foil1more

I think using carbon fiber in the neck should be fine. Just remember not to go so thin that you find the truss rod. I don't think a locking nut will be enough to hold the strings. I may be wrong but all of the headless guitars and basses I've seen have had a metal thing on the end of the neck to hold the ball end of the string.

And if you're going to go thin on the body, remember that you need room for the electronics.

I have a book with a guitar by Tom Anfield that is made out of one piece of bubinga. If you build a guitar out of solid maple, it will be extremely heavy. If you want to build a guitar out of maple, I would recommend hollowing out the body (or the wings for a neck-thru) and capping the top with a nice flame maple. Maple should have a pretty bright tone.

Camera's do very annoying things for no apparent reason, especially the digital variety.

Hmm, mine camera makes my bass look better.

Cool guitar BTW. I like the Tele shape and the deer print cutout is awesome.

so you want one note to sound louder/"better" than the other 11?

What's louder than 11?

I'm pretty sure he means the 12 steps in an octave scale. C-C sharp-D-D sharp-E-F-F sharp-G-G sharp-A-A sharp-B

I don't know if I would try to make a guitar resonate to a certain frequency. I haven't looked much into wolf notes in solid body guitars, but I know it is something you don't want in an acoustic instrument. Of course, a solid body guitar probably wouldn't resonate enough to make a huge difference.

Nice. This is the first bass I've seen with one of the hipshot trems. I'd like to build a bass with one of those.

You don't need neck angle if you recess the TOM and use a bigsby B-5. There are some teles that use the B-5.

You will probably have to get a new nut. The low E won't fit in the high E slot and the high E would be too loose and maybe too low in the low E slot.

BTW, grinding knives... or really any sort of steel or aluminum... gives me the same bad headache.

I wore a face shield but not a mask for the first knife I ever ground. Didn't get a headache ( I actually like the smell of steel) but I did get a mustache from the dust.

That's why I (usually) remember to wear a dust mask. I haven't worked with any real toxic woods yet but I find a mouth full of mahogany or maple dust is quite unpleasant. Though after reading this, if I do use more toxic woods, I'll buy a respirator.

BTW, I've been on Allegra D and Flonase for my allergies for about 4 years now and it works great.

Clean and classy. Very nice.

Hmm. I didn't think of the burl competing with the flame but you have a point. I'll just use a nice flame on the headstock then. I was thinking cream too but the wood pick guard would look good too. I already bought the parts and they are all chrome (the pot knobs have abalone on the top). I like the idea of making a cover to attach the switch too.

Can a veneer be glued to a plastic back for the pick guard?

Okay I finished the routing (except for the neck, control cover, and the bridge recess).

I also cut out the top. I cut the pickup holes and f-hole with a jigsaw.

I have decided that I'm going to do a blue burst on the top with faux binding and natural back. The neck will be lightly stained to tone down the brightness of the maple. I'm going to use a burl veneer on the headstock. Hardware is chrome. I might try an ebony nut if I have time to try one on my acoustic.

I just have a few things I'd like opinions on

1. Pickguard or not? I'm kinda split on that. If you think it should, what color?

2. I accidentally drilled the holes for the switch too wide. (Yeah I had a "What the hell did you do?" moment the next day) Any ideas for filling it? I was thinking colored epoxy.

would it be possible to use shellac instead of lacquer for sealing the edge?

I recommend Fretboard Logic by Bill Edwards. It doesn't teach songs but it teaches theory and patterns on the fretboard which can then be applied to whatever you want to play. It is slightly boring but if you make the time to learn theory, it will really help playing any instrument. I have Fretboard Logic levels 1 and 2 and Bass Logic. There is are DVDs available but I didn't have the cash to buy them. Oh, and no children's songs. I know how annoying they are and I wouldn't have bought a book with them.

hey man, thanks! i use that design on the majority of my guitars hopefully one day ill get it copyrighted haha wheni have the money maybe

Didn't help fender, gibson and all that lot much!

But seriously, I like the body and headstock shape. What guitars were you thinking of when you designed it?

would a walnut and flame cherry laminate be strong enough?

I don't know the words to explain how awesome that looks.

Nice work. This is giving me the urge to take a trip to the local pawn shop to find a beater and fix it up after I'm done with my build.

Very nice. Did you spray the stain for the burst?

Very cool. What woods did you use for the body?

If my playing was good enough and my music was making me money I'd see an expensive instrument as a viable purchase but as I am now no chance!

That's why when I listen to a good band then find out their guitarist plays an Epiphone, I like them more!

1. It is really hard to french polish around a bridge. I made that mistake on my first build. It's hard to get a good finish around the bridge.

2. Through my own and my dad's research, almost anything should stick to shellac.

Have fun french polishing. It will take a lot of time to do but it looks great and sounds great too. The kit I built cost $89. A friend of mine played it for about a half an hour and told me I could sell it for 200 or 300 (which made me happy, he owns a martin and a fender acoustic). I attribute most of the sound to the thin FP finish.

The only guitars I own are kits (acoustic and an electric bass) that I have built. The first of every type of guitar I build, I keep. I wouldn't be against playing another guitar that I didn't make, I would just be more inclined to go with an Ibanez or high end Epiphone instead of a Gibson. I have a big problem with Gibson's prices, especially since I know how much it costs to build one now. Even with all the tools and parts for the first project it's still cheaper than a Gib. Well that's part of my price rant. I do think I am more inclined to play a guitar I've built for the simple reason that I've put a crapload of hours into making it mine.

buy good router bits and go slow and you shouldn't have tearout.

The drill press isn't big enough to reach the cavity without cutting the body out of the blank. I didn't want to rout without support. I did do the outline with a small bit to the final depth before I hogged out the center. The router worked fine even though I was covered in mahogany dust.

progress photos.

I've made the templates by tracing the master plan with tracing paper then gluing the paper to the whiteboard which turned out very well.

This is the neck and top/body template together. Gives a good idea what the final will look like

Here's the routing template for the body

Here's the biggest rout. All of this was done free hand. This part was interesting. My dad told me that I was a 1/4 inch away from being screwed. I didn't take the size of the router base into consideration so at one point I was practically holding the router up.

Here's the finished rout. The neck pocket will be routed after the top is on and the electronics compartment will be taken out with forstners and a drill press. I highly recommend kobalt routing bits. They aren't extremely expensive and they cut like a dream. The bits can cut through about 3/4" mahogany no problem (that's what the little accident in the big section is)