Supernova9

Maybe try the below ebay auction for the template? Does this help?

MDF is made of small fibres held together by a huge mass of glue. For an instrument to sound 'good', the body woods need to transfer vibrations/soundwaves well. With MDF being formed of so many small fibres, and glue being amazingly poor at transmitting said soundwaves, it does not lend itself to musical instrument making well. Neither does plywood, although it has fewer pieces (just the number of sheets in the ply), the differing grain directions would cause the same sort of transfer problems as with the fibres of MDF. It's not a case of snobbery that they are cheap, they just aren't usually considered good enough (there's a reason why even the cheapest guitars these days never use plywood). Aesthetics aside, they're pretty much functionally inadequate. You'll do much better (as was suggested above), to buy a cheap hardwood like Alder/Ash for your project.

Now first I would like to know if someone has some examples of the difference between 3A/4A/5A and with this being my first project would I really notice the quality difference between 3A and 5A. Now onto price, what would you pay for a bookmatched quilted maple 3/8" top, the prices from craft-supplies seem a bit much compared to what I've seen on ebay in the US. Third and Final question, has anyone here bought top-wood from craft-supplies, would you say it's worth it, and was the quality as expected? Thanks for any help Note: I tried searching for this but there's so many posts mentioning Quilted Maple I couldn't find what I wanted. ← I've ordered both a 3A Flame top and a 4A flame top from CS. You definitely notice the difference between them. In my mind I will never buy under a 4A again from them. Craft Supplies' quality control is notoriously patchy, and the 3A I got had pretty minimal flame to be honest. When I bought the 4A though, the difference was immediately visible. It had regular flame across the entire surface, where the 3A was patchy at best. Seriously, for £13 extra, it's more than worth the investment.

On a transatlantic flight the holds are all pressurised/heated these days, I don't think you'll get finish checking somehow. At least the Les Paul Standard my mate brought back from the US a little while ago didn't, and they're nitro iirc.

And that's because it's true for almost everything. ← Pardon the thread hijack, but curiousity has just struck - can anyone find anything that us brits aren't paying more for than you guys? As for the original question - UK builders import stuff from the US for a reason - usually cost. You're lucky enough to be where it's cheap and good already. Stewmac, Gilmer, Durawoods etc. are all in your country, use them

I've heard from people who do both - personally I fret with the board on the neck. Personal preference I think runs well here - but if doing it off the neck, you need to ensure it's double-side taped securely and flatly to a true/level surface, to avoid any back bow etc.

where can i get thread inserts and machine screws that will work with an electric? ← These Screws can be used with Fender-style Neck Plates or These can be used with neck ferrules if you don't want the neck plate

Ok, here are the questions I think we need to know the answers to before we can help you. 1: Do you have a body this is already going onto? If so, what is it? 2: Are you intending to take a standard Fender neck and then just make it longer so that it extends further into the body of the guitar but has a shallower heel? 3: Do you realise that PRS don't normally use bolt-on necks, they use set necks? 4: Do you realise that if you're using a bolt on neck, there's not really much point extending the neck tenon further into the body, because you're not gluing it, and unless it's a REALLY snug fit, won't do anything for the tone? 5: Do you realise that it's really frustrating for us when people don't spell words properly? I hate to be a grammar snob, but seriously, it's like reading a text message on my mobile.

Have a look around on Harmony Central, there's plenty of stuff on actually playing guitar there - you're not likely to find much here I'm afraid.

Do the TOM if you can, angling the neck's just a case of gluing the body wings on a slant. Provided your neck stock thickness is high enough to allow for that extra depth it shouldn't be hard at all. It's like loads of things with guitar building - as long as you're careful, it's not as scary/difficult as it may seem.

I like the style, and the wood looks great, nice idea for the natural finish. What wood is that btw? Ash? Just one thing I think'd make it look neater, and I know it's covered, but you'll always know it's there, and that's the control cavity. The rest of the build's so smart and clean it just jumped at me straight away. At least rout the edges smooth! Other than that, quality build, looks great! If the tele I'm just getting to finish looks as nice as that, I'll be well chuffed!

Getting a roundover bit with a bearing does not cure burn marks (they're caused by you holding the router in one place for too long), but it is better than one without a bearing. The bearing stops you from cutting into the wood you're working on, and just rounds over level with the edge you run it against, which is the effect you'd be looking for on a strat. ByronBlack - if you're looking for wood in the UK, try www.craft-supplies.co.uk (on the front page, look at their Soundwoods catalogue), they've got the biggest selection of tonewoods I've seen in the UK, and their customer service is v.good too.

You're from Wallington ey, I'm from just the other side of Croydon from you I guess. The key with using a router (particularly for beginners) is good templates and a flush trim bit. Get a decent flush trim bit, and plenty of 12mm MDF - a good choice for templates. draw round that custom shop strat on the MDF for the body outline, and cut it close to the line using a saw, then neaten it all up using sandpaper etc, making sure you got it smooth. Then take it the prepped body blank - trace round it, and again, cut round close to the line. Then stick the template on top, and use the flush trim bit to cut to shape - good templates make the actual work easy

I'm curious about that one Perry, can you elaborate? You mean Neck-throughs require more patience? (I'm assuming due to more care/precision required in all the measurements before you make a cut?)

Question for those more knowledgeable than myself: Can't you use a router (obviously with a template bit and a machined straight edge) to joint surfaces? As for thicknessing, search for Setch's Router Thicknessing jig - very useful if you don't have access to a surface planer etc, basically it holds the bit a fixed distance above a workpiece - allowing you to trim it down to the right thickness

Yes, go to projectguitar.com, gallery, then at the top of the page there's: Featured 2002 2003 2004 2005 Guitar of the Month Gallery Click on the years to view the guitars.

Interesting kinda project - useful inspiration for the countless "How could I build a guitar for $1.99" threads I seem to see round here. Not too sure about the headstock though - maybe slimmer next time?

The best resource I've seen for these sorta questions would be the Harmony-Central reviews - www.harmony-central.com To be honest, I'm not sure about transparency, but an amp I've really really liked that was around that price range was the Peavey Classic 30.

The first one is the most interesting, Drak's right, that carve makes it a better design. Though it feels like it needs accenting somehow, just painting both higher and lower sections matte black feels like it's missing something. As for the other two - the top horn is too flat , looks like someone just chopped the top off, ya know? Good work though, all the routing etc. looks very clean and tidy, good templates I take it?

This was the original one in the first post Everything else being discussed is pretty darn similar.

Ok, forgive me if I'm wrong, but you sound new to this. If you want my honest recommendation - I wouldn't wrap the guitar completely in Aluminium. I'd reckon it'd be far more trouble/difficulty than it'd ever be worth. I'd recommend (like the "Steel Top" guitar on the page above), if you're desperate for a real aluminium finish - use an Aluminium Top - a 3mm top on top of a wooden guitar could look really nice if done well - paint/stain the wood black, attach the metal top (Using mounting screws round the outside at regular intervals drilled down into the wood), and polish to a lovely shine. I think that would look great. My $0.02

Toddler68's neck through Check this thread, it was Guitar of the month last month. A really good, laminated neck-through project, not a tutorial, but shows you the steps in good order, with plenty of pics.

Wouldn't really say that - MDF is lovely for me, can get a nice smooth edge with little effort - a surform isn't too hot an idea for MDF, I just band/jigsaw it to rough shape and then sand smooth. Works fine.

Just one question - is that the StewMac Humbucker-Tele bridge? I'm thinking of that for my project, and wanted to see how it looked 'in action' as it were. PS> I'm sure it would be fairer on the guitar if you ship it back to somewhere in SW London instead of giving it back to him

Ok, fairly specific enquiry. Can anyone tell me the minimum bridge saddle height for either the Badass II (Which is a direct Fender Replacement) or a Standard Fender Bass bridge? I have the part being shipped from the states, but that's gonna take a long time to arrive, and I need this measurement to work out the neck angle!