idrum4food

Ok, one last question. I've got two SD humbuckers with a threeway switch, tone and volume pot. The three way switch has a single connetion on one side and on the other side has two pair of connectors which I'm assuming is for front and rear pickups. I ran the wire from the front pickup through one pair of connectors and the rear pickup wire through the other pair of connectors. No good cause I get active pickups no matter what position I throw the switch. Do I need to run the pickup wire through only one of the connectors that are paired together? If so, which one. Inside or outside? I've always sucked at electronics. I feel I'm sooooo close to seeing how this ax is going to sound. HELP again.

Thanks for the info.

Guitar is built and final wiring has begun but the diagram I have isn't clear as to which is hot and which is ground on the guitar jack. Is the center the ground or the outside the ground. HELP!!!!!

So here I am at the last stage of my first guitar project in 25 years. A mockingbird neck through and can't seem to find what the slot size should be in relation to the string size. I use 10's which has string sizes of 10, 13, 17, 26, 36 and 46. Of course Stewmac doesn't have a nut file for every size and common sense tells me the slot can't be smaller than the string. So, my question is..... how much larger can the slot be than the string?

Providing I have a 1/4" fret board, how deep would my pickup cavity need to be to direct mount it to the bottom of the cavity and the pickup be the right higth from the strings. I'm using seymor duncan HBs.

Hey guys.

Check out the neck through body blank on ebay. Type in "guitar project" in the search blank. Five piece neck. Nice body style.

I can vouch for these body blanks. Well constructed. I bought a mockingbird blank from the same person and was well pleased.

Spend $5.00 max at stewmac and make a new one. Then you'll know its right

You might try buying a wood dowl at the hardware store and drilling the screw holes with the same diameter bit as the dowl. Cut the dowl the same length as the depth of the drilled out screw holes. Dab some wood glue in the screw holes and tap in the dowl and let the glue cure. 10 minute job.

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Guess I should have been more clear on the cure time.

Context people..... context!!!!

The guy's question was about the wood to use in his specific situation, and Mr. Moll's and my answers were tailored accordingly. He's using it to add .5 inch of thickness each side of a neck made with laminations of ebony and purple heart.... he could use over-ripe Brie and it would be hard enough!

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hee hee hee. Sure id be hard enough to drive nails.

Application gents. Mr Moll is using soft maple on his guitars for soft tones, jazz tones, dark rich tones and I'm sure - exquisit tones.

You might try buying a wood dowl at the hardware store and drilling the screw holes with the same diameter bit as the dowl. Cut the dowl the same length as the depth of the drilled out screw holes. Dab some wood glue in the screw holes and tap in the dowl and let the glue cure. 10 minute job.

DON'T just chop it off. First I would square it up with a band saw then glue some peices of wood on of the same thickness. After the glue has set, draw your desired shape on to the head stock and recut with the band saw.

Because building your OWN guitar is cool no matter what shape its in. My first was a les paul copy. No it wasn't even close to the craftsmanship of a real LP but I wouldn't have been more proud with the real thing after I completed my first project.

If you want to copy a fine guitar --- Just do it.

Eddiewarlock had a good suggestion. A kit may be a good start. You'll learn without some of the more complicated tasks like frets, inlay, neck building in general. And... those look like a very good kit for the bucks.

Look in the tutorial section of the forum under neck through guitar by Wessthemann. Lots of pictures and explinations.

As to your bolt on neck question.... It depends on how thick (from fretboard to bottom of neck) the heel on your neck is. There has to be enough wood to make a tennon so there will be enough gluing surface so the neck won't shift.

If you buy a bolt on neck why don't you just route for it and bolt it on? You will still be able to set the intonation on your guitar as long as you measure correctly when you install your bridge.

If your mind is set on a set neck, I'm sure someone here can either make a neck for you or steer you in the right direction to purchase one.

I've read (I think at Ed Roman) that if you press fit your pickups you get better tone/sustain. What are other opinions? Do pickup cavities have to be THIS close? Since ER seems at times to blow hot air, I was wondering if this particular tip had any validity.

Rasp is my tool of choice for shaping.

Visit the FR site. Templets and measurements abound. Its kinda mind boggling at first for the simple minded (like me). I haven't attempted one yet and if I did, I'd practice on a scrap chunk of wood first.

Don't know if the dremel would handle it. Quite a bit of routing. Others here will know more.

THAT is Awsome. The SG has always been one of my favorites also.

I think I read about the neckthrough part at Ed Roman.

Congrats on a beautiful ax.

The orange peel may have come from waiting to long after the first coat.

I'm betting you're partly right --though I think you'd still get orange peel even after waiting the 24 hours. Probably the key is doing it within the 30 minute limit.

I was also wondering about the temperature thing --maybe the paint and the guitar should be at about the same temperature? I keep my cans indoors and only bring them out to the little booth I rigged up in the garage when it's time to paint.

I'm going to try doing some light sanding (following Maiden69's method) before doing th e next coat --maybe the better grip will help prevent more of the orange peel?

That'll make it easier to do the polishing after.

Absolutly, the wood should be the same (warm) temperature as the paint. Makes it stick to where your spraying it. Light at first then heavy about 15 min. later.

Oh yea! After you spray it, walk away. If you piddle around in your garage after you spray it it stirs up little dust particles and lint that'll make you want to kick the dog and beat the kids.

What are the best types of routers to use for inlay. I would think rotory tool?

the carvin one i linked to is nice.very nice

Strings through the body. IIIIIII like it.

A little about myself. My name is Dave and I'm in the process of building my second guitar. My main ax is the drums and I have an AS degree in music about 25 yrs ago. Needless to say I don't make a living making music. Hence the screen name (idrum4food). Several years ago my son took over my drum set and now I don't get much chance to play since he has usually carted it off to some garage to jam. He's an excellent drummer and always complaining about no one to jam with that takes it as seriously as he does. So I've decided to rekindle the old desires to be a guitar player.

My first project guitar turned out far better than I was hoping for. I built it when I was still in college. Made everything from scratch. Had help with the neck from a luthier in Tampa, FL. I got a little impatient with some of it. I didn't know where to buy a truss rod so after routing the neck I went to the local hardware store and bought a length of 1/4" steel stock. I put a slight back bow in it by putting one end in the crack between my truck bumper and body and bending it. I cut it to size and put a bunch of glue in the truss rod channel and c-clamped it in place. This guitar spent years in a storage shed wrapped up in a blanket. When I finally dug it out, the neck was and is still dead straight. The neck kinda reminds me of a telephone pole. Too narrow and too thick.

Thanks for all the advice in other threads and many thanks for this site.

This site has been extreamly helpful. My current project is a Mockingbird of which I received the body/neck blank several days ago. found it on ebay.

My real job is a radiation protection technician at a nuclear power plant near my home. Demanding job with lots of OT so guitar building will give me a good way to relax.

there are several real nice surface mounted bridges out there. some have the option of putting the strings through the body. those are a bit more work though, howver i did it on my very first guitar. came out okay too.

you might have enough stock on the tail of that blank to shave an 1/8"  or so off its thickness to effectively lower your bridge some. that way you don't end up with high action. you could do the same using a tremelo bridge.

get your bridge though BEFORE you start cutting any wood and work from there.

-Doug

My guitar blank is going to be 1 1/2" at best when the sanding is done and I'm pretty sure you need at least 1 3/4" for a floyd trem. I'll probably use a surface mount bridge of some sort. Any suggestions

Thanks Guys, this helps a lot. Will keep in touch on the progress.

Naa. I just looked at the pinned section at the top of this board about trem deminsions. Its all jibberish to me. Think I'll stick with a tune o matic.