chops1983

Top notch Jaden. Do you do the TT fretwork yourself?

It does suck Hoog's. I just finished a guitar that took me six attempts to get the top right. Five sandbacks! I spent to much time and put to much love in other areas. I owed it to the guitar not to settle for a crap finish. Time is the key i think that got me back on track, the weather was bad for 2 weeks and it gave me that buzz to get the job done properly.

Stick to your guns and produce another beautiful instrument mate.

I have just done this mod on my latest for the bridge position. It sounds great and is hum cancelling. In the neck H/B i did a standard coil cut.

If its an oil based dye you could try mineral turps in a corner to test. I cant see mineral turpentine doing any damage to the fretboard but may damage your finish, if you try just be real careful. Then lemon oil that fretboard again as it will probably dry it out. Hope this helps.

Looks great! Just be careful laying it on that towel... i did that on the first body i refinished and it left towel indentations over the whole back of the guitar. Not cool.

If the actions really low, i would lift it a whisker... but as Wez has said, a bit of buzz isn't a problem if its rectified with amplification. I try to keep things buzz free, about 2.5mm at the 22nd fret last time i setup my main geet.

Turn ya guitar up Muzz! Sounds great mate, looks like a ripper to play. Me rike a rot!

Had a good day in the shed today. Got the frets dressed and shiny as all hell, i used a dremel with a mini buffing wheel and some metal polish and it blew me away how shiny they have come up. I usually just use elbow grease with the metal polish but this is a million times quicker,easier and better. I also got the body buffed out and started assembling a little bit of the hardware. Just need to give the neck a couple more coats of tung oil to finish the finishing.

Some pics from the iphone

Here's a question. I had some of the clear chip out on the upper horn right near the strap pin, can you drop fill 2k poly? I understand it won't blend into previous coats but it should fill the chip, then i can level and buff it back. Thoughts?

I should finally have this thing wrapped up in the next couple of days.

Lets keep this train on the rails!

Mr potato head? Should i take that as a compliment

Nice Muzz! It looks really good mate, Lovin it! For a bit of contrast, black knobs and pickups would look very cool with the pearl pickguard aswell, it would pick up the grain in that ash.

Why does the thread have to stop just keep posting and make it bigger than the sustainer thread.

This is what you need Erik PM him and im sure he will answer your q's.

Although i am assuming since your looking to buy a fingerboard that you will be building your own neck? Therefore you should be able to hammer some frets in and do some simple dot inlays etc.

Quattro, it has all got to do with the design of the guitar. How do you want it to look,sound, play etc. There is no bonus of one over the other, some people like a set neck because generally you get better fret access and the guitar generally has better sustain, others prefer the percussive attack of a bolt-on joint. Leo made a bolt-on style joint on fenders so it could be replaced if the neck got damaged.

The point im making is, look at your design of the guitar your building and work out what fits best. If you glue a bolt-on style in and shape the joint for better fret access what will it do to the strength of the joint? It still has to support the pressure of string pull... Or, should you change the design of the neck joint so when you glue it and shape it, it will have the required strength.

Doug pretty much summed it up in the last line of his post.

If you give us some insight in your design we may be able to guide you in the right direction.

Chad

I can assure you that the screw types exert a s**tload more pressure than those irwin quickgrips. I use both types everyday on the worksite and only go for the quickgrips when i need to hold a workpiece for cutting,drilling or whatever. You can get heavier duty quickgrips which are alot better but no where near as good as a screw type. An example, i held one end up of a 200kg plus structural ridge beam to a single prop with the screw type so i can adjust the height, then i shoot a cleat to the prop to help the clamp.

My advice for any type of gluing is to use screw types first and then if you want heaps and heaps of clamps add the quickgrips to help. You are better off using screw clamps and cauls to distribute the clamping pressure evenly. Actually there was a really good link to some woodworking articles on here not that long ago, im sure the poster will read this and direct you to it.

Chad.

I agree. You want to stay away from epoxy. It is a pain to work with if you ever have to remove the neck. I also agree with what Chops said about the tenon length. It does not have to be very long to get a good solid neck joint. The main thing that you have to look for is a tight fitting neck pocket. If the neck pocket is tight, your glue will be just as strong as the bolts.

Look at some of the companies that have set neck guitars like PRS. Most PRS guitars' tenons are barely longer than the Fender tenon. I would say that you are in good shape as long as your neck pocket is tight. Let us know how it goes.

PRS joints probably aren't any longer like you say( i don't have a PRS on hand so i can't be sure), but they have the extra depth up the side of the tenon which would add a fair bit more gluing surface, therefore more strength in the joint. But, IMO a nice tight fitting fender joint with the neck glued in would be much stronger than a screwed neck.

Im still a bit confused. Is the string touching the frets? Or does it have a massive action issue?

I would say Titebond, if there is ever a need to remove the neck you will have half a chance. If you use epoxy you will not remove it. Gluing a fender style heel in will work fine as long as your pocket is a tight fit to begin with. In other words press that neck in and you should be able to support the weight of the body unglued.

Nice looking build Moon. What timber did you use for the highlighting laminations on the body? Nice looking neck heel aswell, looks quite comfortable.

Chad.

I'm in the same boat as you Drak. I always wear a respirator when mixing anything with thinners and spraying but rarely wear it for all the woodworking. I find them annoying and they fog up my safety glasses, but i will take your lead and start to wear one.

Its nice to see some of your work again, put up some pics already

Thanks guys, the finishing process has tested me on this guitar, this is the sixth attempt to get to where i'm happy. Not all were sandthrough though, some i was just plain not happy with the burst, but im glad i persevered. I've had plenty of bursting practice and refined my steps in finishing. I've learnt a lot which im grateful for.

Any bites on those 2k questions? Drak, Kill, anyone...???

Nice vids K, man that guitar looks huge! I think its the headstock. Goodjob.

I'd go plain black also, looks better IMO. I like your shirt... "Back to the future" series is up there with my favourite movies of all time Nice build aswell, wish i played guitar in highschool.

Well sixth times the charm Ive got the guitar to how i want it. The burst is a little more subtle than the first attempt, but it is technically how i envisioned it.

Im up to 6 passes on the front in 2 different spraying sessions now and its going good. Im interested though, is a "coat" classed as one pass or a double pass? I know with nitro i do 2 full double pass coats a session and level sand after 4 session's. The last 2 coats are sprayed in a final session. This according to the Stew mac finishing book is classed as 10 coats in 5 sessions.

So with 6 single passes of 2k, is that classed as 6 coats or 3? I'm just curious as i really don't feel like another rub through if i level sand now and i've read that 6 coats is all you need with 2k. Some advice from the peeps that use 2k would be nice, should i scuff sand again and spray another 3 pass session before i level and do the final pass?

A couple of shots of the second session curing

Thanks for looking

I'm pretty safety-conscious though (i.e. paranoid), and think through every operation.

Good way to be!

Ohh injuries! John i have done the exact same thing with a brand new chisel on site, went straight up the middle of my fingernail on my right hand index finger! From the tip, through the nail and out the side about 20mm up my finger. For four years the nail grew deformed but now grows normal but i still have a faint indent scar above the nail. I have seen a guy break his wrist drilling through a steel I beam with a handdrill, it grab and had to much torque and crack!

In highschool woodwork, two mates were being silly and one was holding a stanley knife and some how manage to slash a 6 inch cut up the inside of his mates arm, it was a deep cut and he was real lucky it didn't get any major veins/arteries. It was gruesome as all hell, spread wide open!

Sounds like we have all encountered most of the same mistakes. Some of mine include router tearout, sand throughs when finishing and on one guitar i routed the 1/4 inch roundover on the back edge of the guitar after i drilled my jack socket so the bearing went in the hole routing a perfect indent

Not in the guitar workshop, but on site just 2 days ago, i cut a big long laminated beam 100mm short. I felt so sick in the stomach, told my boss and he was pretty cool, he told me he cut a whole roof out 100mm short once after marking the pattern rafter wrong. Made me feel a bit better but you just feel plain stupid. Anyway as long as you learn from your mistakes and try not to do them again its how we learn.