Rista

I'm looking for a chechen top as well. Tried all the links to companies that usually get mentioned on these forums but no luck.

I'm going with a 16" radius (and 12" on another board) so it shouldn't be much of a problem then. Thank you!

I'm about to cut the fret slots for the first time. I bought the blade from Stewmac and made a tablesaw jig and templates. Then I saw this: http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/fretwo.../ts31slots.html Is this "dead air" that much of a problem? I thought it would be fine if the slots were slightly deeper in the center after I radius the fingerboard but perhaps I was wrong. So, is it really necessary that the slots are cut in an arc to match the radius or it's OK to cut them straight so that they are the right depth on the sides (after radiusing) but slightly deeper in the center? I wouldn't really want to do this filler thing as it seems like a PITA to me.

Yeah, just be sure to find a good picture (taken from the right angle) if you want to be accurate. For example, if you take this pic, trace around the headstock in Coreldraw or similar program and scale it to size using the nut width as your reference, you'll end up with a headstock that is around 2cm shorter than it should be. That happened to me because the headstock is angled 13 degrees and I forgot to compensate for it by adjusting perspective. Luckily, I noticed it before I started making a template out of plywood and later found a much better picture anyway

Yeah, you don't "angle" the bridge, you just recess it into the body a bit. It's quite an easier solution than angling the neck. TOM bridges are tall so you have to do either of that. My TOM bridge has a 12" radius too and like john suggested, I'm gonna file the string slots to make it 16".

how maney frets is that? thanks Scale length has nothing to do with number of frets. Read all the info on the link that thegarehanman posted and be sure to understand what it is before you do anything.

Those plans are pretty innacurate compared to the original but other than that, looks great so far.

Personally, I wouldn't bother making it wider. I'm building an explorer and mine is about the same width. I don't think there would be much more strength in a tenon that is wider than that. It could even make it weaker if you make it too wide (because the sides of the front of the neck pocket will become too thin).

Sorry, don't know how to explain it in proper English. What I mean is that the holes seem like they aren't "aligned". Nevermind, it's probably an illusion.

Perhaps it's just the picture but aren't the tuner holes a little too close to the edge and not perfectly "in line"?

Unfortunetaly, it is too thin and a bit too small for wings on a neckthru. Nice guitar BTW.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Nevermind then, I'll buy more maple. I just kind of liked what it looked like when used as a middle laminate. Thanks for responses.

So there is no way for me to find out whether or not it is mahogany? It doesn't really matter that much if it's mahogany or not, I'm more concerned about it's stability and whether it's suitable for neck lamination. I've cut it into laminates and it seems OK. Assuming the wood is not as strong as maple, is it better idea for center laminate to be maple or this wood? The maple board is 25mm thick and this wood is 18mm. So I could use one "mahogany" and two maple pieces or one maple and two "mahogany" pieces. Which would be better in theory?

I'm making my first 3 piece laminated neck (well, two necks actually) and don't have enough maple for them. So my dad gave me these pieces of "mahogany": http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5708/dsc01346b6lu.jpg http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8296/dsc01347b1ts.jpg http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9967/dsc01345b5sw.jpg ... but I'm not sure whether this is really mahogany or what kind of mahogany it is. I'm concerned this is the phillipine "mahogany" that everyone seems to hate. The wood is dry and seems stable though. It has been sitting in my dad's garage for around 9 years. 6 years ago he got it planed to thickness and it's still totally straight and hasn't warped a bit. I'm thinking about using it as a center laminate with two pieces of maple so my questions are: 1. What kind of wood is this? Does it have anything to do with mahogany? 2. Assuming it's the infamous phillipine mahogany, would it be good enough to use on a laminated neck together with maple? 3. Am I just better off buying more maple and making a 3 piece maple neck? Thanks.

I'm from Rijeka Why don't you use the router for the body? You just make the template and use the straight bit with a bearing guide. I doubt you'll ever make it perfect by hand but hey, as long as you're satisfied with it, that's all that matters. The guitar looks great although it does seem the access to higher frets is a bit restricted.

I second that. I tried once doing it without a router and it was hell. croaticum, you can get a cheap router that will do a much better job than you could ever do with sanding by hand. The one that I have costs like 200kn in Pevec and comes with 12 router bits. I've done a lot of routing and it still works great. Making wooden templates is not a problem at all. Just take your time and make it as good as possible and then you don't have to worry about edges of your guitar not being straight and sharp.

Ah, sorry. Didn't understand it well at first, my English isn't very good. Yeah, it's noticeable but it still looks great.

Wow, awesome finish. BTW, maybe it's just the picture but the body shape looks kind of weird. Did you use Gibson explorer plans or you designed it yourself? Also, the tailpiece seems to be a little too far from the bridge.

How does the volute improve sustain? I'm not saying it doesn't, I just don't see how could it affect the sustain to a degree that you could notice it. I think people sometimes overanalyze stuff like this that make very little, if any, difference in practice at all. Like the other day when some guy was telling me that having no inlays "improves the tone". Perhaps it's just me that can't hear the difference when it comes to things like that. Anyways, back to the topic. I've built two necks so far, one with and one without a volute and like Setch, I found it easier to built the one with a volute. From now on, every neck I build is going to have a volute. Not because it's easier to build but because of the stability and looks. If it gets in the way when playing, it has probably been put in the wrong place.

Even if you plan to build only one guitar, you should get a router IMO. Cheap routers are probably not of a high quality but they are more than good enough for what you need. I got mine for like 30€ and it came with 12 router bits. I've used it to rout out two guitar bodies, neck pockets, pickup cavities and for a lot of other things and it still works great. Like someone already said, you will be using it all over the guitar, not just for the truss rod channel and pickup cavities. I can't really imagine building a guitar without it.

1/8" is around 3mm, not 20.

I think you're right. It does look like it's meranti. I did some google search and now I'm 99% sure that Dark Red Meranti is what I have. Appearently, it is a well known timber in Europe. It also says: "it's an excellent material for the production of high class joinery products especially door and window frames, facades and doors". Still not sure whether it would make a good fingerboard or not though. I'd rather use Rosewood or Ebony.

Nice, I like it.

More like limburger, hehe. The smell isn't strong and is pretty much gone now but it isn't really pleasing.

mattia, you've got a PM As for this wood... I guess in that case it's safe to say it's not Padauk because this one smells like... cheese. Seriously. It's weird smell is the first thing that I noticed when I started cutting it into blanks.