CudBucket

Here are some pics to help illustrate what I'm describing. The two pics on the bottom are of a plywood template with the holes and tuners installed. I didn't drill the indexing pin so they are sitting high on the template.

Thanks Rich. I don't have a cad design but I suppose I could outline it and take a pic of it. Thanks. Dave

Thanks for the reply Darren. You're right. I overlooked that at the design stage. I can't remember why I did that but I guess I figured the headstock was not that unusual. I know now that it's not exactly centered and the curves on each side are of different radii. I simply went with a design that was visually pleasing to me. Something to keep in mind with the next ones. Thanks again. Dave

This weekend I made templates of my headstock so that I could plot out strings and place my turners. I want a straight from nut to post. I made the templates from 1/2" ply and then used a 3/8" bit to drill the holes where I marked them. The problem is that due to the shape of my headstock, the tuners aren't equi-distant from the headstock edge. The result is that the appearance is a little askew. To me anyway. Should I care about this as long as the position allows for a straight string path? You can see pics of my headstock on www.downinfrontht.com. I'm thinking of using Sternberger Headless tuners so that you won't see pegs at all. Either that or doing major surgery on the head to add stock to it and start over. Anyway, just looking for opinions. Thanks. Dave

No offense but comparing yourself to Mercedes isn't fair. Until you're able to give, literally give your guitar to a celebrity that puts it on the map, you're going to have trouble getting $3000 for it. You're an unknown and your first objective should be breaking in and getting recognition. Then, you can start worrying about making top dollar. By the way, how many guitars have you sold?

That guitar is beautiful. Great, great job!

Great job!

Thanks for the help Jay! I don't know why I have a little "teetering". I think it's because of all the washers too. I used a 5/16" Forstner bit to drill that hole. I'm going to try a shorter bolt and lose the washers. Do you have washers under your handle?

I'm waiting on a drill bit set to be delivered so I can drill my trem posts. In the meantime I've completed the body round over by hand. I'll have pics soon. Yesterday I made Jay5s $15 fretbender. All the parts were found at Home Depot and I used a piece of acrylic I had laying around. Here's a pic.

Thanks Jay. It appears the 5/16" hole I drilled leaves a little play for the bolt/handle. Does this matter? If so, I thought I'd wrap some silicon tape (plumber's pipe thread tape) around the bolt to snug it up. I'll be using this immediately since my neck needs to be fretted. I just need an arbor. Dave

Thanks a ton! Any chance you've got a neck drawing?!?!?

Thanks a million! I made mine using a piece of 7/16" acrylic a friend gave me. I had to use a bunch of washers under the crank but I may just get a shorter bolt. Here it is. It cost me $15 in parts (including extra washers, nuts, etc.)

That guitar is beautiful. I'm sure you'll sell it. The advice offered here is sound. The only thing that stands out to me though, and I hope you don't take this personally but, the "brand" name doesn't inspire confidence in me. StewMade sounds like you couldn't think of anything better. I know it means nothing, your guitars are beautiful but it just doesn't feel right. Dave

That thing looks great. You're going to fool a bunch of people. Won't it be funny when someone just picks up, plays it and says "Hmm, that's why PRS gets the big bucks". And then you tell 'em.

I thought it would be convenient to have an easily printable version of the tutorial so I copied it into a Word document and added headings etc. I'm hosting it on my web space so if you follow this link, you can download it to your PC and print it. [url="http://www.downinfrontht.com/images/woodworking/LGMPolish.doc"]http://www.downinfrontht.com/images/woodwo...g/LGMPolish.doc[/url]

Well, for the immediate future, I can't see myself with enough time to do more than 2 or 3 guitars in a year so I don't know that I'll need a higher-end gun yet. And if you've seen my project guitar web site, you'll see that I have no aversions to spending money on tools. But I've always been skeptical of spending alot of money on spray guns. I'm sure I'm being somewhat naive but when I consider all the prep work before spraying and then all the sanding and buffing after spraying, I imagine that a gun only needs to apply the paint. Orange peel and the like can happen with any gun, and it can be sanded out. I think it becomes more about the magician than the wand. And then, when you consider the stew-mac tutorial where a beautiful trans blue was clear coated through a rattle can outside in 38 degree weather, you have to wonder: "How good does a spray gun have to be?" I don't mean to belittle the work that a pro does. In fact I'm praising it because those guys can make art if they had to apply paint with a Q-tip. The craziest thing I might do would be a burst or something so I have to believe a "cheaper" gun would be fine for now. Plus if I only spend $40 or so on one of the Stew Mac guns and get 3 or 4 nice guitars out of it, it'll have been worth the investment. No? Am I way off here? Thanks. You guys are great. Dave

Ya think I really need to drop more than $200?

These are the guns that Stew Mac carries now. The smaller one is virutally identical in appearance to the Badger 400. The prices are great and the compressor demands are moderate. Does anyone here have experience with these? I can still get a badger 400 on the internet for about $70. Thanks. The link is below. Dave http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supp...es.html#details

Yeah, it was basically shaping like with a rasp. It was worth it. Just wouldn't have been right if I didn't do it. I've got pics to post later. Thanks. Dave

That is gorgeous. Congratulations! Dave

Finished rough sanding the sides yesterday. My fingers are in bad shape from holding the 36 grit paper so long. Now I've got a nice round edge with no flat spots all the way around. I'll have to smooth it out with 80, 120, etc. but that will be WAY easier than the rough sanding. I'll post more pics when I've got more to show. Thanks. Dave

Thanks a ton Meegs! To cut the slot for the 5-way, I'm going to clamp a hardwood fence to the body, parallel to the slot. Then, I'll toss my Dremel into the router attachment and use a 1/16" cutter head to make many light passes till I'm through. Then, from within the cavity, I'll just use my router to sneak up on the proper thickness for the switch. Today, I tried to drill my trem posts but found I need an 11/32" bit and not 5/16". Had I tried to "coax" the stud into that smaller hole, I would of split her for sure. So instead, I started hand-sanding the edges. In the pics you can see that the round-over bit worked well on the top and back but left a flat area about 5/8" wide all around the body. It's taking much longer to complete the roundover this way than I had expected. I need larger sheets of 40 grit to remove material faster. I'm basically holding the body between my legs and holding the paper in each hand over the rounded edge. The motion looks as if I'm polishing someones shoes. Works well because it follows the entire roundover and gradually removes the flat. But it's SLOW. I hope I can finish that tomorrow. Thanks again! Dave

Looks great! You put maple on the back. Interesting. Is the front getting a maple cap too?

That is exactly what that is! Truth time. It is actually covering up a f***-up. My drill press wasn't deep enough to drill all of the ferrule holes, so I tried some other device which ended up just wrecking the holes (live and learn). After I got through kicking myself, I made a template the width of the set of ferrule holes and got the router out and went to work routing out about a 1/4 inch deep. Then I shaped a piece of left over maple to fit in there, redrilled the holes and voila', no more f***-up! ← That's what I thought. I just didn't want to suggest it when I asked. Excellent work dealing with a mishap. Dave

BTW, what's going on with that pic of the back? I see what looks like blue quilted maple where the ferrules are located. Dave