Supernova9

MDF dust is far more harmful than ebony dust. Mainly because MDF is filled with a carcinogenic glue to hold all the fibers together. Your apparent laziness to go down to the garage to work bothers me. I'm glad I don't live in your house, it's not really fair for you to make your housemates inhale harmful dust because you want to sit in front of the TV while you work (which takes your concentration away from what you're doing - no wonder you caught the dremel on that plastic bag).

Do you not realise how stupid that is?! I really hope for you and your housemate's sakes you learn to treat tools with respect and common sense. Use a workbench, don't put anything that could snag on the router anywhere near it, clamp it down properly. Jeez. If you carry on doing things like that I'll put £20 on you not having all your fingers before long.

Because if you're gluing wood-to-wood with titebond or similar, and the clamp rails are made of wood, unless you put something like packing tape or plastic on them, the wood clamps will be glued to the wood workpiece. Dimensions/grooves wouldn't make a difference.

This from the guy who's building essentially the same telecaster for 20 years now But I'll wager he knows really well how to make a great sounding telecaster.

First step would be to use the SEARCH feature. There are countless threads on this board about the best way to cut a scarf joint.

I think your neck angle is too steep - the way you've drawn it (with the flat body top) isn't right - it should be a straight line from where the bridge is going to sit to the nut. That determines your neck angle. If you look at your diagram, that line would mean your neck is currently too low, and will need to come up in order to make that straight line. I do love the top carve though, very nice. You should check out Setch's Les Paul tutorial - http://home.asparagine.net/ant/blog/ for a good walkthrough.

A router and template will give you far more precision than whatever the hell kind of rotary tool that made those craters will.

It kinda looks like you took a gothic V, and a travel V, and cut the two in half and stuck them together......

Yes, but if you're cutting wedges - you're cutting at an angle, so the thick parts of the wedge are taken from opposite sides of the board to each other - the grain wouldn't match. That's the problem.

I'd suggest that the 10 guitars all from the same brand having issues would be more a problem with the brand and construction than merely the effect of transport, whatever style of transport that would be.

You guys do realise that the link in his first post was to the Moser Custom Shop site, and to that exact guitar, right? Reading the original post is cool.

I went from no previous tool experience to using a router (it was the first tool I bought, after sandpaper). The single most useful thing you can get for it is a good sized portion of common sense. Yes a router is dangerous, but so is any tool. There are a load of posters I see on here who appear terrified of routers, just because they're high speed. That's just stupid, and a quicker path to getting hurt than by paying attention to what you're doing. Respect for tools is good, fear for them is bad. Saying they shouldn't be bought on a Sunday from a hardware store is just crass, and more likely to put people off building. It kinda reeks of an 'elitist' attitude which this board is completely against imo.

I just want to highlight a really important part of what you were told up there - wait for the dye to THOROUGHLY dry before applying the plastic coating (i.e. more than 24 hours) otherwise you will end up with a patchy mess (I speak from experience, using the same products from axminster).

This won't work. You'll wear through the varnish and rub off the sprayed on colour. There's a reason people inlay things - do you really think people would bother going to all that hassle of cutting stuff to fit and routing perfect pockets if you could just spray and seal it? If you want a custom inlay job on a guitar you're building, take the time to learn to do it properly, or get a pro to do it for you.

No they don't at all. Don't be silly. Different woods and laminate thickness.

Well first of all if they're supposed to be one-piece tops they're too narrow. And if they're going to be resawn, then you don't need more than 7" width, so you're paying for far more than you'll actually use (you'll end up with 2" sticks off either side). Also the prices are high. Check out Gilmer Woods or get in touch with Larry Davis at Gallery Hardwoods for instrument grade maples. I wouldn't have though a premium figure maple board for an LP style carve top should cost more than $250 at most. Other people will chime in with places to buy from, and they may well be worth a shot (take a look on eBay),. The two I gave you above are reputable dealers, who specialise in musical instrument wood, and know what the job needs. If you take a peek at the Gilmer website you'll be able to see loads of their maples so that you can choose which one you want.

I think you'll find he's referring to cocobolo as deathwood - it's the wood that most people have allergic reactions to, some people who use it for a while get so sensitised to it that they can't use it any more, as it is just that nasty to work with

He's not paying too much for the fretboard - he wants 16" radius, not the standard 12" that StewMac has. The list looks ok - have you done much woodworking before? If not, I'd question the benefit of buying a $150 hand plane - get experience with a cheaper one first. Also, I'd strongly recommend getting some cheap wood in first, like a 3A maple top and a standard body, maybe a cheap maple neck blank, before you get straight on building on your best wood - especially that Koa, I'm betting that was pricey! Your list shows you've done research though, just buy as and when you need instead of getting it all in straight away, and then you'll avoid buying more tools etc than what you need.

When will people on this board learn that either you have to fund something properly or it won't look good. That's not just you, it's been coming up a lot lately. Yes, you can build on a budget, if you have the skills. But if you don't have the skills or the cash, you're going to end up disappointed, and ruining a guitar. Plain and simple.

So you want the guitar to a point where you can finish it, assemble it, do a set up and then play it? Do you want all the fretwork done? Do you want it sanded to the point where you could shoot a finish on it? Really, the only work you say you'll actually do is sanding the back of the neck a bit. Let's be honest, what you're actually asking for is a complete custom guitar, just 'maybe without a finish' (and even that you kind of ask for anyway), and shipped to you without the bridge/pickups etc (which any decent builder would want in front of them anyway to make sure it all worked). But your price isn't what I think will stop you getting offers from anyone good enough. It's the time demands doing something like this puts on a hobbyest builder. Would you be happy if building this guitar took a year? Would you be happy if the answer you got to 'when are you going to do some more work on it' is 'I'm not sure, work's a bit hectic this month'? Pro builders are good, they do cost more, but that guarantees you their time, and a schedule for them to work to. Hobby builders aren't at that stage imo. I'd strongly urge you to reconsider both what you're demanding and who you're demanding it from, but hey, I can't force you to.

Unless you refinish in something really hard/thick, you won't stop it bein worn away. There's a reason people actually go to the effort of routing pockets you know, if it was that simple, or going to look that good using stickers, do you think they'd bother?

Just search ebay - 123" long pieces by 6" wide by 1/28" thick - enough for 4-6 accent lines. pnly $13.

Seriously, anti-christian symbols? Do people still do that to seem "alternative"? That was so ten years ago it's not even funny.

On the real Supreme, the body is chambered, and the standard wiring channel from lower bout to switch position is nice and wide. Then it's a case of installing the electronics like an ES335, and using long wires so you can solder connections outside of the body. See here for more info

Except at $229 you'd most likely be cheaper starting again.