Devon Headen

14 grit sandpaper removes everything . In all seriousness, any buffing compound will remove all the scratches if you rub enough. What do you mean by "deeper ones"? Chances are you'll cut through your finish trying to get those out. Personally, I'd just leave it alone. Used guitars don't look new. It's not worth the work to fix the finish (not to mention if you don't know what you're doing you will make it a LOT worse than it is right now by trying to 'fix' it), because in two weeks it'll have more scratches anyway

Buy a Squier if you want the cheap option in every situation. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you still live at home? Or at least have never come anywhere close to thinking about running a business? Go try to survive charging $50 for a fretjob. Personally, I would never take one of my guitars to someone that charges far below the market. To me that says that he does crappy work. As for charging surgeon prices, when was the last time you went to the hospital? When I cut my hand on the table saw several months ago, all they had to do was stitch it up. AFTER INSURANCE it was over $800. This after I waited 2 hours in the waiting room bleeding all over everything. The doctor? I saw him a total of 15 minutes tops. That's a way to make a living. Even if pros did charge surgeon wages, I know some people that would rather a botched mother than a botched fretjob. And they love their mothers greatly

Not really. Take a look around at any good straightedges, and you'll probably be paying at least StewMac prices. I've heard that the StewMac ones aren't as accurate as some other brands, but that's another story. Straightedges aren't cheap. Period. That's why I just use a good ruler or a square. Not quite as accurate, but I don't have that kind of dough to burn right now.

That's what I thought, too. I think the top guitar looks great, but with different hardware selection it could be KILLER.

The darker neck blank is sold.

Definitely do an inlay. Just cutting a cavity a filling it would be hard to do perfectly, and even then it would look cheap.

If it's unslotted and unradiused, just find someone with a planer. I'm not entirely sure why you're ordering wood that you can't process into something usable. If you don't know how you're going to get it to what you need, you should just order it preradiused and slotted.

Sure looks like it . I'm sure Jeremy will be flattered. Nice rendering, too.

Sounds just right. I was going to try to write up something very similar until I saw this.

You could buy this to fuel your desires http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...8181761826&rd=1 I'd never seen any figured BR, either, but now I see where you're coming from.

That's a natural harmonic. Totally different than false "pinch" harmonics.

The tele neck pickup covers don't fit normal single coils. EDIT: beaten to it as usual

Scrapers had a pretty big learning curve for me. Not the use so much as sharpening them right. It took some experimentation to get a good cutting edge that was dead smooth. I could get it to make a good cut, but it was always jagged. In no way ready for finishing. Now that I've figured out how to use it properly, I'll never look back. It saves quite a bit of sandpaper money, too

I used the cutoff wheel on my dremel, but I've heard of some people filing it in.

It's possibly to do quite a lot of blending with a bolt on neck. You can't do that same amount that's possible with a set neck, but it's an option. Even if you tried to glue it in (which is completely pointless in my opinion), there's no substantial heel, and thus, nothing to blend. I really can't think of a good reason to glue a bolt on neck in. The whole purpose behind bolt-ons is that if the neck goes south you can replace it. You're going to need a really tight fitting neck pocket to get a good glue joint, too.

I've done just fine without the specialty file set so far. I use a razor saw to lay out the spacing and get the depth close, then I use feeler gauge "saws" (feeler gauges with notches cut in the edges) to get just a hair about the right height, then I round up the bottom with a needle file and sand it up good.

After a quick reading of all your posts, I know why Perry is getting the feeling he's getting. You (GregP) apparently aren't meaning to, but it sounds like you're touting a zero fret as the end all for perfect action and intonation. Reading deeper into you're posts I realize you're simply saying that a zero fret has the same effect as a properly cut nut. When you say that a zero fret accomplishes the same goal as a compensated nut is when you're not making much sense.

I'm guessing you're looking at the GFS pickups on ebay? The same seller that sells those sells what looks like some high quality brass hardtail bridges. Take a look at some of those. I'm actually just about to order one from him to test it out. If you keep your eyes out, sometimes you can get some really nice pickups at reasonable prices. I got a set of Kent Armstrong strat pickups (3) for $50. Then again, I've heard GFS is a good value pickup.

I'm speechless

Exactly. Get one of those Delonge (sp) squier strats, refinish it with hot pink fingerpaint, make a strap out of duct tape, and have at it.

I do mean to seem repetitive. If you don't have the proper setup, don't even consider spraying two part poly urethanes. IT WILL KILL YOU. End of story. Lacquers aren't bad paints. They are probably your best option if you don't have the proper spray booth/forced air respirator system.

That only works if you're using a top. I usually measure and route down the center glue joint on bodies without tops.

Just go to Lowes, I'm pretty sure they carry them. They're called aircraft bits I think.

Same with me...I was worried there for a minute

Speak for yourself. Why does x = 1? I'm using you formula and getting kind of close results, but something isn't coming out right. I understand why it works on fret 1, but if you could use it to find say, fret 13 with accurate results that would help. I don't quite understand what x is supposed to be. You say distance from nut, but that can't be it, because that's what the formula is attempting to find. The way Rich explained it is still the simplest way in my opinion. Other than just using online fret calculators or course