foil1more

If you buy good pots, they should be nice and smooth but not loose. I agree with Paul though. You don't want pots that move too easy.

I used titebond liquid hide glue for almost everything on my guitar. It's pretty easy to clean up when it's wet but it dries really hard. I accidentally left the top open and the glue dried in the nozzle. A soak in hot water cleaned it right up. It smells bad though.

I used a thin saw for a rough start and a 2mm gouge and small files I have. It worked ok. I made the nut out of ebony though, I don't know if that makes it easier or harder.

http://fittell.id.au/piezo/ Haven't tried this yet but seems pretty simple.

Don't mean to hijack, but since pickups attached to the end of the fretboard were mentioned, I have a question. Can you mount one on the end of an acoustic guitar's fretboard, in the sound hole?

I pressed mine in with a vise and radius block. I only had to glue the ends of a few frets. The ends didn't want to bite into the wood.

I was doing some more research and found some more info. I looked more at the NS website and they give substitutes for the high e and the low f is a type made with a steel core. I somehow didn't see this before. I also found this site http://www.windworld.com/index.htm . They have the basic parts to make a piezo pickup for a lot less than buying one. They also have mini magnetic pickups. I probably will buy a set of them. They make a good point that bowed strings vibrate side to side so the best way to have magnetic pickups at an angle (the best would be parallel with the bow but that would be in the way).

I stained my bass with colortone black dissolved in alcohol and had no problems. I didn't use a conditioner

3lbs? My guess is pine or basswood.

Amazing work.

How about a black epoxy like inlace?

On the back, between the heel and the horn.

Nope no top coat. If it gets any serious scratches I want to be able to easily fix them and shellac is about as easy as it gets (even though it is more prone to scratches. And yep, I'm happy with my slightly recessed pots. I used a 1" forstner. I think it looks cleaner to have the pots recessed on a carved top. I'm happy with this guitar. It sounds great, the top turned out pretty shiny, the neck turned out good, and nothing broke when I strung it up. Now, I just need to get better at guitar.

I use an older craftsman bandsaw 14" and love it. I would definitely recommend the 14" if you can get it. A good bandsaw can be a very versatile saw. And it's better than a jigsaw IMO.

Massive orange peel, runs and bubbles from the cheap spray/being a spraying noob. It worked well until I got too much on. A few drops at a time worked great.

Hmm, I didn't notice that. at least its only the ones after 12. I forgot the space after the 12th. At least that's the worst thing I messed up on the neck.

I have the guitar almost complete. I just need to set up the action and buy a new jack. The back didn't get great. I was sanding with alcohol and I got too much on and chunks of the shellac came off and the whole thing got rough. I fixed it as best as I could by building up the spots. I also ended up having to build the top up again. I sanded through a layer of what I think where bubbles. Next time I won't cheap out and I'll buy an adjustable spraygun. Here's the headstock with my sharpie art under tru-oil. Someday, I'll have the skill and tools to do a vine inlay up the fret board and headstock but until then, sharpie will have to do. Confusing birds nest that is the super switch http://www.dimarzio.com//media/diagrams/E.pdf I actually got the switch wired right. I managed to wire my guitar without burning myself or setting something on fire. And here it is. It has a great acoustic sound. The electric sound is pretty good to. My jack was messed up though. If I plugged the cable in the whole way, I got no sound. It only worked when the cable was 1/8" from being the whole way in. I'm using one of the barrel jacks that can be used with stereo cables. I didn't have the problem with my bass (same jack type) so I think there was a problem with the jack. I'm going to run to guitar center tomorrow and get a new one. So far I'm leaning towards naming it "Mad Dutchman" One of my friend suggested it and I can't think of anything better.

I used a metallic sharpie on tru-oil. As long as you have a smooth surface to write on it will work. You can also finish over it to protect it. I used tru-oil and it worked fine.

Don't know if you'd like it, but Seether's "One Cold Night" album is acoustic versions of some of their songs. I don't know if you could find the TABs/sheetmusic for them but they are really well done. The acoustic guitars really mellow out the grunge.

Take measurements between the widest and thinnest part of the body, the horns, and anything else you feel like. Then draw your center line on a piece of poster board (for a full size template) and play around with changing where your measurements are centered and angling your measurements. Example: I took all the measurements for my guitar off a picture of an Ibanez artcore. The width at the widest part was 15". The center of that was at 7.5". I dropped the center an inch so there was 6.5" above the center and 8.5" below and angled the line. I did that with different measurements and ended up with a guitar looking like a mix of an artcore, tele, and jag.

Very nice. I like that bridge. It really adds to the look. I was going to use one but didn't want to have a neck angle. I ended up cutting a thin shim and angling it anyhow because I didn't feel like recessing my TOM. I also like seeing body shapes I've never seen before.

(Jaw drops to the floor. Fumbles around looking for it) That is awesome. +1 to a tutorial

Here's it with a few coats of sprayed shellac. Here is the pickguard. Here it is from the side Here is the back I had problems getting the spray to not run. I used a Preval aerosol sprayer, which worked ok but I'll definitly get a good sprayer t next time. I'm going to sand out the runs and use French polish to level it out. I did the first session of FP last night and it's working pretty well. I'll never use Tru-oil on rosewood again. It just stayed gummy. I sanded that off and cleaned the board with alcohol. The rest of the neck is going well. I'll hopefully fret it this weekend. I also wired up the switch and the pots without screwing up or burning myself, which is quite a feat for me.

Yep, Inlace is good stuff. I used the black to inlay my name into the headstock of my base. It's fairly easy to work with but it does smell really bad. Grizzly Ind. sells it too.

My friend finished a strat body over the course of a few weeks with minwax poly. He sprayed very thin coats of poly. Then he wet-sanded and buffed. If it is going on thick play around on some scrap with different distances from the wood and the speed that you move the can. The thinner the coats, the easier it will be to get shiny.