Buter

Looks good so far Luis. How does that neck feel when you're fretting the first fret? I've just done a geet with a slightly smaller volute in the same place and I felt that I put it a bit too high up on the neck. It is slightly annoying when playing all the way down on the neck. The next time I carve a volute I will shift in forwards a bit to be more under the nut. Cheers Buter

Personally, I'd set my templates up again. Since you don't wanna do that - what about one o them fancy corner chisels sold by most router bit companies? Never tried it, just a thought. Good luck Buter

Guys - thanks for taking the time to reply to my question. PSW - I almost feel that I should buy the BR-600 just due to the effort that you put into your post! After looking at various options, specifically the line 6 studios GX and the BR-600, I think I will go with the line 6. The main knock against the Roland is that I don't want to carry another piece of equipment around the world with me; a 10" laptop even becomes a PITA after a while (yeah I know, poor widdle diddums). The line 6 looks like it will do everything that I need it to do for me - namely just have a means to play with some realistic sounds while I'm downroute and have a means to record something if I like the way it sounds and bring it back to the boys at home for a yeah or nay. One feature I'll miss that the Roland has is the ability to slow music down without altering the pitch, whatever that is called. 4 years in the USMC infantry then 5 years offshore as a commercial diver (noisy environment and frequent ear drum problems) now noisy airports and airplanes have left my hearing a little worse for wear and I find it difficult to pick out guitar parts at normal tempo. If anyone else has any other ideas, please feel free to chime in. Cheers Buter

Comments - Nice geetar. The amount that you have progressed in a very short time is nothing short of outstanding! Suggestions - Don't stop building. Take better pictures. For your next build - try getting by without all of the big toys at the base woodshop, try making a guitar with the tools you are realistically likely to have at your disposal back in the real world. Converting to more basic tools whilst still having the guidance of the woodshop custodians could prove invaluable. Cheers Buter

Well, at the moment I play through a pocket pod and headphones when I'm away so there's no snobbery issue there I don't need vocals (I'm actually banned from singing in the European union and most of Asia), but I would want to be able to lay down a rythm track and a lead track as well as having some sort of drum track. B

I believe the boys in suits who went to fancy schools would refer to that as a market 'correction'.

I spend a fair bit of time in hotels and I need something for recording/composing. I've always got my computer with me so surely there's a good program with some sort of interface for the guitar to plug into. What I've been doing up until now is coming up with a riff or a progression and then typing it into guitar pro. Because the sounds you get are so limited with that, trying to improvise or come up with lead lines can be a pain. I'm not a pro and I don't want to spend the earth, here; just wanna have a bit of a play, really. Hopefully some of you more tech saavy fellas can offer up some options. Cheers Buter

Just saw your write-up in Guitar. Well done, son. Will try to make it. Cheers Buter

Leave the zoo, it might not be everyone's pint of beer but it's definitely different! If it had been me, I also would have had the carving on the front. Use a pickguard and front rout it to save the animals. Buter

LOL well that was accidental!!! I used the wrong template face!!!! Im pissed at myself for it I believe that even the hero himself, Melvyn, did the exact same thing during the first edition of his book. Steve - Making mistakes is awesome! There is no better teacher around. Just try not to make the same mistake twice - go and look for new mistakes to make. And remember 'mistake' is a latin word meaning 'custom'; all of my guitars are seriously customized! Cheers Buter

Pictures? Lookin out the window of the lovely hotel here in Helsinki everything is under a couple feet of snow. Apparently there are no lakes in Finland, Pros, only seas, so you'll have to shave in the sea. Better you than me! Oh, yeah, nice build. Buter

+1 It seems a lot of folks think that if the fb is compound radiused to 12-16" that the bridge should be a 16" radius. This would only be true if the strings did not continue in a straight line after the end of the fb - I have not yet come across a stringed instrument that has managed to pull that one off! One problem may be finding commercial bridges with radii in excess of 16". I think that this is where fully adjustable bridges come into their own. Making your own bridge is always an option. If memory serves me correctly there is a formula in Melvyn's book that shows how to work out the radius at any given point on a cone. I had a quick google for a formula but one didn't jump right up so it will have to be left to someone a bit more ambitious this morning than me. It is obvious, but, a good setup on a cylinder shaped fb guitar will play infinitely better than a crap setup on a cone shaped fb guitar. As a bit of a side discussion - an undersized bridge should lead to a compound radiused board having a higher required action for the outer strings at the lower frets. We know that the strings will vibrate through a greater elipse towards their centers, making the area of the 17th-19th frets require the highest action on the fretboard. With a good cone shaped fingerboard, your minimum action at these frets (as low as possible without buzzing whilst played in the owner's style of playing) would be distance 'x' above the frets. Because this is measured from a point that is higher than a cylindrical shape. Because we have fixed the action at the 17th fret (say) and the bridge, by definition, is a fixed point, the only way to keep the string straight is to raise the action lower up the neck. I know we're only talking about .00x" or .0xmm, but this is how we tend to measure these gaps anyway and the whole purpose for putting in the extra work to get a compound radius fb in the first place. Compound radius + incorrect radius bridge = poor (by comparison) setup. That's enough for one day. Second cup of coffee's just kicked in, gotta go! Buter

This might help: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...ket+routing+jig Cheers Buter

Ahhh.... Anoying facts time... Your local hospital would not have a decompression chamber, they would have a recompression (hyperbaric) chamber used for treating decompression sickness or performing hyperbaric treatments. The military (NASA included) are the only ones who play with decompression chambers. Neither one would actually do you any good on its own - however, you can get some insane results by combining a hyperbaric environment with a vacuum press. A vacuum press can only give you atmospheric pressure, roughly 14.7psi, but if you enter a recompression chamber and blow it down to say 99fsw (feet sea water) you are now at 4 atmospheres and can use the same vacuum system to achieve 59psi. Do the math and imagine what you could accomplish. As for the the hoover bag, mouth sucking idea - I know a couple of girls down at.... Sorry, just the rantings of an ex saturation diver. I'll go back to making my twanging board now. Cheers Buter

To do this properly you will spend a great deal more time and money than you would putting together a vacuum setup. A straight hydraulic press would even be easier, although it would not give as consistent results as a vacuum system. Having said that, I'm assuming you're a big boy, able to make his own decisions so, here you go: http://www.skibuilders.com/howto/equip/bladder.shtml Enjoy Cheers Buter

I'm not biased. Shape #2 Buter

Make a jig for your table saw or router table. Cheers Buter

Crude in a good way, I hope! No need for a shut off valve. The bag in that picture has a non-return (check, one way..) valve underneath my high tech sealant material (Duct Tape). I can run the compressor for about a minute then turn it off and unhook the bag and put the workpiece somewhere else. Some of my bigger bags require continuous operation of the pump due to not being 100% airtight. Even this is no problem because the pump gets to run at nearly full load as it was designed to do. Yeah, wifey wasn't too happy about the shower curtain but, when needs must... Cheers Buter

If anyone has ever wanted a vacuum setup but been put off by the cost, fear not, a very cheap system can be setup quickly and easily. Mine consists of a fridge compressor and some premade and homemade bags. Purpose built bags can be a bit pricey but you can make your own out of many things if you're creative; I've got one made from a shower curtain. I have had to make some large ones for working with surfboards but a guitar sized one shouldn't be too expensive and would last a long time (I've done nearly a thousand skateboards in the same bag). Fridge compressors can usually be scored for free from a small appliance repair shop as they often have models not in use anymore. If I remember correctly, Joe woodworker has plans or a kit for wiring in a pressure sensitive on/off circuit but then you start getting away from the cheap and easy philosophy. If you want a vacuum clamping system (I haven't got around to doing mine yet, but soon come) an easy way is to run a decent sized pipe along your workbench (or the wall above, or underneath or...) with inlets tapped with non-return valves coupled with quarter turn ball valves in locations where you may want to use vacuum clamping. Once you've pulled vacuum in the pipe it will act as a reservoir and you can switch the compressor off. No need to buy specialized vacuum gasket material, just use a bead of silicone and let it cure and then you have a sealing surface - trust me, it works. Here's a top I did this afternoon Cheers Buter

Probably not what you want to hear but I get most of my wood by picking through the offcuts at the local lumber yard. I haven't found any suppliers of fancy woods other than those in the EU supplies thread. FWIW I live on a little island so I would have to order anything anyway, ordering from the states is no different than ordering from the Midlands for me. Happy hunting Buter

Hello Mr. Good Wood Life is too short to battle over trivia. Besides, the more information I have, the better decisions I can make. Either way, I like how this little jig works for what I use it for and I'm glad I've got it. I think in Mr. Hiscock's book he mentions that a sandpaper-roughed up edge gives a less noticeable glue line - any thoughts on that one? I read in a wood working book a few years ago about a joint called a 'slape joint' (I think this is correct but I have the memory of a concussed goldfish) where two perfectly planed surfaces were given a light coat of glue, pressed together and rubbed back and forth a bit to ensure total, even coverage and then just left to dry - no clamps. Not believing this, I tried it and I've still got those pieces of wood stuck to my f***ing workbench! Cheers Buter

Thanks SJE, I was beginning to think it was just me! I had begun to say nasty things to my planes, accusing them of not loving me the way that other planes apparently loved their owners. Cheers Buter PS - I finally get home tomorrow night and will be posting in the general chat area. It will be worth a look if you're a Queen fan.

Hello Guitarmaker I'm not sure if the translation is changing your meaning or not but it certainly looks like you should do a quick study on 'manners' and then put them into use. The original poster is 19 years old, building his first guitar and said in his very first post that he has no or liminted woodworking skills/experience/tools. All criticisms on his thread regarding construction have been constructive and have helped to rectify any mistakes the builder had made, to include the incorrect placement of the bridge. Guitar design is always subjective - I'm sure there are other people, like you, who think that this guitar is ugly. I'm sure there are others, like myself, who actually like the shape and applaud anyone who builds a guitar other than an LPStratOTelePRSCaster. I would quite happily be seen in public with this machine, it would probably be the guitar that was ashamed of me! The single most important thing is that the builder is happy with what he/she has done and judging by the post directly above yours, it looks like we have a winner. I would hate to see anyone discouraged from posting their builds (that really is the reason most of us use this forum, to see what others who share our passion are doing) due to a negative post like yours and, in my personal opinion, think it's a bit cheeky for you to judge this guitar so harshly when you have not posted a build of your own and, from your other posts, do not seem to be able to even come up with your own templates. Again, I hope that the translation from Romanian made your comments sound worse than they were meant to. Cheers Buter PS - How many rooms are in that palace in Bucharest? That thing is massive!

Hi Neil Glad to see you've got a new hobby since retiring from pro rugby! I'm no expert on hand planes but this looked like a good place to start: FWIW, just by typing 'how to set up a hand plane' into google you'll get more than you'd ever want to know. What's the latest with the artificial reef over there? Cheers Buter

are you referring to the template they put on the wood to show people with a lack of imagination how it might look as a guitar Yes, I am. At a quarter to eight in the morning, making me feel stupid is the sole privelage of my wife; the general public is not allowed to point and laugh until 9am (9:30 on weekends). Well played. On my screen it certainly looked like the pieces had been cut and were laying on a rather uncomfortable couch. On closer examination, shadows from the template can be seen. As you have ordered from them before, what sort of shipping time did you have? Cheers Buter