Supernova9

Using only recycled wood is not the way forward. Legal logging is indeed, however, consumers need to be aware of how the wood they're buying was logged. Statements like "I'd rather see a guitar than a tree" are a bit unnecessary, and unwise. Tables and guitars may look pretty, but they don't recycle CO2 and turn it into O2. What good are guitars and tables if you can't breath to enjoy them? No-one's saying cutting down SOME trees is wrong. the problems come when you have trees like the old Honduran mahogany - demand was high, supply not so high, but they cut it all down anyway rather than keeping the process renewable. The result? The high price of Honduran/Cuban mahogany these days.

How about: Create your template for the body shape at full size Resaw the Burl in half Create Female Template 1/2" smaller all round Cut Cavity into Burl Top and Bottom Create Matching Piece of Solid Wood Glue into Burl Glue Burl Halves Back Together, possibly with accent line round the join? Bit convoluted, but hopefully you see my idea?

If it's soft maple (acer macrophyllum), yes. Hard maple (acer saccharum) commonly used for necks, does not accept dye well at all. From warmoth.com: "We offer two types of Maple: Eastern Hard Maple (hard rock maple) and Western Soft Maple (big leaf maple). (Acer saccharum-Hard Maple): Hard Maple is a very hard, heavy and dense wood. This is the same wood that we use on our necks. The grain is closed and very easy to finish. The tone is very bright with long sustain and a lot of bite. This wood cannot be dyed. It looks great with clear or transparent color finishes. (Acer macrophyllum): Western Maple grows all around us here in Washington state. It is usually much lighter weight than Hard Maple but it features the same white color. It has bright tone with good bite and attack, but is not brittle like the harder woods can be. Our flame (fiddle-back) and quilted bodies are Western Maple. This type of maple works great with dye finishes." Mike Cheers

Now I'm open to correction by experts, but that sentence sounds incorrect. My viewing of vast numbers of stained maple tops on guitars tends to lead me to that conclusion. Maple is pretty much THE wood when it comes to staining in the musical instrument world?

[Edit]: Beaten by Mattia - pay attention to what he says. His past work makes him very worth listening to,

Glad to hear I'm not going completely looney! Just for curiousity's sake - can anyone offer a decent explanation on the differences between flatsawn and quartersawn, why (if at all) one is stronger than the other, or whether both can withstand the tensions involved in various types of instrument construction? I'm presuming that the main force causing warping in a neck (assuming it's straight, flat and true at string-up) is string tension (correct me if I'm wrong though). Would there be a greater distorting force therefore in bass necks than guitars due to the heavier gauge of string? Is flatsawn vs. quarter sawn more of an issue in bass construction?

How does carving change the direction of grain? I honestly can't see how that's possible.

Sapele is absolutely fine for a neck wood. It's very stiff. You could have used search, this exact question was asked a little while ago. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...;hl=sapele+neck

Looking good! Though remember Setch's advice from the last thread - bind the end of the fretboard the same way as you have the sides. Having heard that suggested, I keep picturing the board like that, and I think it would look a lot better.

I'm guessing that he's drilled straight down from the neck pocket to the bridge pickup cavity (that gives a path from neck to bridge, and then if you look carefully at the picture where the body is hanging upside down, you can see where he's drilled a hole from the bridge cavity to control rout. That lets you connect up all the pickups without the need for a pick guard or rear-access.

Or, use rasp as it's intended, get bevels close, then sand.

Yes. But judging from this and your earlier post, you need to read a whole lot more, and learn to use the search option on these forums. Fender Jazz Basses and P basses come in 5 string form, and they're 34".

Read this. First section http://www.mtdbass.com/articles/quest_for_tone.pdf

Thanks guys for all the advice. I'm off to the supplier this weekend, I think I'm going to go for Sapele, (specially after that photo Rich - I'm liking the lighter colour as Drak described it and from the various pictures I've seen) seeing as they're so close in characteristics. If I find a particularly interesting piece of A. Mahogany then I might swing to that, but to be honest for what I've got planned I'm not really looking for incredibly flashy body woods, just some nice regular, straight grain for this. I'm planning a couple of solid-colour guitars (I've got some artist friends that I'm going to get to paint them once primed) and I'm also thinking of some nice, stripped down, minimalistic guitars, just a nice break from stained reds, blues and greens

I think the design is a bit stubby, my preference would be for a slightly sleeker body shape, but then that's your choice. The way you've executed it looks great, I'd be interested to see what you do next time (hopefully using some nicer hardware and maybe some flashy wood?) Good work!

OK............. Got any idea where to find an Epi set neck replacement? Thanks for your help guys. From what I could find in my search here and googling, it seems a scarf joint isn't a particular place on the neck but the cut itself. Is this right? Like cutting an angled cut instead of straight thru. Anyway, I'm gonna browse thru here and glean from the pros. Thanks again gentlemen. That's right. The angle is usually between 10/15 degrees. It's done that way as it avoids end to end gluing, gives a larger surface for gluing, and lets you use thinner wood stock for a neck

Was used on the original 1950s Broadcaster/Esquire bodies by Fender if I remember correctly - anyway, it's a lovely wood to use, suitable as a body wood, and also possibly as a neck wood too. Would take it for a neck if quartersawn, or flatsawn with graphite rods.

Hey guys, A friend of mine recently showed me a supplier located pretty near to me here in London, and I contacted them for a quote, and got some good news. They've got 3" X 8" stock in 8' lengths of a number of different types of wood, and I was looking primarily at African Mahog (I think it's Khaya), and Sapele. It's all kiln dried, and I get boards like that for under £50, which is a great improvement over Craft Supplies prices, and will give me enough stock to cut off neck and 2-piece body blanks to exactly how I want them. I'm really looking for opinions - have you used Khaya or Sapele? What's it like to work? To Finish? What does it sound like? Price difference is minimal - Mahogany is only about £4 more expensive than Sapele, so that's not the issue - I just don't want more than one board right now - so what do you guys reckon? If you could choose only one, which one, and why? I know Taylor use Sapele in their T5, and also one of their series of acoustics uses it for backs and sides, but I've not seen it widely used in Electrics, any real reason why? As for mahogany, well, everyone on here knows about it's usage!

I played the Warlock with the I.T. I compared it to a Strat and a Schecter Omen neck thru. It had more sustain than both . It was weird, the note drop off was even and smooth. I guess it has something to do with the way the naeck is bolted on. The sales guy said the bolts went up into the neck. I'm not much of a BC Rich fan but I was thinking about buying it because its so different. I went back to get it and it was gone. They only had one in. I found this site because I was looking for one on the web. Cool site! I'm going to keep coming back That's a poor test. Test a bolt on Warlock, a Neck-Thru warlock, and then the Warlock with I.T. That would be the way to check for a real difference. Of course a warlock is going to sound different than a Strat or a Schecter.

Personally I think you're crazy - that has to be one of my favourite paint jobs I've seen on this board.

Wow, now the body's darkened down that looks even better. Great contrast with the fretboard. I really like it!

This Tutorial by Kevan is pretty useful

You won't get near $400. It's not a Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, or any other make. I'd say $200-$250 tops.

Gorgeous. I prefer the new colour scheme much more, and that pinstriping is just awesome. Great job!

Make a template of 1/2" MDF or plywood, make sure it matches exactly how you need the neck to fit, then do it on the guitar body using that template and a standard hand router with a template bit, not a dremel. Whatever you do, don't go freehand routing a neck pocket.