brian d

Wez, could you explain how you polish the fretboard with 0000 wool? How do you get even polishing right up to the fret while polishing perpendicular to it? TIA Brian.

Reconsider the body wood. You'd be better off using less attractive timber than having the grain perpendicular. The fact that it will look weird is an aesthetic issue that you are either happy with or not (although you did ask for our opinions), but the stiffness of he body in the direction of string pull - a sizable force- will be reduced and will affect both stability and tone. Good luck with the build. Brian.

Thanks for the reply Ripthorn. I'll have a look at that circuit. I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, but I'll have to give it a go. Brian

Could you take the amp circuits out of a cheap mini-amp and use it as a pre-amp for a piezo pickup? Any ideas how it would work/sound compared to a simple JFET preamp or any of the other pre-amps out there? Thanks in advance, Brian.

An alternative to levelling the frets using a jig which replicates the string tension, is to level under actual string tension. Put a temporary high nut on the guitar (I used a hardwood scrap) and use a L-cross section aluminium bar with abrasive on one side. The abrasive fits under the string and levels the fret under each string individually. Then remove the strings and finish crowning as usual.

Another vote for scarf joint here. Whether true or just urban legend (I'm not in a position to judge) the one piece neck is weaker than the scarf jointed neck, and Gibson and Epi guitars are (in)famous for headstock breakages for this reason. Believing this helps me avoid the awful feeling of wasting perfectly good timber. Another option is to do multi-lam necks, where you can save some wood by having the lams "nesting" in each other on the blank, or tail to toe so you use the timber between the headstock angle and the heel. JMHO. Brian.

When I read that line, it was an epiphany for me. If I can let go of the "what if I stuff up" attitude holding me back, I'm sure I'll make much more progress. Thanks for that, Drak.

How did you guys know which guitar to vote for....there were no blue flame maple guitars! I voted for Hitone - always love something a bit out of the ordinary. I absolutely love Not You's finishes, but didn't like the shape of this one as much as his other masterpieces. Nothing to add about the others that hasn't already been said - truly a bumper month of winners all round.

I solve the same problem on one of my guitars by adjusting the neck angle and raising the saddles so the screws weren't poking up. Not too hard with a bolt-on neck. Not exactly answering the question, but another way to solve the problem. Brian.

And if you do block out the inlays and redo on 21st fret, I would suggest only put one dot there....2 dots is for an octave fret i.e. 12th or 24th. Brian.

FWIW, the MIMF forum library has a fret position calculator called "fretcomp" by Chris Franklin which "computes the pitch errors caused by fretting stretch and string stiffness (inharmonicity), and calculates a set of duly compensated frets". For the next few builds at least I have pre-slotted boards, but it might be interesting for those of you looking for better intonation to have a look at it. From what I understand, it doesn't use a constant multiplier to compensate as the effect of string stretch etc. is different at different frets and for different strings.

Or rip the 11" into 5 pieces at 1.5" wide and turn all of them 90 degrees (giving you 5 quartersawn pieces 2.5" wide and 1.5" thick). You can then glue up a 5 piece quartersawn blank - not ideal but may be better than having pieces at different orientations. Brian

How'd you do the chrome edging? Brian.

Maybe there's a terminology problem here confusing me. Did you have a new nut or new bridge installed? If it was the bridge, then the easiest solution is to install a bridge with the correct string spacing. Otherwise you might consider a new neck with a wider taper.

Nothing wrong with that. It just means your joint is in the neck instead of the headstock. The fretboard will cover it from the front. There are some beautiful builds where this is done on purpose and even highlighted with veneers in the joint. If it's straight and strong go with it. Cheers, Brian.

I also made a guitar to use with a VG unit (though I'm a generation behind on the VG88). How are you mounting the GK3? I routed into the back for the GK2 so as not to hide the wood. You can have a look at it here- (the lahav entry) . Looking forward to seeing your progress, Brian.

This looks like a bridge for string-through-body. If you look at the diagram, you'll see holes in the base coming through the middle of each saddle. The string comes from the back of the body, through those holes, up and over the saddle slot (groove). You'll need to drill holes all the way through the body of the guitar and put ferrules in the back. Not too difficult if you have a drill press. You'll need to drill 3 holes for each ferrule and string from the back of the guitar. Here's how I've done it: 1) With the bridge in position, mark the centres of the string holes (through the saddles) of the E and e strings. Make sure that the line between them is perpendicular to the midline. Drill straight through the body with the smallest bit you can. Make sure you have some scrap wood underneath to stop tear out whenever you're drilling all the way through. 2) on the back of the guitar, mark a straight line between the centres of the holes. Mark the positions for the other holes evenly along that line. (The distance between each hole should be the distance between the E and e hole divided by 5). Now you're going to drill the actual holes. Always go from the larger diameter holes to the narrower ones for each string hole. 3) Using a brad point bit, drill a hole the diameter and depth of the ferrule flange. This will leave a rebate to allow inserting the ferrules flush with the back. The brad point will leave a mark in the centre of the hole to line up the next drill 4) Drill a hole the diameter and depth of the ferrule body. 5) Again using the mark left by the brad point to line up the bit, drill a hole for the string to go all the way through (about 4mm diameter, or as big as you need to make sure you have a hole going to the holes in the bridge baseplate). Don't forget the scrap at the back to stop tearout. Hope this helps.

Would "faux binding" - i.e. leaving a line of unstained maple around the edge (or scraping away a layer of stain around the edge) be an option to give the look you want without routing a binding channel? Can't wait to see the pics. Cheers, Brian.

Just bought this qld walnut veneer on ebay. Looking at the first and last pictures, it looks like either a human torso, or a goat. :-) I'm thinking of flipping the pieces (so the edges become the centre, and the centre the edges) and see how those "shoulders" fit as horns on a double cut. I'll have to wait until it arrives. I'm also considering just framing as is - it's quite an interesting natural artwork. Brian.

Spoke, I'm not sure what you mean by the fretboard swing. The fretboard rotates on the end templates - they don't need to be full circles, or even half circles - just the section of the circle which will hold the fretboard + "x". I may be missing something - if I ever get around to actually building it I'll find out. Cheers, Brian.

I would have thought the router bit only needs to be a bit over half the width of the fretboard - 2" long should be plenty. It's big -but not out of the question. If you're looking at the diagram, remember that if it were to scale, then the fretboard in it would be 8" wide. A fingerboard radius jig - which doesn't have to allow for the headstock - could be shorter than the neck jig shown in the video. Cheers, Brian.

Hi Erik, The throw arm is only a handle - it doesn't determine the radius. The radius is determined by the shape of the end templates. Look at about 28-32 seconds into the video on the top right. Here are a couple of quick and nasty diagrams which might explain it better - or might not. Basically, just add the distance "x" evenly around whatever shape you want for each end and that will be the final shape of your neck or fretboard. If one end template has a radius of 7.5"+x, and the other has say 20"+x, you will get a compound radius. As long as the distance from the edge of the template to the face of the support board is the same on both sides, you'll get even thickness of board along its length. With correctly designed end templates as it is used in the video for neck profiles, this jig will even do the neck taper, though I imagine very difficult to do fretboard taper. In my diagrams I have more than 1/2 the circle, but you only need as much of the circle as needed for the fretboard. (If my diagram was to scale, the fretboard would be about 8" wide - the diagram was more for the concept - I did say it was quick and nasty)

from Brunner guitars was posted recently on MIMF. With the right (simpler) end templates it coud be used for straight or compound radius fretboards (The radius of the template needs to be the desired radius at that end plus the distance from the back of the jig- where the template rides on- and the cutting surface of the router bit. I think that this design is flexible enough to make it worth the effort building it.

What grade steel wool did you use? If 0000 wasn't enough, you could always use 00. cheers.

Troy, before you go through a lot of work for what may be a less protective finish, consider bringing down the gloss on the Tru-Oil. You've obviously got a good build of TO if it's glossy. A few minutes with 0000 steel wool should give you a nice smooth satin finish. Let us know how it goes. Cheers, Brian.