mledbetter

edited

edited - duplicate post

Aah.. been there dne that. I got my check in about 2 weeks.. maybe a little less. At first they blamed it on me and said no refund because they had inspected my package.. I called the lady and told her there was no way they had inspected my package because the package was shipped straight back to me.. and she said "ok, we'll get a check out to you" so stand up for yourself if they give you grief.

I should correct myself (before others do ).. my measurements weren't nut to heel, they were nut to last fret. There is some overhang beyond the 22nd or 24th fret, that's another thing that's up to you.. so factor that in and measure from there.

Would it be cheaper to fix your main guitar? That one was up to 115 with a couple days to go so i would predict it'll go for 250 or so. Depending on what's busted on your main guitar, you might be better off fixing.

Use a fret distance calculator with a scale length you want and the number of frets you want. This will give you a length of your neck, nut to heel. Then draw a center line on a big piece of posterboard or something. At the top of the line draw a line that is your string spacing at the nut. At the bottom (if your scale length is 27, then at 27" from the nut line, draw a line that is the string spacing of your bridge. You can find this out by deciding which bridge you will buy and look at the string spacing spec. These lines should be centered. Once drawn, Draw the outside lines connecting each end to make a big trapezoidd. Basically you have plotted your bridge line, nut line and have drawn in the 1st and 6th string. Now the neck length. Using wfret, i'm showing a 22 fret neck would be 20.14" from nut to heel for a 28" scale.. 19.42" for a 27" scale. A 24 fret neck would be 21" for 28" scale or 20.25 for a 27" scale. On your center line, pick which length up there you want and measure down from the nut line that far. That is the end of your neck and if you draw a horizontal line and make it exceed the outside lines by 1/8inch on each side you have a calculation for your neck width at heel. In fact, at this point just do the same at the nut and you will have your entire neck drawing dimentioned and if you were careful enough you can use it to build your template off of. Hope that makes sense. It's not that hard if you just draw it out. The lengths i came up with were derived from WFret.. a fret distance calculator. You can find it online.

Score one for chapstick.. you can eat it...

One place that's kinda cool is www.wantedfonts.com There are a lot of freeware and knockoff typefaces there. I'm sure you could find something cool.

Check out www.rockler.com or www.woodcraft.com and look for "brass inserts"

See, that's why i think it was all a stunt. There is no product yet.. There are specs and 3d renderings of it. 2 weeks ago, the renderings all looked like BOSS pedals, same colors, same model names, etc.. which of course after a big NAMM announcement made roland sue them and let the world know that these pedals were clones of the boss line, only at about 1/3 the price. Now they have remodeled them and with this publicity, i bet they will sell a lot. I plan on buying a few if they turn out to be good quality.

Yeah i looked it up on ebay.. Only thing i would check is to see if they know if it is solid wood. Bursts with black edges were notorious for covering up unattractive side grain, like plys of laminates

It's easier to me to think of how you would wind the wire on if the bobbin were standing still.. If the bobbin is spinning clockwise, the wire is actually laying down counter-clockwise and vice versa.. But like the last post said.. as long as you're not mixing stuff up it doesn't matter. Strats are clockwise i guess for neck and bridge, then the middle pup is counter clockwise. I cou'd be flat wrong.. maybe it's the direction the bobbin is pointing, but it seems logical to me to think of clockwise winding as the direction the wire was wrapped around the bobbin.

what about removing some wood from the top left.. called it a "Tuned resonating chamber" lol. cover it with a piece of wood painted white and call it a feature.

65 posts and counting that have nothing to do with building guitars.. why don't we close this thread feelings hurt, damage done, sides explained, points argued, consensus still non-existent, moderating this forum is still not my responsibility and is in perfectly capable hands.. I'm happy to forget this thread even exists but it keeps popping back up to the top of the list.. I promist I won't post anymore here.. twice is enough.. now i'm just contributing to the problem.. cheers

You'll just have to plot it out.. make a symmetrical trapezoid with the top the width of your nut and the bottom the width of your bridge (string to string width on both) Then figure out how long the neck will be from nut to heel, take that cross section, measure it and add 1/4 inch (1/8 th wider than your string spcing) and you should have it. It can be whatever you want it to be, you just want to make sure that you have about 1/8 of wood outside your 1st and 6th strings.

I personally think it's a better way to start out.. Routing an angle isn't a huge deal if you have a jig like Myka posted in the tools and reference thread.. but recessing the TOM isn't a big deal at all and I just like non-angled necks better. Feels more comfortable to me. Maiden's Project: This has a recessed TOM pulled off beautifully.. Here is the neck jig tut: Neck Pocket Jig if you want to route an angled pocket. Best thing i've seen. Even if you don't do an angled pocket, this will ensure a super tight neck joint every time.

I think this forum is awesome.. and big kudos to the folks at the helm. When you have 3k+ members you're bound to have a few nay-sayers.. that's just life. They will either stick around and enjoy or get lost. Great forum though, i've already taken away 10 fold what i've given.. Like any other skill.. the true master knows there is always more to learn.

Welcome.. good to have you aboard..

I would definitely say frets. Might even just need a spot level. I'd just take all the strings off, adjust the rod till the neck is as flat as it can possibly be and use a straight edge to find the high frets. A small straight edge (stewmac sells it under the name fret rocker) is helpful.. Something that spans 3 frets.. you can go all over the neck and look for any fret that you can "seesaw" over, for lack of a better term and that's your high spot.. Another trick you can do is lower your action a little more so instead of just a buzz you'll actually fret out and somewhere on the neck you'll have 2 frets that play the same tone because the high one in front impedes the correct tone behind it.. That will be your problem fret. Just play eachnote up and down and anywhere your pitch goes more than a frets worth you've got a high fret and might just be able to carfully file that one fret down to level. Hope that helps some.

I'm telling you folks.. it was a NAMM publicity stunt. Had to be. I hope they get to market soon.. i want to try one out.

That's a pretty interesting piece. I would guess mid to early 80s.. Japan made (which was awfully good stuff.. ) Like Scott said.. if it's a name brand you'll see the name on the bridge. A lot of folks tried to improve on the trem in the 80s. The Floyd and the Kahler were the top of the heap, in that order.. but there were a lot of non locking bridges too that were generic. I'd say that's all it is. Hard to see the detail but it looks like a regular trem with fine adjustment knobs on it. Foundationally though i bet it's a great guitar and you could probably put a floyd on it if you wanted too.. The guitar is a copy of one of Charvel's models.. EVH had an ibanez destroyer that he cut up so it was a cross between an explorer and a V, and I think that is what became charvels design basis for what he now calls the "star". Cool guitar. I'd certainly snag it if the price is right.

This really has become a problem. A lot of folks it seems are gluing them on and it's a pain in the a**.. Stewmac sells an extractor.. which is really nothing but a pipe, a bold a couple of washers and something to grip the knob.. you could probably get a bushing puller or something like that at a hardware store. I've ruined a pot or two though trying to pull one off.. it just pulls the post out of socket and snaps the disk inside. So don't feel bad dude.. I don't consider myself a noob and it gives me fits.

With permission by John Greven, i'm posting his reply to my email asking him if 1) he found KTM-9 to get to a satisfactory hardness and 2) does he still use KTM-9 or has he switched to something else as it appears Mike Doolin has. Marcus it does take time to fully harden and when done, it is comparable to lacquer, which is to day it is not has hard as a polyester finishe (like Taylor), but certainly hard enough to be long term serviceable. I cook the finish between coats using heat lamps (2 250 watt lamps about 3.5 feet above the work area). This accelerates the cure and makes the finish hard enough to buff out in a day. Other than that, I use the same process as Mike and yes, I am still using the KTM=9 until something better comes along. John

Yep.. can even just take an exacto and scrape dust off the tip of a pencil right into your slots. I had a hamer 335 copy that i was determined that the tuners were bad.. The tech where I took it told me to do the pencil graphite and i never had a lick of trouble. I saw someone else on here mention chapstick.. the wax sticks around for a while and you can just keep that in your case and use it everytime you change strings.

Generally speaking, and especially on bass.. the upper horn has a lot to do with balance. To short a horn and your headstock will dive to the ground. Too long a horn and the bass will want to center way to the right of your body.. It's a matter of getting it just right for balance while not looking goofy. You don't want you horn to have so much mass though that it makes your bass even more top heavy.. unless you have some massive bridge that you are trying to counter. As far as how far out it sticks.. Traditionally guitars are divided into two halves. The lower bout is 99% always larger than the upper bout. Electrics evolved from acoustics and acoustics were designed that way for acoustic design reasons. Electrics, it's mostly aesthetic and most people do it because to differ too much and people won't accept your design. Look at the swept wing guitaar, it's kinda strange looking but it's perfectly fine to do it thatway. I would say if your top bout is too much wider than the lower bout, it will throw your balance off. unless your strap button is placed close to the neck.