Guitarfrenzy

The first ever asymmetrical neck contour was probably from a luthier who actually messed up and took too much wood away from one side of the neck.. lol So, instead of saying it was a mistake, he claimed it as the best thing since sliced bread, and gave it a groovy name, wrote articles about it on his webpage, etc. Actually it's suprisingly not patented by now.. Enough history though.....

I have actually been thinking about building a asymetrical fingerboard. The treble side would be a flatter radius, and the bass side more round. I'm patenting it right now though, so don't steal my ideas.. haha The patent actually is pending, because I ran out of money..

Probably anodized. Just take some 320 sandpaper and scuff them up and the solder will stick.

Exactly.. I sometimes just use the edge of my pocket knife and scrap a spot off to solder to. That's when I'm in a lazy mood and the sandpaper is at another table.. haha

I honestly can't imagine why a 9" or 10" bandsaw would not be capable of cutting 2" body stock (I should say if the saw is set up correctly and the blade is in reasonably good shape- of coarse right blade for the job). You can even cut 2" body stock with a scroll saw (but again takes a bit longer). When I am re-sawing about the only reason my machine would start to bog down is if the blade was not running straight and true (more power could overcome the blade wander, but I need straight cuts). Depending on density and width of re-saws I have to adjust my feed rate (which could be increased with more speed and power to the blade), but it is really quick enough for how often I do that.

The most important thing you can do to get the most out of any bandsaw. Is to learn how to set it up correctly to make proper clean cuts. Set up includes using the right blade for the job .

Peace,Rich

P.S. I would love to have a 36" Powermatic (backhoe would be awsome too).

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?...p;bidsite=CRAFT

Any used this or a similar tool? I was thinking it could make short work of sanding out arm and belly contours. I think you get locked into special sanding discs, but Sears sells 280 through 1000 grit discs for it and the prices aren't bad. Whaddya think?

Might have been mentioned already (too lazy to read all the post - and I DON'T even smoke pot ).

Learn guitar set-up first. Buy the videos and books about it, find out what tools are needed, then start getting them, and using them. (Maybe make some of them, if possible. Learn skills for doing that stuff. basic woodworking, machinist techniques, etc). I can't imagine being able to get the most out of building a guitar from scratch, if you can't diagnose and tweak all the little flaws they always have.

Congrats, Matt! I think you made the right call.

Sounds a bit like me, though, buying tools and having no workshop to put them in.

Mike

Actually I asked if I could store it at my cousin's shop after he told me about it.. lol.. So I knew I'd have a place to put it. We moved earlier this year and I'm shopless, thus I haven't build many guitars lately.. But, hopefully by October or sooner I'll have one up. I really think this was a deal I couldn't pass up, especially since it will do thickness sanding, that will cut my sanding time down considerably. It's the kind of tool I can build a great shop around, unfortunately I got it before the shop..haha

I've got an S-10 too man. Love the little thing!

Anyways, you got away with a steal there, looks real nice. I wish I had just a drum sander/thicknesser, like a Performax one. That thing is massive though, hope you're got space for it. Plus, you got an extra 75$ to spend now

Lucky man, looks awesome!

Chris

Yeah, and it would barely fit sideways in the truck, and the guy whose things was getting auctioned off, acted like he was pissed, because he thought he'd get at least 2,500 out of it. I asked him if I could leave it until tomorrow, and he didn't seem to like that idea... lol It was hard to let the other deals pass, simply because I didn't want to spend all my shop money..haha Here's some of the deals people got.

3,000 dollars worth of heavy duty clamps in all sizes for 300 dollars.

A brand new Delta 14" X series bandsaw went for $210 dollars.

Industrial Rockwell/Delta Radial Armsaw with 10 ft table, $175 dollars.

Too much to list..

But if you want some good deals I highly recommend hitting Auctions in your area.

I bought this used Woodmaster model 725, 25" Planer with Drum Sander attachment a couple of weekends back. I went to my first auction because my cousin told me about it, and it was a woodworking business that was selling out. I just went there to see if I could get a great deal on the 25" planer, I figured the bidding would get way out of hand, and I would come home empty handed. I went early so I could try it out to make sure everything was good. It worked like a charm, plus it had two extra set of blades ($160 value), 25" Drum Sander attachment (worth $355)(which effectively turns it into a thickness sander), the 6" Dust Chute ($108 retail), etc. It even had the reverse kit, so you can reverse the direction of feed when sanding.

First off, the auction went great for the buyers, almost everything was dirt cheap, and good quality. So, it was hard to not bid on a lot of things because I didn't want to spend too much money so I could try to get the big planer. I set myself a limit of 900 dollars, because I wanted to either get a great deal, or I wasn't buying. I have been saving up for my new shop and didn't really want to spend any of the money, but if I could get a great deal, heck, it would be the centerpiece of my shop. When the dust settled, I ended up being the highest bidder at $825 dollars, I was happy, but at the same time I was in my little S-10 truck, and was thinking, *** have I done and how will I get this huge planer in my truck? Luckily I helped some other guys, so they in turn helped me.. thank god!! lol I later called Woodmaster to find out that it had the Pro Pak and it would cost me around 4 thousand dollars to get a new one to my door.. so maybe it wasn't a bad deal.

Anyway, I think I got a pretty good deal considering what all it will do. It set my plans back for a shop a couple of months more, but I had to jump on this deal. Do you guys think I made a mistake?

First off, buy both Melvyn Hiscock and Martin Koch books and read them over and over. Then practice on scrap, until your ready to tear into some good wood. Good luck.

I watched it last night, it was pretty good. I didn't have time to TIVO it though, as I only turned it on halfway through the program. I'll record it though when it comes back on again. It was interesting, and I'm always take the chance to watch guitar companies work.

GR-33 Meaning Midi synth?

Well I think you could do it. First off, many people have transplanted Variax electronics into guitars. Secondly, I think graphtech makes an interface which takes the hexaphonic pickup signal and turns it into midi. Install both and you have exactly that.

Now all I have to do is save up the money for the high dollar electronic parts.. lol I hear the RMC pickup is the one to buy, and they aren't cheap. I have some slight false trigger problem with my Roland Strat sometimes, and RMC is suppose to do a better job of picking up the strings.

That wasn't too bad. I took my fretboard off within an hour. About halfway done, I got the hang of it, and the rest seemed really easy.

I just hope that the black stuff are natural.. From the tutorial, it had some black stuff on it too.

Pic

I've use that method to remove a fingerboard that wasn't fretted and it worked great. After you've steamed it and gotten the wood wet, you need to let it dry out a week or so though before proceeding with the build. At least that's what I didn't do one time and the neck wood blue streaked because after the neck had spray finish, the moisture stayed trapped in the wood and thus you could see a small blue streak in the wood a month later.. YIKES. I'm not talking about the fingerboard, just the neck wood if you plan on using it again.

Can you drill a new ground wire hole?

I agree the Workbench software is a great addition, the thought of being able to go to any tuning you want with a flick of a switch is unreal. Especially on songs where I do slide and then have to come back to rhythm. It would be great for that. I already called Line 6 about selling the electronics long ago, and they said they wouldn't and didn't plan to ever sell them seperately. I would love to have a guitar that had the Variax electronics in it, plus have the 13 pin for playing my GR-33 live. That would be an awesome combination.

My dad had talked to a guy at his job and the guy told my dad that the $39.99 one was made cheaply and didn't last very long. So I decided to buy a better Craftsman one from Sears.

That's a good choice, it's always better to get the highest quality tool you can afford at the time. Good going, any pictures of it?

I personally liked the way you had it in the first picture. It really looked neat. The stain to my eyes has taken away from the look you had, but then again, it's your guitar and your doing a great job. Looks great to me, just not as good as you once had it in my opinion. I'm sure it will turn out great once you get done though.

Looking great, keep up the good work!!

I'm not really sure wood glue will give you the best bond. I think epoxy and super glue would be a much better choice, although I'm not saying you can't use wood glue. I've never used Titebond to glue in any inlay, so I'm not versed enough to tell you if it'd work good enough or not. I usually use epoxy for inlays. The dot inlays can be kinda hard to place if you've already filled the inlay cavities with glue. I've seen a Taylor guitar video, where they first place the inlay dot first, then use thin superglue over it, and it seeps down around the inlay once it's soaked good, and this really does a great job without a big mess. I'm planning on trying it on my next build with dot inlays.

Not only will a kink in the strings possible cause buzz, but it will cause the string to not intonate properly. I was doing a setup on a new guitar I had just finished building and when intonating I noticed that the little E string would never intonate. No matter how far I brought the saddle forward or back, it didn't help. It drove me crazy, I even replaced the saddle, etc. After it was all said and done, it turned out that the string had a kink in it, because of the way I had the saddles originally before I started intonating. That's why you want to start with each saddle slightly farther away from the neck, than will be needed to intonate. That way, any kink will be behind the saddle when you move the saddles toward the neck when intonating. If you start with the saddles shorter than the scale length, after you adjust for intonation and compensation, the kink will be between the saddle and nut creating all kinds of problems. Most of the time, when you get the guitar done to the point of setup, go ahead and change strings so you can get the intonation set correctly.

Now in your case your problem was caused from the locking nut, like Setch said. So, when you moved the string toward the bridge, the kink it left was moved until it was part of the string vibration path, which explains the problems your having. When your doing a setup with new strings, also remember to not tighten down the locking nuts until you have intonated properly.

Definitely wear gloves when doing this, as well as changing out planer blades, etc.

"F" looks exatly like my index fingerprint.

Maybe it's a sign from God, I need to buy it

Sorry, your too late, right after you posted this someone bought it with the Buy It Now option, and was shipped out an hour later. I still have the two piece set that's nice though that will end in todays auction. Again, thanks for your interest.

Matt Vinson

I'd align the pickguard and see if it matches the other two pickups first. In other words, go ahead and move the two pickups to the new pickguard temporarily to see if it will align properly and all the screw hole will match. Then you can actually take something and draw onto the wood around the edges of the pickup hole, where the other pickup route needs to be. If it was mine, I'd use a router and template to insure good results. You can use something soft between the template and body to avoid scratches. If you must use a chisel, then a pickguard will help cover it up if any mistakes, but personally I would hate anyone to later take the pickguard off to see what sloppy work I did... lol I'm not saying you'll do sloppy work with a chisel, but the chance is much greater of making a mistake than using a template and router. As far as a dremel goes, don't even think about it, the motor is too weak to do such work as routing out a cavity in hardwood. It's great for inlay work, which is what I use mine for, and polishing fretwire after fretting, but that's about all. I don't even think I'd trust it with routing a truss rod slot.

It is pretty cool but, I wonder if it is acurate enough for fret slots ( assumming you can get a small enough bit)

That would be interesting to know, but like others have said, you'd have to buy one of the small dremel type router bits, like Stew Mac sells.

....

Also, I wonder if it could be used for the back side of a neck. Maybe if it was mounted to another board. After messing with the software for a bit, i looks lick complete neck carve and body carves are possible. You can also import images and it will do a relief of the image for carving, so like a carved headstock logo might be possible.

I would love to buy this but its out of my price range. Could probably pay for itself quickly though.

I think it could be used for the backside of the neck, but it would probably be way slower than just doing it with a wood duplicating machine, or even spokeshave, rasp, hand tools.. etc. I'd think it would really shine on doing inlays though if you could get it setup correctly and the accuracy was good enough. Just a thought. Someone buy one and report back to us..haha

I've had my fair share of problems with Linksys lower end models, but some models they make are great. I've had some that took forever to setup correctly. Sometimes even the software that lets you install it, make config changes to it, doesn't work. I've had it not work on more than a couple models, but like I said, some of them are great products. I personally would recommend a DLink one, much more robust, and seems to be more stable. Even though Cisco makes Linksys, they are under a different name for a reason.. lol I actually like Linksys, but sometimes they are a pain in the neck. If you had a choice I'd get a Belkin, D-Link, or Neatgear before a Linksys. But it's just my own opinion.

I've noticed a nifty machine called CarveWright. It's made to carve out wood via software and patterns you come up with or anything your imagination can create. I was thinking that it would be an awesome tool for doing inlay work. I'm almost certain it can be used for routing out the inlay cavities, but what would be equally as cool, would be using to cut out the actual inlay material itself. I don't see any reason it wouldn't work. Has anyone else seen this device before? I know that Thorn uses a self made CNC to cut out his T logo and abalone strips. Seems like this tool could do the job, what do you guys think?