Mr Natural

its called GPA (guitar porn addiction) I happened to be familiar but here is the back story. I was looking up what Gene Baker might be up to- I had read somewhere that Gene had sold his company or something to ed roman- or had a fire or something-cant remember now-and found he was part of this guild/marketing group (premier builders guild)- if you look on the fano website- to the left- there is a link)- stumbled upon Fano thru all that. i have tons of links to guitar companies- you know- my guitar porn addition I have. So every now and then I check in on those links- see what people are up to- stare at guitars, etc and now you know. btw-looks like he has a tuner blocking the name on that guitar in the video.

Fano alt de facto px6 (fano guitars dot com) your welcome

thanks Doug - sending email to your parable account. Your PM must be full because it says it cant take new messages. Scott

Placing this in Tools as I am not sure where else to post first let me start by saying- I am an idiot- that cant seem to find the answer in help topics, or online, or thru google, or bing, or youtube, or by randonly clicking all the buttons etc. obviously my years of partying and such have caught up to me cause I feel so stupid that I cannot figure this out. I am using Solid Edge 2D with a program for guitar design (I will post more on that once I get past this little snafu I am having)- anyway-the program for guitar design - the video that comes with it the guy is using Rhino 3D and does these "snap to" functions. He doesnt explain how to do it in Solid Edge- (though solid edge is referenced as a freebie program you can use with this design product). anyway- I am trying to figure out how to snap one group (drawing) to another via center points. I am completely f'ing everything up- about to throw the computer. The computer is running VISTA so maybe I should chuck it anyway eh? Anyone know anything about "snapping" in Solid Edge? if you do and can/are willing to help me- I will compensate you somehow someway. I bought this program 2 years ago- ran into same issue and said "F-it" posted to the help group for the product- that was a complete joke- anyway- maybe I am just a dumbass (most likely) and its REALLY EASY I just cant figure it out. Its too cold in the shop- I just got over being sick for like a month and I pulled this back out and really want to get this rolling- anyway- enough whinning- thanks for listening......

while I havent done a whole body out of spalted maple- there are some immediate concerns that come to my mind at least. You havent said what type of neck join you plan to use-(or how "spalty" your maple is)- but some immediate concerns are with the neck join. If you are doing a bolt on or glue in- is the area where neck and body join stable? even if you are going a neck thru- you can run into problems if you joint the edges and all of a sudden you hit a patch of spalt- "poof" like hitting a soft cork. there can be many surprises underneath the surface-you may have spalt where you intend to carve, where you put your pickup routes- but the neck join is the immediate concern in my mind. You will need to stabilize the wood as well- and you will want to make sure the material you stabilize with will not cause problems with your intended finish. my out of box opinion is you are looking for trouble doing this- not saying you cant- but i have had what appeared to be perfectly solid, quarter sawn maple and I find out after carving a neck that there is a void/knot after I spent all that time prepping and carving etc and I had to scrap it. With spalt- you KNOW there are issues there to begin with- and you cant see what is under the surface of the wood. if the wood is only slightly spalted- you may not have an issue. If there is tons of spalt- I would not proceed with your plans. Either way- proceed with caution and dont be surprised if you do this that you may end up scraping the whole thing.

RAD said- "My back can't take bending over anymore. " Exactly why I plan on copying it- after 2 back operations I have learned to bring the work to me vs me to the work. Some of my woodworking neighbors have asked in the past why 2 of my benches are almost 40" high. Rad- your comments on CNC with regards to pickups- let me ask this- do you think a laser machine could handle the same work you do with the CNC as respects pickups? (or maybe I should ask what exactly you do with cnc for pickups) I dont think I would ever do a CNC- but after seeing lasers cut pickup covers and shell and electronic cavity covers/etc- it got me thinking about my long term wish list retirement dreaming stuff.

gotta ask- what made that burn mark in your bench? looks almost like re-bar I like the "upside down" vise holding the neck in the other pic- I may steal that idea

How many guitars did you end up building in 2013? and how many do you have planned for 2014?

absolutely the best looking wenge top I have ever seen. Interesting observation on the saddles. who would have thought. thanks for sharing. Great job on the guitar.

I would like to know your opinion if any about the ebony and its affect on tone of that guitar. Alembic makes some big statements about how ebony neck lams increases the fundamental /sustain/mojo blah blah- I have always taken that sort of talk with a grain of salt as I can "barely hear the difference on the basses I have heard with/without ebony neck laminates- and perhaps your neck lams are not "wide" enough to make much difference, and maybe there is less pronounced effect on guitars than basses- but all the same would appreciate your comments if you have any. thanks.

and the red witch, that is sexy too. and the maple, and the ..............

+1 one to that- that Ebony guitar is freaking sick man. All of them are great- that ebony topped one though - that is just plain sexy. Nice job Rad. As always, nice job.

very cool Doug.

I need to keep my big trap shut whenever I go to complain about my lack of this or that. wow- God bless this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51VDJt-Qm5Q

that V is sweet man. How thick is the veneer you use? I would be scared to death of sanding thru it- it appears really thin. I do go kind of nutso when I sand- I start with 80 and go thru 5 grades to 220- and I would probably go right thru that.

I first saw this guitar on your you tube channel- but you said in that video it was white limba. (?? so.....which is it?)) Looks great- I am totally digging that grain streak. ps- cool to see the vid for your theme song on your channel. And he is rocking that Sully V- nice touch.

Welcome to the group. We love build photos around here- looking forward to you posting your build progress. and as RAD said- dont worry about your English. Your single cut looks and sounds nice. Good job.

sweet!

headstock shape routed using "drill press router method as described on O'brien guitars you tube channel. start of first pass 20 minutes and 10 or so passes later- no tear out. its a bit rough -i didnt have/keep the bit sharp enough on this one- but its easily cleaned up with spindle sander. I would have destroyed that headstock with my regular router. Despite this method taking 5 times as long- I will be using this method again. no more worries about end grain blow out.

I was a bit worried about routing out this headstock shape- so- copying the method shown on O'brien guitars you tube channel- I did the drill press routing method- and its freaking awesome. it took at while- 25 minutes approx to do the whole thing- but no tearout- the tops of the "balls" didnt get routed exactly to shape- but that was my fault- (there wasnt any wood backing the bit- so it tended to move out when I went around those balls- if I had left more wood at the top of the headstock- i wouldnt have run into that- easily fixed though with a bit of rasp/sandpaper- here is the drill bit in the press-5/32"/ 4mm bit. here is the headstock about 9/10ths of the way thru-noticed the small portions that were not quite cut at the top of the circular areas

I too have done the fret slot not deep enough thing- all it takes is one time and you never do it again- good learning lesson. Great job so far man- keep up the good work.

nice work as always Alan!

Just a note, your 1970 V was more likely a 1969 or possibly a 1967. Gibson didn't actually produce any Vs in 1970, they did however, ship some Vs that we're either produced in 69 or 67. If the neck was 3 piece with no volute or "made in USA" stamp on the headstock that is the definitive clue that it was made in 1969. I am probably the lone sole here in saying that I actually liked the 1971/75 style with the raised fingerboard (no neck angle).

Congrats Scott. Well done!

this pic says a million words. The compensation you get beyond the price of product- happy customers. That'll be different next year- I have an idea I've never seen done on a guitar before. As soon as I messaged the owner of this one that it was ready he jumped in his car and came to collect - lives about 1.5hrs away.