Musiclogic

I appreciate your assumptions about superiority Pat, but it's a poor guestimate and even worse assumption, as what I do and what you do are 2 completely different disciplines, and only scantly related by industry. Briefly... I started at gibson as a sweep and cleanup kid, moved to a line helper for a few months as I began to learn, worked the line for a year as an assembler, moved to finishing for. About a year, and then to fitting, by the time the move was complete in 84, I was offered a position in Nashville, but chose college and grad school instead, and working for the special repair and restoration group during the summers until it was dissolved in 88. So you can understand my functions. Also, Opened my first repair shop in 1983 and built my first complete guitar in 84, and my first 9ello and violin in 86.

Ok Patrick, I would like to congradulate you on reading wikipedia and quoting almost verbatim. Next time do some real homework, so you know that a compression truss of metal inside wood has been used in building since the inception of metals.( Se roman aquaduct construction). As for the neck reinforcement, most "classical" builders use graphite in their necks these days because Quartersawn wood is more costly than adding a $4 piece of graphite, so can the classical guitar crap, guitars are made as inexpensively as possible for maximum profit potential. As for the thick fretboard arguement, seperate fretboards were only employed on the most expensive guitars pre 1890 and as for extra thick fretboards, this was a building style generally attributed to the German and Austrian builders of the time. The Italians who were the preimminent musical builders used very thin boards and used a more triangular neck shape to keep their necks more stable in the warm seaside climates. All of this notwithstanding, the question was about a bass guitar(not a classical guitar). With an ebony neck. You put an opinion out there without any reasoning as an absolute, and you cannot do that without trying to give the querry some representation of evidence. Just tossing an opinion without reason is like trying to feed a great white, sardines by hand and retaining all your digits. Btw....when you were 5 yrs old, I was working at Gibson. So go easy with the feigned indignance. I wasn't belittling you, just wanted you to elaborate on your opinion...which I do agree with. So you're saying that you are not aware that classical guitars have a huge fingerboard thickness when compared to any steel string instruments and most of them have been strung up with either nylon or gut strings which has nothing to do at all physically when it comes to tension - period Most classical guitar maker of our days reinforce their necks with either a strip of ebony OR a strip of graphite because bow in a neck is inevitable under string tension. The backbow your talking about after fretting will go away by itself in only a couple of days or months, but it will be gone... Also if your expecting to make a living out of building guitars and shipping them all over the world, you must also consider climat change and moisture exchange differences which your little neck without any rod will never be able to face, reason why most classical makers use graphite inside the necks of our days edit: a few notes about what you call truss rod: and I shall add to this - and also a couple hundered years before 1908, the idea of neck reinforcement has been arround since the early lute days...

So you're saying that before truss rods were invented in the 1950's by Ted McHugh, that guitars couldn't survive without bending drastically? Thickness of the neck, and taper thickness of the back profile will determine need for a truss rod...remember, that when you fret it, you could induce a backbow that won't be corrected by string tension. Well thought out design is always mandatory for playability and durability. Good luck with it.

I can't comment on pitting, never had a finish do that, of course, with the advent of the waterbornes, this could become a reality, hoping to kill off my last 2 gallons of nitro soon, and say goodbye to solvent base except for restorations.

Just remember to do your leveling in a conical fashion, and you will lose less crown, and make recrowning much easier than trying to get the huge flat spots shaped.

I have a 2-4 bobbin winder, but it's so difficult to get exactly what you want, unless it's already a standard.

with drop filling or burn in sticks, it is very easy to control the flow of material into the nick. by no overfilling, and making sure the nick was prepped before filling(which good repairmen and refinishers will always do), you have very little clean up and sanding. never use sandpaper to work down an overfill. Always scrape the area and make sure the surrounding area is masked off(As said above) always use a stick or thin block to touch up level, and always wet to minimize material removal. 1000 grit or 1200 grit should be the coarsest you use to flatted/blend a repair, and work to 2000 or 2500 before buffing. This is how I approach it.

What i have found with Deft, is that it is much like most spray can lacquers. to get it to cure you have to go really thin on the coats(almost misting) or you need to crack the finish with 800 or 1000 grit as soon as you can handle(usually 24 hours after spraying). If not, the solvent builds with the finish, and never fully gasses off. this is a huge problem with spray can lacquer, especially acrylics.

Oh Simo...you two timer....LOL derned Brits always looking for more love...LMAO Nice work Simo

it can be done, and has by a few brave souls. Tension being the biggest problem(staying consistent) and winding layers. But there is no reason it couldn't be. BTW 42 and 43 ga wire breaks very easilly. You learn this when you first start winding.

fret files on ebay from $35 US...Good call ihocky2.....er...um...GO REDWINGS!!! Also as a emergency method, you can take a small/narrow piece of hardwood and make an indentation with a piece of fretwire or a nail, or something thin and round, lay a piece of fine sand paper over the indent, and use that to return your crown to round. I had to do this on the road when my Jazz bass popped a fret, and had to replace it between sets. Last time I used a Fender...LOL thank god for my ric. Good luck

There are many different species of birch, Yellow in North America(Paper Birch) average 38 specific gravity, equal with red maple, more than silver maple 33,soft maple 36 and big leaf 34, less than sugar 40 and black maple 44. just to provide the correct numbers and agree with the poster above that there are Maples that are heavier.

Minwax Poly can usually be wetsanded and buffed in 7 days, and is pretty tough, Deft is also good, but takes about 10 days before you can sand, and 2 weeks before you can buff.

Definately would look cool, you can even slant the outer pieces and keep the inner piece straight to create a coving effect with the figure. tons of stuff you could do with it. have fun!

Birch has been used as a neck wood since the early 1900's, but always second to maple fo a couple of reasons. Maple trees are much larger than birch, grow more up and down, where as birch are known to twist and wander in different directions, making it more difficult to get straight grain abd quantity of maple, also [some]maple is slightly lighter than Birch where weight is concerned. While birch will figure, the trees are rarely heavy enough to create the amount of grain compression during growth to create the impactful figuring of Maple. Hope this helps

As Ripthorn said above, but you can also use grain filler, or epoxy with some dust to fill the voids also. Good Luck

most people I know that finish burl, fill first(usually black or contrasting), sand back to flush, seal with a few washcoats of shellac(1 lb cut) and then begin the finishing regimine, shooting color(transparent)If color at all, then final clears. this is the only way i have ever done it, but I have only done 8 or 9 burl tops, so I am no authority.

This exemplifies the simplest form of business, and the supply vs. demand understanding you have to have to do business for profit. Excellent

very cool....deer season? can you say taxidermy mounting plaques? hmmmm. nice grab

I know many people that ramp the last 6 or 7 frets, some that even go as far as last 10, and some that only do 2 or 3. It's all about your personal technique. In 26+ years I have never had to use this technique, but that's my choice, it's all about what you prefer.

Yeah, start your first level with 180 or 220/240(I use 220 & 320 wet or dry, to get them level, then go back with 400, and 600. Sometimes they will play like god right after assembly, but most times there is some touch up, especially in my shop, as I try to get between 3/32" and 1/16" action off the bat. Just go easy, you never want to be too agressive with fretting, it's always about flat and square first, the rest is redundancy...LOL

Going to throw a few things out here. First, do you check your slot depths before fretting? Do you hammer your ends in before pressing? Do you make sure your pressing caul is square when you press in the fret? have you thought about not applying CA until after the board is fretted, and bleed it in through the ends, or not using glue at all? Do you level your frets in a conical fashion, following the string paths? These are just a few things that come to mind, but you also have to remember, not every fretjob is perfect, and sometimes you need to tidy up a fret or two after assembly, during the set-up phase. The main thing is to concentrate on getting the frets fully seated on the board(making sure your slots are deep enough, you hammer in your ends first to set the fret, and make sure the press is seating the fret square into the slot.) Make sure on your final leveling(400 0r 600 grit) that you follow the conical procedure of final leveling(following the string paths), and finally when re-dressing, only dress to almost round, leave about a .005 flat on top of each fret, this will be dressed out with polishing, but gives you a consistent reference point for comparison so you don't over dress any frets.

good luck on that, look for NOS Kramer stuff pre 92, and Ebay. They pop up on there quite frequently for under $100

you can safely go to 5 mm on a guitar, I would not go past 5.7mm which will give you about .225 inch this is as thin as I like to go, but I know guys who radius to .20 inch. so I think a little more leveling will be fine. just true it up with a long flat sander then re-touch the radius.

I use a surface planer to bring close to desired thickness, and then into the thickness sander. In your case, you may want to use the jointer with a flat backer board to keep the piece flat. A piece of MDF or particle board, maple or walnut can act as a nice backer for thin pieces, and prevent blade lash when trying to run across a jointer.