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jmrentis

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Everything posted by jmrentis

  1. WHat are your thoughts on using fretboard scraps for filler coloring Cliff? I've tried it a few times on different colored woods and personally haven't been all that satisfied, I suppose with ebony or other very dark woods you'd be fine, though some people find you don't even need any color for dark woods, just glue alone. I've always found in both inlays and in patching spots on guitars when you use dust or scrapings from the wood it will always come out much darker than the surrounding wood, so it never matches well. Especially so on fretboards because you're usually not finishing it, so the glue soak dust is a lot darker than the surrounding wood. Since these experiences I've been curious to try using dyes or colored powders, so I could add a lighter color to the glue so when it darkens it closer to the surrounding wood. The recon stone dust sounds like a good idea. Anyhow, just curious as to your experience on this Cliff and what you prefer. Thanks. Jason
  2. Anyhow, this is a site for sharing projects and as this as said was more of a sharing whats been done rather than "hey buy this", I think it's fine. It reminds me some of when Kevin was working to finish his design of Tremol-no. Its cool to see what members are making, especially when it goes beyong a guitar build and into technology of parts, like Pete's(PSW) Sustainer and such. Anyhow, cool stuff thanks for sharing. J
  3. I make a template and use it to both taper neck and fretboard separately, then glue them together. I find it easier to bind the fretboard before gluing up so I have to at least the fretboard. However, I also find it easier to have both tapered, as you can apply two clamps horizontally to keep it perfectly aligned. Although, I shape my neck first, so I used a special clamp that works with shaped necks and fretboards, which makes it almost impossible to have any alignment issues. As with Woodenspoke, I also use some pins, but nothing as neat or efficient as what Woodenspoke does. J
  4. Very nice, love that center laminate! The blank has a very similar color to the one I've been working on, but wow that center laminate is a thousand times better than Jatoba, so cool looking. I can't wait to see what that looks like once you've done the carve on the back of the neck, it should really look very cool! Great job planning it all out. Looking at the last pic or two, I can't tell but do you have the rod so the adjustment nut is on the bottom? In the pictures it looks upside down, it should go on the bottom, at least I believe it does, thats how I did my last hotrod if I remember correctly. Excellent work and look forward to seeing more pictures!!! Keep them coming! J
  5. Don't forget to request a list of their distributors, for those companies that wouldn't bother selling it to you, email them back and get lists of who sells and uses their products for them. These companies will have small business all around the world selling their stuff, as Woodenspoke's been saying, your best bet is to find a smaller end business or distributor that uses or sells the stuff and ask them for some. Even if you don't have a company in your town, your bound to find many different types of businesses in your country that either sell or use it, then it is just a matter of making a deal. You have to imagine that there will be several places in your country that use the stuff, even if they don't sell it, you can see if you can make a deal or put some money in on an order or just buy a small piece straight from them. And do not email them to request the stuff, in all likelihood they think your some kid whose not worth the time. Once you find a place, call them ask for someone in charge and explain how you'd like to purchase a piece, explain your deal. Again as woodenspoke said people dump emails, a major company isn't going to read beyond the first line when you need a 12" inch piece when they have companies buying 50 boards of the stuff. You need to get the lists of the distributors and start making phone calls. Emails are useless, people erase them, blow them off, getting someone on the phone makes the situation much more real and more plausible. I wish you the best of luck with your search and I think if you take the time and all the advice given here you will be successful in your search at a reasonable price. As Soap was mentioning, these things often take time and Soap probably was inquiring from a business standpoint which is 100 times more likely to get responses, so just keep trying, follow the leads you get from those lists. From the companies that said no already, email or call them back get a distributors list and keep trying. Best of luck. J
  6. Great to hear! A number of members mentioned him to me a while back and since I've had nothing but great experiences and each person I have sent over has also found his service excellent. For my friends bass he even had inlays cut in a material they weren't normally made in, no charge just needed some time. Let us know how it looks when you get your order. Best of luck. J
  7. Sorry I don't have any on hand myself, but don't hesitate to call Andy DePaule at Luthiersupplies.com. Andy is a great guy and will accommodate most anyones order. He sells blanks from his site I believe, but if you just call and tell him what you need, he'll set you up at a great price. So if you have trouble getting ahold of any, just hit up Andy, he'll take care of you no doubt. Best of luck, wish I could help Steve. J
  8. Sounds great and the scarf looks perfect. Just make sure if you aren't putting a finish on the fretboard that the limba dots won't get dirty. I don't know white limba personally, so I don't know how porous and how likely it would be to get dirty. Maybe using some hardwood's sapwood might be better? Not sure, just something to think about. Cool idea though!! Look forward to seeing it turn out. J
  9. As I've said somewhere, everyone seems to have their own recipe, some are more difficult than others, some are more cautious than others and the entire thing changes when different factors come into play like binding and so on. For example, I prefer to do a rough shaping of the neck prior to gluing on the fingerboard, to allow for any movement in the wood. So, then binding must be attached directly to an already tapered, slotted, and shaped fretboard. Then the bound, tapered, slotted fretboard is glued onto the already shaped neck. This would seem more complicated, but if you prefer to shape the neck first, its really the only way to go. Actually, I like having the neck shaped first, using a couple of these clamps, makes it seem almost easier than glueing up two flat pieces as it aligns itself. Seriously just tightening those clamps centers everything perfectly and by using a template to shape both fretboard and neck before hand, you end up with a perfect glue up. Of course I'm extra cautious and drill a couple minute holes in the first and last slots to use set pins to hold it in place as well, I'd buy those clamps just to drill the set pins as it holds everything perfect while you do this step. I leave the set pins in until the glue is completely dry, since I epoxy to remove I just hold the soldering iron to the pin and they slide out no problem, would work the same with any glue, but epoxy tends to hold the pins much stronger, so a bit of heat is sometimes necessary to remove them. With this method I haven't even has a hair of misalignmet between the fretboard and neck. As for when to slot and radius, I always had bought slotted boards and radiused at the very end so I could make sure everything was perfectly flat before fretting. Personally, I'd want to slot early on or first just to have a nice square board to slot, however it could be done later. The key for me when building necks is center lines. If you have a center line that you marked right away when you got the board you can do things differently. If you have a centerline you can slot later using some double stick tape to keep the slot perpendicular. Though I'd still probably want to slot early, having a slotted board never seemed to cause any problems for me throughout the building process. Also if you do shape the neck early you have to slot first because you have to bind before gluing the fretboard to the neck and once bound you can't slot. And I also scarf first as RestorationAD said. As I said there are many variables and formulas to doing it based on preferences and features used. So as long as it all works out... J
  10. I don't know if they still work, but I know a good number of people here bought wood from them in the past. They used to also have an Ebay site under a different name, I'm sure some of the old school PG members will know the name. I'd definitely try some more. I've always thought they sold some amazing wood. North Ridge Hardwoods seems to carry some nice pieces as well. Best of luck. J
  11. TK instruments-Sperzel info This page has a lot of the Sperzel info you'll need. Used to be one of the few places to get those Tuners. Sperzel has its own site now and while it doesn't say you can buy through them, if you call you can. My buddy talked to Bob Sperzel himself and said it was cool to call for tuners. Anyhow, it looks like .650 is the thickest headstock you can go with any Sperzel, which would be the non-staggered sets. The staggered sets require thinner headstocks, like .590 or so I believe. So 11/16" is .6875" and you need .650", so you're close. How thick are the veneers top and bottom? You only need .0375 taken off, you should be able to get that much, even if both are thin you could try taking just a hair from each side. I dunno, worth a try. You need to make sure you get the 6 inline style but non staggered. The 3x3 style tuners will be too big for that style of headstock, but the 6 inline won't be and will work if non-staggered. As for the crack, did it happen because of the curve right there? I had to figure a way around that problem on the back where I had a volute with an ever steeper curve. Made a home made bending pipe and it worked perfect, doesn't crack. I don't know about that green stuff, where did you get the wood? Was it like that before you did anything with it? I know there can be mineral stains or if left moist it can discolor or get fungus, I don't know. It doesn't seem extremely noticeable or anything. Looks loads better than it did. Nice work. J
  12. Its pretty close to being covered by the fret, I think at worst it'll just look like a shadow under the fret if its not covered completely. However, I would make extra certain that you've got that entire cut completely filled and solid because when you press a fret in there if it wasn't filled well it might just snap off that little divider between the slots. I know its not deep, but the tang will be pushing in that depth range. Yea filling with dust is tricky, it never comes out perfect because it always comes out darker than the original wood. If you really shine up that board it might be much less noticeable because it'll probably darken as you move up through grits, like the difference between rough sanded ebony and highly polished. On a side note, I've been thinking of trying to do fills with lighter materials, like instead of filling with dust from that wood, find a similar color, but lighter wood and use dust from that to fill, since the dust darkens are you fill, it might negate the difference you normally see. Something I've been meaning to try anyway. Anyhow, cool looking project, keep the progress pics coming. Its always enjoyable to see all the steps involved. That wenge fingerboard is really cool looking, that is going to be a very nice looking neck. I need to push myself to work in some wenge into an upcoming project, it always looks great. Very nice and best of luck. J PS: A little trick that works pretty well that I got from Dan Erlewine, try electrical tape to protect the fretboard from CA. Tried it when I used some glue fretting and it worked pretty good. What thickness did you use in glue? I might have tried to pack the dust and very slowly dribble some thin CA in there, might be easier to control in that particular situation. Either way I think it won't be noticeable much if at all when you're done.
  13. Woodenspokes thread on nippers :as in fret cutters, lol Definitely check out this thread John. When I did my neck tool shopping I grabbed a pair of channel lock cutters, a bit larger than average, but the head on it was the same, just longer so more leverage. When buying them on the cheap look out for a few things mentioned in Woodenspokes post. I initially try smoothing mine on a wheel, but it sucked, I ended up using a little drum sander in my drill press, worked amazingly well, cuts perfect and after fretting it showed no sign of wear, definitely better than spending the money to buy from stewmac or lmi. Hope the neck building is going well. J
  14. Makes it loads easier to avoid getting glue on the rod as well. Seems to work quite well all around. J
  15. Very nice looking rig. I can imagine it was a bit different trying the one piece neck/fretboard with skunk stripe. Seems like a much more difficult method, although some people might love not having to glue up a fingerboard I suppose. Anyhow, looks like it came out very nice, hopefully he'll send you some pics once he's painted her all up. J
  16. Just don't angle it on the edge too much because it can literally gouge deep into the edge, just keep it at a reasonable angle, go slow, look at your piece several times on your first time using it. You should have a lock for power on it, where you can turn it on and lock it so it stays on, this helps in control instead of having to hold a button to keep it on. Also just like most any other carve, draw out your lines. It'd be a good idea to try it on some scrap first because it can take an amazing amount of wood off in a short amount of time, but as Rick said it doesn't take long at all to get the feel for it, so within 5 minutes of practice you should feel confortable enough to start, I'm sure that figured maple is soft, so just go slow, not too much pressure and I'm sure you'll be good to go. Anyhow, nice work Kenny, its looking very nice, look forward to seeing how this one finishes up. BTW- you can pick up some flap discs pretty cheap at home depot, you may want to try a few different grits and see what works best for you, I forget off hand what I used last, maybe 120 grit? Not a 100% sure. I believe I was even surprised at how much it took off even at 120. J Maiden: LOL I kid you not that is exactly what I said word for word when I first looked at the belly carve, though Kenny is skinny and it looks good. HOwever for my fat gut I need the carve from the upper horn to where the down past the electronics cavity, hey at least that means my guitar is lighter.
  17. I was going to ask the same question as I noticed on the last half of the inlays they have those round corners, which would lead me to the same guess that Prostheta mentioned, just wondering if someone selling pre-inlaid boards did that or not. Looks alright, on ebony it would probably be invisible, but maple shows the smallest of gaps so they are easily noticed. As already said though, great looking build, very clean, cool choices on woods, nice job all the way around. Really like the hardware choices for the woods used, really comes together really well. Should be a great player.Nice work. J
  18. From an old tutorial I remember, prior to carving the scoop that you see on flat headstocks, he drilled a hole that led into the truss rod channel, so instead of routing through to the headstock, he stopped an inch or two before the end of where the fretboard would be, then cut away some of the wood that would be carved during the scoop carve and drilled the hole for the truss rod. I think it'll depend on the type of adjustment the truss rod requires, if it has a small head and allen wrench adjustment then you could probably do something similar, if not you might just have to route out as you suggested. I can't recall exactly which tutorial it was, but I'm thinking it was Guitar Frenzys tutorial does anyone know if we still have that somewhere. If I find it, I'll link it. Best of luck. J EDIT: I found it, Guitar Frenzy Strat Tut That link should help you out with most of your question for your build at the end of page 2 and the beginning of page 3 is where you can see how he worked this problem as I described above. Its your choice on how you procede, but I just wanted to show you that tutorial. Best of luck. J
  19. I don't work consistantly enough to give a good estimate, but they don't last all that long, especially on tougher woods. Even when they dull though you still feel the hook. I pretty much sharpen shortly after losing the ability to get curls off the wood. If you feel you are having to sharpen too often you can try using less of an angle on the hook, which will give the hook some more strength, possibly last you longer. It also works well being able to adjust it as needed for different jobs, like cleaning up some rough wood or taking some final swipes at a top before finishing. What I read for scrapers is you can re-turn the hook on the scraper about three times before you should square the edges again on a file and start fresh, sometimes I do it after two, depends on how clean the edge is, meaning smooth or not. When I need to start fresh, I run it on a mill file until I get straight smooth edges, then I have an MDF board with various grits of sandpaper I use for sharpening all types of blades and I usually run from 800 to 1500 or 2000, then pull out the burnisher. Seems to work well. I'm sure there are others with better info for you, that is just my experience and what works well for me. Best of luck. J
  20. Cool thanks for the info, I think I misread the binding thing. Glad to hear you grabbed that from Stewmac, I really like that bridge. Look forward to seeing this project come together. J
  21. Very cool, like the hardware and wood choices. I also like the shape and carving planned for this build. I had one question for you, on that hipshot bridge are all the saddles exactly the same size. I fell in love with that bridge when I first saw it a while back, it looked just like yours except in chrome, however, since then almost everyone I had seen who bought it and all the places that carried it, carried a version where the saddles were different in size, some where smaller than others, I suppose set for intonation. I wanted to see if yours was the normal one I like and where you bought it? Also, for a future build possibly since you said no binding on this one. Maybe try to do those same inlays, and try to make the binding the same, where you have say white in the middle and use a thin piece, like .020 on all sides of the piece of binding, so it mimicks the inlay concept somewhat, if I'm not explaining this properly let me know I could mock up a pick maybe. This would be especially neat on an ebony board using black plastic as the main piece and thin white pieces on all sides of the binding. Just an idea if you use this inlay pattern again on any future builds, actually the idea would be cool even without the inlays, but the inlays and binding would be best. Cool project, look forward to seeing it come together. J
  22. Andy DePaule Inlays Andy has loads of inlays including a couple block sets for bass scales including the 24th fret marker. So, that would save you some work and they would be of proper size, that is if these are what you are looking for. If not you can check the guitar block inlay section on his site. If you can't find what you want there you can still get your shell blanks there for cutting the 24th. Andy is a great guy, great service, and great products. Best of luck. J
  23. Naw, I think it looks more like Pac-man swallowed an iron.
  24. I almost like number 4, for some reason the last few don't sit right for me, but its still a cool inlay layout. Number 2 would be really cool, but I'd be worried that once the frets were in that it would look too bunched or the wire would overlap the edges of the dots, if it didn't and there was plenty of room that would be a very cool choice. Just for the heck of it I did a quick mockup of a similar design idea, I used this one on my own project, but with different inlays and for the 24th fret my inlays wouldn't have fit, so I did a "V" style block inlay that I cut myself and it actually looked pretty cool. Being that your fretboard has a curve I think the two dots at the side works well, especially with this layout. This one took me a long while to layout evenly, wasn't the easiest layout thats for sure. Best of luck on the project. J
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