Ripthorn

After having sand-through problems on a couple of builds, I switched to sanding sealer/finish starting at 1000. Sure drips and runs take longer, but I have had significantly less sand-through. I bought a box of 50 sheets of 1000 and it should last me a very long time, as I tend to use about 1 per guitar is all. I also don't sand roundovers/small bevels until I get to about 1500 or 2000 grit, as you really don't need to take much material from those parts. The last guitar turned out much better with only one tiny spot of sandthrough where there was a drip. I was able to touch it up and is now all but invisible. Hoping the next one will have 0 total sand-through.

A lot of the niche guitar suppliers simply use something cheap and readily available as a basis. The only "custom" pot manufacturer I know of is Allessandro, but those are like $50 a piece, so I would personally rather spend the extra couple of seconds to heat up the pot back and save about $100 per guitar. Sure they could bring the price down if they sold more, but those little ground terminal things posted earlier do the trick rather well as well.

I think the big mistake I made with this in terms of getting it so that the veneer didn't chip at all was that I had the roundover mostly done before veneering. That made it so that there are one or two tiny spots where the transition line is just a little off due to glue under the veneer. The only significant chipping on this is on top of the upper horn. We'll see how it turns out.

There was a little glue that came up through in a spot or two, but I am doing a clear finish on the veneer (excepting any burst if I do one), so I am not terribly concerned. Of course, there will be test pieces.

Never saw that tool before, though I did try something like this on a previous build and it was catastrophic, resulting in the one thing that has made me look at that guitar and borderline hate it.

So I am working on a strat with fumed curly eucalyptus veneer on top of a poplar body. My plan was to do a trans black on the poplar with a light burst around the veneer edges. I tested this on a piece of scrap, but the contrast is really high, so it seems like I may need to go to more of an opaque black on the sides. The question is do I continue the opaque all over the back as well? I'm just looking for suggestions to see if something really strikes my fancy. The neck is walnut with an ebony board. Here are a couple of in progress photos:

I busted out the iron and wet rag today. I steamed the bubbles and then clamped down a block with some waxed paper. After coming out of the blocks, it looks great. One or two of the larger bubbles had some glue buildup that causes an ever so slight ridge where the glue didn't get totally softened up, but that can get sanded out to get level. I think I've about got this, we'll see.

For glue up, I put glue on both surfaces, using a silicon brush. There was probably more glue than necessary, but this was my first veneer job, so I didn't really know any better. I am planning on just doing lacquer over it, though I had played with the idea of doing shellac first just to give it some warmth, as my lacquer is waterbased. Maybe I will go that route with CA. I have some thin CA with stewmac's whip tips. I'll play aroung with it. I have enough veneer to redo the top if need be, but I would like to avoid that hassle. For the gap, I actually just sat down to think about the geometry better and got that worked out, so the only issue now is my one or two bubbles.

I'm doing my first veneer project, putting some figured eucalyptus on a strat. I already applied one half of the veneer using Brian's technique from the tutorial section here. However, I pulled the weights off and looked at it this morning and noticed two things that I am looking for some help on. The first thing is that I noticed a very small bubble on one portion. I am wondering what the best way to fix that is. I figure I will likely need to slice it open and put some glue in there and flatten it down with a clamp and blocks, but wanted to see what the more learned say. The second issue is one that I am a little less sure on. The forearm contour extends a litte past the center line, so the one corner of my first piece is glued down along the contour. Well, my nicely jointed veneer now shows a gap as it bends over the contour. This makes perfect sense, but since I already have one side glued down, I am a little uncertain as to what I need to do to make it so that I get a nice joint. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

I can't say I've ever seen an ebony burl, but could you do an ebonized walnut burl? That would be quite black, but with all the burl figuring. I don't know if walnut burl looks the same as ebony, but it might work. Then again, it might just be me thinking of the easy way. Hopefully someone else has something really fantastic for you.

Using them will slow down the process, but the process will happen over time anyway. There is no perfect solution to prevent fading indefinitely, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth using the UV inhibiting finishes.

I haven't been able to put it down. Plays effortlessly, sounds great, and is so amazingly comfortable. The multiscale neck just plays so naturally.

Necro bump! I started working on this again about a month ago. I sanded down the entire top, got rid of all the glazing putty (man, that was a dumb idea) and refinished. The top is still not absolutely perfect, but pretty darn good if you ask me. I made the pickup rings, finished the bridge, etc. Anyway, I need to take some good pics, but here is one crappy one to tide you over:

I do worry about lubricity of the nut, just not the tone so much. For trem guitars, black tusqXL is my go-to. I've never tried graphite. Then again, I rarely do trem equipped guitars, which is why I don't have to worry much about the lubricity.

I like Perry's idea, though I am less organized (only do this for the heck of it). I do the plastic bin thing, but I do have some very high value machinist tools. Those nice machinist toolboxes like Kennedy's and whatnot are amazing items. They are not cheap, but they are so much better than HF stuff. I also have a large roll-around 11 drawer HF set that gets used for tools, but could very well hold a lot of parts. They can usually be had for about $150 US with a coupon. One of their best bargains, if you ask me.

I second the recommendation to doug. He did some mini traps in rosewood for me and they turned out awesome.

I am finishing up a multi scale guitar right now and have decided, after cutting a nut for it, that I'm going to do the zero fret thing, at least for multi scales. Then the nut is just for string direction with the height already taken care of by the zero fret. I like the tusq nuts that are out there, but bone is nice too. I don't worry about the tone of the nut much, as it has its largest effect only with open strings.

Hmm, yesterday was a very long day, so it never even crossed my mind the using of magnets. I could still get away with slip-fit alignment pins, but rear routing is a possibility. I'll have to look into that.

So I am in the midst of planning a new build and it will have three single coils like a strat. The problem is that there will be no pickguard and I think that strat pickups are ugly, especially without a pickguard. So I was thinking I would like to make some wooden covers. I made a prototype this evening, basic soapbar shape about 1.3" by 3.6" with a roughly .125" wall. Four mounting screws in the corners and the two height adjustment screws, no holes for the pole pieces. The issue is that the screws look wildly out of place. I would love to have some sort of cover that has no visible screws or holes. So here is what I am thinking, though I am totally open to other ideas. I am thinking of making it in two pieces, first piece would be the four vertical sides, the top will have an opening the same size as a pickguard cutout, and the mounting screws and height adjustment screws will be here, all recesses slightly. Then I will make a cap that will attach via magnes or small alignment rods or something. I have some 1/8" diameter rare earth magnets that would work well for this purpose. Like I said, suggestions or any other ideas are welcomed.

I recently picked up a little CNC milling machine, and let me tell you, there is some serious skill involved in getting the parts set up so that they come out correctly. Yes, it removes a lot of the manual labor of cutting and filing, but that is replaced with intellectual labor of designing and generating toolpaths for a certain part. Certainly not a dummy's way of doing things. Though there are things I will never do with a CNC, like carving a neck. That to me is just too personal, each guitar will be a little different.

I got my used PRS for less than that, but have noticed that the used market can swing wildly. I think you will get plenty of people who will turn their nose up at the SE but not be able to get a regular line, that may go for these. I think that it is a sound business idea to have a guitar in that price range. I like the asymmetric bevel, going to have to try that. It will be interesting to see how the market responds.

Anyone see these yet? They look pretty darned sweet. I already have a regular PRS from '04 that I got for a steal, but if I didn't, I'd be giving these a look. Of course, I think the beveled look gives a great aesthetic. Not quite the full carved top vibe, but still a cool look. I am doing an experiment soon, and I just may go with something like that, since this won't be a high-effort guitar. I like that they introduced something in the 1-1.5k range, and US made to boot. Thoughts?

Oh, I see what you are saying. So you are going to replace each tone pot with a push pull pot, correct? And you want the push pull to determine whether it is vintage or modern, correct? Am I understanding your question correctly? Edit: So what you do is connect one lead of the cap to one of the center lugs of the push pull switch. The other two lugs on that side go to lugs 2 (vintage) or 3 (modern) of the volume pot. The other cap lead goes to either lug 1 or 2 of the tone pot, with the other lug going to ground. You can make it so that both tone controls are controlled by one push pull pot, but you won't be able to have, say, neck modern and bridge vintage that way.

So let me ask one or two questions first. Your push/pull pot, how many switch lugs does it have? If it has 6, then you've got a DPDT switch on it, if it has 2, you have an SPST. You want the DPDT (SPDT would work too, but it doesn't every show up on push/pull pots). What you would do is have the outputs from both your vintage and modern wiring go to the switch, one on top and one on bottom on one side. The center lug then goes to your output (varitone, jack, whatever). That should get you what you want. This is assuming that your vintage and modern tone controls are entirely separate circuits. If you could post a schematic of what you currently have, we can provide you with a more clear answer. Guitarelectronics . com has lots of good wiring diagrams to show us what you are starting with.

I don't have a gauge at the gun, though I got an extra gauge with the regulator I just got, so I can hook that up. I basing pressure on what the needle read at the compressor with the trigger depressed on the gun. I like the pin idea, I'll have to use that. I've been cleaning the gun regularly and checking the nozzle for build up (haven't had any yet). I've been keeping my spraying sessions pretty short.