demonx

I have a positive and negative template. There is a slight difference in the size so that after it's painted etc it'll still fit!

Another method is to use AP tape (aplication tape) Its similar to masking tape, but its in a wide roll - used a lot in airbrushing. You can cover the whole surface of the guitar with one piece, then use a scalpel to cut out your tricky shapes. I've used this method a lot myself.

You can buy 3M pinstrinping tape. For tight curves, use a hair dryer to soften the tape as you apply it and keep working it until you get it right. Hard to explain in words, but the method I was taught is using one hand press the tape down, while the other hand is holding the roll up in the air with a heap of tape pulled out, use the hand thats holding the roll as the steering wheel and the other hand just presses the tape. When you get to the tight spot, keep the roll up in the air and the pressing hand uses a hairdryer to soften the tape (just above where you'll want to press it down) then when its hot/soft use the press down hand to lay you're tight curves. If you dont get it tight enough, lift if and heat it again, the tape has a memory and will turn tighter the second time.

Did you use the Stewmac 25.5" slotting template If so - it has a couple different slot marks at the first fret point, maybe you accidentally used the wrong one and it now needs the zero fret installed? Have you measured the scale since installing the bridge? Is it still 25.5" of is it a couple mm over (maybe still the zero fret thing) It's strange that you say the intonation is correct if its making a wrong note as an open??? I'd have to be holding the guitar to work it out whats happened I reckon!

When I made the bulk of my templates I just bought a full sheet of 6mm and half a sheet of 9mm. At the end of the day it's not that expensive, but I did notice when I called around that some of the suppliers were OVER twice the price of others, so dont be afraid to make a few calls and compare prices.

I make mostly neckthru - but when I have done bolt ons I use a plexi glass template I made. I suggest you get some perspex/plexiglass and simply make your own template to the exact shape you want. Then you can use it over and over.

Heatgun was the first thing that came to my mind. One caution though, be prepared to have to clean up burn marks on the wood from the heat gun, the glue will be a mess to clean up. Any plastic side dots etc will melt. If it's the fingerboard you're wanting to salvage - DO NOT bend it when you're lifting it up. Simply keep sliding a thin paint scraper down under as you heat the glue and be patient - if you bend it, the wood will stay bent.

BAPHOMET WARLOCK This ones not my latset build but it's my personal/player guitar. I wanted to place an entry and the ones I'm working on at the moment I'll never get finished for this month this one will have to do! Based on a USA Warlock shape, however I made the body thinner and changed the bevels. Because the body is much thinner, I had to have the block on the rear of the floyd milled to allow clearance! Specs: Queensland Maple Neckthru Tasmanian Blackwood Body Rosewood headstock cap 25" scale 24 frets - dunlop 6150 Gold MOP headstock inlay Cloud fingerboard inlays Ivroid headstock binding Gotoh Floyd trem Imperial tuner heads Dimarzio X2N humbucker Area 61 Single coil Was built with a "Neal Moser" active circuit (hense all the switches) but I ended out remomiving that and rewiring standard. Switches are dummies to fill holes. Marblizer paint over a black PPG base with Custom PPG Candy over the top of a Baphomet layout. Clear coated with PPG Deltron 800

Could be interesting - make sure to keep us updated!

Beautiful! I'm liking the gold hardware on trans red

Looking good so far!

Will keep it for a bit before selling it.

Oh... In that case, I'd probably scrap it and just start a new one - but thats just me. Anytime I screw up a board, which is rarely now, but a few years ago yeah, I'd save them and reuse them for other things - or just kindling!

Simple - BIND IT !!! Cut it square to the fret slots, add binding and then insert the position markers into the binding! If the radius doesnt follow the fret slots you'll have to correct that. Also - if it is as dodgy as it sounds, maybe we should know where it came from so other people can avoid purchasing from them also! This is a good reason for people to do their own boards and avoid these problems!

Westheman: definitely opaque or I wouldn't have used offcuts I had laying around! The two wings are the offcuts from another v I cut years ago and I've had these sitting around for "one day", and the added part was a offcut from a neck saved for the same reason. Going to try airbrushing this one but I'm not going to spill the beans on that yet as I'm not sure I can pull off what I'm imagining. It's way out of my skill level, but if I screw it up I can just sand it back and do something else

Qld maple is more like mahogany, I think it's actually part of the mahogany family and not maple, but it's called qld maple. On paper it's kind of like a cross between the two woods and grain wise it's very similar to Honduran mahogany

Too late to edit it now - won't let me, but yes, I agree... a typo. Thanks for pointing that out!

Heres a few pics of my current build I started the other day. So far so good. Specs are: RHOADS V - 6 string Qld Maple body Maple Neckthru Birdseye Maple board with Ebony binding Reverse Sasafrass headstock Kahler Trem Grover Tuners Bridge p/up - Bareknuckle Painkiller Neck p/up- Bareknuckle Mothers Milk 3pce USA Maple neckthru: Sasafrass reverse headstock: I dont use these clamps when laminating, but I do use them to get the position as they are quick and easy, then I swap them over one by one with more dependable clamps. Truss slot jig I built: Queensland Maple body: Started on the Bevels with a rasp and bastard file: Birdseye Maple board with Ebony binding: Fingerboard being glued: Today I started the heel and neck carve: I'll post more pics when I do more work! Cheers Allan

Just watched your vid's - great stuff. Love your lettering. You must have been so freakin proud when he was holding it and signed it - hope you've clear coated the sig!

Ummm... THATS AWESOME!!!! Nice airbrushing, I'm envious - on top of that you got the mans signature on it! I'm off to watch the videos now

When I'm building, once I get to sanding stage, I have foam cut out to sit the cuitar on, stops it from getting scratched and dinted up. As others have said, it's simply that you've skimmed over your sanding process rather than going into fine detail. As far as sealing - I use a cheap 2k clear (if its a transparent guitar) spray several coats, wait a week, sand it back and repeat till all the grain is sealed. Another thing, if you're getting these kinds of scratches in your wood, you probably want to read up on your paint process as you'll get them in your clear too. Good luck!

Can't blame the camera! The pics I submitted I took with my mobile phone! Westhemann is right. Take them outside! When I took those pics it was an overcast day, you can even see a few rain spots on the guitar in a couple of them. Natural light is the cameras friend, especially I'd you're like me and using a mobile phone as a camera!

Blue steels for me

I wouldn't say they suck, I'd say you've divided your forces!

I just wanted to saw thanks to the few people so far that have voted for me, thanks for the comments and kind words. It's means a lot to me. Also, to everyone who submitted a guitar into this months build off, hello, good luck and damn you guys are good - theres some brutal competition and such a wide variety of works and definitely several thousand hours between us all slaving our butts off in our precious spare time. I would love to shake all of your hands! Cheers Allan P.S. To anyone looking at my guitarm its not a "standard" superstrat. It's actually longer and skinnier than standard. Ive even held it up above the skinny ibanez models and mines longer and pointier! It's my own redesign that looks standard. Cheers.