pauliemc

I dont think I could resist the urge to fill that big hole in the body - with a glass eye & some teeth encased in resin

Well that sucks rocks. Was this the jackarse with the 40 guitar order? Indeed it is. This is a second order, 17 guitars, a mix of electric & acoustics. But he tried to jack me on the final payment, Said he would not pay up untill they had been sold on in his store. That's not how I normaly do things & was not in the contract so I held back the last few guitars. When the deal looked like it was falling thru I agreed to refund him his payment minus an amount that constitutes a non refundable deposit once he has sent the guitars back to me in good condition. then he hits me with a Fookin Invoice for work done by his own people. this is because he has been rebranding most of them as his own custom shops work & had the cheek to invoice me for replacing the headstock veneers & logos. Dude is realy trying my patience.

ha ha ha I love these arguments. its just opinion vs opinion all the way & you will never come to a conclusion that will satisfy everybody. Personally, I have found that a more ridged or stiff system tends to give superior tone & playability. & no I am not saying that a trem ruins tone by adding stretchy springs before anyone jumps on that one. I mean you need a neck & body that have very little movement - if any at all. I have always found that guitars I replaced necks on because they had what I call "disco necks" - moving about a lot, always needing the truss adjusted etc. etc. sounded better with the new stiffer neck. Similarly, Ibanez & Jacksons I have made thicker necks for seem to benefit from having additional mass in their new necks. Although this may have a lot to do with the new neck being more ridged than the original also. Regardless, discounting the individual species of timbers used. I believe that a more ridgid neck/body system is always going to give better tone, playability & sustain. the fact that it may be laminated or is a single piece has its own pros & cons that only add to the complexity of the arguement & complicate things. So I wont get into that. But I do think that more neck is the way to go, I dont feel that a 17(nut)-19mm(body) thick neck is doing the guitar justice tonaly. My minimum is 20-22mm, with a preferance for 22.5-25mm on my electrics with a 44mm wide nut as standard. My acoustics have a 23.5-27mm neck with a 47mm wide nut. A customer explained it like this to his friend "what would you rather be swinging in a fight, a pool cue or a baseball bat ?" sometimes bigger is better.

As to the ranting mojo nut jobs. Ill try get it goin. I was asked recently to build a single cut for a guy. He wanted a big stong sound but still wanted a light guitar. No thicker than a strat and light as my alphas. So i recomended a cedar body with a maple top and a big round wallnut neck. I mean big. 47mm accross the nut. 23mm at the first fret and 27 at the body. In my own opinion a big neck adds to your tone. No offence to ibanez but gimmy a big lump fer a neck evry time. Its one area where i believe removing mass actually kills tone

Na man. Im still sharin d luv wen i can. There are 2 mojos gone out to customers already. But one particular client was bein a right tool. Couldnt let anyone know i was building for him. No piks. No build threads. No nuthin. Including no payment - unfortunitly for me. So look out law suit here we come Anyway. My own mojo is nearly done so ill be puttin it up soon. It wont do well but i dig d crap outa it so what the hell

Now, I may be lettin my inner idiot loose here, but I just spotted that there word under your avatar of bear, it says Moderator When the hell did that happen ? BTW, I agree with the GOTM proposal, Just let me know what month your entering so I can make sure i dont put King Mojo against you & get hammered again

Thanks Paulie. Wow it's been a while....business must be smokin' over there. Plus baby Mac surely claims his share of Dad's time. You teach him how to finsih sand yet? I should have known you'd notice the back, seein' as how contouring and coloring the back is one of your trademarks as well. Thanks Tim. I'm glad you're watching. SR Actually business sucks just now. im finishin up a load of gitirs for a guy who has turned out to be a real pain in the ass, takin up all of the workshop time & just making it a joyless affair. took a bit of work on the side for "the man" to help raise some cash for a CNC, but now the car is actin up - so that will be that fer the CNC for a while again. I think gods tryin to tell me something. I rekon he wants me to kees to the funky oddball builds & stay away from standards as much as possible.

Lookin realy good Scotty. I like the colour on the back in particular.

hey scott lookin good. Your on to my favorit part now, carving the top. I could carve tops / backs all day & not get bord.

I dunno man. I have seen timber put into vacuum ovens to be dried out. Stuff stacked in there 2 foot high. Just stacking board on top of board, closing it up & cooking it for 2 days. comes out dry & flat-ish. Just needs a little surfacing. But this stuff was realy wet going in, One batch of poplar had boards that were dripping. I dont use it if its not air dried for at least 2-3 years, & even then its cut & let rest for about 6 monthe prior to shaping.

Hey Scotty. 2 words NEW CUTTER. If im ever feelin iffy about a potential tear out feat I just get a new router bit. I have to give credit to you for hand planing that maple. I hand plane all of mine, but not with a bow like that. I had to deal with it once & decided to use the autoclave to heat/steam it. then squeeze it in a press to flatten it out. Of course I did think to take into account the heat & steams affect on the glue joint didnt I Ended up with 2 very hot pieces of timber

Lookin good man.

*** I dont pay attention for a few weeks & you throw this into the ring !! Funky lookin thing. For some reason it makes me hear the Macho man Randy Savage in my head, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGBIZTLR5rk Gotta love it dude

Hey Scott, any progress piks ? I know me askin is a bit cheeky as I always either dont have time to upload any, or (like i did today) I let the gitir go out without taking any BUT ! still doent mean I should not give you a hard time. So . Any progress piks ?

cant be without a No 6 or 7 stanley bailey. just so good to have around the bench.

Nope dont need to make another one. I got my green JS thingy back from the client (lucky he is a mate) He wanted one of the Archtops I had at the time so I traded him for it back That bowing you got when you bookmatched the maple is fairly common with stupid levels of figuring. As soon as you release all of the tensions in the wood it just wants to move about all over the place. I usually bookmatch & glue in the same day. Bandsaw it - spend 5 minits with a plane, then straight into the clamps with glue.

Filthy lookin quilt you have ther. Far as im concerned natural quilt is a sin against nature. It should be black blue or my own favrit GREEEEEN !

Im probobly gonna get slated for this. But I dont think you can go wrong with an alnico 2 humbucker, not potted, 2 wire with a nickle cover at the neck. Alnico 4 in the bridge. 4 wire versions tapped if you need single coil tones. 500k pots. Orange drop. Sorted.

Id probobly have gone with a lot of ash for that broadcaster vibe. But still. Iv played a les paul a tele a cobra & alpha custom all in the one gig & sounded like me no matter what. Anyway. I rekon you should look into a bandsaw. I dont realy use my thicknesser. Mostly saw it then number 6 plane.

Man. These things are lookin so good its makin me sick I have got to get off of acoustic boxes and back onto proper guitars.

If it helps. When I did a ritter-ish bass a few years ago I made a mould out of cardboard, tape & cling film. Melted a whole pile of crappy candles into it & done my initial conceptual carve of the thing in wax. Just to be sure that what was in my head was gona work in real life.

Although, I only say that because on my bench today is this little darling. The only build I am currently enjoying, Or am allowed upload to my site when done.

Mum said you are to build him a V

cool. Of course you realise you have to build a new guitar to play with it

You should give it a go scotty. Its interesting & a nice challenge. If yer interested in working with timber its a must at some stage. Even just making up the body mould can be a job in itself. But if you have no access to a bandsaw the tops backs & sides can get kinda pricy