thegarehanman

I bought the whole set and I just put my binding and/or purfling against the bit and see which bearing takes the cake. As a rule of thumb, if no bearing seems to be a perfect fit, I prefer to cut the channel to narrow as opposed to too wide. It's much easier to scrape off .01" of extra binding than it is to sand off .01" of a guitar body.

Sure, there are ways around the problems I stated, but there is likely no way around it not looking 100% like real binding. If you're concerned with a guitar looking just the way you want it to, make your life easier and start from scratch.

Ok, here's what you do. Tape off the area you don't want "bound," brush, spray, or pour on the paint of your choice. Allow the paint to dry, then remove the tape. Stand 20 feet away from your guitar and remark how it still looks like cheap, painted on binding. Play your guitar for a year, then note how there are large portions of the paint that have worn off and how your guitar looks even worse then before you put the fake binding on.

There are two other options, of course. First, you could live without it, since you know better than to try to half-ass something like binding. Or second, you could pull the frets, rout a channel for the binding, install the binding, then refret and refinish the neck.

I would, personally, let it be. Binding is a nice feature and can add some protection to soft woods in some cases, but it's not worth pulling apart a guitar just to install binding.

peace,

russ

Thanks guys. And chris, I'm attempting to make the inside of this box on par, aesthetically, with the outside. Since there will be 2 soundholes and an access panel, I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will want to take a peek inside.

So I've made a bit of progress, to see pictures, click here. You'll notice that I ended up going for a traditional bracing pattern. After much thought, I've decided to go with a standard bridge/string anchor design on this guitar. As I was sanding the sides with a radius dish, it struck me that the geometry of the top and the dome's orientation with respect to the plane of the strings needs to be radically changed to make most efficient use of the strings' vibrations, if I'm to pursue this design that involves the strings going through the top and anchoring at the tail block. Anyhow, having already radiused the sides, it was obvious that this guitar was not going to be the guinea pig I had originally thought. Just as well though, as I think I need to do a bit more designing on paper before this idea comes to fruition.

peace,

russ

Definitely photoshopped, but the different neck width between his fretting hand is accurate. Banjos have 5 strings, but 1 ends before the headstock. The neck gets substantially narrower after the 5th string ends, a few frets before the rest of the strings meet the headstock.

No idea, but the whole "it doesn't make noise when unplugged" idea isn't worth much since unplugging the piezo input should cut the power to the preamp. Have you contacted LR Baggs? You might want to tell them you're a luthier though, because they might not talk to you if you just say you're some joe. I say that because when I bought the preamp and bridge, the pamphlet went on and on about how they don't recommend the buyer installing the components themselves.

Ok, that makes a lot more sense. You could probably completely stop the stop from vibrating with one .2" thick carbon fiber brace, so I it didn't seem right. I've given the carbon fiber/spruce brace some thought, and I think the way to get the lightest/strongest brace with these two materials would be to use unidirectional fabric, wet it out with epoxy, then clamp it between the two pieces of spruce before the epoxy dries. That would save some unnecessary resin weight and still yield the same strength.

Mattia, .1" and .2" of carbon fiber seems overkill. I'd say go with 1/64", maybe 1/32" max. Also, are you using dry mat and resin or buying the already cured composite? If you're buying mat and wetting it out yourself, you should look for unidirectional mat, anything else is a waste in this case.

peace,

russ

No, raising the value is not worth the effort, and likely can't be done well. Just shell out a couple of dollars for the right potentiometer and be done with it.

Yeah, four days is adequate time to wait for leveling and buffing. If it's four days under UV drying lights, then the finish will be as hard as it ever will in that time.

I'm pretty sure gibson is using a two part automotive finish these days. I say that because Valspar was selling the Nashville plant their finish a few years ago (maybe they still are?) and I'm 99% sure Valspar does not put out nitro.

I built my first guitar using a full size set of plans for a '59 Les Paul, Melvin Hiscock's "Build Your Own Electric Guitar," and all of the hardware that would be on the guitar. I did own a strat, but that was of no use as none of the measurements from that were relevant to the LP build. The whole thing went well; cosmetically it wasn't perfect but it felt and played great.

If your table saw's blade spins true, then there should be no problem. I use a crappy craftsman saw . Ideally you would use a machinist's dial indicator, but try putting a ruler up next to the table saw blade, then spin the blade with your hand and see if it wobbles. Even a crappy saw shouldn't have noticeable blade runout, but you never know.

If you're going to go that route(which is a very odd and unappealing idea to me), you'd probably be better off using Dacron. What is Dacron you ask? why not google it?

That's a lot of hand cutting...You might want to forgo the miter box and handsaw and just get the table saw blade. I bought it after using the handsaw a few times and there's no way I'd switch back.

The shell is more or less finished. The radii on the front and back have been roughed out with a plane and will need to be sanded to their final dimensions with a dish. The access panel that will be located at the tail will be added once this has been done.

peace,

russ

why not just buy some sperzels? They come in oh, maybe 20 different colors. Do a google search.

I have a dxme that I bought about 3 or 4 years ago. It's got the composite sides and back, but the soundboard, braces, and kerfing are all soid spruce. The kerfing is mahogany and the neck and tail block look like spruce, but could be something else(whatever they are, they're regular old wood blocks). The neck is laminated and stays very straight, I imagine that's compliments of what's essentially plywood. The thing sounds great for the price and stays in tune perfectly. I consider it a great deal; I think I paid $800 for it at the time. I love the finish on it too. I'm not sure what it is, but it's satin and seems quite thin.

peace,

russ

He's referring to space between the gears...play. This is why it's bad practice to lower you're pitch when adjusting a string. Tuners will almost always have some backlash. Instead, tune down below the note you're aiming for, then tune back up to the note. This will insure the gears are pushed against once another and there's a maximum amount of force resisting the pull of the string.

my only complaint about schaller locking tuners is that they seem to be a bit heavy, but that's only a concern when you're worried about being neck heavy.

I'm not exactly clear on those last measurements. Are you saying that the neck is angled relative to the body such that rise of 5.5mm over a run of 200mm? That would be reasonable as it would mean about a 1.5 degree neck angle.

If you're creative about the shape, it wouldn't be so hard. A 4" diameter schedule 40 pvc pipe(about $5 for 5 feet at lowe's) can hold a 25"Hg vacuum with ease. Obviously you'd need two pipes, and larger ones that 4" at that, but I think the finished product would be akin to one of those bazooka tube speakers in a air tight jacket. Anyhow, I think that that's a really impractical idea, a padded box would be much more economical and probably plenty sufficient for the job.

I've heard that the steinberg tuners have some issues with quality control I can't confirm that from experience, but it's worth looking into. I like sperzel and schaller locker tuners a lot.

hooglebug, maybe next time you should spray a wash coat of sealer over the whole guitar before applying the mirrors, and then soak any holes that you drill with CA. That should go a long way in keeping water out of unwanted places...obviously using less water will help as well, but that goes without saying.

I prefer imperial, but if it's metric, that'll work just as well. Yes, the nut is at the top of the fretboard. It's normally around 1/8" thick; make certain to measure from the side closer to the fretboard(as opposed to the side closer to the headstock) so your measurements aren't off by 1/8."