stiggz

how long is a peice of string?*

i know its not a definitave answer but with alot of patience measure twice, measure a couple of more times, go away and measure with a different stick, then cut (drill, rout). use a template when routing im good but noone is ever good enough to not use a template, saves headaches n thinking oh crap how do i cover that up.

building itelf is the more important part of this excersise, if it doesnt turn out well for whatever reason, think to your self why? what could be done differently? and if it looks like a dogs breakfast you can always take the hardware and other stuff off and use them for other things

my 2c

luke

*twice half its length

wow more aussies are springing up every day....

might i suggest you measure a little more presicly than cm's, millimetres perhaps, even then you get 647.7 mm scale lengths, so i recon your best be would be to go imperial ibanez use a 25.5 inch scale and AFAIK BC Rich is the same, all that varies is the neck pocket and bridge location, depending on which has the longer bit where will determine whether you need to take some of the neck or indeed add some. if you arent confident doing this get a cabinet maker to do it for ya ive found some to be more than happy to do smal things like that.

thats my 2c

luke

well that would inhibit your playing style cos it may make playing slap difficult, and purple heart is a pain in the butt to work, and it blunts any form of cutting edge. however i recon it would look pretty mad especially if it were a neck through with purpleheart lams

luke

the timber is probably too green for the building of a guitar, also it depends what kind of timber it is as to whether it is suitable for a neck. eg if it is oak the guitar will be neck heavy, if it is pine it may well warp.

im betting its varnish or enamel

luke

this stuff isnt enamel its 1 part poly, (i know cos i tested to see if it would wrinkle when i sprayed automotive acrylic over it, and it didnt), like this deft in a can, and minwax polly, correct me if im wrong but dont alot of people on here use those??well the estapol is the best sh!t i have found over here that comes out of a can.

luke

talk to metal matt in relation to the oak guitars he seems to know a bit more than most on this

the best way would be with wattyl spray estapol, its a one part poly doesnt come out too bad either. steer clear of plasticote, whiteknight or crazy clarks brand spray paint, cos these are all enamel and will not polish and will be sticky for eternity.

luke

the reason the initial shipping is so much is because the items have to be shipped in a contanier of size x, but if you only have a few items that will all fit inside that box of size x without adding too much weight they charge a base shipping price, eg ive had an order of bout 200 AUD, but it only cost me $40 odd dollars to ship (with DHL too, it was cheaper that way too) because it all came in the same box 1 larger item came in, and the rest of the stuff wasnt that heavy (bridge and tuners), and i have never paid customs fees(that i know of) and ive put 4 or 5 orders with stewmac,

luke

hey man,

i cant imagine building a guitar without a router, its kinda like eating without a plate

go on the bay, and have a look about, as mick said get a cheapo so you can burn it out (or not burn it out) while you learn the techniques and whatnot of routing. i have seen routers from as low as 40 AUD, which is bout 15 or so pound. go down to mitre 10 or bunnings warehouse, or other hardware store, and talk to some of the guys there, they should steer you in the right direction.

luke

some finished cure via UV exposure, others IR exposure, others solvent evaporation and chemical reaction. the heatlamps wont od a hell of a lot with a finish that cures with uv exposure, but for the others it will, the extra heat will help the evaporative process, as well as the rate of the chemical reaction. just find out what ur spraying/painting, and then make ur decision based on that.

luke

that thought didnt even cross my mind,

cant you get a shorter block for strats? or somthing of the sort?

luke

ash, alder, basswood, poplar. alderwould be the pick of the bunch there,

luke

g'day

routing for a floyd is not hard provided you have access to, a router, a template and inverted flush trim bit, the bridge, and staight edge and other basic measurng tools

you can get a template from stewmac.com, as well as the bits, or you could make you own out of perspex and get the deigns from here, id recommend not getting a cheapo floyd off ebay, if you are really desperate and on a budget a mighty might floyd can be bought cheaply from here

but yeah its not that hard if you've got the right gear to do so

luke

welcome to project guitar

a gretsch white falcon ay?, u know they are archtops? which means they have bent sides and a carved top and back? i would not recommend making a archtop or even a hollow body for your first guitar due to the difficulty of it, but if you have your heart set on it then go for it, you just might have to fork out for alot of tools, and bob benedetto's making an archtop guitar book, ive got it right next to me (save money, borrow it from the library, i did)

i also would not recommend using a pre-made neck through, especially if you are going to have an arched top(well you cant use it at all really), because you are going to need a neck angle of about 4.5 degrees to compensate for the higher bridge/tailpeice and gonna need to cut a dovetail mortice and tennon, and making a neck isnt that hard, if you buy pre-slotted fingerboards, takes most of the guess work.

i would consider making a solid body flat top guitar, such as a tele, strat or rg type, or an lp, or somthing of a relatively simple deign,a neck through on ay of those would make your life even more simpler, cos then you only need to glue on wings, and rout for pickups and/or bridge

for wood of an archtop is not cheap as i am finding out, maple back and sides and the top is spruce or western red cedar. For a strat tele etc go for either a tried and true wood like ash, mahogany, bass wood etc or a alternative wood like amoora, (i made a through neck bass with that as the wings, sounds nice) png rosewood, that all i can really think of atm.

please dont take this the wrong way im not trying to deter you from making you whte falcon, im just suggesting you start with somthing easier to make, that requires less expertise to complete

luke

ps. what part of oz you in?

well there ya go every body, they are bone, as they say you learn somthing new every day.

they are hair, and they are solid right the way through, well bull's horns are, i know that much, id try and use the outer surface (closer to the outside) for where the strings go, could be a little drier and harder maybe?

inlays.. hmm i dunno bout that 1, definately posible, both for the nut and inlay there might be the smell factor, i mounted some bulls horns onto a plaque for my dads 50th, and it seriously stank, i could still smell it through the respirator and on top of that my workshop reeked of burning hair/bone for about a week

luke

heads ebony tails walnut

and if you dont like what happend the do the other 1

simple

luke

gretsch all the way man

luke

wow, my mum was complaining about the same thing and i came across a similar one, onle the top part where the neck leans is also dowel with dowel "spacers", and all of that wrapped in pipe foam(the stuff that goes around the A/c pipes in your house, well thats my answer to it)

*edit*: i didnt open the pvc link, almost exactly like that, except im gonna do mine in wood, make it a hell of a lot more sturdy, and make it wall mountable because "there isnt enough floor space"

my god you actually like that crap?

its new found glory meets static x (the song Get o the Gone, more specifically), so that makes anrgy emo's

i wish my lawn was emo, that way, it would cut itself

hehehe

seriously emos need a good kick up the pants

luke

for the "real" entries i voted for Jay66's prs type guitar, gotta love that grain, and i have always had a liking for the prs boddy shape, even if that is a little different

for the "other" enries, i voted for Matt's violin, the commitment to finishing it was amazing, i cant focus for half an hour let alone a year, well done a truely magnificent job

luke

plain maple for the back then, but do you guys recon it'd look goofy with a set of flamed sides?

luke

g'day

I am looking into building an archtop guitarone of these days, and just doing some looking around, i am finding the maple back and side sets rather expensive (well the sides arent to bad bout $35), i have the top coverd (i have a HUGE beam of western red cedar in a cradle in the garage).

but what other woods could i use for the back and sides?

thanks in advance

luke

1+

for reverse

well do that until you get through the veneer, then into forwards if you need to go through anything else.

luke