Jehle

I found that I could put the logo over lacquer only if it was not polished. You can actually see where I goofed (I call attention to it) in the tutorial by trying to attach the logo on a highly polished headstock. I just needed to sand off most of the finish. I'm sure there was a little lacquer on there. I was dry, that's the most important thing. To cover the logo, I used a lot of lacquer. About one can to do two head stocks. It's candy coated now. I only used 400 grit sand paper on mine too. I would put one 2 or three coats. Sand down a little. Feel with your finger tips. Your hands can feel as little as 1/100th of an inch. If the logo is still a little proud, sand and lacquer more. Just don't sand all the way back down to the logo. And don't worry if you goof up a little. It has to go through an ugly stage for a while. It'll get there. Don't worry.

It's actually Mod Podge, or "Modern Decupage". You can read too much about it here... www.modgepodge.com Decupage supplies should be available at any craft store. Mind you, I've never really looked for the stuff in Europe.

I find that guitar stands that wear jeans are particularly nice too. Oh, and the guitar looks nice too.

I ruined my first attempt at veneering. So I've been reading up on the subject. Plus, I don't want to ruin this nice satin wood veneer that I have. Since I also love to experiment with adhesives (feels like it's becoming a hobby), I'm thinking about using contact cement that's actually made for attaching veneers. Anyone ever work with the stuff? As for flattening veneer, how do you mean? If the veneer is badly warped that's one thing. If it's just detached that's another. I've seen glue squirted in with needles to reattach veneer that's come loose before in that case.

How did you keep the paper flat attaching it to the guitar body. When I tried using Titebond II on mine the paper grew and got all wavy on me. I had the same problem with the veneer too. What am I doing wrong? Too much glue? Not enough weight to hold it in place while the glue cures? Anyway, I'm having good results using the 3M Photomount again on my guitar. I used some patterned gift wrap (thin but good quality paper) on mine. I'm almost ready to polish it up.

And Rick Neilson thought he had something with that 5 neck guitar. Imagine 15! I'd like to put them all on one big guitar and have it spin around like a giant daisy wheel. Whiiiiiiiiir!

Should be simple. Usually push pull pots are DPDT. At least the ones I've seen are. You should have 6 contacts on the switch: *(in1a) *(out1) *(in1b) *(in2a) *(out2) *(in2b) To hook up that as a hot/bypass switch for your pickup you would do this... Bridge Hot wire (from where it's connected to original switch) -> in1a out1 -> volume control (where everything else goes into it) Or you could even do out1 -> output jack (no volume, no tone, just BTTW).

Yo Dave... Here's the schematic. I replaced the middle knob with the 6-position rotary switch, and worked the rest of it for a master volume and master tone. The 5-position strat swtich is set to over ride to the stock neck and bridge pickups at positions 1 and 5. My favorite combinations are Neck and Bridge for a Tele sound, Neck and Middle out-of-phase for Eric Johnsons "Koto effect", Neck and Middle out-of-phase and tone rolled all the way off for Brian May "Killer Queen" sound. Have fun with it.

Oh yes! It takes a while to build up the clear lacquer, but it does get there eventually. I found that helped to scuff with 400 grit between every other coat. It leveled out a lot faster that way. Can't wait to see the finished product.

There are actually more possible pickup combinations when you consider phase choices. Anyway, I had the same problem with my strats. I wanted to do everything. What I did was use a standard 5-position switch and a rotary switch (replaced on tone knob). I got the rotary switch from Radio Shack. The way it works is that all pickups go to the rotary switch. It has 6 positions. Each position goes as: neck in phase, neck out of phase, middle in phase, middle out of phase, bridge in phase, bridge out of phase. The output of the rotary switch goes to what used to be the middle pickup input of the 5-position toggle. It's hard to explan without a schematic. But, I can get any combination of pickups this way. Out of phase sounds are great for doing a mock Brian May sound.

I'd probably have to agree with the OLP versions of the AXIS. Didn't Guitarist just do an article on this very thing? I nearly got one of them, but decided to try and build a guitar (or two) from the ground up, just to see if I could do it.

I agree, this is great information to have. I've always had to play with the wires to get the phases right. Even given the color codes, I would still test the wires to make sure that I've got it right before I solder anything. The best trick that I've learned for finding the hot and ground wires is to use a screwdriver, and a voltmeter (the el cheapo from Radio Shack). 1) I clip the leads from the pickup to the voltmeter (set to a mV reading). 2) Then I tap the magnets of the coil with the screwdriver and watch the needle. 3) If the needle moves in the positive direction, you are in phase. If the needle moves in the negative direction, you are out of phase - swap your wires. Bob's your uncle...

I tried a number of different things, just like I did for the custom logo. No surprise, I used that 3M photomount again to attach the paper. Everything else made the paper swell and ripple. The photomount is a dry adhesive and has worked for me in the past to hang posters on foam core (some of them many years old now). The secret from there was to put a number of dry coats of lacquer over the paper. By dry, I mean to just lightly spray the clear coat over it. If you spray enough so that it looks wet, it soaks through the paper and softens the adhesive. If you do that, the paper swells up and wrinkles. Yuck. After a number of dry coats, I started to really load the clear on. No problems so far. I've also taken many more pictures along the way. So, I'll post them in detail if you or anyone else is interested. I just keep waiting for someone to say, "OH NO! DON'T USE PHOTOMOUNT!" Surely, I have not stumbled into another thing that hasn't been tried. As for when it will be done, I'm going to add the last of the black lacquer and the clear coats to the body by this weekend, which means I should be ready to wet sand and polish by the following weekend. Putting the pieces together shouldn't take too long, so you should be able to see and hear it by Valintines day! Woo Hoo!

Well, the Planarian Jellycaster (only slightly louder than the Paisley Telecaster) used a lot of stuff I had laying around. The main investment was 6 cans of spray lacquer for about 4 bucks each. That's $24. The MC Escher paper, spraymount, transparency, paint pens, sand paper, and brasso (rubbing compound) might add up to another $25. It's not all done yet, I'll post pictures when the whole kit is done. Should be soon.

I've been wondering about this sort of thing. From what I've read, the Gent's saw is the tool of choice. But, when I see them, I keep thinking that they look a lot like what I would call a mitre saw. Oh, and BTW, I've never seen a Gent's saw here in the States. In the UK on the other hand, they have all kinds of cool stuff. Anyway, could you use a hack saw as a Gent's saw?

The funny thing is... I've never actually seen anyone do that. There's a picture in the Melvyn Hiscock (god... that name) about the Wal bass neck being made like this, but it basically says... Don't do this unless you want to remove your fingers. Maybe I'm being thick here, but I'd like to see some pictures of the process. Do you still have to do a lot of manual shaping, or does the router do it all for you? I also figure that since I'm going to have to get a router anyway as my work continues, I might as well learn to use it for the right things.

Are you actually talking about using a roundover bit to shape the back of the neck? Do they make bits for that for a router? From everything I've seen, people have been carving the neck shape with rasps and spoke shaves. What's the scoop?

I think everyone starts with this book. Low and behold, he has his own website... and FAQ! www.melvynhiscock.com

I just got 14 feet x 11" wide of some sweet looking Nigerian Satinwood. Cost plus shipping... $24. Considering how much Brian gets for selling his book matched sets of figured maple, I wonder if I should sell off the extra bits that I don't use. That will give me enough veneer to make several guitars. I don't want them all to look the same though.

Not sure yet. The pieces are huge, so I could even veneer a bass body if I wanted. I also will have enough material that I can do both the front and the back. Yummy. Tempting to try out a Les Paul or a PRS style. Any suggestions?

Sweet. I wish I could work this fast. I liked the idea of the torn camo's and bullet holes... Hmmm. Gives me an idea for a civil war theme guitar.

I've just placed an order for some Nigerian Satinwood. There's a good example on the gallery hardwoods link (in the resoarces area. Once I saw this wood, I had to try to work with it. GalleryHardwoods Search for Satinwood and you'll find it. I just love the way the figure runs like ribbons at a 45 degree angle to the grain. Sweeeeet. And I got it for 1/5 that price. It's going to be the top for my next project. Any ideas for finishing options? Tobacco burst, Cherry burst?

It's almost a spiritual moment on this forum.

And you could make one left handed and the other right handed. They would be complete mirror images of each other.

Erm... why not just build 2 guitars that are the same and just reverse the grain on the 2nd one.