j. pierce

Yeah, a lot of the tools I see in the Stew Mac / LMI catalogs seem really expensive or seem like something I can't see myself needing. But I will say every tool I've bought from either of them has been of the highest quality, and probably worth the money. And any time I've had a problem, both vendors have been more than willing to help me. I've expressed dissatisfaction with purchases and had replacements shipped to me overnight and had them in the morning. I do agree there's some things that are too expensive, but I really think that's economies of scale more than anything else. I wish Stew Mac's shipping was less. There are plenty of times that it's worth it. There are also plenty of times where it's not, and you're fine with whatever thing you can rig together or purchase elsewhere. The key is figuring out when it matters, so you can save money whenever you can, so you're able to afford to buy the expensive tools when you need them! With tools you have to modify or create yourself, there's also the worth of your time. My time is limited, and I'd rather spend what time I have making guitars, because that's more fun to me. But I'm not trying to shoot this down, just add my perspective. Hearing about good deals on tools is always appreciated. My favorite cheapy - I take a good straightedge to the scrap yard, and check various pieces. For a few bucks, I got a whole bunch of heavy extruded aluminum channel. The not-perfectly straight stuff got chopped up and makes good effects boxes, as well as very long, stiff clamping cauls. The straight stuff got me a four-foot sanding stick. The length makes it pretty accurate, and using all of it I can level things pretty fast. Clamps to a workbench easily because it's mostly hollow, and then I can sand fingerboards or necks against it to get things perfectly flat before glueing.

I'd replace the pots first then - that's where the scratchy is probably coming from - and leave the p'ups alone, see how that sounds first. If it still doesn't suit you, See about getting the pickups re-wound - you might be able to get a different sound out of them, while still keeping the look stock, and not putting any more holes in the thing. Of course, it's your guitar and you're free to do what you want to it, but if it was mine, I'd want to keep it looking as close to original looking as possible.

Well, I smashed 4 budding nests with a neck blank. (The scarf-jointed headstock turned out to be just the right angle to flatten them against the eaves of the porch.) There where two more small ones I didn't get because they were already up and buzzing around when I got home from work. My roomate says he'll take care of those tonight, under the cover of darkness. They leave the wood of the porch itself alone (possibly because it's pressure treated?) but watching them again today, they were definitely chewing on the sawdust I hadn't cleaned up. (Vaccuumed the last of that today before work) From what I've read, I guess they chew up cellulose from wood fibers and mix it with their spit to make their papery nest things, and I guess my mess made the perfect building materials for them.

I'd think it's a little more involved than that. Honestly, I think half the reason of having a set neck guitar is the freedom to shape the heel a bit more comfortably, but I don't think you'd be able to do that and have enough support with a standard bolt-on neck. I'm not very certain how you'd go about doing this, (and I'm rather uncertain it'd be worth it on a guitar that was designed as a set neck) but I do know it's been discussed here before, I imagine if you search around you'll probably find relevant discussions, which might give you some pointers. Also, try searching for Mickguards "Rocket 350" guitar and related threads, because I believe he did something akin to this. Although I could be wrong. (Mickguard seems to up and posting now as well, so maybe he'll pipe in) I think he actually used a bolt-on neck as a set neck for a new body, rather than just set-necking a bolt on, however.

I second Mickguard's notion. If *I* can build a guitar, anyone can. And I'm sure there are plenty of other people who will say the same thing. In fact, I think adding wings to a neck-through blank is a terrific place to start - you've basically got all the important stuff done for you. While using a trem-style bridge that requires a route makes things a little more interesting, outside of that, it's pretty hard to screw up cutting two pieces of wood and sticking them on the sides. About the only reason I can give for not attempting to do this yourself is it's incredibly addicting nature. Chances are in a year or two you will wonder why you have so many tools around your house and where all that mahogany came from.

It threaded in okay until you hit the bottom? You can't just turn the bolt back out? Or did you crossthread a bolt that didn't really fit in there so much that it's stuck? Is it the screw or the bushing that's stuck here? If it's simply this bushing that's still stuck (i.e., the screw was bottoming out rather than lifting up the bushing, because the head of it never got down far enough to pull up against anything) just retry with a shorter bolt, or use some sort of spacer (two sockets? extra washers?) so that the head of the bolt has something to pull against. Also, you mention the bridge - is this just a typo? I don't see why you would need to touch the bridge for this job, you'll only want to take out the tailpiece. I guess I'm not sure what's going on - it sounds like you may have threaded the tailpiece bolt into the bushings for the bridge?

I usually have to ward of a couple of small wasps nests this time of year. Find the nests on the porch while they're still little nubbins, go out in the late evening/early morning while the buggers are still sleeping, and take a long piece of wood and smash the nests. Well, I was out on the porch having a smoke this afternoon before going to work, and realized I have at least three nests being built on my porch, within a three or four foot area. More than I usually see this time of year, that's for certain. Well, I watched 'em go about their business (at least they aren't angry and ready to sting this time of year, but I like to keep my distance between me and them) and watched as they went chewing at the sawdust and woodshavings on my porch from where I had neglected to clean up my woodworking mess this weekend. It seems my fellow craftsmen also enjoy working with mahogany! In relating this tale to a coworker, he told me he habitually made the same mistake, and something about the sawdust and shavings around his outdoor work area had attracted carpenter ants. So I guess cleaning up isn't just for looking nice, it's also a bit of pest deterrent! Sun shines and warms up that side of the building first, but I'm hoping they aren't buzzing about when I get home from work this morning (night shift, fun) so I can take care of these. Otherwise, I know I won't be able to get to them while they're not buzzing around for a few days, and they seem to be building fast! Either way, I'm going to be cleaning that porch tomorrow!

Also, you'll probably need to remove the bushings that the tailpiece you have screws into, unless they're flush with the surface of the body. The easiest way I've found: Find a bolt that's the same thread as those the tailpiece screws into. (The original tailpiece bolts may work, but have not been long enough in my experience) The last bushing I pulled was a standard fine thread M8, but check whatever you've got. Take a piece of scrap wood, and drill a hole in it large enough for the flange of the bushing to pass through. (This protects the wood from denting under force, which while usually not a problem, I have seen occur on softer bodies with thin finishes) a piece of leather or felt or cardboard or something underneath this (again with a hole in it) may also help keep the finish from scratching. (Granted, you're hiding this area under a plate, but it doesn't hurt to be careful) Then get a socket, again, large enough for your bushing to pull up into. A large fender washer or piece of metal with a hole in it will help protect the back of your socket, particularly if the head of the bolt is small enough to fall partially into the socket, so I usually thread the bolt through this washer, then the socket. Put the hole in the wood over the bushing, and then thread the bolt/socket contraption into the bushing. As you tighten the bolt, it pulls against the washer and socket and lifts the bushing straight up. You won't damage the guitar at all trying to pry it out, or pulling at an angle or anything. Sorry, I know you didn't ask this, but I figured it might come up, and I'm stuck at work with nothing to do today. BTW, WD music has flying V tailpieces. (I was looking for them earlier, and Marksound posted that link)

You'll want some ferrules for the back of the guitar, so the strings have something to pull against. (It would quickly chew up the wood.) Carefully mark and drill small holes lining up with the plate, (A drill press would be ideal for this to keep everything straight) being careful not to split the wood as you come out the back (clamp another piece of wood against it to prevent this) then use another larger drill bit, sized for your ferrules to enlarge the holes in the back. Make sure to use a depth stop or a piece of tape on the bit or something so that you don't go too deep. (Although in this case, "too deep" is really only "all the way through", I suppose) If you're using a drill press, they actually make an ideal tool to press the ferrules into the holes accurately. Depending on how small the original pilot holes are, you may have to enlarge them from the front again if they aren't large enough for the strings to pass through easily. (I usually make my initial pilot hole quite small) Making them about the same size as the holes in plate is probably a good guide. As far as positioning the plate, I would probably worry mostly about asthetic concerns - on a standard flying V, there's probably no way to move the plate far enough back that you wouldn't have enough break angle over the bridge. If you move if forward enough, the strings may hit the edge of the bridge as the bend over it, which is supposedly not ideal (String breakage? buzzing? I'm not sure) but I've had a Gibson SG set up so this was happening for years now, with no noticable problem. (The stop-bar studs were loose, and cranking it all the way down was the only way to keep it from wobbling when I played. In retrospect, I should have just re-drilled the stud holes.) You could set your bridge where you normally have it, and experiment with the angle of the strings coming off the bridge to the holes, see if you can place it back enough it doesn't hit the tail end of the bridge, just comes clean off the saddles, but I wouldn't worry too much. Of course, if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will chime in. (Looks like Mickguard beat me to the punch! Or I'm just too long-winded.)

I had a fretboard that I slotted out of perpendicular - which is what it sounds like you're describing - and simply took this into account when adding the taper to my fingerboard, so that after the taper, everything was correct. I was using a zero fret (at least, I made a slot for it, I may later saw this off or widen it and go with a standard nut, I haven't decided) so that made things easier - if you use the end of your pre-cut board for where the nut goes, I can see this not being a workaround. If the frets are really *off* and not just non-perpendicular to your board's edge, then I guess this wouldn't apply.

I've made bunches and bunches. Of mistakes. Most of them work out in the end, but could have been avoided had I thought things through. I think and plan out how I'm going to each step, going through it in my head, doing a dry run, etc. But sometimes I forget about how I'm going to do the *next* step, and how the one I'm doing now will impact that one. My first guitar, I didn't grainfill. Well, I thought the finish would eventually fill and level out. It didn't. I sprayed a whole can of KTM-9 on that one guitar. (I got three guitars out of my second can, and probably wasted a lot of spray in the air). It never looked right. Well, in stripping the finish on that guitar this year to salvage what I could of that mess (there was a lot more wrong than the finish - like a bridge that what almost an *inch* out of place) I discovered that the finish was probably a half inch thick. ( okay, I exaggerate) and all that it *really* needed was a good wetsanding. My favorite mistake is probably the time my depth stop slipped, and I drill right through the headstock when making my tuner screw hole. I call it a speed hole if anyone ever notices. It helps me play faster. I've done worse, but those are two of my favorites.

Brian's got a fret puller at the universal jems store: http://universaljems.com/cart/tools.htm It's $13, and really the best tool for the job. A soldering iron with a clean tip to heat the fret up a little bit really helps to. Yeah, you might not get chip out, but better safe than sorry. Then just fill the slots with veneer. Trim roughly to shape, glue it in and trim it flush when the glues dry. I helped a friend make a fretless out of an old junker bass, and we just used the thin basswood sheets they sell at the local crafts stores. Cut them into strips, and sanded them down enough to fit into the slots.

I've had good luck cutting acrylic with a very fine-tooth coping saw blade, or a very fine toothed jigsaw blade. Go slow so it doesn't melt. Depending on the thickness of it, to keep it from cracking, I like to throw some scrap under it. If I'm cutting by hand, I just push it up against the edge of the cut. By machine, I usually cut through the scrap underneath. Polish and clean up the cuts with smooth files. Honestly, unless it's something I want to hang onto and use over and over again, I'd just make my templates out of MDF, it's cheaper and easier to work with. Stewmac sells p'up parts, and I believe I've seen a few small retailers selling supplies. I remember Electronics Goldmine (http://www.goldmine-elec.com/) used to have great prices on wire that would work really well for p'ups. They deal mostly in surplus, or something like that (or at least they used to - their website is all different now, I can't really tell.) and I don't know if they still carry it. But you should be able to order the magnet wire stuff from electronics places online, use your imagination for the bobbin parts (I used phenolic board cut offs from when I was making eyelet boards for a tube amp in a pickup experiment I made) Magnets, well, those I don't know about where to get.

So I also build pedals (well, after my last two builds, it seems that apparently I just build bad radios, and then after a few hours of troubleshooting, beat them into submission as guitar pedals.) I just finished a Tremface copy using the schematics at Geofex. Anyway, it's a positive ground circuit, and I didn't have any stereo jacks for power switching, but I did have a jack with an internal (and isolated) switch. I decided that the easiest way to connect the other side of the switch to ground was to jumper the isolated switch to the sleeve connection, rather than running out to board ground. Well, I made a boneheaded mistake and connected the isolated switch to tip. So when I put an input jack, the negative battery connection went through the circuit like normal, but the positive connection ran into the tip of the guitar cable rather than ground. I realized what I did, but not until after I plugged everything in and scratched my head. (Yeah, not the brightest move to plug something in w/o checking the connections first) Anyway, I got the pedal working after fixing the power connections and replacing a JFET. But I'm wondering, can I/could I have messed up my p'ups by running the battery voltage through them? Looking at the schematic/layout (here - basically I've had the green wire coming back from the board to the input jack connecting at the tip, rather than to ground when a jack was inserted) I'm not sure if my p'ups actually saw voltage. I only ask because I'm getting some wierd volume drops and sounds out of my rig today. I'm 99% sure that it's a patch cable, but I'm having a hard time isolating it, because the problems are so intermittent, and I haven't really sat down to troubleshoot it. But regardless, would it even be possible to damage my p'ups if I just shorted a 9V across the input jack? I really have no idea, and I'm just curious now. My electronics knowledge is self-taught, and as such, incredibly spotty. I have a good grasp of a lot of things, but often times forget things which should be "the basics". thanks.

Other people are more qualified to answer this than I am, but I will mention my experience. I did the fretting on all of my necks after I finished everything else on the guitar. I will say, it's easier to level the frets without the nut in the way. Tuners and bridges get in the way too if you're using a long sanding block. Mask everything off, as you will get grit and grime everywhere, and while it's fairly easy to clean off a finished guitar, it's easy for any bigger particles to scratch up the finish. I don't know if I'd want to level the frets on an unfinished guitar, as I can see all the that muck being a pain to clean off bare wood if it got on it. I also accidently heated up one of the the frets too much when I was cutting the extra bit off, and it softened the finish a bit. Also, when you say fret press thing - are you using the cauls in an arbor or drill press? I've no experience with those, but I can say with the "jaws 2" deal (the fancy clamp thing) if I was going to use that again, I'd want to do it with a flat neck blank - it takes some finangaling to get it to press the frets straight if the back of your neck isn't parallel with the fretboard (i.e., if the thickness of your neck tapers towards the nut.) Also, you mention helping to get a better feel for the thickness of the neck with the frets in - I've honestly done necks just based off of measurements for the thickness and eyeballing and feeling for the contour, and been really happy. I'd be more concerned about the perceived thickness added by strings rather than frets. It definetly helps to take the strings off another neck to get a good feel though, they add a lot of perceived thicknesss. (Especially on a bass - I'm not really a bass player anymore, and building a bass, I thought I a had a fairly "thin" neck - it turned out to feel rather thick after the strings were on. But I've grown to love it, it feels like a baseball bat or a nice tool handle.)

I saw a sale at some woodworking catalog on ash baseball bat blanks that I was thinking would be the perfect size for neck blanks. Neck p'up sounds good. It's kind of a "wooly" p'up on a "thick" sounding guitar, so it brightens it up some. Somewhere between the traditional neck and middle pickup sounds, but more towards the neck. Certainly at least as "neck pickup-y" as my SG's neck p'up. I can get the "neck pickup sound" that I'm looking for, a least. Although if you wanted that real jazzy neck p'up tone, it might mean playing with the tone knob, at least on the guitar. (I've had better results messing with the amp's tone, however.) So separate tone controls for the p'ups might be necessary, which I know not everyone loves. But that depends on what sound you want, I guess. I usually play with both pickups on all the time, lets me get the best of the bite of the bridge with the overtones of the neck p'up. I usually use a blend knob to back the neck p'up a little bit out of the "mix" to keep the bassy sound from overpowering. This set up lets me get rid of another knob, by having the default 50/50 mix just where I like it, tonally. I'm down to two knobs and a switch. (Well, three are there, but I don't have to touch one. I want to build another of this guitar, and lose one knob.) Which is nice after playing with the five and a switch my SG had by the time I hung it up for the two I built. Considering that I use a volume pedal for volume 99% of the time, I could probably get it down to a switch and knob. Heck, hard-wire my tone control where I like it, and I could probably get down to a switch. Although I'd miss the "turn one volume down and flip back and forth for wierd choppy noise" effect. Sorry, I always ramble away from whatever the discussion at hand is.

I ran across a fancy mitre box set up at the hardware store the other day and was thinking of picking it up, I figure I'd still have to clean up things with the planer, but it seems like it'd get me a more accurate surface to start with. unfortunetly, I can't tell from the package if it locks at any angle or just the handful of angles that it says it's notched for. In fact, this seems to be the only mitre box I've seen that specifically says it can lock at any angle. The price tag is quite a bit however. (although I'm sure it's worth it, I like Lee Valley's stuff.) But that's pretty much what the one I saw looks like. I'm going to have to see if I can't get them to let me open the box and take a look, I figure it shouldn't be too hard to jig up something to hold the wood at a slight angle or modify the plate to have stops at new angles. I don't know, seems like it might be an option for those of us stuck using mostly hand tools to make things a little easier.

I used the file with the three-interchangable files on the little handle with the wooden palm grip. I liked it, but I ended up getting the Stew-mac offset diamond file that rsguitar links too above in the thread - I have to say, I love it. It is a little wierd, it doesn't "feel" like you're filing sometimes, until you look at the fret. the offset of it makes it nice if you're frets took more leveling in some spots that others, to just crown a bit on one end or a bit of the fret. I love 'em.

*love* the neck join - the way the body shape bass bout curves back down and around to make almost a perfect circular shape, with the neck tenon echo-ing it.

I wish I had pictures (my father took some on his digital, but he's yet to get me the shots) but the last guitar I built was a 25" scale (granted, a little longer than gibson scale) 24 fret, with two humbucker-sized p'ups fairly close together. The first pickup's edge being about an inch from the 24th fret (about half that distance is the last bit of overhang from the fretboard) and the second p'up starting about an inch from the first p'up. I think it looks nice, but that may just be me. I can see where it might look cluttered on a different body shape, as well.

I love this project, mick. Looking nice. I've never been a huge fan of the dolphin style, I say rock the tele vibe you've got going now. (Unless you want to go with a huge 70's fender headstock. Everything looks better with a huge 70's fender headstock.) I've always been crazy about the dano-style - I've been thinking of building something in that vibe for a while a now. Mark Hammer, whose page I used to read when I was building more effects ( and who posts some brilliant stuff over at Aron's DIY stompbox forums) had a bit about building some dano-style guitars a while back. http://hammer.ampage.org/?cmd=lt&xid=&fid=&ex=&pg=2 scroll down to "dano-tech" towards the bottom of the page. (BTW, that p'up arrive safe and sound?)

The System 3 stuff is great, but like Doug mentioned, improper mixing ratio will mess it up. For the quantities used in guitar-making, it's really easy to mess up the ratios since you're dealing with such small amounts. Mix the stuff by weight using a small, accurate scale, rather than by volume or half the time you end up with epoxy that won't cure properly or at all. The stuff goes real far, I've coated whole guitars in a just a couple of tablespoons worth, and mixing that little at a time is difficult by volume.

I always get my body cut and then routed with a template to shape. Then I take my roughly-cut top, glue that on, and use the body as a template to route the top to shape. Since I usually need to take many small passes anyway to route the whole thickness of the body to shape, it really doesn't make much of a difference. I've avoided tear out by careful use of short cuts with the router in the reverse direction you usually feed things. I do this around the waist and anywhere you might be hitting end grain from the wrong direction. Have to be careful the thing doesn't get away from you. I always end doing some sanding/scraping the edge of the body, but I find if you're routing oversized, you'll get just as much tearout as routing to size, unless you're being careful/taking small passes. If you're being careful, might as well go all the way to the edge. And if you're routing oversized enough that any tearout isn't going to proceed into your planned lines, then I'd think you're leaving yourself a lot of wood to sand through, and in that case, I'd think to just cut a little deeper with saw and sand from there, forget breaking out the router entirely.

I've hand-re-sawed things. No fun, (although getting to break out the handplanes afterwards is always a joy) and if you want to squeeze the most thickness out of two pieces it's a pain. I used a relatives framesaw/bowsaw type thing, and had great luck with that, and am looking to make my own. Like this: http://www.hyperkitten.com/woodworking/resaw.php3 But I'd second (or third?) finding someone with access to a bandsaw to do it for you. For me, that turned out to be a small, local hardwood merchant who sells wood to cabinet and fine woodwork makers. They've done things like thicknessing and resawing wood (that didn't even come from them) for free. THe level of service and the nice attitude from them was terrific, and it's the first thing that kept me coming back to them for wood, even though they don't always have what I need. (That and they're willing to sell me less than 9 feet of mahogany at a time.) I'd look in the classifieds section of the paper, as well - there are several folks listing general carpentry and wood services in my local paper, many of whom are geared more towards other tasks, but often who have the gear and are willing to do things like this. My area just got a new (after the old one had a fire a few years ago) community wood-working shop - it's like being in shop class when you were a kid (which none of the schools in my area seem to have anymore) access to a nice finishing booth and all the big tools, plus a chance to meet other woodworkers in the area, and learn from them, or take classes to learn things you didn't know you wanted to know! I had no idea this was around until I saw an ad in the local weekly paper. Might be worth checking out if your area has one as well? You could try putting an ad on Craiglist or any community bulletinboards as well. I met a fellow who's a much better, and better-equipped, woodworker than I, but just got his first guitar. He thicknessed and resawed soem stuff for me, and I did some setup and electronics work on the junky used strat he got.

I'm looking to pick up an IBEX type, small curved sole plane for general carved top work (something les-paul-ish) - working with spokesaves and scrapers is going well, really I just want an excuse to buy something new, shiny, and cool - but I've no idea what type to start out with. What's a good size for general guitar top carving? I've been thinking a smaller one might be nice because I've also been trying my hand a mosrite-style german carve (I believe that's the name for it - the very tight curve where it almost looks like a smaller body raising from the surface of the blank) and while I get most of the way there with a router, it needs some tweaking to get the slightly-assymetrical look of those guitars. (My next plan is a non-bearing cove bit [does such a thing exist?] and a bushing with a modified template) But that's just experimenting at this stage, and I'd rather have something good for a more standard LP type carve. Also, ever since seeing setch's avatar and site, I've become slightly obsessed with the idea of making my own plane. Anyone know where to go to get info on such an endeavor? Been trying to find a book or something with little luck.