mikhailgtrski

Who knows? You'd think he'd know the difference between wood grain and a wear mark.

This lack of clarity stuff can make your head hurt.

Not to mention trying to diagnose a neck bow off that photograph.

That "circular pattern" is the normal grain of the maple. It's usually more noticeable before the dye is applied. When the top is dyed the flame/quilt figure becomes more prominent and you don't notice the grain lines. But not always - it varies from piece to piece.

Yes!

Bone nuts & saddles make a huge difference. My son's mid-70's Epiphone acoustic sounded pretty good with the stock plastic stuff, but it really came to life and had much better sustain when he swapped them out with bone, plus some bone bridge pins for good measure.

Mike

You should find a lot of info if you do a search for "purfling".

A few things: wherever possible, adjust the truss rod tension when the neck's under pressure. It's there to counter string tension, and might do slightly funny things in other situations. And a half a turn should do a fair amount. What kind of rod is this?

Furthermore, I don't adjust the neck with the truss rod; I adjust it with my hands (bend it, pretty much), and tighten up the truss rod to match. You don't want to put crazy amounts of tension on the nut, which may lead to it stripping prematurely. Not good.

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+1

Agreed - adjusting it with the strings off (unless it's a heel-adjust neck, then you don't have a choice) will have you chasing your tail. And it may take a little time to settle in after you make an adjustment. I'd avoid going more than 1/4 turn at a time. Are you checking it with a straight edge? Don't just rely on sighting down the neck.

This should work (humbuckers or single coils, doesn't matter)... except you'll have to insert the kill switch, and you'll probably want 500k pots:

three p/u schematic

Hope that helps.

Mike

Did you get anything finished with the stain? I'd really like to see how it went.

I can't believe it's december either! Man, this year flew!!

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No, not yet...

I spent a lot of hours on the fingerboard inlay (it's done now - is there such a thing as inlay fatigue ) then went on vacation for 2 1/2 weeks in July, and didn't get back to guitar building until late October.

I did some dye tests last week, and hope to have it nailed down this weekend. I'll try to get some pics posted very soon.

Thanks, it's cool to have people interested in your stuff.

Mike

Yeah, I think that router bit is over $50, so I bought a 1" forstner for $9. Did the trick, just more work.

Plus I was a bit nervous about using that cove bit on my carved top.

ps - here's that egg cup bit:

40mm egg cup bit

Technically, i believe that finish is Tiger eye, not tortoise shell.

To get tiger eye, you do dark brown, sand out, Brown again in a lighter pass,

Then a top coat of yellow.

For the real tortoise shell,do the brown, sand out. Then do a diluted brown pass.Then do a pass of red, then scrub it out with alcohol. top it off with yellow.

This gives you the 3 shades in real tortoise shell.

Be carefull when scrubbing out with the alcohol. If you overdo it you can bleed through into the binding giving the dreaded "celery stalk effect".

Good Luck 

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Ah, yes... PRS has updated their site now. Here's the real tortoise shell:

PRS tortoise shell McCarty

PRS tortoise shell

I like it a lot Can't believe it's December already.

Mike

Try your local auto body shop - they should carry several types of pinstriping tape.

For what it's worth, from Stew-Mac:

Stewart-MacDonald Super Glues have a relatively long shelf life at room temperature: a bottle will be usable for up to a year, although the glue will thicken as the months go by. Once it is too thick for its original use, you can use it on other projects requiring a thicker glue. For longer storage, keep unopened bottles in the freezer. Store partially-used bottles at room temperature: used bottles contain moist air from your workroom, which condenses and reduces shelf life. Always keep the bottles upright when not in use. Accelerator needs no special storage, but avoid high temperatures and keep the cap tightly sealed.

The forstner bit worked well. Cleaned it up with a rounded dremel high-speed cutter, then lots of sanding.

Thanks again, mattia - your pics were worth a thousand words.

Mike

The pickup touching the wood shouldn't cause any problems at all. In fact, some people prefer to mount them directly to the wood.

Thanks, mattia, that helps a lot.

BTW - nice save on the worm damage.

Mike

I forgot that one was yours... I love it and I thought it should have won GOTM!

That's exactly what I'm trying for... if I have enough wood to work with. What size forstner did you use?

thanks!

"Works where other fret presses can't!"

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+1

I just got one of these and my frets pressed in really nice - my first time. It's all about the prep work, like guitarfrenzy said. Spend the time on prep and the actual fretting is no big deal.

Thanks for the input... Definitely scrap scrap scrap.

Warmoth routes the control cavities on their carved tops to match the top radius, so I've got to figure out how much wood they left me to work with.

mattia, do you have pics posted anywhere?

Mike

Yup, something like that, except it's AAAAA flame.

Did you use the router bit after the top was carved? Can I pull this off safely (with practice) on my drill press?

If you're spraying nitro (with a gun) you can mix in some blue dye. It won't have the same figure-popping effect as staining the wood directly - it will be more of a toner. Try it out on some scrap, dyed the same as what you've got so far, unless you feel lucky just going for it.

Hope it works out for you,

Mike

That's subject to lots of debate...

Unless you're talking about a really, really thick clearcoat, I don't think it makes a noticeable difference on a solid body.

It takes a lot of practice to do a super-thin finish without sanding through into your stain. You don't want to sand through. That means you sand it all back and start over, unless you don't mind the blotches.

Hope it turns out well.

Mike

Is that the plywood Squier?

I think 2 or 3 applications of grain filler should do it. I'm assuming you're doing a solid color?

Or what Setch said.

I'm getting good results with the clear Stew-Mac waterbase filler. Easy to apply and you can dye it any color you want. $14.65/pint.

woodcraft.com and woodworker.com have Behlens and other brands, but they're not any less expensive.

A local specialty woodworking store might carry it - but most regular paint stores and Lowe's/Home Depot don't cater to furniture-type finishers. Your average homeowner isn't doing much grain filling.

Like Perry mentioned! Router bit with the hole for the pot the same size as the bearing on the tip of the bit! If you don't have one with the bearing, that's when things get kinda scary!  But if you have the bearing, live is good! And a lot easier.

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Would I be asking for trouble using this method on a really nice, already carved flame top? Visions of maple chunks dance in my head.

Mike

Wheewww... thankfully just a slight tightening of the truss rod straightened it right out.

Frets pressed in nice and they look good on the straight edge.

Dumb question #1...Do you have to mask the frets?

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From Warmoth's site:

"As a final note on the subject, maple necks require a finish to preclude neck warpage. The finish is sprayed directly over the frets. It is a tedious task to remove the finish and in many production guitars, it is simply left on them to wear off in use… A fret leveling operation will take this off or the finish may be scraped off each individual fret. Warmoth does not offer either fret leveling or paint removal services."

Not worth the trouble of masking.