Mender

it is a problem - the holes should not be oversized, but you should be able to push those screws through the body by hand Agreed, but even if they are tight, you should clamp the neck before screwing it in, no? That's what I usually do. What kind of inserts do you guys usually use? I use these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330292937612?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 They work extremely well, you just need to get some M5 machine screws of a suitable length to go with them

In which case, you should get plenty of volume

Even when the pot is turned up full, you would still have only 1k resistance between signal and ground, which will pull the signal down, making it very quiet.

Are you sure they are 1k pots? You wouldn't get much volume out of the pickups

The simple answer to your problem is to give that timber to me. That way, it will be my problem

Your skills are amazing, and your patience is beyond belief. It must take many hours to create so many bits that fit together so well

There's an idea for you, Josh. Make an amp stand in the shape of a bear

I wonder what type of glue would be needed to stick a fretboard on its neck? Welcome to PG. I look forward to seeing some of your work in progress in the future

All those guitars are gorgeous, and my decision which to vote for was very difficult indeed. I would give them all an equal vote for beauty and workmanship, but I finally went with Hooglebug purely because of the amount of work that went into the inlays, and the truly unique shape

Wow! That is beautiful

The idea of having the three connector socket is so the sleeve can be used as the guitar ground as normal, the tip is the guitar hot line as usual, and the ring is used for the battery ground. This way, the battery is only connected when a (mono) jack plug is inserted. When you insert the jack plug, the jack plug sleeve connects the ring to the sleeve on the socket, acting like a switch, connecting the battery ground to the guitar ground. Remove the jack plug and the battery disconnects, so it doesn't run down when you are not using the guitar.

The tension is over the whole length of the string from the bridge to the tuner. When you fret or bend a string, the string between the nut and the tuner stretches as well as the string between the nut and the bridge. However, if you use a locking nut, then the string between the nut and the tuner doesn't move, so playable tension is the same whichever type of headstock you have. You can test this by fitting a top "e" string in the normal position and the bass "E" position and tune them both up to pitch. Don't use a locking nut for this test. Now try bending each string by one tone. The shortest string is definitely easier to bend because it doesn't have to bend as far as the long string as the overall tension is lower and you are stretching a shorter length of string. As a visual confirmation, you can do the test using a tension gauge hooked onto the bridge and the string attached to the gauge. You will see the shorter string is definitely at a lower tension for a given pitch.

Over the years, I have noticed that quite a lot of people don't like reverse headstocks, but I love them. They really have a positive advantage over conventional headstocks that many people seem to overlook. On a six inline conventional headstock, the top "e" is longer than the bottom "E". Longer strings require more tension to tune to pitch, so the top "e" is the highest tension. If you use a reverse headstock, the thinner strings are shorter, so require less tension, therefore making string bending easier, and chords are easier to hold down. Strat style guitars with reverse headstocks are definitely easier to play. I noticed this when I got hold of a Squier (Fender) Showmaster guitar some time ago (no, that isn't me in the video!). It is fitted as standard with a reverse headstock, and it is certainly easier to play than a Strat with the same gauge strings. Now, let's take a look at shorter scale guitars. A 24 inch scale will obviously have lower string tension than a 25.5 inch scale if the same gauge strings are used. 9-42 on 25.5 is fine, but the same gauge on a 24 inch scale can cause rattles on the thicker strings because of the lower tension, so you would normally fit 10-46 gauge to compensate. However, fitting a lefty neck means you could stay with 9-42 gauge, as, being longer, the thicker strings will be under higher tension, therefore there is less likelihood of them "flapping". I can't think of any disadvantages of reverse headstocks, apart from some people not liking the way they look (I actually think they look pretty good)

That second top is superb. Tilting my head to the left, I can see a ghostly skeletal apparition! I love it

Oh my! Your back injury sounds nasty. I hope it doesn't leave you with any lasting problems I have back pain, along with pains all over at one time or another, which is due to my rheumatoid arthritis. I've learned to ignore the pain in general, but it can still make me wince from time to time. As for strumming, I don't think that will be my problem. My problem will be forearm rotation and wrist movement for fretting. The fingers of my right hand are deformed because of arthritic joint damage, but I can hold a plectrum with no problem, and the right wrist is fine, but finger picking (which I used to love doing pre-1982) is definitely out of the question for me, although simple hybrid picking should still be possible as long as I can operate the fingerboard with my left hand

Thankyou both What I have decided to do is wait a while before pursuing this. You may have read on here a few months ago, I had surgery on my wrist in November to remove a piece of bone from my left wrist to relieve pain and allow me to rotate my forearm. Unfortunately, it didn't go well. The ulna hasn't settled down at all, and any movement of my wrist causes the ulna to pop up, making the back of my wrist look like a camel's hump, accompanied by a lot more pain than I had before the surgery I saw the surgeon again last week, and he is going to carry out further surgery to try and stabilise it. He will be fitting a prosthetic radial ulna (the bit of bone he removed last time)to hold the bone in place, and he will be fusing to of the carpal bones in the back of the wrist. We won't know how much movement this will leave me with in the wrist until about four months after the surgery. I will be in a rigid splint from above the elbow to the tips of my fingers for eight weeks, then a flexible support and lots of physiotherapy for a couple of months. Hopefully, after all that, I'll be able to play guitar again - not been able to do that at all since the last surgery, and start building again. If things don't go according to plan, I'll be stuck with very limited use of my left hand

Thanks my friend, but shipping it to the UK would be very expensive. Also I don't have the facility for resawing

I'd just like to find some mango wood! None of the (very few) hardwood timber dealers around here have any idea where to get it, and two of them have never even heard of mango wood I showed one of them a photograph of a mango wood coffee table, he said, "Oh, you mean spalted pine." I swear, the UK is way behind other countries on some things, and hopelessly expensive on others

No problem. I'm glad it worked

I've seen a lot of furniture made out of mango wood, and it seems to be quite dense. Has anyone here used it for a guitar body or neck? Also, does anyone know where I can buy the wood in the UK? Any web search only returns results for furniture, bowls, and ornaments

Remove the white wire completely. On the blue wire at the jack socket, you need the screen soldered to the tab that is connected to the outer ring of the socket, and the centre core soldered to the tab that is connected to the centre blade that is sticking up. At the pot end, the screen should be soldered to the body of the pot, and the centre core should be connected to the output tab of the pot.

If you use a roller nut, and the string pull is straight, or almost straight, then locking tuners work really well. Other than that, a zero fret and graphite nut with the slots cut slightly looser than normal, along with a straight string pull, gives very good results. This is the way I do it because I make guitars with 46 - 48mm wide nuts, and I haven't found locking nuts wide enough.

Is it a scuff or a glue mark? If it's glue, pure lemon juice should dissolve it. If it is actually a scuff, Brasso or similar should help

Southpa, I hate you

Is it anything like the one here? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180585324396&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT