jmrentis

Did you have your surgery? When you feel up to it let us know how you are. I was also wondering what you were having done? If it's too personal don't worry about it. I was scheduled for my fusion surgery recently, but my doctor ended up moving to a different office a better office and I have crappy medical, so they wouldn't accept me at the new office now I have to get in at the university hospital which can take months to get in and scheduled for surgery. In the meantime my neurological problems are increasing, I'm losing more and more strength in my legs daily and the burning is increasing. Sucks pretty bad but there are much worse things, as long as I get the surgery soon, otherwise I will continue to lose use in my lower body! Oh well I hope to hear you are doing well and let us know how it went when you can. Jason PS Did the copy carver sell?

Hey Matt did you ever find that jack plate you were looking for? The one that was a little more square(I think) and it was on a ibanez. It really was a cool plate and I looked for you and for myself, but never could find one. Well let me know if you ever come across a place tha sells them, and I'll do the same. Jason

Maybe once you get far enough down to remove the truss rod, you could do a little bit of routing, basically rerout the truss rod channel, maybe so it's parallel to the fretboard surface. I must say I don't know why the truss rod is angled, there is probably a very good reason for this, but I don't know why they would do that, or what benefits is creates, I would like it explained to me as I have never heard of this. For the most part I have only seen them parallel, so maybe it would be easier for you to rout it flat and parallel, that way it would be much easier to attach the fretboard. Although you might have to add some thin wood at one end and rout it deeper at the other, to get it flat. I would assume there is no headstock angle? If there is none it might be a problem rerouting because it might make the truss rod channel too deep, and make it impossible to make adjustments at the nut, unless thats not where the adjustment is, but again I don't know about the angle or adjustment spot. Well I hope you can figure a way to do this, and take pictures when you do, that way people that run into the same problem can have some ideas of how to go about it. To me it sounds kinda cool, if you can do it with any sort of efficiency, to be able to put on a fretboard for a one piece neck, thats vintage. Instead of it being ruined or just having to stop playing and putting up for show, you can give it new life and a new look. There are so many different fretboards colors and species it would be nice for a person in your shoes to have options! Hopefully you or someone can figure this out, it would be very cool if figured out to make a tutorial and have it posted on the main PG page and pinned in the forum tutorial page! Between all the brains here I'm sure we can figure out a good way to do it! Good luck with that and keep us posted! Later, Jason

Thanks guys for the comments! I really appreciate it. It's a '67 Mustang Fastback. I've done a whole lot to it since I got it, which was fairly recently, a reason that this project will take me a while. Parts are expensive for it(the car). Drive American Cars, Rock Foreign Guitars! Well I did some reworking on my neck design for the rough cut. I couldn't figure out what size I should start with in thickness, I had 1 1/2" to begin with and it seemed way too big and would just be extra work, then I drew it out to an inch and that seemed too small and wouldn't give me enough wood to build a nice volute. I really want a nice volute, they have grown on me significantly. Not only do they look good but they also increase the strength of the neck, which is never a bad thing. Well since I couldn't figure out what I needed size wise I asked for help, I asked Perry. He gave me some advice, basically some minimum numbers, numbers I shouldn't go below and some approximate numbers that he uses himself. So I have re drawn the profile view to a size of 1 1/8". Right in between what I had drawn before, I'm hoping that will be perfect for me, giving me enough room to build a solid volute while not causing me some excess work. It has a 13 degree angled headstock and I will transfer it today to some poster board type material, then with that I will make a master for future necks, and double sided tape the poster board one to the neck laminate to cut. Hopefully getting 2 or more necks, but we will see. Also I cut another little piece off my body wood for other uses like laminates, it's little over quarter inch thick 2 inches wide and 20 inches long. Now I have two that are about that size. I tried two cuts to get this one cut, but it seems to have burned the wood even worse, no worries though I left plenty to sand or shave down, there will be no problems there. I think the blade was pretty dull by the time I got to that part, purpleheart is some hard stuff and can dull stuff pretty easy it seems. I wish I could show you guys the drastic difference in color of a just cut piece of purpleheart, compared to an aged one, aged even just a week. I have two pics that show either side of the little pieces I cut, and one side you can tell it's a little lighter in color, it's the side with the little bit of burn on it, but it's hard to see how much darker the other side is because there is quite a bit of grain runout on that piece, but never the less you can see the difference. Rich tells me that cocobolo is the same way, it gains much more color as it ages. I think that is very cool. So here is a link to the lighter piece of purpleheart the one that was just cut a day or so old,1 day old cut piece of purpleheart, Aged side of purpleheart with grain runout Well thanks again for all the kind words, it keeps me optimistic that this project will turn out great, at least great for a first attempt. As always advice and suggestions are welcome. I will post again when I have done some more progress which might be a few days at least! Thanks guys for making this possible for me! Later. Jason

I fully agree with you guys, having a size limit will in effect limit any abuse of rules by members, a good idea, But I think a lot of the current problems are not so much that people can't figure out have to down size their pics, or to only have one pic and links to the rest. I think that they know perfectly well how to do it but they choose not to. As most people said they are not afraid of getting banned, and it is very difficult to get banned, so they feel there will be no negative consequences as a result of abusing the rules. Some of the abusers I have seen follow the rules in many posts, but then in another will completey disregard them. So I agree with the limit, but I don't feel it's a good idea because people that don't know what they are doing won't be able to make mistakes, I think it's good because the people that want to break the rules won't be able to. Thats just what I see in this situation. Jason

No way! Thats a little overpriced, I know it can be very difficult to make, but it's just a splinter of wood, not much to them. So they are cnc made? Couldn't they charge a little less since the cnc machine would make short work of it, and since they should have the program all set up, it's not like it's made custom for each customer, I don't see where that price comes from. I guess since next to nobody makes them and they are difficult to build they can get away with it. It actually might not be a rip off but I would never be able to pay that much money. I bet they look nice though and would make a great addition to your guitar! Thanks for explaining your guitar layout for me, it sound like it will be a winner. With all the work you've done I have a feeling it will be my vote. It really is a great guitar and very unique as well, which is saying a lot now a days. It's hard to come up with a guitar that isn't exactly like 20 others, and you kept to what you wanted which is always difficult when you have a bunch of people telling you they don't like this and change that. But you stuck to it more or less and it came out great so far. I hope your finish turns out well, I've heard that can be the worst part. Well good luck and keep up the excellent work, I know it will pay off for you. It really looks like it's going to be a top notch guitar and I can't wait to hear what you think of the sound, I bet it will be impressive! Later man. Jason

Have you talked to fryovanni(Rich) yet. He has all different sized fingerboards and he does slotting for a small fee. He has all kinds of different boards and I'm sure he could do it for you, I'm having him do me one in a week or two on cocobolo. So if you haven't asked him, I would give it a try, he has a couple older posts of his own work that he slotted, it was perfect, and I trust his work a 100%. The wood I've gotten so far has been primo and the effort he has put into his service is amazing, he answered a ton of questions and showed me everything I wanted to see, definately worth it to check him out, just pm. Good luck with your project and I hope you figure it out! Later, Jason

Hey guys, just a small update. I got my maple top from Fryovanni(Rich) a couple days ago and I am very impressed with it! Very nice piece of wood and will compliment my project perfectly. It's not quilted or flamed, it's more along the lines of stepped or angel wings figure. And it has a solid figure throughout. It is however very difficult to get a picture that shows off how nice it actually is. I have a pic or two in my page of pics that shows it but it's just for size reference basically, you can't see how gorgeous it is unfortunately but take my word for it, if you want to see about what it will look like with a finish look at fryovanni's wood for sale page Here's my top. And here is a link to the rest of his wood for saleFryovanni, wood for sale very nice stuff! And soon I will be getting a very nice figured cocobolo fretboard and matching headstock veneer from him as well, I will post it when I get it. So anyways I tried something that I have never seen done because I had no other options and I was curious to see if it would work. The purpleheart I have was too big, it was 1 3/4" thick and heavy as hell, also I am adding the maple top which is a little under half an inch so I had to thin out the purpleheart about a half an inch. Well I don't have a bandsaw or thickness planer yet and one of my buddies that builds didn't have a thickness planer, he has a bandsaw but it wouldn't be able to handle a 14" wide piece of purpleheart, it doesn't fit anything that big, and I don't think it would be nearly strong enough to pull that off even if it was tall enough. So I was thinking I needed to find a place that I could use a thickness planer type tool, or try my hand at routing it flat. Well I figure with purpleheart I would go through a lot of $ in bits trying to take off 1/2" on a 14"x21" board of purpleheart and on top of that I am very inexperienced with the router still, just didn't seem like a good idea for now. So I talked with my pops and one of his buddies and came up with an idea with using a table saw, sound crazy but it ended up working pretty good. My dads friend had a blade that was about 3/4" inch wide and can be set at different width down from that by taking additional blades out, we could only fit like 1/2 inch of the blade, so we had to take out a couple of the blades. It has a similar concept as a forstner bit, it grinds away all the wood you don't want. The blades are all pressed against each other but are a little offset to reduce kickback I believe, which I can imagine will happen sometimes although we never had this issue. So I marked the area I wanted cut out and left about 2 inches on either side so I could get a nice flat surface in the middle, and so I could get 2 pieces of purpleheart 2 inches wide x half inch thick x 21 inches long. So I could use them for laminates or whatever I find them useful for. I could only go 2 inches wide because thats as high as I could get the blade in the old school table saw to go, it won't fit any bigger blades. I had one problem though just for the little piece I was cutting off, it really burnt the wood when I made that long cut with the blade so high, but it's alright because I left a good amount of wood that I can sand down, so the burn will be taken off with plenty to spare. Back to the leveling. So we started in the middle of the board and made the passes on the side of the board that had the worst grain runout and imperfections, but this will be the back after I sand it smooth. The blade worked great besides stalling the saw a couple of times and leaving little tiny grooves. Thats the outer blades that cause the grooves and there is nothing you can do about it, but they are so small it won't take but 5 or 10 minutes to sand it smooth. Overall it worked really well, compared to what I was expecting. And it lightened the weight a lot which is great, but I will be chambering it so it will be even lighter. So anyways it was crazy but it worked great, I got the half inch off easily, without spending all kinds of money on ruined router bits, without making it uneven. Also I couldn't find a place to thin it, hopefully I will get one before I get to my next project but if not, I would not hesitate to go this method again. And I bagged up 3 bags of the dust and slivers from the purpleheart just in case I run into any tearout or glue joints that I need to fill with purple. So I will post some pics when I get it sanded smooth, right now it doesn't look that good with that burned side and the grooves, but it is only some very minor work, and I got what I wanted. Also when you cut the purpleheart it looks almost like no purple, it gets really light in color, but already the color has come back and it has only been a couple of days.So there are a bunch of pics I've added but nothing good. I have a new template I made, still needs flatter edges, but is about to final shape. Next I'm getting some router bits and start working on the chambering along with rough cutting the neck and doing the truss rod and fretboard. Hopefully I will get at least two necks from my laminate piece. I think I'm going for a nice set of mop block inlays with a V type shape in the center made of figured mop. Well thats the update so far, I'll add or edit if I think of anything else. Thanks for checking out my stuff, and I hope for your opinions and advice as always. Later guys! Jason Oh and also I think I decided on this hipshot bridge in chrome Hardtail Hipshot Bridge, Stewmac. And here's a pic and a link to my pics Progress Pics

Do you have a pic of the new mixture, I was going to suggest one less black and one more cherry, to lighten it a little, more transparent looking to show off your woods/laminates. Really nice stuff all around, and your going to leave the binding all natural right? I think thas what you said. Man this is going to be an epic guitar definately GOTM material, I can't wait! And you have taken so many pics of the process it makes me feel like we all had a part in it, like we were all standing around watching you work. Very cool! Later man and get us some pics of the new mix! Jason

I think if everyone started using thumbnails, the people that are constantly breaking the rules, will continue to do so, BUT it will not be as bad with 5 or 6 thumbnails compare to even 2 or 3 regular sized pics. I don't know if those people will even use the thumbnails but if they did it wouldn't be nearly as bad as regular pics. Greg explained it best size wise thumbnails vs full size pics. And I think kevans compromise was more than fair, the mods and admin have had their hands full as of late, but they still take the time to address possible improvements, but just give them time to decide, make sure that there won't be any drastic problems caused, and if there isn't I'm sure they would have no problems changing it. They really do a good job around here, if people feel otherwise and think they know of a better place to be, then go there, don't constantly question the motives of the admin and mods, they know what they are doing, believe it or not. And I think this place gets along great, other than the last couple weeks, I haven't seen any other issues, I only just became a member a short while ago but I have been reading and researching here for a lot longer! And I feel that 99% get along really good. I just think that tempers have been a little flared as of recently because of a person or two that have some mental issues. And in reality they know nothing about guitars or have any other motives than making money and have been trying to piss everyone off. All the long time members here have gotten along fine and have been a huge help to the new comers, that shouldn't be spoiled by a couple of jerks! So lets build guitars, you guys are wasting time discussing stuff like this, if you have a suggestion post it and give the mods and admin time to mill it over and make their decision, other than that lets forget about what's his name and all the drama that ensued and get on with learning and teaching, building and playing guitars. The off topic, and announcement chat should not be the most used threads on this site, they weren't but seems to be becoming so. Well just some more opinions and a rant, please guys lets just do what we were doing before all this crap started, it was so much more fun and we had a much better welcome mat to new comers, now I would definately look around for other sites after I found this one, if I was a new comer. Well hope to see you guys in the other threads more, you know the ones about guitars! Jason

Me Too!! J

StewMac Preslotted Fretboards This is one of the many places that sell preslotted boards, if you decide to buy one instead of make it, there are many other places too. Good luck with your project, as someone just said if you happen to make a mistake, just try again, but do as much research as possible, because if you miss a single step you could completely ruin it, just like what fryovanni just said if you cut the fretboard to size with taper and everything it would be nearly impossible to get straight slots, the order you do things is very important! One little tip that I did unintentionally for my neck was, I made it big enough to cut 2 or more necks out of it if I cut it right, and it is a neck with a headstock angle, so you need more room to cut it out of, also it's a 3 piece laminate. If you do that you can have a couple necks that are all the same, so if you mess up you have a back up. So good luck and let us know how it goes and what you decide! Later. Jason

Ouch! Thats terrible, I think there was one other person that I've heard of that had that happen with the little posts, maybe when you do the next ones drill the hole a pinch bigger, it's hard because you don't want to have be loose either. Your right though it sounds like it was a bad set, I have not heard of so many problems with a set before. Maybe try calling sperzel and explaining what happened, even though you bought it from someone else, they might help you out because the set was so poor. It might be worth a try instead of having to buy a whole other set. If so you would probably have to send in the set you have. I don't know about the rustins, it's a small area to use a dowel, but that still might work, just be careful not to drill through the headstock while doing it, just deep enough to remove the post, maybe someone will have a better idea for removing the post. Well good luck and let us know your progress with whats going on! I hope it works out for you, it sounds totally fixable, but will be a little work. Later! Jason

Do your tuners have a set screw? If they do which they should, you can set the tuners as far as you can to the side and mark the hole for the set screw, this should make it so the tuners will not move, it's hard to explain what I'm talking about but it would work fine. Anyways you should be alright either way, a lot of the times pre made necks have tuner holes a pinch bigger than the tuners they are designed for. Like some necks are drilled to 10mm for sperzel type tuners, and actually the spezels are a little bit smaller, but they work perfectly fine this way. The size of sperzels is basically in between drill bit sizes, so either you have to use 10mm which is most common, or drill it the size smaller and use a tapered reamer to widen it a pinch, which is what I did. Actually I used a bastard file and filed back and forth from the face of the headstock to the back making sure it was even. Takes a little more effort, but you end up with a super snug fit, although some say that too snug can cause problems, like if the wood swells and contracts, it can crack the wood if the tuners are too snug. So you'll be fine, wouldn't worry about it too much! Good luck and let us know how it goes! Jason

Thanks for the link I will look into it. I still would like to get a cold heat, as someone here said, even just for emergency backup, it would be better than nothing. Problems is I saw one at Costco and right near it they had a 15 piece diamond file set, it had everything including rasps, and I need a few of those along with a bunch other files, I will be set once I buy it, and it was definately a costco price. I wouldn't expect it to be the best set but it actually looked really good, so I will buy this next because I'm about to rough cut my neck laminate and will need the files long before any electronics, plus I have a soldering iron, even though it's old it still can give you some solid blisters. Thanks again I will check out what you mentioned, I should replace my iron soon anyways. Later. Jason

What was the price difference between the two?

Is honeycombing just drilling a grip of holes in your guitar?Sounds like it.

I picked b. I really like seeing the natural wood as best you can. When you do good work with nice wood and laminates, I feel minimal color is best. I think your laminate wood will darken a lot with a finish and give it a really nice look. And I always love the look of natural maple. Mabye you could do the brown on the pickup rings, maybe put a piece of tape across the laminates of the rings and dye the rest, which would add some nice color but still match well due to the lighter strips. Or at least darken them a little somehow, so they stand out a little, they look really good! Anyways I'm sure any way you go this thing will look sweet, I really like it. It has been fun watching this thing from the beginning to end, and I can't wait to see it all done. Good luck with your finishing experiences and I hope it turns out how you want it! Later! Jason

Sounds fair to me!

I think that was well put and explained it for the people that can't grasp the subject. I know personally I would be quite upset if this place went downhill or was closed due to a few guys with mental issues causing problems. This place is great at least for me, I can't even begin to tell you how much info and ideas I have pulled from this site. All my ideas I run by the members and mods and I'm given great advise! There is a lot I don't know about building guitars, but whenever I run into something I don't know, I am given the advice and opinions of people with great experience and knowledge. Some of which I hold in very high regard for their skills in luthiery. Getting advice like this is almost impossible in day to day life, it's not like you can walk into most custom shops and say, "Hey can you tell me how to do this, can you show me?", or " this is what I want to do, will there be any problems with that?" Most won't have the time to give you the advice that you can get here! And who's to say if there are even any people that build guitars that live near you, there might be a guitar center or something but you won't find any answers there unless some of them happen to build. This is a great community of builders, new and professional alike. I hope we can continue with Project Guitars, and not cause problems and question why you can't do this or why you can't do that, the rules are set in place to keep this place what it is, without them it just wouldn't be any good, it would be more like most other internet sites, which lack organization and information, usually just filled with foul language, flamming and pissing contests. So please lets all get back on subject, together as a site. We have been more worried about everything else other than guitars recently myself included and I would like it to be how it was even just a few weeks ago. Like bluespresence said we all get along, but when someone comes and stirs us up, it takes a while to let it go, but it's not worth it. We are all wasting hours that could have been used for our projects, building or learning. Well anyways thats just how I feel, an opinion. You guys are all great, and I hope it stays that way, this place is one in a million to me and I would hate to lose it! Thank you to everyone for all the help you have given me, it has been a tremendous help in saving me time and money trying this without knowing what to expect or how to go about it. I hope to get to know more of you on a personal basis. Well I'll talk to you guys later! Have a good one! Jason

Sweet! Thanks for the tip. I'll let you know how it goes. I would have never thought of that. Later! Jason

I fully agree with you on this!

Great looking guitar Perry, I can't wait to see it redone, I'm sure it will be even better. I like the shape more than usual for that style, I don't know what it is, but it's very nice. I decided to change my other post for reasons that were mentioned! I would not want anothers members thread ruined by you know who again! I shouldn't have posted what I did. sorry Perry! But nice stuff anyways, be sure to post some more pics once you've refinished it again! Also Is there a volute on it? I don't know if there is or not, I would assume not all customers want one, although I think it's better to have one, now that I know more about them thanks to you and your work! Later. Jason

I think it would be best to buy a unfinished body and neck and build it up, you could get what you want wood wise and still build a squire. Plus you won't have to tear everything apart and redo it, you would only have to do some easy installing and sometimes difficult finishing. It would suck to have to get all the finish off of it and then just refinish it. Might as well get one that you can just put a finish on. They sell bodies at a lot of places, get one you like with a matching neck and go for it, much easier and probably will end up with a way better guitar! Have fun with it and good luck! Jason

Thanks Algee that worked easy. Mine came out to 2.4 megabits per second. I put my vote at 2 megabits I am pretty satisfied with this. My computer needs to be cleaned up a bit, but it's not that bad yet! I'm glad I know where I can test if I need to, it was easy and fast, but I noticed you can only use like 3 a month or so, unless you get a subscription, no thanks. Anyways it looks like I'm in the majority, which is fine,as long as I don't have the slowest computer I'm cool, I remember when I first got a computer it took forever to load a single screen, and if there was a picture forget it, start it then go to bed and by the time you wake up, shower, eat breakfast it might be done, if your lucky and thats if you didn't lose connection or freeze up! Well thanks again for the test and see you guys later! Jason