Jehle

That's a lot of tools Guitarfrenzy. And, I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that there are required tools. I would say that there are tools that you need in at least of one of each type: 1) Tools that go up-and-down. 2) Tools that spin around. From what I've seen here on this forum, people have gotten good results with really simple hand tools. A hand saw (goes up-and-down) used to rough out a neck, and a power drill (spins around) to hog out wood for a pickup cavity. Add a sharp chisel and a file or two and you can do just about anything with that. Not that I would want to. The more tools you have, the easier it gets. I have a few tools that go up-and-down: scroll saw, hand saw, hack saw, coping saw, jig saw, sabre saw. And, I have a few tools that spin around: drill press, hand drill, electric drill, dremmel, my head, etc... With a little work, you can convert certain tools. My drill press becomes a drum sander with a sanding bit. Same thing for the dremmel, it has polishing bits and sanding bits, and router bits. It can become nearly anything (that spins around)

Sounds like you are trying to do the same trick that Frank Gambale wanted on his guitar. Access all the way up to the last fret, and a bolt on neck. The tremlo springs are screwed right into the neck! I'm having trouble finding out any details, but there's a nice picture of it here... http://www.frankgambale.com http://www.frankgambale.com/media/PGBig/Wh...Yamaha%20FG.jpg http://www.frankgambale.com/media/PGBig/BlackFGM.jpg

Yep. I'm not using a tele bridge at all. I just would like to use that pickup for its tone. I could always do a rear route and put a back plate on the guitar, but that's a lot of wood to remove. Sure, I could do that, but I was just wondering if I could route a smaller hole on the top side of the body and plop it in there. Which brings me back to the idea of using the pickup, but to just carve it down to a smaller size. My best option at the moment is to rear route with a bog standard tele pickup. I just wondered if y'all had any other ideas that I could use.

Another thought I had is, couldn't you finish off the neck in the "old way" with a spoke shave and a bit of hand sanding? Keep in mind I have never made a neck, so I don't really know what I'm talking about.

You could use a loooong metal straight edge, like you mentioned. I would cover the thing in double sided tape (Scotch poster tape works for me) and it shouldn't move. Be sure to press the thing down really well to the wood and it shouldn't budge. have a peek at my use of that tape here (it's everyone's first peek at my latest project)... http://home.hiwaay.net/~jehle/project-guit...jectGuitar3.htm

This is a sweet looking axe. This one and Simons are the only two swirl guitar paint jobs that I've seen that would make me even consider doing one. Ace job!

I have a love hate relationship with Tele Bridge pickups. I love the sound that they have, but I hate that huuuuuuuge bottom plate that they have. Is there a pickup made that has the same characteristics of the pickup (the short squat single coil) with a more reasonable strat single coil footprint (two screws, top and bottom)? Should I get a tele pickup and hack it to bits? Should I just not bother and deal with the more tinny sounding strat pickup?

The best way? That's really a subjective question with no one right answer. Depends on how you want the neck to feel. I like mine candy coated, so for me it's a nice shiny coat of lacquer. For maple, you can leave it finish-free and have a nice natural feel to it. Mind you, it'll look as ugly as sin in a short time. I'll be interested to hear what everyone else says about this one.

Trust Brian on this. Rustoleum gray primer is the only thing they make that you should use by them. I had to completely strip and repaint a guitar painted with rustoleum lacquers. It was a real pain, and a hard lesson learned.

I have to go for "flesh".

Everybody loves a Python with a good tan. Sorry... back in my cage now.

My entire shop is Ryobi. I could endorse them for all the stuff that I have. Price is and was the motivating factor for all of them. They work for me, but then, I only use them every once in a while. I'm not in there every day. I also have a non-plunge router. The plunge router, I had thought, was a relatively new concept for routers. The standard router works fine for me at the moment. I may regret saying that later when I route the neck pocket and the pickup cavities.

They don't call you Krazy for nothing do they. I have to admit, there's almost something appealling about this idea. I've seen jigs for hand saws that keep them straight for really accurate cuts. I'll have to mull this one over a bit more now. What to do?

what do you mean by "natural things"? Leaves and stuff? The only concern that I would have is that it might be a bear to sand and polish, but it can probably be done. My only concern is that the "leaves and stuff" might make the guitar illegal to own and sell. Oh, and I guess you should wax pot the pickups too. I'm sorry. I'll go away now.

Ouch, sorry to hear about your bad experience with Taylor. I'm a bit surprised that they did such a crummy job actually. They have such a good reputation too. Hmm. I have to agree with the need for a better case. Maybe you should consider getting a better case for it. Or better yet, can a good guitar case be built as a project. Common Brian, Simon, and Kevan! The Fab 3 need to have a case building tutorial now!

EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk. Mummy I'm frightened.

Good question. I would think that pine is too soft. I, however, have some 100 year old Heart Pine that I was thinking about using. It's a lot more dense than your hobby grade pine. I'd like to hear some opinions on that too.

Hmmmm. Possible, but difficult. That tells me what I need to know. I think I'll save this idea for my next project. This is only my 2nd guitar after all. I don't need to make it too complicated. This will just give me something to look forward to on my next project.

I love the tuning knobs too. Where those made or just bought somewhere? What's the scoop?

Well, probably because it's an after thought. I have the slab prepared with a nice Nigerian Satinwood veneer already. I didn't think about the cutting and chambering until after that point. I may have to wait until the next guitar to try this idea out.

I don't have a band saw, so I'm thinking about going to the local lumber company and getting them to do this for me if this is possible. Before I do that, I'd like to get your opinion on what I'm about to do. I want to cut the body slab that I have across the face, to open the body up and chamber it basically, then glue the top back on. Can a band saw cut a strait line across an 18 inch wide body blank like that, or am I dreaming?

Thanks! The veneer idea is perfect. I have scraps of it around and it would be simple to glue. The template is made from a (heavy) piece of cabinet grade MDF. It'll take glue just fine.

Time to buy some DuPont stock. I bet their sales of ChromaPremier are about to go up.

I actually like hard tails, and I set my trems (when I have them) flush to the body to make them act like hard tails. If I had to choose, I'd go with the vintage type tremolo system. But I'm an old fart and I like the tone of old systems. If you are into heavy tremolo use and need to play it in that style, I'd have to suggest the Floyd or Lo Pro. Changing strings isn't that bad on them, as already mentioned. You get used to it. And there's no substitute for that slack string dive bombing you can do on them.

Well the new body is starting to take shape. Still no pictures yet. I'm going to route out the main body shape with a template. There's one place, however, where the template is just a little too far in. I've experimented with adding a few layers of masking tape to bring it back out, and that seems to work okay, but are there any other suggestions on how to "beef up" the template a little. Oh, I guess I could also wrap a few layers of tape around the berring too. That would give me a little extra slop that I could sand down.