Juntunen Guitars

Looks good I like the way that finish turned out.

It probably wouldn't sound that good at all. The thing with wierd shapped acoustics is that they have less air volume so they sound weak, quiet, and have little tone usually. Why are you going to do a bolt on instead of a dovetail? The sides would have to get glued to the block. If you are making it with small cut aways like most electric V's it will be easier, if you aren't then you will have to glue braces or kerfing to the side of the block that will make a gluing surface for the sides to attach to. I'm assuming since you said you will have four sides that the two points will go into a sharp point similar to a Jackson and not be rounded like a Gibson right? If so you will need to make blocks that will fit into those points to be a gluing surface as well. The other thing you need to come up with is a brace pattern, X brace, fanned like classicals, or some other style, if there is no bracing the top will either not last or will just snap under string tension. Then you also need to be sure to make the bridge so that the wings on it will cover the main braces (like the X brace) otherwise the sound won't transfer properly and will make a weak spot on the top as well. In all honesty if you are going to make an acoustic make a regular one like a Dreadnaught first then try other shapes, you would be amazed at how much you will learn off your first acoustic. Second it is a lot easier to just go with a dovetail joint, there is a better transfer of vibartions in acoustics and it makes repairs WAY easier down the road should it be needed and makes setting the neck angle easier to because you can adjust it to whatever you need basically. I forgot to mention that you will also need to have a fourth block (one in each point, one at the heel regardless of neck joint and one behind the bridge where the inner sides connect) I also would suggest bending the points like a Gibson V with two sides instead of four and have them rounded instead of making them sharp, it will be stronger and a lot easier, plus you wouldn't be losing air volume inside the guitar because there wouldn't be blocks in the points. There is lots to consider with building acoustics.

Padauk is definately a great wood, not a rosewood though, it is more commonly called a mahogany, from what I have seen, read and heard at least, correct me if I'm wrong. Good to know about the oils in it, I am going to use it on an acoustic next spring. Edit: "Padauks can be confused with rosewoods to which they are somewhat related, but as a general rule padauks are coarser and less decorative in figure." - Wikipedia I guess they are somewhat related

Sounds like it will be a cool project. What kind of wood are they?

How does Epoxy hold up to over time and through heat and cold compared to titebond though?

Haha oops.

Haha yeah I had a feeling I would get a response liike that. A lot of people feel that way. I have used it a little for acoustic work and like the way it turns out. You just have to remember that you have under a minute to clamp it everywhere before it sets to much to hold at full strength. You're right on the heat issue but in my experience hot hide glue and titebond were pretty close to the same heat resistance. I had about 20 acoustic backs in the bed of my truck one summer that I forgot about and they were there for a day, when I came back to them the ones with titebond I had to scrap because when the glue joint loosened from the heat they just slid around and warped the top so to fix it I would have had to joint off way to much wood so it would have gotten to thin. The hide glue just separated so all I had to do was sand a little and it was flush and ready for glue again. Mainly I use titebond too though.

I had to fix something like this once. What I did though was cut the wings off and edge sand them flush again then glued in a new neck. I had to sit and re adjust clamps for almost a half hour to keep the wings lined up with the new neck stock but it worked ... Just be sure to measure it a few times to make sure it's the right size. I had to cut the neck out twice ...

I will post that chart next week when I get ahold of a scanner. Have you ever considered hot hide glue?

Looking good, how has the spalt been to work with so far? I have some nice spalt birch but I still don't know if I like the look of spalt enough to ever use it.

Looking forward to the ebony top. I like the look of ebony, hate the tone when it is an acoustic guitar bridge. When you glue the fretboard you mention using broken drill bits as guides. If you roll a bit in parafin wax you can use a good bit for that as well. Just drill it in and after about 10 minutee titebond has tacked up so you can just back it out then. Just a small tip, it really doesn't matter which way is used. I have a chart that goes over all kinds of different types of adhesives and the amount of time it takes for them to set and all that. If that is of interest to anyone I can try to get a scan of it and post it up here. I must say that of everything in your builds RAD I think the neck is my favorite. Something about the laminates and how clean they look draws me to them more than most of your tops.

D'addario 13's for me personally and for the guitars I sell they get D'addario 9's

Cool idea. I like how it covers all that in a short amount of time. I'm surrently in luthiery school and it won't be until the second year until we cover CNC and CAD.

That would work but if it's only an 1/8th inch off at most I wouldn't even worry about it, no one would tell more than likely and it wouldn't feel any different. What areas are off?

What did you do to cut it that bad? I did the same thing last winter but I got my finger with my table saw, almost cut the end of my finger off all the way to the first knuckle, all guitar playing was done for about three months but I continued to do my best at building but ended up having to wait a month and a half befor eI could do anything major.

Should be a cool build. Mentioning the pointy stick thread brings up memories of having to empty my email inbox twice a day to keep it at a reasonable level haha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection I should have been more clear. I meant how would they works for guitar necks like how would you mount something like that?

That's a really good idea actually. Out of curiosity, how do fiber optics work?

Carl, are the LEDs you posted in that link square with a round top and those would be for side markers correct? As for the viewing angle, that was one thing I was thinking about with sanding the top but I'm not sure how much it would be affected since LEDs have rounded tops as it is but this would be making them a lot flatter I guess. When I mentioned laying them on their sides the point of that is to cover it with something else that way it would light up the hole or cavity it's in and shine up through whatever is covering it. I saw a picture of someone who did that with block inlays but they weren't clear plexiglass if I remember right I think it was more of a milky color so you couldn't see through it. Dave, I didn't think about letting them run for a while before gluing the board down, good idea. I really don't like the idea of pulling a fretboard off ... I get to frustrated and bored with how long it takes to pull off an acoustic guitar bridge.

Looks good. RAD definately has some cool ideas and I hear his pickups are really nice sounding as well, I have a 7 string humbucker of his but haven't had the time to finish the guitar it's going in.

So I have been planning a bass for the past few weeks that I won't be able to start until the summer or spring that I have been thinking about putting blue LED's in for fret markers but I'm not sure on how to do this. I found a good site online a while ago but that was on doing larger inlays like block inlays and I just plan on using dots. My question is should I just use 6mm LED's and install them vertically and then radius them down to the fretboard or should I use smaller ones and install them in on their sides and put a clear plexiglass dot or something over that and radius that? Is there a different way of doing it or something? Also how would I have to go about the side dots?

Yes seriously. I knew someone would go against that.

It's possible. I'm not sure how deep the Cort inlays go into the neck though. Are you looking to scallop the whole fingerboard or just the 21st-24th? I personally wouldn't scallop a fingerboard with inlays in it but I'm sure someone has done it. Welcome to the forums by the way.

It depends on what you are using for electronics as well. The thing with Ebony though is that it's so dense it actually begins to dampen the sound. A lot of people will say the opposite because it's associated with high end instruments but the reason it's associated with high end instruments is because of violins which is basically a sin to build a viollin without an Ebony board. That being said that is what happens with an acoustic mainly, I'm not sure on electrics but I do know that the sustain would be affected with an ebony board. I would go with an Indian Rosewood fingerboard personally (Brazillian would be the ultimate wood for what you are going for, at least for fretboards but it is extremely hard to get now). For the body I love the way Black Walnut sounds with a Maple neck. Claro Walnut is not quite as dense as Black Walnut and in my opinion doesn't look as good so that is something to think about. The grain and the pores of Black walnut also pop when an oil finish is on them. I have used Watco Danish oil, Mineral Spirits, and Linseed Oil and loved the results. Otherwise you could look into Coccobolo. That wood has a real clear, punchy, and well rounded tone to me and looks great as well. The downside to Coccobolo is it's heavy so you would want to look into chambering it somehow unless you want to have a guitar like a solid Les Paul

Mahogany back and sides with a spruce top. Mikro, I finally got to have a chance to ask my proffesor about this as well and I mentioned what you said and he said that students have built several acoustics in the past here with little to no trouble. He was saying something along the lines of the way they bend sides here is different from normal or something like that. As to the weight I didn't think it was too heavy when I used it before but then again it was not the amount of wood that would be used for a guitar. Thanks for the advice though. I might just try it to see how well it works or doesn't but I'll be careful to take it slow and try not to break it.