NotYou

I lol'd hard. That needs to be McCain's new slogan.

You should consider a compound radius. You could have the fretboard arch near the top have it decrease until it's flat around the 9th fret, or so. It would make playing a lot easier in general. A completely flat radius will make it more difficult to play chords. Even if you don't plan on playing many chords, it might not be good idea to have a setup that will hinder your playing in any way; that's just backwards. A very low radius might do you a little better. There's no harm in trying a flat one though(except maybe in your wallet, if you end up not liking it).

Unfinished wood isn't a danger unless you're allergic or hypersensitive, which is very unlikely. If you were, you'd know right away, I'm sure. Most fingerboards are unfinished and pose no danger at all. The dust is what causes problems. Cocobolo dust can cause rashes and all kinds of problems, but just touching the wood won't do any harm. Ebony, which is used a lot for fingerboards, won't do much damage unless you breath in the dust. I usually come home with black fingers from ebony dust and I've never had a problem from it. Breathing it in can be dangerous and sometimes a little painful, though.

That's so obvious, Im ashamed for not thinking of it. I've been doing it in a similar fashion, but using a workbench. The Workmate idea looks like it'll work much easier. This is why I started this thread.

I like a laminate trimmer because of the lower power. Depending on the kind of wood, it sometimes makes things easier. I try to not make too much noise in my shop too, so a router is always a last resort. I can't afford a router table at the moment, so I've found I can get a straight line by clamping boards behind the guide and in front of the trimmer, so it can't move in either direction. It's not pretty, but it works perfectly.

I've heard of luthiers cutting out truss rod channels a million different ways. I was wondering what methods you guy use. Right now I'm using a laminate trimmer. It works okay, but it's tough to get it to move in a perfectly straight line, even with a guide. This is an important and sometimes tricky part of making necks and I'm real curious about how different people do it. Keep in mind that we all don't have proper tools.

Don't underestimate sanding blocks. Once I have the shape generally cut out I flatten for glueing with a sanding block. I usually cut a strip of 80 grit to about 1 inch wide and stick it in the middle of the block. That way the edges of the wood don't round and you end up with a totally flat surface. It works on the sides pretty well too. If sanding won't quite work some reason (it'll happen), I use a plane for a little bit.

Filling the gap would look horrible. I realize the humidity will go down again and probably very soon. That's why I'm waiting before I settle with it. I'd be surprised if it doesn't open up again. I like the way that ebony piece looks on it too. I'll probably add it no matter what. It'll match the fretboard and binding perfectly. Fixing the crack was more of an experiment than anything.

It seems to have worked. I'm waiting a bit to see how it holds up though. http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/7362/img0034mx3.jpg http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/7909/img0036hk0.jpg This the piece I made that I'm thinking of implanting: http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/6545/img0033jx5.jpg

It's not a bad idea and it can definitely be done with a kill switch. It'd actually be a lot easier to do than normal wiring. If you want a little more versatility, just in case, you can have the tone and/or volume knobs and a kill switch, but have a another switch that can lock the volume and tone. That would take someone who really knows their wiring, but it's possible. The easiest way would be just having the kill switch. That seems to be what you want anyhow. It's definitely been done before, though it's usually a custom job.

I finally got back into the shop today. It's warmed up here in Denver, which means the humidity is a touch higher and the heat's off, which means it's not nearly as dry. The sides of the crack are closer than they were when I took the picture, so just fixing the crack might just work now. I glued it and all that and I'll see tomorrow how it went. If it still looks like a crack, I'll go ahead with my other plan. I already have the pieces glued and clamped (it'll be striped: B&W ebony, ebony, B&W ebony). They'll just need cut and sanded down to thickness. @ akvguitars There should be something like that here. I would love to meet with other luthiers. Most of us work alone, so we don't get to talk shop much. I found a webpage a while back that lists all the luthiers in Colorado. At least the ones that registered there. http://www.coloradoluthiers.org/ I haven't put myself on there or looked at it much yet. I've only lived here since this summer.

Haha...sounds like you are the excited one...I have been here too long to get excited by every new wannabe,Mr. Iknoweverythingexceptthelingoofbuildingguitars. I erased that part right when you quoted it I think. I don't want to argue with a completely stranger on the internet. We both interpreted the OP differently. Leave it at that. I came hear to talk about guitars, not argue with some kid on his computer. This "wannabe" has to go to his shop now to build guitars.

Yes, that is a set neck. The original poster wasn't very clear on what he meant. I thought I cleared that up in my last post. We weren't talking about the same thing. I was referring to a one or two piece body.

Actually,the point of my post was the weight of bubinga...one piece bubinga body with a set flame maple/walnut/flame maple/walnut/flame maple neck... Ummm Gibson?(solid mahogany explorers with set necks.) No,It will not look odd...especially if your joins are good. There ARE no one piece guitars manufactured for you to buy...where are you seeing these guitars you are using as examples? http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/8748/picture4du0.png Two piece body, all mahogany, and the binding doesn't go all the way around. Probably the only time I've seen it done that looks decent. I wasn't talking about the neck. There are tons of guitars that use the same wood for the neck and body. I've done it before and Gibson has been doing it for years. I'm starting think what you guys mean by "one piece" is the neck and body all one piece. In that case, it's been done, but, besides novelty, there's no reason for it, unless you're so **** you want the neck grain to perfectly match the body grain. It'll cost you a lot too.

I'd still like to see someone justify the cool factor of making a guitar out of one piece of wood...maple or otherwise...that seems to be the crux of the topic. If it's not painted it'll looked nicer sometimes. If you want only one kind of wood, no binding, and no paint, you need to have one piece or it'll look odd. I've seen seen one before with no binding that looked nice, but it's uncommon.

I haven't read all the posts, so this might have been covered. Ebony can be pretty vicious on your lungs. I work with it a lot and, if I don't wear a mask, I'l be hacking stuff up for a couple days afterwards. Black and white ebony is the worst I've come across so far. It'll make your nostrils feel like they're on fire. There's been times I've worked with it and didn't wear a mask the whole time. I'l be useless when I come home. It'll make your chest feel strange (from your windpipe) and your breathing a little wheezy. I've heard of guys in Africa who cut it up for a living getting lung disease and constant chest pain. Seems like it's more dangerous than smoking. I've learned to just wear a mask no matter what kind of wood I'm using, especially if I'm sanding.

Seriously, just shop around. I've made a one piece from African mahogany before and I've definitely seen maple that big. Ebay, believe it or not, often has large pieces like that. Try looking up hardwood stores in your area. Here in Denver there's a place that sell huge pieces of maple, mahogany, wenge, and about any tonewood you want.

I agree with both of you guys. That middle part was thinner than the rest of the wood. I actually made it arch into that piece to make it stronger, which seemed to work. I didn't take into consideration that, if it shrinks, that's going to be a significantly weaker spot and crack, which it did. I plan supporting the piece I'm adding from underneath to help me glue and clamp it properly. The piece I'm adding will be slightly larger on top, just in case, then I'll sand and plane it down.

http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/options/options_bodywoods.cfm That site should explain about everything. It's definitely on the bright side. It's not glassy or anything, but it won't sound warm like a Les Paul style. Maple isn't that hard to find that big. Just look around. When it's used for guitar tops it's usually book-matched, but you can find it large enough for one piece bodies. I personally don't like how it looks. It's so shiny sometimes it doesn't look like wood.

Truss rods don't really keep necks from bending, they just fix bent necks. I'm not an expert on truss rods, but I think it should be okay as long as it's straight and everything towards the head it set up properly. BTW, Geo, I'm from Akron too. Actually, Barberton, but nobody who's not from that area knows where that is. I'm in Denver Now. How old are you. Akron isn't all that big anymore, there's a good chance I've at least come across you before.

I agree about glue making things stronger. I actually just said that exact same thing on another thread a couple hours ago. I also agree that wood should look natural, that's why I love this piece so much. If you look at the pictures you can huge separations in the grain, which I think is gorgeous. I think you guys convinced me to at least try filling the crack. If it doesn't work, I'll continue with my plan of using the ebony. No loss there. I don't think it will work on this particular crack though. It wasn't hit by something and cracked or anything like that. It cracked from drying, which means the sides of the crack pulled away from each other. The gap is a little too large to fix convincingly. I've filled cracks before, but I think this one is just too wide. I'll try it though. I agree with Hector that luthiers have to be extremely clever and work with their problems. That's why I'm not tossing this out. And, yeah, my standards are very high, but I'm proud of that. I went to a brutal art school for five years. After that I'm very particular about what I put my name on. Whatever happens, I'll post pictures. BTW, I'm glad I signed up on this forum. Everyone is very honest about their responses. I think that's a great thing.

Don't worry about it snapping. Wood glue is generally stronger than wood. There's a reason why set neck don't just pop off and acoustic bridges don't come undone. Those bridges have hundreds of pounds of pressure pulling on them too. Glue will usually make anything wood related stronger.

It's funny you say that. I just moved here too and I'm originally from the Northeast (Ohio, but most recently NYC) I actually did shellac the cavities. If you look real close you can see it shimmering a little in my crappy pictures. My shop is heated all the time, which makes the temperature steady, but it also dries the air significantly, as I now see. This mistake is getting fixed, no doubt, but I'm not just filling in the crack like everyone seems to think I should. I'd be pretty pissed if I bought a guitar and later found a repaired crack right up the middle. Technically, I'm not inlaying either. I'm completely removing a section of that piece, a little more than half an inch, and I'm inserting a new ebony piece. I already have a whole "emergency surgery" planned. This way, it won't look like a fixed mistake. There will be no crack to maybe see and no evidence at all of anything gone wrong. This isn't covering up a mistake, I'm trying to %100 fix it. As soon as it's all glued in and sanded I'll post pictures to show how it went.

I'm definitely not repairing the crack. I wouldn't feel right selling it with a flaw like that. Before it happened I was debating putting an inlay there. Adding ebony and glueing it should strengthen it more too. I'll post pictures when it's all done. I think it's going to look great.

????? is it a solid body? you want the piece between the pickups to resonate better? sorry, but I don`t understand. about the fix: you don´t have to inlay anything in there. just glue some other wood underneath it, and fill the gap with glue+wood dust, I think it will be invisible, look like a grain line. and nobody will be able to tell that it was repaired. It's a chambered body. It's almost completely hollow, though. Jatoba is a heavy wood, so I wanted to drop as much weight as I could. It still weighs as much or more than a Les Paul body. Making that part thinner made it MUCH louder. It won't make a huge difference plugged in, but enough to be noticeable. I'm never working with jatoba again, unless a customer requests it and is willing to pay extra for the hassle. Carving that wood is like carving stone. It's beautiful though, so it should be worth it. This piece is full of birds eyes and has a nice contrast in the grain. I don't recommend trying to build with it though, unless you can CNC it. It's a great looking and sounding tonewood, but it might not be worth tearing your hair out for it.