Stickmangumby

If you're not gonna be using a whammy much, a locking nut is just a hassle, especially if you want to change tunings a lot.

I hit the pawn shops today, and you're right: they were not cheap! $170 was the best I could find, and although it looked to be a decent guitar for that price, it was more than I was willing to pay. Anyone else?

No, they are different problems. How much did you pay for it? If the truss rod doesn't work, and it needs a fret job, it probably isn't worth very much.

Thanks for the info soapbarstrat. I think garage sales are an excellent idea, except you gotta find them and check it out for each guitar. I'll have a looky, but I'd prefer to find somewhere I can get a regular source from. Haha, I'm trying to avoid refretting my only guitar at the moment! Although it stinks, I haven't got anything else to play if I stuff it up, which would be a total disaster. Maybe I'll but a wanted to buy ad in the trading post. Thanks again Anyone have any other ideas?

Ok, so I've got and read the books, and I've been reading the forums. I'm ready for the next step; some practical work on guitars. The problem is that I'm having difficulty sourcing guitars. I've had a look at eBay (I'm in Australia BTW), and found basically nothing. I guess postage would be more than the cost of a trashed guitar, so no suprises there. I've had a look in the Trading Post, and the cheapest I could find was $120AU (a little more than I'd want to be spending, my max would be $80-100 a guitar), apart from those crappy starter kit guitars, which are sold new anyway. I've also had a look at the local Cash Converters and found pretty much the same thing. Next stop is the pawn shops, but I'm not too hopeful about that either. So, question 1 is, what kind of places can you get crappy/trashed guitars that are good for repair practising? In fact, if anyone knows of an actual venue/event in Melbourne, Australia that would be awesome as well. Second question is, is it worth buying some proper tools (ie nut and fret files) first up, or should I make my own/improvise? Do you reckon buying the tools is worth the money for a beginner, or should I make an investment once I've got some more experience and understanding? Third question, any techs in Melbourne, Australia interested in taking on a very keen apprentice? I'll work for nothing!

List of toxic woods Get into that! It's from a sticky at the top of this forum.

I think you need to have made a donation to the site to access that stuff.

Thanks for the info guys. I've been trying to use some kind of cloth-backed vinyl, but it's way too hard to work with; it's has too much stretch, and it wants to curl up all the time. Carpet would be good, and not too hard to work with, but I'm not a fan of the look of it. I'll see if I can get onto tubeampparts about postage to Australia. Thanks again

Thanks for the quick reply, that's exactly the right stuff. Unfortunately, I'm in Australia, and postage = the dog. Anyone know of the kind of retailers/outlets you can buy tolex from locally? Or any other material I could use?

Lately I've been trying to develop my hardcase building skills, both for guitars and equipment. However, I'm having a LOT of trouble sourcing one of the materials... Where on earth do you get the black, plasticlike coating that is found on a lot of instrument cases (it's also pretty similar to a lot of stuff found on amps)? For example: I can't find this stuff anywhere, and I need some kind of durable weather resistant coating for my case. If nobody knows where I can get this stuff from, any other ideas for what I could use? Thanks

What unclej said! The actual height of the nut isn't important, it's how that compares with other measurements. So, you want your nut slots to be a certain depth, the height of the nut above that shouldn't be too much more, or else the strings can bind in the nut slots. However, you need the height of the nut itself to be high enough so that you can cut deep enough slots so that the strings don't pop out, without the action at the nut being too low... If it seems like the nut is not high enough, you can always shim it. If it is too high, you can file it down. It's preferable to not have to shim it though, so don't file too much, as very small changes in height can really mess things up.

^ That guitar made my eyes bleed ^

Sorry, I should have explained how I restring to clarify my question... I thread the string through the body, along the neck, and through the slot in the nut. I align the hole in the tuning post with the neck, so that the string could go straight through the tuning post. Depending upon the which string I am stringing, I thread the string around the tuning post once, twice, or three times, from the bottom of the tuning post up. Then I run the string back through the tuning post towards the neck, above the winds already on the post. Finally, I tune the string to pitch, stretch it in, and clip the end of the string off. The slipping occurs after I've wound the string around the tuning post, while I am tuning to pitch, and is not a result of the winds unwinding. A lot of slack just appears out of nowhere. Hopefully that has made my question more clear

I've noticed that sometimes when I restring my guitar, the strings 'slip' when I'm tuning them up to pitch. After I've threaded the string through the body and into the tuning post (making sure there is as little slack as possible), when I'm tuning the string to the correct pitch it makes a snapping noise and a whole lot of slack appears in the string above the neck. What causes this, and how can I avoid it? Thanks

Score the finish around the nut, so that the finish doesn't chip when you remove it. Tap it back and forwards with a small hammer hitting a hardwood block. It will loosen up until you can tap it sideways out of the nut slot.

Ok, so I've put some more thought into it, and asked some questions on a dedicated woodwork forum (post found here). Today I'm off to the hardware store to get the wood for the outside. I'll worry about the internal fittings another day, if the outside works out! Basically the case will be a pine frame, screwed and glued, with a plywood top and bottom screwed and glued to the frame.

Thanks for the replies I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I shouldn't have a problem with getting things right the first time! In terms of formal training, as far as I know there is nothing really in Australia. There are a few guitar building courses run by luthiers, but nothing on repair really. I think I will just ring around the local guitar shops and ask their repairmen how they got started and stuff like that. I'm not big into the footy johnsilver, but I'd say Essendon if I was asked. Thanks guys

Thanks for the advice so far guys The next guitar I fix up I will be putting together a list of photos for, basically a before and after for all of the stuff that will need fixing. I've ordered some books off Amazon, and they are in the pipeline, but they take ages to get here! Amongst them are the two Dan Erlewine ones, and Hideo Kamimoto's book as well. Does anyone else have any tips or advice? Anyone in Melbourne Australia looking for an apprentice guitar tech? haha

Ok, thanks for the info Perry I will keep that in mind, as that is quite a good price! Also, thanks a lot for the link ToneMonkey, that is just the kind of thing I am after. After googling I didn't seem to find very much, but that is perfect. If I end up making a case I will probably put together a tutorial as well, the more the merrier I say.

Just out of interest, how much do you charge for custom cases Perry? The guitar has very non-standard dimensions... without measuring it, I can tell you the neck is quite short, and also thick and hollow, the body is wider than usual, and the guitar on the whole is probably 50% thicker than a usual solid body electric.

I'm thinking about building a guitar case for a lap steel that I bought. I'm not able to buy a solid case for it, I would have to get one custom made, which is apparently about $400AU to get done. At the moment it is in a soft case, but I'm a bit paranoid about it because it cost me an arm and a leg. I don't think that making a solid case for a solid body electric would be very hard. I imagine it would just involve some MDF boards, hinges, nails & glue, latches, handle, internal padding, and some tweed to make it pretty. Is that about right? The problem is that the guitar is hollowbody, with a hollow neck, and is kinda arch-topped. Would I make a rectangular case, and heavily pad the top of it around the guitar so that it wasn't going to rattle around in there? Has anyone done this before? Is it harder than I am imagining it to be? Thanks for the help

I'm really keen on repair, maintenance, and modification of guitars, and would like to explore the possibilty of doing it as a full time job. However, I am relatively inexperienced, and wondering how to get started. Would I be best to try and find someone who would take me on as an apprentice of sorts? I've been doing work on el-cheapo guitars from Cash Converters and the like, and this has been great, but I feel that I would learn better from somebody else rather than from books/trial and error/the internet. Also I don't have a access to much in the way of tools and supplies, so my experience is limited at the moment. Basically, my questions are: - If you are a guitar tech, how did you get started? - Do you have any advice or recommendations for me? Thanks very much

When you say the neck is straight, do you mean it is dead straight? If the frets are all good, and the neck is dead straight, but you can't get the action you want, you will have to put a little relief into the neck.

To be honest, I think it is more complicated than that. Neck wood does make a difference to how well a guitar can hold tune, but so does the age of the strings, where and how they are stored (in their cases/on a stand/hanging etc). The body wood should make a difference as well. Also, the tuners themselves will affect how well a guitar holds tune. To answer your question, I don't really know, but I think more than the neck wood will influence a guitars stability.

There aren't really any pros, except that it would be cheaper and easier to build and wire. Cons are that it wouldn't be very versatile.