Supernova9

Dependent on your budget, pickups can be had from many places. If you're looking on a budget, www.guitarfetish.com has a fair few, or there's always Seymour Duncan. I'd look at places like Harmony-Central.com (they have a user review section for pickups with a load of models tested and stuff).

As for the Kaoss pad - how are you planning on doing it? All the mods I've seen have transplanted the pad in, but the surrounding electronics remain in the box, with a serial cable running from pad to box.

Hello all! I've been lurking around project guitar for a good while and I'm of the opinion this is the best place on the net for guitar building and customizing.

Anyway, I've been planning on doing a custom guitar, and I'll need a lot of help planning it out. I'm not sure I have the skills or tools required to make a custom body out of blank pieces of wood, so I was curious to wonder if there's any place where I can buy like a "blank" guitar body to work with.

I'm heavily inspired by Muse and Matt Bellamy, which gave me a few of the ideas for this guitar. I'd like to wire in a fuzz pedal and sustainer such as Bellamy has on his custom guitars. I'd like to include a Kaoss pad as well, but that's probably way too complicated for me to do. Right now I don't have the funds for this project yet, but help planning it out and locating the supplies would be invaluable.

If you want to wire in effects, I'd recommend taking a look at ModBoards (click the link). There's a thread in the electronics section about a sustainer.

Warmoth sell guitar bodies for you to put electronics and stuff into. Have a look there (google for warmoth). Top quality stuff.

You must be one of my favourite builders on here - nice takes on old classics. The sort of design choices I'd make. Am absolutely loving that LP.

Hey, all. Body shaping is going well, just working on the inside curve of the V. I'm home for spring break, so progress will be speeding along. I'm hoping to have it 100% aside from finishing by the end of the week.

I wanted to hear some opinions on how to carve the neck join, though. I found a good picture of what I'm talking about for the concave curve. My only reservation is that I won't get it to come out smooth like I want it, in trying to keep the top and bottom corners at the original height, like he did. I'm leaning more to the traditional V neck carve because I can easily reach all of the frets as-is, but I still wanted to see if people could persuade me.

I'm going to start another thread for this, but I need opinions on finishing, too. I can't find any good pictures on grainfilling with black epoxy, but I'm thinking of filling with black epoxy, sanding back, and shooting a few coats of clear. Either that, or grainfill with black filler and clear. Another concern if that because the maple is so close-grained, it won't take either method, and I'll only end up darkening the wings and not the neck part. Initial speculation thinks that that won't turn out to look so good. Third option is to use black filler or epoxy, and stain the whole thing trans black, and clear over it.

That guitar you've just linked to was built by jammy, a member here. I'm sure he'll come along to tell you how he did it if you ask nicely

I'm sorry, but this is getting ridiculous. Will you lot just get off his back. So he might have bought a neck and said he built it. Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? The amount of ridiculous, unnecessary flaming on here from people that should know better is disgraceful.

It's funny how all it takes is one 13 year old poster for half of you to descend into primary school bickering. Grow up.

you sure don't make people feel welcome, not even a little bit!

This is an internet forum, being "welcome" has nothing to do with anything.

I just get curious when I see offers like this, wonder what's behind them. I'm willing to accept that you had no intention of making the deal seem shady, sure. It's just as likely that you honestly didn't see this. Especially since you do have a history in the forum, it's not like you signed up just to post this.

Which is part of the reason I pushed on the button. Not to call you out, just to clear things up.

I think being welcome is a part of this forum. At least I'd hope it'd be. Quite frankly, I think you've been out of line in this thread. He offered something for sale, provided pictures, and tried to answer your questions. If you don't want to take the offer, don't post. All you've achieved is alienating a poster from this forum, someone who by your own admission didn't come here just to try and scam, but has been here a while.

That french guy is called Trussart, does some cool things with steel.

Also, look at a guy called Teuffel, he's pushing the envelope, uses all sorts of composite stuff in his builds. The Teuffel tesla is a pretty cool invention.

If he's running a spiral cutter on the shaper, it'll make a huge difference to the tearout - that and practice, so that your feed rate and pressure are exactly right.

Found the video: http://www.webcastgroup.com/webcast/window...l=&r=&i

It's pretty long, but I thought it was worthwhile. The shaper bit happens around 23 minutes in. I can't really tell what sort of bit they're using, but it doesn't look like a spiral to me. It looks like the guy at the bandsaw did a nice job cutting close to the line, though.

Hard to see, but the way the blade flickers during cutting I'd say it's a spiral blade.

I'm new here, and can use all of the help I can get. I was wondering if anyone knew if there is a way to "stain" a flame maple top (or any style top) white. I know I've seen this before somewhere but can't find out how to do it. I tried doing a search here but couldn't find anything. And I mean White White not clear coated. Thanks everyone.

Wood bleach or translucent white lacquer, not white woodstain.

If you want a pin router, buy a pin router. If drill presses could do the job why would pin routers be on sale?

These type of answers makes me laught. Yeah I know that I can buy a pin router. And I also know what a drill press is used for. But sometimes in life, you try stuff that will make you saves money. Or just for the simple matter of being creative. I'm sure lots of people here would love to have a CNC, but instead they build routing rigs, templates and other things because they can't afford the perfect solution. It's easy to say; you need this? Well, go buy it!

Thanks for the answers. That confirms what I tought. As for the router speed, my mistake. It's set at the lower setting, manual says it's 8000RPM. By the sound it makes, I tought it was way slower than that.

And sometimes in life you'll try stuff that'll make you lose a finger. Seriously, tools should only ever be used for their intended purpose. Posts like this simply encourage the less experienced readers of the board to go out and try something like this, which could end catastrophically poorly.

And your analogy there is flawed - not having a CNC and using handheld router jigs/templates is an accepted use for a router. Not having a pin router and therefore using a drill press (a tool completely unsuited for the task) is completely different.

That will end in one of three ways. Damage to your workpiece, damage to your drill press, or damage to yourself.

Routers spin MUCH MUCH faster than 4,000 RPM. Drill presses don't go that fast. They aren't designed to take the lateral load you'd be putting on it, you're asking for trouble.

If you want a pin router, buy a pin router. If drill presses could do the job why would pin routers be on sale?

I think that design looks absolutely ridiculous. Almost on a par with the wangcaster.

jmrentis - I have one of those vices that you mention. I believe they are just called bench vices, you can also have shoulder-vices which are also very useful.

Here's a pic of mine in action:

Is that a Philly plane?

It if managed to cup the mahogany as well, I'd try and flatten the thing as one piece. Rich (fryovanni) put a nice post up about it in the tools forum, have a look. Once you've got it flat though, let it settle and acclimatise. It's often a good plan when resawing wood like you have done, to leave it for at least 2 weeks, so that it has time to move if it's going to, and that way you can adjust for any cupping before you get to this state.

See, I look at that guitar, and just think that there's not enough of a contrast between the pickguard/control cover and the rest of the guitar. They're the same species of wood as the parts of the body, but the grain doesn't match on the maple so it looks off, and the colour doesn't quite match on the paduak stripes. Really doesn't work for the guitar if you ask me, black plastic would look much better.

But again, opinions are like assholes.

I wonder how on earth it could know which string you're playing on? Maybe there are slight frequency differences between a note played on the low E string and the A. Either way, I would think that being off on your tuning even by a little bit would throw that completly out of whack.

Weird.

-Devon Goodspeed

That's where the individual transducers come in. If there's one signal path for each string, it's down to the channel coming in rather than the pitch of the note.

CAN it be done? Yes. SHOULD it be done? Not really. Use the proper tool for the job. That's either a jigsaw, bandsaw or hand saw. You'll be working a router bit very hard to cut an outline the way you're suggesting. Honestly, cheap jig saws aren't that much, and handsaws are even cheaper.

Killemall, why the hell you didn't use a handsaw on an explorer shape (mostly straight lines) I'll never know. Nothing wrong with a bit of hard graft.

ok, thanks, i definately want the skunk stripe, i love the look of that

i also love the look of a maple fretboard

is that possible?

Yes, like I said, I'd recommend gluing a separate maple fretboard on rather than trying to make the neck and fretboard out of one piece.

Ok, you've got two options, do you want a skunk stripe or not? Skunk stripes were usually used for necks that didn't have a separate fretboard (all-maple necks on fenders). If it's your first build, I'd go with a separate fretboard, it's the simplest solution.

If you don't want a skunk stripe, then you take your neck blank, rout out the truss rod channel in the centre to the right depth (not all the way through), then glue the fretboard which is a separate piece of wood to the top of that, sealing off the top of the truss rod hole.

If you do want a skunk stripe, then rout all the way through the neck blank, creating a slot down the middle that's the length of your truss rod. Then glue in the skunk stripe in the bottom, making sure there's still a slot the right depth for the truss rod. Then once that's in, you've got pretty much the same situation as in the first option, drop the truss rod in the channel, and glue the separate fretboar on top.

This is easiest if you're using a double action rod like a StewMac hot rod, which needs only a straight channel. Makes life much simpler than routing a curved one. Trust me, for your first build, use a straight channel rod.

Ok so Ive not had alot of time to work on the purpleheart guitar but Im starting to fall in love again where the wood lacks the design is really makeing up for it, so I have the jig ready for the electronics cavity and Ive started my jig for the headstock so that I can drill out the tuner holes dead on so once thats done the guitar is just about done other than alot of sanding

I'll be freting soon aswel and I'll be doing a flat radius

Why a flat radius????

I didn't mean the binding's shoddy, my brain was all over the place. There are some gaps in the inlay, that's what I was thinking. Everything I've pointed at though has cleaned up very well for the finished article.

Seriously though, it's one thing putting a Gibson logo on a guitar just for yourself. But seriously, by giving it to your friend you have now broken the law. If Gibson could get your personal information from this website (which I believe they could via court subpoena and going through IP addresses etc) you could end up in court. If he asks you should be smart enough to say no. Take the guitar back from him, sand off the decal, and put your own makers mark on the front. Be proud of your work for crying out loud.

Yes, you just committed trademark infringement by putting that Gibson decal on the headstock and supplying the guitar to your friend.

The binding looks pretty shoddy too, and the neck pocket's pretty slack. Though that just reflects early Gibsons anyway....

Multiple woods are for neck laminates or pinstriping. Anything else looks like a ham job where you couldn't afford planks wide enough.

Of course that's just my opinion, but what you've made there looks far too busy. Incorporating real wood grain into your rendering won't change that.

Of course this gloat begs the question........what wood is it?

Ah sorry, I work with the stuff so much I forgot to name it.

The picture is Zebrawood, the link (top) is maple

Figured it was something like that, I'm just used to seeing quarter sawn zebrawood. I like the grain on the flat though, very nice.

Of course this gloat begs the question........what wood is it?