jmrentis

Agreed, extremely helpful and useful info here. I remember this info from when my Purpleheart body blank warped on me and I asked for advice. Great stuff. I don't know what the consensus will be, but I vote for this to be a pinned topic. This is info many people will get great use out of for years to come. It may be better suited in another thread if it is to be pinned, but either way this is some info that should be readily available in my opinion. Thanks for the thread and info Rich! J

Cool Design!!!! I keep staring at it, I like it. Almost reminds me of a single cut mixed with a cool bass. I like the somewhat simple, but elegant look you got going on also, works well with the design. I can't wait to see how that top looks after getting finished, I can see the figure on it slightly and I bet once finished it will just pop right out. Very nice work, bet that will sound like a dream. Best of luck. Keep the pics coming. J

As per usual, just amazing work! As a whole that is going to be such an impressive guitar. The further I get along in my own work, the more and more I can appreciate the work of others. You guys always build such wicked guitars and they turn out so well, one might think building is easy. For example your back strap, wheew not that easy of a task in my opinion(when you have a volute), especially considering the thickness you have there in ebony. What was the thickness on that backstrap 2mm? Anyhow, it is truly impressive Rich. Are you going straight FP all around for this one? I think thats what you prefer for finish right? If so, what flavor of shellac do you prefer(color)? Well, best wishes and keep those pics rolling in. J

Cool, no worries! Compared to around $100 at STewmac, I'm happy to pay $32. Probably pickup a little mini vise for nut shaping while I'm there. Thanks again. J

Very nice work, looks like it coming out very nicely. Although you've already responded to this, I just wanted to second prostheta's suggestion in finding tools elsewhere than stewmac, at least for certain items. At least in the future when you need to replace some tools, check around as suggested I've found most of my tools outside of luthiery shops, which saved a load of loot. Certain items, which I probably still could find elsewhere or make I bought from stewmac like the fret press cauls and slot deepening blade for my bound fingerboard. Anyhow, great stuff, that necks looks great! Keep up the progress and best of luck! J Daniel- Where can I grab a one ton arbor press for $20?! I've been watching harbor freights ads for a sale on theirs, they are cheap to begin with, but since I have a little work before I press, I was waiting. I just checked and they are finally on sale it looks like, which is truly amazing timing, but the one tons are still $32 on sale. Thanks. J

Very cool. I really like the entire concept of the build, but more than that, I truly love that design. I would love to see a slightly tweaked version for a solid body with a cool carved top. I really look forward to seeing this build progress, please keep posting and snappin' pics, great stuff. Best of luck. J

Lovin' it man! That came out exceptionally well I feel and as I said, I really dig that carve. Like you said before, I like being able to see that there is a carve going on from a frontal view, it gives it depth and alters how the design comes across. Just a nice rig right there and I bet it sounds very nice. Well, once again great work. Keep up your work and keep us posted, best of luck. J

I saw this miracle substance and had to laugh a little. No doubt it will be quite useful in general use, but I couldn't get over how excited that damn guy got over the stuff. I can't be certain, but the name might be Mighty Putty. Cures cancer, helps you quit smoking, baby sits the kids and repair leaks, great stuff, lol. J

As for the change in pickup route issue, another idea that I think might look fairly cool would be some homemade pickup rings, which could be made a hair thicker to fully cover the route. For the rings my initial suggestion was going to be some wood similar in nature, but I don't know how easily or well that type of wood would be to make rings out of, however, I think a well chosen piece of black and white ebony could fit well with that top. Anyhow, just something that came to mind when I read the thread. As said, amazing wood, great finishes, and very nice work. You mentioned veering away from the style of bodies you've been hooked on as of lately, any ideas of what you're going to look at for future work? I was actually very glad to hear that, your finishes and wood choices are amazing and I'm excited to see what other body styles will looked like Draked. Tele and Strat- you've been Draked.

The figure can occur in both varieties, though I think it's less common in rock maple, but I could be wrong on that. Check out the search function, there will be quite a few threads to look through when searching for questions about maple, but there should be a number of threads about this exact subject that discuss and explain the differences between the maples and their use in necks. Best of luck. J

I always really like how Canary wood looks, more yellow than maple, but still works well. Some pieces really can look great as fretboards, a wood I would definitely consider. Best of luck.J

Agreed, love the new inlay! I'm glad you ended up downsizing the inlay a bit, I think it fits perfect as you did it and looks amazing. As for the side dots, I'm on the other side of the fence and think that a ying yang style mix would be cool. What I mean is black dots in sap wood and white dots in darker spots. I think it would look fairly cool, but the green idea doesn't sound too bad at all. Beautiful work and keep the pic coming, love that entire neck, just magnifico! J

Haha, I dunno I find some words randomly that get edited for no reason. On another board I know the word "freaking" would always get edited, don't think it does here, but I'll see with this post. Anyhow, I did my inlays almost exacty the same as you. I found those initial razor blade cuts to be one of the more important steps, they really help to prevent from routing outside the lines, the deeper the cuts the better I found. Well, cool stuff and it looks good. Best of luck. J

Good points, I'm one definitely to agree with Wes, Wez, Killemall in that one should build their guitars how they would want them to look. Like killemall I'll ask for opinions on designs, but will not always consider them, it helps you to see something you may not have. I like my own designs over common designs though no one else does, but sometimes a little nudge to change something will actually help me improve something, like my Star Trek millenium falcon design(as coined in a thead), while it was suited to my tastes it really did need quite a bit of work and thanks to some advice and mild insults, lol, I was able to improve the design to something I liked even better. Either way I've liked all of killemalls work and look forward to future builds, whether or not I am a fan of the actual design, the work has been well done. And I don't see any major problem with asking for opinions and not changing your ideas, as I said it can be helpful sometimes whether or not you change your design. As Wes said so many people who post get reponses on how to improve the aesthetics of their guitars and thats not really something one can offer since the aesthetics are based on the desires of the person and not the poster, some people love redoing designs like strats or lps and others like unique designs, whether or not someone else likes their taste is of no real consequence, unless for business purposes. Anyhow, I was hoping you'd end up with a camera for the holidays killemall! I guess you'll have to take some of your profits for one now. Best of luck man. J

Yeah, I would imagine it wasn't fully cured yet. The stuff I use will be hardened in 24 hours, but can take upto a few days before fulling curing. But as Cliff said, the mixture could have been off as well creating a soft finish which would allow such problems, most epoxies must have almost exact mixture or they do not work properly. If you can't fix the problem you may be able to save the inlay, so you can try again. Epoxy will release with heat which should allow you to get your inlay out, then you can probably redrill the hole to get out the rest of the epoxy and start again. Anyhow, I agree with Cliffs idea that probably the epoxy never truly dried, or a combo of a slightly off mixture and not fully cured. Best of luck and hope you works it out. J

Happy New Year and many more my friends. Best wishes!

Epoxy releases nicely with heat thankfully. This allowed me to fix an inlay sand-through on my fretboard without having to route it out or dig it out. I didn't actually sand-through, but the pearl was so thin, you could slightly see through it. As for the gluing up of the fretboard, I agree with whats been said, a nice fresh flat surface would be best, clean from glue and freshly sanded or scraped. Best of luck. J

Yeah, it is such a nice wood and so tough to pass on when you find pieces like those in this thread, just beautiful stuff. The project is looking great, can't wait to see how it all comes out. Best of luck and keep those progress pics coming! J

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my little secret that occasionally is of some help. When searching for some three letter words you can simply make the word plural! Obviously many words or abbreviations won't work, but some do. In this case it does work, I just typed in nuts instead and found some of the posts I spoke about before. Nut thread Nut thread 2 The ratio I posted is in the first link and was 3 to 1 water to glue. The second thread is when I realized how stupid using anything more than a small drop or two was. Anyhow, I have read a number of other posts where people use CA, but there are still plenty that use glue like titebond, but I would still definitely suggest diluting it as suggested, otherwise you're likely to wreck your neck trying to remove and replace the nut. Best of luck. J

Yeah, I know thats a prob, bugs the heck out of me as well! I mentioned in my post I had no idea how you could search for these posts, its a real pain because of the amount of letters. Anyhow, best of luck and as I mentioned before just a tiny bit of CA seemed to be the preferred method around here. J

Not sure how you could search for them, but there have been a few different threads on this question and similar questions and for the most part I think the most common answer was one small drop of CA glue or two tiny drops of CA glue. With this small amount of glue you can just give the nut a small blow and knock it loose cleanly, especially compared to using lots of CA or other types of glue like titebond. I've read where some prefer titebond, I think maybe it was Dan Erlewine who suggested if using a glue such as titebond you should dilute it with water and use small amounts to avoid tearing out a bunch of wood upon removal. Personally, the CA route sounds best and easiest. I don't recall the amount of dilution suggested off hand, I have posted it in another thread, you'd have to search for it though. Best of luck. J

Merry Christmas to all and to all sweet guitars. Xmas Decor Xmas decor2

I am fully grateful that I was able to pickup the idea of a spokeshave prior to carving my neck. I had a fairly thick blank of sugar maple and jatoba and I seriously almost got it to the final thickness in a hurry. I was fully surprised at how well it worked, no issues at all smooth nice cuts that required little finishing work. I was just using a standard straight spokeshave from Rockler, most likely a Stanley, it was cheap and the better of the two they had. I got out a flat surface and with some sandpaper up to 2000 got the blade nice and sharp and even after that carving, it is still nice and sharp. I am grateful for the advice that many people here had given when I was deciding on using a spokeshave. I did great with my cheap shave, but I would love to upgrade to a nice one eventually. Anyhow, spokeshaves are definitely a nice to tool to have in your arsenal, now its time to get myself a nice rasp. Anyone wanna throw out the name of their favorite rasp? J

Use that gecko and on the back in pearl letters put, "I just saved a bunch of money on my guitar insurance!" Anyhow, I like it a lot, very cool idea. Personally, I love ziricote and would probably vote on a tad smaller silhouette just to show more of that beautiful fretboard off, though I think it'll be great either way. You picked an excellent piece of spalt, it really works well with both the shape and fretboard wood choice. Really turning out well and I can't wait to see it! Nice work. J

60-2 now, I guess TheIRS, Killemall8, and myself will have to start a company that designs guitars for people with bad taste!