bob123

Oh you mean comparison to the previous color.

Yes yes, this is the color I wanted, I dilluted a dark red to give me purple, as my friend asked me to do a purple guitar

Im not overly concerned, the whole project changed when I routed the neck pocket incorrectly.

guess I should say what happened. In my haste, I measure from the center glue line. Well, stupid me didnt realize even think about the glue line being off center, so my cut wound up being based from a wrong position and it cut the neck join at an angle. Luckily, I had JUST enough room to widen it for a 7 string neck slot to get it straight and true to the body, not the glue line... more "live and learn".

that said, Im not scared of the router any more, was pretty nice having templates this time.

Hot tip. Hobby stores sell micro mesh at 1/3-1/5th the cost of stew mac....

edit : the "nerdy" hobby stores where you buy model trains. Not "hobby lobby" or a massive chain store like that.

Call me "ignorant"... but why fork out on "expensive" rasps? I seem to get adequate results from a 3$ rasp I bought at sears O.o.

Just me being curious george, Id love to hear a professionals reasoning behind this.

Well... this turned out quite a bit different then I was hoping. I made a miscalculation, but luckily I had enough room to turn this into a 7 string beast!

color, style, everything changed tonight to accomodate the changes. It worked out stupid well, and despite the change, Im still thrilled with this.

That said, I got a LOT of work done. I need to finish the back and sides, but everytrhing is routed, drilled, and sanded down.

the color!

I cant wait to get this thing playing! bridge is aligned/drilled, pup cavities are where I wanted them, color is fantastic (imo). I will spend more time straightening out the faux binding, and make sure the color stays constant. Barring that Im close to completion. Need to finish sand the back, stain, install the ferrules, and seal it up.

Wow what a bunch of headache on this one! hopefully the rest of it goes smoother boss!

comin along... got all the routing and shaping done today. Finished sanded to 320. Smooth enough for me... I must say, Im very proud of this one. Its coming along very nicely, Im thrilled I can make something like this happen out of bare wood. Its not perfect, but I love it.

Note the router jump on the neck pocket. Any thoughts on that one? Im debating on cutting it off at the jump and rounding it over...

Dude, that flame maple... is so awesome Gorgeous guitars mate, well done.

Cool! Nice when things work out.

looks cool man, you gonna be doing a veneer on the top?

First website I've been on where people say "pole peices alignment doesn't really matter". I am so relieved...........

I did a large rant on sevenstring.org, and used SCIENCE AND MATH to explain why it doesn't matter that much, yet people still find a way to call me an idiot...

Gorgeous...

Lol I don't think you guys understand. You shape the neck up, to rough shape. Then put the neck in the profile and move it back and forth a half inch or so, not the whole length. It wouldn't make different neck shapes lol, that's kind of the point!

I'm not about to invest in a duplicarver, id rather fork out for a cnc machine lol

Id like to write this down before I forget it...

To get consistentt neck profiles seems to be a pain. I was thinking, make a "spare" neck, shape it perfectly how you want it. Take that peice, make a fiberglass mould out of it. Make the fiberglass really thick and sturdy, attach it to a solid piece of material, and use it to fine tune your neck profile exactly accurate. Obviously, you would need to rough shape approximate size then finish sand with the jig. Pull it off, finish sand, and you would have an exact copy...

Time would be the factor here, this would not be a fast process...

That design is AWESOME! Looks good so far, keep it up, and update often

Sometimes I see silly simple things (like clamping two boards to create a straight runner on a bandsaw), and wonder why I over think things... so here I am banging my head on the wall

Went over his builds... his wolfgang is BEAUTIFUL!

Hey man, I wasn't trying to bust your balls or demotivate you from trying, I just approach these things pragmatically as possible. Id say give it a go! No one gets experience by paying others to do it for them

Bob, it's called a learning process...... I bet the next one will be from scratch.

i TOTALLY appreciate this, however. to cut the top off (accurately), get new blanks, glue em up. glue the top to the body, reroute everything.... hes really better off just using the existing body as a template to build a new one lol

Carving the top is the EASY part. You can do it with a power sander, grinder, chisel, whatever tools you have really.

sounds like a massive amount of work for something you can do from scratch dude.

Id say spend 5$ and buy another piece of cherry, and figure out what you WANT to do, not what youre FORCED to do...

humbucker depth is an amalgam of pickup height you desire, how far the strings sit up (bridge + fret/neck height), so theres no set answer for you, sorry.

Best way I would do it, find a guitar you like the pickup settings and configuration on, and copy that basically.

Shad this is better then porn to me. Your wood choices and craftsmanship... its a pleasure to see!

I'm totally stealing your pickup cover idea haha *ducks for cover*

Looks great man, coming together great

Haha, I stayed up all night to rotate onto day shift, so yes, don't mind me.

just some trivia, Jems have been alder with basswood veneer since 1994. They use the basswood veneer to cover glue joints.

the body is alder

same difference really. multi piece body especially, unless you want glue lines to show through paint

apart from the tonal difference (which is a debate for many other past threads) there is also the massive pores you get on ash which are non existent on alder - obviously this affects the finishing procedure quite a bit luckily in this case it simplifies things. one of the reasons leo fender switched from ash to alder was apparently easier finishing

so no need for grainfiller but a sanding sealer is always a good idea, it depends on the finish you are using.

To my understanding, alder will eventually show grain as it absorbs paint over the years. This problem is why Ibanez uses basswood veneers on the Jem models before painting. Yo are correct alder is a close grain wood, and ash is open grain, but they both should be sealed. Besides, its cheap and easy to seal!