thegarehanman

Good job, ben. It's looking sharp. The color combination is choice.

peace,

russ

Hey guys. I was on vacation for a few weeks there and couldn't do much more than order parts. I got back last weekend and have been busting my butt ever since. The acoustic and electric I'm building need to be done by monday. It's realistic, but will require my entire weekend.

Here are a few pics of what I've been up to

Those two maple fretboards will be going on an interesting double neck I'll be building soon. There is more info on my site. By the way, Jon slotted the boards and Doug laser cut all of the inlays for me; great guys, great service.

I have tons of more pictures of these guitars over at my site. Click the link below if you're interested:

https://garehanguitars.com/8-11-07.html

peace,

russ

I'm not sure about the price, but if it's authentic and unmodified, it'd be worth a pretty penny. Don't concern yourself with any scratches, it seems that on old fenders, it only adds to the value. For some reason the opposite seems to be true with gibsons.

You guys do realize that he has several tricked out guitars that all have different setups, right?

If you're going to glue something to the back, it might as well be a thin piece of metal. That gives you way more strength than wood (although it's admittedly more strength than you'll likely need) and as a bonus, you're saved the bother of shielding the cavity cover.

peace,

russ

J, you should be fine with just a few mm. When I say 1/4" or 3/16", I'm thinking of things like ash, mahogany or limba. Plus, it can't be really thin because I need to set the magnets into it. Were I using something like ebony, or rosewood, I'd probably go with less than 1/8" thickness. I've no experience with zebrawood, but you can glean from that what you will.

Also, what's wrong with just leaning towards the safe side, making the zebrawood cavity cover thin so you don't gouge the body, then laminating some other wood onto the back of the zebrawood cavity cover? It's not like anyone will ever see it.

peace,

russ

You can sharpen a scraper blade with a screwdriver, you don't need a special tool. Do a bit of googling about scraper sharpening and you'll see what I mean. A scraper with a flat edge is ideal for scraping binding flush. Yes, install binding, then stain, then scrape.

peace,

russ

If you don't want to route off and replace the binding, then your best bet is to use masking tape over the bound areas, apply paint stripper sparingly to the body, making sure to stay 1 to 2 inches away from the tape that's on the binding, then carefully removing the paint stripper and paint, again making sure to keep it away from the binding. Once you've got the bulk of the paint off, use coarse sandpaper to remove the paint that's near the binding.

Also, as for refinishing the guitar, you might look into reranch.com paint products or duplicolor's line of automotive spray can finishes. You should be able to get decent to good results with either.

peace,

russ

All that said, boy how can you go wrong collecting more tools . I know I have many hand tools that collect more dust than they make , but it is fun to collect all sorts of unique tools.

Peace,Rich

Agreed. My dad has a book case full of old wooden planes, 3' long jack planes, crown molding planes, everything you could think of. As far as I know, he's never used even one of them.

I use dish soap mixed in warm water. I use the water sparingly and keep a towel handy to wipe off the excess.

peace,

russ

No, it's a scraper with handles that's more time consuming to sharpen than a regular shaper. Or at least that's what I gleaned from the first topic. I don't find using a regular handless scraper to be "hard" at all.

I have a pretty small compressor too. I'm not sure about the cfm specs on the compressor and gun, but I wouldn't be surprised if the gun was higher than my compressor. However, with guitars, you're shooting in such small sessions per coat, that the compressor doesn't kick on until the end, even with a 5-10 gallon unit. You could probably get away with it too.

peace,

russ

The last time I saw it on sale it was going for something like $25. I've heard the same things about their QC. However, the last gun I had worked fine, and I tested both of the guns I bought yesterday and both are fine as well. Remember that sometimes people will call a tool bad when they simply don't know how to tweak it. Happens more often than it should. Still, opening it up at the store to check it out isn't a bad idea.

peace,

russ

Hey guys, I needed to get a new spray gun yesterday because my previous one was gunked up pretty badly by someone who borrowed it. Anyhow, I decided to get the same gun because it had worked great for me for the year or so that I used it. It was a 20oz. gravity feed gun with max. pressure, flow rate, and fan shape controls. Harbor freight normally sells it for about $40. However, when I went to the store yesterday, I found that it was on sale for $13. Needless to say, I bought two. I don't think the same deal will apply on their online store as the two companies are opporated seperately. Anyhow, it's a great gun, especially for that price. I'm not sure how long the sale will go for, unfortunately.

peace,

russ

I use hot soapy water; I wear latex gloves because all the wet sanding can dry out your hands pretty quickly. Use whatever you find works best for you, but whatever you do, don't use any lubricants or polishes that contain silicone. They will make your life very difficult should you every want to refinish the guitar.

That's the same type of fan I'm using as well. Is the motor isolated from the booth and exhaust air? If so, then you're set.

peace,

russ

Make certain it's explosion proof. It will be labled as such. I purchased mine from granger. I spent about $600, but I bought a pretty big one that evacuates a decent sized room quite quickly. You could probably find one on ebay that's used and a bit smaller for $200 or so. If you're going to have a booth, you need the explosion proof fan. Otherwise, the booth sort of loses its usefulness.

c'mon, i already gave you guys the magnets idea. work the rest out for yourselves.

It's to catch airborn particulates (overspray). If the water is used w/o a fan, the vapors from the finish will just sit in the air. It's a neat idea, but it doesn't keep the air in the booth nearly as clean as a well maintained explosion proof fan coupled with proper filters.

peace,

russ

C'mon guys, tons of people give their guitars girls' names; this just takes that concept to the next level. But for heaven's sake, put some britches on the girl.

Looks good.

peace,

russ

I normally make mine about 1/4" thick, maybe 3/16" if the wood is quite strong. That thickness is partially chosen because I need covers thick enough to house the magnets I use to affix them to the body. Also, yes, it would be a good idea to spray or wipe on a light coat of sealer just to make sure the cover doesn't warp due to climate changes.

peace,

russ

i apologize for soapbar's actions (read: echo Them). ignore his words of wisdom, thEy're backed by merely hiS own experience (which you are admittedly lacking), nothing more. insTead, let me recommend that you do absolutely nO drilling or routing for hardware uNtil you have Said hardware in your possession, beCause doing anything else could potentially leave you with cavities and holes that don't fit your haRdware...which would leAve you feeling quite stuP!d.

EDIT: Jon beat me to it

Honestly? Based on that drawing alone, I'd say it's going to be neck heavy, difficult to play sitting down, and have frets that are so close together they can't be fretted. But that's based on a crude drawing. Do yourself a favor and draw the guitar out to scale with all of the proper neck dimensions, bridge/nut string spacing, scale length, etc.

On that note, I think this body would be a good candidate for a headless setup. That would drop the weight at the headstock and add weight at the back of the body, possibly correcting any neck heaviness that would become evident when playing it on a strap.

peace,

russ

+1.

I rough cut the angle on a band saw, then clean up the surfaces with a router jig and scraper. Takes maybe 5 minutes and yields a perfect joint; it takes less time [per neck] if you're doing multiple necks.

peace,

russ

With many woods, you don't even need to hide the joint with ears as hector shows. I've got a few cocobolo neck blanks in my shop that I scarfed recently and from the side, the joint is [nearly] impossible to find.