Workingman

I just wanted to add a bit to the discussion of using respirators. To put my credentials up, I have worked for the last 20 years in the hazardous waste cleanup field and am a certified hazardous waste site worker and supervisor and have led several OSHA complaince classes.

I agree strongly that a respirator should be worn when generating wood dust but with a few points. You should always check with your doctor first (OSHA requires a pulmanary test annualy if you use them at work). Respirators make it harder to breathe and have triggered heart attacks in people with athsma and emphasima (sp?).

If the mask does not fit, it does not do any good. A propper fit test is hard for the hobbiest to do but a quick and almost as good check is the following: With the cartridges off, hold your hands over the intake and breath in. The mask should get pushed in. If you feel air comming in, adjust it till it does not. Then with the cartridges on, cover the outlet valve and breathe out. The mask should inflate a bit like a baloon. No air should escape. If you feel cool air coming in while you are working, you have a leek. If it gets harder to breathe while you are working, or if you smell an oder (other than the rubber from the mask) your filters are loaded and should be replaced right away.

It does not do you a lot of good to use a mask and take it off when you are done and breathe in all the dust that is in the air. Walk out of your shop, close the door and let things settle for at least 15 minutes. If you have to, you can speed up the settling of dust by spraying the air with a plant mister filled with water. You don't want to get things wet, just let the water cary some of the dust out.

Just one more point, most hobbiest use what is called a half face respirator which covers you mouth and nose. A full face respirator also covers your eyes protecting them from fumes and dust. Most, but not all so check, full face resoirators use safety rated lenses so you have that protection too.

Is the neck going to be able to take the higher tension of electric strings?

Just a question, how can it be a strobe tuner if it does not have a strobe light? If it is an electronic tuner, what makes it different from any other one?

Couldn't you use a stong magnet to detect the end of the truss rod?

I have no experience shimming a fender neck but have done so with some success on a P Bass copy. I would check that the frets are level first though.

I would try shielding the guitar first. Be carefull that nothing shorts out on the shielding. I shielded a cheap strat copy and it was a major improvement. Its cheep too. You can use heavey duty aluminum foil and contact cement for the larger areas and use copper tape for the hard to work in parts.

I think a corvus is a cull not a cut

You could use two blade type single coils and arrange them and wire them like a P bass. That may be the cheapest option.

Wow heat usualy dries a room out. Do you have forced air with a humidier on the sysem? If so you could turn it off when you are heating your shop.

Thanks for clarifying the concept, and noting my KOhm mistake.

I was not trying to tell people how to get a Fender tone rather using the KOhm range of well known pickups for reference. I also agree that good or bad sounding is very personal personal.

StewMac has a non componsated archtop bridge that may make betterr starting point than trying to make your own from scratch. they run around $20. Nice project.

I have coil taps on three guitars and one bass. My experiance is that it takes a fairly hot pickup to sound good with a coil cut. You are after all going to have half the resistance you started with. A PAF type pickup with around 8 ohms is going to give you 4 in coil cut mode which is less than a typical tele pickup. A 12 ohm pickup will give you 6 which is in the range of some strat type pickups. less resitance usualy gives you more treble. I would think the best capasitor to use would vary with the pickup. The hotter the pickup the less treble you would have to roll of to ground for a good sound no?

If you are going to do a can opener (and I say go for it), why not finish it in bad chrome with rust spots showing through?

I will use the tone control with a guitar with single coils to roll of some highs (but not often). I just about never use it on a hum equiped guitar and never on bass. My understanding is that unless you have an acive eq your tone control is just a treble cut.

I resoldered all of my joints, then realized i was messy with my solder the first time around, as solder had dripped down around two contacts of the switch, i just couldnt see it until i took out the switch.

It still buzzes like crazy though. think im just gona have to bite the bullet and pay a pro to have a look at it. thanks for your help all.

Check the ground to the bridge. It may have pulled loose on the bridge end while you were working on things and may not be visiable.

You could try putting some teflon tape (used by plumbers) on the treaded part of the bar to tighten it up. I did that on a Pacifica fat strat (I got it for the same reason you got your Squire) and it worked fine.

Just an idea, could you use a section of 12" id PVC Pipe and mount it on some wood to keep it stiff?. Schedule 80 (the black stuff, not schedule 40 the white stuff) is fairly stiff and strong. The id is actualy 11.38. I don't know if the difference is to much.

Don't know of any all-in-one type books, but here are a few single subject ones I like:

Band Saw Handbook by Mark Duginske - an absolute must have if you own a bandsaw

The Complete Guide to Sharpening by Leonard Lee - very thorough and covers just about every type of bladed tool

Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner - Probably the best overall finishing reference (but no amount of reading will substitute for experience)

Thanks. That looks like a good start. I know experience is the most important component in craftsmanship but I like to try and start with some base of knowledge.

I am interested in recomendations for a book (s) giving the basics of using shop tools. I have some wood working experience using hand tools but when it comes to routers, band saws, drill press etc. I don't know much but would like to learn. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The plastics you have to worry about vinyl. Here is a link with more info. http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/G...inyl/vinyl.html

Try new strings. bad intonation should not efect the string sound (pitch aside) but bad strings can effect intonation.

once you get it started it pulls off pretty quickly. if you dont want to damage finsh score around the binding first, if you are stripping in then no worries.

If you can get in the neck pocket its a good place to start as you can pry a little off from there and start pulling, basically find somehwere that cant be seen

if any snaps off, chunks remain or its being particularly difficult then get a bit of gentle heat on it with a hairdryer

if its old and celluloid it will be brittle and probably shouldnt be heated.. most modern stuff is fine though

Thanks, it is a set neck so I won't be able to get at the neck pocket but the binding is damaged by the input jack and I will start there.

I look at all the build postings but don't reply as a I don't have anything to add to the conversation except please keep them coming.

First thanks to all who have directly or inderectly helped with my current project, an lp style Electra resurection.

I am planing on putting a veneer on the top as the current top is badly scared and I would like to have a nice wood grain top. I have been advised that it would be a good idea to remove the binding. What would be the best method to do so? Thanks

There was program on the bbc last year about the history of the guitar, in one section it showed one guys collection of old guitars and he had a lute instrument that had an almost 90 degree headstock angle. I suppose some sort of mortice and tennon joint would have been used. Apparently they were notorious for staying in tune

My brother plays lute and I can tell you they are not known for staying in tune. My brothers teacher had a poam about how a lute player spends more time tuning then playing since by the time you tune all the strings the first ones have gone out of tune.

The pull from a lute, which used gut or now nylon strings, is much less than on a steal string acoustic or electric.