jmrentis

Thanks, you guys will be the main reason if this thing works out! Thanks to you personally Matt as I really like the purpleheart and you and your work were the main inspiration for that! Thats my cat Peebles shes 16 years old and doesn't leave my side, she is always in between my keyboard and the screen, and takes my chair if I get up, like in the pic! I'm glad to hear that I got the pics working! Thanks again everyone! Jason

Sorry guys, I'm sure after reading all that you I'm sure you at least wanted to see some pics, remember though I haven't done much yet, it's mostly just pics of the wood, and some glueing and practice templates. I will do my final template within this coming week and get the shape cut to size and hopefully Myka's neckpocket jig setup, we'll see. Oh yeah that blue guitar is my ibanez, not my work, it is a guitar I can use to do mods on and play around to see what I like, plays good though. I think I have fixed it I just went to account options and switched it to make it public, let me know if it works now! Thanks for letting me know and sorry about that! Jason

LOL Thank you I wasn't quite sure if I had it right, BeefaRino and save some for Rusty! HaHa! Great Show!

Hey guys I see that alot of you like this guitar the Iceman, this is a link to zzounds a website thats sells guitars and other guitar related items. I get emails here and there about deals from them and they have 6 of these left at $299.95 no shipping! I actually have bought a guitar from them and had no problems, it was packed well and it was undamaged and a good deal! So if you have any reservations about the company, ask around I only heard good things. I don't know much about this guitar so you tell me if it's a good deal or not. I don't really like this shape but I know many do, so to each his own! Check it out! Jason ZZounds

Thats cool that you are playing more because one of the best parts of building a guitar is being able to play it when you are done. Once I have more building behind me I will work on my skills more, I'm not sure which I like better probably equal at the moment. Thats unfortunate that you don't have enough time to build, it is such a fun part of anything, just being able to create, but I guess making music is one of the most creative ways to create though. I had a lot of friends that rode bikes, they spent almost as much time working on it, as they did riding it, I'm sure after doing that you have a lot experience working with your hands and tools. One of my friends that rode bikes was insane he could grind any handrail that I could grind on my skates, which is amazing for a heavy bike. He broke the thing all the time, even with the strongest heaviest parts. He was a madman! Good luck with your music! Jason

Agreed, and he loves beefaroni, especially bought in bulk! LOL

Alright welcome to my progress pics/posts of my very first full guitar build. Before this I have only done mods nothing from scratch. I have done some prior woodworking such as ramps and rails buth nothing too difficult, although putting a nice smooth curve in a ramp isn't easy, but it's quite a bit more forgiving than any aspects of guitar. I must warn you that this will be a long time post as I am disabled and any standing work is painful and difficult for me, but is needed for sanity. It will be slow progress but this should be all the more reason for a better than average first build, hopefully. I have done a couple months+ work of homework and question for this project and will be doing much more. I must say everyone here at Project Guitar has been great, so much information and experiences to learn from and everyone has been very kind to me, which I'm sure that dealing with inexperienced people with inexperienced question constantly can become frustrating after time, they still have been more than gracious. I want to thank all of you that have been of help to me. So here's the basic idea of my first build, mind you that it will be somewhat simple for obvious reason(I don't want to waste time and money), but will have some more complex parts so I feel that I have accomplished something that took a lot of work and effort. It will be a Rg style body I like the general look of this shape and it is fairly simple, most likely will not have arm contour or body contour. This could change but I'm not sure as this will be a chambered body with possibly some binding, so the contours would make binding and chambering more difficult for a first build. It will be chambered for weight reasons, I have taken into account that this will affect the sound/tone and I am ok with this. The body will be purpleheart chambered with a quilted maple cap 1 1/4" purpleheart and 1/2" maple might vary depending on availability of maple, I already have the purpleheart one piece 1 3/4" thick 14x20", cocobolo fretboard from Rich(fryovanni) great stuff BTW, and the neck is a laminate of hard maple/ jatoba/ hard maple, possibly with a zircote or cocobolo headstock veneer again from Rich. The neck will be thicker than most, as I like a bigger profile because my hands are good size and seem to cramp less on bigger necks, undecided on exact measuements on this. Dual action truss rod, hot rod from stew mac probably. 25.5 inch scale, fixed bridge, two humbuckers,AANJ, angled headstock. I haven't decided on a bridge either, Wes turned me on to the Floyd fixed speedloader, which would be exactly what I want, but I might not go that high class for my first one, but will depend on my wallet and the price when they come out. As I said this project will be a while in the making, but I had some time on my hands to write this desciption so I figured I'd get it over with. Still undecided on radius of fretboard and type of tuners, I have sperzel locking tuners on my Ibanez and I like them very much, no problems as of yet, so either those or Gotoh, because I hear so many good thing about those Gotohs and would have no issues putting them on this project. I will probably use SS frets, I have been hearing a lot of good things about these recently as well. Also undecided on inlay, I have something in mind and have the tools to do it, but I would hate to ruin the fretboard on my first try, it's not terribly intricate just some numbers and letters, and if possible a very simple Pisces symbol, just two fish in a circle, very simple fish. But this might have to wait until I have the skill to feel confident doing it, might just go with block inlays as I like these also. No pickguard, will be routed from the back for electronics, I might do a 5 selector switch and have some fancy wiring in there or just regular 3 way switch. Chrome volume and tone knobs, dome style. I will need some pickups with some heavier sounds, more bass end because of the hard woods I'm using, it will be a bright sounding guitar I'm sure. Might use Dimarzio, Tone Zone and Air Norton combo, this area I would like some input on especially as I have little experience with most pickups, I would like to go passive just a preference. Headstock will be similar to a Les Paul, either 3x3 or 4x2 because of my laminate neck it will look better symmetrical, rather than offset. Also a graph tech or slip stone nut from stew mac. I know they help more for tremelo, but I like to bend a bit and don't see how it could hurt especially with locking tuners. I'm sure I've forgotten somethings but that is basically what I want, there is still quite a few undecided aspects and that is part of the reason I am posting this now so you guys can advise me on this journey. I'm putting a link to my pics of wood that I bought and some cheesy template I made, which will be upgraded to mdf board as I hear this makes a better template than plywood. The template is still rough cut in the pictures, but the white paper one is basically what it will look like. I have also started making one of mykas neck pocket routing jigs, I still haven't fully put it together, but I will do that soon, so I can start to practice with my router. The neck is now about ready for the bandsaw to get it to size and have the angle in the headstock, I might be able to get two out of it, if not two with angled headstock, at least one with angle and another with a scarf jointed headstock. Also I used more than double the c clamps as in the picture, that was just a dry clamp. On the neck I ended up using too much titebond, which made for a long planing process, but this was ok as the boards were not all even to begin with, a few mm difference. Worked out ok in th end. So thats it for now, I know it was a novel but I like to have it all planned out as much as possible. I would like some opinions and I'm sure there will be some, good and bad, this will only help my process. Also I have a lot of pictures on my page, and there isn't much progress, this is because I like taking pictures, I've done a lot of it throughout my life from friends, skating, nature and especially fishing. As I go I will shrink them down to just the most important. So again thank you everyone on this site, especially Brian for starting this whole thing. Jason Progress Pics

Oh man I'm so drunkin Funk! Happy Days To All!

No Soup For You!

I would definately listen to this! I am relatively new to building and have been doing homework and planning for a couple months now and these two guys have been a great source of information and experience for me. There are a few others that have really quality info, and at times they may sound a little harsh, but understand they are looking out for your best interest. They know this stuff inside and out and will give your a straight up honest answer. If what you are doing seems like a bad idea, they will let you know not to waste your time, money, and effort. Good luck with your project and take your time and find out exactly what you are going to do, don't get hasty and ruin the only one you have. Maybe just start a whole new one, it will take a while but you will still have something to play in the meantime. Jason

Hell Yeah ! WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO \!!/

I'm no a 100% on this one. I'll put a link here for sperzel specs from tk instuments, it helped me out when I was installing mine. I believe they sell 6 inline and 3x3, so I don't think they are completely interchangable, but if you wanted 4x2 I would buy 6 inline and have 4 they regular way and two upside down, from the face of the headstock there will be no difference, from the back the two will look upside down, I actually kinda like this look. Anyway I don't think it would cause any problems this way but like I said I'm not a 100% on that. You might be able to order them to what you want, this link has custom orders, but I don't remember if they do that or not, I think they might. Either way I think you will be happy with them, I have not run into any problems yet and besides function I think they look good. I'm sure there are some that don't like them, but I do like them and they work good for me and thats what counts. If encounter any problems with them I would not hesitate to post them. Also make sure your headstock thickness is not too big, as you will be unable to use them without major modification to your headstock if so. Good luck! Jason tkinstuments

How much angle did you put in your headstock? Man that last pic the guitar looks slick, it looks super nice, I really liked that wood! Amazing stuff! Jason

Hey Hyunsu I have seen a lot of your work and it is great stuff, I'm always amazed at how much you do and how fast you do it, and you work long hours! Have you ever heard of Jatoba, or African Jatoba wood. I just started a laminated neck with Jatoba in the middle and it looks similar to what you are using. I love how it looks in a neck and the jatoba looks great unfinished but I'm not sure if it will be a bad idea or not. Anyway keep up the great work, you are a big help for picking wood for projects because you have used so many and know the details of each! Good Luck! Jason Neck In progress neck

I just wanted to say that the ones Brian has at Universal Jems are the perfect white. I wanted the same thing, I'm not a fan of cream but I love white. If you were still in need of a place for these definately check out Universal Jems, there are pretty inexpensive and he has a good variety of colors and types. Hey Jamie if you can't figure a way to get the pup rings let me know and I could order them from Brian and then mail them to you, I think it would work.

There has been a few people that had that question. There are also a few people that say that they are not needed and they are not going to use one, these peoplecause big debate because this is terrible advice and can cause new builders a lot of problems and wasted money! You need one is about all there is to say. The people that say they are not going to use one seem to never come back and and say that it worked, noone evers hears from them again! I don't know if they are embarrassed about it failing or they went crazy trying to make it work or what. They were invented to help the guitar neck to function properly. Without it would bow and would either be completely ruined or so bowed or twisted that it would be difficult to play. So please trust me use a truss rod, it is the best way to go. Good luck! Jason

Sorry I meant mahogany, not walnut. Actually I didn't even realize that the laminate was walnut looks real good though. I've been looking through way too many projects recently. So the difference between normal and figured or crotch wood is noticeable? Denser or what? Jason

So the secret will be unveiled at last! Are mods allowed to enter the GOTM? Also how do you like the walnut, would you use it as a body with a cap, in other words do you like it's qualities, weight, tonal, density and others?

I just recently installed the staggered locking 6 inline sperzels on my ibanez. I really like them so far, I have had no problems at all. One thing that I like about them that saves me some money is when I am working on my guitar. I just put some pickups in and realized that I forgot to attach my new pickup rings from Brian at Universal Jems. So I had to take it back apart to put new screws into the springs fot the humbuckers, with the sperzels it was pretty easy to restring up the old strings, not for playing but it works for testing pickups, action, and anything else that need the string tuned to pitch. Caution, the string might be very weak after use, so when tuning be very careful of string breakage as this will happen. But it saves you putting on new set then having to pull them off right away. This works well because there is only a 1/4-1/2 of a turn on the locking tuning post. If you plan on doing this it's better not to pull them all the way out the bridge, because the ends are angled and might scratch something, I just tie or tape them together and push them to the side, do my work, restring and tune, then if everything is done and in perfect working order I will put a new set of strings on. Thats one reason I like these tuners there are many others. I also really like how many options they give you color wise. I just got the satin chrome ones but if I needed other colors they seem to have all of them. One thing I have to say though is, I have heard many good things about Gotoh tuners and I will probably try these on my current project to see what everyone has been telling me about. I have absolutely no problems with the sperzels though, so I think either one would be fine, I will see how the Gotohs are soon. Jason

Man I didn't think having good ideas could suck so much! Matt if you are still totally into making it eventually, maybe you should just post your not so good designs, because these guys are right you don't want to lose out on all your good ideas. Still build them and take pictures, just put them in a folder named future PAF file. That really sucks but it may be worth your while to do. If you patented a design, would it be better to sell off your design to a major company, build and sell yourself, or give the design to a company and take royalties if thats how it works? Jason

No, no I wasn't upset about it just joking around. Honestly I couldn't think of anything smart to say as a comeback, I sat and stared at a blank screen, so I clicked on the sad face. No worries I like this place a lot and everyone that inhabits it and take no offense to opinions, jokes, or anything similar! So keep up what you guys do, this place needs a little comedy break now and again! Jason