ooten2

Yeah, it's D minor. D being the root, A being the 5th, and F being the minor 3rd. It makes for a real spooky slide sound. Totally cool. Another similar tuning is DADGAD, just jack that F up a whole step. In that one, the ADG strings are all the same as standard tuning, and the other 3 strings are just dropped a whole step. Michael Hedges and others are known for using this one. This kinda stuff is what I use to get out of a rut.

Nice guitar. I like the contrast of the amber swamp ash and the black pickguard. Great job!

I had a Mighty Mite strat neck and wasn't too impressed; constantly fighting the intonation. I replaced it with a Carvin strat neck and all my problems were instantly solved. I haven't tried Warmoth, but hear good things about them all the time. If you haven't considered Carvin yet, check them out: http://www.carvin.com/products/group.php?CID=BKBN Good luck!

Wow, very nice! I really like the padauk, great color. Nice carve, too. That body shape reminded me a bit of Myka also, and maybe these guys: http://www.watsonbailey.com/plans/ Great designs there. Can't wait to see your basses, too. Great job!

I've used Watco "natural" and "dark walnut" Danish Oil. I haven't tried tinting Danish Oil, but here is a bass that was finished in a blue-green colored Danish Oil: http://www.kbguitars.com/gallery/view.php?gid=17 Good stuff there!

Here is the procedure I've used for Danish Oil. It was passed on to me by a guy who builds excellent basses. http://home.insightbb.com/~jpaquay/oil_fin.txt I had great success with this finish, but the Watco brand turned out just a bit darker than I expected on maple. On mahogany, it was fantastic. Hope this helps.

I said it's not dumb or stupid if you know the strengths and weaknesses of the components used to make the stain. If you use components that "fade to nothing" or components that "rot from the inside out", then you obviously didn't know the weaknesses of the components. If anyone is interested in information on making homemade stains, there is alot of good information on other forums, such as MIMF, without all of the ridicule. I'm starting to remember why I stopped coming here, too. Peace.

It's not dumb or stupid to make your own stain if that's what you're into. Just realize the strengths and weaknesses of different components when making the stain.

The zebrawood and walnut go great together. Excellent!

Yes I agree with all of the above. Overall I'm very happy with the wood I got from Gilmer. The finish on the Myka guitar is similar to, and IMHO actually better than, the Gilmer pics, so the advertisement is not that far off. That is one awesome guitar, by the way! Rich, you're so lucky to live close enough to see that stuff in person. Where I am, we have a couple of places that stock some exotic wood like cocobolo, padouk, etc.; but no camphor, no limba, no myrtle, and not many burls. At least not that I've found anyway. Gilmer was the place to buy exotic wood until you started selling yours.

I bought some camphor burl from Gilmer back around the first of the year. It's true, the pictures are WAY more light and pinkish in color than the real thing. The wood is actually more of a dark reddish/almost magenta color. But the freshly cut wood is lighter in color, but still not as light as the pics. It sure makes your shop smell like a medicine cabinet. I got some advice on this board about glue up. Use acetone to wipe down the areas to be glued, and the joint should hold better. I glued up my bookmatch several months ago with titebond and it's holding with no problems. I set it aside since then while doing other projects, so that's as far as I've got with the camphor. I have alot of wood in reserve, waiting for me to get around to doing something with it. Something else to consider, this wood is supposed to be corrosive to ferrous metals. Might want to use stainless steel screws or find some other way around that issue. Also, watch out for splinters. Could cause a nasty reaction. My piece was dry, so I had no moisture issues. Although it has ended up sitting in my garage for around 10 months regardless. No experience finishing it yet. Although I saw some pics of camphor finished with danish oil. My own opinion was that the danish oil darkened it too much, but it could have been the pics, too. I am considering some kind of clear finish on mine with no stain. The color is just too beautiful in it's natural state to change. Best of luck and keep everyone posted.

I totally agree. One of the reasons I come to this forum is to find suppliers of wood, hardware, electronics, etc. I have found some good suppliers that I didn't otherwise know about because of threads like these. Keep bumping...

Donald, I thoroughly enjoyed this thread. Thanks for sharing this build. It's so nice to see something unusual. Great work!

Yeah, guns at Wal Mart. This is Texas, man. Everybody has guns. I kept reading on this forum about Tru Oil at Wal Mart, and looked in the wood finish and paint section, and never could find it. Then one day I was in sporting goods and walked by the rifles and BANG, there it was. A whole shelf-full of it. I tried it for the first time this last week, and am very impressed with the results. Good stuff.

I got some in the sporting goods section, right next to the guns, at Wal Mart.

Whew! We had Frankie Lane, Marty Robbins, and Sons of the Pioneers all in one post! ...and a whole bunch of others who re-recorded all them songs, too. Brought back memories of my dad's albums playing on his mono hi-fi record player. I'm gettin' all sentimental here... Great guitar Drak! The cow makes the whole thing.

So does this mean that BigD wins the contest by default??

This is a great, great thread. Thanks for taking the time to document the building of this guitar, Drak. That quilt is so nice, I don't think the hardware or the color will matter.

Even if you didn't have the best tone, or the hardest wood, you'd still be out standing in your field.

I have a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2X12 that I got for just under $500 (scratch & dent). It gets a great tone for blues and is fairly responsive to the touch. You can go clean or add quite a bit of dirt, either way it sounds good. Great feedback when using a Les Paul with some volume, and strats sound good through it, too. Great amp for blues, classic rock, southern rock, etc. Down side is that it weighs a ton, I went to pick it up one day; the rubber handle broke off in my hand and the amp didn't move! lol Another gripe I have is that you can't read the labels on the knobs. Fender put white lettering against a mirror-like metal control chassis, and you have to get at just the right angle to read the labels. My solution was to put masking tape under the knobs and label them myself with a sharpie. But for tone and price, I'm happy.

Carvin fretboards are normally radiused at 12". They are now offering 10" and 14" as options. http://www.carvin.com/fretboard/

Danny D's in League City/Clear Lake did a great job on my Gibson. Guitar Stringer in Pasadena did a great job on my Strat. I've had good luck with set ups from both of these stores.

Wes is right. I'm currently building a guitar with the very same Carvin neck. The hole that is closest to the neck is 25" from the nut, which happens to be the scale length. It will be covered up by the bridge. The holes are a nice reference for placing the bridge, and also provide a reference for the center line. But of course, you should always measure and be sure!!

I second the Ibanez Artcore thing. I've never owned one, but played several in stores, and they always play great. I like the Talmans the best, but all of them seem very nice for the price.

I think the LP tone comes from a combo of all of the things mentioned above. Body thickness, TOM, set neck, scale length, mahogany neck/body with maple cap, etc. The maple cap on a LP is pretty thick to allow for the carve, so I don't think the 1/2" maple top will make it too bright. While I agree that humbuckers play a part of the LP fat tone, it's not the only difference by any means IMHO. My example; I can get a "fat" tone with my LP through my amp, then plug in a strat with a bridge humbucker into the same amp with the exact same settings, and the tone is much cleaner, brighter, and thinner. I have to redial my amp to try to get the fat back, and it never quite gets as "fat" as the LP, even though the strat has a humbucker. I think it's an equal part of all of the components in a LP that create the tone. Change any of the individual parts, and the tone changes.