Gigabyte

I added the headstock and cavity plate (boomerang looking one). Keep in mind these are close but approximated (not exact), unlike the body which I actually traced from the real thing. I made these by finding clear pics off ebay, tracing them in photoshop and then playing with the size to fit the needs of my project, so what I'm saying is they are not exact but usable and if you can use them, cool http://photobucket.com/albums/v466/shadowninja_x/PRS%20body/ I'm going to copy and paste this into the thread in the tutorial and reference section since I put them all in the same album........

Now that I might have Anyone need that

Nope, sorry...All I've got is the body.......

Cool, whenever you post the links up I'll erase mine...... Edit: I added the headstock and cavity plate (boomerang looking one). Keep in mind these are close but approximated (not exact), unlike the body which I actually traced from the real thing. I made these by finding clear pics off ebay, tracing them in photoshop and then playing with the size to fit the needs of my project, so what I'm saying is they are not exact but usable and if you can use them, cool http://photobucket.com/albums/v466/shadowninja_x/PRS%20body/

P.R.S. Body outline in 4 quarters.... Click me! Just print them out and piece them together.... After you piece them together it should be 17 3/4 tall and 13 inches at the fattest part. Edit: Added the headstock and cavity cover. They are not exact, see my next post below................... It'd be nice if a MOD (or someone) hosted these images so what little bandwidth I have doesn't get eaten up..... Hope this helps someone........... Fred

Don't say I never did anything for you Harrison: PRS body in 4 quarters...... Click me.... Just print them out and piece them together and type: "Fred's the MAN!!!" 3 times while saying it out loud Maybe I should put this in the tutorial and reference section.......... P.S. After you piece them together it should be 17 3/4 tall and 13 inches at the fattest part.

If your hand are too big try prewiring all the pots, switch and jack outside of the guitar. I use a shoe box with holes punched in it, wire all that up and then just drop it in... You might even get away with wiring the pickups with the control stuff sitting on the back of the guitar just outside the cavity (protecting the paint with something of course)if you have enough slack from the pickup wires......

Here are some measurement from the template I made which was traced directly from a Custom 22. 17 3/4 inches X 13 inches The back wood is about 1 1/4 inches thick and the maple top is 1/2 inch thick. The measurements aren't factory spec or anything but pretty darn close. The measurements on the guitar I made are slightly different, which I did on purpose ( 1 inch back and 3/4 top), so don't use the pictures of mine to get an example of the 2 thicknesses..... As far as tools, I know I've recommended this a bunch of times but I'll keep doing it because I know it works and works good; not to mention it's so easy you won't believe your eyes as you're doing it.... Use an Orbit sander!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read my post, it should help: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11848 That dremel will come in handy for the horns and I assume you already have a router... You're going to need a crap load of 2 inch (or bigger) C-clamps for gluing the top to the back.... There's a special bit I used to get the recesses for the knobs which I talk about in my post too...... Can't think of anything else at the moment. Don't let anyone talk you out of making it! This was my second guitar too so I know it can be done. If you feel a little apprehensive about doing it, you aren't alone. It seems like it's harder to get over the whole idea of it being hard because people tell you it is than it is to actually do it (using my method anyway ). What do you have to lose? If you're worried about the money wasted on wood either buy cheaper wood for now; OR actually buy some really cheap wood and use it just to make a practice run for doing the top. You can throw it in the trash when you're done, burn it, hang it on the wall or hell, make a fake neck for it and then smash it on stage *LOL* Bottom line, just do it I need to save all this crap I just typed so I can just paste it next time

Hey, what happened to the headstock veneer? Change your mind? I guess I'm going to give the DEFT clear a try next time. I did the fingernail check in the pickup cavity yesterday on mine and it's still very soft... I think I clear coated mine before you too... That's sucks..... Tick-tock...... As far as the deepness, it's probably that pickup (EMG?)...? Especially if it's active. It seems that they get even deeper over time too (at least that's my experience with EMGs)...... Being a 7 string probably doesn't help either I have a 6 string BC Rich with a 7 string set on it (minus an E, B-E-A-D-G-B ) with an EMG that I pull out of the closet every once in a while and I always have to adjust my pedals to brighten it up.... Sometimes I use the single coil simulator on my Digitech pedal on it and that really brightens it up.....

Excellent! That clear coat really gives it some depth...... As far as the Deft clear you used, what are you comparing it to as far as being better? Duplicolor? Just wondering.... looking for alternatives ...... something that gets harder faster..... I've been using duplicolor so far.....

I have a RP80 which is basically the same as yours except with an expression pedal. The drum thing on it's pretty good to practice with and make up new songs. Generally what I do is when I make something up with the drums on the pedal I go to drumflow and try to match the beat and then lay some tracks down...... A little tip for those planning on using the program; generally what I do when using cakewalk is I lay the drum track down and then I record the drum beat onto a tape recorder. I then record the guitar stuff playing from the tape recorder (I mute all other tracks in cakewalk while recording). I do this because using playback while recording on the computer creates an echo in the recording... Just a little FYI for those who don't know this already..........

The maple is pretty darn hard. Hell, I smacked it with a hammer and all that did was put a tiny little ding in it about the shape and size of a small finger nail. I took that out very easily with a damp cloth and a clothes iron. The hardness of it is probably why the figuring is sort of faint. It's probably a trade off, softer maple= better figuring (like yours)... I feel you on the money issue. I'm probably going to throw the left over GAX body from this project as well as the RG body from the first project on ebay here in a couple of days to get the cash for my next project......... Can't wait to see how that blue looks with some clear over!!!

http://tnikolai.nm.ru/df-download.html Just thought I'd post this link for you guys that like to tinker around with cakewalk or the like and don't have drums. It's a freeware program that has different drum kits that sound pretty decent for what they are. Much better than you regular crappy MIDI drum stuff. It's also compatible with Cakewalk so basically you just hit record in Cakewalk and then play the drum beat in drumflow and that's it! You do have to close Drumflow to go back and listen to the cakewalk recording (I do on my computer anyway). Also you can download extra drum kits if don't like the ones you have. Have fun! Fred P.S. You can adjust the volume of each individual beat as well as how many beats are within each square by right or left clicking (holding down) on a particular square and dragging in different directions. Just play with it.... you'll figure it out....

Watching paint dry sucks so I played a little dress up just to see what it's going to look like. Nothing is bolted down or anything, I just sat things down in place... http://photobucket.com/albums/v466/shadowninja_x/PRS2/ In the first pic I photoshop'd some strings on it 3 more weeks and then I can polish her up.... (tick-tock-tick-tock....) I'm planning on doing a 5 string fretless bass based off a an Elroi (Brazilian) bass I saw to keep me busy....

Man, that thing is looking amazing. It looks like rippling water or something. Glad to see my orbit sander trick worked out for you. Can't wait to see that sucker finished and polished up

Ripsrv, check out my thread... It's not much of a tutorial but I guess it could serve as one if needed... It's a PRS style body: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11848 I did most of the top with an orbit sander and the rest with a dremel. I di go into some details about how I did the top so read up. This is only my second guitar. I had no pryer (sp?) wood-working knowledge before I started making guitars other than sharpening a stick and calling it knife when I was about 7 (ha-ha). Just test you ideas and techniques on scrap before moving on to the real piece. Anyway, if I could do it then you can do it. People will probably tell you it's one of the harder body styles to make, maybe because of the arch top; I don't know... but with a little cheap orbit sander it couldn't be any easier (unless you have a CNC machine around to copy bodies for you all day...) You might want to look into getting a cheap donor guitar so you can steal the neck, bridge, etc... That stuff gets pretty expensive when you buy each piece individually....... Plus when you're using a donor guitar you have some reference for the distance of the bottom of the neck to the bridge....

LOL, yeah... I DID Here's a 3 in one pic.... 1)Stripped and sanded back 2)Re-dyed with cardinal red 3)A little metal cast and a couple of coats of lacquer to seal it up BTW, in that last shot the post anchors have little tape dots over them... (no, they didn't disappear

Well.....sadly that finish is gone because I accidently smacked it with a hammer I was putting one of the post anchors in and damn it if I didn't miss and wack the friggin guitar. I felt like crying, laughing and an extreme anger all at the same time. I tried to clean the area up (about the size of a nickel) and dye it but when I got done building the clear coats up on that spot and sanding it flush the color just didn't match. I tried that twice and then just said "screw it" and started stripping the whole top. I'm sort of glad it happened now actually for two reasons. 1) It wasn't exactly the color I wanted (too dark) and 2) I found that when I was removing the paint I could literally just chip and peel it off very easily. It seems that the lacquer didn't adhere very well to the sanding sealer I had sprayed on (scuff sanded with 400 gr. too). Anyway so I just cleanly cut around the edges with an exacto knife and peeled the whole top paint off and sanded all the sanding sealer off as well as most of the dye. I've since re-dyed it a much nicer red and put a couple of clear coats on it just to seal it up. I'll probably start doing the clear coats again on Monday since the Super Bowl is tomorrow..... I'll post some new pics up in a bit......... Oh, BTW angry_jeremy; the finish was just a mixture of cardinal red and black aniline dyes, some sanding sealer (which I personally don't recommend anymore) and a crap load of Duplicolor Clear. I did spray a touch of Duplicolor Metalcast (Red) to give it a little bit of a redder hue since it looked sort of brownish first. I did that somewhere in the very early stages of clear coats............

Damn! Lookin good Maiden! Your's is looking 10 times better than mine already just from the maple. That maple makes me feel all tiggly inside Where'd you get it and how much $$ was it? How thick is it? Makes me wish I'd spent more money on mine but then again it's only my second guitar and my first arched top at that.... I probably spent less money (about $75 total) for wood, paint, AND my donor guitar than that maple top costs alone. Now that I feel comfortable with doing the top I'll definately spend the coin on some better wood next time..... Can't wait to see more pics....

I didn't bother reading thru all the posts but if no one has posted it yet here's a handy link to have if there might be local places around you: Woodfinders I usually look by zip code but you can look by species too I think........

Here's the real neck in place: Neck in place...

The neck is actually not sitting all the way in the pocket. I have it sitting off of the body so I don't have to peel it away from the neck heel when it's dry from all the clear coats... A lesson learned from the last project I'll take a pic with the real neck on it in a sec.......

I'd pick the one on the left.......... If I went with the right one I'd probably make the bottom a little fatter or the top a little smaller..

Thanks for the kind words guys........ Here's a couple of shot during the day This sucker really lights up when the sun hits it. In the last shot on the right it got so bright the camera won't even pick up the grain 3 front shots... Here's some shots of the horns for skibum5545 horns The top horn looks really rounded as far as the carving. It doesn't look so round in real life. I guess the reflections are making it look sort of screwy.........

As far as the neck heel, I based it on how far it went up on the Ibanez GAX. Also if you notice how small the neck pocket is relative to where the bottom horn is at the corner there. On a real PRS 22 fret the neck pocket (top of the guitar) ends at about the 21st fret........ Of course I had to make adjustments because I'm adapting the neck..... I test fitted everything including the neck and the bridge and loosely put some strings on it to see how the action would be and also to see how access to the upper register would be and everything was good Another thing worth mentioning is between 3 of my guitars (Iban. GAX, BC Rich and Strat), I could count 6 frets up and coincidently there was the top of the neck heel on all 3 guitars; so that something else I took into consideration......... BTW, that's my guitar holding neck (POS neck). The real neck sits much better in the pocket...... As far as the bridge, I'm using the one that came off the Ibanez, which looks almost identical to the one in the PRS picture above... Same type of setup basically...