Guitarfrenzy

Let's just hope its good looking wood.. lol.. and Swamp Ash at that...

You have definetely broke the truss rod... it doesn't take alot of movement to adjust one... You should have only moved it in 1/4 turns... then tested to see the relief at the 7th or 8th fret.. with the first fret held down by a capo and pressing down on the last fret... it should measure from .005" to .012" or so with a feeler guage... also my guess is you didn't loosen the strings tension at the tuning gears... which is strongly recommended... Being a Fender I'm thinking the best thing to do is order a neck that will replace it.. since the Squire neck might not be worth saving.. unless you want to do alot of fret work and such on top of replacing the truss rod.... but hopefully Brian, LGM or someone else who is skilled in this area might give you a better suggestion... Basically the guitar plays better because now that the truss rod is broke it probably has the right amount of relief now.. which ironically means that the strings are pulling the neck ..which won't stop and will probably get too much relief down the road.. from the tension... what it also tells you is that you was turning the truss rod the wrong way .. since adding relief to the neck straightened out your problem.. you should have been loosening the rod instead of tightening it... Good Luck.. Matt

I'll have to say that guitar looks totally awesome.. very good tips also... I'm still working on my Polishing skills.. I finished the guitar and got a good glossy finishy.. except I can still see very tiny scratches that go with the grain of the wood.. I musta done something wrong... I did it all by hand and didn't use a drill with nylon finishing pad... would that make the difference... also I had some orange peel I had to deal with.. so basically learned alot of hard lessons.. but I bet I'm in for some more.. lol

I just bought a set of Nicholson Hobby files... they work pretty good.. but I think I'm gonna do like Dan Erlwine said and just buy 3 good ones from StewMac .. like the 1st string file.. and use it on the 2nd string by angling it some both ways.. and making the slot bigger.. etc. etc.. .. so basically buy 3 files for the 1st string, 3rd string and 5th string and use them to make the next size slot with them also... maybe that will save a bit of money.. and if that don't work.. buy the other 3 later.. lol..

I just got the book Make Your Own Electric Guitar a couple of days ago... And he uses a small needle file to slot the nut on page 181.... does anyone know where to get one of these files... also... what kinda saw blades are you talking about LGM? Where can I find those.. Thanks

I see you finally found time to register... lol... I'll call Stew-Mac for you to see what they have... I had no idea you was wanting a translucent finish... just thought you was gonna paint it metallic black... Did you get your book yet? I got mine couple of days ago..

Inside the body inbetween the jack plate cavity and the routed out cavity where the pots and switches goes.. there is a place you have to drill inside the guitar so you can run the wires from the jack plate(input) to the pots... How do they drill that .. I'm sure you have to have a different bit to do that.. or am I missing anything...

Can a product like Thin Ice be used on a wood your gonna stain or leave translucent? If not what kinda wood filler will take stain and look good..?

Exactly,, "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" is the bible of guitar building.. I'm still reading it.. lol.. best deal I found was here... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/095...7907850-0952641 Also check out Stewart MacDonald site... and look at the free information sheets... www.stewmac.com

Youv'e definetely came to the right place.. I can't begin to tell you how much I've learned since I became a member... It's the best on the web... but to answer your question.. The bar is called a truss rod... and it's there so you can adjust the relief in the neck.. there are many links you can go to that will explain this in great detail... but basically when you tighten the truss rod it straightens the neck.. and when you lossen it.. you relieve pressure from the neck so the strings pull it and give you relief in the neck.. the best way to measure relief .. that is if you already have the strings on it.. place a capo on the first fret and press down on the last fret of the 6th string or bass string.. and measure with a feeler guage set the distance between the top of the 7th fret to the bottom of the string ... it should range anywhere from .004" to .015".... I like around .008"... or so.. but really what you'd want to do is start with no relief in the neck.. or a straight neck.. using straight edges to check... then lossen the truss rod.. bout 1/4 of a turn is alot.. so be careful... and see if you don't have any buzzes.. when the bridge is setup right.. basically the straighter you can get by with the neck .. and have no buzzing the better.. or more comfortable it is to fret.. humm I'll find you some links later today... Hope this helps...

Very nice tip.. I'm gonna try that out tomorrow.. thanks

I think LGM can help you out on this one.. I'm not quite sure myself.. but your obviously gonna have to paint the guitar one color first then using templates cut out in circles.. maybe cardboard.. paint wiht a different.. probably white.. the circles last...

I've heard you can do it to Rosewood was just wondering how much extra care you have to take to do it right? Or basically the same as regular maple...?

These are maple fretboards your talking about right.. not rosewood..

Do I really need to shell out over one hundred dollars for the ones at Stew Mac.. or does anyone know of a good alternative... I don't mind paying for them If they are the best ones and only ones I can get to do the job right.. Thanks... Matt

Yeah no kidding... Just look at the price difference in the "Make Your Own Electric Guitar Book".... Stewart Mac's Price... 27.50 http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?a...ectric&sku=0532 Amazon.com's Price.... 19.25 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...PDKIKX0DER&st=* Oh wait.. you could buy 5 or more from Stew Mac.. then it wouldn't be such a rip off.. lol... only a dollar or so more then.. not as bad as $8.25 more... Yikes... But I'm not trying to slam Stew Mac.. I just think that they could come down on some of their prices a bit.. But I still buy stuff from Stew Mac all the time.. cause they have about anything you could ever think of.... and have great service also... Matt

First off, if your gonna fill in a bunch of places and also having to fix the sides next to the neck... Your probably gonna want to take the neck.. carefully off the body so you can really repaint... It's too much trouble to keep it off the neck and pickguard etc.. unless they are completely taken off.. leaving just the body to work on... I'm not the best at this kinda stuff yet.. but that's what I'd do... It's gonna be hard to match up the colors if you don't know where or how to match them... This might be the time you want to sand the paint down or strip it and start over since you'll want to used grain filler etc. sandable sealer and such to get all the gashes you have in the wood out.. That's what I'd do.. but you better get some better advice.. someone like Brian, LGM(Jeremy), they can help ya out alot.. But guess what.. from what I've seen It's totally normal for the bodies wood to be cracked where it meets the neck... Even my newer guitar was like this.. I didn't even notice it till months later... and it's never gave me a problem.. but It just depends how bad it is.. I'm just talking a slight crack... Show us some pictures so we can get a better idea of what your dealing with... Matt

I read all those things before I started and still made alot of the mistakes.. lol... I guess the worse thing you can do to set yourself up for failure.. is to think your gonna do a perfect job on it the first one you build... Another thing I will never do is rush the final stages of the finish work.. and let it set for at least a week or two... before I sand and polish the last time. Guitar building isn't something your rush through... It's Patience Patience and Patience... something I didn't realise as much till I experienced it myself.... So yeah.. no matter how hard you try.. your gonna make some mistakes.. or at least I did... Matt

Looks like Fender is buying alot of companies.. http://www.usamusician.com/news/MusicBizNe...s/swr/index.asp

We'll hopefully we are trying to build better guitars than all of them.. or at least I hope that's our quest... but I have to give Matia credit for being original... I bet Prince would play that guitar anyday.. lol Just not sure if someone like Eric Clapton would look right playing it.. or BB King even.. lol... can you even visualize that... Anyway... as far as Fender being crap... yeah we all know they don't put out much good stuff anymore.. and for sometime in the 90's they routed out a swimming pool just for ease of pickup configuration.. they didn't care if the guitar sounded worse without pickup cavities.. lol.. mass produced.... but then again.. you've got to give Fender credit.. they have a certain sound you can only get with a Fender... that's why I have one.. But I also don't think Fender guitars with the single coil.. will do it for heavy metal.. lol.. Thus I pick up my Gibson Les Paul Custom for that... and it has that nice tone for those styles of music.. so basically each guitar has it's place.. That's why I'm not much on the Line6 Variax.. sure It comes close to sounding like the original.. but the feel of the guitars makes you play differently... and that's something they can't emulate.. I used to hate the old Ibanez guitars.. because they was made cheap and didn't stay in tune very good.. but they came on strong and have become a good guitar company... Jackson is a great guitar company also.. but guess what guys... Fender bought them out... if you don't believe me goto www.fender.com and see... actually I read an article with Dave Mustaine(Megadeth).. that said he wanted to buy Jackson when they sold it.. and had told them he did .. but they went with Fender and didn't want to work with him on a deal... so he even switched to ESP.. because they told him they would let him be the one to buy it if they ever sold... but anyway... Jackson is in the hands of Fender now.. so I'm wondering how that will turn out.. hopefully they'll still make them with flat radius necks instead of the kind Fender makes... thank god Fender finally made there radius somewhat bigger.. now at least you don't fret out when you bend in the upper regions of the neck... lol

1. Always sand and seal no matter what they say... Sandable sealer or primer is a must... depending on what kinda paint your gonna use.. especially if you've been handling the guitar after you seal... you will have oil off your skin that won't dry after you paint.. you'll see blotches... I almost cried when I had a great paint job and only flaws is the oil under it never dried... 2. Paint when it's not bad hot or humid... I got a bad case of orange peel that had to be sanded way down... with 400 grit... and ended up going to the primer in some places.. thus gonna have to repaint it... 3. Learn to cut better with the scroll saw before doing the headstock.. or if you slow down you'll have burn marks in your wood if not using the right blade and speed... 4. Take it easy on the sanding in the polishing phase... especially the edges... I got into the primer on the edge of one of the horns... YIKES... but if I would have gotten rid of the orange peel and painted more coats with the right environment I probably wouldn't have had this problem.. because I had to get the surface lvl... 5. ALWAYS,,, I MEAN ALWAYS.... Check to see if everything you buy or get will fit on the guitar.. example... I didn't check to see if the new Sperzel tuners was any different size... and so I painted the headstock and was finished when I realised what a grave mistake I had made.. I'm still crying about this mistake.. All in all it was a good experience and one that will help me get better on my next guitar... Thanks to all the help from this site.. I didn't make as many mistakes as I thought I would make... Matt

At least you thought to look... and didn't make the mistake I made.. thinking that the tuners would fit.. I sanded, sealed, and painted... the headstock before It hit me.. lol.. and let me tell you.. drills mess up paint jobs.. But was a learning experience for me.. since I'm just starting out..

So basically, he's gonna need to read the polishing tutorial... and start with whatever grade that will get the job done.. humm

Yeah.. I'm thinking I mixed Acrylic Lacquer and Nitrocellulose Lacquer but the high temperature didn't help much... also.. I was in an environment where there was too much air movement... But last night I got lucky.. thank god I put 14 coats of clear on it... I did what Brian, and Krazyderek suggested... I started sanding.. thinking that I'd have to spray more clear coats over it..... So I began wet sanding with 400 grit.. simply because I tried 800 grit and it still showed... I sanded it until.. all the surface became dull... cause I found that if there was any shiny spots.. they'd show up later no matter what finer grit i used... ... so I got a nice dull finish... then started with 600 grit.. wet sanded with it a while... then 800 grit.. and finally 1000 grit.. then I used a 3m polishing compound.. and applied it and used a rag to swirl it on ... and to my suprise... It looked great... I mean really good.. lol... only thing I see is lightly scratches in the finish... The 3m compound I used said it was for taking the scratches out of 1500 grit and lighter... so I'm thinking I should have used even lighter grit like 1200 and 1500 to get a better finish.. any suggestions? I'm gonna hook a attachment to the drill today and sand it that way... maybe it will do better... Matt

I've been reading more about this and from what I can tell.. It was way too hot for me to be painting... the lacquer dryed before it hit the wood.. Here is some information I found on the subject off the internet... Orange Peel Identification Uneven surface formation, texture like skin of an orange Cause: • Improper spraying pressure/technique or application temperatures • Improper flash or recoat times between coats • Extreme shop temperatures (When air temperature is too high, droplets lose more solvent and dry out before they can flow out and level.) • Use of improper reducer/thinner (Fast evaporating solvents cause the atomized droplets to dry before they reach the surface.) • Materials not mixed correctly Prevention: • Use proper gun adjustments, techniques and recommended pressures • Schedule paint jobs to avoid extreme temperature/humidity conditions • Allow proper drytimes for undercoats/topcoats per manufacturer’s recommendations • Use recommended thinners per manufacturer’s instructions • Follow paint mixing instructions carefully per manufacturer’s recommendations Repair Process: • Sand and buff using a mild polishing compound for enamel, rubbing compound for lacquer • In extreme conditions, sand to smooth surface and respray topcoat