pauliemc

Hey RAD ! when are you gonna start to be as forthcoming with your pickup knowledge as you are with everything else about building gitirs ?

Not that im complaining, I love the amount of info I find in a RAD thread. its one of the reasons I follow them. but some of us are just plain braindead when it comes to pickups & the rest of the electrical bits in a guitar. I personaly believe electricity is a plot by magic ninjas, how else can it be explained How I consistantly manage to wire up guitars that work is beyond me.

additional note to add to the above.

never skip over periodic checking of bearings that drum blades spin on inside jointer. Im not sure just how close it missed me by, But I actualy heard it whizz by my ear before it bounced around the workshop walls.

whole damned barrel, with both blades just tore itself out of the machine & vanished across the room, frightened the life outa me.

Also, you just reminded me. I gotta sharpen my jointer blades

ah yes. maple. recently iv been learning that birds eye can have a real issue with tear out unless your plane blades are like a razor. sometimes I just hate the stuff

Dude you sooo stole my body shape

Only joking. Lookin realy good. I love that top carve.

Hope you wore a mask working that wenge with a grinder, wenge dust is some of the nastiest stuff iv ever had to deal with.

I had taught about that. But I figured it would not generate enough heat.

But then i have never tried it so I would not realy know. I do have a 600w element for the water in my steam box. I wonder If that might be of use.

Hmmm. Interesting. I might look into the charcoal starter.

I have a big chunk of 4 inch diameter solid stainless bar, about 12 inch long. I might see if that will be of any use. Although I beleive it may be too much mass to heat & use effectivly.

I have a solid 2 inch stainless bar aswell. No real heavy wall pipe, the stainless pipe I have only has a 2.5mm wall. So I was thinking of packing it with tin foil. rammed in with a bolster & hammer.

& now the issue of my over thinking things rears its ugly head

iv been doing cedar necks for years, stuff cuts like marsh mallow its so soft . do 3 passes with a router, you should have no issues. just use a good straight template & take your time.

charcoal starter ? never heard of one. I dont get to do a lot of bbq here, always raining.

Hey man. what are u

you using to heat that bending iron ?

OK. So I just killed my bending iron. It was an old one I got from stewie mac god knows how long ago. Iv made irons for small radius bends using pipe & heating elements before But nothing realy decent, Nothing controlable.

Anyway, I have some 3 inch stainless pipe, a heap of metal foil & a dimmer switch Just sitting in the workshop, so I figured I make something myself. Just gotta decide on a heating element.

But before i start anything

I was wondering if anybody has any plans, or what are we using for self made irons that are proven to work.

Get your cavities in before you go any further with that body carve. trust me on this. you want a good level surface to be routing on.

Truss rod in. Cavities routed, Fretboard on. then finish your carve.

lookin good all the same

the reason I started building guitars. Major manufacturers suck at it.

Could not have put it better myself.

Ah no. its not that bad Scotty, I get to make some seriously funky stuff sometimes.

This order was filled wit mostly bog standard stuff. 16 super strats & 8 acoustics.

BUT !!!

One customer wants an archtop, no other spec to it. Just " build me an archtop that you would be happy to play"

The other guy handed me 2 scaffold boards. 9X4 inchers 8 foot long long, mangeled to crap with concrete, nails, tar, paint & all sorts. He wants 2 dirty lookin teles I do called King Mojo's.

So it suks the fun out sometimes doin them by the dozen like a machine. But then you get the odd cool build that makes it worth the easy stuff.

I have spent 2 weekends gluing up body blanks and neck blanks so it has been less than exciting at the shop.

I feel your pain man. iv been making body blanks all week, its just face - glue - clamp - face - glue - clamp - face - glue - clamp - scream - headbutt wall - start over again.

last week was no better. Just making up back & side sets for acoustics over & over. But still, its worth it when you get to the fun parts, like shaping necks

that is just dirty. you jammy git. its not often you find a piece with grain like that. definitly keep this one. screw clients, thats a keeper if I ever saw one

Cool. What resin are you using for this ?

spraying shellac ? never even taught to try that before. I have always just applied it with a rag, Must give it a shot.

for such a vulgar, pointy, aggressive design (explorers & v's are just so damned bold a design, gotta love them) it came out really elegant & refined looking. how in the name of god did you pull that one off

really - really - really cool.

If I am going to be oiling a thirsty top, I usually use an external tung oil. Put it on with a rag, don't spread it around too much. The external stuff seems to seep in a lot less than interior grade oils. then put a wax over it & buff it up. But I also usually do the oil after I do the RPC stuff.

you see the problem with innovation dont you.

Some of us do things that we think will help the instrument perform better (multi radius fret boards, chambering, extensive body carving, realy thin body profiles, my lotus design, your headstock)

or will be a problem solver for a particular client (trapazoid necks, fanned frets, wedge body acoustics)

that turn out to be cool lookin, So people steal your idea. Then you do this crap a few times & people think you are innovative & at the cutting edge of your profession.

So they keep track of what you are doing so they can steal more of your ideas.

Why else do you think I read your threads

I'm liking the binding on only one side. Could be a good idea to use as a frame where theres colored grain highlights on only one side of the board or something like that.

Thanks the fretboard was boring... as was the whole guitar. I added the binding and the headplates, backstraps so it was more interesting. This one might still have a trick up its sleeve.

I am hoping to get to add single sided binding to my style... however lately anytime I do something slightly (and I mean slightly as nothing is new under the sun) original it gets copied before I can even build a second guitar.

Coool, single side binding. YOINK !! ill take that idea thank you

Only kidding

I am not sure about using the 7th fret as the perpendicular. It feels a little weird in the first position. While I think the longer scale on the Low B should make it awesome for drop tuning I am not completely sold on the ergonomics of Multiscales yet.

I favor the 5th fret for the perpendicular. its not a huge difference, but it is just enough to make the first few frets feel a little more normal. I dont think the fan realy makes much playing difference until you get up around the 10th. but then thats just me.

This thing is looking realy sweet. I cant wait to get back into my workshop properly

Then again I'm not sure I'd want the body to have JUST oil, I thought of maybe doing the back and sides with Rustins Plastic Coat that I have waiting to be tried out, and juts oil the front. Or is this king of mixing up different stuff in different parts just asking for trouble?

Any opinions?

There are plenty of just oil finishes out there, likewise oiled necks with clear coated bodies. And, I'm pretty sure Paulie does oil and clear combos on bodies from time to time......if not fairly often.

SR

Indeed I do mr Scott.

I do a lot of oil back / sides with poly or nitro fronts. Not always with binding either. Sometimes I feather the clear on a top out towards the sides & oil the guitar from their on.

been there, done that. will never do it again.

Its not that shaping the pieces is fro the fret board is that bad, its that its so hard compared to the surrounding materials that it makes it difficult to level your board. So you have to level it & first. then inlay the steel.

The body is easier, but then you are in a position where you have a polished material that wont take a finish in a similar fashion to the surrounding timber, so four finish goes to crap in about 6 months.

You are far better off using mirror backed mylar or some other metalised plastic. But then you probably dont have that kinda stuff where you are.

Love zebrano. doing 2 acostics with it just now. It should look excellent on the front of this thing. YOu gona colour it or leave it natural ?