Moth

+1. I don't know how many times I've explained that here. I don't mind explaining it, but a tutorial would be nice. Carving and contouring for beginners would be pretty cool too. Like, drawing your depth on the edge of the body and then drawing the start of the slope on the face of the body. Simple stuff like that. What i'd really like to see is the missing pictures or a redo of the finishing tutorials that Lex Luthier posted. Same goes for a neckthrough tutorial that includes clamping, as I've never seen anything like that, and I'm sure a lot of people have questions on weather to clamp before you carve the body parts out or after.

*highfive*

which bit on a dremel ? cut off wheel, router attachment, sanding wheel ? ive had bad experiences making pickguards with dremel : ( I use the spiral cut bits. I guess a rotozip is meant for the job, but they work perfectly well in the dremel with the small router bass attachment http://images.orgill.com/200x200/6339857.jpg I do all my cuts a little bit outside the lines, and then I clean it up with sandpaper. Works like a dream!

I'm going to agree with everyone else on buying either an original or schaller floyd rose. I'm not a fan of FR, but if i were going to buy one, I'd get the real deal so it will do what its supposed to do (divebomb, ride up and stay in tune). You have to do some modification to add a FR locking nut in place of an original nut.

It was a close call between the Texas Tele and the Gecko explorer. I ended up voting for the explorer, because it's the one I could picture owning. A few months ago, I wouldn't have even thought of voting for the Tele, because the pictures just made it look... bland. But now that I'm seeing it in proper photographing, It really blew me away! I couldn't even tell that there was top carving on it from the earlier pics. When I voted, I noticed that the invader is pretty far ahead. I'll review this one, simply because I'm confused. I didn't vote for this one because it looked nice until I saw the kill switch button... Kinda reminds me of a beer can in the middle of a crystal clear lake. So yeah, nice guitar, except for that killswitch.

laminates are added to necks for stability, as well as asthetic design. Some people say that the strongest part of the guitar is the glue joint. Others will tell you that the glue joint will ruin the sound of the guitar. I say if you make your joint properly, and choose your wood wisely, you'll be able to: match your grain so it looks good make your joint line invisible not lose any resonance due to gaps in the joint and most importantly, your guitar will be solid. You'll also notice that people will add "ears" of wood to the headstock in order to make it wider to accomodate a shape. Somewhere on the forum in the "in progress" section, someone made an SG out of random scraps of wood they had lying around. I think it was called "The Ugly Guitar" or "Ugly SG" or something like that. It looks like a Picasso, but its a successful guitar, and I'm sure it plays!

I use a dremel

Figure out what the scale length of the guitar is. Now blow up a picture of an above shot of the guitar till the scale length is true. Trace blown up guitar (now actual size since the scale was adjusted) onto a piece of 1/4" MDF Cut out blown up guitar Template Build guitar

I just fill the slot with super glue then take a rubber tip hammer and push them in with that and slide the hammer across the fret pushing it in instead of hammering then take an extra radius block and squeeze clamp the fret in (I usually have three frets in before I clamp) let it dry a couple mins, move on and repeat. I find this is cheaper than buying press inserts and all that stuff and with this process I have only had to level the frets once (my first build) other than that the frets stay perfectly level, that is if the board is level to begin with. Love this build though, its lookin good and I like that ebonizing technique I will have to try it sometime. But now the radius block has fret imprints and superglue all over it

Why don't you just give it a boob job then?

Tony Iommi's sound after 2001... That'd be my metal choice For classic rock stuffs, I'd go with the guy from 38 special in the song "Hold on Loosely"

Bass necks can be smaller and thinner than some guitar necks. Take a look at some of the higher end Ibanez SoundGear models. The other extreme is pretty thick. Fender Precisions for example. The Extended Range basses you'll find out there also can have a pretty thin profile, just so you can get your hand around the neck. +1 on the carbon fiber, or double trussrods if you're concerned!

I don't have any fretting supplies, nor do I have the will or courage to build a neck right now. You don't have a hammer and a piece of scrap wood? As far as neck angle goes... You need to have all your pieces out in front of you before you start building. Neck angle on a bolt on is built into the body's neck pocket. However, it seems you're building a neckthrough, so that means it'll be built into the neck. Since Kahlers were originally designed to be a direct replacement for Tune-O-Matic bridges, you WILL need a neck angle. Typically, there's a 2* angle, and a 12" radius to properly fit the neck... HOWEVER, it all depends on how high you plan on having your neck compared to the surface of the body. If your neck is higher, you'll need less angle. If your neck is lower, you'll need more angle. Look at Perry's tutorial to see what I'm talking about. Make sure you understand what's going on before you start putting things together and cutting things apart. If you don't understand, search or ask first.

astigmatism makes things like this not work

Noted!

Most of the 50's guitars were hand made anyway, weren't they? With that in mind, no two would be exactly alike. So you're paying more homage by not being completely accurate!

A straight edge will be your friend on this one. DO NOT do a fret level and crown until you have determined that your neck is straight. Try this: Put your face near the headstock. Now, look at the nut. Now look down the neck at the bridge. This is the best angle for seeing if your guitar's neck is straight. Chances are that you've over tightened your truss rod and you have backbow on the neck. For an ideal setup, your neck will be straight. If your neck is straight, then the factory fretjob should be flat. Then you should be able to raise and lower your action to your comfort level depending on how far it'll let you go. As far as the truss rod adjustment goes, you will see immediate results when you first turn it, but the next day, you may see different results. That's because the wood has to adjust to the adjustment that you've made on the rod as well. So, you may have to make another adjustment the next day, but to a lesser extent. After that one, you should be all set up. I really wish people would stop recommending fret work when the option of a proper setup has not been considered.

Me too!!! Oh Snap!!

Heyyyy, I have that router!

That's from a sharpie???

I like restorations I'll watch this thread

due to the 2 point trem design, I'd say this is an early 2k Ibanez or Squire... Probably not USA made. Very nicely groomed nails btw!

That's gonna look so nice once its buffed!

the headstock has just enough end to it to not make it look phallic. I think it'll look better with tuners, but we'll just have to wait and see. I really like this build!

While that's true with most guitars, I find that a lot of the Ibanez ones that I do (especially the ones with the generic floyd trems for some reason) can have buzz on the 14th and 15th until I adjust the truss. That, and I always seem to have to shim the nut... and replace the lock nuts, because they have string grooves dug into them... But yeah, the truss rod has the potential to effect higher frets. If you look down the neck from the bridge, you can even see it when there's bow or backbow.