demon

Does anyone knopw what the properties of mango wood are, did an image search on google to check out purple heart, and there was a picture of a box made from mango. wood looked pretty nice, but wonmdering if anyone knows anything about it (It would be for a body though, im pretty happy with the selection for the neck)

id reccomend you dont use tape. If you go to a good artist/draughtsmans supply shop and get a roll of masking film. Every time I've used masking tape, you always end up with some bleed through when you have gone round curved edges and stuff. When you use the film you just draw out your design on a bit of paper the same size as your guitar, then place the film over the top. its see-through like OHP sheets, you cut out the design's outline with a knife, then you place the film on the guitar. As it is self adhesive you get perfect edges every time. Its much thinner than masking tape as well, so you dont get such high peaks at the edges of your finished design.

ill try an post some progress pics as im going with it. What does purpleheart look like? I'd seen a lam neck on a guitar in the in-progress section, and he had padouk in the middle of his lam, and the red stripe down the middle made it look so good. There is a lot of money available for this guitar, so the ebony will be 1st grade stuff, as black as possible, so i think that the contrast in colours and tones in the wood will make it very nice, providing i dont balls it up The guitar is going to be kept in drop D, so my next question is, will these woods give the right character to the sound of the guitar? the neck through with the lam, and quilt maple solid body? The woods were selected pretty much on aesthetic value.

i have been commisioned to build a guitar along the lines of an ibanez jem (without the handle) The customer was wanting a body made from quilt maple, and a through neck made from a laminate of rock maple - ebony - rock maple - paduak - rock maple - ebony - rock maple. He is wanting the neck to be made as thin as a wizard neck. I am slightloy unsure whether the laminates above would be strong enough for a neck this thin. I would welcome any input that you guys have. cheers

to me a guitar built from scratch would be one where all the woodwork (carving, routing etc) is done yourself from blocks of wood. guitars built from kits dont count as scratch built instruments in my opinion, they are just kits that have been screwed together. i used to make kit cars, but i didnt count them as being built from scratch, the only attempt i ever made to make a scratch built car was made from tubular steel, but i didnt count the engine, rear axle etc as parts that id built (well cos I hadnt......) but it was still a car built from scratch, if anyone gets what Im on about, ive kinda lost myself. I think the same about guitars. a scratch built guitar can have bought in parts like the bridge, pickups blah blah, but the major woodwork parts must be made yourself. Bought in necks or bodies would make it a customised guitar i think? I dont know im now confused an im gonna stop typing............

i didnt think so either, im thinking its more mid 80's, cos the paint is white (under the neck plate etc at least, the rest is now cream!) sparkle. the body is strat shaped but has a (very useful actually) scallop in the bottom cutaway on the front face. the headstock looks like a jackson. its actually quite a nice guitar. does anyone know how to post pics on this forum btw. ive tried having them hosted in several places but they never work

A client has brought me in a marina guiatr for customisation. He also wanted some background information on it, Ive not been able to find anything on it anywhere (Im not really all that good at surfin the net) the guitar is a marina g-100 or f-100. Looks more like an f though. the pickups are marked marina and are in s/s/h comfiguration, there are seperate switches for each pickup. there is also a non locking floyd rose type trem, althogh i dont know if it is genuine or copied as there are no markings on it. The neck is horrifically fat, with what looks like a pale rosewood fretboard. interestingly there is a locking nut and a plastic nut. If anyone can help me find out what sort of age and value this guitar would be id be most grateful. Im guessing early-mid eighties, and not terribly valuable, but im just guessing. Id post a pic, but it never works an ive given up trying to post pics.

thats a bonnnie guitar, the fretboard has some gorgeous figuring on it. bloody good artwork to.

theres quite a good tutorial on PG that shows you how to do your own decals.

i'm not sure if you get it in america, but I have always found that Liberon Tung oil gives the best results. You can either water it down with spirits or heat it in a bain marie until it is quite thin. this is the method I use and I find it works really well on most types of wood, including oily woods, though I have never used purpleheart before at all, so I couldnt comment on how it would work on that particular species, but like dugz ink says, it really brings out the grain of the wood, and the older it gets the better it looks.

i had considered that option, but the existing paint on the guitar where it is not airbrushed is matte black, and I would like to keep that finish if at all possible. I think I might just have to clearcoat it though. Im leaving it hanging fo r a few days to let the paint harden fully, then Im gonna try a different polishing method, if this doesnt work it will ahve to be the clearcoat option I think.

hey there, have you tried www.guitarpartsusa.com (sorry dont know how to link sites an stuff) they've got a variety of fender and les paul neck copies of varying quality. the best part is they're bloody cheap. As a scotsman i dont like spending money and these are cheap about $70 dollars, which is 38 quid according to my currency converter! I hjave used a couple of them and I was happy enough with the quality, although I shaved them anyway, so it didnt matter much what like they were like anyway! I'd say have a look anyway and see what you think.

ive just airbrushed a guitar, something ive done loads of time before......i do it fo a living, but the one ive just finished has come out all weird, and nothing i do seems to sort it. I put a complicated design on it and it came out all stippled and rough feeling, with some parts glass smooth seemingly totally randomly. I obviously wasnt happy with it, so i tried polishing it but the fine detail in the airbrush work all rubbed out, so i ended up taking it back to the wood and doing it all again from scratch! thing is, its come out the same again! I really dont want to have to do it again, so does anyone know what I am on about and how to solve the problem? Its not something ive ever encountered before, and its the same two part automotive paint that ive always used..

cheers guys, never actually thought to ask the manufacturers all the guitars that ive built so far have used proprietory necks, so its never been an issue! im more of a customiser than builder, although i have a few projects on the go just now....

when you rout out the truss rod channel,do you need to rout out the curve f the channel to a specific shape? ie: the middle of the channel is supposed to be deeper than the ends as far as i am aware, but how do you know how deep to make it? anyone know what i mean?

if you have access to an acetylene torch, or a very hot blowtorch, what looks really cool is if you firstly polish the stainless to a high finish then get the torch close up to the metal until it starts to blacken slightly, then flick the torch in whichever direction you want, you end up with a kinda "paisley" pattern of burn marks, but because the stainless is highly polished, you get a kind of oily look, all fancy colours an ****. I'll try an get a pic up to show you, but i cant seem to get any of my pics to upload. try it on a bit of scrap, it really does look sweet. If you need to find diamond plate at any time, phone round factories and ask if they have any scrap, most factories seem to cos it gets used for flooring, kickplates etc, usually you will get it free!

Has anyone here heard of a make of guitar called Yoshi? one of my customers brought one in to me and wants some info on it. thing is I've never heard of them. It looks like early 80's japanese. Looks like Dimarzio pickups. Might be a custom builder, dunno. if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

thanks, i will try that. Mind you, there is a guy on the forum somewhere, cant remember where whos making a floyd rose. I am sorely temted to make something similar. Ive never ever seen a trem on a bass - maybe for good reason i dont know, but its tempting......... I like my string spacings very close. On my 5 string they are about half the distance apart as they are on my p-bass, and i find that about the most comfortable to play, much less stretching needed to get to the low strings!

hasnt really got anything to do with your question, but i have a P-bass that was bought new. I decided to refinish it and put an airbrush design on it. When I stripped it down it was made with really dull boring wood, but under the sealing coat there was a very nice grain PAINTED ON beats me why the hell they did that? but they did.........

Does anyone know where I can get hold of a six string bass bridge? I want one as narrow as possible, its for a fender p-bass I am converting, but I dont want the neck to be too much wider (Like my 5-strings, I like the strings close together) Might have to end up making one........

When routing the truss rod channel, how do you decide the shape of the bottom of the channel? A lot of the tutorials that i have read say to have them concave, but they never describe exactly what shape (If there needs to be one) and how you work this shape out.

Worse than that releasing freon into the atmosphere is against international law Its also poisonous if it happens to catch fire. ON the subject of painting, I use an airbrush with a compressor and use two part automotive paint. I find that you get a good finish, but it takes ages for reasons mentioned earlier in someone elses post, I would stress to anyone who is considering buying any spray equipment, MAKE SURE YOU'VE GOT GOOD VENTILATION! Its about as bad as using spray cans indoors! Ive had to start painting in my kitchen, next to thw wide open windows. The massive headaches, nausea etc started getting a bit too much in my workshop

thanks, I've actually stumbled across a cmpany just up th eroad from me that makes pickups, doesnt help me a great deal in making them myself, but might be able to use some custom pickups in some of my own guitars and basses

great design but dont call it the monster its a rubbish name (And precisely what I was planning to call a 7 string project that I am doin ) I agree with true russian though, with the centre strings tuner being in the centre of the headstock thing (I know what I mean) Did a 5 string bass like that and it looked pretty sweet

Does anyone know how to make pickups? Its something that i have been interested in doin for some time now, but I aint got the foggiest idea how to do it. As far as i know you wrap wires round magnets and magic people make it work while you sleep......... ahem anyway, if anyone knows how please let me know (does anyone know where i can find a wavy scottish flag? dont want the english one)