orgmorg

Not myself, no. I let the pros handle that part. I buy logs at a local yard, where loggers bring in mixed loads from the woods to sell. There they get graded, sorted, and shipped to various mills. I got the butternut there, as well. They don't get much of either there, and don't have a market for the less common species other than pallet and crosstie mills, so I often find some good stuff there for #3 sawlog prices- 18-22 cents/bf, and since my bandmill typically saws out up to 50% over log scale, my material cost is even less than that. Of course there's time and money involved in hauling and sawing the logs, and all the drying and processing after that. But still.. I end up with some pretty cool wood, and I know where it's been and what's been done to it.

Very, very cool!! I think the ones I've seen before had the mando neck on the bottom, but yours makes more sense. Big fan of The Band myself.

A persimmon tree.

Thanks! The fingerboard wil be persimmon, as will the bridge.

More progress: Neck is done, and attached to body. The pocket ended up a hair too wide, so I had to set the neck 1/8" forward to get a good fit, hence the gap at the heel. It will get covered by the pickguard, but I'm wondering if I ought to fill it anyway. Here it is with several coats of tru-oil, and 2 coats of wipe-on poly: back view Edit: changed pic to link

Started another paired octave string project the other day: The body is one piece of butternut, which is closely related to black walnut. It's known locally ( and probably elsewhere ) as "white walnut" The neck blank, sitting next to it is a very nicely figured piece of cherry, which I got a long time back in a pile of cull lumber from a nearby sawmill. Bigger sawmills often sell bundles of lumber that doesn't meet even the lowest grade for real cheap. It's usually only useful as barn/shed siding, etc., but sometimes you find some good stuff. This was the only usable piece out of several big cherry boards that were figured like this, but completely riddled with ring shake, as often happens when cherry has strong figure. Cherry is generally quite stable, but as figured as this piece is, I will be using a pair of CF rods in attition to a 2 way trussrod.

Yes, It sounds daunting, but that's the way it's done, even by the manufacturers, like Gibson. Binding is most always done before finishing. Mostly because it needs to be sanded/scraped flush with the body. I've only done it a few times, and never on a guitar with a solid color, so hopefully someone else will be able to go into more detail.

Ah... I guess since I made my own tablesaw jig for mine, I hadn't even considered the size of the box. Or maybe I was just thinking outside it.

I agree. You have kept all the elements that really give the 4001/4003 its fundamental appeal, and made your own personal touches in the right places. It's going to be a beautiful bass! This is a 12 string I did a while back rear routed, and with a different bridge/tailpiece ( kinda necessary in this case ) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/orgmorg/ric12d.jpg I liked it a lot, but it still lacks that old ricky vibe.

OK, here's another- I always think of a one piece neck as being the fender style neck with no seperate fingerboard, and a skunk stripe in the trussrod route. So I guess there is no one definition for "one piece neck"

Cool stuff, Wez! I think I remember it from your "veteran" guitar? What did you use as "etchant" ? You can PM me, so we don't derail the thread.

Ya, that's something I've been on the fence about. I personally like the contrast of the shiny chrome and the rusty tin, but have also been thinking about using something distressed, and was intersted to see what other people thought. I've got a few other projects like this in the works, so some experimenting is definitely in order.

Thanks! I have no idea how to even begin to post a sound file, but if I can figure out how, I certainly will. I have a Tascam digital 8 track recorder, and I will be recording stuff with this instrument anyway, when I get it done, so I guess that is something to work with. I am anxious to hear this thing as well.

I went for the red tele as well. Even though it is not the sort of guitar I would normally vote for, there is just something innately appealing about it. Very eye catching and tasteful. Plus I love the fact that the mahogany was found in the middle of the road. Hmm.. fell off the back of a truck you say.....

Probably.. the only issue would really be the size of the indexing pin. I have the Lmii setup, so if you could give me a good measurement of the end of your index pin ( the part that fits into the slot on the template ) I could see if they were the same or not.

Finished shaping the edges and sanding the body, here's a pic with a coat of danish oil on it. I think this would sound good bowed with a cello.

This is one I built several years ago. When I first joined the forum, I posted pics of it, and Marksound suggested I enter it in GOTM, but I was never very happy with the neck, and didn't feel it was up to snuff. Now, I have finally got around to making a new neck for it, and here it is: The top is made from a piece of weathered oak barn siding, and the back is spalted beech, from a 2x6 in the same barn. Yes, it is quite heavy. The tailpiece and trussrod cover are made from old iron strap hinges, and the pickguard is rusted roof tin. Knobs are deer antler. Schaller humbucker, and DiMarzio tele neck pickup. The headstock plate is weathered cypress from a fence board. Grover Deluxe vintage style tuners. Back The new neck is quartersawn walnut, from a tree I salvaged on the farm next door. Was going to be pushed into a pile and burned to clear more pasture. The fretboard is black locust from elsewhere on the same farm. Dot inlays are slices of #4 copper wire, also salvaged. Not bad for a bunch of junk, eh? Sounds and plays quite nice, too. The 4 pole, 5 position switch gives a good variety of sounds from the two pickups in various combinations. Has a very distinct sound. Big low end response, which I attribute to the walnut neck. It was not nearly so bassy with the original neck, which was maple with walnut laminates. Also has a lot of crisp, almost, but not quite too harsh high end, especially in the out of phase, "quacky" positions. Ah yes, and we need a name, right? This will be "Barney"

:D Glad to see I'm not the only one! I got so sick of the stuff in my cabinet shop days, I now only use it for firewood, and structural applications where I need something real strong. Unless, of course it is old weathered barnwood, or quartersawn white oak, which can be quite lovely.

Ah Yes, the pictures definitely help! That's about what I thought you meant, but I was having a hard time seeing how that could actually work. Very interesting, and something I may try to play around with in the near future. I am currently dealing with a repetitive motion injury in my right shoulder from running my sawmill, which is forcing me to reconfigure the way I do a lot of things. Fortunately, it doesn't affect my playing ( as long as I play standing up ) but who's to say what other problems may arise in other areas as I get older ( especially if I have to stand all the time ) And I will add to the comments on the design, as well. It's nice to know that ergonomic doesn't have to be awkward looking. Really looking forward to seeing this one fleshed out. That's mostly because a lot of people just post a bunch of them and list a bunch of cool hardware, and never do much else. And it's not so much the CAD drawings, as the photoshop mockups and crayon scrawlings on notepaper. I get the impression you are a little more serious in your endeavors. Good luck!

Happy recovery, then. I am in my 15th year of that trip, 12 more to go. Please explain more about the "twisted/helix neck" Sounds more like an injury than a means of avoiding one.

Hi, Welcome to the forum! You're starting off on the right foot for sure with the books. What a compound radius does is gives a rounder surface at the top of the neck ( near the nut ) which is comfortable for open chords, and flattens out a bit further down to make soloing and bending notes easier. That's a quick run-down, and you can probably turn up a bunch more info by using the "search" function at the top right hand corner of the page. A lot of people like compound radii, but they are certainly not necessary by any means.

This is my favorite: Beautiful work, Rich!

LOVE that color!! Would look real nice with the zebrano neck.

No, it is indeed 33 1/4", but I doubt anyone would notice if you did it 34". Alternately, you could use a 35" scale board, and cut it off at the first fret, which would give you right around 33". As for the walnut stripe, I think one of the few differences between the 4003 and the 4001 was the 4003 did not have it.

That's looking awesome, Matt!! Nice to see the Impaler again, too.