Mr Alex

correct, its the most half-assed deep set tenon around(not even set).

I'm a big fan of the 23.6" scale. as i remember its 25" capoed at first fret.

Ed Roman does. And in theory he is 100% correct! not sure about in practise though. so I just follow along as a way of reducing the likelyhood of sounding like my strat or a les paul. he recons that the pickups on harmonic nodes mute the harmonics or somat like that. I studied it in physics(TRUE) but I left school before I understood why.

I've fried a pot before! It was a cheapy from a local electronics store, and I used my dads 100 watt iron. no matter what I did the wire wouldn't stick(turned out they had a coating on the back which must be filed off or burned through). And when I say I fried the pot, i mean that the resistive track melted and messed up the taper(sudden increases). So if you want to, sand or file the back of the pot to rough up the surface then try.

OMG!!! this dudes old skool like me!!!!!!!!! I'm building my guitar with only 3 powertools, cordless drill, 1/3 sheet detail sander(had 30 mins of use since i bought it 2 years ago), and a jigsaw, the rest I leave in the draw, in favour of chisels. I haven't tried it but I've watched carpenters(the real thing, not builders) chisels rabbets in no time, just get a few good chisels and a steady hand. And you certainly feel more proud of work done with chisels!

I've found that with audio software, take the minimum specifications and times by 1.5 at least.

I agree, it is unnecessary. But if you work out of a shed or garage, you aint gonna have no climate control. So its perfect then, dries quite quick hot or cold, really strong, and fills gaps too! Only beef is that it stains your skin a wierd brown/black colour, and I've never been one for gloves, so you can imagine what my hands look like after Im done gluing!

this may help with the strings: when removing the neck, place velcro at the 3rd fret or so, just after the bridge and the 12th fret, this will keep the strings spaced, and untangled. then just slacken them off and fold the neck away. thats a very handy trick I found on frank ford's site.

I began doing a semi solid with it, wasn't to hard to work with(ton of dust, put me out of school for a week with asthma though), but I stopped when I remembered that glue doesn't transfer tone well, so I put it in the bottom draw. It had an interesting tap tone though, quite bright and bell like(school bell not church bell). I finish my current one in a week or so, depending on what Im doing I may get it in playing condition if i have time and get some soud files, but it would be a month or so till then at the earliest.

first, regular kauri is a bit bland really, out of the swamps it is absolutely fanstastic and the grain is amazing! I've got heaps of Fijian kauri that im not allowed to touch cos its glued to a a waterbed(not in use for years though) and it looks like pine! or plain maple! second, orgmorg: the exchange rate is so unbalanced that our government has considered printing zillions more bills than necessary to bring our rate down(totally impractical and wont work though). many of our exporters really feel it when they lose work because americans wont pay the high rates, so good on you for supporting our businesses! and also, how do you get marmite in the states, I know americans who have tried to import it through friends and got caught by customs. p.s. the exchange rate has only become unbalanced because your nutty president keeps going to war, it was fine till then. and because of it, I can get guitar parts insanely cheap from the US. THANKS GEORGE!!!!!!!

not 100% sure but i think this is the place, its certainly on the right road and in kaitaia.: Ancient Kauri Kingdom 229 State Highway 1 Awanui Kaitaia 64-9-406-7172 if not the right place for supplies, they could help you I'm sure.

if your in the states then may be a little out of your budget(its in new zealand dollars which at the moment aint in your favour, and it would cost heaps to ship) but i thought it may be of interest(price wise).local auction site the site also has a lot of stumps considerably cheaper(but no customs would allow those too easily)

In Kaitaia(northern new zealand) there is a place that sells carved swamp kauri(they have a stump out the front that is taller than the double decker tour buses that go there!) I believe that they sell slabs to carvers too, so you could source some that way. It is literally pulled out of the ground by a digger of crane so the pieces are HUGE! When Ive got some time Ill look around the net for some info if I can find some. Its best to get it from a dealer of some kind because they get it carbon dated for authenticity, ive heard of guys selling 20,000 year old stuff as 45,000 years old, BIG price difference.

his name is joh lang(see marksound's post). a friend of mines getting one in a few weeks. the pickups are probably the best in the world.

i have book with a pic of a bigsby travis guitar from like early fender days. it says it uses a method well before its time, neck through. so they were probably first.

finally, somebody who just like to make music!

more what I meant to say is that I would use a zero fret, but they dont compensate intonation. I also wouldn't bother with a compensated nut as I feel that they are just another gimmick for the anally retentive who must be perfectly intonated beyond human recogniton all the time. if a chord is slightly out of tune in the open position and not at the 5th fret, then play it at the fifth fret, and vice versa.

probably the wrong place for this, but zero frets usually sound amazing with classical guitars.

have a look at Ash custom works and in the muso section, he has a list on his site of the woods for guitars, and a lot of info on nz timbers. as my memory serves, matai is good for guitars. but in my limited experience, it helps to match density timbers with necks and bodies for best results. dont put ebony on a soft neck etc.. it just ruins the tone of the guitar with mismatched woods.

zero frets dont compensate intonation! and corrective nuts are a waste of time and money, unless you have perfect pitch, or are **** retentive, then GO AHEAD!

seriously, make a nut out of the same wood as fretboard, and use a zero fret, the nut just retains the spacing, and it will look good with nut made out of fretboard wood. there are endless pros and cons with zerofrets and nuts, most are false assumptions from people that never tried a zero fret. ive got one on an acoustic, and you only get fret buzz if your too stupid to adjust the bridge right, and you dont need to worry about string height at nut(just make sure all the string slots are deep enough though.

as far as tone goes its hard to tell because Ive never seen one made with those materials, but i believe it was richenbacher made bakelite bars to go with their bakelite steels, and the bakelite steels are some of the best sounding around, so I would think be the tonebar would too. p.s. i have seen bakelite bars on ebay before. not cheap but they are there.

definately was macrocarpa, it wasn't to hard, cos I got the knots with a sanding disk. and fiberous ain't a problem if you work with the grain closely. it just takes longer. and the rimu neck was good, looks and tap tone. but theres a bit chipped outta the head stock(easily repairable) and a big crack cos the trussrod channel is slightly too deep. So I'll start again with some more rimu, although I want to try kiln dried, quartersawn pine(following with the softer woods theme), which I've got some of, its not the stiffest of woods(nothing a little carbon fiber wont fix ). but its got an awesome grain, nice and dark lines.

it would be better if auto switch worked without the spring.