NotYou

Got to say I love your work, Blackdog! This is no exception. Looks like you've got an unfortunate chip on the fretboard, 23rd or so fret Hope the fix is seamless!

Ouch! I've definitely been there. It's heartbreaking when it happens, especially when you're almost done slotting.

It looks great so far, BTW. I love your carve job.

I left the pickup rings for this body at home so I brought the body home because I was really curious to see what it would look like with the hardware.

I was planning on binding this in ebony, but when my wife saw it, she said it looks good unbound. I'm kind starting to agree with her. I think I might just be subconsciously lazy, though.

The wood is bubinga. It'll be a deep shimmery red color when finished, with maybe a hint of purple. The pickups will be nickel like the bridge. It's still in a rough state, so just ignore those nicks around the edges. This will be for sale BTW, I'm not keeping it.

The other pickup ring is taller for a different bridge/neck angle. I still have to order the other one.

Here's the back(which won't be bound).

Wow, I don't know if I should say what that looks like.....

Looks cool though

My initial reaction:

Secondary reaction:

The problem with asking this question is that you don't get honest responses because of the nature of a man's psyche.

Most guys think it is a matter of pride to haul around a heavy guitar,as if it somehow makes them tougher to do so.They always quote height and weight at you as if to somehow say "Look how tough I am...I could carry a 40 pound guitar through an 18 hour show if needed..."

One thing you notice(if you pay attention) is that the more strain a man's back is under,the sooner it goes bad...The heavier a guy is,the sooner it goes out,so the whole "I weigh 245,I am impervious to guitar weight" theory is B.S.

LOL, sounds like you're talking about my post.

I was being serious though. Unless he's fat, a guy that weighs 240lbs is going to be able to carry a 10lb guitar a lot easier than guy who weighs like 160lbs. It's nothing about being macho, it's just proportion. I like guitars to be a bit on the heavy side because they just feel more solid when strapped on. Nothing else.

I mentioned redwood earlier. I've never been more excited about a guitar than the redwood one I'm building right now. It's total weight will likely be way less than 8 pounds, even though it's almost two inches thick. Tonally, I expect it to blow away everything else I've done so far.

I always found this particular guitar to be very cool...Pat Metheny´s signature model.

http://img1.cdn.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/0...48e510_full.gif

Maybe it could work out as a solidbody too...would it be a single or double cutaway?

hhmmmm

That looks a lot like one of my new shapes. I'm already well into making a couple of them, though. I think it looks different enough that no one will care. Whoever designed that obviously had the same concept in mind as me. Mine are all solid so far, though. I was planning on doing a hollowbody in that shape next, but I might rethink it after seeing that.

The actual body of mine (as opposed to just the outline) looks very different. I'll try to remember to get some pictures this week and I'll post them.

From this thread:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=40278

Edit:

I do have a picture of the template I made:

No jokes about my "router table." It's actually solid as a rock.

I don't think weight changes much anything regarding sound, actually. I thought I'd throw that out there since some people seem to insist on it.

I don't think it effects sustain either, at least not the weight of the wood you're using (how much wood is there is a different matter). I've been messing around with redwood a lot lately. That stuff is so light it doesn't seem real, but it will resonate as long or longer than most woods I have experience with.

I recently purchased a large board of african mahogony to build some solid 1 piece body guitars. When loading the board into the car, I noticed it was fairly heavy. I figured once the body blanks were cut out that they wouldnt be too bad. Well, I cut one out today, and weighed it. It came in at about 8 lbs! I still have to shape and route it, but I dont think these will be light weight guitars. This is some seriously dense wood! Hopefully that translates well into good tone. I know some people like a more solid feeling guitar, but the majority will want lighter instruments. any body here build/play heavy guitars?

If you're building it for yourself, it's no big deal. Most people don't want to buy a heavy guitar, though. My first build was also a one piece African mahogany and was definitely on the heavy side.

Personally, I like them heavy. Although, I'm also 6'1" and 225 lb (that's a fit 225 lb ). If it feels comfortable to you, go for it. Some people argue that a heavy guitar gets a fuller tone and more sustain. I can't say that's true, though. I haven't compared them enough myself.

Remember, there is a difference between a warp or twist from reaction wood and a cup or a bow that occurs from drying. Some movement is normal while that wood is drying, the cells are shrinking and the wood moves with it. But that is usually a fairly well known percentage of movement for each species. Once properly dried, working it flat won't usually result in more movement. Reaction wood has built up stress inside from the way the tree grew. No matter what you do, that wood will always move as you work with it, until all of the stress is out (which is usually never).

Okay, that's more along the lines of what I was talking about. If a board is moving when it's drying, I usually don't worry about it much because I know it'll only go so far if I have it stored properly. After that, if I just leave it on the shelf, it won't move any more.

So I retract my last statement. My advice still stands.

When you're working with it, things are different. I had a piece of goncalo alves that was stressed and trying to bend so much that it practically blew apart when I cut it.

Really? I must be lucky then. Unless a piece is thin, once settles into a shape, it usually won't move anymore for me. It's not something I rely on, but it's just something I've noticed.

I guess you can ignore my advice on this one then.

"but that's not as fun. "

Hey buddy, dem's fightin' words!

LOL. I actually love using hand tools. Recently, though, I got access to a HUGE planer and I'm in love with it. Jobs that used to take me forever now take a couple minutes. It's not so much fun for me as it is amazing. When I used it the first time I felt like Tom Hanks in Cast Away when he gets back to main land and everything that he had to struggle for on the island is readily prepared for him. I was just stunned. I wanted to plane wood that I had no use for just so I could watch it happen.

I've always hated poly finishes, but I decided to try out some wipe on poly. I figured since it's rubbed on, it should be much thinner than sprayed and help solve some of the issues I have with polyurethane. This is one coat. I'll add some more tomorrow and take a picture. It has about a 2-3 hour dry time.

So far I'm very impressed with it.

This is a crappy cell phone picture, but it's all i have right now. I'm bad about progress pictures. I'll try to get some this weekend of the bodies.

(note, this body isn't done. There are still some flaws in the wood, like the a couple notches near the top. I just wanted to try this out.)

Also, I changed the line up a little. I'm doing four guitars. One of them now has a redwood body. I got a nice stash recently and wanted to try it. It sounds amazing.

Before you do anything drastic, let it sit for a few days.

I've heard from some well respected builders that they come across this exact issue all the time and it corrects itself in a about a week, after the wood dries.

That doesn't seem to make sense, but I can't argue with them if it works.

There's a plus to warped wood: once it's warped, it usually won't warp anymore.

If you have access to a stationary planer, just give it a pass or two and it should be fine. You can hand plane it too, but that's not as fun.

I was going to suggest adding a flat one-piece top, but it looks like everyone beat em to it. You'll be very glad you did.

So we can just add that to the smell of cutting bone or cutting buffalo horn (dirty feet with a hint of ammonia). All part of the mystique of guitar building.

I have to try to keep from vomiting when sanding or cutting bone. I don't think I want to know what I smells like under a laser.

I'm a believer in the proper use and art of hand tools, but you have to admit that something you use with your mind as opposed to your hands can be equally effective, as it is after all a tool also. I love design, and the precision that can come with that. I also respect master inlay artists who can spend hours to days and beyond designing and creating intricate inlays which use the natural aspects of materials to compliment the result to great effect. Cool. Machines cannot reproduce that interactive approach.

On the other hand, machines can make ideas become real to those whose ideas may otherwise not be in line with their expertise with hand inlaying skills. Same as body manufacture, etc.

Whatever makes that spark, idea, dream or whatever come true is definitely a good thing. I've always been an ideas person and more often than not, finding the route towards making it happen as opposed to ideas being left by the roadside for time to forget is something we lose by being narrow-minded.

I'm with you on this. I appreciate hand tools, but there's definitely a place for CNC. I don't think it's wise to rule either one out.

Personally, I'm an art school grad, so I tend to enjoy hand tools much more. It's much more comfortable for me to get my hands involved in my work. I'm definitely more artist than engineer, but I can understand how others would think differently. We all have different brains.

It's nice that they sent you samples. However I would compare that to the prices you paid for the Bone and hon first. Being a dealer in both gives me an insight ito wholesale costs.

That's what I thought was so great to begin with. Those small nut sized bone pieces were only a dollar. At Stew Mac, they're more than three times that (still not much, though). The buffalo horn slabs were around $3 each and the rods were $8. I haven't bought buffalo horn before, but that seems cheap.

BTW, I was amazed by how lightweight and smooth buffalo horn is. I was almost convinced it was plastic. I even took a lighter to one of the pieces just to be sure . It seems almost unreal. Even though it feels that light, it's incredibly durable. I still need to do some resonance tests before I use it for anything important, though.

I'm building a few guitars right now, but one of them is walnut and Goncalo alves. If it's together soon enough, I'll let you know how it sounds. That combination seems to work well, though. Walnut has a pretty balanced sound by itself and Goncalo seems to be on the bright side (this is my first time working with it too). If you compare them by tap tuning, you'll see what I mean.

Did they mean to include the other stuff, like did you actually ask them whether it was a mistake or not?

I think they meant them to be samples. They wrote what each item was on the backs of it. The ones I actually bought didn't have any writing on them.

That big "ivory" block was a very pleasant surprise.

These guys are amazing. I ordered some bone (for nuts and inlays) and buffalo horn(for knobs and bridges) and they sent me all kinds of stuff I didn't order. Some of it was synthetic, but perfect for picks. The rest was some really starnge stone and a block of "alternative ivory" (BTW, if anyone knows what that might be, I'd appreciate it. It's definitely some type of horn or tusk. It has the same smell and stomach turning effect that bone and ivory has).

On top of that, their prices are dirt cheap. Those black poles are buffalo horn. There's enough there to make a ton of knobs and they were only like $8 a piece.

I also got a catalog that was filled with some amazing inlays, binding, rosettes, etc.. I didn't see that stuff on their website, so I was thrilled to see that they sold it.

They're a small company, so I wanted to post this hear to hopefully get them some attention. Actually, I really just don't want them to go out of business because I plan on buying a ton of stuff from them<_< .

http://www.masecraftsupply.com/

I ordered the stuff on the left and the stuff on the right was thrown in the box for free:

My computer's too old and sloooowwww (like me) for that "Cool Wood" thread but what I've seen so far - I'm totally drooling!

Here's mine:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...st&p=415529

What did you pay for it?

I use this one:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore...799607&mt=8

It's not too fancy, but it does all I need it too. It's only $4.

I've actually been experimenting with this for the last couple weeks.

I've seen it done before with brush on lacquer and it worked perfectly. I haven't tried that yet. I have some wipe on poly in my shop that I might try.

I've tried it with shellac and oil dye but it didn't work too well. I think the alcohol in the shellac seeps under the tape and makes it impossible to get a solid line.

I haven't tried oil, but I doubt it'll work. Most oil finishes don't sit on the wood, but rather they go into it. You would have to sand back the actual wood to get past the dye on the oil. In other words, it wouldn't make much difference.

Good eye!

It works well for me, although it's the only decent one I have. I'd like to pick up some different models eventually just to experiment.

It's not low angle, but this is a great spokeshave:

http://www.garrettwade.com/stanley-flat-fa...e/p/11P32ddd01/

I have the flat faced one (the red one). It's probably my favorite tool. The blade seems almost indestructible.