SwedishLuthier

And very nice and elegant looking!

As Gert Fylking, a famous Swedish actor/comedian, would have said "äntligen!" Great stuff! How much sound is the side sound port radiating?

I was digging around a bit searching for other info and stumbled over this: http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/repairs/Airline/index.shtml I *think* that the Airline pickups might be what you are looking for. It would take a very skilled pickup winder (i think I would back down from that task, and I'm not used to do that) to make a modern version. Maybe Jason (Lollar) would take on that task.

I've had customers change their mind quite late into the process. I have a signed order sheet stating all the specs so for me it's actually quite easy to charge extra for extra work/parts. But the worst customer did change is mind about a series of things. And just a few months after I delivered the guitar I found it up for sale on the lokal E-bay. My guess is that those guys are totally sold on the concept of "custom made" guitars through the internet and interviews with guitarists and things like that, but they are totally in the dark about why someone actually orders a custom made instrument. That, and too much cash on their hands...

I had a look into the pickups of those thin twins. I thin that if you are after the look, just go with a lipstick pickup, you can also check out GFS if you are on a budget. On the other hand, if sound is you concern, I think that the Kay "Sped bump" pickups are made more or less the same way. Those come up on evil bay from time to time, like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kay-Truetone-Speedbump-Pickup-Late-1950s-Early-1960s-Tested-Works-Perfectly-/121210197040?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c38b0d430 Another option that will probably sound more like the original is a low output P90 or a blade single coil pickup. Anyway, I'm just guessing here as I have only made a search and didn't come up with much more than a few pics of the thin twin pickups.

Hm, strange thing with the pic... here it is:

I experimented with making a thread cutter like Ken described as I always use (or used) threaded inserts but the force needed to turn the "threader" was extreme. I also use stainless steel M6 bolts with a Torx head. It is possible to destroy the wood with the pressure I can apply to that combo. Nowadays I only use the treaded inserts for repairs. For the guitars I build I use this (no idea what it is calles in English) sandwiched between the fretboard and the neck wood. I rout a smal pocket for the top part in the neck wood. That take care of the problem with possible splits in the neck wood from installing the threaded inserts (and that has happened way to often to me in past). Another way to prevent splitting is of cause to clamp the neck hard from the sides while screwing in the inserts. And use slightly larger holes as RAD mentioned. I have a "in progress" tread coming up that will show how I do things now. I'll try to post a pic here too.

And now I'm glad i didn't write a snotty part about "hey trust the guys that build the frickin' guitar". I would have looked even more stupid than I usually does

From the horses mouth: http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/ES/Gibson-Memphis/ES-137-Classic/Features.aspx 24" I mean...they build the guitar after all.

Welcome Rick A kit is a very good way to get started. As you mentioned most of the hardware are often second grade and need replacement sooner or later. When it comes to finish I would suggest a simple finish for your first guitar as there are other things ahead of you on your learning curve. Unless you are a skilled and experienced wood finisher of cause. The flame maple top means adding a veneer or a drop top to the body and that will in itself give you some challenges. A veneer need a lot of tweaking to look good unless you bind the top (sharp edges vs round over edges ) and a drop top means you will need to remove the equivalent thickness from the body to net mess up the neck angle. A Gold top on the other hand is regarded by experienced finishers as one of the hardest finishes of all. One single run in the most crucial layers or a tine sand through means you need to redo the complete finish. So my suggestion is to keep it simple with an opaque color and a clear top finish. As mentioned: If you don't have tons of finishing experience you really should consider a simple finish for the first build.

I first intended to vote for BigD. However I started to get annoyed (ok, rather in a small and picky way) about the fact that the body is bound in plain black plastic (I have no problem with plastic binding) and the neck and head is bound in flame maple binding. It doesn't really tie things together. If the head were bound in black binding or the other way around that guitar would have gotten my vote. Crows PRS copy is really nice looking but a copy, and I prefer a bit more originality (snobbish approach, I know...). mefgames have tons of originality. Almost too much. It almost gets into the Flintstone territory. The thing is that you need to balance the originality with a hint of tradition to get that recognition thing going, and this guitar unfortunately doesn't have that. Nice execution thou So my vote went to Andromeda. Nice clean lines, original and very nicely made. Like a surfers Les Paul.

Or Dan in Tel Aviv (YetzerHarah here on the forum) to hear were he gets his wood from.

I had a diskussion about french polishing with a lokal builder of classical guitars (and very fine such). I think that he summed things up quite good when he said: "You can learn french polish in a few minutes but you will need to spend the rest of your life perfecting it"

I sugest using a variable temp soldering iron. I run mine at aprox 320 deg C for soldering most wires, and jumps up to over 400 for soldering to the back of the post. No problems anymore. Just need to remember to step down before soldering wires again ad the insulation has a habit of being destroyed when using such high settings...

Very nice my friend, very nice indeed.

I have used a syringe with a really thin needle to inject thin super glue into bubbles, going with the grain (flame maple veneer in my case) and then pressing the veneer down. That way you don't have to cut the bubble open. A cut can be more visible than the needle hole (virtually invisible actually). However I was just finishing this with shellac under my ordinary finch, so if the superglue were soaking the veneer it didn't show up in the end.

Thanks Peter, all Nordic Viking type curses are welcome. I'm thinking I need something I can barely pronounce to convey my depth of feeling (loathing) for this act of betrayal. Old country curses seem like they would be sufficiently potent. OK, lets start off easy: Jag förbannar dig, din familj och dina förfäder That translates to something like "I curse you, your family and your ancesters" Wanna go deeper or do you want to practice a bit on that first? Or maybe this Må Odens vrede drabba dig såsom Tors åskviggar "Let the whrath of Odin hit you like a thunderbolt from Thor. That has a bit more viking quality actually Pretty silly really...

It is fairly straight forward thing to plug that cavity with wood (straightforward, but not without challenges), refinish the body and put a good quality bridge there. If done the intonation and playability should be just as good (if not better) than with the original bridge. Regarding what it will do with the sound, I'd say that the change in sound will be less than what happens when there are a different guitar players operating the instrument...

I feel for you! I had a similar thing happen to me. When I was 99% finished with spraying the hook that was screwed to the ceiling in my spray booth came loose and the guitars fell first on its but, then on the face... And it was a metallic finish! Had to sand back to bare wood and start all over again. I can maybe help you with some nordic (think inherited from the vikings) curses if you think that will help.

Thanks for the nice words. Sorry for keeping you waiting. I'll promise that I'll try to share a bit more in the future

I get what you say. However when doing necks like this: less than 1/4 of a millimeter is visible (the graphite in this pic is 0.5 mm thick IIRC), as evident on this picture of one of my early guitars. I have used wooden dowels, screws and glass fiber reinforced tape and still had that tiny bit of slip that ruins a neck and you have to saw the joint open as heat and moister is no option as it will delaminate the neck... One difference between the angled grain in the neck, compared to the angled grain in the head is that you (usually) have a considerably thicker fretboard acting as a reinforcement compared to any reinforcements you have on a head cut the "gibson style" (usually a very flexible thin fibre material only on the front side of the head).

Yes, I see and understand that. I'm just curious as to why there's that white piece of wood there. What it also does is to hide any imperfections when aligning a laminated neck (not to say that KEA need that). It's not going to hide if you are way off, but if there are a tiny bit of slippage during glueing it will show up very nicely (NOT nicely...) when doing laminated necks. A thin contrasting piece hides that and also is very decorative on its own.

Fitting the neck to the body sanding the compound radius Oh, and the "look how tight the neck pocket" shot a mockup with EMG type pickups shells (not ending up using those) and bridges Thats the last pic i have. From here I rounded the edges over, routed for pickups and control cavities, sanded smooth and applied try-oil on the body and head front and tung oil on the neck. You can see the result here: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/topic/47456-guitar-of-the-month-for-october/#entry529723

The top and the body roughly cut out Top and body glued together (no "I have a ton of clamps" shot, sorry for that) sanding to get the top surface even (of cause that is done to all the other sides too, but I dont have pics of that...) trimmed using a template and the router table

time to start on the body. The body will be quite thin so I actually use one half body blank. Resawing by hand. A manly job... ready for glueing and let there be glue the top is jointed. The plane is only there to act as a weight...