ScottR

I've been making whole necks from jatoba which is similar in hardness and weight. It makes a heavy neck which I offset by making a long tenon and spreading some of it to the body. Since it is so strong and stiff you can go quite thin without sacrifing strength and stiffness which help reduce the weight. So my opinion is it would be fine for a whole neck. Of course I may be the only one that says that. Most will likely tell you to use it for lams and fretboards. SR

Actually.......now that I think about it, it would be even safer to turn the neck over, jig it to clear the angle and use your CNC. Do you have enough Z-axis clearance to do that? SR

Very nice. This is starting to look like a signature style for you. I looks like you have mastered tru-oil and that bridge bothers me not at all. I love all the flowing lines in you design(s). How does the phat cat compare to normal shaped P-90s? SR

McMaster-Carr rocks. I like your sled. SR

Those are sweet. I've got a bocote fretboard that started out looking just like that. It has darkened so much over time that it looks a lot like cocobolo. Not that looking like cocobolo is a bad thing. SR

Looking good amigo. That is a serious bandsaw you have there. In fact it appears to be a well equipped shop. keep up the good work. SR

I was sooooooo loking forward to getting back to woodworking this weekend, and I did. Only it was a beautiful and dry weekend...and chores were calling. so for the bulk of the time this was the wood I worked. And did I work....I 'm sore in places I didn't know I had places. I did get some work done on this build finally. I got my fret board planed and then rough surfaced in prep for glue up. Here's the handle I made for safe planing on the jointer. It's sitting on a sheet of half in white acrylic that was left over from a job at work. I'm thinking of using this and the other sheets I got for making templates. It's not clear, but then neither is MDF. I sliced off a couple of thin pieces of the ebony drop from the fretboard and glued them up for a headstock cap. I need my trussrod before I can do too much more on the neck. I got my parts from StewMac in 3 days and my order from LMII two days later, but my trussrods from Allied aren't due to arrive till the middle of next week. So I cut the body out and am cleaning up the edges. This Spanish Cedar does work easily, but I can tell I'm going to have to be careful with it. It dents easily. SR

But it is soooooo worth it. SR

Which of your models will a 12.5" x 9.5' x 4/4 fit? Oh. 9.5 FEET. Er....nevermind. SR

It doesn't appear that milling down the maple boogered up your bookmatch at all. It still looks very sweet. SR

You missed what I thought was the coolest part of the video. If you pay close attention that board he puts on top of the fretboard & slams once or twice right before he frets puts little divots into the fretboard to mark the slots. (I had to watch it a few times on full screen to catch that) They make everything look too F@#$ing easy. I most definitely missed that little detail. I wonder how many slots you have to cut before the turn you lose to cut those slots freehand like that. SR

I couldn't see any templates or guides for cutting the slots. SR

That headstock looks like it got up close and personal with a bird of paradise. Stunning! SR

I'm curious about the responses to these questions as well. I have zero point zilch expertise in things electrical....but what I did on my last build was use conductive paint inside the concavity including the cover they did make contact. I grounded all the housings to each other and to the paint. I also painted the pup cavities and grounded the pups to that. I checked that I had continuity between all housings and all the painted parts. No issues. I did not wire it up as a test without the shielding paint for a comparison.....so I honestly don't know what I gained by doing all that either. SR

My significant other thinks I should do it that dark too. I'm torn on it. I like the darker edge too but just want the binding I worked so hard on to show nicely. Oh did I mention that on that sample that if I turn it 180 degrees the dark flame almost completely disappears? I have high hopes for this finish. Here's the deal. Your walnut is medium brown, almost dead center on the scale of light to dark. The best way to get it to show is by using high contrast. Your choices to do that are either to go light, the extreme of which would be to leave the top natural, or to go very dark, which you have already tested. To my eye the dark is more visually exciting, plus you get that cool flip. This not unlike John's choice with his hands of God inlay. He was torn between a maple fretboard or a dark one feeling like the maple would show off the wood of his scroll work better. He was afraid the contrast would be too low and the darker woods would get lost against a dark background. But he went with the wenge board and of course it looks great. By the same token, your walnut binding will be quite visible against that dark tobacco burst you've created. SR

I wonder if you could use a lacquer as an adhesive? Then you could use a pigmented lacquer as a base, coat it with a layer of retarded clear and spread your fabric into that. You could even build a clear over the top for a different look. SR

You are turning into a regular production machine. Have you ever explained (here) what the various elements of your model nomenclature stand for? SR

I was looking at that shot too. For a different reason. I love that tobacco burst exactly as it is. The walnut binding will show up as a lighter different shade of brown. I suppose you could let the top edge of the binding get sanded off and dyed with the top. Then the color break would be at the corner. I've never seen it done, but it could work. Maybe you should bind a test piece to see what whatever you come up with works. SR

I think you need something to act as a primer. Too much light passes through that fabric. Use the cream of the background color in the fabric, white or light grey which is the best base color for covering patterns or multiple shades....like wood grain. Paint it first. SR

Wood does speak doesn't it. I usually hear more from my carving stock--that pecan log was growling long before it became ol' bear. Well, I'm often amazed by what grows in there.....but if that is what it is growing in, who am I to argue? Actually, I was just about to push the button, and noticed it was misspelled. I had left the "t" out. That probably wouldn't have been too far off the mark either. SR

It's funny how differently smells affect people. I found it very pleasant. My absolute favorite so far is bocote. Dill pickles! It seems so out of place coming from sanded wood; it's a surprise even when you know it's coming. SR

Well, it still needs a set-up and maybe a new set of strings. The Spanish cedar I have has a nice mellow warm ring to it when tapped. That's what I expect it to add to the tonal flavor when strung up. SR

Any plans for it cooking up in that fertile mind of yours? SR

Well hello Joe! I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to hear from you again. I had understood it had a cedar smell to it but can't say that I noticed it......until I sanded on it a bit. Then it smelled very nice, a mellow cedar mixed with cinnamon. SR

Most of the carved stuff I saw in the Mexican markets was bland and nearly black, like ebony. But that could be from the polish I saw them putting on it. It looked just like black paste shoe polish, it was even in a flat can. I saw some very nice pieces in La Villita in San Antonio, mostly jewelery boxes and free form shapes that were just gorgeous. SR