jmrentis

Im somewhat curious as to what everyones method is for this. I've tried epoxy and wood dust, CA and wood dust and most often it comes out much darker than you'd want, even with a lot of wood dust. Wood putty can be bought in many shades and some can even be dyed. Honestly, I recently bought some wood putty type stuff and am trying it out because I didn't really like the glue and dust look personally. I want to see if I can get any better results from wood putty. I only dabbed a bit so far, but it didn't look bad and under a finish might show less than glue and wood dust. I'm curious what everyones choices are. I know with some woods, wood putty is not an option, but with light colored woods like maple, zebrawood and such, it seems like an option worth looking at, but I have yet to really test it out, so who knows. J And I'm loving that build, the carve made that thing look very nice. I'm working with some Zebrano right now and I must admit you got a nice chunk of that stuff. You did a great job on wood choices too, that whole project fits together perfectly. Very nice work. Keep those pics coming!! J

Whoooww doggy, there was a load of spam this morning. Nearly three pages in the off topics. Thanks Jer7440 for reporting and getting my attention. The same two members, probably same person, had done all of them. Most I've seen at once, but I'm sure there's been much worse. J And reporting makes things so much better for everyone. Spam gets taken care of faster and it prevents an overload of deadlinked pm's. It was a great idea, thats for sure. J

That is wild and very interesting. For example the upper horn area, the whole area is in reverse of the body, top wood on bottom, bottom wood on top. Very neat and amazing how clean it was done. So cool. If you look at it sideways it looks like an elephants head with two tusks grabbing a banana with its trunk. How wild is that. I love that bass, just because its so unique, plus how intricate it is. Very cool stuff. Congrats on a wicked build. Jason

Chambering Template I tend to make templates for everything, it prevents me from both making mistakes and changing my ideas on the fly. It doesn't take all that much time really to make a template and they give you a nice clean route. Anyhow, thats my preference. Jason

Happy Bday man!!! Party Time fo sho! Have a great Bday! J

I'm not sure you really wanna be crowned the most sexist mod?! Sexiest maybe, but most sexist might end you up with a bunch of hate mail, lol. Oh and don't worry I spelt it the same way and when I reread it, it looked strange and I realized it was missing a letter. The guitar looks wicked, I like the natural finish it has, it really suits the build perfectly. I really dig the build, very nice! Did you get the electronics all worked out? You are not at all close to the mental image I had for you. though I rarely am close. I think if you're going to throw in for sexiest mod, you'll have to challenge the current holder of that title Wes. We might have to have a glam off or something! Hahaha

That Harbor Freight stuff is probably used cat litter on used flypaper! Its amazing how much of a difference there is between good and bad sandpaper. I need to save up a bit and buy some bulk, it'd be cheaper than buying those small bundles from the local store all the time, plus I can't find certain paper at my stores. Do you have a specific place you prefer to buy the stuff online Soap? Funny there is a thread going at OLF now that is about quality of sandpaper.

Cavity Cover Thread Setch's link is on that page, I was just going to link the specific link, but my computer wouldn't load it, so I didn't want to post something useless. Someone else check the link to see if it works. Anyhow, Setch, Wez, and Myka explain this process, which is always very helpful. I do as well, but everything I learned came from them anyway. J

Has anyone experience with North Ridge Hardwoods? If I can't find anything curly enough locally for my next neck, I might grab something from them to test out. I really will just need a center strip, but I'll probably cut some binding from it as well. J

There is one store bought canned stuff that can be used with some effectiveness. Its the Zinsser Bulls Eye Seal Coat, its completely wax free shellac, 2lb cut. I still prefer mixing up my own and trust me its super easy and somewhat gratifying, but if you really don't want to that can is about your only bet if you want shellac in a can. Somehow they manage a 3 year shelf life with the stuff, no idea how, so just check the date before you buy make sure it hasn't been sitting forever. For the first couple coats you might want to try thinning it a bit to really attack that sap problem as you were saying. Just find the alcohol to shellac ratio then measure out the 2lb cut and add appropiate amount of denatured alcohol or the like and thin it. The stuff works just fine and might be a good product to switch to for all your sanding sealer needs as it is just shellac. Though, it does give a slight amber tint, which is another reason I prefer mixing up my own. Anyhow, might wanna check it out. You can usually find it at Lowes or Home Depot. Frank Ford mentions it on his site somewhere if you want a professional opinion on the stuff(frets.com). Best of luck. Jason Edit:Haha Quarter you beat me this time! The score is now 1 to 1!

Hehe, I knew that would go quick! As soon as I saw it, I started thinking about how much extra cash I had, sounded like a good deal, plus I've been wanting a single cut of some sort. Make sure to share the final product with us John! Best of luck! Jason

I just wanted to post that the site I mentioned above is now up and running. Sperzel.com I don't think its finished or anything because it doesn't even have any listings of where to buy them, other than local music stores, but I'm sure in time there will be more to it. So far they have some pics and bit of info on the products, plus now you can contact them directly through email. I just checked today and found it up finally. Can't believe I found this thread, took like 2 minutes with the search. J

What information are looking for specifically, cause both posters so far listed benefits of the string retainer over back ferrules as per your request and you seemed to disagree or disreguard the information offered. I just don't understand what exactly it is you are looking for? What they listed are benefits of using the retainer bar over individual ferrules, has the initial question been misunderstood? As per the sound difference, I have a feeling that whole thing will turn into a useless debate, stuff like that is generally objective meaning if there were a difference in sound it may sound better to you and worse to someone else, so its best just to experiment yourself to see what you prefer and even then that is IF you can hear the difference. J

Yeah, I opened up my last drill press (nothing too special, but better than some I guess) and found no chuck attached and was very confused. Then when I found the chuck in a bag and took it over to the press I was even more confused???? It was then time to read through the instruction manual. I too was very surprised to find that a hammer and block or rubber mallet was the installation procedure for a drill chuck. It was cool though and easy too. I think the way its designed like that helps to ensure you can't screw up the alignment on it, or at least thats what it seems. J

My take on what he said was he decided to switch from a string thru guitar to using a wrap around, hardtail, or tailpiece or whatever. If he had used the string thru idea the distance from the top tuner, the high E, to the ferrule in the back of the guitar would have been longer than the string, but since he decided against a string thru guitar, the string was long enough. Near miss seemed an accurate description to me, since he was able to switch to a different way to secure the string ends at that point, it was a near miss cause if it was all drilled out and there was no turning back, then it would have been a bummer, but since he wasn't at a point of no return just yet, it was a near miss. I dunno, sounds alright to me, though close call would work fine as well. Out of curiosity, what type of tuners are you using? I was just wonder if you were using locking tuners or not. Not that the wraps on the post would come to 2inches, but locking tuners would free up a little bit of string length. As for the neck angle, see how close a normal hardtail puts you, I'd imagine you could recess it some, but that'd be really close to the body, the pickups would have to be bottomed out and no pup rings. There was a thread recently were someone had a "so-called luthier" unglue a set neck. It can be done without any damage and then the neck angle can be reset appropiately. If you don't feel comfortable, see if there is a qualified local luthier that could just unglue it for you. Just a thought. Best of luck. J PS: Have you put a finish on the guitar and everything or is it not that far yet?

Agreed, truly an amazing month this one. Each and every build looks solid and well done. I ended up going with Pukkos build because I really liked it the minute I saw the initial thread when it had only just begun. Even long before it had a finish or any of the really cool features I liked it, then when all those little details were added, it just went above and beyond in my eyes, truly a gorgeous instrument with a well developed yet unique style to it. All the entries were extremely appealing though and I doubt I could even pick a top three, I think they all are right there together, just epic builds. Congrats to all you guys with guitars this month! I think probably each and every one could be Guitar of the Month. Very well done. J

Primavera-wood database I don't believe that is an actual member of the so called mahogany family, at least from what I could tell. I'm sure Mattia or Rich would more readily know. I've seen the wood available at several places and seems to be a perfectly useable hardwood for building, so long as its properly dried. There were two other species that came under the name of primevera, but I think thats probably the common one, though I'm not 100% on that. It does refer to it as white mahogany somewhere in there, so I'd bet its what you have around. So many woods have false nicknames that can be confusing like Brazilian Cherry which is usually Jatoba and not in the cherry family, identifying the scientific names seems to be the only real way to know what you are looking at for certain. Meliaceae family for mahoganies, I copied and pasted, so don't feel bad, lol.

When you say the frets aren't set correctly, you're saying they aren't perpendicular to centerline? If thats true, wouldn't that cause a problem? I mean, you'd have 4 frets that are out of position essentially. Maybe I misunderstood that part. Too bad this is a second, cause if that was the case of any neck I bought, it would go back. I never hear much on the negative side about Warmoth necks really, maybe that neck is just a lemon or maybe the previous owner fiddled with it somehow. Who knows, I'd vote to add some finish as well. Even just a light rub of oil helps some. J

As with Dean, just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to erase all those reported spam threads and for maintaining a very nice forum. Obviously, not one of the enjoyable things in life, especially since its not a paying gig, so thanks guys for doing what you do and keeping this a great place to learn and share. As for adding a few spam handlers, it sounds like a good idea and would at least lighten the load on everyone who has to stay on top of the problem. If need be I wouldn't mind helping as I am around all the time, but it sounds like there are plenty of voluteers already lined up. So I doubt you'll need anymore help, though if it is needed, I don't mind pitching in at all, just let me know. Again, thanks to all the mods and helpers of PG out there, you guys really make a big difference. J

You can grab a 4" angle grinder for cheap, like less than $20 at some places and the disks are fairly cheap. A disk like the one shown will do a number of carves. So that method is not bad price wise, I was very surprised at how cheap I found the items I needed to do a carve and bevel. I will say be careful, as Southpa was getting at, that setup makes carves in a hurry. Also as he said, make sure all your lines are drawn out so you don't end up doing too much. Other than that, its fun and easy, I do like using hand tools at times like spokeshave on the neck and such, but for carves that setup works so well and so quickly I prefer it. J

Yeah, thats what I was thinking in my first post, this probably won't be an easy task cause of where the tailpiece is, if there were a bridge post to use, the angle from the jack would likely be better. I can't really see the layout from the pic, so who knows. Hopefully there will be a way to drill through from the jack hole, otherwise it will be tough. I'm sure he'll find a way somehow. J

Well I would imagine it depends on the tailpiece and company, but for the most part there are two common sizes I see. The metric is M8X1.25mm and the US thread is 5/16-24. Those are what I commonly find listed as many bridge or tailpiece posts will have the option between those two. You could bring the screw that bolts into the bushing and test it out at a hardware store to be certain. Hope that helps some. I figure it'd be best to do something like that tool or j.pierce mentioned cause its pine, which is already soft, so you don't want to open up that hole too much, otherwise you won't get a tight fit when you reinstall. With dense hardwoods, you just rotate the bushing so the teeth grab some fresh wood, but with prying it out of pine you may open it up too much to get a strong hold. Just something I was thinking about. Best of luck to you. J

Also you can make a little puller outer gizmo. Check out Stewmac to see the little bushing puller they sell to get ideas of how to make one. I believe there are numerous tutorials floating around on how to make your own as well, which is likely to leave a tighter fit for you when you reinstall it. Its too hard for me to explain how to build one, but you could probably pick up all the parts at a hardware store for a couple bucks, I'm probably going to make one just to have in case I need to pull my posts out at some point. Here is the link to the Knob and Bushing puller from Stewmac. If you really stare at it, you should be able to figure out how to make one, again there should be some tuts out there on how to make them as well, not too hard and leaves a nice snug hole for when you reinsert the post. Best of luck. J

Is there anyway for you to drill a small hole from the electronics cavity to the hole where the tailpiece post is. I'd imagine that would be tough, usually I think you just would use the bridge, but with a wooden bridge you'd only have the tailpiece post to use. I've never found a problem in finding long drill bits, but getting the perfect angle to drill the hole isn't easy. Maybe some other have better idea for you. I can't think of a better option at the moment. If you can get a small hole between the cavity and tailpiece post, then you just push the ground into the post hole and reinstall the post. Best of luck. Hope you manage something. J

Hmm, I would say just steam the dent, you'd likely be able to get it back to flat or real close, but with some truoil coats already building I don't believe it would work. Maybe if you stripped it back, steamed it out and then started again. Not sure really though, it sucks that it happened after you already started with the tru oil other wise with a soldering iron and a wet paper towel you could have likely steamed most of it or all of it out. Oh well. As for the truss adjustment there, I never saw it as a mistake or anything, just a unique idea. For the next one maybe use that extra fretboard space for the hole plus maybe put an inlay around the hole itself, like a sun with rays coming off or something, that way you could make it stand out as a feature, use an inlay and still maintain all frets intact. Very nice looking build, that walnut is beautiful, same with the neck. Good work. J