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jmrentis

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Everything posted by jmrentis

  1. I believe Russ did a double neck where he did one with the fret numbers inlayed and the other neck with the notes inlayed. This would be a quick way to learn the notes really, lol. It was pretty interesting, the colors and such were not my taste but it was customer requested. Anyhow, I actually just mentioned doing this to one of my friends as I've liked the idea since I saw it. Ooh now I remember it was my buddy Dave who I spoke with it about as he is doing some roman numerals of 12 for the 12th fret inlay which looked really cool and I thought doing all the inlays as roman numerals would be really cool looking. J
  2. I looked at the exact way of doing it on my dads miter saw as it was the only way to set the proper angle of degrees, however there was no way his would reach to cut a scarf, thats is why in my post I said with a sliding miter saw it is possible, but without I didn't see how it would work. Obviously the saw in the pictures is a lot bigger than what my dad had, but I don't know what the average is so maybe some people will be able to do this and some won't. Let us know how it works out for you. Best of luck. J
  3. Haha too funny, a few years ago here at PG I photoshopped a picture of a keyboard onto the neck of the guitar and thought it was a funny but cool idea. I can't recall what the subject was about now, but its funny to think back on the idea now. I've also had dreams of ideas that both worked out and some that never did, I always find getting the idea down on paper the toughest because I start forgetting the dream so quickly I end up not getting all of the details. Haven't had any cool dreams like this in a while though, most of my dream lately have been about me partying and smoking, I guess stuff my mind misses, lol. J
  4. If by random chance you do need something larger than 15" cut send it off to another member with a larger saw. I'm sure someone would do it for little or nothing and it saves you waiting or spending a bunch of extra money you don't have. There are also certain types of shops that would have saws large enough for you that would cut it, you'd have to really search for one though. I would find out the length of the blade first and make sure it is a readily available size because you don't really want to have to have custom made blades or do it yourself, either way I think it'd cost you more and be more of a hassle than anything, though I could be wrong. Being that it is an older model you may want to see what type of upgrades you can do if any, like changing the tires, even if it hasn't been used depending on how old it is the tires may need replacing. Also Rockler sells little brushes you can attach inside the saw to sweep the tires as the turn, this helps quite a bit and is a very cheap little mod. Then you can also replace bearing if it has any, if it the block types guides you can replace those with a newer better quality guide. Also ask if it comes with a fence and miter jig, the fence would be somewhat important being that you probably cannot get a true replacement, though there may be some adjustable fences you could adapt to the saw or try and make your own. If it is good condition as he says and he has all the pieces that originally came with the saw it seems like a good deal, just make sure when you need to do some maintenance that they still make parts for it, otherwise you'd end up out of luck. Anyhow, just something to think about, Craiglist is great, I've come across several epic deals on bandsaws on Craigslist, but they were always at the worst times. Good luck and keep us posted on how it turns out. J
  5. Juze, we need some more information buddy. We have no idea how thick your neck blank is, what degree angle you want, which scarf way you want to use as there are two ways really or at least two orientations. We either need some very concrete details or pictures with some details, there is just no way to help without some specifics. Doing a few searches will bring up several great threads on scarf-joints, I remember a few from a while back, like a year or two and they were very detailed and helpful, but as I said we can help better with pictures and details, otherwise there is no way to know exactly what everything looks like and what the next step is. Best of luck and let us know and maybe we can help out and check out the search on this forum, you can learn a lot reading through the old threads. Jason
  6. Same here Dave. As you know my current board has 24, but the extra bubinga board I have and my new ziricote one have 22. Next I want to play with scale lengths and see what I really prefer. I think the extra bubinga board I have is 25" 22 fret, look forward to using that one.
  7. Oops, yes, forgot about explaining that, thanks for pointing that out and working it out, perfect. An approximation in cans equivalent will work, if anyone doesn't want to bother figuring it out just post what you drink in any other increment size and I'll work the math later, no worries and again very much appreciated guys. J
  8. Hey Guys, Just need to collect a bit of data quickly for a statistical psychology course. The data is essentially irrelevant as soda has nothing to do with the psych portion of the course, but this is more of an exercise designed to practice testing our research and null hypothesis. So if you can help out that would be great, if you drink more than 15 in a week, check that option then if you can just quickly post the number you drink in a week and that would be fine. Thanks guys I really appreciate the help. I'll get rid of the post in a couple days, just want to see what data I can grab here. Jason
  9. Hmm, interesting, I'll have to check this out as well. I have one right up the street and am there often usually. Its been a bit though since I was there so I'll have to go check it out. Do they just sell a couple guitars, a set of drums, and mic's or do they have accessories and everything else like? Seems strange really, but not an entirely bad idea, believe it or not a bought a fiction book from their store once, couldn't believe it as I found it on the way to the counter and for a great price.
  10. I'll have to try that motorcycle defogging stuff, I'm sure my brother has some around. Last time I was at Rockler I bought one of those soft dust masks dust-bee-gone mask. I had a gift certificate and it was on sale I think. I just didn't want to buy anymore sets of regular dust masks, plus wanted something that didn't fog up my glasses and these don't for the most part, you must make sure its adjusted right, but overall I really like the mask. I over estimated the size, so I still need to have my moms adjust it by sewing up some areas, but all in all I dig the mask a lot. Beats normal dust masks comfort wise. Still for when I'm working with a respirator and masks the defogging ideas seems great, always just used spit when snorkling or diving.
  11. I have a can of that Sealcoat and it works fine for whatever you need really. Just be sure it's under three years old as it has a shelf life and you may want to thin it because it comes in a 2lb. cut which isn't that thin, especially for a wash coat. Its up to you though, honestly I tried that for a while and while it worked I found melting my own shellac flakes much better. You have more control over everything and its going to be as fresh as you can get, you also have a say in color which is not something you can control with the Sealcoat. Plus, I enjoy melting flakes, it doesn't take anything special at all either. Tru-oil is cool, I've been playing with that for a while, something that the member here Quarter said and its something I agree with entirely, go with very thin layers on the tru-oil, it is so much easier to control that way and lots less work. Best of luck! J
  12. Maybe you glued them up out of phase.
  13. I didn't use any water for the process, other than to check the temperature. Yea, I basically just got the pipe up to temp and just kept working the wood until it started bending. I just applied pressure as much as I felt comfortable with, it was figured flatsawn bubinga, so too much and it just cracks or snaps. I don't think working time is all that long, but others will be able to tell you more, I just used it for this headstock cap which was maybe 2mm or something thick. I just used my router on a couple rails to get the wood down to the proper thickness, I'm sure you could go thicker though, it'd just take more time and maybe some water via spray bottle. I think Erik mentioned in another thread a liquid called supersoft 2 and I've heard it in another forum several times and haven't heard really anything bad about it, so it might be worth looking into. I'd avoid the heat gun, this is what I tried for the first several tries and its just too difficult to isolate the heat enough to prevent warping in other areas of the wood, far and away I found the pipe better. I tried several ways that I'd read about that just didn't work well at all and generally left the wood warped and not bent far enough. The pipe didn't warp the wood anywhere and it bent further. I created a caul prior to bending the wood which followed the shape of the volute, so once I bent the wood far enough, I put it in place, put the caul over it and clamped it all together to cool. As I said it worked pretty much perfectly and the picture is deceiving the curve on the volute was quite steep, especially for what wood and cut I was using. Some nice quartered wood would have been worlds easier I think. Anyhow, mine was just a ghetto version, worked fine, but I'm sure you could manage making a much better setup and it should have no issues doing what you want it to do, many acoustic builders used to and still do use a heat pipe for bending sides. I'm sure some of the other guys who know more about this will have some better help for you. J
  14. I was desperate to find a better method to bend the plate for the back of my headstock as I kept cracking or warping the wood with other methods, so I scrounged around the garage and found a couple ghetto pieces to try this method and wow it worked wonders, bent the volute section on the back of my headstock near flawlessly and really quickly. I don't know about temperatures, but when researching I got a guestimation temp, which was figured by using water. Throw a drop on the pipe and when the water bounces around on the pipe, but doesn't burn off then its approximately warm enough. It seemed perfect when I did and when I turned it up even just a bit it burnt the wood, so that temp was just about perfect. The pipe I had was way too short, but it worked for just the tiny piece I used for the headstock. I'm sure i'd work great for wood binding as well. Anyhow, again it was just a ghetto quick throw together method, but it worked great. Pipe and end result headstock.
  15. Orgmorg-Yeah, its quarter sawn. Love that stuff, and I know what you mean about having that same fleck as QS maple. I don't know with ziricote if this is a common trait or not, but I have seen it in quite a few pieces, but then again I've seen some without it. Beautiful stuff either way. If you saw the sap wood up close you would probably have a tough time distinguishing it from maple because it carries some of that same fleck and the color is very close. I always dig the woods you use and the projects you post here. That weathered Tupelo is awesome looking, I know that'll make for a killer project. Look forward to seeing what you got coming next. J
  16. Some Ziricote that I picked up and had some fretboards cut from. Gotta love ziricote. J
  17. Yea, I'm in the same boat now and its tough. I have a bandsaw over in the garage and with it I bought a shopfox which is like a set of wheels for it, so it can be stored in a corner, but wheeled out when needed. Obviously not the preferred method, but amazingly I get almost no vibration from that setup, of course while it use it has little feet that lift it off the wheels. Then I have a router table top that I bought from Rockler and its just the top, so I can store it anywhere very easily and can pull it out and setup it up very easily as well. I like the table too, not bad for the price I got it. The new ones are a lot more pricey, but are nicer as well. Then I have a big tupperware box basically that I keep all my handtools and sandpaper and such in. With the rest of my power tools, like angle grinders, dremels, jigsaws, etc stored away on a shelf. Technically you can store some tools at your own place and just bring them with you as needed if there isn't any room. Between handtools, my bandsaw, and router I feel comfortable in doing most tasks. The router can be used in so many ways that I don't have to purchased other large tools like planers and such, although I would much prefer having those. If you do setup over at your parents just remember buy a decent shopvac if you don't have one because routers can make a heck of a mess in a hurry, lol. Oops, one tool you're going to need over there is a drill press. I shopped around to find one I liked and would fit on a bench and ended up with the 12" Delta and I like it a lot. Worlds better than most bench top drillpresses I've seen, yet it fits well on the bench. A drill press is one of those tools I don't know I could do without, but there are ways I'm sure.
  18. One thing you may wanna look into is how you'll do the joint to extend the heel. I don't know what you're plan was for that, gluing an extra piece directly on with a butt joint won't really give you any additional strength in the neck joint, since it'd really be no different than just gluing it straight into the neck pocket. The thought that was playing around in my head was just do a scarf joint, much like you'd do for the neck/headstock. If your truss rod doesn't go all the way to the end of the neck, then you could cut a diagonal slice off from the bottom of the heel, then glue on another piece that would extend the heel like a normal set neck would be. Maybe get some opinions on how to extend the heel from some of the other guys around here, but as I mentioned just gluing on a piece to the end won't really do anything to improve the situation. Anyhow, great looking project so far, keep the pic coming of your progress and best of luck, very nice stuff. Jason
  19. You could always add a veneer to the headstock, like some black fiber veneer or ebony, it would cover the color discoloration on top and on bottom if you did both and would look nice with the inlay. Pearl in dark wood always looks sweet. The grain does match pretty nicely, good job on that, have you wetted the headstock to see how big of difference it looks when it will be finished. Sometimes once finished it'll look better or worse than it does dry. Check it out and see. Painted black is cool too, though if the coloration doesn't look bad I might be tempted to just add an ebony veneer on top and the rest natural. Anyway you do it will look fine I'm sure. Great work on the projects so far, everything looks good. Really nice choice on fingerboards and inlay. Did you end up ordering any router bits?
  20. Yea, some saws will need a riser kit, you'll need a decent resaw blade, a quality fence designed for resawing, good guides, and so on. Anyhow for many hobbyists I don't think they don't plan on cutting their own drop tops, most just want to be able to cut a body out. And for those who cannot afford certain tools or do not have the room for them, the quality of jigsaws these days will pretty much allow one to do everything they'd need and there are now so many places that sell tops that they can just purchase the top already cut, thicknessed, and ready to go. So these newer jigsaws really have opened up the door for those who once before had no real options, aside from kits and such. I was shocked when I started to use my Hitachi jigsaw, I couldn't believe what it could do and that isn't even the top of the line for jigsaws. I think its just something good to point out as Dave did because when I first started reading up on guitar building it was pretty much a fact of life that you needed a bandsaw to build or at least that is what everything said, but things change and now people can get into building without having to have a bandsaw. If you have the money and room, bandsaws are great no doubt, but for those who don't they now still have the chance to get involved in building guitars which is great.
  21. As I mentioned above be careful of fretboard overhang because this will make everything different. If you look at Stewmacs website and their 22 fret necks, you'll see the 22nd fret is off the fretboard, it overhangs off the neck. If you had the 21 and 22 fret necks side by side they would be exactly the same except the 22 has an overhang of fretboard that allows for the 22nd fret. If this is the same case as the neck you order, ordering the 22fret neck would make no difference and give you no extra length, you must make sure the actual neck itself is longer, because the fretboard being longer will make no difference for you. So, just thought I'd mention that, I'd call the place you are looking at first and make sure the difference isn't just an overhung fretboard. Well, best of luck Mike. Let us know how it goes. J
  22. Hey Mike, Not 100% sure I've figure this out yet, I mean your post. What my mind keeps telling me is that number you keep getting is just like a ratio of where the 21st fret is in the scale used. I can't find any way to give it any meaning in terms of this repair, but maybe I'm just not seeing it. I'm tired, so I'm probably missing something important here. But if it is what I think, it really doesn't translate because it remains constant and where you put the heal can be changed in many ways like having an overhang on the fretboard and such, the ratio will remain, but wouldn't be correct. One issue I'd verify before buying here is fretboard overhang, because if the fretboard has an overhang, then the distance to the bridge is going to be shorten even more, making your problem even worse and I think Rick has it the right idea here, you need to get that nut 25.5" inches away from that bridge period and if you just bolted it up now you'd still be short as Rick pointed out, .446 or .45 rounded as Rick said. If you can move up the heal just less than a half inch, then you'd be fine. If anything, maybe you can just fill the neck pocket and reroute it a .446 of an inch shorter, hopefully you'd still be able to use the same holes in the back of the guitar for bolting on the neck. I just wouldn't want to leave a half inch gap at the end of the neck and the neck pocket, but maybe you can just glue in a small half inch piece to the bottom of the pocket to fill it, instead of filling the whole thing. But I think that's the solution you'll have to use to decide, can you move the neck up .446". It may require more surgery than may be worth it or maybe you can find some other solution. Best of luck and keep us posted. Good to see you around Mike, hope all is going well for you in the job. Jason
  23. Hmm, curious. Have you tried wiping it down with some acetone or anything? So long as its unfinished and not stained, you would be fine to try it. Just put some on a towel and wipe it on the stain see what happens. Sometimes things leak or spill or end up where they shouldn't and you can get random things in random places. I've had some funny strains occur from some adhesive getting stuck in some strange places and then picking up small dirt particles and end up looking like a stain, I've also had someone else spill some type of chemical, I think some type of insecticide on my neck blank and not tell me. So, you just never know sometimes.You said its unfinished, that means no finish, but is it complete, have you tried using it to play guitar with yet? I'd try wiping it down see what happens. For those like narc's buddy I don't know how you could try cleaning it on a finished neck. I know some chemicals would be safe to try, but I'd probably call the manufacturer to see what product they suggest for cleaning. There has been a discussion somewhere on this site about finishes and body chemistry. Some people might have a certain body chemistry that eats the finish, other may turn the finish black. In that case if the stuff is cleanable, then I'd clean and wipe it down after every use. Anyhow, interesting post, I'm sure someone here will have an idea of what that stuff is and how to fix it. J
  24. I cannot recall where the information or tutorial is, maybe even on the main site here, I'll have to look, but there is a tutorial to rid your dremel of any sloppiness or vibration. Basically, you remove any gap between the tool and its cover and it really can make a good bit of difference especially if you do have vibration. I followed the tutorial and it make a good bit of difference for me, you basically wrap a bit of material around the bearing so when you close up the case it fits very snug. I think they used some heatshrink tubing, but I was out and make a similar piece from electrical tape I believe, had to be very precise so it was a pain I would have rather used the heatshrink, but it worked out fine and this fix made the tool much easier to use. I need to get a better dremel base. I have the actual dremel base and its nothing special. I've already broken the screw that lets you adjust depth of cut. Its on a spring and one of the handles turns to tighten it to a certain height and the handle just busted off so I cannot tighten or loosen it anymore. I just found my extractor set so I'll remove the busted bolt and buy a new one, but all in all its nothing special. It definitely works, but its so big that it becomes difficult to see what you're doing. I used it for my last inlay set and they were very small and tough little shapes and I was able to do a good job on the routes, so I can't complain too much, but I think having something smaller like the stewmac base would be a large improvement when cutting inlays. Anyhow, again the tutorial to decrease sloppiness and vibration in the dremel helps. It will improve its functions for handheld use or when in use with a router base because the fix is inside the case. If vibration is a problem, I'd definitely try to find this tutorial and try it, well as long as you're confident in fixing tools, its pretty easy really and it'll likely rid you of any problems like the ones your having with the screws loosening during use. Adding some o rings wouldn't hurt either though, between the two you should haven't any issues with that and both are quick easy fixes. Best of luck. If I find the tut, I'll link it unless someone links it first. J
  25. You're right though Walmslap, its tough to rid yourself of that feeling of wanting to figure it out and get justice. In this case I'd just want the stuff even if I couldn't figure it out, but as you I've been jacked a couple times for mostly replaceable stuff, but it still drives me nuts even now. I've had my car stereo system stolen out of my car a couple times and once many other valuables were stolen at the same time like most of my fishing gear. I think the low end estimate was $3 or $4k between my fishing gear and system just for the one theft and actually a lot of my fishing gear wasn't replaceable in that it had a certain value to me that couldn't be found buying it new. The other time it was just the system and wasn't as bad, but still pretty bad loss. I really hope the idiots who grabbed Russ' rigs are stupid and word gets out or they try to sell them. I think the one way the guy at OLF got his stuff back was by alerting the local pawn shops that these instruments were stolen and at some point the guitars were brought in and they were recovered, or at least most were and in ok condition. Just hope it works out that way. Sometimes people brag or try to show off what they stole or bought used, so lets hope that happens. Again, best of luck Russ, I really hope they make it back and if they do, you might want to store 'em in a gun safe or something until you're out of there. J
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