kpcrash

purpleheart - has a similar grain and finish, plus nice contrast.. IMO

What i have found with Deft, is that it is much like most spray can lacquers. to get it to cure you have to go really thin on the coats(almost misting) or you need to crack the finish with 800 or 1000 grit as soon as you can handle(usually 24 hours after spraying). If not, the solvent builds with the finish, and never fully gasses off. this is a huge problem with spray can lacquer, especially acrylics. Which, among other issues - can cause pitting in the finish down the road. Pitting is a pisser

Just to add to what's already been said - also make sure your string set correctly in the nut slot. I had one come in a while back that had the nut slots at like a 45 degree angle, so the strings were at a less than optimal angle for being parallel

Depending on the age of the finish, you may be able to save a little work by thinning the lacquer to flow more easily into the chip - tend to hide witness lines a little better IMO

That's pretty cool... I'll probably bug you more about how your router sled is set up for these necks once I get a few more little projects knocked out.

Something like this is what I'm thinking at this point.... I'm not sure that any kind of wood would have the same effect. Again, the nut "pad" will be a piece of maple veneer. Forgive the freehand nut drawing location - but it gets the point across.

Me too I weigh about 150-160 and the physics of standing on a wizard neck with no fretboard - broken or not scares the hell out me. At least with a fretboard it's closer to 3/4" thick. Even with a truss rod, I dare say that a 1.5" x .5" piece of maple could stand up to me standing on it supported only at the headstock and butt - BUT - I have done that test on other necks and got the idea from seeing a PRS (I think) ad years ago where he stood on one of his necks stretched across 2 chairs to show how sturdy they were. This guy agreed to the CF rod install as the headstock has a custom paint job and he really does not want me to replace the neck (funny - he can afford for me to fix it - but not replace/refinish it.... oh well). I spoke to him as well about switching the nut since it appears to not be a stock Ibanez nut (having 5 threaded holes in it) and he wasn't too keen on that - like it violates some Ibanez voodoo or something, so I let it go. I'm just here to make sure that the neck gets fixed, fretboard replaced and frets installed correctly You can imagine how happy he was to when I explained that whole "you bought a fretboard that's too wide at the top and it's got binding - how shall I proceed" thing. The break is about 1.5" above the scarf - the scarf is in great shape - I'll go take a quick pic of it now so you can see.

Thanks Tim. It was a thought, but I'm pretty sure the carbon rods will do more. I've done it before in bass necks - will be 'extra' careful doing it to a wizard. Nice!

Thanks guys - the Titebond did a pretty stout job, but I think I might just consider the carbon rods as they're easily accessible. Filling in those holes and going in from the top was my first reaction - esp. with all the cracks you see around those two screws on Ibanez necks. We'll see if they're up for that. I think my plan for this will be to sand off the rest of the nut shelf first (since it splintered nicely when the FB popped off) and add a nice little piece of veneer in its place - possibly add the rods/convert the nut and go from there. The next challenge arrived this afternoon when the FB he ordered from evilBay showed up and SURPRISE it's about .5 mm too wide from about the 8th - 1st fret. Only issue is - of course - it's bound... yea...... Thanks again!

The vintage circuit will prob serve to add some noise in the circuit TBH, I don't see any real issues with that setup at all, other than it possibly being a little scratchy. I would recommend shielding the body cavity/pickguard with foil tape (copper/aluminum) to help with the hum. Other than that, give it a go. As far as nitro rattlecans go - I prefer Deft - others may have other favorite brands. In the winter I prefer water-based finishes like KTM-9 since inhaling solvent and lacquer seems cause problems.

I was brought an Ibanez Wizard neck off of a late 80's RG model. It appears "someone" - the owner swears it wasn't him. Overtightened the truss rod to the point that it snapped the neck behind the scarf making a perfect W shape with the two holes for the FR nut. I probably should have taken a picture because it was truly a clean W. Anyway - I did the proper gentle cleaning of the wound with some sanding cord - just to get the fine splinters out and have already glued/clamped this back together. It has cured now for about 36 hours. So my question is - does anyone see a problem of my re-attaching the neck (BTW - the fretboard popped complete off when the break happened) with no fretboard and a titebond-ed joint and adding low E and high E to verify the joint? Another thought I had was to possibly add 2 thin pieces of fiberglass cloth along the length of the neck (similar to what model airplane hobbyists use) or would that even make a difference. To clarify, the fiberglass cloth would be sandwiched between the FB and the neck. Broken headstocks aren't usually repaired that way (to my knowledge) but since this guy has asked me to go ahead and replace the FB with one he is ordering, I'd like to make sure it doesn't snap again. Thoughts?

Welcome. First, although we gripe about searching a bit - there are TONS of posts about applying nitro, how to, how not to, how it can go wrong - the key bit of advice is always PATIENCE. Assuming you'll be using rattle cans of lacquer - there's plenty of finishing tutorials on here. I've even posted one about finish sanding here Should you finish it? Ideally - frequently played guitars tend to get a bit grungy with no protection.. and we all know what can happen if you don't use protection. - The "it" in that statement is you. You make it shiny, the finish just makes a clear coat. Yes. If you use 250k pots vs. 500k pots - you should hear it. I'm sure someone will argue this with me, but that's ok. Read up on the pot value differences in any of the hundreds of posts here. Search for something like psw +pots or Mikro +pots Typically, you don't clear the inside cavities (some do), since metal foil tape (copper/aluminum) used to help with shielding and grounding doesn't always stick so well to it.

pretty cool

+1 ... and then some.

My internal drama (like an internal dialogue but with actors, staging and cheap lighting) screams some kind of Spın̈al Tap-ish vignette here. Cue Eric Johnson storming offstage in an uncommon fit of pique. To add to the Spinal Tap theme - EJ also claimed to have sold his soul to the devil for his talent at one point This is a great thread. I will agree strongly with the statement regardless of material/hardware/voodoo, etc. - any guitar will sound a bit different based on who is playing it. It's just that simple - I'm sure if 5 or 6 of us got together for a pint and had one guitar and one amp between us, each person's rendition of the same song would sound slightly different. Thank God for choices in guitars! Otherwise, thanks to all for a very interesting read.

The only reason I could see using the white is if the red is not opaque enough. Always easy to test on a piece of scrap or something.

Sure pine is a little soft - but any wood will strip depending on how the screws are over/under-tightened, etc. I've used plywood, considered MDF, would definitely use pine - just want to make sure there's not much sap in it because I hate cleaning that crap off my router bits

Nice subtle fluorescent yellow paint with subdued pickguard to match. KTM-9 clear. Pickup covers are painted VERY thinly with VERY thin coat of clear to protect. Did all the basics for hum prevention as well on this one. This was a body from GF that was to be rescued as it was trash when it was brought here by a very concerned but "frugal" friend. GF was very nice in responding about the concern, but the product does match description. Lesson learned. (Actually cut a new strat body for it out of Ash. The "mahogany" body sent by GF weighed in at an astonishing 2.3 pounds. I just couldn't make myself charge for it).

Not gonna happen with a can - even the Painter's Touch stuff I've used and gotten great finishes from takes a week or so to cure and stays soft for over a month.

Yea!!!! I refret!!! Honestly, thanks for suggesting that. You're probably correct. just weird how it seemed to morph over time like that. Have not had one come close to that. Thanks again!

Grabbed a guitar tonight that I have not played in quite some time.It has hung, dutifully on the wall with many others. I tuned it up and immediately noticed a fret buzz - BAD on the first 3 frets. After that, it seemed to go away. I checked the nut - and while cut a little deep - still provides ample clearance (as in a credit card slides easily through between the top of the fret wire and the string (somewhat high action). I looked at the bridge - adjusting the saddles made little difference until they were so high there was barely any screw left (it's a tele, style with a Wilkinson top load bridge). So... I laid a straight edge from saddle to nut and noticed that the frets by the neck/body join were rather low as were the frets behind the 5th fret. To test the bow, I adjusted the truss rod to attempt to level the neck. I only went about 1/4 turn at a time until I felt pressure. Neither tightening nor loosening the rod seemed to have much, if any effect. I did not build this one, so I'm not sure what's going on inside there . However, the problem seems to be a bow between frets 1-5 and a rise from 17-end. Is it possible that this was just a POS neck? Should I be more ambitious with the truss rod? Yes I searched and read about fret buzz - didn't really see anything about a wavy neck. Bow is one thing - easy to fix. Multiple curves is another. I know that when I got this guitar, the frets were not level and I did a pretty good fret leveling on it and played fine.... 3 years ago..... Thoughts? Ideas? Burn it and make a new one? Thanks in advance.

It takes a couple of steps to get it going, bit works fine. Should come in handy at the next NAMM.....provided work doesn't kill that plan again.

They're pickups - not hard drives Obviously if your windings are exposed and the pickups get close enough to touch it could break a winding - other than that, I'd be interested to hear/see how proximity in short intervals could really affect a pickup.

RAD you are entirely correct sir. I should have paid more attention to the "big chunks" statement

Typically you would want epoxy designed for woodworking - zpoxy, system 3 there are others. Alternatively, you could use bondo. I'm sure I'll get a little heat for that from someone, but it's what Fender and others used in the past - and if you're going to paint it - the color of the filler isn't a big deal