GaryDolman

Hi guys, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this. If you want to make your own Bone nut for a guitar can you use Cow bone? Do you have to bake it to dry it out? I have some bones that my dog has been chewing on for a couple of years, would you use this?

Thanks for all nice comments, the wood is Black walnut estimated to be approx 150yrs old, A gift from an old friend. The back of the guitar is three pieces, the fron is one piece. The neck is a three piece laminate, I screwed up the saw cut on the headstock and had to add a laminated piece for the face. The Tuners are vintage Tele/Stat I think they are called Kluson style? The nut is too low and I have to change that, I was looking at fossilized wooly mammoth tusk blanks, they have a nice brown tint to them which I think would look nice. The fretboard Dots are made from fender MOP lookalike guitar picks which I used a hole punch to cut out. LOL the pickups are Seymour Duncan, Jazz at the neck Seth Lover at the bridge. The Finish is Minwax Clear Gloss Poly, brush finish on the neck which turned out so good I thought I could brush the whole thing. After $75 worth of brushes and poly I gave up brushing. I had sanded the body back to bare wood 4 times. I threw out the brushes and bought three cans of spray on. The sound Is way better than I ever imagined, It is very loud, When my finances get a little better I am planning on getting a tube amp, probably the Fender blues Jr. But for now my little Fender practice amp will have to do. I want to say a big thank you for everyone who posts here, the tutorials and the help forum was and is invaluable, as a first timer, I found myself logging on here every day picking up tips and tricks. As for the next one? I already have a cherry body blank, glued and waiting..............for some inspiration LOL

First let me say, Good Job..... For a first build you did an excellent job, you worked with the materials you had. Second let me say, in regards to the other posts, you guys can be really tough sometimes, not everyone has access to limitless supplies of exotic woods, tools, etc this guy already stated he is in school and probably can't afford to buy exactly what he would like to. I too was given a small amount of Black Walnut and worked with what little I had been given. Building your own guitar is not a cheap project. Although the comments here are "Honest" sometimes honesty can be brutal. As for the design, the shape of the guitar is not something that I would personally buy or build myself, but if it suits the owner then kudo's to him. I have seen some really ugly guitars on here that I would not own or build, but I don't see the necessity to scream yuk!!! I would like to see some encouragement for the first timers, and maybe some deplomacy when giving comments. thats it I'm off my soapbox LOL

Hi Guys, heres some pics of my Almost finished Walnutcaster, I still have to tweak the setup and add the last pieces ie Strap buttons. but at least I can play it now. While trying to to set this up I realized that the nut I installed,which was premade, is sitting too low so I have to replace that to enable me to set the strings lower at the bridge. For my first build I am really pleased with the results. Everthing is not perfect and I learned a vast amount during the construction. I'm already planning the next one, LOL, this stuff is very addicting. http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6769.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6767.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6766.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6770.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6771.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6773.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6774.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/DSCN6748.jpg

I was at my local Home Depot looking at finishing products and saw this stuff. anyone used it? Do you think it would work? http://paint-and-supplies.hardwarestore.co...oat-261743.aspx

That wood is amazing!!!!, As a telefreak, I love it even more. I understand your comment regarding Tele's being associated with country music, but don't forget Jimmy Page recorded at least the first two Zeppelin albums with a Tele, and a lot of the old blues guys used nothing else............

First let me say, nice job, especially the inlay work. Secondly I agree completely with you regarding the myths of building a neck. I am currently putting the finishing touches to my first ever build, and I have even less experience than you, I have built shelves but never fixed a fence LOL. When planning my build, I looked at the expense of buying a premade neck. I had enough wood left So I came to the same conclusion, How badly could I mess up? So I went ahead and made a neck, and I have to say I am very pleased with the result. I did however feel very intimated when it came to the fingerboard. I'm lucky if I get withing 1/8" when working with wood, and after seeing 4 decimal places of measuring when cutting for the frets, I decided to buy a premade fretboard. anyway enough rambling. Once again good job, hope to see more pics of your progress.

The Ear of the bridge route looks like it has been filled because I had to add wood to the ears to fill in the gap that the router left. I'm not too experienced with routers. I think overall for my very first project I Didn't do too bad of a job. When I mounted all the hardware, the piss poor routing job is covered very effectively. As it has been said many times in this forum, If I expected everthing to be perfect on my first build, I would be setting myself up for complete failure. For any of you that had "perfect" first builds with minimun experience congratulations, but lets not forget everyone has to start somewhere. If this guitar sounds half as good as I am expecting I won't be worried about taking out the pickups to show the lousy routing job I did.

I re-inspected the PUP template I used, It was the polycarbanate one from stew-Mac. What actually happened was the router bearing melted the sides of the template, maybe next time I will make a wooden one with what's left of the plastic. LOL

The pup cavities do look off on this pic for reason, maybe its the angle, but they do line up with center. I did a complete check that the neck was center with the bridge. as for the cavities themselves, I did use a template but it moved on me during the routing, hence the chiseling to try to fix it. The pup rings and the bridge cover 99% of the F@#$ up. Even though it will look pretty good with all the hardware on, I will always know where the mistakes are. Compared with some of the routing I have seen on here mine is abysmal. I put the final clear coat on this morning so I'm hoping that a couple days from now it will pass the fingernail test and I can go on to finish installing the hardware and wiring, setup and plug it in. Will post final pics..

I'm building my first guitar and I'm about to start wiring I have tow tone,two volume and a 3 way sw the pups are seymour duncan humbuckers jazz, and a seth lover I thought this wiring diagram would work http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schematics/humb.html but after stripping the insulation from the pups Ifind that the jazz humbucker has four wires, and the seth has one. I found a wiring diagram that says join the the red and white wires together and insulate, join the green wire to the shield and connect to ground, and wire the black to the pot as shown in the schematic for two single coils. Will this work? also the three connections on the pots, how do you know which one is which? and how do you connect the ground wires to the pots? solder it to the case?

lol, thanks for heads up. you guys don't miss a trick. the control cavity was done completely with a forstner bit. other than the recess for the cover plate. I was going to chisel the sides flat, as you said for neatness, but then i noticed that there wan't much room for the control plate screws. I havent finished the brass cover plates yet so I might end up cleaning that up. The Wood is Black Walnut body and neck, I decided to make aneck because I had enough wood, and I figured if i mess it up I can always buy one, but I am quiet happy with how it turned out. The Specs are; 25 1/2" scale 24 fret Ebony fretboard (Warmouth, I did not feel up to making a fretboard) string through bridge tele/strat hard tail bridge Seymour duncan pickuos, jazz at neck, Seth Lover at Bridge vintage tele/strat tuners tele knobs gibson style 3 way switch all the hardware is gold covered brass. yes that is gorilla glue lol

I have been applying my finish, Minwax polyurethane applyed with a brush. these pics represent approx 10 coats. I decided not to apply any sealers, instead opting to build the finish to fill in the grain. I tried this on a test piece with some success. everthing was going ok with brushing until recently, so I broke down and bought an airbrush to finish the final coats. http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/IMG_0009.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/IMG_0010.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/IMG_0014.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/IMG_0016.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...an/IMG_0012.jpg

I did use a template, and it is the picture. I had to clip a screen capture from a video I shot. I'm hoping by the time I have the finish applied and all the hardware installed and wired, my digital camera will beck from the repair shop. I will then be able to post some quality pictures. Right now I am on minwax satin finish poly coat three, I can't believe how nice the grain is coming out.

Well with a lot of research on this site I decided to try my hand at building my own guitar. I had a few planks of Black Walnut that was given to me, so i decided to use it. The First pic is the body blank cut glued and planed, the second is a (maybe) next time Cherry blank already to go. the Last pic is the guitar almost ready to start with the finish. The body is laminated from three pieces, and the neck is a three piece laminate also. the fingerboard is ebony, which is the only pre-made purchased part,(thanks Warmouth). I still have a couple of holes to drill, ie the string through body at the bridge the tuner holes and the input jack. the back is routed out for the controls, and I have to drill the cable holes joining all the cavities together. Unfortunatley my digital camera had to go to the repair shop otherwise I would have included more pics with the hardware fitted. I have made a few mistakes along the way http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...n/Phase1002.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/Gar...n/Phase1001.jpg http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/GaryDolman/001.jpg

what are the best type of screws to use when fastening the neck to to the body?

I don't know what kind of guitar your building, myself I am making a telecaster, first time too. I purchased my frets off e-bay pre-cut and pre-bent, as a first timer I was worried about fretting the neck, the frets were official fender replacements. I bought my fingerboard from Warmouth pre-radiussed and used a rubber/plastic coated ball pein hammer to hammer them in. I did not use any glue, the frets were a nice tight fit and hammered in smoothly, they matched the radius of fingerboard. I clamped the neck into my black and decker workmate, which has proved invaluable on this project. I then used my dremel to cut off the excess. then I took a fine medium sized file and angled it against the side of the fretboard and pressed it down fimly on the workmate and filed all the edges to a nice bevel. sandpaper finished off the job smooth.... I did a lot of reading before taking on this project and thought you had to have all the special tools for doing this and that, but reading through a bunch of the tutorials on this site helped a lot. Especially the freeting made easy..

I glued a laminate on either side and then chiselled out the pocket to finish it. It worked out great, I now have to push really hard to set the neck in the pocket, now thats a tight fit. I was also wondering how do you know if the neck is straight in the pocket? do you have to string it up first?

I 'm pretty sure the template slipped, I used double sided tape to hold the template it was scotch brand heavy duty mounting tape, it's kinda like a spongy material and I think it gives a little if you push sideways on it ie like when you run a router bearing along it....LOL At least I still have my sense of humor intact. I will try laminating the sides and chiselling the pocket. The routing also went haywire when I was cutting the PUP cavities. maybe next time I will try clamping the template... thanks for your responce...

aaaarrggggg, everthing seemed to be going so well, I made a template to route the neck pocket, used a flush template bit set everthing up, measured again checked the template was stable, took a deep breath and went at it with the plunge router. the first cut went well, I reset the depth on the router and made the second pass, the router bearing was following the first cut due to the depth of the route but while cutting I noticed that there was a visible ledge on the second cut. Consequently each cut produced another ledge, I thought I was going to be ok figuring that I would just chisel the sides down and even them up. after finishing with the router I sat the neck in the pocket and discovered that it was too big, the neck had a very noticeable gap between the pocket and the neck. I put the whole project on hold for a few days to collect my thoughts and try to figure out how to fix this mess before I scrap the whole body and start over. The only way I can see to salvage this is to laminate a piece of scrap on the inside of the neck pocket and try another template to cut with. Is this my only option? Will the neck pocket be strong enough with laminated side? Help!!!!!!!

Thanks, with the bridge mounting plate in position I have 2 3/4" center to center between the pickups, is this enough room? Also, I have 24 frets does this make a difference?

Here's one on e-bay http://cgi.ebay.com/Solid-BRASS-GOLD-Humbu...1QQcmdZViewItem

Quote "from the nut to the 12th fret is 12.75", as it is from the 12th fret to the bridge. that's how they get the 25.5 inch scale. if you were to leave the bridge where it is, the intonation would be screwey, and it'd never play really in tune. " I am about to route out the pickup cavities on my first build. I have the neck cavity routed and the neck temp. taped in postion. According to the quote above from a previous thread the 12.75" from the 12th fret to the bridge gives you the 25.5" scale. I am using a premade bridge plate with a humbucker. Is the bridge considered to be the saddles? I penciled my cutouts on the body and I only have 2 3/4" center to center between the two humbuckers. It does not look right...

Thanks Chris, I'm not sure how I missed the picture at Stew-Mac, probably a case of "couldn't see the wood for trees" lol. Also, your right, one probably learns more from the mistakes made, than accomplishments......