ooten2

Big, big, big thanks to all of you for putting these pics up. Great thread here.

Watco Danish Oil "Natural" really darkened up on me, so stay away from that one if you don't want it to darken. Good luck!

Do a search for tung oil and read up. There was a guy here who put up quite a few good pointers on tung oil finishes, Dugz_ink or something close to that, was his handle. (Sorry if I got the name wrong!!) I used his pointers, along with a few others, to do an oil finish that turned out really great.

The burl and the padauk tele's look great, BigD!

I have a cable modem for internet access. Once you get high speed access, using dial-up is TORTURE!! Recently, we switched our phone service over to internet, earthlink I think is the company we use. Anyway, our phone and internet bill total is now 25 to 30 bucks a month CHEAPER, plus we have HIGH SPEED internet. Amazing!! It's all due to massive savings on monthly phone charges from our old phone company, Sprint. I highly recommend checking into the internet phone thing and high speed internet. The only down side to it that I've experienced, is that the phone goes dead when the electricity is knocked out by a storm. People have told us, "Internet phones don't have 911 service, blah blah." Ours has it, and we're saving enough money to buy a Carvin neck or two every year. heh heh heh

Something else that really bothers me is simply standing on concrete for any real length of time. After working on a guitar in my garage for several hours, I really feel the effects. No wonder the check-out people at Home Depot, etc. use those rubber mats while they are standing there all day. I sit down every chance I get when building, and a good pair of shoes with good support helps, too.

Rich, I was hoping you would post up on this thread. Being one of the bigger "wood nuts" that I know, I was anxious for your opinion! Uh, huh huh... got any koa?? Frank, Slab tinker toy guitars?!!? I always thought of mine as leggos, or maybe more like jigsaw puzzles. I also noticed the irony in having an American Southwestern guitar made with wood from Hawaii and Africa. But hey, how much tonewood grows in Arizona/New Mexico anyway? Gotta use something! I love that turquoise, especially the medicine wheel on the 12 fret. I've seen some Takamine acoustics with SW-inspired turquoise rosettes and inlays. They are beautiful! For me, the Thorn guitar site is one of my favs for drooling. Great work!

Moose with a 'fro, and a bullseye on his forehead... That's awesome, can't wait to see it when it's done! edit: Looks kinda like the electro-harmonix logo face, too...

I think everyone, newb or not, needs a little common sense and know when to back off a little. When a situation arises, it's how WE react that makes us who we are. If someone flames us, we can flame back, and the situation could escalate into a multi-page battle of words. Then we are no better than the original flamer, and he has brought us down to his level. Or we can simply walk away and not waste any more of our precious time on stupidity. The flamer will be ignored, and everyone will see him for what he is. The thread will continue on it's original subject and won't be hijacked into a war. To me, an internet forum is just like anywhere else when you have to interact with other people. A little respect can go a long way. There are many ways to make your point; some ways can be constructive, and others can be destructive. But no matter what, there will always be people who thrive on contradictions and personal attacks. When the next flame post pops up, just remember, it takes 2 to tango.

Low action for me; string guage 9 to 42. I raise the strings just enough to clear the buzz and not fret out when bending. The "slinkier" the string the better. I play what they now call "classic" rock, and blues rock. I was born in 1963, and started on a Framus guitar from a pawn shop that played pretty rough. My next guitar was a 69 gold top Les Paul Deluxe with low action, and my playing improved 100% overnight when I got that guitar. I've been playing with low action ever since.

Wow, what a beautiful guitar! I love everything about it! I'm into all things Southwestern, so I love the turquoise. And the darker wood at the first fret on the fretboard is cool. Great inlay work, and all the wood on everything, even the straplocks, is awesome.

WB, Godin. Good to have you back.

Overhang vs. No Overhang? When I first read the title, I thought we were talking about beer bellies... I put a strat replacement neck on a tele body and it works fine. It has a fingerboard overhang and the pickguard slides right under it. No problems.

Getting old sucks. I'm 41, and I've had bad knees all my life, which in turn affects my back because I use it to compensate when walking. I live on Advil. Because of that, I don't play heavy guitars any more. And I really don't miss them because I'm into the chambered/hollow thing anyway. Luckily, my hands are doing fine. I notice some fatigue in my left fretting hand after playing really fast or doing alot of pull-offs, etc., but it's not that bad. I pop my knuckles all the time, it seems to loosen them up a bit so I can play easier. No arthritis yet. For pain pills, Advil works the best for me. But recently I tried using Theragesic, it's a rub that comes in a tube. It's like Ben Gay or whatever. It works really well on my back and knees, but you have to deal with the thick, minty atmosphere that goes along with it. Supposedly it keeps working after you wash it off, so maybe it would help on your hands if you put it on for a few minutes, and wash it off before you play.

I have C22's in my most recent build. For convenience, I ordered the "kit40" which has 2 humbuckers, 1 volume, 1 tone, and everything else you need to wire it up, including cavity shielding tape. I'm happy with the tone, and the "bang for the buck". These pickups give a very clear tone for a humbucker, almost has a bell-like single coil sound in there, along with the power and noise cancellation of a humbucker. It's like a HB with more clarity and a touch more brightness. That's what my ears hear, anyway. I also have a Strat with Carvin pickups. HSS configuration. Good tones there also, especially using the bridge and middle combination. As good or better tone than the original Fender pu's, but what I really like is they are less noisy. Overall, they're great for the price. I like them well enough that I'll probably use them again in the future.

I have a Les Paul DC Standard from 1998, and I love it. It's the best guitar I've ever owned. I understand that Gibson discontinued these for awhile, and then started making them again because of demand. I've heard several complaints about the newer ones. I think it's a major quality control issue. I've gone into music stores and played a $700 SG that was great, and right next to it is a $1200 SG that really sucks. And don't even get me started on the plywood $h!t that is Epiphone LP copies. I think in the $300 to $400 price range, Fenders are ten times the quality of the Gibson Epiphones. As for the faded finishes, they're not really my thing either, but that's always been the case with several guitar companies. They seem to follow whatever fad is going on at the time. I hated the hot pink stuff in the 80's, too, but the least they can do is apply it properly so it looks and feels right. Something that really burns me up, and this happened on the above mentioned LP DC, is how a company can build such a great guitar, and put such cheap electronics in it. About a week after I bought it, the pickup switch started getting scratchy, and I had to wiggle it around to get it to make good contact. I replaced it myself for a few bucks, and it's been fine ever since. But the fact that I spent over 1K on a guitar and something as simple as the pickup switch failed in a week, that's really sad. There are still good Gibsons out there, you just have to weed through all the crap to find them... But how many people want to go through the trouble of doing that?

A big Congratulations, Kev!!!

I don't think I've ever seen an oil finish, or any finish for that matter, that looks as nice as those KB's. They are really beautiful IMHO. If I had the time and money, I would like to take his apprenticeship program.

Exactly!! I've had my eye on that site for quite awhile. I love the color on that Joelaine bass! I also like his tailpieces, like on this one. http://www.kbguitars.com/gallery/view.php?gid=5

I would suggest buying recording software and an interface for a pc also. Or find a stand-alone digital machine who's file format will convert easily to something a pc can use. The pc just can't be beat for ease of editing and mixing, not to mention all of the plug-in effects and tools that are available. Back in 96 or so, I bought a Roland VS880. I'm still using that machine, and overall, I really like it. The biggest drawback is its lack of compatibility with a pc. I really, really wish I could convert all of my "virtual" tracks to a pc easily, and use the pc for mixing and editing. As for recording, where one person does all the tracks, I do that all the time as a scratchpad for new songs when I'm writing. Sometimes I just hit the record button and play a progression so I won't forget it. Then later go back and re-record, building from there. But usually, I'll have a song almost finished in my head before sitting down to record. Usually, I start with the drum tracks. My favorite for drums right now is SonicFoundry's ACID. (It's great that a hobbyist like me can get Mick Fleetwood or Siggi Baldursson as a drummer! They both have drum loop cd's for ACID.) I record some drum loops that fit the song, and if I'm not going to sync up to some other sequence, I throw in some time variations and other little tricks to "humanize" the whole thing so it's not too "clock-ish". Next I do some rythmn guitar(s), then bass, then finally lead guitar. Of course, the instrumentation depends on what the song calls for, but that's the general order of things that I usually follow. There are really no set rules for this, whatever floats your boat, but it is easier for me to keep everything synced up when the drums go down first.

Wow, that's awesome! One little worry maybe. Will the bridge cover up that cool spiraling in the bookmatch figuring? I hope not, it looks great! The oil finish should look nice, too. Great work!

No need anymore. I got it from mimf. ← Glad you got it! I don't know what's up with the email. Maybe some spamblocker thing ate it or something...

I had a black iceman back in '78 or '79. It had a GREAT tone, especially for rythmn chunky stuff. I didn't like the way it played though, and traded it away on a strat. I was just a kid and had no idea how to set up a guitar, so it probably could have been adjusted to play better. Sure wish I had it back!! I had several of those curly chords with the L-plug, too. Black ones, blue ones, and red ones. Brings back old memories. To me, the body shape has that explorer thing going on, with a few curves, hooks, and changes to jazz it up a bit. I've always liked them.

Awesome top! That's going to look really nice. I'm curious how the douglas fir will sound. I've read somewhere in this forum about necks made from it. I was in Lowe's the other day doing some tapping on some DF, and every piece had a loud and long ring. Cool. Hope all is well, don't let the bad news get you down.

I put a mighty mite strat neck on a tele body, and I was disappointed. It seemed very small in diameter for my hands. I fought the intonation constantly, and ended up raising the strings way up high off the fretboard and using the guitar for slide. Eventually, I bought a Carvin bolt on neck as a replacement. It instantly brought the tele guitar to life. I lowered the strings back down to normal, and now it's one of my favorite guitars. No more intonation problems, better tone, better feel. That's what got me so high on Carvin. That was my only experience with might mite. Maybe I just got a bad one. But it seems to me you get what you pay for.