javacody

Well, you could always route out the top of the trem cavity a bit more, I'm wondering if the trem would still cover the hole in that case? You'd also probably have to route the back out further towards the neck to get the full length for the springs.

soapbar strat, I've been wanting to do the theaded insert thing for a while now. Where do you get the inserts from? What size? What size machine screws? Any advice for installing the inserts? (sorry for the blatant thread hijack)

Strange, I had a MIM Standard Strat and I was able to drop in a Callaham Vintage Strat repro trem. Any Vintage Style trem (even the more traditional wider spaced Fender Vintage trem) should drop right in. You would have to change the screw holes (hopefully you haven't drilled those yet?), but the trem should drop right in (again, if you stick to a vintage type trem).

Leo was so cheap, he didn't even want to include a truss rod in the guitar! LOL About the poplar on the American Standard, I believe I said it "might" be made out of poplar. I couldn't remember for sure. I knew that the MIM Standards were up until about 2001. By the way, I've owned both a poplar and alder MIM Standard, and honestly, there wasn't much difference in the tone between them. No different than what one could attribute to two guitars made of similar wood on different days.

Doh! I missed the T & A! Nice guitar work so far though!

BigD, I really like the color of the stain on the maple top. What did you use for that?

The best way to remove the post is as follows: 1. Tape around the hole 2. Place several washers larger than the diameter of the hole on top of the hole. 3. Place a washer smaller than the diameter of the stud screw head on top of these washers. 4. Screw in the stud screw, as you screw it in, the inserts will slowly pull up out of the body. I've done this several times and haven't done any damage to the surrounding paint or wood. It works very well. I recommend you take your stud screw down to the hardware store to get the correct size washers.

The only thing I look for in any guitar body is resonance. Alder is not known for being particularly figured, but I've seen some with very slight figure. I believe there is also birdseye alder. At any rate, I wouldn't think that European Alder would be too much different from American Alder. If you are in Europe, I would say give the European Alder a shot, just try to hunt down a good piece that is highly resonant (good tap tone). If you can find a one piece body blank, even better, but I wouldn't count on it. Something that is close to Alder tonally, but is softer is poplar. It is also very inexpensive. Fender used it on strats in the late 90's. Oh wait, you have a 96, are you sure its alder? There is a good chance it is poplar! Check out the screw holes, do they have a reddish tint? Or is it white or greenish?

A few words about tung oil. Most things sold as "tung oil' are actually varnishes. Please always distinguish between a tung oil varnish and pure tung oil. There is a big difference. Pure Tung oil has a distinctive smell ( I actually like it but some folks hate it), takes between 12 hours and 48 hours to dry (depending on temp and humidiy) and takes probably at least 6 to 8 coats to get a good level of protection on your wood. You should wipe it on, let it sit for 15 minutes or so (again depending on temp and humidity) and wipe it off. After the appropriate drying period, you should use 0000 steel wool and go over the entire surface. Then clean up the wood and apply another layer of tung oil. Something that will help the tung oil to polymerize faster/better is to be exposed to sunlight. )Polymerization is when the new tung oil molecules bond to the old layer of tung oil molecules to basically become one layer of tung oil, it's pretty darn cool IMHO) Some tung oils are cooked down for a period of time, which pre-polymerizes them somewhat, giving you a glossier finish. You can find some really good tung oil finishing techniques on gun stock making sites.

Thanks Perry, I'm going to be needing said information shortly as well!

He'pin' is awesome an' yer t'be commended fo' it, but slammin' other varmints's wawk ain't right fine, an' thass whut yo' did by way of yer friend's comment. No offense, but yo' made yer friend soun' like he's on a bit of an ego trip. ah's sho'nuff he's a mighty smart guy but guess whut? Thar's lotsa other smart varmints in this hyar wo'ld an' us backwards hicks might even knows one o' two, o' gosh, we might even be smart varmints. ah's a moderato' at a fo'um too. Kin ah join his exclusive club?

Yeah, I understand about the properties thing (I guess I don't know what a hotlink is though), I just wanted to make sure that it was clear, as I don't use a free image hosting service.

I agree wholeheartedly. My favorite finish is pure, raw, unadulterated tung oil. I put together a guitar with tung oiled and waxed alder body, a birds-eye maple neck (experimental finish made with a ground of glare and benzonite clay, stained with green tea, and finished in tung oil) and the resonance is amazing. When you tap on the body (and this is a bolt neck mind you) you can fully feel it in the headstock. The guitar feels alive! Here is an ugly guitar that I built (from USA Custom Guitars parts), that really sounds amazing (click on the pic to read the details about this guitar): * Mods, the hotlink above is from my personal site. The guitar above is finished in 4 coats of Waterlox (two regular and two glossy) Tung-Oil and Phenolic Resin based varnish, while the neck is 6 coats of hand rubbed minwax satin poly. The headstock face is 8 coats of brushed on minwax gloss poly. However, I will never go back to anything but pure tung oil from now on. I also really like the "ground" I applied to the neck of the other guitar I built (wish I had pics). I love the way fancy guitars look, but I REALLY love the way an extremely thin finish feels and the resonance of the wood.

Here's another forum on pickup making: http://www.firebottle.com/fireforum/fireBB...m=pmgd&enter=go

Heh, heh, this should get you on your journey grasshopper: http://www.ampge.com/ As in any guitar related field, you will find much hype, much mojo, and a few facts. Have fun!

Dugz Ink, you might want to ask your friend if he has ever used a JFET for classic amp simulations. They get you in the ballpark. Brian and Gary over at RunoffGroove have been providing do it yourself effects to the DIY Effects community for years. How many projects has your friend provided? Perhaps he's jealous he didn't think of it first? They've gone through some classic amp circuits recently and converted them into distortion pedals using JFET's. Listen to the clips on their site, the pedals retain the character of the amp they were duplicating and sound damn good. All this for free. I see no hype in that. For boosts, I would try and dissuade anyone from putting a boost in their guitar. Build yourself a free standing boost. You can use it for all of your guitars then. Also, you have to buy fewer batteries (as you have one boost for all guitars instead of a boost in all your guitars) and its easier to change batteries. You can also tweak the values of the boost, or even build a whole new boost (and keep building different boosts to suit your moods or to find the best one). Go here for some good booster projects: http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/ Also, check out the beginner project section here for a great boost (it walks you through every step!): http://www.diystompboxes.com/forums/stompboxforum/ Finally, check out Jack Orman's site, I highly recommend his mini-booster. I've built two of them myself, each with different JFETs and different tweaks: http://www.muzique.com/ He has a couple other boosters and some cool fuzzes as well.

A little update. I have purchased a router on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWN:IT It was inexpensive but 1/2" collet and 2.2 hp for about $40. I'll let you guys know what I think of it when I get it. Also, I purchased the wood yesterday from the Wood Smith Store. They had a decent selection of wood. I went with two poplar body blanks in 8/4, each a single piece 15" wide! I also found a great piece of flamy maple for $8. Enough to do two 1/4" tops. I had to pull out 8 - 12' long or so boards off the top of the poplar board I wanted though. It was quite a workout, but well worth it. When I tap on these poplar blanks, their tap tone is very lively, with a sound that reminds me of the wooden blocks from a xylophone. The grain is very distinct and the little bit of green mineral streaking is fairly subdued. This poplar is actually a good candidate for a transparent finish! Also, here's the epi bolt on jr. that I am using for a template: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWN:IT I'm going hollow though, ala Gibson's Bluesbird. I'm very good with electronics, so I'm going to tackle the varitone as well. Here is where I'm going to get the varitone from: http://www.bigdguitars.com/. The back will be poplar in a Les Paul shape, and the top will be 1/4" flame maple. I'm very excited about this project! The neck will be a USA Custom Guitars 25 1/2" scale neck, but I'm not sure if I will follow the Gibson formula and go with a Mahogany neck. I also picked up a good sized square from walmart. I didn't have any kind of useful straight edge. My next purchases will be clamps, plywood (for the templates and clamping the maple on), glue, a sanding drum for my drill press (can you guys recommend something in this area?), sandpaper, and of course, hardware for the guitar.

I wanted to interrupt the back and forth with another floating trem option. 4. screw the trem down so that its back rests on the body and use 4 springs. I would say that is the easiest option, and as I never pull back, and only use the trem for a slight effect, it is also what I do on my strats.

I don't think I'd pay for it either. From what I can tell, you can find all of the info in it and a lot more by searching this forum.

Vintage Les Paul afficianados swear by aluminum tailpieces for vintage tone (they were what Gibson used from 54 to the early 60's I believe). I noticed a very large improvement on my own LP style guitar when I upgraded to an aluminum tailpiece. Of course, it all depends on what you're after. Personally, I'm not a fan of brass on a guitar in any way, shape or form. I believe it sucks tone. I also prefer vintage type guitars over their floyd and brass bearing brethren. I'll stick to my pigtail music tailpieces and Callaham vintage type trems thanks very much.

You can also find rosewood essentail oil at health food stores, a lot of people recommend woodwind instrument bore oil, and others recomend guitar honey. There are a multitude of products out there and searching any guitar based forum will lead you to major arguments about what is best.

Some folks consider brass to be a tone sink, whatever that means, but original TOM bridges had brass saddles. I never could understand the desire for a brass nut though. Do any of you guys remember the brass plates that were sold to attach to the back of your headstock? They were supposed to increase sustain.

With these Chinese companies, its not just a question of the type of lumber used, but also how well the lumber was dried and the quality of the lumber used. You never know though, it could end up being a pretty good guitar.

Not sure if it will help, but here is a page showing all the bridge parts: http://www.ibanez.com/parts/2004_PARTS/el_...s/2ZRT1RNK.html Also, have you seen this? http://www.ibanezrules.com/namm/2003/trems.htm#ZR

First off, when you are talking steel blocks for a vintage strat trem and aluminum Stop Bars for a vintage Les Paul tailpiece, you are comparing eggplants to watermelons. Lightweight aluminum is the best on a Les Paul for REPRODUCING vintage tone. If vintage Les Paul tone is your thang, then an aluminum tail piece is definitely for you. The differences are very noticable when replacing a regular LP tailpiece with a lightweight aluminum one. If you want an aluminum strat block, go to tailfeatherz.com. You won't get a vintage strat tone.