jmrentis

Thanks for the wishes Doug, its been crazy around here! So far so good on this end, but there is no relaxing, so many flare ups of the Harris fire have kept us slightly worried. We have a decent buffer zone for now and hopefully nothing will change. I will say a few family friends haven't been as lucky. Glad to here your brothers house made it through. That shift in the winds was both a blessing and a curse depending on where you were at. Anyhow, again thanks and give my best to your brother as well. As for your project, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I had a feeling that blue finish is what you were looking for, when looking at natural wood its tough to imagine that blue could look decent, but as you saw if done right it looks amazing. Best wishes with the finishing, I'm sure it will turn out great. Keep the progress pictures coming and I look forward to see what lumber your pops in law has for you. Jason

Looking great Doug!! I must say that I am very jealous of all those that spent years woodworking before even starting a guitar, sometimes I feel like I shorted myself by spending all my time fishing in the past. The only woodworking I had was building numerous different ramps for when I skated, which took some skills, though not much. The tough part was developing a solid support system for very thin masonite as it is very weak stuff, otherwise it would bend and break and be miserable to ride. Anyhow, the project is looking great and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Definitely keep the pictures coming and look around on guitar finishes, there is a lot of information and so many different ways to go about it. I'd imagine you have plenty of knowledge of finishing, but I'd imagine there are some finishes that you may not have used before that are great for guitar finishes, not sure really. I know polyester is popular for those with the ability and desire, and skills I should add, too bad I don't have those because thats what I want to use. There are so many more too. You mentioned wanting to go blue and shiny, well I got a link to someones guitar which is my favorite blue and shiny. It makes me depressed because matching or beating that finish will be damn tough, lol. Anyhow, here is the link to one of my favorite guitar builds-Marcovis Keep the pictures coming and keep up the excellent work. Best of luck Doug and thanks for sharing. Jason

I can't say for certain in all cases that they won't be problematic, but from the cocobolo I've had and come across, they aren't even really knots, not as in the general term. It's almost more like figure than anything. I know there are many people with more insight here, but from my experience, they don't even seem like knots at all. Tough to explain really and that is just from what I have come across, maybe at some point in the tree they do feel like a normal knot, but the stuff I have and seen its just as smooth as the rest of the wood. J

Norman Nut Files That is a link to an ebay listing for some of those nut files and check to see other items, I saw a couple listed, but some were ending soon including this one in about 9 hrs. I haven't checked further for a store yet or any other place to buy them, but I will look soon. I just read this thread and was happily surprised, I always love a price break when I can get one, though I recently read something else from someone whose advice I trust and I believe it involved sandpaper. I just got a bunch of beautiful bone and buffalo horn nuts from woodenspoke so as with everything I will experiment between the two ideas to see what works for me better. Thanks for the info on those files though, they seem well worth trying. NOTE: I'd imagine the link will die when the auction ends, so just search for "guitar nut files" or maybe even "norman nut files". The trick is to avoid the word combined as in nutfiles, that didn't work even with the name norman in front. I don't know that "slotting" will turn up the norman files. If I find a more permanent link, I'll edit this one. J

Oh come on! How can you live with yourself knowing that the inside of those never to be seen again chambers don't have perfect edges! Sorry I can't handle that idea, a few weeks ago, I had to stop myself from sanding down a nearly invisible ridge that occured during clean up with a router. I will say that I was able to stop myself, but I had to rush to glue the top on otherwise I would have had to fix the problem. Chamber template J

How will you be gluing it up? Exactly where you have it in the picture? If you glue it that, which is how I do it, you will not get the same looking joint that you posted in those pictures. That look is done slightly differently, same idea, just glued in a different spot. The other way could be done by cutting that blank along that angled line you drew on there and gluing the headstock piece on that angle. In this method the angled area of your headstock piece, will actually become part of the fretboard surface, tough to explain really. Its easier to use a pic, but I don't have one on hand. After you shape your neck the joint line will likely be under the nut or close to. As for the thickness, as long as you can glue a good joint, you'll be fine. Either way by the time you are done shaping you will have the same size joint holding on the headstock, whether you started from a thick blank or a thin one. So, as long as you can glue a good joint, no worries. I don't think you'll have problems with what you have, but if you glue it up as you are planning you will not have the same looking joint as in your pics. J EDIT: The second to last pic is the same joint that you are doing, which will look more like the last pic that the first few pics.

Please guys could we not talk about fires right now? Just kidding. Just some humor from san diego. We got some excellent news, the fires should be contained by November 4th If the fire comes through this area, I will drive by Taylor and get the ultimate guitar burning photos for everyone. I think that should satiate everyones guitar burning fetishes

Yeah, thats the same size I like, the medium/higher wire. Funny I had just looked this up when talking with someone else like a day ago. Its .092"wide and .048 tall. I've heard good things about the LMI and Allied stuff from a couple different people, they don't have that exact same size the medium/higher, but they have stuff close enough. I'd probably go with the .093 wide and .043 tall in the LMI wire, which is pretty close. Best of luck. J

Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth jer. Thanks guys, great thread and great info, very helpful and interesting stuff. J

I get what your saying Mick. I think what many of these guys are trying to do is disspell factors that should not be worried about by new or researching builders. As it was said in this thread and in another thread of a similar nature, yes these factors make some difference, however, that difference is so minute that there is no way to distinguish what the difference is. Aside from the fact that there are dozens of other factors that have considerably more impact upon your sound. I think the point is to keep people from constricting themselves to a certain shape due to other people telling them it has this huge impact and how it will drastically affect their sound. For people with more experience and have made guitars such as yourself and other experienced builder I see no concern and think it is helpful that you do experiment and see what you can figure out, as this helps us all(if another significant factor is ever discovered). I do feel though, that is important to the people just learning or reading to know that these are not factors to consider when planning a guitar. As I said before, if you spent your time researching and planning a build based on these types of factors, you'll spend a year trying to get all the pointless specifics right and even then you would have no evidence that it made any difference, how do you compare? Like I said, I see what you mean, but I still think it is important to disspell these ideas now to help researching people from falling victim to these theories of consequence. Once they have built a dozen themselves, they will know enough to experiment and know to expect certain outcomes and by then these discussions are nearly pointless to them anyway as they already know what to expect and so on. Experimentation is great, but you'll probably never be able to prove anything you found as there is little to no solid criteria to base something so subjective, so at best you'll be instucting others to build based on your taste. You see what I mean. I understand explaining and pointing out considerable factors, but these little factors like shape or using a 3 piece back over 2, there is just no point. Just how I see it though, just my thoughts on the subject. J

I know someone else who could give a informative response on this, but I believe even perfectly dry wood(in luthery terms) can cup, twist, and warp. From what I've heard, been told, and seen wood can have pent up tension that once cut or shaped can be released thus causing the wood to move. I will tell you that I had my neck blank flat as can be and decided to shape it before I did anything other than route the truss channel and install the CF rods, I shaped early because of the possibility of the wood moving. I waited a couple weeks after shaping and sure enough it moved and had to be flattened again. And this was a very dry acclimated 3 piece neck blank of quarter sawn rock maple and jatoba which are some tough woods, plus two CF rods. So, I think doing as you did and waiting after cutting, thicknessing, or shaping with any wood is helpful, some more than others though. BTW Jon- I was told the exact same thing about cocobolo, crazy. I need to find out how kingwood compares in this sense as I want to use some possibly as laminates in my next neck, however, I may just use another type of rosewood, if I hear any negatives about kingwood. We'll see.

As with everything I do, I will do tests between the two on the scrap I have currently. So far I have tested numerous different things against other methods, like I have with gluing, sealing, cutting, and more. I have seen the numerous stain and sand back guitars here and it seems that was the hot ticket before and around when I came here and for a while after. I definitely never had any problems with the look, always turned out nice in my eyes. However, the way that perry did the guitar I had originally mentioned and probably does most of his guitars, is more or less staining it the color that you would sand back to anyway. If you can stain to this effect without having to sand back, then why not go that route. Like I said I have seen all the guitars that have been sanded back, all were very nice and I felt the same way about Perrys, they look amazing. It's instead of staining it dark and sanding back to grey or light brown, stain it a very light brown in the first place. Like I said, as with everything I do, I will test the two against each other. However, as with the results that I have already seen between the two, I don't see any problems with going with the light direct stain in the first place over darker stains and sanding them light. I do understand the grain of maple and how sanding can leave certain areas darker as they have absorbed deeper, however, I didn't find that the light direct stain did any worse of a job showing the grain. Again, I'll want to see for myself, but if I find that the two are no different in overall look, I will go with the direct stain as it just makes more sense to me. I think both look great regardless and either way would be fine, it just made more sense to me to do a light direct stain, instead of a dark stain which you will sand until it is as light as the light stain. Whatever works right? J EDIT: When I say staining dark and sanding light, I don't mean staining it a dark color I mean staining it with a heavy concentration, just to clarify, poor choice or wording in that respect.

Honestly, I don't think any of those things will make such a difference that you'd ever notice them. For example, if you picked up the same exact guitar one with a 3 piece back and another with a 2, I'd bet money your buddy couldn't tell the difference at all. Same goes for those other things. Funny thing is he mentions less glue joints, yet prefer a 3 piece body, which entails an extra glue joint that is very big. There are so many other factors that will have such a larger impact on the sound, that worrying about stuff that is pointless. Besides, as I said, there is no way to properly judge these comparisons, it either theory or voodoo, neither is worth bothering with. Just get some wood that you like and build a guitar, seriously. If you worry about each details that in depth, you'll spend another 3 years deciding on what would sound good and even that would be based on someone's opinion, which would probably be bs. I dunno, just how see it. The only woods to avoid are those that are structurally weak, outside of that just pick which ones you like best. Best of luck to you my friend and I can't wait to see how your guitar turns out. J Tuners: Not sure on all of them, but my preference of the ones I've tried is sperzels. Some people have some minor complaints, but I've noticed no problems and like them. Most of those should do the job though. J

This is just basic stuff, really whatever you like. I went and bought a bunch of little paper bowls at the store, they have like a wax coating so it doesn't get absorbed or anything. While I was at the store I bought some plastic spoons for mixing and distributing if need be. I just take a bowl hit one squirt from each can, one squirt resin, one squirt hardener. Then I mix with my little spoon and use it for whatever I need. You can apply it anyway you want, it really is the same as any other glue and clean up is nearly as easy, instead of using water and a rag like you would with titebond just use acetone and a rag for clean up. Like I said the difference between the average stuff you'll find and the ones mentioned is significant. For some reason I just get a kick out of applying to different woods to see how it looks. Here is some zebra with some epoxy. Thats what I do with my excess or throw it on some of my clamping cauls so they last longer. J I couldn't stop laughing when I read that, too funny.

OH WOW! That came out amazing! Very nice job staining! I definitely like the tranparent black idea and it mixes well with the binding. I very much like white plastic binding on certain looking guitars and it always suits your builds very well and this one especially! Keep us posted on the rest of the finishing process, I can hardly wait to see how this one looks completely finished, excellent stuff! J

Thanks! I will make a thread soon, I just work so slow everyone would get bored waiting for me to finish, so I'll just wait till I'm almost finished then make a thread to share. BTW thats the fretboard I got from Jon, just beautiful wood and will look great with the matching headstock plates. The next thing I am doing to that fretboard is going to be the toughest thing yet and the one that makes it look the best. It will look great as I already tried it on scrap, but it will be a pain to do well for me. This is a taste of what it will look like finished, it will be a pain overall, but should look nice. Scrap practice Anyhow, thanks and I'll have lots to share soon as I am getting close to the finishing process, which is when I will share everything. That way if I royally botch the finishing process, at least I can say I did alright on the building part, lol. J

As for West Systems releasing with heat, I didn't get temps or anything, but I was easily able to get my inlay out as I showed in my earlier post and all I needed to soften it was use a hairdryer! It was no problem and took like 5 minutes. So, I don't see having any problems what so ever with getting West Systems to release with heat. J

Maybe to help you with your process of designing, take her to a local guitar shop. Just head out with her for groceries or something and say, "Oh man, I forgot I really need some strings" or picks or whatever and then just stroll through some of the guitars and see if she mentions anything in particular. If possible it might help you figure something out. Best of luck.

+1 on the west systems! I like the 206 hardener, a tad thinner than 205, little longer set time as well, which is beneficial for me personally, though not a big deal. The pumps are a blessing, so nice to have, wouldn't go without them now. I actually prefer to use epoxy now over other adhesives where ever I can, very nice to work with overall. All I need to say is try some west systems or other similar brand and then repost, I think you'll immediately see things differently. I know I did the first day I tried west systems, here is a picture after using it for the very first time. It was that big of difference, seriously. West systems epoxy

I've been convinced into the epoxy camp and most definitely the shape the neck early camp. I save myself a load of work by shaping early, just wanted to remember to thank all who suggested such namely mattia. About two weeks after shaping the neck I had some backbow, not bad, but noticeble. Much nicer to take that off the neck than the fretboard or frets. Anyhow, as for epoxy releasing with heat. It does this just as titebond does and is something to add in the benefits column of epoxy. Recently, I sanded an inlay and it became see-through on one side. This happened because I used thin scrap shell for the inlay and I didn't glue it together on a radius like I should have since it was thin, my fault. So, I was able to get the inlay out of the fretboard with a hairdryer in less than 5 minutes without any damage what so ever to the route. With some nice shell blanks I made a new block inlay and made it the actual size I wanted. Anyhow, I just want to really point out that epoxy is completey reversible as titebond and I mention this because people seem tentative to use it and shouldn't be. J Inlay became see-through Starting to remove inlay which was epoxied in Finished removing inlay Actually remembered to glue up at the proper radius New inlay, best picture of it which is still crappy.

Thanks for the clarification Perry. I knew that it helped with the fuzz deal, but it seemed like it would also help stain accept more evenly as well, which is why I asked. I always think back to that superstrat thread because of how amazing that guitar turned out with such a simple process. It turned out better than I would ever expect a guitar to turn out and it was minus many days of extra work that are suggested in most finishing processes, which is why I liked it so much. Again, thanks for the clarification. J

Small amounts of enlarging could also be done with a reamer, which I've seen sold at places like LMI, which are perfect for opening up holes to fit slightly larger tuning machines like sperzels. You could even practice buy drilling a hole in scrap and enlarging it with the reamer, if you are comfortable with the reamer it would be much easier and quicker than filling and redrilling holes when you just need to slightly enlarge some tuner holes. LMI has two reamers for opening up tuner holes to fit the slightly bigger tuning machines(10mm), you'll probably want the cheaper one at $37.10 because the nice is $109.45. Just a thought. Best of luck. J EDIT: If you do clean up with the file as J mentioned, just make sure you only push to file, its so hard to explain but if you try pulling the file up through the tuner hole you can easily catch and chip out the edge of the hole, especially with the face of the headstock with a finish, I did this once cleaning up a tuner hole with a round file, I avoided it the whole time and right at the end I made one upstroke and it chipped off a nice piece of the face of the headstock. Same thing can happen when pushing if you end up filing the bottom edge of the hole, but with a tapered type round file, it would be hard to accomplish, so the pushing stroke is safer. Best of luck. J

Got Bass? Seriously though, what an amazing looking guitar. I think it looks great, not over done and not plain, just excellent. Wood choices are great as well. Truly a nice guitar and something I would look to as inspiration upon building myself a bass, suits my taste exactly. Nice stuff. J

I'm sure that the shellac method would work great, but I have been wondering something that came to mind when reading the other thread you were speaking about dayvo. What came to mind is the basic staining tutorial Perry did in one of his older threads, I think a superstrat thread. In said thread, Perry does a couple rounds of very light moistening the top in order to raise the grain, without any sanding. So what I was wondering is whether this practice would help to prevent any blotchiness? It seems as though it would as you would help to raise any grain that would be compacted and more resistant to stain, therefore you would create a more even staining surface. Anyhow, it just came to mind when reading that other thread and felt it might be worth addressing here, in case it is helpful. Anyone have experience in this practice? Well, best of luck dayvo! Let us know how it turns out. J

LOL, if she likes a leopard look maybe look into a lacewood top! I think a nice color lacewood or stained version with that snakewood would just be crazy, if done right it might look really cool. There are a few woods with the same effect as lacewood, though I think many might actually just be in the same family. Anyhow, I believe lacewood, leopardwood, and even sycamore can have a crazy looking pattern that might suit your wifes taste, but maybe just run some pics by her and she was she says. Like I said, if done right with the right piece of lacewood you could have one sick looking guitar. Best of luck. J