Mattia

Heh. I'm building, I'm building! Got one acoustic to finish, some new bending forms to make (building molds are done), and then I'm starting three. That Sapele, however, is staying right where it is until I'm sure I can do it justice, both visually and tonally. Besides, given LMI is selling pretty much identical sets for about 600 bucks (and I paid a good bit less than that for all four), well, I'm in no hurry to screw a set up, like.

Sure, my address is....hang on... ... Nice try, Setch :-p I'm tempted to leave the ziricote sapwood without a centre strip, let the sapwood speak for itself, although I'll probably use something fairly sedate for the binding on that one (ebony, perhaps. Or fairly plain maple). Light bindings on dark woods, dark bindings on light woods, or same binding as wood but with contrasting purfling (which is there anyway) is my way of thinking. I'm still pondering whether the Ziricote should get a bearclaw or a regular Italian Spruce top. Either way, methinks that particular chunk of wood is several years away from getting built with. Gonna start with the cheaper, less crazy!figure stuff, and save the figured exotics for later :-). Got an EIR Grand A, Walnut medium Jumbo and a Cherry Parlour lined up next. RGGR: I've got 4 of those quilt sapele sets (I think it's 4, anyway). They're quite stunning. Most insane wood I've got in my 'stash', that's for certain.

Make a perfect drawing, cut it out perfectly, use it to make a plywood or MDF template that's dead-on accurate, use a router to trim down to the lines, and then re-bevel everything. Like crafty said, a stanionary drum sander is your friend in this situation, although for convex curves (ie, everything but the inside of the cutouts and the waist area), a flat/belt/disc/block of wood sander is going to get you smoother results. Drums aren't great at dealing with convex curves.

A very fine kerfed blade? Scroll saw or similar? Alternately, slice a bookmatch off the back of your blank (1/8" or so), and you'll have an almost perfect match with a very tight fit. What I've done and will do again on bodies without caps on the back (because frankly, I don't much like capping backs. Mahogany, ash, limba, beautiful in their own right, and deserve a good showing off) is scribe around the pickup cover, use a dremel with a very fine bit to route through, clean up a little, and bind the cover to 'fill' the gap. Works nice, even works on carved backs (although it's a tad fiddly).

If I'm reading this right, I think Drak's saying he's building a Tele out od Cedro, not WRC. If you use the WRC, it'll sound like a guitar, should be fine, but not like a les paul. I think Ellie Erikson's built a few WRC guitars, should be some info on this in the MIMF library.

OK, fer cryin' out loud, how many of you folks have bought 'Make Your Own Electric Guitar'? Because it's explained there very clearly, with pictures. Clearly a search, or even reading StewMac's free info sheets, or any number of tutorials and such seems to be a little too complicated. The first 30 bucks you spend, IMO, should be the 30 bucks you spend on that book. Read it 2 or 3 times, read the tutorials, read the MIMF library, read StewMac's info sheets, read, read, read. Reading is good. And almost more importantly, THINK about what you read. Take notes, make scale drawings, etc. When you have a question, best come in and explain what you do understand, and then what you don't, so people can figure out where the understanding is wrong/incomplete. After all that reading, go back to that awesome killer death guitar design that's gonna revolutionize the instrument, evaluate it critically, draw it out in full, and start makin' sawdust. Sorry. Needed a rant. Right. Scale length. Scale length = length of vibrating strings. Twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret. Calculated using a bit of software, if you're masochistic by hand, or using a pre-made fret rule or template. DO NOT measure another guitar and expect to get dead-on results. That way lies stupidity and a potentially unplayable guitar. To the original question: you CAN 'add' frets 'below' the nut and make the scale length longer that way. Do a bit of math, and extrapolate backwards (some fret calculators: tell it to calculate fret numbers -1 and -2, f'r example). Reason to do this, for me? Say I want a baritone fingerboard, and I have a perfectly good stainless steel 25.5" scale template from stewmac. That puts almost all the frets I'll need in perfect positions. Only need to calculate, mark and saw two by hand, so that's a hair less error right there. But if you just want more frets, move the neck pickup.

Spalt maple should stabilize fairly well if soaked with thin CA, although I'm not sure it'd be quite strong enough for a fingerboard. Maybe with an additional epoxy finish or something. I'd seriously consider contacting Larry at Gallery Hardwoods and looking into an acrylic impregnated spalt maple fingerboard. Would stabilize the sucker properly, that's for sure.

Indeed. But if y'tune down, it's hardly a high A string anymore, is it? There are a few jazz boxes (archtops, methinks), although might've been an acoustc guitar, with a High A, and I'm fairly certain the topic's come up on the MIMF before. In that case, a shorter scale rather than a longer one is a good idea, although a fanned fret type layout might be an even better one.

Yes...yes, that's it. I like your rationale better than mine ;-) I very much agree it's a whole lot more fun to sift through the pile, looking at pieces of wood, trying to figure out what instrument is hiding inside them rather than designing, then buying for them specifically. Plus, y'know, if you're bored you can sift through them for fun. Few links to pics of the general wood stashyness (don't really have any of the boards of 'stuff'). A few sample acoustic back/side sets (for most, I have more than one set. 'cept Ziricote, really). Some pics are wiped down with naphta, most are 'dry': Macassar ebony Madagascar rosewood Quilted Sapele Plain-jane Bubinga 'Waterfall' figure Bubinga Cocobolo Cuban mahogany Pau Ferro Ziricote Cherry US Sycamore Lightly flamed black walnut Couple of Zebrano boards I'm not quite sure what I'll do with yet: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics2...no/Zebrano1.jpg 'Bargain' figured maple carve tops (cost me 38 bucks each or something like that, and I don't always need insano quilt...although I would like some): http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ameDT%20010.jpg http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ernDT%20014.jpg http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ernDT%20017.jpg http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ernDT%20019.jpg Funky (wipe down) red/coral/partly spalted maple for carved top (wiped down version, dealer pic, so the color is more towards golden brown than the orangeyness it's got here): http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics5/redmaple01.jpg Quilt maple for drop top: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics5/quilt01.jpg And we're ignoring the mahogany, maple and cherry boards outside, for I have no pictures of them :-) Right. Off to window-shop for s'more quilt maple...

Well, you're half right ;-)

Wuh? Ash has some of the biggest pores this side of Wenge and the Grand Canyon, and Koa is most certainly porous. If you want a natural oiled feel, however, I'd say you're fine not filling; I never do on my oil finished projects, because I like the natural organic feel you get. However, if you want it smooth, you will have to fill. Also, test your finish of choice on scraps of both woods, to make sure they both react properly/don't want a sealer and sit there drinking finish until next tuesday if you let them. Also, here's the fun thing with oil finishes: 220? 320? 400? All way too rough to get the perfect oil-type finish. You want to get that wood crazy smooth. You want to sand up to at the very least 800, possibly even hit it with 0000 grade steel wool (or synthetic equivalent, if you don't want to risk any slivers getting stuck in grain, rusting, doing weird stuff). You want it almost smoothly reflective. 220 is far too rough for this kind of thing. Oil doesn't need anything to 'bite' on to like lacquer does. Oh, and that grain raising thing? Unnecessary in this case. Good if you're gonna stain directly, otherwise I don't really see the point. Oil's not gonna raise the grain.

Really shouldn't be an issue. It's a bit more problematic with some of the waterbased stuff, apparently (KTM, at least. Mike Doolin reccomends shooting a coat of denatured alcohol on the next day to 'soften' the finish slightly and make sure the new coats burn in), but nitro's pretty damn forgiving.

In part it's up to you, but what I'd call safe margins: Back thickness, about 5-6mm (hair under 1/4"). The 'walls' around the edges, I'd leave at about 12-15mm (1/2"-5/8" ish, if you bend sides, like on an acoustic, .085 is fine, but with all the end-grain involved in routing a solid piece, no way). Neck set, well, do what you want to, really, keeping in mind how much 'meat' will be there after you route out the neck pickup. 1"-1.5" should be about fine, though. wood around the neck, I'd say at least an inch around, just to be on the safe side. Width of the neck pickup plus a little should be plenty, though. You don't need any wood between neck pocket and hollow cavities if you don't want it, although I'd extend the neck pocket 'support area' about to the end of the pickup at the very least. Basically, draw it out, and use a bit of common sense. Wood is pretty darn strong stuff, especially post-laminating everything together.

well, yeah, if you don't care too much what wood it's made of, what said wood looks like, and/or how many pieces it's made of. Plenty of cheaper body suppliers that do decent bodies for less than Warmoth does 'em, though. That said, my first project was an assembled strat from Warmoth parts, and I'm not sorry I went with them.

Um, just a question: you gonna smooth out the lumps and bumps that the guitar's got pretty much all the way 'round the perimeter? Including but not limited to the entire lower bout, the waist, the horns, and particularly that treble-side sticky outey bit next the the neck pocket? Might be perspective, but the general shape looks way out of whack and balance to me.

Yep, that's what I meant! Horn still needs a touch of work, but y'said that yourself already :-) It's the transition to the 'tips' that doesn't quite gel for me yet.

I am, yeah, but I'm talking about the Amsterdamsche Fijnhouthandel, not the Arnhemse, which, judging by the pics on the website, is a little more shall we say serious about wood storage, handling and such. But their prices are higher, the Amsterdam place is close to home, and they do have quite a bit of good stuff if you're willing to sift.

Interesting thoughts, thanks! About the 'pickups are cheap' bit...not if you buy brand name. Materials for pickups are cheap, though, which is why I'm going to start trying to wind some. I figure if I really don't like the sound, cutting the windings off and re-winding is a matter of an hour's work or so, and a couple of bucks worth of wire. Besides, when was 'buying is cheaper' ever an argument to dissuade people from building their own here, particularly when it comes to something you don't strictly need a whole lot of time or high tech equipment to do, right? ;-)

Tinted finish is just that, a clearcoat that's got a colour. Like tinted glass, like. Something like a cherryburst is done with tinted lacquers for example. Candy's a different look altogether, but one I'll leave people who actually do them to answer. Look up car paints and colours for examples of candy finishes, though. Let me add that I've had pretty good success with StewMac's colortone waterbased filler. Takes several applicaitons to get a good, complete fill, but it's easy to work, and sands back well.

Lookin' good! A few things I'd work on a little more: taper the upper horn down a little, so it's not the same 'height' as the rest of the top carve. Like a gentle slope, basically. I do mine like this (pre-rubout picture of the guitar I built for my GF): http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics/guitar_r_07.jpg Basically, I think the tip of the horn could 'fair' into the rest of the carve a little more smoothly. Second, the basic carve shape: I'd say put a little more recurve into it. Right now, the separation between the 'flat' part of the carve around the edges and the 'semicircle' dome shape of the actual carve, and the really overly large flat area on the face make it look a little unbalanced. I always aim for a transition that looks and feels smooth. Kind of a sigmoid curve sort of shape, more like it looks like you've done in the waist area, bass side. On my own guitars, the only areas I leave flat initially are where the pickups need to go, and where the bridge goes. The carve starts right there, and smoothly progresses out. It's a more 'gradual' curve, less obvious in it's immediate 'depth', but I feel carves look more balanced this way. To my eye, there's too much 'bulk' left in the lower bout, by a good bit. Just my thoughts.

dyes won't get you candy coat, they'll get you tinted finishes. Lots of people use epoxy as a clear filler with great success. Many, many acoustic builders (who almost per definition use finishes) included. LMI's system 3 clearcoat, and Z-Poxy Finishing Resin (a fibreglass resin, really) seem to be the faves.

Methinks he should go read Frets.com and order a couple of Dan Erlewine's setup books/vids, because he's clearly doing something wrong. And we won't mention the other paragraphs of claptrap he's trying to peddle. Does anyone out there believe even half of that crap?

It's the same thing as lighter fluid (zippo, like), but what the stuff is called in the UK is slipping my mind for the moment...

It's still a good ways off from the real core of the tree, which is where you're very likely to get splits and checks. Classic flat/riftsawn body blank right there.

oh yeah...your right.i thought those were aniline.i guess i only paid attention to what they were compatible with. maybe lmii? ← Sadly not. Won't ship internationally, due to hazardous substances (says so on their metallic complex dyes page) The idiotic thing is, until, oh, 4-5 months ago, getting ColorTone shipped by air wasn't an issue. Only wish I'd bought the full set back then.