drpossehl

I am making a replacement mahogany body for a 65 Epiphone Newport bass that I bought cheap ($25 with original case). The neck is also mahogany if that mackes any difference. The original neck joint is shaped like the pocket of a bolt on neck. I am not concerned with being able to remove the neck in the future. I have a good tight fit. Should I go with 2500 pound epoxy, or titebond, or gorila glue, or what? I normaly lean tword epoxy for strength, but the joint is tight and most of the epoxy would be squeezed out. Please set me straight. Thanks, Dave

Certainly. But it's not like you're paying for a grade of basswood that rivals with plastic. The builder probably used more ply's of basswood making the guitar. Nick I was looking at the guitar and noticed that it is a set neckin the description, not a through neck. I don't know if that makes any difference to your plans. I'm guessing the basswood sounds fine.I built one of those Saga "prs" kits with a basswood body and it sounds great.

I used cocobola alot in hand made knife construction till I couldn't work it anymore. The oil in it seems to cause the reaction. It just takes a minute amount. Maby the wood was "sweating" alittle oil . I tried finishing it with polyurethane and it never realy dried. It turned to a waxy stuff that you could scrape right off with your finger. The stuff is dangerous to sand but once its sealed, (buffing works, (gets a glassed look), I can handle it just fine.

I agree in general with all your points. The reality is that in most cases you are right. People in general probaly turn out a lot of junk while they are learning to use tools with skill. Hand eye cordination and all that. I was not recomending that people should sell there early work. I was trying to say that if you do excellant work and are happy with something you made be it a guitar, bookshelf, baseball bat, or whatever, you don't have to give it away just because you have not made a hundred of them yet. I don't know what kind of work John does, and am not going judge it with out seeing it. I do know that craftsman are very rare these days and it takes years of practice with tools to get good at using them.

All are good answers so far. I'm assuming that John wants to build and sell guitars, and maybe some day be up there with the big boys. Name recognition is a huge factor. Even at the point of matching an established makers work, untill you have name recognition you wont get as much money for the same quality. Here is the flip side. I am a begaining hobby builder. I just finished my first guitar, and I bought the neck for it. Its PRS shaped with a nice quilt top. Everthing fell into place and it turned out nice. I got about $475 total in it (makes me wince when you see some of the $500 guitars I could have bought). But hey, I had fun doing it and love my new guitar. Now lets say some one is at my house and falls in love with my new baby. Am I going to sell it for $500 and make $25 just so I can claim to have sold some of my work? Dont think so. I didn't make it to sell, and I'm plenty happy to keep it. Right now it would take $2000 to get it out of my hands! Is it worth that much? Of course not. But right now I'm getting more pleasure out of owning it then I would a store bought $2000 rig! Why? Because I made it with my own hands, and it turned out nice, and it makes me feal good when I look at it. On the other hand, a year from now, when I get another one built, I could see me giving this one away to a friend or family. If you're building guitars to sell maybe there is a math formula for pricing. If you are building from inspiration and some one ends up wanting to buy the finished project, don't give it away, you'll regret it later. I wish I could buy back some of the knives I've made and sold. While its true that I can always make another one, the copy of the first one (which was made from inspiration) never seems quite the same. I have learned this the hard way. Later, Dave

Thank you for your reply. I'm not sure which variety it is, but I got it yesterday and it and am happy with the appearence of it. Also happy with the price ($40 for a piece 14 x 20 x 1 5/8). It seems a bit heavy at 12 lbs, but I'll be cutting alot of it away to make this bass body. It's a short scale (looks to be 30 1/2") and the body is actualy shorter than a strat by about 1 1/2". Thanks again, Dave

A guy at work had this old bass with a broken body in the neck area. He wanted $25 for it and it seemed intresting so I bought it. Turns out to be a 1965 Epiphone Newport with an orginal case. Its got a bat wing headstock with a double cut body. The neck and body are mahogany. The pickup is a huge HB in the neck possition. Anyway, how much different is african mahogany from honduran mahogany in tone? I really don't think it will mater on this bass, but I just wondered for future reference. Dave

Clamp it togather and use a screw size drill in a hand drill to spot the holes. If you use a hand drill to drill the holes to depth, be shure to wrap tape arround the bit to act as a depth gage. Most drill presses have a stop you can set to controll the depth. Even with a drill press you could screw up.( I guess I'm picturing a strat type neck thats allready radiused). I would clamp it up and drill through the body with a hand drill if it was me. Happy drilling.

Clamp it togather and use a screw size drill in a hand drill to spot the holes. If you use a hand drill to drill the holes to depth, be shure to wrap tape arround the bit to act as a depth gage. Most drill presses have a stop you can set to controll the depth. Even with a drill press you could screw up.( I guess I'm picturing a strat type neck thats allready radiused). I would clamp it up and drill through the body with a hand drill if it was me. Happy drilling.

What do you think gang? 2" thick? Originally it was going to be mahogany with a maple top but that was seeming like it would be kinda heavy. So I went with swamp ash because it is lighter wieght and is supposed to sound good also.

I am starting a double cut away carve top (my first) using quilted maple and swamp ash. My swamp ash blank is 1 3/4" thick and my maple is curently 13/16" thick. I was thinking of a combined thicknes of 2 1/4" with the maple cap being about 5/8". I'm used to looking at a strat and 2 1/4" seems awfull thick. I dont want to cut away to much ash for fear of the tone brightening up to much. Any one know how thick a simular PRS would be? What do you carved top crafters like for thickness (both overall thickness and thickness of maple cap) ?

Say now, thats a good point you make. I'm feeling better about ordering 500k pots all the time.

Thanks a bunch Crafty! Thats kinda what I was thinking too, but with out any previous experience I didn,t know if I was on the right track.

I'll probably be using them in the humbucking mode most of the time, but how will 500k pots work when I play in the split (single coil) mode? Or is this just a compromise anyway? It would be great to hear from some one with a simular setup.

This is my first build (other than saga kits) I am building a double cut away out of swamp ash with quilted maple cap. My pick ups are SD's - SH2 and a SH5. I am planing to split them with a push pull pot. I am planing to have one volume, one tone pot, and a three way switch. As you can tell by my choices I am looking for something versatile. I was leaning tword two 500k pots and a .047 cap. This is what the schematic on the SD site had. Does this seem to fit the rest of my combo? I'm looking for ball park here. PS I've done searches on "tone pot" and didn't come up with alot. I read Melvyn Hiscock's book and he recomends 250k tone pots as a rule of thumb. I read the pinned thread on tone caps but it seemed to be more about matching the cap to the pot. I need to get the pots ordered and and I'm not sure wich way to go. I can play with the cap later, but I dont want to experiment with push pull pots. Thank you, Dave

I found out the hard way how dangerous cocobola is to sand. I cant work it any more even with a gas mask on. Important also to wash dust off hands before using the rest room. That is all I will say about that.

I used two spray cans of deft clear on my kit guitar 1 month ago. A couple days ago I laid it down on a piece of terry cloth so it wouldnt get sratched. when I picked it up the next day it was marked (pitted) every where it had contacted the terry cloth. I bought another guitar stand thinking that it would be safe there but the foam is leaving marks. Is the finish ever going to get hard? I know it takes time to cure but does this seam normal? Thanks for not yelling at me. I did a search on deft and only got 2 results.

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only old fart arround here. (born 11/2/57)