Kammo1

Beautiful lumber there bro here in the UK we would get raped £££££ for timber like that, I guess you are in the US ? just curious what did the top cost ? that here in the UK we would be paying about £90 or $150 seriously! great build there and I gotta agree I would do that without a pickguard as that is a seriously beautiful piece of timber

To be honest I'm almost positive you can order whatever parts you need from your distributor but in saying that I have never ever had to replace any parts whatsoever as nothing breaks on them or I have been lucky not to loose any parts... the only thing that may need replacing is the plastic bushing arm but again never had to replace that either.....

IMHO the Gotoh Floyd performs just as well as an original Floyd, I use either a Floyd or Gotoh on my custom guitars and all i ever offer my customers are these 2 type of fulcrum type trems. For others a Kahler is another quality trem and to be honest my personal favourite, hope it helps

What I would do is firstly find out what clear you have decided to use "THEN" find paints that will not be affected by the clear coat. If you use Createx or Auto Air Colours these will almost definately not be affected by urethane clears or automotive clears, if you decide to use an acrylic or watrebased clear e-mail the tech dept to see what paint they would recommend to use under their product. I have used Createx and Autoair products without any problems under a automotive clearcoat as they are waterbased so technically they are somewhat inert to most finishes "BUT" don't take my word on this its just what I pressume. The thing with autoair or Createx paints they "MUST" be dry before tou move onto the next colour, I use a hairdryer to set the paint then I paint away again repeating the step until I'm done. Don't wory about how you put the paint on whether its with a brush or an airbrush as the amount of clear that you'll put on will bury the artwork good and proper and if again you're using a urethane clear 2-3 coats allowed to dry for 48 hours in a tenp contolled room then a quick fallting down with 800 grit paper will provide a good flat coat to put on further coats to get that almost glass like flatness to what you need. I generally put on at least 7-10 coats of urethane on a guitar body then allow 7-14 days to allow it to properly harden the cut back with 1200-2500 grit the to polish and the results are a finish that looks a mile deep. Most people will give their opinions on what works and what doesn't but after 30 years doing this I have a system that exceeds most finishes on the market, hope this helps.

Yep made the styluses myself with some correct diameter steel and a hand file LOL!Yes round nose cutters should do the trick

You will need a cutter that matches your stylus or follower and preferably a bull nose cutter "NOT" a normal flat endmill cutter. I have different styluses on mine from 1/4 right up to 1 inch bullnose bits and it can do everything possible in the construction and carving of a guitar, hope this helps

Patrick really love the guitar but to me I would have put your own headstock design on it JMHO as it then would be your total identity. Beautiful guitar and I can see that the heel section kinda reminds me of Nik Hubers where its really cut back towards the bass side, nice work as always bro

I cannot see any reason as to why not but taking into account winding it accurately and with the same tension throughout will be a very time consuming and long winded affair. Why not knock up a little winder with a small stepper motor that will at least do the grunt work for you and all you need to do is concentrate on getting the wire on ?

Sadly it will never ever harden like a polyester or polyurethane finish as the polys are a 2K based product which hardens by a chemical addition ie the catalyst or activator and nitro cures by air. To be brutally honest I cannot think why anyone still uses nitro as its a piss thin poor finish and not resistant to nothing! There are absolutely excellent products on the market like AC lacquers and polys thaat put on correctly and flatted out will give you excellent results ie gloss and durability, I switched over to chemically hardened finishes about 9 years ago if not more because of the headache and poor results obtained with nitro and single pack acrylics. Search the net there is a multitude of products out there and find one that suits you, hope this helps

"HOLY COW!!!!!!!!" damn that is a stunning version of a classic design damn now thats gave me "WOOD!"

Gotta say Patrick that looks like a sweet build there How much on average is a top like this with shipping ? Damn all the nice woods you have to import and with taxes and stuff it absolutely stiffs the buyer

Goddamn Patrick!!!!!!!!!!!! brutha you are one lucky man having some lumber like that on tap Sapelli is a very nice wood to work with and I do use them on some of my builds. Those tops are gonna make some serious guitars brutha 7 strings ?

Patrick brutha many thanks for that link and that guy has given us some serious wood!!!!!!!!!! damn that is some seriously nice stuff and does he ship to the UK ?thanks for sharing

I guess there are some negative and positive things about this gluing technique but I have to say that I've used it for many,many years without a single ever glue failure or fingerboard separation and everything all the guitars I've built to this day have never had a problem not saying that it will never happen (Pray) the only problem I can see of this failing is with the glue and nothing else. I will still use this method as its tried and trusted and until the day I have a malfunction I'll report back and post pics, guys be prepared you could have a long,long,long,long wait.

Don't sweat it bro just temporarily fit the nut add 2 pieces of cotton to simulate the 2 outer E strings and tie to the 2 outer saddles and position the bridge so both pieces of cotton are equal distances from the edge of the fretboard mark and fit bridge to this position, there easy fix.

Patrick that is a good way and its exactly what I do with mine only my work piece isn't marble but a nice piece of kitchen worktop that is as flat as you are gonna get and its served me well. Isn't it strange that some simple ideas are always the ones that work perfect and with outstanding results.

KPCrash that was very useful and I think this should be a sticky for future reference, also what could be added is how to correctly seal a existing or new guitar body before dipping ie how to seal holes routs etc,etc before dipping as water can cause these areas to swell and cause all sorts of problems and this is one area I thnk should be covered for newbees and 1st timers.

Dude that is an absolutely killer guitar there and the finish looks amazing. I have not had much luck with waterbased finishes but it must be my old school techinique that keeps kicking in and messing things up I think if I was to try the waterbased stuff I would definately apply a polyester clear basecoat for the rock hardness and then the waterbased clear for topcoats to give it the gloss and the durability. I also found that nozzle size is the key to waterbased finishes and I was informed a minimum of 1.8mm is needed ? maybe you can fill me in on what you used as this might be where I mess up. Got to admit I would love to switch to waterbased stuff to do my bit for the planet as polyesters and polyurethanes are not very environmentally friendly

Got to admit I have never had problems buffing even a Polyester rock hard finish at any time with my set-up.My test dummy guitar body is a 5 year old Line 6 guitar with a Polyester finish and I can buff out 1200 scratches out in less than 10 mins. I use a white menzerna pad with T-Cut and work this for 5 mins then wipe with a clean microfibre cloth and then use my orange pad with some T-cut for another 2-3 mins wipe clean again and then follow with the yellow menzerna pad with some Farecla G10 for literally 2 mins and then wipe again with a microfibre cloth and then followed by some 3M handglaze with either a cotton stockinette cloth or another menzerna yellow pad and the gloss is a mile deep. I have spent literally hundreds of pounds on equipment like buffs and compounds and have narrowed it down to what I use and it 100% works for me. I normally finish wetsanding to at least 2500 as for me its no biggie to go this far but what I am highlighting is that even if you stopped at 1200 grit the results I have obtained are superb with the above method. Also I have never encountered any problems buffing 2K polyurethanes in 24-48 hours or 7-10 weeks old...

Totally agree but with all sanding and buffing procedures its how well you have sanded and how you use the equipment that is the key to a perfect factory finish.Take your time to eliminate all the previous scratches before the next sanding stage as more often than not you tend to miss sctarch marks and when you have come to the polishing you will ask why does the finish look grainy and its because coarser scratches have not been removed. For doing cutaways I agree with WS do it by hand its not hard and if you work to 2500 grit in these areas and use a cotton or microfibre cloth you'll work these out in minutes and also it gives you a good experience on fine finessing which you will learn to appreciate, again hope this helps.

Not necessarily cheap but I have literally spent alot of money finding what works for me and these "DO" work. I am based here in the UK and the place I get my pads from are something like £5.95 each and I have the white,orange and yellow 135mm pads which I use with my variable speed hand sander which I think cost me a £20 so for under £50 I have a system that can get rid of almost any scratch and blemish within minutes. I first start with sanding the whole finish to 1500 grit but you could go all the way to 2500-3000 if you wish, then with my white pad start with some T-Cut cutting compound and work this till you have all the sanding marks eliminated. Then with the orange pad I use some Farecla G10 compound and work this in to remove all the faint swirl marks out and when this is done I use the yellow fine pad with some 3M hand glaze and work this for the shine. I then after apply another finishing with some 3M handglaze but by hand for the final deep mirror shine. This is what works for me and its only a step in the right direction for you, you can only try and see what you come up with. Menzerna compounds I have found work also but are double the price of something that works equally as well at mearly a 1/3rd of the price so why waste money

Menzerna pads are "THE" only pads I will ever use as they work "PERIOD!" search my posts and I'm sure you will see what I have to say and what I recommend hope this helps.

Another option...

I highly recommend Kent Armstrong pickups!

Kent Armstrong® P90 Family

Absolutely 100% agree your search for the P90 should stop here, Kents stuff is amazing and I have used his stuff many,many times and not had 1 bad pick-up from him truly in my eyes "THE" master

Drak beautiful job there bro what colour solar lux stain is that ? looks like maybe a red mahogany ?? The Uk distributor for all Behlen stuff is literally 3 mins away from where I live might call in and pick me some of that stain

Generally the width of the neck pocket is 2 3/16ths wide but the older strat models were very narrow like 2 1/8th and I have seen some a 1/16th less than the 2 1/8th!!! hope it helps.