jmrentis

I think Mattia is right, push the neck pickup closer to the neck as the ring is very thin right there. Also, it seems as though you have nearly a full fret after the 24th fret when including the binding, so that whole area shortens your pup space even further. If you measure from just after the 24th fret to the bridge post you have close to what you'd expect. J

Very nice work! I must say that Korina looks almost like it has a birds eye type figure to it, does it? I don't know that I've seen any korina black or white that had figure like that, or at least none that I recall. Again, nice instrument and nice job with the theme/color scheme to the whole project, it fits well I think and is far from boring. J

The only thing that would concern me would be the throat depth. I had a smaller benchtop from a while back and it worked for most general purposes, but when I went to drill the post holes for my TOM bridge, it wouldn't reach and it was a standard shape guitar. Certain body shapes are way worse than others for this. I think the throat on my old one was close to yours. I went out and bought a new benchtop because I didn't have room for a standing press, I got a 12" Delta that works well for my needs and will reach any bridge post I need. I got it pretty cheap also, look around more see what you can find before committing to that one. If you can fit a standing drill press, definitely save and go for that. Best of luck. J

I'm sure there will be plenty of responses for this question. For gluing up a two piece body I would go with some titebond orginal (wood glue) over epoxy. I should add that I actually don't mind using epoxy, I use West Systems epoxy when I have the need, I think its a good epoxy choice, though I know there are some more common ones for luthier use. I used epoxy for gluing up the fretboard to the neck to avoid any introduction of water through use of wood glue. Thats really one of the few places where I would even worry about that, and even there its only a minor benefit, for gluing up a two piece body I would prefer to use straight wood glue. Easier to use, easier to clean up, will create an extremely strong bond (generally stronger than the wood itself), and its cheaper. Just make sure you get a good fit between the two body pieces and have a fresh surface when you glue up, meaning have a freshly scraped or sanded surface when you glue up. Best of luck. J PS- Good point about the garden variety epoxy's, I've actually heard this elsewhere as well. West systems, z-poxy, and systems 3 are the few that I've heard work well for luthier use, and as I said I've used West systems and think highly of it. I tried a hardware store epoxy once and it stayed quite soft and much less clear than the West systems, with any epoxy the ratio had got to be dang near perfect if you want it to harden/act properly. I love the pump system that I bought for the west systems epoxy, makes it a no brainer and easy to use. Anyway, even in comparing the high quality epoxy's, wood glue still seems the best choice by quite a bit for gluing a body blank.

Absolutely stunning Chris! Very nice recovery also! Since I've started learning to build I've developed an opinion that being able to recover from damages or screw-ups takes more skill, knowledge, and creativity than just a general straight through build, so anytime I see some killer repair or recovery from mistake I always have more appreciation for the luthier and the work. Anyhow, I really think your acoustic meshes well and I love that moon and reflection inlay, along with the headstock two-layer concept, very nice stuff. I'm also a sucker for ziricote and the asymmetrical look. Well, excellent work Chris, can't wait to see what you got up your sleeve next. J

Sounds like a nice press, unfortunate that its got such serious vibration. On the laser cross hairs, I'm sure some people dig them, but I end up lining everything up anyway normally out of habit even with the lasers, I don't know that I could ever just go by lasers. I know what you mean about taking that thing apart for returning, it would no doubt be a pain. However, I would truly consider it, even though its a pain you don't want to start out by having to rig a new machine to work properly. Obviously, you know and said that already, but I just wanted to give you a push to return it. If your new one does this as well, you may want to consider models or brands, ya know? Or at least you have a new machine that runs well out of the box, it sucks to go through all that, but it would likely be well worth it. Anyway, thats great you got the nice full sized press, I can't wait till I have the space for one. Well, either way you go best of luck and congrats on the puchase. J

How strange? I'm wondering like Rick if there is some reason for those channels. To make such a channel would be a pain because even with a V shape channel you'd have to make a flat section for the wire to sit properly, otherwise it might want to tilt in one direction or the other. I though maybe it was a strange way to lose fret height, by sinking it slightly into the board, but I honestly don't know. Its definitely a channel because you can see some pours/grain and how the pours open and look bigger at the channel due to the angle of the channel (terrible explanation). Definitely an interesting question! Hope someone knows for sure. As Rick said, you want a slight chamfer on the slot edges, but it should barely noticeable even up close. J

As with Rich, I grabbed mine learners permit at 15 and got my license on my 16th bday. I started working at 15 1/2 with a workers permit, so I needed to drive asap. Its nice to be able to drive and it doesn't take long to learn, just maintain your respect for the road, the red asphalt movie we watched during drivers training is what gained my attention and developed my respect. Sounded like a good Bday! J

Happy Bday Daniel! 18 was a fun one I thought. J

Thanks for the suggestions and tips. I've read up a bit in the past on working with spalted woods (which is why I haven't tried beech yet) and I've seen a few ways to improve the stability like having it impregnated with acrlyic as one known wood vendor does and I see you've used this process before as well. If I go through Gilmer for the wood, I know that they can be of great help in choosing pieces for luthier work, so I would get as solid a piece as possible and then see what I could do with epoxy or CA to stabilize it further if need be. The fungus thing has always worried me, I am fairly careful about protection and always wear my mask. I'm allergic to dang near everything that an allergy test can test for, so I always try to be extra careful when working with wood. Again, I thank you for all the help and suggestions, please post some more pictures as you finish it and maybe some more info on how working with it was. Best of luck and keep up the excellent work. J

Another epic set up builds! That sappy redwood looks amazing, its almost like sappy redwood burl or something, very unique and looks great. I had always been curious about spalted beech for a guitar top. Always when going through Gilmers pages I would come across a number of piece of spalted beech that seemed perfect, but I just wasn't certain of it qualities and hadn't see it used. Now that I see how it looks on a body, I have to try a piece and how its paired with that nice black limba, wheew perfecto! All three are amazing as per usual. Nice stuff! Jason

I think he meant no small touchup could be done on the finish with that repair, not that an entire new paint job wouldn't work out. In the suggested method, you wouldn't be able to save the existing finish, but upon finishing an entire new paint job should work fine, I believe. With some cracks you can glue up and touch up the crack and salvage what you had without any real sign of repair, I think thats what southpa was alluding to. J

Thats probably my favorite subcharacter of that series, lol. When all the judges clap in unison, I crack up everytime. That maple figure should be renamed: Cycloptic HypnoPear figure! BTW- Maple looks fine to me, in cutting a matching quartered cavity cover, even the minor wood removal I needed varied the figure, or drifted I guess. With such pronounced flatsawn figure I can't imagine it easy or common to get a perfect or close bookmatch. Though the HypnoToad could probably sway all our minds to think otherwise. J

Actually, this is exactly what I do. Neck and fingerboard are the same size. My comment may not have been clear enough. What I don't finish is the back profile until the fingerboard is on. I leave 1/8" of the back unshaped, which is that very last bit along the edge where the fingerboard joins. This way, the neck shaft and fingerboard are exactly the same width and taper. (important with bound fingerboards) The blocks line it all up and keep it there. I also pin for the initial position. The blocks act as a little extra protection from shifting. -Doug That is pretty dang good idea! Its more sturdy than the method I used, but in essence it works out the same in some ways. The reason it works close to the same is those form fitting clamps, once tightened the perfectly align the edges just as if they were still squared like in Dougs method. However, those clamps are less sturdy and apply less pressure than some regular clamps, so Dougs method is better. The only thing is I don't know how well I could leave the edges when using a spokeshave. Do you use one doug? If you did, then I trust it would be fine, if not I will have to test to see if I can carve the neck and still leave the ledges for glue up. Either way very cool idea and first time I've ever heard of it, or at least understood it. Thanks for sharing. J

That sucks it moved, that was something that greatly worried me as since I've been here I've heard and seen a number of slippage issues, even with the use of pins. So, I went overboard slightly, but it seemed to work well, though the way I did it might not work as well with a squared neck blank, I did a rough carve prior to gluing on the fretboad. To prevent slippage I used 4 pins, two at the first fret and two at the last fret. The pins were just the drill bits I used and I drilled the hole, then put the bit in backward and left them in until the neck was done drying. A couple got glued in since I used epoxy, but I just took a soldering gun, touched it to the pin for a bit and it pulled right out with no effort. Aside from the pins, what I think really prevented any slippage is the clamps that actually form to the neck shape, I got mine from Stewmac, but I've similar ones elsewhere. Anyhow, two of those and the pins and I couldn't imagine any slippage. Anyhow, may be worth checking those out, I thought they were very helpful for a couple different things, glad I got them. I also glued the neck up using a neck rest and two 8 inch radius blocks, in order to use those clamps I needed two smaller radius blocks instead of one long one. Anyhow, hope it all works out for you and you are able to salvage the board and reglue it up straight. J

Yeah, I think he was basically saying to Donutman, since he already has a 7 string to use as comparison, why not just copy the measurements. For example by taking the length of from the nut to the saddle on the lowest string and then the highest string, then you have the measurements of what a 7 string bridge placement should be. As killemall said I've seen both 1/16" and 1/8", I would say I have seen a 1/8 more commonly though and is what I would use. J

Thats actually an excellent point. So even if this idea would work theoretically, you wouldn't be able to implement it with any standard sized neck thickness, its best to just stick with the standard processes with truss rods.

I understand how a woodworker could come to the diagonal idea or the x brace style idea, but as I said, while it is woodworking the concepts don't always translate and offering such suggestions without having knowledge of building guitars could be harmful to people that would look upto someone with so much experience. I only wish I had prior woodworking experience and I really appreciate the advice and knowledge of those who do in luthiery. My dad is a talented engineer and he is always trying to offer ideas when I discuss what I am working on (guitar), and his ideas are very cool and seem to fit, but they would honestly not work for building guitars or maybe some would, but there are much better ways. Here and there methods are improved, but I think the standard build process and structure is fairly well keyed in at this point. As for the truss rod ideas, I just don't think you can move the truss much without adding the possibility of twist into the neck. Keeping it centered and in using the recommended cut of wood go a long way to prevent problems with the neck, in changing the direction and position of pressure and adjustment I think you're more likely to create a problem vs. prevent a problem. I just used a 2way adjustable truss and 2 carbon fiber rods which pretty much covers it support wise . The cf rods follow the taper of the neck, so support is fairly equal around the entire neck while still allowing minor adjustments if ever needed. If I were to experiment with anything it would be the positioning of the cf rods, outside of that I think current setups work. Regardless, I'm always curious of everyones opinions and points on such subjects. J

I wasn't quite sure I read your post correctly wohzah, was your buddy saying that the best method for installing a truss rod would be diagonal? In not being a luthier I don't know that one could offer such a suggestion without any experience in guitars, I know it is a form of woodworking, but such things don't always translate, ya know? Anyway, I'm not even sure if thats what you were saying, just checking to see. Having the truss rod off to one side too far would likely throw some twist into the neck. Just like having two truss rods side by side, if they aren't turned equally, you can add twist into the neck. I would imagine that having one truss rod off to one side would be in effect, the same as the pressure on one side would be different than the other, thus inducing twist. How much off it would need to be, I would have no idea, but I wouldn't really be happy or comfortable with a neck unless it was very, very close to center at least.

Once again, another good looking project. I had to laugh I have the same setup for carving, I started by hand and after 20 minutes of getting nowhere I went to home depot and spent very little money for a very helpful tool! Nice looking wood and it looks like its coming together nicely. The inlays look very nice and fit well for the project. I really like the project, I've been leaning towards some type of single cut for my next and this project pretty much sealed the deal I think. Nice work. Keep those progress photos coming! J

I always say Pad-uck. Its strange because I learn so much on the computer and if I don't quite know how to say something I just make up something to call it when reading. Thats all fine and gravy until I head out to the lumber shop and begin to ask about a wood and all of a sudden realize that I don't know how to pronounce it, then I fumble like an idiot for a while and end up spelling it for them, lol. Some of those exotics have crazy spellings and pronunciations, I generally just search the stores for those instead of asking, quicker that way I think, lol. Another problem is often the names are spelt differently by different places, countries, stores, etc. One wood I've seen 4 or 5 spellings for is ziricote, don't know why, but I've seen it spelt so many different ways, thats another wood I don't really know how to say. I guess I say it like "zeer-e-coat-te"?? or something like that, which I'm sure is way off. I guess I'm one of those guys that won't stop and ask for directions or pronunciations! J

Do you have a decent sized piece of cherry left? Try setting your project on a matching piece of cherry. It looks as most of your gaps have some surrounding cherry, so I think a backing of cherry may actually help these gaps disappear. Even the gaps around the dyed section are adjacent to some cherry such as around the right hand side of the sword, so that cherry backing may help those gaps become invisible. This would still leave the gaps though just be less noticeable, how are you planning on finishing this? I'd imagine you'd be forced to use some splinters to fill the gaps if you really need the gaps filled, sometimes in inlays you can use dust of the wood, such as by sanding some cherry, but generally when gluing up dust, it darkens and stands out more than you'd imagine. Anyhow, looking great and best of luck, I really dig this sort of thing. The one and only tattoo I've ever wanted is somewhat similar, more of a crest really, but similar concept of symbolic meaning and representation. J

Looking good! Necks are cool because you end using so many different tools to build them, it can be a pain, but I just enjoy figuring it all out. That is a nice piece of maple you got, I didn't quite notice the figure until the neck was closer to shape. I saw some figure in the blank, but maybe the angle took away much of what it actually looked like. Anyhow, your tools and process seemed to work out well enough. Just like you I did my neck without a router table and ended up using a table saw table and fence and still needed all types of clamps and straight edges it was a pain, now I have a table, lol. In the pictures when you were cutting the neck, did you have the bearings closer to the cutting surface than the pictures show? I can't remember where, maybe in the manual of the saw, it suggests keeping the length of exposed blade within an inch of your woods thickness. This helps avoid poor cuts, deflection, and so on. I was wanted to mention that just in case, as it can help to improve cuts. I still catch myself once in a while forgetting to adjust the cutting height. Anyhow, can't wait to see how this turns out, nice work. J

Led, the last post regarding this was a month ago...it was buried until you dug it back up. Anyway, moving on.............. RG is correct regarding the neck angle considerations, Zeb. You'll require a neck angle of sorts. If it wasn't for the fact you're using a Bigsby, I would have suggested sinking your T.O.M. into the body. Draw out your neck to body to bridge join on paper to a 1:1 scale and that should give you the good oil. Either way you'll need to angle either your neck tenon or body mortice, otherwise you'll have a whoppingly high action. Cheers, Stu Good point about the neck angle Stu. I think maybe RG was actually referring to the angle of the bridge to allow for proper intonation. Most of the time with the bass side set back an 1/8 of an inch to give the bridge angle for proper intonation. Both that and the neck angle you mention are important considerations in creating a properly setup and playable guitar. Anyhow, thats what I thought RG was talking about, I could be wrong though. If the bridge has enough adjustment room, its possible to get away without the angle, but it'd have to be near perfect placement on top of plenty of adjustment room I believe. J

I actually was going to link another stewmac page, suggesting those whip tips they sell. Depending on what your glue comes in, those whip tips look handy. They are cheaper than pipettes and stewmac sells them. I think 10 for $1.91 or something. They look nice and small too to get in those slots perfectly. I had already searched all types of medical suppliers and such, but most didn't have a sharp enough tip, some did, but not many. Rockler also sells a couple different varieties of injectors with metal needles as the tip, I thought the syringes from stewmac would be great, but it says not for super glue use, but some of the Rockler injectors make no such warning and may work out. Best of luck. J