Narcissism

lol, I think the calender idea has been tossed around. But you can find the archived guitars on the main page, or go here

that 2nd one that Wez posted is the ****... It'll need a different binding color for sure. I'm not too sure about black with black binding though. I'll get some and we'll see how it looks in the binding channel once I get that far though. I'm definately doing the black top though. Very sexy yes!

Wes, you should definitely do an explorer like that! And you should post a build thread!

You know, at first that idea sounded aweful, Wes. But now I'm considering something like it in a reverse black burst... It sounds aweful but the way I have it pictured in my head is pretty sweet!

Welcome to the forum!

Chances are that if you don't have the tools or patients to cut your own template, you won't enjoy building your guitar either. MDF is relitavly inexpensive at home depot. You can get a quarter inch 3x5 board of it for $4-5. I would check out moth's tutorial pinned in the solid body tutorial section of the forum.

Good luck!

The neck blank is cut up, and I gotta say, my coworker did a bang-up job! I'm able to get 2 necks out of the entire piece, and I can get two headstocks out of it on the correct side that I want. I'll be using the other neck for the SG that I'm building.

I've decided that I'm most likely going to be putting a top on this. It really does remind me of poop smeared on cardboard right now... It might change as I carve though... I still love the sides, and I'm pretty OK with the back. I have no idea what I'm going to use as a top though. I'm looking through LMI and a few other places at the moment.

The fretboard will either be ziricote, or massacre ebony. The top will probably not be flame maple, because I wouldn't know what to dye it as.

More update pics to come when the weather cooperates! Right now there's thunderstorms and no good lighting...

Gotcha... 5 hours of sleep, gimme a break.

I'm gonna be brutally honest:

The finish isn't that hard to achieve, even by fender standards.

Wrap it

Paint it

unwrap it

repeat

The next two steps are negotiable as far as order of opps goes:

clear

relic

Armed with a chisel, spray paint, a quarter, a nail and some masking tape, I believe you can achieve this finish pretty easily!

That actually came out pretty good! In the photo, it looks more drawn on than anything. I'm not sure if you get that impression in person, but if you do, then it'll be a neat surprise when someone holds it up close for inspection. I like stuff like that

I wasn't aware of an argument o.O I just think of a tenon and a heal differently than you, so I was elaborating for Guitarkid's sake, since he's learning too. I currently have no problems with you

Lets carry on here

Heel is the back of the neck where it sort of humps out near where it joins the body. I said "tenon" which is the part of the neck that goes into the body. A shorter tenon would = more overhang on the fretboard. Hope that clears up any confusion.

That's basically what I just said but who's counting...

Anyway, the body doesn't look like a grx20 to me because my old one was front routed. So yeah, to reitterate what everyone else said, get the stumac fret calculator up and make sure everything matches up

The neck pocket being in the wrong spot can throw off the scale completely though. 25.5 or not, lots of companies put their neck pockets in different spots due to different tennon lengths

Normally I wouldn't be interested, but I have a soft spot for the original Ibanez GRX20. It was my first guitar after all

This month has some amazing entries! I'd own almost all of them. But it came down to one *DUN DUN DUN*

Our Souls - I'm diggin the explorers! its pretty creative with the drawers. I would have tried to do a better job hiding them or making them flow with the body though. I can't say they're not innovative! I do like the concept and the whole idea for the guitar though. Making something awesome out of something you found at a flea market is pretty sweet! This guitar has a good story

pauliemc - The Freaky Green Satriani is awesome! I love the brushed on grain look of the entire thing, and the mock chroming on the back! The jack being on the control cavity cover - though convenient - would bug me though... Well, I don't know if it would bug me... I go into the cavity a lot, so I don't know if having it tethered would bug me or not.

crow - This is the guitar I'd own. Its the only PRS i've ever seen that I'd own lol. Its smooth, curvy, grain popped, kinda dark, sexy, and I love the carved/burnt in logo! I'd buy it right now if i had the money! joo g0tz M1 V073!

RestorationAD - This is the guitar I would have voted for if the grain had been emphasized just a little bit more. I absolutely love this guitar, but I really would have liked to see some more depth in that beautiful grain. It looks like it has potential for it!

madhattr88 - This guitar isn't my thing, but there's some obvious time put into it, and I do thing it deserves a thumbs up for craftmanship!

Avengers63 - This guitar is pretty freakin sweet! But when I look at the closeup shots, i see your little nics here and there... No disrespect intended, as binding, neck pockets (especially new and invoative ones!) and mirror tops aren't exactly something I'm good at working with lol. But overall, very cool. I wouldn't mind showing this to everyone at all!

Hitone - Interesting concept... It looks more like an art piece than a guitar to me though.

Strandberg Guitars - I absolutely love your ergonomic guitars, and I hope to own one one of these days!

NotYou - I like the craftmanship, and I give you praise for all the time you put into this... However, I haaaaaaaaaaaate steam punk...

Metalhead28 - Very cool!

AccidentialChef - Also very cool! Not too sure if I'm into the choice of colors in the laminate mix though.

Very good month for everyone! Best of luck to all of you

I'm glad someone else has the same methods for figuring out string spacing

As far as I'm concerned, the neck plate is just a place to put a logo. AANJ FTW!

Hey - I'm OK with the fact that I have a LOT of nerd hobbies . I came to terms with that a loooooong time ago.

(high five)

RPG nerdz FTW!

[/geek]

Holy scarf joint batman!

That schematic is for a version of "jimi page" wiring on his #1 guitar. Gibson released a #2 reciently. I've never really been a page fan myself, but I'm interested in checking out the tonal possibilities. I'll probably bring it back to normal wiring sometime, as I don't like having to work too hard to get the tone I want. But you know, curiosity... I've never had a tonally diverse guitar to that wiring's extent.

How do you guys feel about tonal options? Are you a minimalist like EVH or a tone-aholic like Page/Brian May?

True, Stradivarius did make violins, but due to the profession, and demand, it was more economically efficient to be capable of building several different instruments.

Stradivarius did make a few guitars.

Hey guys, hijack away! I like coming back and reading stuff. I can't think of a time where I didn't learn anything from someone's o/t ramblings lol.

Speaking of which,

Thank you psw in the "misc" thread!

I may have to try this! I'll have to buy a bunch of capaciters (which for some reason are on the volume pots... whatever I don't know anything about electronics) but it looks like a fun little soldering job to try out! If you can post some sound clips of this once you're done, please do!

One thing I noticed is that there's a wire soldered to ground... I haven't used passive pickups in such a long time, and I've never built a guitar with the need to put a channel from the rear cavity to the bridge. Something new to learn I guess.

I seem to recall Jimi Page having slider switches on his pickup rings...

Simo, I've been amazed by your bass guitar builds since I joined the forum!

I can see why people are recommending ziricote as a fretboard for my limba guitar now. Good stuff! I can't wait to see what you do with it

And it's in his signature!!!

Chris

I know! I'm actually using a lot of your build methods, Chris. I'm totally buying a copy of your instructional when you're done with it!

Is the neck blank thick enough for you to cut a thin laminant for the headstock?

Well, there's 37" of neck blank, and I only need 25... 28 if I want to have extra room in each direction for error.

Are you suggesting that I cut off the extra 9-12", save it as a headstock blank, and then just cut an angle into whatever side I want on the remaining body blank, and then cut an angle into whatever side of the headstock blank I want, and paste them together accordingly?

*adds to notes*

Extra wood = options

This is really good news, because now I can even match up all of my joins so that the grain flows perfectly from end pin to headstock tip! The only out of place wood will be the fretboard and the TR cover, which will probably be made out of a bookmatched cutoff from the fretboard!

Thanks for the ideas, masterblastor!

And thank you for the link, ooten!

Gorilla Glue is a polyurethane glue. When you use it, you have to clamp together whatever you're gluing. Otherwise, the pressure from it setting will push apart your project. As it expands, it leaves a residu which looks like an orange foam. At first, this foam is sticky and messy, but after a day or so, it sets, and it becomes as hard as a rock. You have to scrape it off. If you use it on wood, the foam that is produced stains the wood.

In woodworking magazine, it has the poorest adhesion rating for holding two marriage joined pieces of wood together in a stress test.

In short:

Its expensive new technology that makes a mess and doesn't hold guitars together.