guitar_player

Well I got distracted with this one here's pics: Back from finishing hopefully I'll have it together in a few days maybe tomorrow.

This is great and your especially for being only 14. I did my first build when I was 12 and am now 16, I wish I was building guitars this nice when I was 14.

I have a pdf email me at guitarfrazier@ne.rr.com

It's nice if you get a router with 2 bases that way the fixed base can stay in the table and the plunge base can be used for hand routing, that's what I do and it makes it very fast to switch over. I have the hitachi router set and it's great, the variable speed feature is really useful.

I have ss frets on 2 builds before, it's not too bad. It kind of ruined my fret cutters and it's harder to file flush but with a good file it's not a problem with a good file. Dressing and leveling is the same just takes a little longer. I bought mine from warmoth but it's $25 but you can get 2 guitars out of the amount they give you for one. I'd say go for it it would be worth the little extra work you put into it.

Yeah just use the bandsaw for the body. If you still have a choice I would strongly suggest not buying a router table if it's one of those benchtop ones. You can easily make one out of a piece of plywood or build one into a workbench a piece of scrap wood is just as good for a fence. This way you have a lot more support for the project your working on and it's just nicer to use. I have used the benchtop ones and can't stand them especially when one can be made for so cheap. You want a lot of clamps a couple bar clamps are great c-clamps can be very useful and 3 or 4 pipe clamps for clamping up bodies you could also use big bar clamps for that. When you glue on a top you just need tons of clamps and then a heavy weight in the middle. C-clamps would be fine if you have enough you can also make some out of some scrap wood bolts and wing nuts if you don't have enough.

A poplar body and a plain maple neck shouldn't cost you much and they are great as tonewoods anyways so if it turns out good you'll have a good body and neck.

I am expecting an order from warmoth that has some a set of the nut files they look identical to the ibanez one's from lmi. I add another post when I get them although I don't have anything to compare them to since it's my first set of nut files.

I had similar problems when I used to hammer them in now I press them in with a homemade fret press using one of stewart mcdonalds fret pressing cauls. If you have a drill press that is the best and easiest way to go you should be able to make one easily for just the cost of the fret press caul and an old spade bit.

*I have never had problems wit adding tops and have never hear of any. *The wood has an effect I think it's pretty big some people say it's not so much. The thickness of the laminated top would effect the tone say if you were using mahogany (a darker sounding wood) for the back and maple (a bright sounding wood for the top) If the bod stayed 1 3/4" and the top was 1/4" it would sound a little bit brighter and have more edge if it was 1/2" it would be even brighter. Out of the woods you mentioned mahogany is the most common and probably the best choice maple will make a very bright sounding guitar and it's heavy. Mahogany with a maple top is a great combo. *If your using a 1/4" thick top that would be pretty much impossible, I have seen it done with veneers a lot but never anything else. *There is no bracing on the semi hollows since the top is made thick enough to not need any more support. This website is great and ultimate guitar has a few builders that do great work on it and post what they do. For books these 2 are very good http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Own-Electr...8203&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Own-Electr...8203&sr=8-1 Good luck, building a body for a bolt on neck shouldn't be too hard for someone with good woodworking skills.

I'd just wire it 1 for each pickup on-off if possible on-off coil tap.

ready for finishing; It's going to weigh about half as much as Jerry's it's really surprising how light it is.

I don't completely understand it but it seems like you could just steam of the veneer and put a new one on butting up against the nut.

This looks like it will be my main guitar...or at least my best looking and most comfortable one. I routed the pickup cavities today, got the neck almost all the way carved, fretted the fingerboard and put the side dots in, and glued the fingerboard on. Stainless steel frets are hard to work with but it'll be great when it's done. Marking out pickup routs: Fingerboard glued on:

Yeah, this isn't really a hippy sandwich but I hope to do a tiger like that sometime. I used a couple biscuits on each wing to keep it all in line.

I got the headstock shaped, drilled, and i got it glued up today. Should be ready for finishing in a few days.

They can be made out of hardwood too and work fine, I'm building a go bar deck later today or tomorrow with maple go bars probably. Irving Sloane uses big rubber bands and his mold to glue the top and back. There just different ways of doing things that might be a little easier. I've been studying everything I can find on building acoustic guitars before I start my build in a week or two and there's a lot of different method of doing everything. I can't wait to see this when it's finished, I want to build a 12 string acoustic after my first.

This is looking great. Have you considered go bar clamping systems, they are free or cheap just takes some scrap wood to make one and would probably make gluing the bracing on easier. For gluing the top and the back on the best way I have seen is Irving Sloane's mold. It has L hooks around the edges of the body on a piece of plywood and the body is built in it and for gluing the top and back on you use rubber bands going over the L hooks.

Yeah craigslist is a good idea there's a rigid that just got posted for $150 on mine.

I'm using a hardtail strat type bridge. It's one of my favorite bridges. I'm not doing any inlays, I'll probably do a tiger type build later on that's a lot more like Jerry's.

I've got a program called wfret it prints out tmplates with lines for each fret, I'm not sure how accurate it is I haven't measured it yet but if anyone's interested I could probably email it, it came free with some plans or something.

Yeah the only thing different is that the end is ground so it cuts flush, a few minutes with a grinding wheel or a little bit with a file should fix it. The stewmac one may be made of a little harder metal. Stainless steel frets dinged up my regular end snips a litte bit.

I'm not sure how I'm going to do it yet, I have tried steaming in a steam box and it seems to work pretty good I'm going to test that a couple more times with some scrap wood. If not that I'm going to make a fox style bender with light bulbs instead of the blanket

Just pre-ordered a copy this morning should help with my acoustic build.

I decided against the arm contour no one liked the idea. It would either change the look a lot and look good or ruin it.