SwedishLuthier

Kathy Matsushita has a nice page about acoustic guitars with some tips about tools and builds. It is also nice to see a female luthier once in a wile. http://pweb.jps.net/~kmatsu/

The fender Rosewood telecaster was all roewood, chambered body, neck and fret board. unfortunatly I've ever had an oportunity to listen to one, so I cannot say anything about the sound

Acetone works fine on modern ABS bindings too. I use it all the time. It doesn't get completely liquid. More like soft goo. I use it all the time to get my lap joints invisible. And that’s not cheating. That’s being smart

I have not tried this but shellac ought to keep the fabric white and not discoloured. Or do you mean that the dark woos can be seen through the white fabric? Then you should be able to fix this with a white clear coat under the fabric. Just make some tests to make sure that everything is compatible. Always make test runs...

Yes, you rout away under the bridge. How Big? Just to accommodate the bridge and the bushings. A tailpiece is a little harder to use but should be possible. Most people tend to use ferules and a string through construction. StewMac sells ferules for both the back and the top Have a look at Godin Guitars. They use it a lot

I have only used StewMac up to now and have been totally satisfied whit those. I have a LMII laying around for my next build and it looks as solid as the StewMac, so I will be totally confident to use that one as well. As Mickguard suggests most trussrods probably work as good. I suggest that you simply buy one at the same place as all the rest of your supplies to get lower shipping costs

If I'm not mistaken those PUPs are for a archtop and more or less rest ontop of the top and are held in place with the rings. But I'm far from sure.

Hope that it works out for you Ben. For the unfortunate one that in the future has the same problem and searches for a solution: I'd definitely have used thin CA. I have glued up a mandolin head crack pretty much like yours with CA and it still holds up perfect. Remember that a mandolin has much higher string tension (counting all strings) than a guitar. CA has some definite advantages over the other glues for this type of crack. -It is the only one that will reach all the way into the crack (without flexing an already weakened joint). With this type of really delicate crack it is necessary to get good glue penetration. -It will not degenerate from heat or thermoplastic creep -It adhere to any type of old glue that you have in the crack already -It doesn't contain water that might give you problem with swelling wood The CA will not start to cure until you put pressure in the crack if you work reasonably fast. Just do a couple of dry runs with your clamps so you know exactly how to do it. For some interesting facts about glue in guitar repair have a look at Frank Fords www.frets.com He's a strong advocate for hide glue but for this type of repair I think that he would choose CA.

PM Drak.He has a lot of experience with spalted maple.

I agree. Leave them in. Fibre glass should stiffen the neck considerable. If they are in place and everything looks nice I don’t think (think is the key word here) that you will get any problem with the fibre glass rods. Fibre glass (or the raisin) is a little sensitive to UV-light, but you will not get any problems with that in this case. Can’t think of any other problems you might run into. And if the rods feel about as stiff as the graphite rods, they will probably work in the same way. And an extra bonus: You can test it for us and we can learn from your experience.

Do you mind sharing the source? I’ve been looking for a good (reasonably priced and a bit longer) source of CF in Europe.

What would you use the balsa for? Neck or body? I see no problem with a “hardwood”-balsa -“hardwood sandwich for body (maybe with a hardwood rim) EXCEPT for one thing; neck pocket (or neck gluing area). I can’t see any practical use of balsa in necks. You will have to “cap” the balsa on three sides and cover it with a fret board. Then you have nowhere to glue the truss rod. I believe that a truss rod inserted into a balsa neck would crush the surrounding balsa. OK, so now we have a standard neck and a hardwood-balsa sandwich body with glued in sections of hardwood (neck pocket, possibly tremolo surroundings, maybe pickup cavities, rims and so on). Looks like a lot of hardwood patching to do to get some balsa into the “wings” of the guitar. It would be interesting to hear the guitar (if someone else would make it) but I would use a solid basswood body instead. Much less work

You can slant the pickup to accommodate the lesser string spacing. No need to wind a special pickup.

Tanx whitey, glad you liked it. Yeah we had alot of snow this winter. But finaly the spring is here! Bad for guitar building thou. No fun workig in the shop when its warm outside...

Dave, and everybody else that might be interested. I have a step by step tutorial of how to build a Fox style bender without the LMII plans. PM me your E-mail adress and I can send it to you. Before anyone asks for it: I cannot post it. It didn't make the tutorial (found it some were on the net) and I have lost the link, but I have a "hard copy" of the web page as a Word dockument. If you PM me, be patient. I'll be out of town for a few days...

Simple test for the ”does heavy headstock equals long sustain” question: Take a guitar and test the sustain. Put a metal clamp on the head. Compare. This is my method of learning: Get good avices first. Then testing it, not reading about it.

A quick search with Google: http://www.grguitars.com/parts_5tuning_keys.htm

You can use the press cauls. Using one with a smaller radius that the fretboard (like a 9.5” on a 12” board) will put more pressure on the fret ends. If that doesn’t take care of the problem you might need to remove the fret and put n a new one. Even if you get the original fret in with press, you will have to do a new fret levelling and dressing.

1 b 2 f 3 g 4 b 5Most companies just follow the beaten path except for a few (PRS and Parker when the started). I would like to see more original designs and ideas.

Fryovanni’s list is good. I only have a few thoughts About the tools: For a first neck on a budget I would stay with a chisel and a hammer, or (and that is the best) try to rent/borrow a router for the truss rod channel. Borrowing a power drill for inlay dots and tuners is the way to go if you don’t already have one. Also planes are quite delicate to set up and take some time to get used to/good at, and for minor adjustments a long straight hard block of wood wrapped in sand paper will do a good job. Save the money on the fret saw. For a first job a pre-cut and radiused fretboard is all you need and you will do an acceptable job without a fretsaw. You can also do without a radiused sanding block. The fret job can be done (I did my first 20-30 this way) with a file that I cut the handle off and glued to a piece of wood for a handle. An ordinary square/triangular needle file with one off the edges downward can be used for the string slots in the nut. I did my first 10-15 nuts like that. Tapping the frets in will save up on fret pressing tools. When you are really stuck on guitar building it is time to move up to fret pressing. About the parts: You will also need a truss rod. I really recommend that you buy one that is intended to be used with a flat bottomed channel.

Oh, sorry if I wasn’t clear. The list contained only the tuners. Have another go at it and I’ll have a look at the list.

The list isn't complete when I try to view it... I know that Mattia (from Holland) posted some good info on suppliers in Europe and some in Germany I think. Didn’t find it right now, but do a search and you will find it. StewMac and LMII are always a little expensive, but offer very good customer service, are seldom out of stock on items and have a lot of specialised supplies that is hard to find. Get Melvin Hiscocks book “Build an electric guitar” or Martin Kochs book (don’t remember the namne and I might have misspelled some things here). They are considered industry standards when it comes to starting out building guitars. I started with Hiscocks book. I have not read Kochs but it is supposed to be very good. And don’t get pissed on Mickguard. He is actually a quite nice guy. He has probably just had too much coffee for breakfast.

I ream the holes with a, uh, reamer. No problems with chipping.

You’re not wasting our time. Remember that the emails and postings are most likely (like 99.99%) are filtered by the once that are charging you for the course. And I have never ever heard of Nick Huber before this…. Anyway: Check out StewMac, LMII or other online sellers for a pre-cut and radiuses fret board. The Ebony blanks starts at a little more then 30 USD. You can probably get some good maple, straight and true from that local wood supplier for a few € (just check so that it is dry). Get a straight truss rod (same recourse as the fretboard) for around 15 USD that CAN (not the best method, but a good way to learn/perfect woodworking skills) be installed with a chisel and a hammer. Get (or borrow) a power drill (for the tuners), a narrow chisel (for the truss rod channel), a hammer (for the chisel), some clamps (try borrowing those), a saw, a knife, a rasp or a surform (or both) and some sandpaper and you are ready to go. If possible you can also rent a router for the truss rod channel. Renting will save you a lot of bucks. I guess that the material will cost you like 60€ (including glue and some other stuff) and most tools can be borrowed or rented. I’d say go for it. When you take the course, you will be much more prepared and you will learn a lot more. Who knows, you might find out that in three years time you have learned enough to skip that course. OR take it and learn a LOT.

Yes, and Dan Armstrong made a granite guitar for the Fender research department in the 70’s. I don’t get your point. And don’t get us wrong. We are NOT putting you down, just giving you some advices. We love guitar building and think that you should try it out. If you think that this course thing is right for you, go ahead. But I think Mickguard expressed it very well when he noticed that you can get yourself a shop full of the necessary tools AND the wood you need to build a couple of guitars for the money you are planning on spending on that one guitar. And you also have 3 years to build those guitars. I’m curious. Have you actually spoken to some of the earlier participants in real live, or have you read their comments online? I have a hard time to believe that those instruments showed online is made in 2 ½. Remember that the finish has to cure for a week if you are using water borne finish and some FIVE WEEKS if you are using nitro. I can’t get the timeline together. Are they using UV-curing finishes? I’m suspecting that those guitars are made over several courses and not only one. Pls be aware of this so that you don’t get fooled/disappointed. Wood and sound is something that we have debated a lot in this forum. We are good at giving advices about things like this, but you must remember that it is all PERSONAL OPINIONS. IMHO walnut isn’t at all very “maple-ish”. If you want the sound of maple, use maple. You say that you would like a “fenderish” sound. What guitar is made out of a mahogany body/maple top? A Les Paul (OK, with a mahogany neck) How do LPs sound? Not very “fenderish”, eh? I have built a guitar with mahogany body, maple top, laminated maple neck, ebony fretboard and a soapbar at the bridge. Forget about “fenderish” tone in that guitar. And it was a bolt-on! Use a set neck and you will move that sound even more into the LP range. I wouldn’t say that the woods are fighting each other, tone-vice. Maybe you just end up with something that doesn’t sound like you wanted. That is why so many of us stress this point: Get some tools, build a couple of guitars, get experience of how wood work together to form sound and THEN build your dream guitar.