DrummerDude

I'm good with this guitar for now, folks. Thanks for all your help.

Will continue the tweaking process after the holidays.

I will start by flipping the saddles on the thicker strings. It looks like doing this would get them some extra 4mm closer to the neck! I think this would be enough to fix the problem with the lowers strings going flat at the 12th.

Thanks for noticing this, Swedish Luthier.

I will also change the strings, as WezV advised. I may even put on thinner strings of good quality and see how it goes.

if you are struggling to get it intonated the first thing you need to do is buy new string as, as the gauge you are not sure of that came on the guitar will possibly be a pile of crap and are not what you want for adjusting intonation.

The idea with this guitar is to have low action and thin strings for easy playing.

I sure can use thicker gauge bottom strings on the guitar and this would fix the intonation problem that is caused by the too distant bridge, but that would also kill the initial idea of having soft strings.

Oh, and by the way: the slots in the nut don't allow for anything thicker than what I am using now (I guess 0.09's), so thicker strings won't go in the slots without the need of filing them wider. At this stage I'm too busy enjoying the holidays to bother with that new issue too.

BTW, Merry Christmas to all!

once done, you need to set the intonation, this involves making sure the nut and bridge are set correctly, as well as the relief of the neck....

Thanks for bringing this up.

The bridge is positioned too far back. The thicker gauge strings go flat at the 12th fret octave and the studs need to be moved towards the neck. However, the studs are already moved forward to their Max. The bridge is just too far back and I can't do anything about it.

Adding thicker gauge strings could solve this problem but I don't want to use thick ones. So I guess I will just have to live with a guitar that can't be intonated properly.

WezV, I am very happy with my current setup. As I mentioned, I was able to get 1mm action at the 12th without any fret buzz by raising the TOM just a hair on the side of the thicker strings. This magically fixed the fret buzz on the thinner strings too, even if I did not tweak that side of the TOM bridge.

What I have learned is that an action of 1mm at the 12th sounds cool on paper but for some reason it still feels to high to my fingers... I guess I'm just going action-crazy here.

Today I tuned the guitar half a step down to E flat (a.k.a. D sharp) and now I am getting a little bit of fret buzz because of the sloppier strings. They wobble a lot because I'm a heavy picker and I'm using picks made out of coins. That little bit of fret buzz is not a biggie though, I can perfectly live with that.

You've got 1mm between the 12th fret and the string. What measurement do you get if you lay a straight edge down the middle of the frets and check the gap at the 12th? Have you confirmed that the neck is straight? has relief (how much)? has a back bow?

I have only checked the relief between the 16th and the 1st frets, as advised by WezV.

The relief at the 7th fret is equal to the thickness of the G string. Don't really know how much is that in millimeters but I believe that it is less than 1/3mm.

EDIT:

I just checked the relief of the neck between the 22th and the 1st fret and it's roughly about 1/2mm at the 12th fret.

I'm not sure that you will reach your goal without perfectly leveled frets (what wez said).

For more (or better) advise we need a bit more info, what string gauge you use, on which frets you get buzz, were you get dead notes etc. You can get perfectly buzz-free low action on a dead straight frretboard if you are using thin strings (.008" set), file a slight slope for the highest frets when fretdressing and a light attack/pick hand) But if you are lika me, heavy-handed and using thick strings (.010" to .052") it is my experience that you need a bit of relief in the fretboard. And you need higher action on the bass string, tilting the bridge a bit.

I get buzz on the 12+ frets but the buzz appears only when I am fretting up there.

There is no buzz if I am playing something on the lower frets. I guess this means that the 12+ frets are not leveled well.

I also get buzz on the lower positions on thicker strings.

I really don't know what the string gauge is, but I suggest they are 0.08s or 0.09s - it's the string set the guitar came with.

These strings are way too thin for my liking but I am trying to get a softer and lower feel on the strings because I have been playing with 0.11s for the last 5 years and those are quite hard, not only in standard E, but also in the low drop tunings that I use for my death metal project.

thats the stuff

the easiest way to get that look at home is with actual wood.

i suppose you could do it with a waterslide decal - if you could print it large enough, get the colour tones right and apply it without ripping

I am trying to customize an inexpensive Les Paul copy that came in solid black.

I would love to have its top converted to flame maple look but I think its arched top would make it difficult to apply real wood veneer. Or am I wrong? Is there away to apply veneer to an uneven, non-flat surface?

Hi, I need some more info about the so called "photo flame".

Is it some sort of a decal? Or is it a more complicated sort of finish? I understand that photo flame is an artificial thing and is not the same thing as 1mm veneer. I read that it is some sort of a film.

The thing that interests me the most is: is it possible to apply a photo flame finish at home?

Are there any decal kits for that, any methods, etc?

Thanks!

I believe that Jackson even marketed many of their models as having Alder bodies while in reality the bodies were made out of Poplar.

There are many kinds of poplar.

Some of them show fantastic burl / flame / quilt effects - pretty awesome looking.

Ibanez have a whole model that is especially topped by polar burl. It is a rather high-end guitar that sells in the $1300 - $1700 range.

It sure looks killer, check it out here: http://www.guitar-village.co.uk/product-de...ew%2C+Inc.+Case

For me Poplar burl is one of the coolest looking effects in wood, if not the coolest looking.

Yes, you can use Poplar as your body material.

Forget about this topic, mates.

It is pretty clear that spruce just doesn't work OK, no matter what "revolutionary" implants you put in it (in my case - a piece of beech bread cutting board).

PS:

Pride?!

It's just an old and long forgotten "project" that ended up in the trash bin.

Actually it's pretty damn close to a humorous sketch and I am surprised that nobody has noticed the funny part yet.

There is just one video of this piece of pine on YouTube, not two, but I must confess that it kinda made my YouTube account popular. Just like my other video about alien abductions and extraterrestrial dinosaurs.

I just got my top wood.

It is not a thick piece of poplar burl but a thin but WONDERFUL birdseye maple veneer.

It's just freaking awesome - never seen such a beautiful birdseye before. It has a ton of quilt in it too.

I'm just loving it and I hope that I will not screw up this beautiful piece of poetry in the actual veneering process. Don't have a vacuum press, so I will have to do it the dreaded, tricky and dangerous way - using a lot of vices.

Any tips or tricks on the bookmatching are welcome.

Here are some photos of the birdseye:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/268/s5002652oz3.jpg

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2765/s5002642zy3.jpg

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8800/s5002647bb2.jpg

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/843/s5002650rr0.jpg

I want to buy OR exchange a set of 6-in-line tuners that have a 8mm base and are in black.

If you would prefer an exchange (I do, by the way), I am offering this set of tuners (10mm base):

It's cool, looks like a Russian mandolin (balalaika)

This is outstanding, man.

The combination of flame for the back and quilt for the face adds an extra dimension to the whole build.

I love V-shaped guitars but never liked the classic Gibson Flying V.

Your build totally changed my mind - it's just wicked cool!!!

I *think* that I may be able to get a piece of awesome poplar burl.

If I can get it indeed, I will use it for the top of the guitar for sure.

It's around 5 millimeters thick and looks awesome (never knew that poplar could be that flashy and cool).

I made a sketch or a visual plan that I will try to follow.

I have in mind figurative poplar burl top in clear gloss laquer, black "modern" Strat-style hardtail bridge, no neck pickup, no electronics (just an optional switch for the 6 possible positions of the humbucker).

The back, sides and bevels of the guitar will be gloss black.

Here's the sketch:

Great guitar. Very Dimebag-ish.

I went through lots and lots of pages on this thread and couldn't find a post describing the woods used.

Maple neck with Mahogany wings?

Oh yeah, and I read some news on those Russian newspapers.

Cool stuff.

I will not say anything and will just try to attach my jaw back to my face.

Coolest thing I've seen.

Ever.

Hi TheIRS, the dowels are not the re to "fill" the body.

I added them for a different purpose.

At first I had the three body parts glued together with epoxy, but then I reconsidered.

I managed to split the three pieces clean, then squared them using a straight blade and used PVA glue to glue them back together - decided to do it the traditional way after all.

Then I added the dowels as an extra-insurance against the infamous "creep" of the PVA glues, but if you are sure that your PVA does not "creep", they really are not necessary.

I wasn't so sure about my PVA glue, so I used them - they can only help and won't do any harm anyway.

Guess I would have been perfectly OK without them because the glue turned out to be really great and polymerized to a very rigid glass-like structure.

The dowels hold together more than great. I believe that you can use them to repair whatever problem you have and be sure that they will not fall apart.

Just don't forcefully hammer them in if they ar enot moving. Use the proper size of dowel - one that fits tightly but without the need of brute force.

Also, make sure they are well soaked in good PVA glue prior to joining.

Experiment with different stuff on scrap wood and judge what works best for you - this is what I do a lot lately.

Saves me lots of flaming on this forum too.

I will be very busy with my academic studies for the next two weeks.

The project will be postponed for after the 4th of November. Or at least the real body work will begin after the 4th.

Yesterday I filled several 1 millimeter deep gaps on the problematic edge and the body is almost squared now.

It needs to be routed flush on all sides and given the final shape, of course.

Will try to do small works and post updates whenever I find the time to.

Who knows, maybe I will be able to finish all the work until the 4th of November.

Time will tell.

See you around, people.

he hasnt got time to learn to use a handplane!! he has to get the guitar finished as soon as possible becausehe needs to score chicks with it;)

^ So true...

Everything is fixed now.

Waiting for the stuff to set.

If everything is OK, the body will be ready by tomorrow evening - squared sides, beveled edges, everything.

That excludes the pickup cavity. I will have to wait for my bridge to arrive before I start messing with it.

Alright, I decided to use small wood pieces after all.

It turned out that I don't have much epoxy left and without the small wood bits it will not be enough to fill the gaps and to even out the side.

I will fill the large irregularities with these split in half beech dowels and pine splinters and then will fill the remaining gaps with epoxy/wood dust mixture.

As you can see from the markers I put, the jigsaw's blade wobbled too much at different sides while I was cutting out the overall body shape and even though I was strictly following the line on the facial side, the blade cut out the wood in a wobbly way underneath it.

So now I will have to correct those irregularities.

First I will glue small wood pieces and then use a filler (epoxy, wood putty, plastic wood, whatever turns out to work best).

OK, the picture makes it clear what has happened, I had a similar experience, I think you are on the right track gluing bits of wood in, here is a picture of such a repair,

If you glue in as many pieces as you can, you can keep filler to a minimum, then if you re route using a template and just skim the surface with multiple shaving passes as opposed to digging in, it should come out fine.

I really can't tell what's going on on your photo, Muzz.

Seems that you've done a great job repairing whatever problem there was.

I just made a diagram and basically this is what happened to my cutout:

I intend to glue the sawn off piece back to the body and do a second cutout.

Oops!

If you are going to that much trouble, why not skip the filling step and just route/sand the sides flat and smooth and then glue on the plywood. What is the purpose of the plywood? To make up for the thickness or just for appearance. Unless you have like 1/4" gouges missing, I would still say just route it flat or close to flat and then sand it flat. That style of vee makes at least the sides easy. Just put a straight piece of mdf on top and use a templaet bit in the router and cut it straight and smooth.

Sure, that's an alternative.

I will have to find a thicker plywood/MDF, though.

Anyway, let's see what the putty has to offer. I am going to check the scrap wood that I tested it on right now.

I think I will fill the large gaps with wood pieces, then glue a long piece of plywood to the whole side, then route flush with the router and then add a thin layer of woodworking putty.