topper

Thanks Mattia, glad you said that YAY !

Hi, was wondering if sapele is ok for a lam 3 piece neck ? Im guessing its almost the same as mahogany in sound and strength. Just wanted to check with you guys before i start. Going to top it off with rosewood. cheers.

I think recessing a tom is a great idea, thanks for that you guys !

Thanks Mickguard I was thinking about the strat-style hardtail bridge, but im not sure if that would look odd ? I was hoping there was a vintage looking bridge that might seem more in-keeping with the firebird's style. Your idea about recessing the tuneomatic seems a good idea, will look into that for now. But if anyone does know of a cool looking bridge pls let me know. ty

Hi, im starting to make a friend a firebird 1 reverse, ive got a few things to sort out first though. He plays a strat but loves the look of the firebird. We were hoping to have a alternative bridge to a tuneomatic, one thats non trem. He finds tunomatics too high off the body and wants that strat feel. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thx.

Hi Hydrogeoman, thats a good question. Ive offten thought about building a guitar from European beech, only because there's plenty near where i live. Many have gone over in the last few years its sad to see them just rotting away. The beech i have around sounds dead when i tap it, ive also some ash and that seems to give a ring to the tap. You have got me thinking now gunna google a bit and see if i can find anything.

Yeah i like that guitar taxtelle, its very nice to see an accoustic here ! Looks to me that u have done a great job. Im just starting a classical guitar if u have any tips would be great if you can share them. anyway welldone !

Im wanting to start a new project soon, but im a little stumped at the moment. Im trying to understand the neck angle on a classical guitar. Do i use a similar technique as when determining the angle for an electric guitar ? Ive searched the forum and have found no information on this subject, even searching on the web has confused me even more. I did read that a classical guitar neck should be opposite to the neck angle of an electric guitar (its late and im gunna fall asleep on my keyboard), but i may have read that wrong Any help would be helpful thanks.

WOW never seen one of those Zemaitis before, looks great. Wonder what they sound like, with the metal front ?

This method is new to me. What sort of bit do u put in the press to push the frets in ? Fret setter ?

Yeah thats gonna be a nice looking guitar. I would cut the bottom horn slightly sharper too, but to be honset it looks great anyway. Good luck cant wait to see how it turns out.

The guitar body started out 44mm thick and at its thickest parts it still is (mainly around the edges), its hard for me to say how thin it is at its thinnest. I carved the middle to a dish like shape (the same as my tummy LOL). You could make a nice semihollow travel guitar maybe with a spruce top ? Im sure it would work fine, a friend of mine has a guitar that has a semihollow body with a spruce top, im sure PRS makes them too. Maybe as my skills develope i might have ago too. Anyway here are some more pic's. Ive decided to take out the ebony fillers on the back and im gunna replace them with just sapele to hide the holes as best as i can (the ebony is unbalancing my maple inlay). http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b202/jim.../guitarback.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b202/jim.../guitarside.jpg

Its great to get some good feedback thanks. lol it does look a little like a LP The scale lenght is 25" so it feels smaller than my ibanez rg550. It just feels ligther, the body is just about the same size as a LP maybe a little smaller but with the carving on the back it feels light. Dont know about anyone else but i find L/P's a little uncomfortable, my stomach is getting bigger these days maybe thats the problem The body is made from 2X sapele, the neck is a three piece mahogany laminate with maple strips between. I did carve a little too deep so when i drilled the bridge posts, the tip of the drill came out the back of the body. I filled these in with ebony but im thinking about trying to get a couple of ying yang inlays to fill them in. I was going to say it was a clever way of knowing where the bridge post's were if i needed to get them out (but no one would have belived that anyway).

Hiya, first off i wanna say thanks very much to so many people that took the time to put quality tutorials on this site. I wanted to make a guitar with a small body to travel and to laze with on the couch. Im very very pleased with this guitar it sounds better than i could have hoped for too. But the best thing by far is watching my friends playing it, to think it was all just a few lumps of wood not that long ago. I call it plane Jane. http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b202/jimkelly/back2.jpg

I know its not that close to you but i get my timber here, http://shogun.co.uk/yandle/yantimb.htm They do delivers. I just got an amazing peice of rosewood 6"x6" and about 6' long for £70. Give em a ring. Its has large stocks of great hard woods Quoted from site. CRAFTSMENS' TIMBERS We carry over 60 different species available in a large self-selection centre. Able to be supplied in both plank or cut to order from Quality Softwoods and English Hardwoods to Exotic timbers from around the world. A full timber catalogue is available on request and we run a mail order service. Fresh sawn, Air dried & Kiln dried timber is available.

Wow thats amazing, that finish is great.

Today was the firts time i have ever slotted a fingerboard by hand with no miter box. Its friday the 13th but im sure that if it was yesterday the same results would have occurred. Basicly my real nice piece of ebony ended up a real bad piece of ebony. I did practice on a old bit of rosewood and it seemed ok, but i found the ebony would grab at the saw which took my concentration. Now the slots are badly spaced and not as parallel as they should be. Ive tried to search for a tutorial on how to make a good miter box for slotting but i seem to get an error message up when i try. Can anyone help me or show me a link on how to make a miter box for slotting please ?

Ok thanks, i just got a old stanley no.6 with a grooved bottom for £23 on ebay. Thanks for your thoughts on this, i was worried that it was a mistake buying it.

hiya, im working with a luthier (his name is Ben) who is showing me the ropes and funny enough, i fitted the guitar version of the that rod in the guitar im building today. I know he used one of those rods in a bass that he made last week, and thought that they were great. Im a noob at this building so i cant go by my own experience, but like i said Ben thinks they are good. Hopes that helps.

Im looking to buy a few new planes (sizes 5+6), but was wondering about the different uses for both grooved bottom planes and smooth ones ? Thanks.

Thanks idch, You have two ! wow... lucky you ! What years are they from ? I dont know how to accurately copy dimensions from a guitar to paper or file. Wish i did ! I will have to look into it. If you could find away of scanning you guitar it would be great but i understand it may be difficult. As for which one (single or double pickup) i was thinking double, but as you have both what do you think ?

Im looking for gibson melody maker drawings or CAD files, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry to hear about the last six months, sounds like a real bad time. I just wanted to say WOW i think what you have done is great, im just planning my first build and get very jealous just looking at your guitar. If you dont mind me asking how did you get the body shaped so accurate ?

Hello Dekon good luck with your guitar building hope it goes well. Im sure you will find what you need to know here at Project Guitar. Im new here too and have spent hours looking over many of the great posts, and have found nearly all i need.

Hello I have been thinking for a while about making a guitar and would like to make a RG type guitar. I was a proud owner of a RG550 ten years ago and still dont know why i sold it ! I would like to get some help with what wood i should use for the body, ive read about Basswood and it seems like a good timber for treble. But could i mix Basswood and a wamer sounding wood such as Ash ? Would the mix give the guitar more depth or just muddle the sound badly ? Im a total noob to the forum and have searched the site and have found some very good info about this subject. I guess its part of the guitar making learning curve, but i would really like to know what people's preferences are.