82cabby

Thanks gang. Based on the votes of confidence, I'm going to proceed as is. Although, I'm going to keep the HOK candy idea in the back of my mind for the next build! I will post a picture when its done for reference. Thanks all!

That looks great! Man that blue pops! I could sand it back and spray the burst, but I was hoping to use a 2k clear on it. I think I would have to stick with nitro if I was going to spray the burst. Plus I have to sand virtually all the color out to get rid of the dots.

Hi all- I am working on builds #6 and #7 and this is the first time I have tried the "dark dye, sand it back, light dye" technique. I am working on two guitars, both with figured maple caps. One was dyed black, sanded back and then dyed blue. The other was dyed reddish brown, sanded back and then dyed amber. My method was: Sand the body to 320 wet it and let it dry to raise the grain knock down the grain with 320 wet the body apply the dark stain to the whole body until the color is pretty dense, let it dry sand back the dark color wet the body and apply lighter dye work with both colors until it looks right. Dye is transtint in water. 25 - 40 drops of dye per 25 ml of water. I tried everything first on scrap pieces and it worked fine with both colors. The blue and black body came out great. However, on the reddish brown / amber one I am getting tiny 'dots' of color that appear about 5 minutes after I am done. It seems like there are still tiny reservoirs of the darker dye left in pores and the light dye is bringing it out, but I didn't have this problem on the test pieces or the other body. I have sanded back and re-applied the amber 3 times and I keep getting the same result each time with the same intensity. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do from here? Here is a photo of the body: and a closeup of the dots: Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Hi all, Does anyone know where I can get a good 2 part wood bleach without having to buy 2 gallons and spend $90? I only have one, maybe two tops to bleach and don't need a lifetime supply! Thanks in advance

Hi all- I have a used set of humbuckers I would like to use in a project, but the leads are very short ( 2 inches). Any trick to adding on a length of shielded wire or is it as straight forward as it sounds?

Thank you for the replies. I am not dead set on walnut for the fingerboard. It would give the look I was going for and I happen to have a lot of it in the shop. I also have maple I could use. I'll have to mock the guitar up and see if I could live the look of the maple fingerboard on the walnut neck. Worst comes to worst I can order an ebony fingerboard which will maintain the dark coloration I was planning on. Thanks for the advice!

Hi all - I found this thread using the search, but it was originally created several years ago and the posts won't display, so... Before I waste a lot of time making one, how does black walnut work as a fretboard? I am in the planning stages of a guitar that will have a walnut neck and body with a figured maple cap. I was planning on making the fretboard from the same walnut as the neck and body. Is it suitable? Thanks for any pointers.

True, but if you go too deep...

Also, apparently this one is also height adjustable: http://www.allparts.com/GB-2585-010-Gotoh-510BN-Chrome-Height-Adustable-Bridge_p_1645.html

Fair enough. The design I am starting will have a carved top and I thought the easiest way to go with a bridge would be T.O.M. style. Here is the bridge I found with adjustable string heights: http://fullcontacthardware.com/fch-tune-o-matic-bridge

Hi all- Does anyone know of a Tune-o-matic style bridge that has adjustments for both string spacing and radius? I have found several with an adjustable radius and one (Shaller's roller bridge) that has adjustable string spacing, but I can't find one with both. I am in the design phase of a guitar that will have a carved top and would like to be able to tweak the bridge as much as possible. Thanks in advance for any help!

WOW what a great resource, thank you!

Glad to hear that Walnut can work as a neck wood. I wasn't sure it had the strength. I have never built a guitar with a binding before, but I think this time I will attempt it. Are there problems with the walnut dust contaminating a wooden binding (like holly, which sound gorgeous)?

Thanks! It's not all 100% perfect. Some of the slabs that went through the heart of the tree only have decent figure on the margins. Big question is what to build with it that would be unique... and how much carving/shaping can I do with the 5/8 thickness (rough cut). Also I would like to use walnut as the body wood, so what do I do with the neck? Walnut? Figured maple? Basically I need design inspiration!

yeah, my heart sunk when he told me he split all the wood. But at least we got some of it. He would like to make a humidor, with accents of quilted maple, but that can all come out of the firewood pieces I saved. I probably should have had the sawyer cut some thicker, but I was trying to maximize the wood. What do you think about a one piece cap versus book matched? I could do either. Carving down to 1/8" at the edge and then binding makes sense. I don't suppose I could laminate two pieces back together to get a thicker cap. The glue line would show when I colored the cap.

Hi gang- I am in need of a few design ideas. Here is the story: Two years ago a friend of mine was over for dinner. He says "So I took down this maple tree and was cutting it up for fire wood and it looks like it might be curly maple. I brought a piece, want to see it?".... Well, YEAH. So we went out to his car and he pulled this out of his trunk: "so is this curly maple?" "Well, yes. Technically it's quilted maple." "oh" "that's better" "OH!" "Tell me you didn't cut up the rest of the tree." "oh" "crap" Well. Long story short: He still had about 4 feet left from the base of the tree. We were able to pull it and have it a saw mill cut it into planks. I was having some other logs milled, so the guy was willing to do this one too for next to nothing. now it's 2 1/2 years later and I have this: The boards are 18 inches at the wide end and 14" inches or so in the middle. They are 5/8 inch thick and vary in quality of figure. I kept them in order so I can easily book match. I also have this: Not as exciting I will admit. It is 3" thick walnut that was also kept in the order it came off the saw, so I can book match it as well. So, I need some design inspiration. I am thinking walnut body with maple cap. For the neck.... I don't know. Plain maple? figured maple? walnut? I would like to try my hand at carving and shaping the cap. This will be the 5th guitar I have built, so I'm not a complete rookie, but far from experienced. The others were tele and strat copies and I am trying to stretch my wings a little bit on the design end of things. Any thoughts?

The reason I ask is I would like to build a 12 string, and have a 12 string bridge plus two single coils and a humbucker for a 6 string kickin around.... It got me thinkin...

Hi all- I've got a rookie question... Can a 12 string electric use standard 6 string pickups? I did use the search and struck out... Any insight would be appreciated. Dave

I ended up changing the tone cap to a .039 oil/paper one that i discovered in a drawer of misc. electrical parts. Sounds great. The treble bleed cap I bumped up to .005 and the volume is more even now.

HI all! I have a capacitor question for everyone... I have a tele build with texas specials. I used the tele wiring kit from stew-mac. Over all I am generally happy with the tone, but it can be a bit shrill with the tone knob all the way up and as I turned the tone down, it got muddy quickly. The caps that come with the kit are not the best, so I thought I would swap them and see what I liked best. After putting in alligator clips I tested a bunch of caps and settled on a GE orange .012. I know that's low, but it cleaned up the sound a lot when the tone knob is at any setting. My question is what to do the other cap in the circuit. I think it is a treble bleed, but I'm not positive. My question is, should this change in value given the change in the tone cap? At present, the volume control takes the guitar to zero volume and slowly brings it up starting about 1/4 of a turn in. Any input would be appreciated! The wiring diagram is:

Well, took a lot longer than I had hoped, but here are the results: This is the burst, no inlay version. Please pardon the awful photos. I keep meaning to take decent ones but life gets in the way. And the inlay version: I'll post better pictures when I get a chance. Thanks to this entire forum for all the priceless help and information. Never could have finished without this resource.

I used a CA that wasn't water thin, but definitely was not advertised as gap filling. Lesson learned there, I'll use thicker next time. It did work in a lot of areas, and I paid more attention to the endgrain and that came out fine. I'll break out the sanding block and cut it back until it's down to the bottom of the pores. Thanks all!

Hi all- I need a little advice. I am in the middle of the finishing process on a guitar with an ash body and maple cap. The finish is Behlen's stringed instrument lacquer. I used CA to fill the pores. Sanded that flat and then hit it with a couple of coats of Behlen's vinyl sealer. Sanded that and then started with the lacquer coats. I must have sanded back too far at one point because the pores and grain are very evident in places on the back of the body. Elsewhere it's fine, and the end grain is fine, it's just the long grain in a couple of places on the back. My question is: is there a way to address this at this point without sanding it back to bare wood and starting over? 95% of the body is fine and the maple on the front is great. I just hate to have the texture of the grain broadcast through. Any advice?

Umm.....well.... That said, I think I am going to stick with the clear lacquer finish since I already have the most of the materials. My question arose from the fact that the two books I am working from (Hiscock and Koch) aren't real specific about the order of leveling, finishing and dressing. I'm going to go with: tape everything but the frets, do all the fret work, remove the tape and do a final sand on the neck (bolt on by the way), tape off fingerboard , spray clear lacquer (bunch of coats), unmask fingerboard and spray one or two more. Sound right? Sorry for the rookie questions but this is only the third neck I've made and the first maple neck/ maple fingerboard.

Thanks for your help. I'm getting close to done with this guitar and don't want to screw up now. Have to admit I have not thought of tung oil... The body is going to be clear lacquer over a burst, do you think a tung oiled neck would look right? As for the initial question... I was just asking at what stage in the finishing process do I dress the fret ends, level the frets, etc? I am worried about getting the raw maple neck and finger board grimy, but at the same time don't want to screw up a nice finish.