Mender

Much as I'd love to take Spoke's advice and have a 14 inch bandsaw, sadly I'll have to make do with the small one. My workshop is an old 12 foot caravan with a workbench along each side, and a short one at the end. It is kitted out with my small bandsaw, a pedestal drill, router table, 4 inch jointer, a 10 inch thickness planer, a 4 inch x 20 inch belt sander with sanding disc, a bench grinder, and a dust extractor. This leaves me with a clear bench space of just under three feet wide to actually work. I have shelves and drawers under the worktops to store my hand tools and handheld machines - drill, router, chisels, etc., and a small amount of various types of hardwood. All the above gives me the basic requirements for guitar making, and I have no room for anything else, much as I'd like to improve. I also have a bench saw which lives in the cupboard under the stairs, and it sees the light of day when I need to use it, and the weather is suitable, as I have to use it outside. In another thread, I posted that I'd just bought a fold up greenhouse to use as a spray booth. This will be erected as and when I need it. I have a very small compressor with a six litre tank, and a touch up spray gun which holds about half a litre of paint, just the right amount to spray one coat on a guitar. The spray equipment and fold up greenhouse share the space under the stairs with the saw bench. So you see, I don't have anywhere to put a larger bandsaw. I already have to slide one machine to one side to move another machine to where I can use it. Then there is the cost. I am disabled with rheumatoid arthritis affecting my hands, shoulders, back, and legs, which seriously limits what I can do and also when I can do it. If I am able to work more than a couple of days a fortnight, I consider that to be good. I make guitars purely as a hobby, and when I sell one, it is around the break even price. I can only complete one guitar in around six months, so even if I made a profit, I would never make enough money to buy a decent bandsaw. My income is only disablement benefits, and believe me, that is not a lot of income Still, I keep a smile on my face, have a great sense of humour, and I have many very good friends (and I don't have to get out of bed early in the mornings to trudge off to work) so life isn't all bad

I think that shape would not balance too well. It reckon would be extremely neck heavy unless you have a very thick body to balance the weight.

Mmm. Sounds yummy That's fine if you like big bottoms

With my limited knowledge of Yamaha acoustics, I can tell you that the 420-E comes in 6 string and 12 string versions, and I think it is (was!) aimed at the beginners market. I do know the 420 is just a standard acoustic, but I believe the 420-E has a piezo pickup (E denotes Electric). There is also a 420-C, but I don't know anything about that one.

Used as a neck, it will sound much like rock maple. I swapped the original (badly cracked) rock maple neck on a Strat for one I made from canary wood, and there was no distinguishable difference in the tone.

Also keep an eye on www.machinemart.co.uk who can be cheaper than Axminster on some items.

I so am Despite my watery emulsion nature, keep me out of the reach of children.

Yes, exactly the same, but it's the only home made solid electric guitar I've seen like that. I suppose, as it was made in the 1960s, obtaining conventional fret wire in Cornwall (always 20 years behind the rest of the UK) would have been a tricky job. When I started making guitars in the 1970s, it was pretty much impossible to get after market fret wire, pickups and machine heads etc in Cornwall. I had to buy my supplies from a couple of dealers in London.

I remember seeing a home made guitar many years ago that had a flat fretboard, but radiused frets. The frets were not the normal frets with tangs, they were brass/nickel alloy, about 1.5mm wide. They were solid metal bars with a constant thickness all the way through, so the fret slots were 1.5mm wide. Obviously, the height above the fretboard must have started off more than 2mm high, then radiused, so the fret centers were very high and the ends were more or less normal fret height. It felt rather strange when playing, like a cross between a conventional and a scalloped board. Not exactly what I would like to play on a regular basis for chords, but probably fine for a lot of lead work.

The best deal I can find in the UK is Axes'r'us http://www.axesrus.com/axeElectronicsPots.htm#MiscPots £9 each including delivery.

I think in this is a case where a picture would show you the problem. The black curved line is a 16" radius and 45mm wide. The straight red line is 1mm thick, much the same thickness as a jumbo fret. As you can see, before you even get the fret to a 16" radius, you would be down to the wood at the ends of the frets. Even on a 20" radius you would hit the wood before you had the fret radius complete.

Aimee, I never got to "know" you on here, but from what I've seen, you are knowledgeable, sensible, and well thought of. I'd like to wish you every success in everything you do in the future, and hope you manage to make it back here some time soon Good luck. Alan

Nothing wrong with using poplar as neck wood. I've made several necks from poplar, and never had one twist, bend, or break. I don't see why a piece of poplar couldn't be used in this situation

To check whether it is the pickups or the rest of the electronics that is causing the distortion, connect a jack socket directly to the pickup leads, and plug into your amplifier. If that cures it, then you have to add each electrical item one at a time until you find what is generating the distortion. If, however, it doesn't cure the problem, then either the pickup is "poorly", or the amplifier has a problem. Can you try the guitar on a different amp, or a different guitar on your amp?

I don't see your reasoning here.I've not had to flip any body over on my bandsaw. I start cutting with the bulk of the body on the outside of the blade, so the waste area is between the blade and the bandsaw body. This way, I can cut all the way round with no problem. As for what it will cut, I have cut 2.5 inch thick white and red oak on mine. I just take it slowly and let the saw cut at its own speed. I use a fairly coarse blade, 6 teeth per inch if I remember correctly, and that cuts everything I've thrown at it

It's very likely it is shellac. Have you tried a varnish scraper? That would be my weapon of choice. Just make sure you scrape away from you so you don't swallow or inhale the stuff that comes off.

I have one like that, but branded "Powercraft". not a bad little tool, but you must use good blades. I use a 1/2 inch blade for straight cutting, and a 1/4 inch for curves. The blades supplied with the saw would not cut straight at all, so I bought some replacements online and have had no problems since. Just be careful to let the saw do the work. As soon as you start pushing with any pressure, the cut will wander. Now then, fine tuning the beast. Not a hell of a lot you can do to these, they are what they are, usable. One thing I will say, the blade guides are little carbon slugs (assuming it is exactly the same as mine) and they have a tendency to break very easily when you tighten the hex screws that hold them in place It's an awkward situation; the difference between too loose, tightened just right, and tightened enough to break them is very fine indeed. I overcame the problem by cutting some new guides out of some old beech I had laying around. They do the job perfectly, they don't wear down as fast as the carbon, and best of all, they don't break when you tighten the hex screws Oh, and you can ignore the specs that say the widest blade you can use is 3/8 inch. It will take 1/2 inch blades with no problem

What are you spraying that needs to be warmer than it is now ? The air temp round here is averaging about 10c and I'd like it to be 15c before I start spraying. According to the Met Office website, it should be between 14 and 16c today, but my two outside thermometers haven't shown above 11c on any day over the last week

I can put mine up in about five minutes, and take it down just as fast. The tubes are steel, and everything connects together by simply pushing plastic connectors on the tubes to join them all together After assembling it the first time, I used a small artist paint brush and some white paint to paint numbers on the end of the tubes and on the plastic connectors. Each of these three tubes _l_ would have the number "1" on them, followed by either a "V" or an "H" (for vertical and horizontal), and the "T" shaped plastic connector would just be marked with a "1". The next joint would have all the parts marked "2" and so on, so the next time you erect it, it's dead easy because you don't need to look at the instructions. Easier to do than to explain

From the result you are describing, it may be that the capacitor lead that is soldered to the middle leg of the pot is shorting out against the body of the pot. You should have a short insulated sleeve on that lead so it cannot touch the pot body.

In the late 70s/early 80s, I had a regular cheap supply of teak and iroko. My father had a garden shed making business and also made garden furniture, hence the teak and iroko. I made several guitars out of these woods, and the tone was always very good. The teak was heavier than the iroko, but not excessive. The only problem I had was the fact that both woods are quite oily, especially teak, which is why it is used for garden furniture etc., and I found that using a solvent based degreaser on the wood before applying sealer and paint solved the problem.

Suffering a serious lack of space in my workshop (a 12 foot caravan in the garden), and desperately needing somewhere to do paint spraying, I have just bought a collapsible greenhouse from Aldi in the UK. Only £30 http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_13815.htm 6 feet 3 inches length, 6 feet 3 inches high, and 4 feet 1 inch wide. Takes just a few minutes to erect or dismantle, and works great as a small spray booth. I just need some warmer weather now so I can actually do some spraying

A good friend for many years, the late and great Al Hodge, from Bodmin, Cornwall, UK (sadly departed this world in 6 July 2006 - brain tumour ) had a wonderful sound, no matter what guitar he played. Listen to these and I'm sure you'll agree. The first is a clip of Al playing his incredible version of the lead in "Hotel California", the second is his rendition of "Ain't That Peculiar", with some beautiful sounds from his Strat.

I've used a similar mod to fit zero frets on guitars that originally didn't have them, using a bit of rosewood or oak actually shaped like a nut with a stepin front of it. Saves having to fit a nut afterwards

As mentioned more than once elsewhere on the forums, Brian May of Queen made his fretboard out of oak, stained black, and lacquered. 40+ years on, and it still works for him