jmrentis

LOL, didn't even make that distinction! Honestly, I think it actually fits together quite well, both shape of body and headstock flow together better than I would have anticipated with that combo. I do see things differently though as I never paid much attention to brand/headstock, not sure why. I always have to look up picks when people call headstocks by name as I just never paid much attention, well not until I got into building and designing. Anyhow, I actually dig the flow between the headstock and body. Also the body really has come together very nicely. Do you have some binding on there now as well? That last picture looks like there is binding, but you made no mention of it and I can't really tell if the sides are taped off or you carved the top or you added binding. Regardless it looks great! J

The German stuff Woodenspoke sells seems top notch to me, I had some Stewmac wire on hand and in comparing the two varieties I noticed a difference in quality between the two. The German stuff Woodenspoke has seemed to be of much higher quality. The Stewmac wire would become misshaped when cut and generally felt softer and would bend more easily, where as the German stuff cut much more cleanly and seemed harder. If I were to buy bulk or even for just one guitar I would definitely try to find a way to grab the German stuff. Just what I noticed on an initial comparison anyhow. Can't give any long term comparisons yet. J

The caul, often being made of wood can get glued to whatever it is you are gluing if there happens to be any squeeze out which with a veneer is plausible. What I like to do is separate the caul and guitar part with a piece of wax paper. You can buy a roll of it for cheap at any grocery store or even walmart and a roll lasts a while. Whenever I need to glue something I always use a piece of wax paper, even if I know there won't be any squeeze out, it protects my working surface from squeeze out along with clamps and cauls. I've had an accidental drop somehow make its way onto a caul and it glued itself real well to my project, so I now find it worth it to just slide in a piece of wax paper. You could probably use saran wrap (i.e. cellophane) and it would work, but I find wax paper much more manageable in the shop. Just a tip that I've found useful. Best of luck. J

I've always just used the word sharpening as it seemed an easier explanation than burnishing. Sharpening has always seemed close enough of a description to me, though if someone viewed the word sharpening as something beyond creating the initial hook then I can see the problem with the word. My use of the word probably came from when researching burnishing techniques as many of the videos and articles I went through when learning went by "Sharpening a scraper" or something similar. As both you Mattia said, probably not the best word for it though. It truly does take plenty of practice to get nice curls with a scraper. At first I always ended up with only managing to scrap dust, but as time went by and my burnishing technique improved, I was able to pull some nice curls. I still play around with the angles when burnishing to try different variations to see what differences I find. I really do think hand tools are a blast once you can properly tune them and produce sharp blades for planes and spokeshaves. I still need to find myself a higher quality rasp, I've wanting to find one for a while. J

I think it quite a common occurance in figured woods, especially quilted. Probably part of the reason sanding suggested over planing much of the time in many figured woods. Check out the progress section, there is a thread called Avia Hh-1000 #001. Go down to the post update for today and one of the middle pics is a close up of some quilted maple, thats the problem you are speaking of right? I actually had some funny grain in my zebrawood and ran into the same issue, just a small patch of it. Basically, I spent a fair amount of time with a very sharp scraper, though I did some sanding first as well, I think you may be able to sand it all out if done properly, but not certain. I don't know what the process is for this, I'm sure the guys have some helpful tips for you. The scraper worked for me, however, you need it to be nice and sharp and keep it sharp, a smaller hook worked slightly better for me, for whatever reason, I only had to do a small spot though. But wait and see what the much more experienced guys do. J

Hmm, I'm not sure what happened. I basically take a glue brush dip it in the acetone and just brush a 6-8inch section and immediately place it into the jig. I have paper towel or rag on hand for any squeeze out since that will really soften it too much. After that I generally pull it out in a couple minutes and move down to the next section. Upon finishing the length I have glued I let it rest overnight to ensure its solid, though I know it takes much less time than that. The only problem I can think of is too much acetone and it ended up squeezing out into the channel and softened the outsides of the bindings, thus gluing it to the wood. It doesn't take much acetone really, one good swipe of the brush seemed enough, I could visually see some acetone on the binding and quickly squeezed them together into the jig. On my fretboard I used scraps of binding as my glue, I just put them into a glass jar with a lid with some acetone. It melted into a paste and I adjusted it to the right thickness and it made for excellent glue and seamless joints. The piece of MDF I use for that jig, I had brushed with shellac because I wanted to avoid any MDF dust from getting into my binding. I doubt that would have anything to do with it though, it was just precaution for dust. If the binding stuck to the wood, then I think it was too much acetone squeeze out. Even if the acetone disappears from sight the binding generally should soften enough to glue up, it takes seconds for it to become soft and with how quickly acetone evaporates it should dry quickly as well. I would say try it again, use just a generic glue brush, dip in the acetone, maybe even tap some of the acetone off the brush then brush a 6-8 inch section and stick it in the jig and let it sit 3-5minutes, which should be plenty, pull it out carefully and move onto the next section. Try using very little acetone and after drying in saying 15 minutes, if it seems to come apart way too easy than use a bit more. Hopefully, that'll help some. I have another 50inch length of that same binding I need to do, so I'll try and take more pics and really detail the process. Best of luck and if I didn't answer everything, just ask and I hope it works out for you. Jason PS: Out of curiousity, where did the binding come from? I've tried both Stewmacs and LMI stuff and they seem to work fine. I just mention this in case its a different type of material that doesn't take well to this type of process. As always there are other ways to do this, I just like it because you are not adding any extra material between the laminates, plus it goes nice and quickly once you have it down.

Those magnets are amazingly strong and in using 5 sets on mine, I felt it was a tad much, but it looks like my magnets were bigger than those and my cavity smaller. In using a shape like that I would want a magnet in each area to make sure it sits nicely and doesn't rattle or lift in any section. I bet I would have used that exact same magnet placement for that cavity, it just looks like it suits it perfect. I will likely probably still use 5 on my next project, however I will be buying some smaller magnets as they stand out less, mine were a bit too large. FWIW Rick, if you are adding a little scoop to get the cover off, I found it helpful to have either no or just a little bit of the cavity rim left where the scoop goes. For example, in your picture there are three little indentions where the cavity ledge nearly disappears and those would be good areas. I ended up just routing the ledge down at the spot I put my scoop, it just enables you to get your finger under there better. With the ledge there its very tough to get it off, especially if the cover is snug, which yours looks like. I just wanted to mention that, as I ran into that issue. I'd probably try it without it first so you don't have to mod it, but if its tough you can always try that. Its looking excellent Rick, keep those pics coming, its a beautiful instrument. J Edit: Here is a pic that kinda shows what I mean, you can see where the finger scoop is that the ledge is ground down at an angle. It looked best this way, at first I was just going to route it deeper there, but it would have looked more like a mistake that way, well at least I think so. Cavity finger scoop

Hmm, there is this weird thing I remember where some people have too much iron or something and when they come into contact with certain metals it actually leaves black lines on the skin. I forget what is used for the experiment, maybe a nickel. We did it in school I believe, maybe middle school. It was funny because some kids would walk around the rest of the day with these black lines all over their faces. This probably isn't the case here, but it sounds very similar and just reminded me of that. J

Aside from the structural aspect it offers differences in sound. Somewhere around Mattia gave a great explanation on the difference in sound and feedback between many small chambers and one big chamber or U shaped chamber. They all offer some difference, I believe even one giant chamber will sound slightly different from a giant chamber with a small block under the bridge. I know one of the most noted points was on the amounts of feedback one receives with one giant chamber vs. numerous small chambers. A few members explained this in a discussion somewhere and I cannot remember where off hand, otherwise I'd provide a link. So, aside from structural benefits there is a noticeable difference in sound and feedback between the two different styles. Anyhow, thats just what I remember from the discussion. J

It may be MEK that he uses to catalyze the polyester as thats what I remember being the chemical used if one wanted to avoid going UV, actually I think its MEK and a little of one more item, though I would have to go back and read to verify that. Its funny JJ, I saw your name and introduction post and thought to myself, "huh? he's been around a while, I don't get it" Then as I finished reading your post I realized I knew you from OLF. I do a lot of lurking and reading at OLF, but only rarely post, plus I uses a different screen name. Anyhow, I believe all the answers we need are found in a couple posts that occurred at OLF maybe 6 months ago or maybe more. It was a couple posts involving a couple posters using polyester including Rick Turner, who explained in detail exactly how he does, plus there was a number of other posters who explained their use of polyurethane and how they compared. I learned so much from those threads and there was a few different threads, one of them being a good 5 or 6 of the old OLF pages which were a mile long. I remember the use of MEK because a few people voiced concern about how dangerous it was and how someone ended up with a shriveled raisin for an eye and Rick explained how so little is used to catalyze the finish that its not a problem or reason to avoid using the chemically catalyzed process. As I said I believe there is one more product, maybe something like cobalt or something, again I would need to read. I remember Joe was very interested and involved in those threads, not sure he was spraying PE at the time, though he might have been, again I'll have to go back and find those threads and link em. Anyhow, glad to see you found your way to PG. Jason

No problem! However, I did just realize that the laminated black/white/black binding I bought actually came from LMI (Luthiers Mercantile International) and their site is www.lmii.com, stewmac doesn't carry any of the prelaminated plastic bindings, only the dyed wood fiber stuff. They carry regular black and white in different sizes, but LMI carries some prelaminated bindings which save you some work. Anyhow, best of luck with your project. J

Pumped????? Dan, signed autograph???? Celebrity Luthier signatures, Hummmm... Come on Woodenspoke, where have you been, haven't you been watching the Celebrity Luthier Dance Off Competitions?? I assumed everyone had been watching, same with the Luthier Idol, you know where they sing. Cool for you he signed it. The world of guitar building really seems so unknown that I doubt it will ever be worth anything, but you could still frame it just to show it off. I'm sure some houseguest would get a kick out of that, especially if you had made some quality instrument from what you learned. Plus, that'll be something cool to show your kids, when you pass on some homemade instruments. J

Stewmac.com has a number of different plastic bindings. As for laminated bindings, they have a couple like black/white/black and white/black/white and another one or two. If they don't have exactly the combo you desire, just make your own combo, its actually really easy. The plastic bindings will actually glue together with just some acetone. Just take a brush and dip it and then slide some on the binding and press it together. I recently did something like this as I wanted the outside binding to be fatter and white, while having a black/white/black on the inside. So, I bought some regular white binding and some b/w/b binding and glued them together. Also Stewmac has a little binding laminator, but honestly there isn't much need as you can make your own for free and they are easy, plus there are different ways to do it. Here is mine, just made it in a couple minutes, found a bit that was the same width as the binding and it worked perfectly, its extremely simple and may seem stupid but it worked great and I was able to do much longer sections at a time. LMI is another place that has a number of different bindings, including some fiber wood type bindings which come in black and white like plastic. Best of luck. j

One tip I picked up from Andy DePaul (great place to buy inlay blanks, BTW!) was to paint the backs of the inlay blanks with enamel or white/pearl colored fingernail polish. Then, if your inlays get a little on the thin side when sanding, it's a lot less noticable than having the dark colored epoxy or ebony board showing through. Worked great on mine! Funny you mention that as when I called Andy to order some more pearl to redo that inlay, he offered that piece of advice along with a few more ideas. He is a great guy and is very helpful. Whenever I need any pearl related material, I don't even bother looking around, I go straight to him, not only do I get what I want, but he makes certain you're happy with everything and that is now rare in customer service. Anyhow, it was partially my fault that it got thin. I described my initial idea and he had some scraps laying around that were prefect and he sent them with the order, but one piece that I used was fairly thin compared to a standard thickness, I could have gotten away with it, but I didn't glue the inlay up with enough radius to match the fretboard, so I ended up sanding it too thin. Andy is always a great help and made sure everything was well. Adding some color to the back, even a piece of paper is helpful, though, with standard inlays, I don't think its much of a problem, I know when you start getting fancy, these tricks can make a big difference. J

I don't think the difference between plastic washer and the ones you spoke have any difference in torque on the knobs/screws, I think its meant as the difference of strap locks vs anything else. Though some washer systems require one to tighten the strap and washer against the body with the button, which makes it basically stuck in place, which is a system that probably puts the most pressure on the strap button, though even just a regular strap puts more pressure and friction on a button than a strap lock. The strap locks uses essentially a swivel or bearing system that allows your strap to spin freely, whereas when not using a strap lock, such a normal system or such as your or any washer system the strap applies friction against the strap button and can eventually make it spin loose or apply enough friction to make the screw widen the hole, which will require a fix down the line, this can be much worse when talking about certain washer methods that I think Mick was referring to, but its a problem with most setups aside from strap locks. As I said, prior to using any strap locks I had that happen on many different guitars, numerous times, but since installing the strap locks on a few guitars, I haven't had it happen yet, not saying it couldn't, I just don't feel it will happen even remotely as often or as severe as without strap locks. That reason and for my personal conveinence is the reasons I prefer the strap locks. Also as suggested, if you always put your instrument back in a case that didn't fit a strap, then the strap locks would be the way to go. Outside of that, I think your idea is a worth while affair, just like those stewmac dealio's. To add some protection for some expensive instruments is always a good thing and what you mentioned is a quick easy mod that can be easily found and done for next to no money. Anyhow, hope that clarifies at least the torque thing, while a minor difference at best, I've noticed a major difference in how often I've had to fix the strap button screws. I don't think it really comes down to valid and invalid, I think its preference more than anything, both systems work, one costs a bit more and has a few benefits and the other is practically free, but may require a quick fix down the line, not too much more than a regular strap would cause anyway. Those who aren't into buying some strap locks should look into something like this, the last thing you want to do is spin around and see your guitar flying across the room. J

Thanks, cutting the shape with a razorblade first really helped me out a lot in getting a perfect route free from chips and over routing around the edges, however, it takes a bit of time to do, though I think its worth it. I can't believe I hadn't thought to use some tape to keep the board and mainly the slots clean during glue up, thats a very helpful tip as well. I was always just very careful, but honestly I had to wipe some away a couple times around those small frets, some tape will save me some trouble and hassle, thanks for that tip. J

Wicked! That came out excellent! I really like the shark fin cavity shape and honestly I think you should make that a staple for most of your builds, if it isn't too much of a pain to do compared to a common cavity shape. Something that comes to mind for a future build, I've seen a lot of mahogany, bloodwood, padauk, and similar colored wood laminates recently and a few of them used the little strip of black between the laminates and it looks excellent. I think this could also look pretty cool for those cavity covers, just a thin strip of black binding around them might look pretty neat. Just a thought for future stuff because I don't think this one could be any better, looks amazing! So, whats next on your to-do list for this one? J

Search for Lumber shops in PA Honestly, I don't know that area, but I did a search for Southeastern PA zip codes and got 19399 and plugged that into the woodfinder.com search and got the results shown below, though on the site you can click and more info. Don't know how close that zip is to you, but I figured you could do a more precise search with your actual zip and get better results. That site can be helpful in finding places, it generally does a decent job of showing you some options for your area. Honestly, its well worth calling most of the places as sometimes random hardwood shops carry many exotics and are often kiln dried, so again, its worth putting in some calls. Well best of luck, hope you find a good shop or two. J I just checked and it seems the link didn't save the info I typed in, so I just linked the search page instead. These places listed are what I got using the area code I mentioned. Just type in your area code in the main search for that site and it will list many of these places and you can then click on the names for more information about them, like phone numbers or if they have their own site. Again, I don't have any idea of how close these are, I just used a random southeastern zip I found, you'll have to search using your own zip for more accurate info. Best of luck. J

Squeeze outs not a big deal, just make sure it does not squeeze out into a slot because thats tougher to clean up later, that is if its already slotted. Practicing was key for me. What I preferred was tracing my inlay onto the fretboard itself, then taking a very sharp razorblade and cutting the shape of the inlay into the board and here was the key, I cut on the inside of my pencil marks instead of cutting on them, which gave me a perfect size route for my inlays. Doing an initial cut with a razorblade also helps to prevent you from routing outside the lines because it kinda chips away at those scribed lines, I believe it will also help prevent any chips from popping out in certain woods. Sandpaper and files work to smooth inlays and epoxy down after you install them. I liked the file for most of the rough work because it doesn't cut wood well, so you avoid sanding grooves into your board, then I cleaned up with sandpaper. Do you have any little offcuts of ebony around? Seriously before doing my first board, I practiced cutting the route many times, my first few attempts were too big and would have been noticeable, however I soon got them nice and snug and these were fairly tough inlays. I was glad I practiced prior to installing for real. BTW, I used epoxy for my inlays, which I was glad I did because after some sanding one of my inlays became see-through and I was able to cleanly remove the entire inlay with a heatgun and redo it, no problem. There are some extremely talented inlays artists that visit and frequent this site, maybe some will find this thread. J

Happy BDay! Hope you have a good one! Please keep those pics coming, I've never seen a thread with this many tasty builds, it seems every single top in this thread is a one of a kind piece! Well best of luck in the future and Happy Bday! J

Wow, another March Bday, so many this month! Next year I think I'll just start a March Bday thread,lol. Happy BDay Mattia! Have a great Bday and many more! J

I went with Phil's Bass as well, just an amazing instrument. To design and create nearly every piece of that instrument is amazing, also the fact that it doesn't even look remotely bulky or out of proportion is a serious achievement in my eyes. I can see how a knowledgeable/skilled player could have a blast with that thing, probably opens up the doors for all kinds of new and different techniques that aren't possible with less strings. Very cool build, excellent craftsmanship, and it just looks amazing, nice work Phil. Aside from Phil's entry, I found all the entries to be excellent builds! It was a nice mix this month of instruments, some nicely figured and some with plenty of nice laminates, all very nice stuff. They were all top notch builds. J

Ouch, hopefully you'll figure it out cause I really like that fretboad. I guess thats one of the major advantages of fretting last as you can level at any point you desire really. As Soapbarstrat pointed out in another thread, the tools Stewmac sells for pressing frets shouldn't be too hard to make for a reasonable price and I believe they would enable you to fret afterwards even on a neck through, which would mean you could level the board should you find any bumps, humps, or lumps. Its at least something to try on the next one or if you have to make a new fretboard for some reason. Honestly in the picture I couldn't see the hump really, I could see some significant fall away, but thats it. However, I remember you saying that there was little neck angle and I see some, so a bump could make it look like there is more neck angle and more fall away than there really is. Keep us posted. Best of luck. J

Man, I forgot to type this in yesterday, so happy Belated Bday! Being late, I hope you had a great Bday and wish you many more. J

That round over really brought the guitar to life it seems. It does look really comfortable to play. Projects really coming together well, very nice work and keep those progress pics coming, its looking good! J