jmrentis

Wow that sounds like a pretty good deal! I see a big variety of prices with maple and actually most figured wood. Rich was telling me the same thing about the range of maple. It depends a lot on the person that grades it and what he or she thinks is 5A or 3A. Most of the time though it seems they do a good job of being consistent with grading. One thing about figured wood is that I like to be able to pick out the piece, because I've found some lower grade figures that I like better than some regular strong figures. And once in a while you come across a piece that is totally unique, like the piece I just got from Fryovanni. He has a bunch of very nicely figured wood at great prices, this piece I got wasn't one of the most expensive but it had a very cool pattern that I liked very much, and he even said it was different, it wasn't really a flame it was more of a stepped figure. So I got it and am very happy I did and I can't wait to get the guitar done. I'll post the pic of the piece I got, it's a link from Fryovanni's page so you can see it's dimensions and price. His stuff is fairly inexpensive for the quality you get, at least in my opinion. At most places you will pay a lot more especially if you want something thick enough for a carved top. Maple top from Fryovanni This is a decent pic, but I will try to get a better one. It's extremely hard to show how great wood is in a pic, this piece in real life is amazing, but all the pics I have taken don't show how good it really is, I just got some naptha and wil get a couple pics tomorrow. So this is Fryovanni's pic from his page. Good luck finding some wood!Jason

I'm not really saying alcohol should be illegal, I know I've said that but it wasn't my point, what I've been getting at is that pot should be treated the same or less severely than alcohol. If pots illegal then by common sense alcohol should be illegal being that is worse. But if they want to make pot legal, then if they want keep the booze. But you can't have a less dangerous drug be illegal and a by far more dangerous one legal. It's not right. Although I do think alcohol should be highly regulated, because it causes so many problems and death were as soda and coffee are rarely the cause of death, possibly indirectly but not anything like alcohol. It's not like you can get a dui with a soda, it doesn't really get you trashed. Anyways sorry I blurred my point, it just doesn't make sense to me why one is legal and one is not and the one thats not legal is not as dangerous! At the least you have to treat them equally, but I still don't think they are equal. Does anybody really think that alcohol is less dangerous than pot? If so next time you see your doctor ask him what he thinks, I highly doubt he will say alcohol is safer. So why then is pot illegal and booze legal? I can't grasp this concept for the life of me. I've lived with some roommates that abused booze and some that abused pot. And I have to say that there is some distinct differences. I would much, much rather live with a pot head, and I would have to put up with the smoke which would bug me a little but I used to be a smoker over a pack a day so I wouldn't hold it against someone because I used to do the same with cigarettes. Alcoholics are just straight up bad news, cops end up showing up at the door often, there are fights like every other night, with the bad ones you have to keep an eye on them when they over do it, because they choke on their own vomit when they are passed out. They can also just OD, I've had to take a couple friends to the ER because of alcohol poisoning, and another thing to worry about is if they get crazy and try to jump into their car while trashed, which happens often. So to rap it up I will not live with alcoholics anymore, they are way too much of a problem, as for pot heads I would rather not live with one just because it's illegal, but if it was legalized I would have no problem living with one. They are kicked back and tend to not get into trouble, at least all the ones I've lived with. Still if I had to pick between the two I would live with the pot head. Just my opinions which are from all the things I've seen. Later. Jason

Are these things illegal though? No, people understand the risk and make the judgement to do so, which is as it should be, letting people have the choice, just like alcohol! Jason

I just don't understand! Why is alcohol ok and pot not? Alcohol is a far more dangerous and leads to so many more deaths! It doesn't make sense, alcohol is a drug, a worse drug that is very toxic. So any laws that pertain to alcohol should be a little less severe for pot. Why would you allow the worst drug and then not allow the one that isn't nearly as bad? So instead of everyone explaining why pot should not be legal and why it is so bad, try and give some reasons alcohol is ok to be legal, and why it is so safe for everyone to drink! If you want to treat pot the same as alcohol that would be fine, but even then you are going overboard because it is not nearly as dangerous as booze. We are backwards, pot should have the regulations booze has and booze should be treated like pot! It's like charging $100,000 for vw bug and $100 for a Benz. Makes as much sense. Someone please explain, I just don't understand and I consider myself to have quite a bit of common sense. So please explain it to me. Later, Jason. Ps: Crafty, no worries I can understand why you got upset. That isn't an easy thing to deal with, losing someone close to us is terrible, I know.

Oh man thats nice Godin SD. I'm using some cocobolo for a fingerboard and matching headstock veneer. I love the stuff, I think it had really rich color, which is what I like, and with a little heartwood like what you have it makes it look even better. Did you put anything on it for a finish? Again very nice lookin guitar, I can't wait to use it on mine. Jason

I have been in need of a drill press, so I have had a look around and found a lot of mini drill presses 5 speed and was wondering if it could work for a while. It's basically a table top drill press. I will eventually get a nice drill press, but if I can use this for a while there are some others tool I would like first. Just curious, so if you have any thoughts let me know. Thanks guys. Jason

Hey guys I just wanted to add to this. I have looked for maple once before at home depot and couldn't find any, but today when I went I found a great stock of it. I was amazed honestly. I have a good, almost great hardwood dealer semi local, it about 40 minute drive. You would have been surprised to see that amount of figured pieces in there. I would say about 60% had some figure, and out of that about 40% had good figure throughout. Mostly a great flamed figure, with a piece or two with of some minor birdseye in there. None of the boards were thick enough for a one piece neck, but I would only do a laminate with them anyways. I think I might pick up a couple nice pieces and let them dry for another 8 months to a year and see how they turn out. If I can I will get a pick for you guys to see, it honestly looks like a whole section of figured maple. And as for price it's actually not that bad, my wood shop that I use charges quite a bit for some nice flamed maple and the better it is the more they charge. With this stuff it is the same price throughout and some pieces are 3-5A in my opinion. Like I said you would be surprised. I have seen some super nice quilted stock 12/4 maple but it was way too pricey for me. I don't think my place carries 12/4 very often, but they do have a nice selection of sizes below that. Anyways I just wanted to throw that out there. Again if I get back down there anytime soon, I will get a good pic of the section, and you will see mostly figured wood out of the stock. Overall I was impressed with the quality, not many knots or anything. But I must say this is the first time I have ever seen wood of this quality at home depot, actually it's hard for me to buy it because I have a great dealer near buy and I buy from fryovanni who has some killer pieces always. Also I have never found any instrument quality wood at home depot, but I must say I'm considering buying a few boards just to see, I'm sure they will need to be dried quite a bit more. When I can I will also do a full on price comparison, between my dealer and the home depot board, including the quality of the figure which will be subjective, but I will also try to get pics so you can decide for yourself. Later guys. Jason

I'm sorry for your loss truly. There is nothing worse than losing a friend or loved one. But I can pretty much promise you that for every one person killed by a pot related accident(where pot is the only drug in their system), there will be like 100 killed by alcohol. So I hope you don't drink at all, otherwise you are even worse than what you describe. Again I'm sorry for you and Dan for your losses. And I can see why you feel so angry about pot, but I think it goes beyond the weed itself, there were other bigger reasons that could be contributed to the accident. As for this I don't believe it, I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I don't believe anyone would do something that severe for some pot. Crystal, meth, crack, heroin maybe but not pot. If thats what you saw or what you were told thats fine but I just don't believe pot is the culprit in that situation. Anyways I assume you want alcohol banned right? I hope so. Because if your think pot is so bad and has no benefits you should take a look at our society and how diluted we are that alcohol is totally cool and fine. And don't assume that since it's legal people will automatically be responsible, sorry it doesn't work like that. A good chunk of the people that binge drink are younger and young people are not responsible, sorry to say they are not. Just looking at stats you can see how much more of a risk they are, so put alcohol and that risk together and you have the making for death. Sucks but it's true. So basically anyone that thinks pot should be illegal for recreation and medical use should also be trying to get alcohol banned also, being that it is worse and causes far more accidents and deaths by a long shot! But I know almost all those people drink, why? because it's socially acceptable which is crap to me! Again I'm sorry crafty for your loss, but I believe that it is a small number of accidents that pertain to pots involvement. I think legalizing will decrease this number even more. People will feel safer in their homes and not have to smoke outside of their house. They won't have to worry about the cops being called on them. Right now it's illegal anywhere, so why would you want to be caught at your house, thats the worse place to be caught, they then can search your whole house among other things. So people feel safer driving around and smoking or hiding in a park somewhere, which they then have to drive home from. So legalizing will do a lot of good things for all of us. Make us safer on the roads. Now we just need the breathalizers on the ignition of our cars. I think this would cut down on dui related accidents by a lot. They should be on every car no matter what. I am much more worried about being killed by a drunk driver than a stoned one. And there are far more drunk drivers than stoned drivers, so if we are going to do anything it needs to be some more strict regulations on alcohol or ban it altogether. Later guys, Jason

I think the prohibition was so bad because people were so addicted to it that when they started having withdrawls they freaked out and used any means possible to get their hands on it. The withdrawls on alcohol are very bad, it is actually the worst one along with drugs like xanax. Both of them will cause bad seizures when abused then stopped. This withdrawl will make people very desperate and will do most anything to get some, and they will be very angry and dangerous for a while. Where as pot has no physical withdraw. When you stop you don't start shaking and sweating and vomiting. Pot has little in common with all the other drugs out there. It is able to be used straight off a plant with no processing only some drying. It's not man made in a lab, it isn't cut with anything, it can't kill you, so again why is alcohol legal and pot not. Pot being the lesser of two evils get a bad rap, for reasons beyond me. I don't smoke or drink so I have no agenda here but when I see something that is unjust I put my opinion out. Instead of trying to tell us why pot is so bad, try explaining why alcohol is so good? Give me reasons that alcohol is so beneficial to people? And why it is considered so much safer than pot? I highly doubt there is one good reason or benefit for having alcohol. I liked this and it's 100% true None of which are good for us, it's just another political subject. It's bad for us but since we like it it's legal for everyone. Pots safer but since we don't like it, we are going to call it a drug and make it illegal. Perfect sense! The one that is less bad for you is illegal because it is not as commonly used by certain people, the certain people that have the power to make it illegal. Oh well, one day people will learn, hopefully! Common sense is a very hard concept for most people to grasp obviously! Jason

Anything that is free will have it's cons. But hey it's free! If it had better features I'm sure they would want money. Thanks for the link, I am sure I will end up using it. Jason

I believe it's a very valid argument. How are you going to allow a drug that is far worse and kills so many people a day and creates addiction with withdrawls that require the addict to be hospitalized, and not allow a drug that has minimal side effects and actually is a benefit medically. It doesn't make sense. And your right in my opinion if pot is going to be illegal, then alcohol should be illegal. Presciption drugs aren't really relevant being they have medical uses. But alcohol is absolutely worthless, all it does is poison the body enough so you feel dizzy. Wow that sound like it should be legal to me, Yeah right! There is absolutely no benefits at all with alcohol, so why is it legal? And why are far less toxic and less dangerous drugs like pot illegal. People always try to falsify arguments made in favor of legaliztion, but they can never defend why alcohol is perfectly legal and so readily available, to the point that 12-21 year olds can easily get their hands on it and get killed by overdose or by driving drunk. There is no point at which pot becomes toxic, you can't get sick let alone die from it, and as far as driving goes, pot is not a drug like alcohol, alcohol causes the user to lose inhibition, so even when the user is so drunk that he/she knows that driving would be dangerous, they will attempt to drive anyways because they have lost their inhibition to do stupid things. Why do you think marti gras works? If you walk down any normal street all the girl don't just rip their tops off for you, even if you had a 1000 beads. It's because their trashed, alcohol causes you to do stupid things you will regret. But on the other hand pot is a totally different ball game. Pot usually causes paranoia, creating more inhibition than when said person is sober. So in actuality when the person is sober enough to drive they won't because they are paranoid that they are still too messed up to. Basically the exact opposite effect to alcohol. So what I'm getting at is pot is far safer than alcohol by any term you can think of. You can't OD, you are far less likely to do something stupid like driving under the influence. And it is far less toxic than alcohol so it won't destroy your body the way alcohol will. Believe me I have alcoholics in my family and they look and feel terrible, their bodies just get eaten away after years of use and abuse. Where as people that smoke pot the damage is minimal except to the lungs, which as I said in my other post there is a pill developed for cancer patients and others that don't want to smoke it or can't smoke it, which the pill is perfectly safe and would not cause any damage to the body. So someone explain to me why alcohol is legal? It's far more dangerous, and it is a drug that is far more toxic to the body, and it makes people do stupid things they normally wouldn't do. It just doesn't make sense to me. And if they want to outlaw alcohol I'm fine with that, it would be better being that pot is not even comparable to alcohol as a dangerous drug, I think alcohol has nothing but negative effects on all of us, and I don't even drink, I did a little when I was younger but I never understood why everyone enjoyed it so much, it just makes you feel like crap! Anyways that just my opinion! Later. Jason

Looks good Matt! How are you going to build out the headstock, are you going to leave the right side alone and add an ear to the left side, or are you going to cut the right side down as well and add equal ears to both sides so it would be even? For some reason I think cutting it down the right side even with the left, then adding some nice big ears would be better, I think it would give a nice laminated look from the back,unless you are painting it. But I have never had to add ears so it's only just a guess. Good luck with fixing it. With the way you piece bodies together with a bunch of different woods, I'm sure you won't have any problems with this. Post progress pics when you have them! Later. Jason

Sweet!! I can't wait to see it, I bet it will be great. Are you happy with it so far? I hope so. Well get those pics up when you get a chance! Later! Jason

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I saw a hand drill press type thing recently, and was wondering how it would work. It looks like the hand drill worked great for you, what other uses would a hand drill have, or what else do you use it for? I was going to ask you about the closeness of the jack to the tone pot, but assumed you angled the jack enough so it could fit under the tone pot. Are the lines you have on the guitar for the contour of the top? Well keep us posted with pics! Jason

Hey man, welcome! I'm sure you will have some good advice to offer some members being that you have quite a bit of woodworking skills, I would assume that you are good by the specific tools and amount of tools you have. Also there is a ton of information here for yourself to learn how to build guitars. Having the previous knowledge of wood and having the skills you do,learning to build guitars won't take as much time as most. I was wondering if you have any pictures you could put a link to, so we could see some work you have done. If you don't, no worries but I would really like to see some wood work other than guitar once and a while. I'm sure you have read the rules(if not do), so you can post one pic 640x480pixels, and the rest need to be linked. So if you have some pics please post them wood or metal, I'm sure a lot of people here would be interested in seeing your work. I know I would. Well nice to meet you and good luck with the guitar building. Anytime you have a question, just ask assuming that you have searched the site first, searching will give you more than enough info on most subjects, but if you don't find anything by all means ask. We will gladly try to help. Hope you enjoy this site, it is a great place to learn and share info, there isn't another site I would rather be. Talk to you later! Jason

I like it! I think it fits the guitar really well and considering that is your first try at cutting the jack hole, I say that it is great. I think it would be hard to do it better. And the guitar is looking sweet! I really am liking that design, I'm sure it's not the easiest cut I'm sure, but I thinks it's well worth it for the look. How did you decide the angle to cut the hole at, do you just use the jack itself as reference. Well nice stuff matt and I can't wait to see how that design turns out! Later. Jason

I'm a guitarist so take it for what it's worth. I like the first two the best. Out of the two, I agree with you I think the first one is the best. Out of a scale of 1-10 I think the first one is a 9 and the second one is a 8. The numbers could go up or down depending on the cavity routs and other things, but overall I like the design. Good luck with them, and let us know what you decide to use. Later. Jason

Jivin I fully agree with you about driving under the influence. Smoking in the car isn't smart to begin with. But that is one of the reasons to legalize it, giving people the freedom to smoke at their house without worry of the cops being called on them or roommates getting pissed because it's illegal, having that freedom will let most people just kick back and smoke up in the house, which is much safer for everyone. I want to say I'm very sorry for your loss. It can be a very hard thing to deal with, but it sounds like you are doing ok. I know that there are a few accidents that have pot heads involved but I can guarantee you that accidents involving alcohol is probably 100x more at least. Which should make people think about how recklessly we hand out alcohol. So many people every single night jump into their cars after they get trashed and attempt to drive home, how dumb can you be? And so many of these people I'm talking about are the ones saying you can't legalize pot, it's a drug. Yes it is and it's about a 1/10th of a drug that alcohol is. And everyone drinks, it's socially acceptable. But when it comes to something they know nothing about like pot, they all of a sudden have an opinion and know so much about it. I think alcohol should be heavily restricted, it's way to easy to overdose and drive drunk and become so intoxicated that you black out and get in a fight and cause someone to end up in the hospital. How stupid is that. And it's cool to everyone, don't ask me why! If there are laws to be placed on pot, I think they should be the same as alcohol. No worse, because it way less of a drug than alcohol and should be treated for what it is. But Dan is fully right, no driving should be allowed, reaction times become slow, you can easily become distracted and many other reasons. Just kick back smoke it up, eat some grub and flip on the tele. When I was younger I read a cool thing somewhere, about 420. Some people I forget where use 420 as the time they smoke. I know everyone that smokes takes a rip at 420 and is like Weew bro it's 420 yeah! But if you've been smoking all day then it doesn't count. It's about going to work being productive all day, taking care of all your responsibilities, then coming home, eating dinner, turning on the tv and just relaxing while smoking it up. It doesn't have to be 4:20, it just means that you should take care of business then take care of your head. If you smoke all day you will have a much larger chance of being unproductive as pot is a depressant and you will have less energy and end up being foggy all day. So just take care of you life and once you've finished for the day, kick back with a fatty. Thats just what I got out of the article I read. Something to think about. Later. Jason

Well I guess then I won't need to buy a robosander yet. As far as bits go, how many flutes are there on the one you used ? I'm sure you used carbide right? Also I know there is bits that have angled flutes, diagonal, would you consider using one on the purpleheart, did you? Another thing I have read is that the wider the cut on the bit, the more problems that occur. What would be a good size to use for the body outline, to avoid tearout? Thanks for your help MzI, if you have the time I would really appreciate some of those questions answered. Also like I said I have done a lot to my ride and I don't have many problems, just a few adjustments from time to time. Later, Jason

Thanks MzI for the tip, I still need more practice on my router, but when I do the body I will be doing small passes. I see so many people on this site that have tearout on all kinds of wood, and I know purpleheart can be worse than most. So I will go slow or for the outline of the body I might do a super close pass on my buddies bandsaw and buy a robosander to clean it up to the edge. I would feel safer that way. But I still might use the router so I'm undecided. Thanks for the tip though and I will post once I get there to let you guys know how it goes. Later. Jason PS I like the work you do MzI, nice stuff!

Even though there is saddles that are adjustable, some still have a radius. At least trems.

I agree! Making criminals out of easy going people is stupid in my opinion. By easy going I mean they don't go home and beat the hell out of their wifes, don't get into huge brawls at the bar, don't crash their cars and kill endless amounts of lives. Alcohol is by far a worse substance to use even just socially, and it's toxic it can kill you if you ingest too much. Pot from my knowledge is harmless, I don't believe there is a toxic level. Potatos are far more toxic than pot. The skin in potatos is a tiny bit toxic and while it would probably be impossible to eat enough to get sick or die it is still far more toxic than weed. And there is absolutely no physical withdrawl from weed what so ever. But I wish for those who do it there was a safer way to ingest it, that was more readily available. I know for medical purposes there is a pill but I can not think of it's name off hand. For people that have medical issues, I feel pot can be some welcomed relief. It's hard being sick and having on going chronic problems and any sort of relief you can find you will take. That to most people that have never had a chronic problem sounds desperate, and it is, you have no idea what chronic pain can do to your mind and body. You become lost and just can't feel good or be in a good mood, sleep is terrible and everything about your life just seems to fall apart. Pains meds help but you become tolerant eventually and you can easily become dependent and rarely addicted. I would say that a lot of people with chronic pain do become dependent, but dependence and addiction are two totally different things. So if your pain is going to be long term or life long you can bet you will become dependent. Pot has pain relieving qualities and is not addictive chemically. So in my opinion it is a great addition for chronic pain patients. If they can use pot and get enough relief to stop or refrain from using pain pills, I think thats a great idea and is much better for them, besides of course the smoking aspect of it, which as I already stated there is a pill substitute. Even if they can just use less pain meds by using pot I think it would be a benefit. I just want to say that I don't advise anyone to start smoking, it is illegal and smoking is bad for you but if or when it becomes legal then I think it is much safer than any other social drug and does not lead to other drugs, I don't see how anyone can make that point. It doesn't even make sense. Gateway Drug, yeah right, if you want to say that, you need to reconsider and start thinking about alcohol. Booze is socially acceptable and is everywhere and it is highly addictive, causing terrible withdrawl which in bad cases causes seizures, and/or hospitalization. So if you think pot causes problems, try looking at your alcohol use. It is at almost every restaurant, 7-11, and many grocery stores. It's TOXIC, it can kill you by overdose, and it causes drastic mood swings in my opinion. I've seen an old roommate of mine, go from a great mood laughing and playing guitar to the next second where he is screaming at his girlfriend in her face and then punches 3 holes in the wall. Needless to say he doesn't smoke pot. He is just a drunk and a bad one at that. Man I can't believe I never saw this topic, it's something I feel strongly about, and I don't feel it has to be legal but at least decriminalize it and make it available for medical use. But I think if you are going to allow alcohol to be legal, then pot should be legal being that it is much safer. No point in creating criminals and wasting money on housing them in our jails. I don't want to get into the politics of the topic although that is one of the biggest factors in legalizing it. Always politics. So thats my opinion and by the stats it seems I'm in the majority. And when I see polls on TV it's the same way, thats how I know it's all politics, because most people have no problems legalizing but the government does. So they make sure it won't happen, even after we had legalized it for medical use here in CA, they came in and said we will arrest you anyways, even if your laws won't we will. Stupid to say the least, I thought votes mattered, I guess not! Later. Jason

Also for maximum comfort in playability, the fretboard is best to carry the same or similar radius, of course this is totally up to the personal preference, but the closer it matches the easier it is to play. Well this is just what I've gotten the impression of, since staring my own project and it makes sense to me but it doesn't seem to be thought of much. I have only heard this a couple times, maybe most people know that and do it, don't bother to talk about it as it is just common knowledge. But I had no clue, never even had thought about it until wes made that point, a good one too. I would have never considered it and ended up with average to below average playability and would have been pissed once I did find out. I too wonder why not many put up the radius. Soem sites for some bridges will have the radius, but it's true that most do not, at least ones I've seen. What was suggested to me which is probably the best way to go was, buy the bridge you want and measure the radius yourself, then match up that radius to the nut and fretboard. That way you can have maximum playability. One other thing you can do is try to call and ask, but it might be hard to find a salesman that knows that info. I've called a place and the guy didn't have any specs for me, like string spacing and other easy and common specs. Well good luck finding out what you need to, maybe there is someone here that already has that info and can let you know and I'll look around because I think I've seen what your looking for on a certain site. Later. Jason

Happy Birthday Man! Ok now we need to punch you in the arm for every year you've been alive! I'll do the first one and we'll see if we can get the other 32 done before the day is out! I doubt it but lets try! Jason PUNCH!!!