CudBucket

Godin, given the entries this month, I consider your comments a compliment. I almost didn't enter because there are some guitars out there that I am in awe of. But I realized, those are the ones I'd like my guitar to be judges against. This month's GOTM does have some nice work though. Good luck to all.

I haven't measured the action yet. I've gone by feel to see if I can set it up that way, as opposed by looking at a ruler. It's pretty low right now. Maybe lower than my Petrucci. That would put it in the vicinity of 1/32" at the twelfth fret. I think the nut slots are too low on the B and G strings so I may have to shim or re-cut. But that's minor. The trem is nice but I've got to let the claw out a bit. Plus, the springs I got with it are pretty stiff. I've only got two on there now and they pull real hard. The neck feels thicker than I thought, now that it's on the body and strung up. But the action is so comfortable, it doesn bother me. I wouldn't be surprised if on a rainy day in the future, I pull it off and slim it down a bit. It feels alot like a Fender Strat neck.

That body is beautiful!! Congrats.

Matt, great job on deciding to do your neck. I'm glad!! You're doing a great job. Dave

http://www.downinfrontht.com

http://www.downinfrontht.com

Thanks all! The fret levelling seems to be pretty good. I haven't had any fretting out issues yet. The nut needs to be tweaked though. I may have cut the slots too deep but I can always shim or just cut a new one. Sorry about the pics. I keep forgetting. http://www.downinfrontht.com

It's done folks. Here are some new pics. Please see the "Assembly" and "Complete" pages I just added. Thanks to all of you for following along, supporting me, providing valuable answers to my many questions and helping to build my confidence. I owe a debt of gratitude to you all. Thank you. Dave Frattaroli http://www.downinfrontht.com

I'm entering, for a chance at Guitar Of The Month for September 2005, my first build. I call it, the Egress. Egress means "window" or "portal" and I chose this name because this guitar represents my portal into the art of building guitars. Mahogany body with flamed maple top. Birdseye maple neck with Honduran Rosewood fretboard. Matching mahogany cavity covers. Spertzel tuners with pearloid buttons. Dunlop jumbo fretwire. Dimarzio Steve's Special in the bridge postion. Dimarzio Air Norton in the neck position. StewMac Mega P 5 way switch. Wilkinson trem bridge. The guitar features rounded body sides and Homestead Transfast Turquoise Blue dye under McFadden's Nitro Cellulose lacquer. The action is super comfortable and the tone is fat with an accent in the upper midrange. It's currently strung with .010 guage strings. For some reason, I was unable to get a picture that really gives an accurate representation of the color and gloss of this body. These are links to 3 more pics that do, as well as a link to my website illustrating the process. The newest pages are "Assembly" and "Complete". http://www.downinfrontht.com/images/body_polished_2.JPG http://www.downinfrontht.com/images/body_polished_1.JPG http://www.downinfrontht.com/images/body_polished_3.JPG http://www.downinfrontht.com

Big D, I saw your entry and thought maybe I should hold off! That's a sweet guitar.

Oh ya, your right. Don't know why I thought it was the 26th ← Thanks guys. That means I've got to snap some pics off today when I get home. Dave

Matt, that neck is gorgeous. Please tell me you made it. Really sweet! Dave

Just curious. I think I can take pics of my guitar in time if voting doesn't start till later this week. Thanks. Dave

I think I got the wiring scheme all figured out. It will be done this weekend. As it stands, the neck is on, the strap end pins are on (with little felt washers I made) and the volume and tone pots are in. Gonna wire up the pups next but I have to get 4 screws to direct mount them to the body with.

I kinda of figured that's what I do if there wasn't a specific kind of screw to use. Thanks!

Ash must be grain filled. I'm not sure now how the paint would affect adhesion of grain filler at this point. Maybe someone else could chime in on that.

You could also make a template by marking your taper lines and then clamping a straigth edged board to it and using a router with a pattern bit. Then clamp on the other taper and do that one.

The screws that came with my Dimarzios are for mounting rings. I'm direct mounting them into my project guitar. Can any tell me what size/type of screws I need for this? Thanks. Dave

If that is the case, you've answered everything I need to know! Thanks! Just in case I wasn't giving enough info though, here' some more. The guitar is my project guitar. Here's the body I'm wiring up... Both the Dimarzio Air Norton and Steve's Special are 4 conductor pups with a bare wire ground. The four conductors are black, red, white and green. The Stew Mac Mega Switch wiring diagram is in the link. Notice it says that for the wiring to work, the outside coils of the 2 pups must have opposite magnetic polarity and if placed over each other, should attract. So I laid out the pups as they'd be on the guitar and folded them like a book on to each other like a book, so that the opposite coils were over each other and yes, they attracted. So I think I'm OK there. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...30.html#details Thanks for helping me out. Dave

Hey guys. Just realized that I'm not sure how to wire my Dimarzio Steve's Special and Air Norton to a Stew Mac Mega P Switch. I'd like to follow the Mega's instructions but all I know is that the hot of each pup is the red. According to the Dimarzio instructions the bare wire is ground but the Mega instructions refer to the "ground" and the "shield" from the pickup. I'm not sure what the "shield" is or for that matter, what the black, white and greens on the pups are. Anywhere you can point me? I've tried searching but havent found a match for my problem. I'll keep looking though. Lastly, the Mega Switch instructions refer to a "Series Link" from both the neck pickup and bridge pickup. It represents a lead in the diagram. Would this be the black and white wires soldered together? Thanks. Dave

That's a neat shade of green.

I can't wait to see this one done. Les Paul style bodies with Floyd's rock!

Very unique! What's the neck going to be like?

gun, As far as thinning goes, I've gotten mixed info here. The first 15 coats were thinned 2:1. Two parts laqcuer, one part thinner. That one part of thinner was actually 50% thinner and 50% retarder. Still, you can thin with retarder only if you wanted to. The last 10 coats were was 1:1 with the same split of thinner/retarder. Coming out of the gun, the thinner still had plenty of body and in all of those coats, I had two small runs. The runs were almost invisible and all but disappeared when that coat dried. As for the sanding and polishing goes... 1) The body MUST be leveled before even the sealer coats. Then level after the sealer. 2) I sprayed about 15 coats before sanding the clear. Nitro melts into the previous coat so I don't see the point in sanding after EVERY coat. 3) I did all my leveling (before the final sand and polish) with 400 grit paper and mineral spirits. Wet the paper with spirits and begin sanding. Use a block on the top and back. Every 15 - 20 strokes, I'd wipe the slurry off the guitar with a paper towel and examine the body. You're done when the shiny spots are gone and the entire surface looks absolutely uniform. Remember, if you can see any inconsistency in the body at this point, it will only be magnified later. 4) After the final clear coats were ready, I wet sanded/leveled starting with 1000 grit. Anything coarser has too much cut and is really unnecessary if you've leveled properly before. Again, you're looking for uniformity in the surface before moving on to 1200, 1500 and 2000. If you still see any scratches after sanding with a particular grit, go back to the previous grit. This is the key. If you don't have the discipline to do it over when necessary, you'll have problems later. 5) Lastly, I can't stress enough, how important it is that you have clean cotton rags to work with. I trapped some debris under my rag while buffing off the compound and created scratches. I had to go back to 2000 grit paper to take them out. These are all points that became important to me during this process. I'm sure I have alot to learn yet and others have had different experiences but this is what works for me. Good luck! Dave

I used a cordless drill for the Finesse It and Perfect It. I did the Glaze by hand.