Mr Natural

using hand tools vs power tools substantially increases the level of satisfaction when the job is done. when you look down at your popeye forearms and say to yourself- yeah- that was a lot of work- you smile inside a little bit more in my opinion. This is shaping up nicely. Do I see carbon fiber rods in your ms paint mark up? I think that would help a bit with potential movement in the wood after the fact.

i meant to say- I like your color- its almost exactly what I think of as far as fender vintage white/cream should look like- its also very close to squires ricky. I applaud your efforts with brush on anything- what a test of patience I bet trying to get that perfectly flat- yikes. I cant wait to see this finished- looking great so far

thanks for taking the daylight pics. That cream color you have is what I think of when I think of the fender white like hendrix's strat Now a days the vintage white/olympic white, creams- everything doesnt look like it used to. I once found a dupli-color paint for a Subaru color that if you undercoated in white- and then sprayed it light so it was translucent came close to that color but I cant find it anymore. the guitar re-ranch stuff is no where close to that color- their blonde if sprayed heavy is closer but still no cigar. I have tried in the past mixing my own but have failed.

I have used it previously- a word of caution from an experience I had. It is prone to splitting. The picture below is from 2010/2011ish- I was helping a fellow PGer (sorry Chris where ever you are I cant remember your user name) with his first build- a 2 inch (or maybe thicker) PRS mccarthy type guitar. We had started routing out the neck pocket- got it about half way- decided to put the neck in just to see how it fit- it was a little tight- Chris forced it down in and it split the body. I didnt think it was so tight as to cause an almost 2" thick piece of hardwood to split like that- but it did. The pic below is after gluing the split- which was in the left bottom neck pocket corner and went almost all the way to the back of the body. Point is- if the neck pocket is tight- dont force it in. Lesson learned- and now shared. I dig the mock up you have- very cool.I am especially liking those p-90 type pickups!

"Because we all like looking at pictures. " Come on grampa- call it what it is- we all like looking at guitar/wood porn! I mean- look at the curves and the set of p-90s on that baby. ooof! nice job Scotty- if I didnt mention it in (years) previous- I really dig the head stock design too- especially the personalized volute. too cool. curious- what are the measurements on the center of the p-90s to the bridge? and- is it the same scale and pick up location as on the guitar you did a couple years back that you put up the mp3 soundbites of ?

that cream appears to be a lot less "yellow" than some of the paints here in the states. Looking forward to seeing this with clear and (perhaps) a pic in natural sunlight (wink wink hint hint)- looking good man

welcome to the group and great job on the first ax- cant wait to see the second one.

yeah- i just noticed they have a message up saying they are futzing around and somethings may not work right- I will post it later.

MiKro- I took a looksey at some old ibanez catalogs and posters of the 70s guitars- I just dont see any of the lp type guitars that are "tilted" like this one is- good observation on the headstock- but what is throwing me is the body- it looks like if you took a les paul- grabbed the upper body where the p/u switch is and moved it towards the headstock- and at same time took the body where the controls are and moved it back away from the headstock (kinda like if a les paul is (clock analogy) noon and six- this one is 1 and 7). and I really dont know why i need to know- but- i need to know (pun intended?)

they are fun- a little aggressive -but you can grab hold of these and really put some muscle into it. i meant to post a pic in previous post- this is my second farriers file- of note- my previous file had teeth all the way out to the edge- which you would think is a good thing (more efficient)- but I find this file with the flat edges a bit more forgiving when you approach areas where you dont want chunks flying out and you need to switch to less aggressive file. Also- this has a wider longer flat part at the top - so you can really grab hold with your hand and not grab onto teeth which is very uncomfortable-even if you wear gloves. My previous file had very little to grab onto on the top- just some thoughts if you are serious about buying one. I do enjoy using a spoke shave as well- but I find my technique (I get waves along the length of the neck which take more time to level out (with files) than if I use files to begin with). But there really is something about grabbing hold of a farriers file with both hands and having at it. lets try the photo again

so- finally started carving the neck, Man I forgot how good it feels to tear into a neck blank. I went old school and pulled out the farriers file for this one and as fate would have it- this little snot showed up- nothing major-the gloss black will cover it- but if this was to be clear coated it would have been a bummer.

I have for years wondered about it- but a conversation with friends this weekend brought this back to light. The "tilted les paul" style guitar Tom Petty plays in the video for "Stop draggin my hear around". It started off as a conversation on - get this- cow bells- which led to songs with cowbells, which led to grand funk railroad's song (we're an american band) and I brought up grand funk's guitar player Mark Farner played a Veleno guitar- which took me years to find out the name of that guitar- which lead to- well- Petty's guitar below that I still cant figure it out. internet searches have failed me- hoping someone may know.

Agreed= which is what I tried at first- but at this point- that butt end is now carved- ie- curved- and there is no clamping that will hold true. So now that all my holiday guests are gone- back to building. I thought I had everything the way I wanted it- and then after sanding the grain filler- I noticed the body line on the back end of the body- well- isn't quite flowing smoothly like I want it- amazing what grain filler will reveal-I am referring to the "edge line" starting about where the bass side bridge post hole is- and after a little file work and sandpaper and re-touching the grain filler in that area- all is well again .

I completely mis-read (or rather- didnt read fully) previous posts- I dont know where I got it- but I thought you were thinking of tuning down on a 25" scale- and thus my comment about tension- I would imagine that would be a considerable amount of string "flop" and not fun to play- but again- I mis-read/didnt read and then commented. Brain still on vacation. Foot in mouth. Carry on!!

If I may ask- what gauge strings do you plan on using? I am assuming here you will tune down your low E one octave below standard guitar low E? unless you have already played a 25" piccolo- Cautionary statement here - at 25" scale- b4 you build- you might want to take a 2x4 or similar scrap wood- put a nut blank on it- slap a temp bridge on there - slap a couple tuners on there.string it up with that low E and high E in the gauge you are planning on using. See what the strings feel like (ie- tension, how much they vibrate when you "dig in" with a pick or fingers- ) just like a 30" scale bass and a 34' scale bass feel and play vastly different-you might find that 25" scale feels "odd". - again-my opinion only- YMMV. I am looking forward to these builds-

I agree- this method works well- and I actually learned it from someone years ago on this very forum- my apologies to the member who posted it- its been too long. Totally digging that position marker jig you have there- very clever- I know what I want for my birthday present from the kids now. :-) this is really looking good. cant wait to see it with finish.

Does anyone have an (experienced based please) opinion on Carvin Guitars Tuners? I need a boatload of tuners right now- and pricing out different options- are these any good?

Great job meatloaf- nice clean work, excellent job on that bridge- I am sure your son will be pleased.

that grain is really cool- and I must admit- I am surprised you didnt get any blow out from routing those edges. I think if that was a hardwood you would have had chunks fly off those horn tips. Very cool indeed- looking forward to how this looks after carving. Hope you feel better soon!

congrats gramps!!!

So- after thinking for hours about HOW I was going to redrill the butt end of this thing, I finally took the leap of faith, and it came out mostly ok. Unfortunately there were a couple of times where the drill bit "grabbed/followed/whatever it did-hit" a previous hole where I had filled with sawdust and glue- and those came out a bit uneven on the front. I will need to tend to those with a rat tail file and fix the visual on those holes so they line up evenly. I must say- drilling those holes was the biggest PIA I have ever experienced in guitar building- second only to having to scrape off nitro after it fish-eyed on me. I must have gone thru 4 or 5 different set up/jigs before I finally just drilled a rectangular block of wood with the holes- and then just hand held that sucker in place while drilling with a hand drill. My bench top drill press just couldnt handle the body size of this thing. Only other progress this weekend was routing out the pickup cavity. It is intentionally oversize in case I ever want to go with 2 singles vs a humbucker. May not seem like much progress- but getting past drilling that butt end was HUGE for me.

looking good Mr R, looking good.

Yes Andy- careful- as "It can happen". (where is the drum rim shot emoji when you need it) Maybe you should have said to "leave it" alone- but now- "onward" folks. Question for you Andy-on the cream color (and I ask this cause I have tried and failed over the years)- when I think of Squires Ric the original is more of a late 60s/70s fender color (and I am careful here to say vintage cream or vintage white cause alot of the stuff they put out these days is no where near the original colors- and I get the whole "yellowing of lacquer" over time thing- )do you have a product in mind- or technique that you are willing to share(if not- cool). IMO-two of the hardest colors to reproduce in their true original form are that cream color- and the 70s fender and gibson "midnight wine" "wine red"colors. (and the reproductions are no where close to the originals) a good example -hendrix's strat he used at woodstock- that is the color I have in mind when I think of Squire's original Rickenbacker. I have seen some of the Squire signature models from Rickenbacker that I would say were spot on, and some that were more yellowish than the original. and its tough to get a good photo of that bass from that period that isnt affected by stage lighting.

+1 on the nice save dude- and this ax is shaping up nicely.

lol- you went further than I did bro. and better than I did. and I totally forgot about 5%! well done! (I may have to pull out my RECORDS) ha. In danger of hijacking poor Andy's thread- this could get hilarious- or ridiculous- or both. but at least he has two pats on the back for the headstock design.