jmrentis

Wow, amazingly well done! I don't know what words to use to describe it, maybe earthy?? Very natural looking and just beautiful. Nice work, I really dig everything about it. I also gotta ask if you have a really nice camera?? Those pics are crisp as a they come, it makes me wanna go out and get a nice camera, I told myself when I was finished I would so I could have nice pics of the finished product. Something I that stuck out in my mind though it was the most minute detail, was the little flair on the bridge on edges. Instead of flat it kinda points out a bit and that really looked appealing to me, its something I would want to try, just slightly more exaggerated. Yours came out perfect anymore would take away from the overall look I think. Well, very nice stuff and best of luck. J

That's what I end up doing, actually. It's easier to work with a thinner piece of material, then transfer that to a thicker 'permanent' piece. Even if I'm not necessarily going to build a body shape again (how many longhorns do you need, right?), I'll usually have pickup or control cavity routes on there that can be re-used. Or I've used it to prepare a couple of boards that contain all of the routes for a particular build. But really, in Dean's case, the work actually starts with Autocad --I use that to make sure my lines are smooth, that things are symmetrical and everything follows the center line. Good point! I also have tranferred templates, didn't even realize my joke was true, lol. On my current project I might actually tranfer all the templates again to some nice hardwood or something and seal it up for long term usage because I like the design and may use it as my personal design like some people do, for example Russ uses his design for many of his builds, of course I will be doing many other guitar designs in time, next probably a single or double cut(LP/PRS style influence). As for doing the neck pocket in other ways, if you can pull off a hand cut pocket that is straight as a board and tight and snug I think that is awesome. I know with hand tools once you get good with them things tend to move along just fine, but still it wouldn't be easy. I do think templates and a router is the most reasonable and most recommended method, but to each his own I suppose. As long as the person knows what the most efficient methods are and acknowledges them as such, who cares how they go about their work, ya know. Personally, I will never give up my router, lol, I wanna be buried with it. I get more done with that damn thing than any other tool I own and I still don't have a router table yet, which will open up even more opportunities for me. Hmm, maybe I'll make a thread later on recommended routing tables. Anyway, if someone skips the template out of laziness then it almost always shows in how the routes turn out, which serves them right. Aside from doing templates, I often do tests, with everything, such as finishes, glues, new bits and so on. I can't even begin to say how much all these things have saved me in materials and time, like many of the guys here, I find it vital to have lots of patience and to take your time. Anyhow, best of luck. J

Yeah, I'm one of the people who makes a template for everything, heck I'll make a template for a template, haha just kidding. Hopefully in the future I'll do it more efficiently where I have many templates in one, instead of one for chambers, one for shape, one for neck pocket, one for cavity, one for cavity lip(little bigger than norm, uses magnets), one for cavity cover, one for neck/fretboard, instead combine many of those into a couple pieces. The headstock I didn't do a template for as I have been tweaking it little bits at a time, but I never needed to route it anyways. From the first time I tried routing I had no desire to work without a template or straight edged guide. I've have done so in cleaning something up and it worked alright, just not worth it to me because things can go wrong in a hurry, hell I've had a dremel catch and route a good quarter inch into some wood while cleaning up an edge once had it been far along in a project or expensive wood, I would have been pissed. I also like the two bearing idea, its something that I keep meaning to start doing. J

I like it and in looking around most of it is close to some PRS type guitars, I think if the lower portion was smoothed more, so the lip was near invisible around the bottom, it would be very close. The horn and sides look very close to the PRS type guitars I just looked at, just the bottom has a more pronounced lip to it, which I like, but thats just my strange sense of style. I still think the pictures exaggerate the carve a bit. Either way, I think it looks good and has been well done. Keep up the solid progress and best of luck. J

Bevel file Thats a link to the Project Guitars main site which has tutorial pages, if you haven't seen them yet. That specific link shows you the basics behind fretting and toward the bottom it shows a home made tool that is basically a file inlayed into wood. This tool will file the frets flush on one side of the file and the other will bevel them at the angle you so desire, which is 35 degrees for the tutorial. Some places sell a tool like this, I believe stewmac does, but its easy enough to make if you so desire. There is another site that had loads of great info which is frets.com , plenty to learn there. I have read through it all many times and every so often I reread it just to refresh the info, so check it out if you haven't yet. Best of luck and I think that tool should solve your issues, just make sure and take your time and watch your work carefully. J EDIT: Greg beat me to it, lol, as suggested the main site has a decent amount of info on the basics of guitar building and will be of some help to you.

Great looking stuff! I love the color blue you got, I actually thought the first color was nice, just needed a little more to it, but the second color is great. Also its a cool combo with that wenge neck, contrast yet it fits so well. Once again, very nice build and can't wait to see that fully assembled. J

Wow, thats sounds great! Have no current plans with the stuff, but sounds like a good opportunity, we'll see what money is left after the holidays, lol. Any idea on how light the blanks are on average?? No worries if not, just curious. Best of luck and happy holidays. J

Maybe its the photo or something, but I don't see that carve looking anything like a bevel. On my build I basically did a bevel, but due to the way the bevel is done, there was no way I could do it routing. This is more like bevels than a smooth carve, even though there is some blending done on the areas that have different widths, which were a bitch to make perfect. Bevel Carved top As I said I think it may be the picture that is deceiving, but all in all the carve looks good and fairly standard to me. I swear one day you should do an easy build and put it up for trade for a nice camera, I think it would be well worth your while. J

Wow, excellent stuff!! I love how uncomplicated it looks, yet there is so much to it, thats not an easy balance to find. One quick thought for the cavity cover would be to maybe add a very thin layer of pearloid between what ever other layer you decide to use, which would give a similar effect to your 12th fret inlay. With such small portions of pearloid showing, it would look nice I think, anyhow just a thought. I loved those pup rings, cool shape and match perfectly. It all worked so well together, congrats and a super build. Best wishes and look forward to seeing more and more of your work. J

Looking SWEET! Nice carve on that. I only just recently understood some of the difficulties in doing carves, such as getting a uniform height all around. I really like your carve and will probably be doing something similar for the next one. I'm glad you went with the double cut idea, as I said when you were deciding, I felt that would be the coolest choice. As for the neck and fretboard, another idea for your neck could be ebony binding. The smooth black along with the all zebra neck sounds like a cool combo to me. Maple sounds good too, just thought I throw out the ebony idea. Like always I look forward to seeing this guitar. The woods are very nice and will make for an excellent looking guitar. Best wishes with the build, keep the progress pics coming! J

No prob, I was glad you mentioned something though because it reminded me to measure. The last thing I want to do is fix the thickness of the headstock once finished with the back strap, that'd be a real pain. Stewmac and some other sites are fairly accurate, but I still like to measure numerous times myself, just in case. Glad things will work out and I can't wait to see how it looks. J

Sperzel Specs Check out that site if you haven't already, I believe it gives the maximum and minimum thickness for the different types of Sperzels. I have it written down somewhere as I have a pair of satin chromes I will be putting on shortly. I believe min. is .520" and max is .650". I have yet to verify those measurements, but considering I recently got myself a digi caliper, I will likely check those measurements shortly. Right now my headstock is right around the minimum, but I still need to add on the back strap veneer, which should add another mm or so. Interesting because as you saw, this site mentions .520" which is just over 13mm. 15mm sounds just fine, I would go much more than 16 as that is getting close to the max, though again the measurements seem off somewhat, so you'd need to check to see if that .650" is accurate. I have yet to personally use the 3x3 sperzels, though I have used the 6 inlines which are different. I put those on an existing Ibanez headstock on which is just barely fit the high e (the 6 inlines are staggered). Anyhow best of luck, hope it all works out. I'm surprised to hear those measurements are off, but I'm glad to hear before I do my install, though like you, I would have measured everything prior to install. I'm sure you'll enjoy the tuners. J EDIT: I just went and checked with my digi calipers and the measurements I listed are pretty close to what I found. I found something just over 14mm overall, but including the washer they come with which is about 1mm, you get something very close to .520". Did yours come with washers, did you include these with your measurements. With them on your headstock should be thick enough for the tuners, I would imagine. Well best of luck. J

A good way to check position is to take the two outer strings and string them up as you would normally. Basically as black labb said. Just run the two outer strings or some fishing line down across the bridge and onto the tailpiece, this should show you whats up and where the bushings should go. Anyhow, the string thing works pretty well. Hopefully at least one of them is set right, so you don't have to do both. As for plugging the old hole, ask around as there are certains ways that are better than others, or so I have read. As for pulling them out, there is a special little tool you can make or buy that can pull bushings without making a mess of the hole like using a claw hammer would. Here is a link to the tool Bushing puller. Hope that helps, should be much better than using a hammer, though I have never tried one. Best of luck. J

Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal. It's one thing when you claim someone else's technology as your own. It's quite another to be inspired by someone's design and incorporate that influence into your own. Agreed. Its not that often when a completely new idea is developed, most new concepts are just variations upon past ideas and there is nothing wrong with that or claiming it as your own because as Mick said you are just using these past ideas as a base or inspiration for your design. As I have seen here and elsewhere, people come up with drawings almost every week of guitars they designed off the top of their head and almost every drawing has at least a couple of guitar designs that it very closely resembles. At this point there are very few designs that one could make that would not have a look-a-like and they would likley be miserable to play; as in uncomfortable. I recently tried at my own design and while I haven't seen anything that is exactly the same, I already found one that is quite close and honestly I haven't researched past designs all that much, so I bet there are a few more that are very close to my design. I drew it with no inspiration, but as with any you can see elements of other designs in there, no way around it. As Mick said, the problem lies when you "take" a design and sell it as your own. Even if you copy a guitar exactly its no big deal as long as you don't sell it. Anyhow, if you are using that headstock as long as your building for you and not selling there is no permission necessary, just so you know. If you prefer to, then its all you. Best of luck, hope the build goes well. J

Inlays from DePaule Supply For some good ideas for inlays and for good product, check out Andy's stuff. He has a bunch of great inlays. I have so many future inlays already picked out and almost all aren't predesigned sets, though most of the pre-designed sets are wicked. Anyhow, just in case you haven't seen that site, its well worth a look. Andy is a great guy and takes good care of his customers, I highly recommend and suggest his products, just as someone did to me.

I actually really like reading your posts! And I tend to read a number of other peoples info on finishing(not here) or even chat it up at the woodshop. When I first thought about finishing there seemed to be only one or two logical choices that would suitable as that is what I saw most here and from luthier companies, but upon further exploration I was amazed at what I found. Some of them are just beyond my skills, not in that I couldn't do it, but being fairly new I wouldn't want to take on the chance that I run into issues like with polyester. I've read countless pages on it and could no doubt spray it, but what would worry me is if I make some lame error just from inexperience and in having such a durable finish, it could really make for a miserable time, using the chemicals don't really bother me and get rid of the uv aspect. But I am really looking for something more forgiving for now, but at the same time, something durable. As I said I've read a bit, and I see the pluses and minuses of many and have been testing some, but I am slightly indecisive so, its tough to choose, but I'm slow at building so I have time yet. There really is loads of info on finishing and so many books and professionals that talk it up. What I really enjoy is when I find someone who has done years of experience with multiple finishes, not just once or twice with each one because they often has a real good look at pluses and minuses of each, plus enough time will have usually past to see how well each one held up. That is also why multiple sources is a bonus to me because each person might have more experience in one or several finishes, while another might have other experience. With each usually claiming one is better than the other, which really only proves to me the difference between them is not so significant that you would be making a bad decision with any. Though, HOW, you do the finish will greatly affect everything as you stated, if you don't understand the purpose and idea behind the items/processes in a recipe, you will likely mess something up. Also, in understanding everything you can start experiment, which I have been starting to do a little of, like seeing the difference in sealing then grainfilling or not sealing and grainfilling, which I've actually notice a fairly noticeable difference when using my thin epoxy, though Zebra wood is quite inconsistent in grain and pores, so among my offcuts there could be some room for difference. As I said, I'll pick up that book soon or maybe see if I can get someone to buy it for me for the holidays. And please continue to do what you do around here, it is very helpful for everyone. As I said I enjoy your posts, while you can learn a lot in books there is also so much that will only come with experience and it seems your posts are often full of this info, which is helpful for people just starting out or even a few finishes in because they avoid those costly mistakes that could have been easily avoided had someone just explained it. Anyways, I'm done rambling. J

Dayymmm! Thats-a nice-a piece-a work-a!!! I've seen some amazing lap steels and that definitely qualifies as one, the workmanship is beautiful! I don't know that I could ever get myself to play one, but after seeing all the amazing lap steels I will probably have to build one at some point, they just seem to fun to miss out on. I will say that yours has a feature that I see very few of and that is an outy belly button, you just don't see that much, ya know, lol. I really love the book matched/ripped/grain orientation trick, very visually appealing. Very nice work and congrats on such a beautiful instrument.J PS: What did you use for the fret markers?

Thanks for the input, I'll have to look at the HF ones and see if I could add on to it, but sounds dicey. LOL, did you like my little chair? I actually keep that around for certain jobs like when I want to route outside and will work on a lower surface, which is rare. Thats actually my fishing chair and those little things at the bottom hold your poles while you chill back on a beer. I can't barely fish anymore, so I've turned it into my offical luthier chair, jk lol, I took that photo as a mockup because I though it would be funny, but I forgot to ever post it. Instead of fishing poles it now holds your titebond, calipers, and sqaures comfortably, hahaha. It would be nice to have a chair that could be put away though. I will definitely look at the HF stuff and check around more, I'm sure I'll find something perfectly useable, heck at this point anything would be nice, though if I expect to sit a while I definitely need something with decent padding and as Soap mentioned, something that can hold its own against the likes of me. Thanks guys. J

I'll check the book out and appreciate the recommendation, though I've reading enough on the finishing subject and listened to enough people who do it for a living to try and say what I was trying to say. I do understand the term sealer, it just seems to be used mostly as either sanding or vinyl sealer (around pg) specifically probably as people see the need for sealer in recipes and check Stewmac or LMI and find those or I read sealer in regards to which ever brand the person might using like for McFaddens rosewood sealer and such. For which I've seen them use the product before the grainfill(true seal), then after grainfill, and after some waterlox, all the while calling it a sealer, even though they've sealed prior, so I've come to just use the term as loosely as I've seen it, but that is probably not helpful for anyone. Sometimes definitions can get confused when its use varies and you see it one way more often than its true meaning, it almost becomes slang, I'll avoid doing so here from now on though, to avoid any confusion. Its like when people speak about grainfilling, some people grainfill in the true sense and sand back so only the pores are filled and the wood can still be penetrated, but I've also come across many people who prefer a light layer across the top(usually with epoxy), which would be by definition be a sealer, though they rarely regard it as a sealer at that point, you know what I mean. The barrier coat and tie coat are the same thing, different people call it different thing and I've seen it used more as a tie coat than a barrier coat, both make sense to me, I just use the one I've read more. I do understand fully how it works, but since I have yet to impliment it, I'll use the words I think or I believe when speaking about it, as I do often because there will always be someone who disagrees or has a better way and being that I have yet to try it personally, who I am I to say this is how it is, so I leave room for people to make their claims. When using these words I'm not guessing, I understand what a sealer is and its use perfectly as with barrier/tie coats(though haven't tried this one yet) usually I'll state specifically when I am guessing and will warn. I still need and want to do more reading on finishing though and I would like to check out that book as I have yet to decide on what exactly I will be doing on my project and more knowledge by different people doesn't hurt, which is why I have been testing different finishes and concepts. I do appreciate all the knowledge you inpart here and I was just adding a use for sealers that you hadn't mentioned, in that they could be used as a barrier or tie coat and not just absorbtion of finish in wood. In essence its doing the same job, sealing the previous layer from being touched by the next layer or sealing. Usually, I've seen shellac used for this, though recently I've been hearing about waterlox and am curious to check it out. I enjoy the amazing of variety of finishing possibilities, I've literally read or listened to well over a dozen, maybe even dozens of finishing techniques that seem reasonble and I can only imagine how many there actually are, based on the finishing section at my local Rockler, I don't even want to know. Anyhow, again thank you for the recommendation and clarification and I will try to be more specific and clear when I post. J

Why? That could really be an interesting solo and I’m sure someone like “The Edge” or Tom Morello would be happy to employ something like that into their bag of gimmicks LOL, those posts just scared the hell out of me. Imagine you throw a quick bend in as it starts tuning, I can just feel that string slicing through my fingertips, ouch, no thanks! Doubt it would or could happen, I would imagine there is something that prevents it from working while in use. I'll be slightly surprised if these things take off and start becoming a standard, but we shall see. I still want to learn more about them, like how you would set it to different tunings and how easy would it be to switch tuning like between songs and so on. I still think you'll end up going through more nuts and more strings than you would manual tuning. J

Gotcha, wasn't sure joke or super hip computer programmer tag, lol. Nice on the engineering, my pops does that for Solar Turbines and has done so for many years. Best of luck. J

Holy Crap, that my friend is an excellent Bday! Heck, just finishing a guitar like that would make my decade! I love getting video games for presents, lol, beats a pair of jeans anyday. I'll have to look up the camera, I totally dig cameras, but I just don't know or at least keep up to date with all the new technology. I will soon look for one though, at least a better one. And congrats on the Job offer, that is excellent news, hope you do well and enjoy it! It is some type of IT profession? Just curious as your name made me think of that, I'm actually going through college right now and am focusing on both math and IT, though I think I would like to teach online probably math, though Philosophy and psychology both interest me as well. Best of luck with the job and just think of all those beautiful giant thickness sanders and Laguna bandsaws you'll be able to afford, haha. J

I know what you mean about improvement! With each step I take I see the flaws in what I did and it makes me want to start another to avoid them, but it helps to finish and find ways to fix them and so on, plus it makes you become creative, which I have noticed is the key to luthiery, almost all issues I've seen overcome comes from some sort creative solution. As for you Bday, the bottom of the main page lists everyones bday each day. You and actually a number of other people I know have bdays today. I always look, just for fun and see peoples ages and such. As for the neck that is great news, I was doing some more shaping on mine last night, trying to get that feel. Is it a uniform contour or is it asymmetric. I really wanted to an asymmetric contour, so I will probably remeasure the thickness now to make sure I don't sand into the CF rods or truss and then go for a asymmetric neck. I wanted something like Warmoth shows on their neck contour page. It just seems beneficial for me, but we shall see. Anyhow, congrats on the wicked instrument and have a great bday. J

Saaawwweeeettt! That turned out very nice and very alive! Stain? We don't need no stinking stain! Just use colored woods duh! lol Again, incredible guitar, it looks super comfortable to play, how does it feel? So, was finishing that guitar a B-Day present to yourself? Happy Bday and one more smiley for your guitars B-Day which is also today Happy B-Day to the both of ya

I think sometimes the sealers are used after the initial product and before another one as in a tie coat to create a surface that the following coat can adhere to (in very specific applications like when using incompatible finishes together). Anyhow, I agree that in going through all the finishing info and doing all the little tests and practice finishes, I found little usefulness in the applications that I used, however I will say more of my tests were on porous woods and I am a big fan of the epoxy grainfill, which as in the situation here, can void the use of a sealer as the filler does a decent job of this. I use the 206 from west systems which is wayyy thinner than any I found at the hardware store. Plus, personally I loved the way it colored the wood, just gave it this beautiful look. Plus, it also has about a 25-30 minute dry time, so you have plenty of time to do whatever business you have. Here is an offcut of some zebra I epoxied for fun Zebra. As for its use as a tie coat, I am wondering really if it would be worth using a sealer versus shellac though? The sealer I have been using is shellac, so thats kinda what my post is based on, however, I don't think all sealers would be shellac, so that would decrease its use even more. I dunno, just throwing the tie coat use out there as I think that it can be helpful in that respect, and enable you to use incompatible products on a finish, though I think its not going to come up that often for most people. I think the changing how a finish colors the wood as mentioned, is also a good point because I found differences there as well. But, yeah overall I see the sealer using in every finishing recipe, but found many people not using it with completely beautiful finishes and no issues, interesting stuff. J