and tons of valuable lessons !

Thanks for taking a sec to answer my quesion Kevan. I am thinking the same thing as you. I called up Allparts and asked them about the diminsions of their 2 1/16" vintage trem, but the guy I spoke to told me the diminsions were about the same as my cheapo trem ( but I may not have explained myself well enouh and he may have been measuring the width of the trem arm recess instead of the depth). If that's the case, then it won't work any better than the one I have. I also called the local Guitar Center and they carry ProLine parts and have a Strat replacement vinatge trem, but they did not know the diminsions, so I am going to go up there this weekend and take my ruler and check it for myself.

Please disregard the request for a link to Brian's tutorial. Being new to PG I was thinking that the tutorials were all here in the forums. Then it occurred to me to look at the main site and viola ! I found Brian's fretting tutorial. (DUH !) Like I said, I 'm new here. I'll get the hang of it after awhile.

Has anyone here purchsed or used the Allparts economy vintage style Strat tremolos ? I spoke to them and they told me that these tremolos were a direct replacement for the made in Mexico Strats. I asked a few more questions though and I am not sure that they are made to the same specifications. For example, my MIM Fat Strat has the vintage style tremolo, and the cut-out at the bottom of the bridge where the tremolo arm plugs in is recessed 3/4" from the front of the bridge plate. I have an aftermarket tremolo from an old chepo Strat copy laying around that I was going to use in my project build. I discovered that the aftermarket bridge has recess on of only 1/2". This is not going to work on my project as I am using my MIM Strat as my template. The chepo Tremolo will not set forward enough (without modifying the pickguard) to attain the proper scale length. I have been looking at various sites on the web and several of them offer vintage style trems, but Allparts is the only site that specifically states one model has a string spacing of 2 1/16", which is the same as the MIM Strats. I was wondering anyone has used one and could tell me what the diminsions on it are so I can be sure it will work before I order one.

Can anyone show me a link to Brian's fretting tutorial ? I have tried searching but all I can find is the tutorial about making a fret bending tool. bassman, I was actually talking about the fret slot width, rather than the slot depth. I did some looking around yesterday on various sights (i.e. Stewart-Mac, Allparts, Warmoth etc..) and not many of them actually list the tang width of the frets. I think Allparts was the only one that actually gave a diagram showing the tang and barb widths, and theres appears to be different from the ones that Stewart-Mac sells. The Stewart-Mac fret wire, that I have already bought, recommends a slot width of .023 mm, but the Allparts fret wire shows a tang width of .5 mm or .6 mm and a barb width of .60 mm or .95 mm. So, from what I can see you have to really know what fret wire and who you are going to buy it from to determine what size of fret saw you should use. Not that this is a big deal, its just that I would have thought that fret wire was manufactured to an industry standard.

I am just geting started into my first build from scratch project and it is going pretty well so far. (Pictures to come, but everyone has to promise not to laugh at my efforts. The routing went OK, but due to inexperience and lack of familiarity with my new tools, I made a couple of slips, but nothing that ruined my body blank or that won't be covered by the pickguard.) I am already starting to look at my next project ( Damn you people ! I seem to have developed an addiction here !). The question I have is, when thinking about slotting the frets and radiusing the fretboard, are the fret slots usually cut first and then the fingerboard radiused, or is it the other way around ? Radius the fret board first and then cut the fret slots ? My first inclination is that the fret slots need to be cut first to ensure uniformity of depth and then radius the fretboard and adjust the depth on any slots that need it. Just to let you know, I spent this past Saturday making four radius sanding block out of some Oak pieces I had. I made a 10", 12", 14", and 16" blocks. The blocks started as 3" W x 2" T x 6 1/2" L. I used the method described by Anthony Setchell on the Project Guitar site (http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/radius.htm). Another question. The fretboard I ordered from Stewart-Mac has .023 wide slots. Is this a common or "standard" slot size, or are the various brands of fret wire all unique and use different slot widths ?

I've not seen this book Damo, but I bought a great book by Tom Hirst called Electric Guitar Construction. It also walks you through the whole process, step by step. It has lots of pictures and helpful tips on shop jigs, tools, safety etc.. too. I got mine at www.a1books.com. They sell for about $28.00 including shipping. Stewart-Mac has the same book, but they want about $40.00 plus shipping for it.

Here's a link to a site where you can download the document in .pdf format. I already have it printed out myself. It's a pretty good resource and has answered a few of my questions. http://members.aol.com/wyzagtr/faq/gtrfaq25.pdf I also bought this book from A1 Books on-line, (www.a1books.com) Electric Guitar Construction by Tom Hirst This is the best price I found for it on-line. Stewart-Mac and everywere else I found it wanted like $40.00. A1 books has it for around $28.00 including shipping. I really like this book and between these two I am in the process of my first build it from scratch project. If the link for the Guitar Builders FAQ doesn't work for you, let me know and I could possibly e-mal you the .pdf document. Hope this helps !

How much for the Strat tremolo bridges ? How many do you have ? Do the trems include the steel sustain blocks ? Are they original Fender or aftermarket ? Also, What Strat pickhuards do have ? Three single coil setup or Fat strat ? What colors ? Again are they Fender original or aftermarkets ?

I am trying to decide which tuners to get for my project and was just curious what everyone here thinks about the different tuners available. At the moment I am leaning towards the Shaller Mini M6's, but I am not dead set on them yet. I have also considered the Gotoh Shaller style and the Grover Mini Rotomatics. (I also like the Gotoh 510 Minis, but they are a bit pricey). I am trying to narrow this down, so I can go ahead and drill my tuner holes in the headstock. It looks like all of the brands and styles I am looking at require the 10mm holes. But if someone thinks there are better tuners out there, I would like to consider them in case they require a different hole size, before I start drilling.

Thanks for the wlecome guys ! I will post some pics soon. Just FYI I have always been partial to Strats, so its not surprising that my first try is going to be a Strat rip-off using my MIM Strat as a my template (along with much advice and many tips from this site and others as I go along). I am using two pieces of Ash laminated for the body and Hard Maple for the neck, with a Rosewood fretboard ( I did cheat on that though, bought the fret-board pre-slotted from Stewart-Mac). I know its kind of Vanilla, but I think I'm getting my feet wet pretty quickly here and did not want to make it too hard on myself. I would really love to do a French Polish on it for the finish, but methinks that might be a bit of over-reaching for my first time out of the gate. I think I had better not exceed my capabilities that far yet. At this tme I have the neck assembled and just need to do the triming on the fret board and sand it to blend with neck. I also haven't done the shaping on the backof the neck yet, but I'm holding off on that until I get the frets installed. My biggest problem is not having the proper tools, and not having the budget to really afford them. Luckily I have a great neighbor that I get along with really well and he has a band saw, belt sander, table saw etc... He's been really helpful so far. So, I am struggling with whether to just get a the basic tools and hammer my frets in or go ahead and sink the money into Stewart-Mac's arbor press system. I know that this being my very first fret job, I would probably do better with the arbor press and cauls, but man its expensive. (and don't laugh at me for this being my first fret job, I know its biting off a huge chunk to chew on, but hey, we learn by doing!) Maybe you guys can answer this question for me. I see the Stewart-Mac arbor press is like a 1/2 ton press. Is that amount of pressure really neccessary to seat the frets properly ? I had an idea of rigging up an old drill press adapter I have. You know one of those deals that takes a hand drill and turns it into a drill press. I figured I could rig up a 3/8" chuck or post of some kind on it and then just buy the Stewart-Mac arbor and cauls. Do you think this would work or am I dreaming ? Also, if I get the Stewart-Mac arbor, What cauls do I need. The fret board I bought is a compound radius starting with a 10" radius at the nut and flattening to 16"radius at the heel. Would one 10" caul and one 16" caul be sufficient or would I need at least one in between, like a 12 " or a 12" and a 14" or maybe even more ?