Mattia

For anyone considering it - I have one of these monsters (and yes, it's a MONSTER. Much bigger and heavier than either the PC690 or the Bosch EVS1617, both of which I have, both about the max size for hand use IMO), and it works fantastically in the table. Freehand, it's got good balance, but it's just a bit too big and bulk for guitar sized objects. It's also quite frighteningly powerful when freehanded. Mounted in the table, it's an excellent choice. You can take the spring out (easier up and down adjustment), the collet auto locks when it's extended all the way up, so you can easily switch bits on-handed without removing the router from the table, and it works just great. Doesn't have through the table adjustment (not sure if it's an option), but I can't say I miss it. Tried the Bosch in the table, and while it was nice, this is just better. If you're looking for a router for table mounting, look no further.

Right. Testament to my 'stop and go' building, this one (along with 6 other projects, but two others in particular) has been fast tracked, and if all goes well shall be entering the finishing shed (ie, the covered bit next to the shed, if it's not raining) this weekend. Hopefully I should get the finish sanding and machining done on the body by the end of the week. The neck's getting a tru-oil and/or shellac finish, so doesn't need to be prepped quite as soon, which is a good thing since inlay is slated for next week (lots of fiddly bits). Anyway, since last we checked in (and only from about two weeks ago or so) I've bent the sides in my shiny new Doolin-style bender (works GREAT), laminated glued on the braces, carved them down to shape, done a little bit of Chladni pattern tuning with tea leaves. That helped me realise that yes, I needed to remove MORE MASS once I already had what I thought was nice tap tone - ring and a half came in at around 245 hz for both top and back. Didn't take pictures of the finished free plate mode, sadly. Well, I did, but the memory card wasn't in the camera, which is, y'know, not so handy. Oops. I glued the top and back on yesterday, trimmed the overhang and did a little sanding today, and drilled the 30mm side port in the side. Really funny to hear, as the helmholtz resonance rises by about half a step (roughly from G to G# on the low E...low Helmholtz, that) by simply covering the hole with my hand. The whole body rings out wonderfully, and the top and back resonances are almost the same - which is where I want them before I glue on the bridge and have the resonance on the top drop. I have a good feeling about this one! Anyway, some pics. Not of everything, as I am lazy that way, but more pics will come soon. First up, the back, braced, braces rough sanded, and the shaping tools - nice Blue Spruce paring chisels, low angle block plane, finger planes, 2 cherries chisel to 'sacrifice' on the CF braces. Damn stuff put a dent in the blade, will have to re-grind the bevel. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/ban/Ban01.jpg The top, bracing in the rough. The bridge plate is laminated, EIR and Maple, mostly because I figured 'why not', and because the EIR headplate scrap I had was too thin otherwise. Comes in at about .080-.085. The spruce patch between the A brace bits is there for reinforcement once the floating extension bit gets fitted - glued cross-grain, I'm hoping it'll prevent any cracks that might feel inclined to form. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/ban/Ban02.jpg Posed shot - semi-carved bracing on both top and back, rough fitted to rims, posed against our shiny, shiny new paino. German made (in the 1950's), solid Walnut with bookmatched flamed euro walnut veneers all around. And it sounds even nicer than it looks. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/ban/Ban03.jpg Shot of the rims and the back. Few things to note: reverse kerfed lining, spruce side braces tucked into the lining (not butted), and of course larger sapele side braces with 1/4" CF tubes as 'flying buttresses', and a spanish foot. Angled to fit the wedged body shape: ...The aforementioned Wedge. This body's flippin' HUGE, by the by, about 5" deep at the lower bout, treble side. more manageble 4" at the bass side, which is the point of the exercise. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics6/ban/Ban05.jpg The top, braces close to done. When I was finished I'd taken off a good bit of width from the lower X brace legs, a little height off of the X and both tone bars (minimal, 1mm or less, mostly near the edges, feathering them out smoothly), tapered/feathered all of the upper bout brace ends to almost nothing (with the CF flying buttresses, I'm shooting for an 'active' upper bout which doesn't need to take up quite so much string strain), and made the fingers lower and narrower in cross-section. ...and that's all for now. Right now I'm fiddling about with the end graft, getting that to fit nice and snug. I really should build a jig for that eventually, I suppose, although given that it doesn't take that long to do by hand, I'm not sure I ever will...

well, yes. I'm just encouraging everyone to think through any plans made - even if they're outlined step by step in some book or other :-)

Wait, hang on, read past that. Do not adjust the neck until you're done carving. Heck, I pre-carve (to within a mm or two of final size before levelling the board surface and gluing the fingerboard precisely because wood will move a little after carving - even stable, aged, perfectly quartered, no runout, laminated wood.

...the 'price' argument seems daft to me, frankly; Oak is simply not that cheap and Alder and Basswood are cheap and plentiful. Meranti is NOT a term for Myrtle, and certainly isn't related to Beech. It's what the rest of the world calls Luan or Phillipine Mahogany (Shorea spp.). It's not related (even on a family level) to Mahogany, which the african varieties are, it splinters easily, doesn't work as well as the African varieties, and costs only a little less. Router at low speed is a surefire way to start burning wood and causing unnecessary chipout. Appropriate speed (Full speed), sharp bits and the right feed rate (fast enough not to burn) are the keys there.

1) Use the search. 2) Your questions could hardly be more vague if you tried - 'difference between the two' what? Types of truss rod? What two types of truss rod? Between wood and truss rod choices? That's essentially comparing apples to bricks. Here's a few truisms, though: everything you do affects tone. Whether it's significant/audible or not is a different story. Truss rod length depends on neck length; longer neck, longer truss rod needed. The 'standard' sizes work well for most guitars. Where to buy wood: lumber yard is fine, certainly for bodies, ditto for neck wood if you know what you're looking for and are sure it's perfectly dry (ie, kiln dried, been lying around for a few years might help). Otherwise hit up one of the many tonewood dealers out there. Google is your friend, but a few names include Larry Davis at Gallery Hardwoods and Gilmer Woods.

Weird. I mean, I've done it both ways, both can work, but I think the most important thing for building is NOT to follow one person's instructions to the letter, but rather to think about what you want to do, consider whether the order presented makes sense to you (I've got several guitarmaking books in which it doesn't), and adjust your plan accordingly. Just be sure to think everything through before you do it; planning helps.

By level I mean get it flat by whatever means works best for you, so you don't end up with the bow you have now. Heat gun can work, but the heat's not quite as directed.

I'm not saying the truss rod defines the tone, but I am saying it doesn't impact the tone negatively. Could it maybe sound better with a single action rod? I guess. Plenty of people feel single action rods sound nicer than dual action rods. But with CF in the mix (an improvement in evenness I do hear - gluing them in raises the resonant frequency of most necks (higher stiffness and mass compared to without) and also increases the sustain/decreases the rate of decay) I'm not willing to compromise on functionality - I've only ever built two necks that needed more relief when strung up, but they did need it. As for sounds - you hit the nail on the head. What matters to me is what I can hear; I spend stupid amounts of time listening, tapping, feeling, rubbing bits of wood (for acoustics more than electrics, easier to excite them into vibration), trying to 'hear' what bits of wood are telling me. What others can hear doesn't really matter to me if I can't reproduce it ;-)

Titebond - General glue-ups, kind of my 'go-to' glue for most things involving gluing wood to wood. Hot hide glue - recently started using this, less difficult than I thought it would be (but make sure you have your 'dry run' working perfectly). Dries hard, no creep, use it for acoustics, mostly for bracing. Epoxy - get good quality stuff. I use West Systems for general purpose gluing (things with lots of thin laminations, like neck-through blanks, and areas where moisture can warp things), have some 30 minute Z-poxy that I also use from time to time, and Z-Poxy finishing resin for pore filling. Place I always use it: gluing fingerboards, pore filling. Sometimes gluing carbon fibre to wood. Superglue/Cyanoacrylate - thin, medium and thick, various purposes, mostly gluing bindings and doing inlay. Polyurethane - occasional use in lamination (heel and endblocks for acoustics, sometimes headstock backstrap veneers, sometimes carbon fibre to wood lams, although I'm growing to like epoxy more as I gain experience using the good quality stuff. Makes a world of difference compared to dime store epoxy which doesn't cure as hard, mix as nicely or sand as well). Fish glue - still testing, may use it in acoustics in places hot hide's working time is a pain (gluing plates to rims, for example)

Should be fine, just keep position in mind when carving the neck shape. Question though: is the neck blank not oversize enough for you to be able to move the centerline (ie, the truss rod slot becomes the new centerline)? Or is it a laminated neck blank?

...now I'm really looking forward to slicing up that Sapele I've got. And those redwood billets from Rich! Mattia

squareness doesn't matter when using a shooting board, really. The joint halves mirror each other if you do it right. And I'm with you on hand tools for thicknessing, as long as we're talking about guitar tops. And not about hardwood (let alone figured hardwood) back/side sets or levelling rosettes with funky wood and pearl. At that point I'll take my thickness sander, ta!

Take the fingerboard off (iron, dry heat, thin blunt knife), level the neck, replace the rod, reglue the fingerboard (preferably with non-waterbased glue -> epoxy), level the board, fret. And in future, I recommend bending the neck by hand and then adjusting the rod to prevent wear on the nut.

Notes: Looks pretty complete to me. If you're using rosewood back/sides there's no need for a bridge plate patch, offcuts will be enough. Don't forget nut and saddle (I recommend bone), and I second Rich's suggestion: check out the jigging side of things. I would strongly reccomend a heat blanket (get it from the US, the dollar is still very weak. LMI, or Blues Creek Guitars and a stepdown converter). Other than that, two sheets of 22mm MDF will make a pair of radius dishes (highly recommended) and a fox-style bender+building form (also highly recommended for a nice, symmetrical, reliable result. Doesn't even take that much time - I honestly think you recoup any hours spent building the right jigs with the first guitar you build using them. I recommend Sylvan Well's (google Wells Guitars) Rosette jig and The Willams/Fleishmann (google dew guitars binding jig) if you want the creme de la creme tools.

I wouldn't really use Wishbass as a gold standard for anything....

The liveliest necks I've made (= livlier than any single action rod necks I've heard) have CF rods and a dual action truss rod. Takes care of wood relaxation/memory to a great extent, and gives you very resonant, stable, musical necks. ALL guitars are an exercise in tension; an acoustic is the prime example, made of very, very thin and light woods with a buttload of tension and little in the way of trussing. The tension here is good, because otherwise there'd be no sound. Want lower tension on the wood of the top? Congrats, you've built a banjo, which has a tensioned head (otherwise it'd be floppy, see) but little torque or string force on the soundboard. All I'm saying is tension ain't always bad.... Your theory on bearing against wood or not all rather like voodoo to me; yes, rods apply compression. Yes, the other part of the neck goes in tensions. But you can't have one without the other, and you can't have it without bearing on the wood (something dual action rods do less than single action rods, that are Usually glued into a tight channel.) That's why rods - if they need to work as little as possible/work as efficiently as possible, should be placed with their bearing surfaces towards the back of the neck if you're looking for compression of the back. That's where the force acts, the rod that's actually turning is irellevant to the argument. Ergo, dual action rod that's not sitting dead center, but goes quite deep can work just as efficiently as a single action rod at the same depth. Flipside: for the rod to work the other way (the point of a dual action rod) you want to compress the fingerboard, and don't want the top (bearing surface for this bit) to be too far away from the fingerboard. Pretty much all rods bear on the two ends- that's where the compressive force is applied. There's pressure in the middle on the tension side of the rod, but that applies to all types unless you're mounting it in a yawning cavity, and my thinking is that you risk rattles if the thing's not snug; everything's vibrating in there.

...that's lovely Spanish Cedar, but hardly 'normal' figure for the stuff. Eddie: its great stuff for bodies and necks, but it is softer, lighter and dents more easily than any of the mahoganies, true or otherwise. Bit more dent resistant than Limba (higher hardness numbers), so it's not a reason not to use it. Smell is the easiest way to tell them apart, but I do find Cedrella has less pronounced grain (finer, more closed pore, less shimmer) than mahogany, given two plain pieces.

What Rich and the Sudsy One said. Restoration and repair are, IMO, some of the most difficult skills to master - I can remove a fretboard, do basic fix-ups, but I'm in no way an expert, or even apprentice-level, when it comes to repair. I barely know my way around building acoustics as it is

Basically just fancy firewood, although I suppose one could laminate a new 'back' to the neck and re-carve. As for what rods allow thinner necks: thinner ones. Allied's dual action rods are thinner than the HotRod.

I've only completed test panels so far, and done it both ways - scuff then shellac then shoot, or scuff then shoot a hard finish (Rustin's Plastic Coating in this case). Can't really tell the difference between the two in terms of looks or adhesion. Both work fine. I'm going to shoot my first three epoxy grainfilled guitars soon, hopefully a total of 5 before the end of the month.

Yes.

Depends, but what I do: - Finish sand (bare wood) - Stain - Pore fill (apply full strength mixed epoxy with a squeegee) - Sand back (220 grit) level - Fill second time (epoxy, slightly thicknened, about 30% by volume silica thickener) - Sand back (220 grit) level - Repeat filling steps again if needed - To even out any colour differences, if you don't sand off everything and leave a thin coating on the wood, pad on (cotton pad) some epoxy thinned 25-30% with denatured alcohol. Gives you a nice, thin coat. Then finish as desired. For stains, you have to be a little more careful about sanding through (ie, don't), or just shoot tinted lacquers instead. Most 'stainable' woods (like maple) don't require pore filling. Z-poxy is carried by many (most?) good hobby stores. And you want the Finishing resin (PT 40) for pore filling, not the regular stuff. It's much thinner, flows quite well, and sands easily. Wear a mask when sanding, gloves (disposable) when mixing and applying.

3mm (1/8") MINIMUM, not much more than 5mm max. The closer it is to the back of the neck, the better it works (away from the neck's neutral axis). I have a bunch of Allied Lutherie dual-action rods which are thinner and work at least as well as the hotrod.

Make a template, mount it elevated (little 'feet' on either side of the template), route away. I'm not sure I see the big difficulty here. I do this all the time for set neck guitars.