bob123

I may be interested pending cost. Send me a pm if you don't wish to publicly disclose cost information.

We use diamond files on stainless, inconel, and other really hard metals at work all the time. The companies budget on files must be more then the GDP of France, but they work just fine. Unless you meant in a "guitar-specific" fashion, there'd be no real reason they wouldn't be effective. Only thing I could think of, you'd be going through diamond files quite frequently, which would be cost prohibitive...

Eddie Van Halen has this miraculous/notorious ability to make a 3 pound carbon-composite steinberger sound EXACTLY like his factory second charvel that he painted, abused, and had a crappy pickup in it. The "put the guitar on the wall and strum it" is not apples-to-apples, as it's causing vibrations in the wall, not just the guitar, not changing the sound of the guitar at all. I'll keep my mouth shut about the rest of it .

This is what I imagine "A" would look akin too upon completion. By far my favorite bass, hands down.

Got this finished up today. Decided to go with toggle switches instead one knife switch. Has some cool combos, and sounds terrific. Each knob is volume for each pickup. I can't really think of any other mods I could do to the wiring, so if you have any suggestions, lemme know! BTW, the overwound noiseless combo from GFS is pretty much awesome. I've used vintage noiseless fender pups and these are pretty much on par for the money. Wife has camera, so I had to take this on my cell phone.

Can you (or anyone else) explain the deal with those "1st fret" things? I have an OLD teisco from the 60's that has it too, but I dont really understand it. That aside, looks really great, what did you use for the white binding? Pardon if I missed that somewhere.

As I've been finding out lately, dont skimp on router bits >.<

depends on where/what it is though. a drop of super glue could keep it from spreading further, structural problems would need adressing as well. Hard to say with this guys vague statements though.

Thats ridiculous!!!! Very nice man.

Holy crap that looks AWESOME dude. Glad it came out as good as it did

Yup, me and wes have been pm'ing going over this stuff. Thank you for the info though.

Dylan, its almost a universal rule in the tool world (not just luthiery [sp?]) you get what you pay for. MDF WILL warp eventually, and a whet stone will chip and wont necessarily be completely trued. Im not sure how popular they are over in jolly ole england (Assuming based on your .co.uk links), but speed shops (For cars, engine builders) have machines that can true off metal to within 1/1000th of an inch. You may be able to bring them a raw peice of aluminum or steel (rust though, get stainless if you can) and pay them a couple bucks to run it through their machine. They may even have stuff layin around. By doing that you can get a length you want, and you know it will be perfectly flat. From there the process is the same, and tags along to what swedishluthier does. edit: barring all that, theres a company called "K line" That makes terrific sized straight edges that are perfect for this task. Im not sure if they are still in business though, check around. Mine came with a warranty for perfect straight edge as long as you stored it properly.

2 questions. 1) how does a spruce les paul sound?! and 2) whats the scale length you used?

thanks man. Its far from quality work, mostly weather issues, as I have to use my garage since its too cold to use my spray booth outside. When the weather warms up, I'll probably snag a warmoth body of swamp ash or something and give it a real make over Any comments on white hardware?

Simple enough project. Still waiting on electronics and a pick guard, but for now, I can dig it. Im going to be using a pearl white guard. Can't find my tuners -.- I'll have to dig around, but these are the stock ones for the time being. Head stock -> Clear coat bonded with the tape on one of the sides, so I did a very thin natural binding to compensate. Not what I was going for, but I've done worse. Body -> Had some white epoxy left over, so Im making the hardware white as well. Wife grabbed it when the clear coat was still tacky, so theres a nice fat thumb print on the top. Most of it settled, but Im still kinda annoyed, as this alsa paint isnt the cheapest stuff in the world. I'll have to do some sunlight pictures when its sunny out, its been overcast for the past 3 days... Side 1 color Side 2 color

A neat trick I learned, use a butane torch if you can. It burns away the oxygen, and "sucks out" the voids and air bubbles in the epoxy without physically pulling on the epoxy. It's tricky to set up, but if you can do it right, may be worth checking out.

its a 16 year old plastic nut. Its fine now, but I'm wondering how much it would hold up to though... I looked up an LSR installation tutorial.... Sounds like a collosal pain in the butt lol. If I do this, I will probably just go with a graphtech or something like that.

Not sure why you decided to make this personal... My work? Theres a reason companies like ibanez, charvel, music man, warrior, etc use tung oil to finish their necks... Tung oil dries harder then any laquer, and it penetrates deeper and provides more protection. Not my fault if you've never ventured that route.... What a properly oiled neck looks like As far as the "Tone block"/"swimming pool route" is concerned, other members suggested putting a block of wood in to get a proper route. If I were to do that, Id put in a block of mahogany, akin to high end music man guitars. However; since its a squier (not a high dollar machine), I will pass. Again, if you've never heard/seen it, then that's not my fault. That said, I highly respect your guitars, and you do fantastic work.

It certainly isnt broke, but that doesnt mean theres not room for improvement either I think I will leave it alone. I can always change it later, right?

I think that's the way I would go with it. I will say, it probably wont matter which one you go for, they will both look great.

No.They get way too dirty way too quick IMO. But that is just my "o"pinion Tape everything.Taping the side of the neck is easy Look...You can tape off the entire fretboard before finishing,then do your finish on the rest of the guitar.After you have the entire guitar level sanded you take the tape off the fretboard and you put a final coat over the entire guitar,fretboard included.you don't want to "wetsand" the fretboard,or at least I don't.Just spray it right and then you will have a thin coat on the fretboard(which is all you want)and as thick as you want everywhere else. Then you tape the board and neck around the frets and do your scraping and polishing of the frets....then remove the tape and when you do the final buff of the guitar you buff the fretboard...frets and all,with your buffer and buffing compounds. The first one I did i got the finish way too thick on the fretboard because I did not tape it off...big mistake Tung oil is as good as you work it. If you buy cheap "Tung oil product", your results will of course be "Cheap". I have some OLD ibanez necks that were tung oiled in the mid 80s that still look pretty darn good. Ive never been a fan of painted necks, so I think we're just gonna have to agree to disagree and focus on technique lol. You will do all your fret work before painting. Doesnt make a whole lotta sense to paint then do more fret work.

With the acoustic bridge, are you planning on using the wrap around peice with it? that would look stunning! akin to this, would be killer!

Ok gents, relying on some of your expertise here. I come from the world of double locking tremolos, locking nuts, and skinny necks. The nut on there is worn in like the perfect spot, so the action was fantastic without any real buzzing. Should I leave well enough alone or "upgrade" to an LSR roller nut or Graphtech nut? I understand that the LSR is a little more work, but is it worth the extra work? What do you guys think about it. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply. Should I worry about the filing dust embedding itself in the maple? I can tape off the fretboard between the frets, but not really the side or the neck... Im not sure we're on the same page here... It's the same as anything else really. You put your neck together. Finish sand it. Laquer it or oil it. Repeat that step a few times, let it cure. That said, wetsanding a fret board has to be a MAJOR pain in the arse lol. Have you thought about tung oil? Get 99% of the protection and beauty without the mess of the paint on the frets lol.

Middle head stock shape, except I would do a carve on the curve. I'll draw something for you later to show you what I mean.