ooten2

1. B, C

2. 5,4,3,4

3. Hmm... more models AND more brands. I like VARIETY!!!

4. 0%

5. C Did I mention I like VARIETY? lol Where are the octave mandolins and bouzouki's??!??

6. Likes: Variety of brands, variety of models, promotion of local talent, has alot of used gear

Dislikes: Sometimes the salesmen are pushy, sometimes the guitar necks are grungy. I think customers should be forced to wash hands before picking up anything!! lol

7. See Dislikes above. Cheaply built guitars being sold for good $$. Also, people blasting guitars really loud for long periods of time, especially if they're out of tune. Trying to hear the guitar you're playing over the top of the music being pumped out of the store's speakers.

8. I prefer a shop, because every guitar is different, and I like to know what I'm buying. However, I've been VERY close to buying a Carvin SO MANY TIMES!!! I have bought a replacement neck from Carvin, and it was flat-out excellent. Bang for the buck factor is through the roof. I doubt I would ever buy a Gibson, Fender, whatever from an online store when I could get one at the shop down the street. Not unless the price was like 50% lower online or something.

Curtis,

I'm more of a player than a builder, but I'd be glad to put my 2 cents in.

I have a Les Paul DC Standard with a serial number saying it was made in February of 1998. I bought it in early 1999, and it's been my main guitar ever since. I LOVE this guitar, it's the best one I've ever had as far as playability and tone.

I'm no expert on building, and others in this forum are certainly way more qualified than me to be helping with this, but it seems to me that the answers to your questions are a matter of taste, depending on the setup. These measurements change during setup, when you're adjusting the truss rod for neck relief, etc. The strings can be raised and lowered to taste to fit your playing style, as long as the notes don't buzz out, and the intonation is correct. With that being said, I took some measurements on my LP DC to give you a ballpark figure to work with on your drawing.

1. The string height between fretboard and string is slightly different for each string, and different depending what part of the fretboard you're measuring (closer to the nut, or closer to the bridge). Especially if your talking thousandths of an inch. To make this easy, I measured the lowest-pitch E string, on the fretboard between the 6th and 7th fret, at a height of just less than 3/32. This measurement was from the top of the fretboard to the bottom of the string, and I'm using a small metal straight edge ruler, with 1/32 as it's smallest increment. To do it correctly to thousandths, feeler guages should probably be used, but this ruler is all I have right now. I would say 3/32 is good enough on your drawing, afterall, if you drink alot of coffee like me, you could NEVER draw a line that would be that accurate anyway! lol Wait...oh yeah, you're using CAD... guess I'm from the old school when it comes to drawing!

2. The distance between my guitar top and the string at the bridge, using the same string as above, is more like 5/8". When I say bridge, I mean where the string crosses the saddle. Also, my guitar is a carved top. The body carving directly under the bridge seems to follow the radius of the saddles.

I hope this helps. As I said earlier, I'm no expert on building, and I hope I understood your questions correctly. I do have one of these incredible guitars and at least can take some measurements of it. This should help get you close, anyway.

Best of luck!

Lance

"Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions"

←

Those were such great books! Especially if you're like me, I can't think of the snappy comeback until at least 5 minutes after I needed it!

←

So true. When the opportunity is gone, I can think of several comebacks. But never when I need them.

Q. Mind if I smoke?

A. Why, are you on fire?

Curtis,

Thanks for the info on Houston Hardwoods. I'll have to check them out some time. I don't have a planer, and man would that make life easier if I had some straight edges to work with!

Sickness? lol It is kinda like a sickness...

Good luck on your guitar!

Lance

All this reminds me of when I was a kid, and MAD magazine put out a book called "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions". It was loaded with situations just like these, and it gave hilarious answers to these idiotic questions. If anyone remembers that book, you know what I mean. If you stumble across an old copy, take minute to read some of them. Guaranteed to make your ribs hurt from laughing.

Curtis,

I live in the Houston area also, Humble/Kingwood to be more specific. The hardwood supplier you mention, is it Houston Hardwoods? I've seen the website, but never visited the store. Who is the supplier you mentioned?

Another wood supplier that I haven't seen mentioned on this thread is here: http://yumahardwoods.homestead.com/musical.html

They have some nice looking burls, and a decent selection of body blanks, but I haven't ordered anything from them.

I've emailed Gallery Hardwoods and received very quick responses from Larry, but every time I call them to place an order, the phone is busy!!!

If you like poplar that is warped and twisted, you could always go to Lowe's or Home Depot!! lol Ok, Ok, I actually bought a decent poplar board at Lowe's that was reasonably flat, and even had a nice tap tone, and used it for a body. It was one of my first experimental builds, and it turned out ok.

Wow!! That web looks REAL! It's all fuzzy and sticky-looking... Incredible job!!

I built a blanket chest for a customer a long time ago using Camphor. Still holding up after one false start.

You may want to use plastic resin glue. Borden's makes it. It's a two part. One dark purple liquid and a tan powder. Also clean the jointing surfaces with alcohol or acetone before you glue. The oil in camphor can cause glue line failure, like teak. Learned that the hard way.

If you get any splinters in you dig 'em out right then. This goes for most of the tropical exotics. Camphor splinters get nasty really fast.

←

Thanks for all of the input. I've been brainstorming on this, and I'm thinking about using a neck-through construction, with a neck extension wide enough to accomodate the entire bridge and pup area, so the screws will sink into the neck wood (probably maple). I could use the camphor burl "driftwood!" for the body wings. I don't like the idea of splitting up the top, though, and the stainless or aluminum screws would allow for a solid top.

I'm also considering a control housing built from maple that would sink down into a cavity routered in the camphor. That way, no pots, switches, or shielding would contact the camphor. Hmm.. Still brainstorming.

Thanks for the glueing tips. I would have learned the hard way if you hadn't mentioned this.

Thanks for the safety tips, too. I think I'll get an environmental suit for this job!

I've searched and found a couple of posts about camphor burl wood being used as a top, usually on a bass. After researching, I've found that it is corrosive to ferrous metals (metals containing iron), that it has a minty, cinammon, vick's vapo-rub aroma (or stink, depending on your opinion!), and it's either incredibly beautiful, or nasty-ugly like human lung tissue. lol I've never worked with this wood before so I'm unfamiliar with it.

I recently picked up a couple of bookmatched sets of camphor burl that are about right for making guitar tops, one about 3/4" thick, and the other about 1/2" thick. I would LOVE to see these on a guitar or bass, but I'm concerned about the corrosion thing.

Also, the texture of this wood is rather sticky, and I'm debating about what kind of finish to use on this stuff.

Has anyone here built a top from camphor? If so, have you had a corrosion problem? How did you get around the corrosion problem? What kind of finish did you use and how did it turn out?

Thanks for any info on this!!

I refinished an old beat-up pawn shop framus (strat-looking body) with Coors beer labels several years back. I was in high school, and had no clue what I was doing, but it turned out very nice.

After stripping off the old nasty finish and sanding smooth, I painted the whole body white as an undercoat (probably enamel, but I don't remember). After the white paint dried, I glued the beer bottle labels all over the body in a random pattern, basically however the shape of the label would fit on the contours of the body. I used Elmer's glue, as that was the handiest thing at the time, and it came with full recommendations from my elementary school teachers, who did decoupage (spelling??) all the time in art class! After drying, I finished it with a few coats of polyurethane, applied with a brush. (I had no spray equipment). I had no problems with running ink, or bleeding, or anything of that nature. The polyurethane did add an amberish color, but I didn't notice since the Coors beer labels were kind of an amber color anyway.

I topped it off with a white pickguard, which contrasted nicely to the amber color of the labels, and glued Coors beer bottle caps over the control knobs. The only problem I had with the guitar was that the bottle caps wouldn't stay on the control knobs. Needed screws or something.

Incidentally, if anyone wants to try something like this and has trouble getting beer bottle labels, just put your beer in an ice chest with ice. Let the ice melt into water and soak the bottles for awhile. Pull out the beer, peel off the labes while they are still damp (the labels should now peel off easily without tearing), and then drink the beer.