wood is good

I would never go without a 2 way. Going from 9s to 11s in string guage, it bows the neck a heck of a lot more than you woudl think. Even a multi lam bubinga/ walnut neck.

Soft maple is fine for a neck, despite what most say. Soft maple is still harder/stiffer than most mahoganies.

Black with lime green flake? Like, a two tone, or what? Flake is just flake mixed with clear. So that is the "paint". But what are you Using the black for? There really isnt any flake paint that you can use from a can anyway. So You need spray equipment either way.

Here is a chunk of 4/4 quilted African mahogany I found while digging through a fresh lift the other day

Is that another name for Cocobolo? Looks the same to me.

A KV is about 16" wide tip to tip IIRC.

It depends, some guitars with neck angles have the strings really high, so no. Buy why would you want them to be that close? I could pull the strings out of tune.

A cold solder joint is a solder joint that looks like its making a connection, but isnt actually fused and doesnt make a full connection.

OOOF

Man, why diddnt you use a template for that rear recess cover rout?

You diddnt ground something. That I know because of how you said it stops when you touch the strings.

Wherever the string first touches the saddle.

You're asking a lot of basic questions. This site is a place for basic info about how to build a guitar. So scratch that one off. Nowhere really sells 3 ply binding, you have to make it yourself.

You can hang it by a bolt thru the tuner hole, or do like i do and just paint one side at a time laying flat.

If you sand, it might sand away the stain. I would go with a really fine grit.

My desire for CAD drawn templates isn't about getting exact copies of Strat's, its about being as accurate as possible for things like neck pocket alignment and bridge placement. I'm confident in my woodworking skills, but I would rather have templates made by computers and have everything as exact as possible. It's no secret that with instruments, precision determines quality, so I want to be as precise and accurate as possible, even if it involves buying another template. So, if anyone actually has templates to sell, please let me know.

Listen. YES WE GET IT, WE KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. The point is that isnt going to help you much, and its more up to your own work to get everything aligned perfectly anyway.

Most spray can paint will work with poly. Just dont use lacquer.

Yes you need to buff and polish.

You polish and buff it the same way you would any other finish.

If it's a set neck....

...and you don't even have the wood for the body yet, much less the neck pocket routed...

I don't get it. Why are you spazing out about it being too small and not fitting?

Its not about not fitting, I think its about it being a thinner neck than he wants, like the nut and heel width.

You only need to sand until there are no more scratches from the previous grit. Since you got sand thrus, you need to re spray more finish. If the areas your sanding arent level, you need to spray more finish anyway.

Its as simple as clamping a straight edge and routing the shelf to the right depth. Nothing more.

I'll try to answer all your questions. This is probably stuff I should have said from the begginning, but better late than never!

Before getting started on these guitars, I hunted around libraries and universities and read heaps of books on guitar-making. They were quite helpful but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for on fret spacing, so I figured it out for myself

It occured to me that the Nut to 1st fret distance must be a certain percentage of the scale. And each fret distance after would follow the same pattern

So I sat down with a calculator and through trial-and-error found a number that after doing 12 calculations you get half the original distance

The number is 5.61257%

But later-on I finally found a book that gave me the magic number - 1.05946309436

I couldn't understand why my number wasn't right but after a few calculations I realised its kind-of the inverse of 1.05946309436

My number gives you the nut-to-fret or fret-to-fret distance and the other gives you the fret-to-bridge distance

The number I had is actually like the 1/18th rule

After obtaining that information I tried to apply the formula to the guitars I owned and found that it worked on the Strat but not on the SG

I measured the frets with a steel rule and a magnifying glass and did it several times to be sure

I transferred the scales onto a length of Maple and compared them to other guitars and it was usually spot-on

I couldn't work out the Gibson scale though. I tried numerous ways of applying the usual formula but nothing worked. This was a problem because I wanted to make a guitar two frets longer than normal scale and be sure the intonation was right. I contemplated various methods like Fret Factors and as mentioned, using a tuner. I can't remember which method I ended up using but for eg, the M4 frets closely match the numbers I wrote down (from using a tuner) and it has quite good intonation

I checked the intonation on my guitars very extensively and found the Strat was good on the 1st string but not the 6th. My Gibson was the other way round. It was good on the 6th string but not on the 1st. So my reason for different scales on the same guitar was for better intonation, Gibson on the 6th string side and Fender on the 1st (not the actual scale but the "formula" behind it) I realised if I worked out both sides on the same scale the frets would spread-out wider on the 6th string side. But I thought it would look weird, be harder to play and it would need more compensation on the bridge. I actually aimed to have no compensation at the bridge on some guitars

The tuning pegs all close together reduces the amount of string beyond the nut and they don't go out of tune so easily - No need for a locking nut!

Another concept I had with the "D" guitars. Put the double fret-dots at "E" not the 12th fret. So you have them at the second and fourteenth. But it gets confusing if you're playing open-octave stuff (If you know what I mean)

I designed these guitars to tune down to D and maintain the same string tension, no problem there. What I don't like about them is the wider fret spacings are a bit of a stretch, they seem a bit heavy and I can't get a nice close action. Having good access to higher frets on a baritone makes a VERY long neck. And after all this I discovered I don't really like playing in drop-tunings

However - I like the idea of combining bass guitar with guitar. Where you wouldn't be playing open chords etc

One thing I tried is, instead of tuning at the 5th fret, tune at the 7th fret (like a violin) This is the same as tuning your E down to D but doing it on all strings. It tunes almost down to a bass guitar and as high as a normal guitar. The only trouble is you would have to completely change your playing style and there are things that are just impossible (like 6-string chords)

Well I better go and by the way I really am from another planet (shsh, don't tell anyone) lol

But I think its concepts like mine that break ground and after-all I don't see how I'm weirder than other people. The Novak guitars with the fanned frets look exactly like what I had in mind for my next guitar. And TrueTemperement.com - Now thats what I call "from another planet" I remember seeing Hamers (or Hoffners?) having a wiggle in the frets on the B or G string many years ago. I really don't see the point of wiggly frets when you can just use a compensated nut...?

On one or two of my guitars the angle on the frets is so subtle I even have to ask "why bother?" You can get good intonation with a bit of fretwork. But thats the thing, if I get this right you won't need to!

Oh thats right - I gotta go, Its nearly 3am again

Instead, You could have just used this for the regular scales.

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

You can also hang the used rags on a fence or a clothes line or something. The idea is to have them as open as possible. As the soaked in oil dries through oxidization it creates heat. A ball or pile of rags does not allow the heat to dissipate. Hanging them open will allow maximum surface area to disipate heat. Once dry, just through them out.

I dont know how much different linseed oil is from tru oil, but puttting them out in the sun is what has caused my rags of linseed to explode.

A coping saw and a old string.

Another good example is this listing right here

That is NOWHERE near 5A wood! Maybe 2 or 3, but def not 5.

This is horrible. And if you ask me, I would never want that "tone" he gets from those things, that tone SUCKED. Period. That was some of the worst sound Ive ever heard come out of a guitar. Get rich quick scheme i see it as.

It is the aesthetic part of wood figure. Grading is different for every supplier, and is almost a personal preference. Some places call wood AAAAA and its not even that great of figure. It just depends on who is selling it.

You cant use sealer before you stain, it SEALS it, so the stain wont get thru the sealer.