DrummerDude

Same photos, this time on PhotoBucket: http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa121/t...456755_orig.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa121/t...456745_orig.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa121/t...456735_orig.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa121/t...456732_orig.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa121/t...456725_orig.jpg

Thanks, WezV. Please, have a look at the photos when you have access to them and tell me what you think. Or maybe there is a server that is visible from your work? I can upload the photos there, eventually.

Hi guys, I was searching for second-hand pickups for my Telecaster project and i was offered a couple by a guy. The guy told me that the pickups come from an original Fender, Mexican made. What puzzles me is that the bottom plates of the pickups are not flat but have some magnets or something on them. The guy claims that it is OK but I have never seen Telecaster pickups with such things on their bottoms. I smell pocket fitting problems because of these things too. Have a look at the pictures below and, please, tell me what they are and if it is OK to buy them. Do they look like original Fender Telecaster pickups to you? If not, is it still OK to buy them? have you seen such pickups on MIM Fenders before? http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/7347/456732origtc1.jpg http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4758/456725origzw2.jpg Thanks!

@Guitar WIll, what is the Strat body that you are trying to install these pickups into? Is it an original Fender body or is it something that you routed by yourself?

I am getting really confused. One thing is for sure - ash or not, this wood will be used for guitar necks. I don't have any choices left to be picky. I've heard that bass makers like ash as a neck material, Neal Moser even likes oak, so the heck with this - I will build a neck out of this log anyway. By the way, some hours ago I spoke in ICQ with the guy who gave me the log and he swears that it is Maple. Anyway, it's not important anymore. I think I know how to judge the grain and how to get "quartersawn" pieces out of flatsawn timber. Well, never done that but I have read how it is supposed to be done, so I'm OK with this for now. Hopefully, I will be able to cut the wood the way I want to using my circular saw. Or is a bandsaw an absolute must for this kind of job?

I think you are thinking of tannin and tannic acid-link. I don't know about ebonizing, but you should be able to get a good dark dingy grey(think of an old fence post with a rusty nail in it, you can get that kinda staining going on). Peace,Rich I was looking for a way to chemically test for Maple. Some magical chemical that would react in a specific way with Maple only. It turns out that the iron & vinegar solution would stain just about any kind of wood and I guess that tannines would stain any kind of wood as well. Maple or not.

It's pretty awesome.

Alright, thanks guys. I have a clear idea what I will be needng the slab for. After I finish my first build (which will be using a readily built bolt-on neck, tkaen from a BC Rich guitar), I will be heading for a neck-through guitar completely from scratch. The first thing I will try to cut out of the slab would be a neck-through blank. So, you say, I will just have to cut out what I need for the neck-through and leave the rest of the slab untouched until I need anything else? Cool, this would save me trouble. If it turns out that I don't have a suitable place to store this huge slab, I will just have to cut it up in smaller pieces anyway. Hopefully this would never happen but if it does, I hope that it won't hurt the material that bad.

I have actually done that when I was 13. And I did not even know anything about guitar building at that time. I saw a Kramer guitar in a magazine and the specs read: "Neck - Maple" So I opened a book on trees and found what Maple looked like. Then I took an axe and a saw and went to the woods. Found a huge Maple tree. Took me 5 hours to hack it down. It fell down the slope and it was impossible to move it. it weighted like 5 tons, probably. Then I called my father and he cut down an ash tree for me. The axe's handle was already broken but my old man cut it down by just holding the blade with his bare hands. Precious memories... I have had thoughts to go out there and find that maple tree that I cut down but it must be eaten by insects and totally rotten by now.

By the way, I was reading orgmorg's thread HERE and I saw that he decided to cut up his Maple log and store it in many blanks. I once again would like to ask if it would be better to do the same with mine?

NARRD!! To the Lab!! haha jokes jokes sounds like a good idea.......why the suspission that its not?? Because a few people on the forum said that the photos looked like it was ash.

Hi guys, I want to buy a set of used, low-end, dirty cheap parts for Telecaster (standard type Tele, not Thinline and not HSS). And I don't mean that the parts must come from an original Fender Telecaster. Actually I am after parts from Squier, Stagg, Harley Benton or whatever Telecaster copies are there as long as they are modeled and sized 1:1 with the original Telecaster parts... I need the following parts: 1. Telecaster pickguard 2. Telecaster control pots plate (preferably with the pots on) 3. Telecaster bridge (string-through body type is prefered) OPTIONAL: 1. Telecaster electronics 2. Telecaster pickups Accuracy of the parts' dimensions is very important for me because (hopefully) I will be building an exact Tele copy. In other words, if the parts come from a Tele copy that has different dimensions than the original and do not comply with the parts of the Standard Telecaster, I don't need them. I want to buy everything as a whole lot and not piece by piece. Thanks! ...................

Oh yeah, Maple reacts to the acids and salts in your skin and dets dark-grey. Actually this may be the main reason why they seal it with laquer. /OFF TOPIC: Hey, this is a great idea! Could I use some acid or a chemical to find out if the huge maple log I just got is really Maple and not some other species? I think maple "ebonizes" in a proces involving iron and vinegar acid.

I regularly oil my rosewood fingerboards but I don't consider this a "finish". They laquer Maple boards to protect them from moisture. Guess that they don't laquer rosewood fingerboards because there is no need to - rosewood is quite oily by itself and has good moisture resistance.

OK, here goes the complicated and long but, hopefully, not so boring story of this log. It was ordered, cut and dried for making violins out of it. Then the violin maker guy who ordered it simply did not buy it and it was reserved for some big shot who intended to buy it and make flashy Maple furniture out of it. For use in his own office that is. This did not work out too because my friend (the guy who got it for me) simply took it away before any furniture building projects got near it. He is a close friend to the timber yard owner - he knows a lot of people, dealing with timber but still, he told me that it was pretty hard for him to actually find any maple. The timber yard owner himself was pretty surprised to find this piece of maple among the other woods in the yard. It was marked and stamped as Rock Maple some 8 years ago when it was actually cut and put aside for drying. By the way, the log did not cost me anything. I did not pay for it. Only paid about $15 for the courier service which is a pretty low price on its own, considering that the log weighs about 40 kilograms. I should have videotaped the faces the courier guy was making while he was trying to understand why the f*ck anybody would order an ugly 40-kilo wood plank from 350 kiliometers away and pay for same day express door-to-door delivery.

No, but it has Canadian wolverine claw marks on its bark.

But isn't "rock maple" supposed to have lots of interesting deformations in its grain because it has been growing on a rather poor soil and under harsh and ever changing conditions? How could I test it if it is maple and not ash (like some guy on another forum supposed)? It was marked as Maple and it was stamped that it should be used for violins but still, I am getting suspicious because of the lack of any interesting flares in the wood. On the other hand, I have several guitars with maple necks and there's no a sigle sign of maple grain "activites" on none of those, so I guess it's not that bad. I have heard that the less activity in the maple, the more stable it is. Heck, how to test this log if it is Maple?

DAMN! No burl, no swirl, no birdseye, no flame. Is this thing Maple at all??? http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9187/s5002228cw5.jpg http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1686/s5002231cp0.jpg

I just planed and sanded a portion of the log to show the grain. I laquered it literally seconds ago and I will take some photos and post them here when I have the chance to.

I don't have a palm sander. Guess that my power planer would be just as useful. I don't think that this maple has any cool figures hidden under its rough surface but who knows, maybe it's the ugly duckling of all maple logs and maybe there's a hidden swan underneath?

Hi again, I apologize for posting that many pictures but bear in mind that they are linked to an external host server (www.imageshack.us) and cost no bandwidth to the forum owners. This kind of wood is called "planinski klen" where I live. This literally translates as "rock maple". It has been growing on a rather dry and rocky soil in the mountains and the wood is very, very dense and hard. The fact that it was ordered by a violin maker does not mean that he ordered it becuse it was soft (and I know for sur ethat it is not). I guess the violin maker busted his ass to find *ANY* kind of maple (just like I did) and when he found this one, he gave no damn if it was soft or hard because he knew it that it's not the right time to be picky and that buying hard maple is much better than trying to make violins out of pine (and pine and beech is all you can find here). Everything else is not used and thus - pretty scarce to find. Yes, I am absolutely sure that the log has been air dried for 8 years. It is marked on the log.

I too want to know what the Eden products are like in terms of 25,5'' guitar necks. Are they too horrible? As horrible beyond repair and/or customization?

Well, I wish I had a recorder to tape it while it was falling and jumping down the stairs. It made that awesome ringing springing clinking sound that a piece of basswood (or pine, or mahogany, etc.) would never deliver, no matter how dry it is. Gosh, this is my first maple and I love it.

Hello guys, I just got a HUGE maple blank that has been dried for 8 years in the open air. It is fantastic. It has a handwriting on it that reads: "For the violin". Apparently it was reserved for some guy who makes violins. The blank is dry as a bone, it weighs 30+ kilograms and I already had the misfortune to drop it on the floor - it rings like a bell!!! What bothers me is that it has cracks in it. I guess that it's not a big of a problem, considering that I will make no more than one or two "neck-thru" necks out of it but still, what would your advice be about those cracks? Are they critical? How to avoid them? Please, have a DETAILED look at all the pics I have posted below. My overall impression is that the material is fantastic and it was absolutely hard for me to find ried maple where I live, but the cracks ar ebothering me. Should I cut the blank in smaller pieces and store it like that or should I not touch it and leave it in its present, solid condition until it is time for making a neck out of it? Thank you for your help!