javacody

I agree wholeheartedly with Page_Master. You will have a layer of glue between where your strings anchor and the rest of your body. It may actually severely limit how well the body vibrates. However, what if you use a thinner piece of walnut (say 1/4" by 1.5" x 3")? The ferules would be in both the walnut and the poplar and there would be way less glue involved. It would also be easier to get a tight fit with a smaller chunk of wood (in my opinion). You may also just get a small bar of steel or brass, and use that instead of ferrules (someone here recently did just that).

Something else to consider, what about premade fingerboards (where the fret slots are already cut)? Even if you add to your own neck, you haven't done all of the work. I guess, to me, homemade means that there is more of a skill level involved than bolting on a neck to a body. However, think of the amount of skill required to make a homemade neck work with an aftermaret/pre-existing body or vice versa. It involves a level of adaptability and problem solving. Just getting plans for a Les Paul and building it out of scratch (neck and body anyway), everything is laid out for you. This may not be the case when one of your components has been done by somebody else. I think there is a clear difference between assembling a kit where you get all your components supplied, vs. ordering a body and neck, and custom choosing your other components to tailor the instrument to your preferences, and vs. making the neck/body from scratch. I think we need four categories here: * Kit guitar * Aftermarkets parts guitar (Carvin, Warmoth, USACG) * Mod to an existing guitar * Homemade guitar (where at least the body OR the neck has been homemade) These are arranged in what I percieve to take the least amount of skill to the most amount of skill.

Those ping tuners found on MIM Strats are probably made in the same Korean factory as Grovers. If not, then probably in a factory just across the street.

David, Beautiful work, where do you get your limba from? I need some and I'd like to go with a reputable supplier (no one locally carries it).

Dead on Drak, I would throw in set neck as well, and tilt-back headstock. Also, for a 50's vintage p90 type guitar, I believe that the aluminum wrap-around tail piece is essential (when talking early gold top or JR/Special), now I've only played one vintage late 50's Les Paul Special, but it was FRIGGEN MAGICAL!!! I've since upgraded guitars with Aluminum tailpieces, and it makes a big difference. Fortunately, nowadays you have better intonatable bridges that are still wrap around and are still made of aluminum (pigtailmusic.com for one). It all fits together as a soup (great analogy Drak), but for each ingredient that you change, you get further and further away from the original "flavor". Keep that in mind. You will probably get close enough with p90's, mahagony, and a 24.75" scale length. Last but not least, here is a simple breakdown of Gibson P90 equipped 50's guitars: Early 50's Goltops and Customs - 2 p90's mid to late 50' Gold tops - 2 p90's until 57 ( I think the custom got PAF's in 56 and the Standard got them in 57) Les Paul Jr - 1 p90 Les Paul Special - 2 p90's I know there were many other Gibson guitars with p90's. Which one had three? (I'm thinking it was a hollowbody?)

Well, if you don't mind it eating the plastic headstock veneer, you can use some heavy duty paint remover. It may take several applications. Myself, I would simply sand it off.

you can still stain the front and back, you'll just have to figure out something else for the sides of the body. Maybe you could veneer the sides?

You won't find any sources for Sperzels with the selection that TK has. You'll notice his prices match other vendors prices for sperzels (actually his are a little cheaper), only you can get stuff from him, you can't get anywhere else. He also has excellent service. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Yeah, I think when you strip it, you won't like what you see. It is a plywood body (I just bought one off of ebay for $100). Not a good candidate for a dye job.

Let us know how they work out. I'm thinking about trying them too.

Those are cool looking! Inexpensive as well.

Get em here: http://www.tkinstruments.com/id75.htm

Open backed sperzels with plastic buttons. Locking and light.

My fault, I confused cross-linking with polymerization.

Why not make the neck out of butternut as well? It should be hard enough.

Huh? I believe that once you apply tung oil, it polyermizes as it dries. How is using pre-polymerized Tung Oil that much different from Fresh Tung oil? This is a great conversation by the way, I've learned quite a bit!

I wish I had a digital camera. Dang kids want to eat all the time and the extra money goes for guitar stuff. The tung oil doesn't really look like much. It's a very satiny, flat appearance that doesn't look too much different from natural wood, only 5 shades darker. I did do a birdseye maple neck in pure tung, but I stained it with tea and sealed it first with egg white (a Violin makers trick), which helped to build up the tung oil and keep it from seeping into the wood. I also did a strat body (without the egg white) and it didn't build nearly as much. Plus, the alder seemed to soak it up quite a bit more than the hard maple. I dyed the wood yellow first, and after I applied about 8 coats of tung, I waxed it with paste wax. I think it looks very good, but I love to see the grain. I'm getting ready to do another body in tung and red dye. I'll try to borrow a digital camera after I've finished it. The one complaint I do have about oil finishes is that the end grain literally drinks it up. The end grain soaked up the oil on my strat body, and the body literally "sweated" out oil for hours afterwards. I learned to be more careful on the end grain after that.

guitar ed, that is a bass neck pocket's dimensions. The strat and tele dimension are here: Warmoth guitar neck pocket

I just double checked my can of Tung, it's Behlens, and it says no driers or thinners added. It is thick as syrup. I'm not sure what you don't like about it Drak, but it works fine for me? Great Article Lex! Thanks. Is it safe to try and polymerize Tung myself? How would I cook it without oxygen? In a vacuum of some sort?

Drak, I think you need to write us an article on oil finishing. I never realized that my "pure" tung oil wasn't completely pure. It is about the thickness of karo corn syrup. How pure would you think that is? Any good resources online about using Tung Oil?

Drak, you are very vocal about your opinions and I respect them, but I disagree with you. I personally think that spray on lacquers suck, but I wasn't going to say as much, as some people may get offended when I start putting down their finish method of choice. I at least state my opinions clearly as my opinions. I stated that Pure Tung Oil, for me, is the be all, end all finish for the type of instrument that I like to build. To each his own. Tung Oil is not magical, it doesn't really make guitars look all fancy like a sprayed on finish will. When you finish a guitar in Tung Oil, you need to consider that it doesn't offer nearly as much protection as more modern finishes, and that your guitar will look somewhat plain. Also, it takes a long ass time to get pure tung oil to build up. There is a violin makers trick that I use that helps quite a bit. If you do a search for the term "glare" you will have a good start. Tung Oil isn't for everyone. However, I would also argue that if you are patient enough to fill and sand, then apply 12 to however many coats of color and clear, with sanding in between, and also buffing, then you should be patient enough to apply enough coats of tung oil to get it to build up. LOL Anyway, different strokes, right?

frank, on your high pass circuits, do you run the cap and resistor parallel or in series? What values do you use?

Tommy over at USA Custom Guitars will make you a neck through neck. I'm not sure of the price and its not on their site, but I read in his forum that he will make one. You choose the scale, you choose the nut width, the fretsize, the radius, and the headstock shape. Tommy makes dang good stuff too (he and most of his staff are former Warmoth employees).

Here is a link where a guy puts together guitars made out of aftermarket parts and sells them (with his own logos I believe): http://www.nashguitars.com/Fender.htm The big deal here can be explained with a comparative look at how things are done with other stringed instruments. Does one company own a trademark on Stradivari violins? There is only so much you can make different on a guitar before you start to alienate customers. I can appreciate Fender and Gibson trademarking their logos, but actual physical goods being trademarked? I should freakin trademark the wheel. Imagine the royalties I would collect!

I was thinking about adding a little super glue to the threads of my inserts, would that be overkill?