Supernova9

Guys, I'm in the middle of planning out my next design, and I was looking at Ron Thorn's guitars (wouldn't you just love a CNC sometimes!?). Now the Navajo model he built intrigued me - with it's inlaid top. Now It would be possible for me to do an inlaid top by: Making Female Template for shape of Top (cut-out of the actual top shape) Filling said template with bondon/filler/something that sets hard Routing top to that shape Routing cavity in body using female template Binding male template to add extra width for outline of body Rout body to thickness of male template + binding Glue top in But I reckon that that'll be a bit too much - such a small ledge over the cavity for the thicker template to sit on etc. I'll try it on scrap to see, but I'm not sure to be honest. But what did strike me was a different idea, if I (when cutting down the body) took some strips off the sides of the body and took them down to ~2mm thick, and then glued them on like binding, would that produce the same sort of effect? Just looking for your input on this guys, what do you think?

There's a thread in Announcements and News by Jim Donahue. Check that out. It's pinned right at the top of the forum.

I have a question. What in the above qualifies as "In Progress & Finished Work"?

MIMF sells one from their site if I remember correctly.

Really nice, I was expecting more contrast between the two shades of black, but it still looks great. I reckon the clear will really make that pop.

If you're looking to thickness stock, build the router planing jig, it'll save you ages compared to trying to sand down using a sanding disc like that. Provided you don't want to go too thin (i.e. <2mm thick), the router jig will be much quicker, and just as good.

May just be me, but I'd rather take a rasp to a piece of wood to rough the contour out and plane it smooth than invest in an 18" bandsaw and cut the guitar while it was standing vertically on edge. Duff Beer Man: Nice idea for a thread, but it's really where the Tools etc Reference forum comes into play....

Does Gibson (or Burny or whoever) alter the neck angle on the Floyded LPs or are they just raised that far above the body? Have I overlooked something? On the Gibson Neil Schon model, the bridge is recessed into the body - I'm guessing far enough to make it the same height as a TOM, so that they don't have to change the way the bodies/necks were made on CNC.

Yes, you're using a Stetsbar (if memory serves), isn't Don Ramsay the inventor of that new trem with the big sliding plate arrangement? Edit: Nevermind, Don Ramsay's trem dimensions aren't the big sliding thing I remember seeing - that was an old burns trem. My bad

I think you're looking at this from the wrong angle - scrimping together a 3" wide body blank to save costs is not the way to build an instrument. Perhaps try giving us your budget - and telling us what tools you already have access to, so that we can help you better. I mean if your budget is $100AUS, it's no good us saying "go get a mahogany blank for $30 dollars, and buy a router for $200".

But then again, if I remember rightly, your trem occupies a much bigger footprint than a floyd, doesn't it? Which is fine on a flat top, but on a carve top, your trem wouldn't really suit, would it?

The Floyd Rose system is like any other bridge. It needs to be positioned at the end of the scale length (the distance from the nut to the bridge - it determines where all the frets are placed). That is a pretty basic piece of knowledge, might I suggest before you start, get hold of a copy of Make Your Own Electric Guitar, by Melvin Hiscock, it's a great book and will cover every question like this you have. As for fitting a Floyd to a Les Paul/PRS, if you want to do it, that's cool - if you go ahead with it, might I suggest doing the routes before you carve the top - to give your router something stable to move across, instead of trying to balance it on the carve?

I played an epiphone acoustic in wine red a few months ago and it sounded pretty damn good, and the price was even better - 150 bucks. Were they new Larrivee's? I hear the new Larrivee's are garbage. There was an awesome Martin I played a few months ago where the neck and perhaps back/sides of the body was a non-wood non-graphite material. It sounded really strong. The problem with acoustics I find is I have to use my ear more lol. I haven't tried cheaper Godins, but I have tried a La Patrie classical guitar and it was so far the best classical I've ever tried. One problem I find with classicals is they tend to sound like a guitar with the tone set to zero. This wasn't the case but you could still tell it was a classical. Definitly a good guitar. Forget the price though. Under 600 I'm sure. -Jamie As the owner of an 05 Larrivee, I can safely say they aren't garbage. Quite frankly, I find statements like that ridiculous... "I Played a Les Paul with bad fretwork once, therefore all new Gibsons are garbage!!". Mine has flawless fit and finish, and one of the best tones I've ever heard. Of course, I'm willing to accept there may be bad apples in the bunch though.

Say that about the tutorial when you follow it and lose a finger or worse... Plus, why bring the thread back from the dead just to say that?

Seriously...... Don't touch that guitar any more. Send it to a luthier/spray artist to do it for you. The people on this site all love guitars, and from what you've done to that guitar, I'm amazed you haven't got flamed much more already. You seem a tad out of your depth - there comes a point when you need to realise that you may need other people's hands-on help.

What's with that indentation on the lower bout - where it dips into the carve? Recess for a control knob?

Rules are in the Announcements and Test Area. Your image was 800 pixels by 545 pixels. The picture posting rules limit pics to 640x480 max, as that is easier for mods to judge than image file size. That's why it got changed to a link. It's not about using up the forum's bandwidth, but so that the site remains 56k dial-up friendly. Think you need to take a chill pill, and don't stop posting just because of this, that would be a shame.

It's more likely Basswood than Alder. The majority of the japanese strats/teles were made with basswood. One more reason why they are so different from USA Strats. Though as ever when buying a guitar, don't worry about the wood (as long as it's actual wood, not MDF), if it sounds good, and plays good, buy it!

How much extra depth do you need? What length is the cutter you're currently using? Ideally I wouldn't move the router bit in the collet at all, at very most maybe 1/8". Get a longer router bit, it'll look cleaner and you'll prefer the finished result, I'll bet.

Interesting, though I usually just use lint-free cloths (available from any home depot/B&Q etc) because they're that much easier.

You don't need any more than that.

I think Strats use a 1/2" radius roundover on front and back, but if you're looking for a more subtle rounding, 1/4" (which I used on my tele project) is nice.

All I really want to say to posts like this is: Don't run before you can walk. Seriously, you're completely new to guitar building? Start with something SIMPLE! Do you really think people like Bob Taylor/Paul Reed Smith etc. started by making the kind of instruments you're talking about?

That's just the way the neck was carved - if you look at the join line it follows one straight-line plane. All it is that's different from most scarfs is the fact that the neck laminates stop, which clearly shows the glue line.

Wenge is a dense, hard wood, sometimes described as the 'poor mans ebony'. I'd expect it to make it even brighter than a maple top would.