doug

Didnt you say in thye original post that the pickups were dimarzio air norton and tone zone?I already voted and don't really care but I'm curious as to what you actually used ← Ha!! Musta took my stupid pills that day! They are actually Loller on this one.

The only thing not done 100% by me is the inlay. I have CI do that. I send them an image, they do the inlay. It's my idea though. The rest of the guitar is made from scratch by me. No CNC. I design and shape all my own templates then make the guitar. (Of course the electronics etc. are purchased). Pickups are Loller. -Doug

It's intentional, yes. Wanted the rings to be the same size of course, yet place that first coil in the sweet spot. -Doug

Here's a recent completed piece. Buckeye top, mahogany body, and some custom carved brass parts. Inlays are MOP. Schaller tuners, and a Gotoh bridge. Pickups are DiMarzio. Air Norton neck, and Tone Zone bridge. Thanks for looking... -Doug

I'm with you. Glueing the fingerboard on first then tapering has its benefits, but I really like to glue it on afterwards. If there should be a mishap with the fingerboard at least it can be fixed by itself which is far easier then if it's glued on. Using a saw for the taper works very well. The key is a really good blade. I always use a tripple chip becasue of how it makes that little score in the center before the rakers fly by and complete the cut. Of course, proper saw setup is very important to chip free cuts with smooth edges. -Doug

Send me your email address. I found the picture. -Doug

Are you only going to have a bridge pickup? I ask because there might not be enough wood in the area under the neck pickup rout to support the neck. Fundamentally though, gluing the neck in from the back would be fine. -doug

Most remolo bridges have little saddles. Each saddle has a set of screws for adjusting the height. It's up to you to adjust the saddles to a radius. They don't come out of the box ready to use. As for the nut, well, the radius of the string slots will naturally follow the curve of the fingerboard as you cut them especially if you use the commonly accepted method of slot depth measurment using stacked feeler gauges. -Doug

If you're making the body, or getting it made, leave the neck pocket are blank. After you get a neck, create the pocket to fit. And yeah, NO HAMMER! Not with chisels.... Borrow a router if you have don't have one anymore, or carefully creat the mortise with chisels, but do not use a hammer. Make sure they are supersharp too! -Doug

You can leave the neck joint area untouched until you have the neck. Trust me, it will be way easier! After getting the neck, you can make the neck joint properly. -Doug

I put them where the headstock starts to curve naturally which is pretty much under the nut. Depending on how much material there is in that area too will effectively move the natural location of the volute. If you have not carved the back yet you can draw it out on the side. The exact location can be where you like it mostly. It adds strength but also looks too. Hope that helps! Have fun. -Doug

If you know someone who works or is affiliated with a machine shop, as to borrow a reamer for a few minutes. That will work best. Some people think spinning a typical rill bit in reverse works, however I have never had good luck doing that. Use a really good brad point bit, hold it in your hand and carefully turn it backwards to score the hole. It should only be a few thousandths anyway so you might be able to do all of it by hand. You could also break out your trust Dremel with a small sanding drum on it to open the hole or even just score the edge from the inside. Hope that helps. Just be careful. -Doug

it also has to do with the number of frets. 24 frets wil yield less room than 22 for example. You will be able to get away with 3 pickups with either scale depending on the number of frets. -doug

Things is, the Floyd Rose is wider. This makes it necessary to have the heel bit wider too. Basically the neck proportions are a bit different. Your E strings will be too close to the edge of the neck or to the fret ends, making it difficult to play at times. Yes, it's likely that the Stewmac neck will fit a Fender since they use "standard" width bridges for the most part. -Doug

It never hurts to have a little leftover....ya know, just in case. Go for the 3x3x30 then you'll know there's enough. -Doug

You might save it to use for real thin stripes if you want to make a laminated neck some time. Though, I have been known to use even figured stuff to roast weiners over! -Doug

I would not use it. Check the grain. Look to see if it is running diagonally anywhere in the board. Odd grain patters sometimes have internal stresses that can let go when sawn. -Doug

I do mine after gluing, and carving the neck too. I just like to have the fingerboard nice and level before putting frets in. I also pre-stress the necks a bit too, so I would have to build a new clamping jig. So if you're using the frets as pressure points, you still get a nice conistent glue joint? In all honesty, I caomprehend the advantage to doing the fretting ahead of time. Everyone has their own technique in the end I guess. So thanks for the explanation. -Doug

This is something I've wondered about myself. I can't even imagine fretting it first. It must work though becasue some do it that way. My question is how does one properly glue it to the neck? I'm not concerned about the backbow of the fingerboard really, but I'm more curious about how it gets attached nice and flat. Let me clarify, if the fingerboard gets clamped to the neck using the frets as pressure points, then the board would end up wavy. So, Setch, how do you get it flat while gluing? -Doug

You could try the nut thing. It's possible that the one on there now is too low. They are related. There should be some relief anyway. How high are the center two strings from the 12th fret? How far are they from the last? What height is high to you? Now I can't account for why that expensive guitar had poor action. Obviously whoever was trying to sell it had no clue how to set one up beforehand. One can only hope that quality and price are related in some way. I can tell you for a certainty that the neck on the guitar you have is notorious. -Doug

Those necks have a problem with becoming sort of "S" shaped. I've a freind with a high volume music store that sends 1/2 of them back brand new. He won't even sell them. $170 guitar...need I say more? Without seeing the neck of course it's hard to diagnose. There is the possibility that a fret leveling may help. MAY helpto some extent. What dod your "pro" say might fix it? -Doug

Those big Robos anders are supposed to be quite fast. Good for those less willing to use the router. Like you, MzI, I do the bandsaw and pattern bit routine. Later I run around the outside with 320 grit on a spindle sander to polish it up. I suppose, even after routing there is still a fair amount of handwork to make it pretty in the end. Whatever works, right? So many ways to get to the end result. -Doug

Internet? Ebay? HD can be sooo expensive for stuff like that.

Those studs sometimes have a small area around the bottom without grooves. Measure the diameter and get a bit the same size. If there is no flat area, then measure the large diameter and get a bit that is a few thousandths smaller. However, don't make the hole smaller than the depth of the grooves or you will have problems pressing them in. As for drilling with a hand drill, well I would advise against it. If you have to though, don't let the holes tilt towards the nut or the studs might pop out. -Doug

Routers are great for some things. Carving is great for others. I use one router mounted in a table most of the time. Others are for neck and pickup cavities. They can get out of hand sometimes, but using templates really improves accuracy. I had a carbide bit shatter and blow out the back side of a new neck shaft while creating the truss rod channel last week. So yeah, it's a tool to be respected, and it comes with it's own set of issues. There is a really cool device that some use for body shaping called RoboSander. Instead of a big pattern bit on a router, it's a big sander drum with a rub collar. Use it to shape the outside of the body. If you're only making one of something, then you can set aside the router and sand it. You're right in that this can be just as fast when you take template making into account. Personally, I love my routers and can't imagine life without them. Just my opinion of course. -Doug