Guitarfrenzy

lol.. I forgot to mention that I've used Grizzly fretwire before, and it works great with a Stew Mac slotted fingerboard. The only problem I have is that I like taller fretwire, and like was mentioned earlier, they only have medium height wire and smaller. No issue on the quality though.

I might be crazy, but I don't think Soapbar is going to disclose where he bought the fretwire. I might be proven wrong though. Stainless steel wire is great and last forever, but is real hard to work with and is rough on your tools.

I agree with the others, your going to have more problems with the looks of the guitar, than the sound. I did a quick Photoshop edit to see how it would look.

What kind of paint are you going to use? Spray paint? If so you might want to get the clear Effex paint from Dupli-color. I'm sure there are other brands that make the same thing. After you've painted with the emerald green base coat, then use this to add a small amount of glitter, sparkle to your finish. If your going to use professional automotive paint, you can buy different sparkle, glitter to mix into your clear coat also.

Count me in!!! Whatever you guys decide, just let me know how I can be of help in making this a reality.

I'm absolutely saddened by this news. I really don't know what to say... My heart goes out to his family. Steve was a great guy and will definitely be missed by all.

Welcome to the forum Robert!!

First off, welcome to the forum!!! What your calling an input jack is actually called an output jack, think about signal path here. What your wanting to do is totally possible, but your going to have to fill in the hole the output jack plate is hiding, that is if you intend to completely get rid of it. The problem is you'd never successfully match the wood, so you'd be limited to a solid color paint job so it hides the wood. It's very possible, but you must be realistic with yourself and if you don't think you could do it, just leave it alone. That being said though, since you've already stripped body down to just wood, this is the perfect time to do something like this!! Good luck..

Yeah, I really liked the Roto Shaper, a very cool machine indeed. I also like shop tour videos, as you can learn a lot from them.

Like mattia said, normally you'd want to grainfill mahogany if your wanting a smooth finish. Just depends on what your wanting though, do you want to see the small dips of the grain pores or want a smooth glass like finish? In the big scheme of things it really doesn't matter, just a personal preference.

I want to see the pictures of it finished, keep us posted. Again, great work as usual Myka...

.005" was correct. The acceptable range of relief is anywhere from .015" to 0"(no relief). Fender specs call for .012" relief. Other manufactures have different specs they like to use too. So, yes relief is very slight.

Has anyone else watched any of the Factory Friday videos from this link at Taylor Guitars? Click on Factory Fridays link and watch video #1 Roto-shaper, it's a very interesting machine to say the least. Definitely videos that us guitar builders will enjoy watching.

Another great build from Myka. Very nice work!!

Listen to Setch on this, he knows what he's talking about. You see, if you use the steam method your reintroducing the wood to moisture again at a high level, so you should have let it dried out again over a period of months before you glued the fingerboard back on. I had a similiar problem one time, and I just reglued the neck on, but what happened is that when I finished the guitar about two months later the wood I noticed the neck had a blue streak appear in the wood. Ironically it was at the top part of the maple where it meets the fingerboard, and in the location that received the most steam. We'll you can guess what caused it because it wasn't there before. Moisture!! And remember that's why you buy kiln dried wood in the first place, so be cautious about reusing wood that has been steamed. There are various methods I'll use when gluing on the fretboard to keep it from sliding, which can be a bad problem if you don't know how to keep it from happening. You can do like Setch said, or I've used these methods successfully before also: - Route the back of your fingerboard so that you leave a small amount of wood sticking out in the middle that will slot down into the truss slot hole. This will guarantee no movement will gluing, and a similar method that Taylor guitars uses. - Drill out three small holes on the neck wood, and back of fingerboard using a template to keep them perfectly in place. Use the correct size dowel and cut them so that you can glue them into the back of the fingerboard holes. Now when you get ready to glue up, you align the holes and this will also guarantee no movement. I've seen quite a bit of people use this method, including Ron Thorn, check out this picture to get a better idea of it. Thorn Fingerboard Good luck..

I think your right, but you never know. It's worth a try to find out, I guess I was just wishful thinking. The main thing that has caught my attention on the Variax nowdays is the software that will let you do alternate tunings and save them back to the variax.. Very cool. Has anyone else seen the videos I'm talking about? At the bottom of this page scroll the video links until you see Variax Alternate Tunings with Workbench and click on it to watch. Very neat. Also watch the Variax Pitch Tricks one that's next to it. I'm pretty sure I can get the routing templates for the Variax from Ronny at Guitarbuildingtemplates.com, but I'm not sure if Line6 has change them lately or not.

WT??? A volute is nearly doubling the thickness of the neck at a point where: the neck is at its thinnest the neck is at its narrowest there is no fretboard to add strength the truss rod cavity is generally wider and often deeper than the rest of the neck right where the nut is, with a bunch of strings exerting more downward pressure than you probably have ever considered there may possibly even be binding, which is only a small amount, but still has zero load bearing ability there may possibly even be a recessed nut, making it even weaker I agree Perry, if you build the neck and don't design it correctly it will be structually weaker in that area. I wasn't trying to incenuate that a volute is a bad thing at all. All I was trying to say, but did a bad job of it, was that if your not going to use a volute at least use a scarf joint neck and not a one piece. I was talking about the headstock area, not the area you are talking about, when I was making that last statement. Your talking about joint area itself, which I total agree with you on. A volute should strenghten this region, but I still haven't seen any test done to actually prove this, but I have seen a demonstration between a one piece neck, verses scarf joint neck and it took quite a bit more force to break the scarf joint neck. In my case, my necks all start contour sloping up comforatably just before the nut area, so there is more wood underneath this area. Look at a Fender guitar neck for example. I do agree about the truss cavity slot does weaken this area, and a volute would add strength to it. I also agree that from just my experience with Ibanez locking nut, since they made the neck even weaker by drilling two big holes for two screws to hold the metal nut in place, that this can make that area even weaker. I've fixed two guitars that had cracks in the neck that started from that very spot. I'm not arguing these points, because I feel the same way you do about it. Actually all I was trying to say was that if your not going to make a volute, at least scarf joint the neck.

It's just a personal preference, some like them, some don't. I've only built one guitar that had a volute, simply because I personally don't care for them much and no other reason. All the guitars I've built are for myself, so that makes a big difference, and if I was building for someone else and they wanted one, I'd do it in a heartbeat. If your doing custom guitars, you need to offer options like this for your clients. So really it just comes down to what you like and if your building for others, what they like. As far as making the guitar have more sustain, I'm not sure about that one, anyone have any scientific data to back that up? If so I'd love to see it. I do recommend you do a volute if your making the neck from one piece of wood though, beacause of grain runout, but if your scarf jointing the headstock, I really don't know how much a volute would add to the stability of the headstock area, if much at all.

true.. white deflects sound waves, while black absorbs... um wait, that might be sunlight I'm thinking about. Hopefully everyone knows your just joking about the color of paint affecting tone.. lol

I'd agree, it's not going to give you the same vintage Strat sound, as Ash, or Alder that Fender uses. Nice point mattia.

I say go for it, although I've never made a Strat using Mahogany either. You should get a good tone, as there are people who have used Mahogany before, and even Fender has some models that use Mahogany. If you need any guidance on building a Strat, you can read my old pictorial at this link.... Hopefully it will help your building go smoother. Good luck..

Thanks Gorecki, from what I hear the Variax 300 doesn't have the XLR out right? But if you get the Variax 500 and up the electronics are all the same right? Or am I missing something. I know there are people out there that are transplating them into their guitars. link 1 link 2 link 3 link 4 I thought I might do that with my next build, but haven't decided yet. I do like the sound it gives you and the fast alternate tuning you can do with it are very cool, but I really don't care for the way the original Variax plays.

I was just curious if anyone know if Line 6 is, or is considering selling Variax Electronics? ....or if I'm wanting them I'll have to do like others have done and buy the complete guitar and strip the electronics from it?

I personally agree with Russ, if there is any difference at all it would be very minute one. Just my opinion though.

There's an elderly man I heard about who lives about 60 miles south of me who builds guitars by the name of Bob Pill. I went to visit him and talk about guitar building one day. He's actually used cherry to build a neck and top for a guitar, and it sounded great to me. This is the only picture I have of it, it's in the background behind the acoustic he made; which btw is one of the best I've ever played, period. The sad thing is that he has serious vision problems and is slowly going blind, but that didn't stop him from building these guitars. It's really amazing to me, and he even does inlays. Anyway, he said the cherry for the neck took a while before it became stablized, and that he worried that he might have made a mistake using it, but he put it aside and later it had no problems. So, I'd watch using cherry for a neck wood, unless you want to wait, or use carbon fiber rods to help it out. As far as the body goes, I think it will sound good with cherry wood top, it's worth a try...