FireFly

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

I've always heard Black Limba was a PITA as a fretboard due to its brittle/chippy nature. You seem to have proven otherwise. How would you rate your fretting experience with Black Limba, and how would you rate it as a fretboard?

should there be any worry about turning the wood punky or rotten?

How about a Joann's Fabrics?

There's a remote for women, and it has a volume button that turns down, but not up. I was attempting to turn the remote into a guitar, as you referred to the guitar as "curvy like a woman." So I figured the guitar would be a woman with some attitude, as attitude seems to be something everyone wants in their guitar. Since the woman(guitar) has an attitude, a volume knob would be handy so you could turn her down if she (the guitar) was getting too loud/obnoxious (bitchy). I think too much sometimes I think the shallow carve works! If you can keep that bevel nice and sharp without rounding it over, I think it'll be a kickass piece!

[edit] Nevermind

Oh yeah? You know it, babycakes. You'd better put a volume knob on this one then!

Oh yeah?

Clear it. Paint isn't strong enough to hold up to any kind of playing abuse.

I just realized that this guitar is in an 8 string thread, but has 7 strings. Aside from that, it looks really nice!

What a silly question. Y'all would have known about it had I bought a spray setup. Just making sure

Did you brush on this finish?

*whisper* I think there's a CNC vs handmade thread pinned. PRS? Never played one. The shops around here are too poor to afford to sell one. New gibsons are rare too.

It had a logo. Technically it was still built by a martin employee in the martin factory with martins materials. If anything, it becomes a collectable and worth more as a custom martin instrument.

Oil based poly will yellow as it dries.

I really like the scarf joints i see people decorating on this site. The color variations can be so diverse and pretty!

+1

I hope you got your thumb back after all that!

I know Martin will let you build your own guitar if you have down time. You get to keep it. On Antiques Road Show, they had a Martin U-kil-a-ly (can't spell) that was custom made in the shops by an employee for himself.

lol no.

When you hammer a straight fret into a radiused board, the fret still wants to be straight. So, somewhere along the road, it'll probably end up lifting up. Bending the fret eliminates this risk for the most part. If your fretboard is flat, then you don't need to worry about it. Building a fret bender isn't expensive. There's a tutorial in the forum that shows you how to build one for under $15 Good luck!

I normaly finish, clean out the slots, then tap the frets in. For me, taking off finish always leaves some sort of rough edge that peels to some extent later on. I'd rather have the rough edge of the finish pinned down under the fret.

A lot of cheaper guitars will have multiple joined pieces for bodies. Its not uncommon for someone here to strip a body of its paint and find a 5 piece body. There's also attention to detail. The routing job under a pickguard can tell you a lot. There can be 3 neatly cut spaces for specific pickup sizes, or there can be a swimming pool sized ditch carved out to accomodate any generic pickup combination. Intonation, and overall measurements are something I've come across as well. Typically, a $120 squire strat will not intonate as well as a USA Fender or Japanese Squire will. Position markers can be slightly off, there could be knots in wood, the wood could be flatsawn instead of quartersawn for a neck, the quality of the hardware may be inferior, etc. . For example, I just had a lower end LTD in the shop. The owner was complaining about tuning issues. I tuned it up, played a note and watched the note sink. So I restrung it. As I was restringing, I noticed that the tuning posts were wiggling a bit. So I tightened the nut on one, and the entire post snapped off and started spinning freely. These tuners were obviously not a quality product. I replaced them with some Gotohs, and everything was good. Pickups are another one. I don't know much about them though, so I can't give you any indepth commentary about that. Im guessing magnets, winding and other stuff have to do with that... There's lots and lots of little elements and cost saving procedures that can go into making a cheap guitar. There's lost of painstaking quality control and practices that make a great instrument.

I think what he's confused about is the buffing after fretting part. Narc, after you apply enough of a finish to a fingerboard, grain orientation is no longer an issue. So it's okay if you go across the grain when buffing/sanding etc.

Since scale length has to do with the length of the strings, you can note that with any bridge, it is measured between the first contact point at the nut and the first contact point at the bridge. Good luck!