Supernova9

Hello everyone. I have been trying to make a custom guitar since January, planning it out and figuring out what I want. I have basically designed it all already, and have the money to do it now (assuming I sell these 2 guitars I have)

Now unfortunately, Im not the best builder, and I would attempt making my own guitar, and probably will play around with it this summer, but for this guitar, I want it to be done by someone who actually knows what they are doing, and can make good guitars. Which isnt me. I have talked to about 10 people so far about it, and some I have an issue with pricing, others I just dont have too much contact with (they reply like once a month; not good communication is risky) or they simply dont feel like doing this style of work.

I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me building my guitar, I have every detail down exact, and I also have ALMOST all the parts (just missing the trem, and fretboard with my special inlays) so it would be purely wood/labor fees for the project. I have every hardware piece down to the straplocks, the only thing I dont have is wires connecting the pickup to the knob and jacks, but I have the pickup, knob, pot, jack, everything else.

I will introduce you to my design. It is basically a Jackson Rhoads style guitar, with a 1/8th" Quilted maple veneer on top, Stained Blue. Maple Neckthrough, with Alder body-wings. Reverse Jackson headstock with matching veneer, Maple fretboard with my custom inlays (Ibanez Tree of life with 1st fret modify) and 24frets, 25.5" scale. A Dimarzio x2n pickup, One volume knob, Control cavity big enough for battery (incase I wanna switch the pickup in the future) Fender-style jack on the upper-wing. Ibanez Edge pro bridge (if I can find one used) with locking nut on neck. Neck profile similar to that of a Wizard neck in terms of thickness (ibanez)

Here is a picture from the JCF generator of my dream guitar

The inlays, can be seen in details here

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i139/Nic...r/Vineboard.jpg

If someone can even do the inlay work, that would be Great! The Ibanez Vine inlays can be bought off ebay for like $50, its just the first fret needs to be modified (and with filling, dont think it'll look good, so might have to cut off the first fret that way.)

So, if Anyone can help me with this, It would be very apprieciated. thegarehanman told me the average labor cost shouldnt be over like $300 for a body, so add the wood (shouldnt be too much, $100 or so?) finish ($100 or so) and if I dont supply the fretboard, and have that made.. That is around the area I am looking to pay.

If you can help me, or know someone who can, PM me! Thanks so much guys

Or use the jig Setch showed once upon a time (used for making radiused sanding blocks), make a long one (the length of the board) that matches the radius of your board, then double stick tape the board in that, making sure it's level, then use the router thicknessing jig to take the extra off the back.

I love my complicated solutions

how did you do the control cavity on the chmbered guitar? .... I mean there ain't no wood left round there, right? and how bout shielding the electronics? copper spray or did oyu do it?

As you're not doing f-holes, get some shielding paint like this and paint all the cavities (and maybe the back of the top that'll be positioned at the cavities) with it. Completely invisible solution, and the guitar will be shielded.

As for the neck questions you had earlier, use a deep-set neck tenon (going back to the bridge pickup maybe?) and run it into the body with the taper of the neck, then carve the joint from behind. You shouldn't have any problems with too little wood.

well, what i was going for was a method;

and types of stains; ive used black and walnut type stains just to make things darker but never any colour.

should i buy that powder and spirits or is their a good brand of colour stains that will take to an oil finish?

From my experience (limited though that is), spirit-based stains under oil work fine.

Hey!

Yesterday I got two nice chunks of walnut tree (fresh, It was cut yesterday), they are about 30-50 cm wide and 60-80 cm long. They stil have the skin on . What is the best way to dry it so I could make my tele? How should I protect them from splitting?

Thanks so much!

how thick are they? Unless you're kiln drying them - the rule is that they need to be stickered and air-dried for one year per inch of thickness. I'm afraid you won't be making anything from them any time soon really.

The previous posters have a point - no place is going to clearcoat for less than $27. Not a chance.

I posted this question on another board, but nobody seemed to have ideas. Maybe it's impossible, but if anyone knows here goes:

Does anyone know how to increase the "swing" of a drill press? (distance from center of chuck to edge of support column). I'm finding it hard to reach string holes in the center of the guitar with my 10" drill press. It has a swing of about 4 1/2" (yeah, I know, if they call it a 10" drill it should have 5" of clearance. Since when are tool manufactures honest in their names ) In order to reach the center of a 16" guitar I would need a 17" free standing drill press. Not only don't I have the cabbage, I don't have the space. I have an appartment wood shop and heavy free standing equipment is not an option.

Suggestions?

I rigged up a gantry set-up so that I could drill the string-through holes on my telecaster - I took the head unit of the drill off the column. That worked pretty well, but there's no 'easy way' - that issue is the reason they sell radial arm drills, or big floor standing units.

Ok, thanks, this is very helpful,

Once I get the pocket perfectly flat, what would be a good way to get it back up to the correct depth?

I was think of glueing a thin layer of wood, or perhaps a plate of brass, Any ideas?

Cheers

Chris

Use wood, preferably the same type as the body's made from.

When trying to shave a few mm off a neck pocket I used a sandpaper as I have no router and ended up with an uneven pocket.

I then tried to even it with a chizel and got carried away and went too deep.

Is there a good way to get a perfectly flat pocket without a router, and what would be the best method to bring the neck pocket back up to the correct depth.

Cheers

Chris

P.S

Please bear in mind this is my first guitar, (a strat) with no need for a neck angle. The more details that would help me, the better!

Without a router, chisels are the best way to go - I know Boggs (another member on here), cuts his pockets like that. You need to be careful tho - I'm guessing you've realised that from your current work with a chisel.

To rectify - level off the pocket as you have it at the moment - get it flat with chisels. Work out how many mm you need to bring it up, then make a shim of that thickness and glue it into the neck pocket area, will bring it up to the correct depth.

I'm sure Boggs would give you some more pointers if you ask him (try a PM if he doesn't catch this thread).

Jammy, lovely work, there's a problem with your first link (pile of wood), you've written http://http//www. etc

If you fix that link it'll stop directing everyone to the Microsoft homepage.

I like your guitar designs, and I like site design too. It's a good idea, just feels like it needs some refinements to make it better.

The main source image you use for your site looks 'fuzzy'. Maybe it's just the stark contrast between the black and the guitar, but I think it could do with being a higher res photo, or sharper somehow. Do you have photoshop to play with?

The inlay gallery scrolls a bit too quickly, either give the user ability to move through designs themselves, or give at least 3-4 seconds after the fade in of the complete image to view before changing.

As for the guitar gallery - take photos on white or black backgrounds, with decent amounts of light. People (and possible customers) will not look as favourably on a guitar that's leaning against a windowsill or on a pillow as they will a guitar in a semi-professional setting.

The main photo on the front page is also too long - I'm on 1024X768 and I have to scroll vertically. It feels like your site doesn't want to use pages of scrolled information (hence the current layout), so maybe you should consider shrinking it vertically to fit the world's most common screen res (at present that's the same as mine).

Also, your articles are word documents. Bad idea. Use PDFs. If you want them converted to PDFs, I can do that for you, chuck me a PM.

I know I've put a few points down, but my view of the site is not a negative one, it shows promise, I just want to give my views to help you make it better, hope you take it in the spirit it's meant

Supernova 69

I think you misread my user name. Freudian slip?

hi there ! i made a topic for it a long time ago, but it was lost ! ??

I'll never understand this 'fake mojo', but hey, who am I to judge?

It doesn't look too bad a job, but the thing that looks most artificial is the wear you've done on the edge of the body contour - looks too much of a neat straight line.

How hard would it be to replace the board with ebony, put new frets, bind the board and place some dot or small cross inlays on it? Can I DIY this? How much am I looking at for parts and tools?

For a DIY Project, you can buy a preslotted, pre-radiused board, and go from there.

If you're buying from StewMac, costs (excluding tools you may need):

Ebony Board (looks like a PRS clone, so 25" scale, 12" radius) : $30

Cream Plastic Binding (Or you could use flame maple for more class) : $5

Black Side Dot Material: $1

12 1/4" Gold MOP Dots (will do 24 frets): $6

Fretwire: $8

But when you factor in tools, it'll be more expensive, you'll need fret nippers, a radius sanding block, crowning files and more.

The question is, have you done anything like this before? And if not, how attached are you to this Tokai guitar? It looks pretty nice to me. Are you willing to run the risk of spoiling it? That's not meant as a 'don't bother', more just to make sure you think it through. Only you can answer the question of whether you can DIY this.

im making my first guitar and what i want to know is will this wood be good enough? (I dont have much money to spare for wood right now.)

http://craft-supplies.co.uk/cgi-bin/psProd...@b|20|user||50|

I know its not the wood for specificly making guitars but is ash and if i join two together i would have the right measurements for my guitar body

It's not large enough. I've not seen many guitars 10" wide or less - most around around 13" or so, and they're definitely longer than 10". Maybe if your design accomodated that, you never know, but to be honest, if you're that strapped for cash, maybe spend some time saving up, and use that time to read up/research/plan the build.

Obviously bookmatched wood is more popular, promotes a very classy look and is very artistic. But how much does wood that is not symetrical take away from the look, or does it even add to it? I put this picture up just as an example. I bought it out of the stock Walnut at the lumber yard just because I thought it was interesting and the parts pictured are from two separate ends of the board and have a little figure. I placed it next to some guitar pieces to get some ideas and wanted to see what you guts thought of the bookmatched vs non-symetrical guitar top. I'm looking for feedback more on the topic and less on this specific picture.

One-piece tops can be just as attractive as bookmatched tops. Some of Ron Thorn's guitars have one piece tops, using woods such as Koa, and they look absolutely stunning.

For example:

You can make stunning guitars with two pieces for the top that aren't symmetrical also, just if there's a sharp divide it can look a little different from the norm. But who's to say that's a problem?

Perry, no disrespect, but I don't think you're setting the world on fire with your guitars.

I love it when people post 'no disrespect, but....' They're always followed with a needlessly inflammatory comment. Just like this one.

If there is in fact something "special" about them, then I would think you could only benifit from pointing out what sets your guitar apart from others in explaining why they are so "special".

To state that a majority of the members on this forum are "hobby tinkerers" is a clear display of your arrogance and ignorance IMO. It's quite clear to me that you are "making assumptions behind YOUR keyboard" as well. Sorry, but I enjoy this site and have alot of respect for it's members and their knowledge.

And the fact that you interpret helping others as "spoon feeding" and/or expect to be compensated for your knowledge leads me to believe that maybe this isn't the site for you.

The majority of this board are hobby-builders. I don't see more than 2500 pro luthiers on this board, do you? Maybe if we did we wouldn't get ridiculous suggestions like filling every cavity on a guitar with marine epoxy

No matter how you cut the blocks, there will always be a gap or seem to fill. And even if you did a great job filling the seems, in time, it would inevitably be noticable because you would now have THREE components that are subject to expanding and contracting ... the body, the wood blocks, and the filler.

Well, if you rout the current holes into regular shapes, you should be able to get a damn tight fit if you're careful enough.

With marine epoxy, you can route the edges of the cavities and feather the epoxy so it would be virtually impossible to detect any seems. Here's a pic to help explain ...

As for the veneer ...

As I tried to explain, you could change the thickness of the veneer from the inside of the cavity to help support any controls you may have IF NECESSARY. I'm just curious ... what exactly were you thinking of supporting here?

Actually, I'm thinking the veneer wouldn't have to be any thicker then the pickgaurd you are replacing.

And isn't the pickgaurd what held all of the controls in the first place?

BTW ChaosInc. ... I only mentioned the possibility of a neck shim not knowing what type of bridge was on the guitar.

There's a good possibility it wouldn't even be required. Hard to say without seeing what you have to work with.

It's just a much cleaner (and imo more professional) job if you do what crafty says, rather than just plugging holes with epoxy, or putting on thin veneers that you then need to cut reinforcement pieces for (and if he is too lazy to bother cutting wood to fit the holes, what's to say he'll be any different with those reinforcement pieces he'll need?).

Ok came up with another idea, i showed the guy who owns it some guitars that i did in photoshop with some graphics on em and i think the drop top would be a good idea but i also think it might be a little difficult going with plaining the top and the vener sounds good but i dont like the idea of shiming the neck to match up with the bridge hight. So i thought about just making a pickguard out of lexan or similar material and recessing it into the body, making it look like it doesnt have a pickguard, possibly hiding the lines within the graphic. I think the cavity is deep enough to do this if not it wouldnt take much to chew a little more out. Not real fancy but it will get the job done. he wants to go with the hardtail again, but im tryin to convince him to go with a sring through and a tom, would give alot more room for the graphic design. He's a big Iron Maiden freak so think im gonna do a trooper or Number of the beast graphic on it, im gonna show him both of em in photoshop mockups(hardtail and TOM). Hes going with EMG's too, wants either an 81 or 85 in the bridge and then sa's for singles, He wants to have or be able to have a real bluesy sound. Hopefully i wont mess it up too bad, lol. ill post some pics in the right section when i get started.

Don't use marine epoxy to fill gaps that big. A thin veneer wouldn't be thick enough to support anything on the face of the guitar either.

If you can't cut wood to the right shapes to fit those cavities, then rout the cavities to regular shapes (e.g. rectangles), and then fill those shapes with rectangles of wood.

If you want to add a drop-top (1/4" or so), then build the router-thicknessing jig that you can find on here, use that to take 1/4" off the top of the guitar, then you have a flat surface to attach the top to, and essentially once you've cut it to shape, the guitar will be the same in terms of bridge height etc.

Don't want to pour water all over your fire, but are you sure you want to do this to your friend's guitar? Hope he's a good friend, and won't make you pony up for a new guitar if you trash this one completely.

Maybe it's a stupid question on my behalf, but why do you want to do that? Wouldn't it just make it really likely that you'll knock the tuners whilst playing, or have them press up against you whilst you're playing?

Or how about when you want to change the tuning of a string slightly during a song or something, it's far easier to reach to the headstock and turn one there then fiddle about with a part of the guitar up against you.

Hey mattia please name a dollar store that sells coping saws

You're in the states right? Try Home Depot or Lowes, they're always cheap and would have coping saws. They'll be more than a dollar, but you can probably pick one up for around $4 or so.

I AM PUTTING A VENEER MAPLE QUILT TOP ON A OLD HAMER BODY OF MINE. I WAS HOPING SOMEONE COULD GIVE ME A HEADS UP. I KNOW ABOUT STAINING IT DARK THEN SANDING BACK THEN RESTAINING. I WAS THINKING ABOUT USING WATER BASE STAIN. WILL I GET THE SAME RESULTS IF I USED LAQUER BASE STAIN? WILL IT GET DEEP INTO THE GRAIN LIKE THE WATER BASE STAIN? I WANT THE FINISH COLOR OF THE QUILT TO BE AMBER. I REALLY WANT THE GRAIN TO POP SO I GET A NICE 3D AFFECT. SHOULD I MIX THE AMBER STAIN STRONG FOR MY FIRST COAT OR SHOULD I USE A DARK BROWN OR BLACK TO MAKE THE GRAIN POP? I'M WORRIED THAT THE DARKER STAIN WOULD HAVE ME SANDING HEAVY TO BRING IT DOWN AND IT IS A THIN VENEER. I'M GOING TO DO THIS GUITAR IN A BURST WITH A VERY NARROW DARK TRANSITION LINE ON THE TOP. I'M DOING THIS BECAUSE IT IS AN OLD MAHOGANY BODY AND THE EDGES ARE NOT SHARP AND THERE IS NO BINDING. IF I'M MISSING SOMETHING LET ME KNOW. I WOULD BE THANKFUL FOR ANY HELP.

The first thing you missed was turning off the caps lock. Don't do it again.

As for the stain, alcohol-soluble stains will work as well, use a brown rather than a black as your dark base, and be very careful when sanding back, to make sure you don't sand through the veneer. If you're worried about spoiling the veneer, just use a stronger amber coat for the first dye, sand back a little and go from there. Just do what you feel comfortable with.

Thats the text behind the picture. If your text size is anything bigger than medium it will peek out from the picture text on top (which is whats happening with you)

Click on your view tab in IE, than go to text size, and select medium.

That should clear things up

Nice site, looks good, but what you've just mentioned is a big design flaw. If you're making a website selling artistic products, then the site should reflect that by being artistic, sleek, stylish. Having Times New Roman font peeking out from behind images is a big no-no.

I'm guessing the reason you used an image for the text is so that you can use a specific font?

You'll need more cash than that for a bandsaw for resawing. Save up until you have more cash.

The execution is good but I just think the base of the wings should curve out more, away from the central point, where they sit at the moment just doesn't look right to me.

But then again, I'm not one for the "BREWTAL!!!!!!!!!#@@:~@:~@:~{:!£!" designs so much.