Workingman

Interesting build. How are you thinking of tuning it?

Welcome. I generaly go with what Prostheta says but 8k is likely to be a pretty bright humbucker. I think you could go with either but absent information from Lace, I would go for a 250. Or buy both and try them out. Pots are cheap enough.

My wife has a jewlry box with a box elder top. I got it for her about 15 years ago and the top color has not faded. It had a decent amount of exposure to light for much of that time.

That box elder looks great

This is a great build. Quick question; is there any difficulty with ebony cracking when you insert to pole pieces?

I have no experiance with that guitar but have worked on one Ibenez where the nut was in a slot in the board (like a Fender) the frets where right but the nut was wrong. Impossible to intonate.

That looks nice. I lke the fretboard end.

What a field. I was torn but decided to vote for the one I would most want to play and that was the surf guitar. If I played cello it would have gotten my vote. But still, what a field.

Nice!

More progress without pics (yet). Back up in Vermont and I am glad I got the stripping mostly done before it turned cold. 19 f last night with a high of 34 during the day yesterday. The only part of the finish left on the body is in little cracks and screw hole heads. The peg head and scroll had been cracked and badly glued with gorilla glue and then pinned with wood screws. I debated cleaning up the glue squeeze out and leaving it vs undoing the joint and gluing it properly. I went the latter route and I am glad. As soon as I removed the wood screws the glue failed. The joint was almost completely without any glue, it just had pushed put and formed a bead along the outside surface. A couple of minutes careful work with a scraper and its ready to do the repair correctly. A friend who is a bass luthier has advised me that hide glue is the way to go on this job so the neck and a bunch of clamps will go back to NY with me as I will have to make use of his glue pot. I will try and take some pictures of the process.

Most die hard hide glue people are used to working on acoustic instruments. Having to remove things like bridges, braces and even necks can be a normal part of repair due to the wood changes over time. The ability to cleanly undo a hide glue joint is important in that field. That said, the luthier who is advising me on my aluminum bass rebuild told me to use West epoxy on the cracked neck block as that was a joint I will never want to undo.

I have to say I can not see the link that people are talking about but I do know a fair amount about temperament. Real true or perfect temperament is next to impossible on a fretted instrument. In perfect temperament there are twenty pitches in an octave rather than twelve. The space difference to place say a C# and a Db fret, particularly in the upper frets, makes the idea of placing and fingering these frets absurd. Not only that but yields few benefits. It only works for music that stays distinctly in a key and only if you are playing with other instruments that also have perfect temperament. If you play with instruments that have even temperament, you will be sharp or flat most of the time. Also, the efforts you make to gain this control will often be negated by new or old strings, wood movement from the weather etc. People have tried to make systems that work on fretted instruments for a few hundred years and they have never caught on. If you want a guitar that plays in perfect temperament, make a fretless.

I have only read about it but everything I have read says to use a thin epoxy or CA as wood glue does a poor job of binding with the metal frets. If anyone has real experience, obviously, listen to them.

You have to admit it is ingenious.

Sounds like the finish came off rather than a veneer. Some companies finished the body and then put on the bridge, others did not. You may be able to inject some thin CA glue. Lacquer on a guitar of the probable age (80's) would tend to get fine finish checks that are kind of a box pattern. If it is lacquer, you are in luck in that new lacquer will tend to melt into the old. This means you can do spot repairs which are harder with poly. There are others here who know much more about finishing though. When you get to that stage, you may want to continue the post in the finish section.

What I think happened with the area by the pickguard is the plastic is of a kind that shrank with time pulling the wood with it. That can be a tricky repair. You have to very carefully remove the pickguard to release the tennsion. It may not be worth it. To do so you work with a warmed pallet knife. See if you can tell the direction of the grain run-out and work with it to minimize damage to the top. Also, if the neck is stable it is probably better to leave it alone. You didn't include any good pictures of the bridge but if it is crack, it should be replaced. Good that the bridge pad is OK as that is much trickier. Once again on the bridge heat (but not to much is your friend). This assumes it was put together with hide glue. If not it may be impossible.

Is 28 Jerry Garcia?

pretty sure Wes is right on Zappa.

My Schecter 5 string could use being fmore contoured, particularly where the right arm goes over the top. You could make the body the same shape but 1/2" smaller all around. I don't think it would ruin the look and it would take some weight off.

That looks like it going to be sweet.

Bob, not your bad. I am glad you asked. I am learning this stuff too.

Nice, very classy.

Listen to the blues. Books and DVD's can teach you patters and licks but to sound like the blues you have to learn phrasing and for that you have to listen.

Well no new pictures yet but some progress. I talked with a guy who had worked on these basses before. Turns out the top and the neck block are just held together with screws. I unscrewed the block and part of the top. I was able to remove the block. Good thing I did. It has a crack on the side that did not show from the top or from looking at the bottom through the f holes. I am not sure if I will glue it or try and build a new block. A new block would be good in that I could build it with the new neck angle and overstand built in. Than again where am I going to find an 80 year old piece of quarter sawn alpine spruce?

Now we can ask her for tips.