WezV

i would probably be leaving the pocket area on the body square till i at least had the full width neck pocket routed. then i would trim a bit off the body before glueing the neck in, and finally carve it all to what feels right. as for the template, i would probably leave that as traditional les paul so it can be used for either style. i suspect you are over thinking one very simple element of this whole build since we have had two threads about the heel... this is your first build and you have a lot more to consider Its good to make sure you have enough meat to make it work, but you are not planning anything drastic here and i think you will be surprised how easy it is to carve something which feels right once you are at that stage of the build

for anyone unsure of what a toneblock is tbh, i dont think you get a clear answer. somebody might be able to tell you the depth of toneblocks used by musicman... but that is mahogany in basswood... what use is it ever going to tell you about rosewood in paduak ? I guess the main criteria for a toneblock, if you wanted to bother with such a thing, is that it should sufficiently couple with the bridge and the neck, so maybe as deep as the deepest bridge screw/post and deeper than the pickup routes the musicman approach seems to be an attempt to get solid mahogany tones with a lightweight body, which it does to a certain extent - but not fully. rosewood tones with a paduak weight body doesnt appeal as much since both are heavy woods so... can i ask, what are you trying to achieve? paduak sounds pretty good by itself, what are you hoping to get out of combining it with a big block of rosewood... other than extra work and the potential for tone voodoo

its a good choice on a finish like this. but i would be more tempted by parchment. have a look at some suhr's or andersons as they tend to do this kind of finish a fair bit

looking a little crazy

thats what i did for mine. i got the cheap pups of ebay, removed the covers and put them on some BKP's. i then put the cover-less cheapo pickups back on ebay. I think the pickups cost £30 new and i got £10 back from ebay. here they are http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Neck-Bridge-Classic-humbucker-pickups-8-6k-P7-/140341085828?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item20acfb0684#ht_500wt_725 they had silver coloured plastic between the bobbins and cover to hide the poles, they are actually slotted covers like the iceman

somebody send john some pearl to put his money where his mouth is i think the stripes in the block inlay are pretty damn cool - but it does make me think it needs 6 stripes, which could mirror the look of a proper slotted cover like on the original 2663 ibanez artist

that is more my kind of steiny!

yeah, i dont think its anything other than not making the neck blank wider than it physically needs to be to fit a neck on it. but i am ok with that but if you are going to argue tonal benefits of thru-necks then it makes less sense.

i generally just trap it in place, not usually any need to solder

i think i would have been tempted to not let him have it till polished. just because people are gonna ask him where it was done and people will assume the rougher finish was your doing, not his idea

you only need one. two could create a ground loop

eek - curly lead. all tonal observations about the guitar are now invalid

1) fret as normal, then mask, then scallop ... if your hittign the frets you just need to be more careful 2)i really like a rat tail file for most of the frets - not so good near the nut but then i prefer partial scallop jobs so generally only past the 12th fret anyway, and the file is pretty perfect for these. then its sanding, sanding and more sanding 3)i generally do it by eye, but if in doubt use a dremel on a router base with a round nose bit to set your lowest point and work from there 4)as long as you know how deep your scallops are it can be before or after. if its before they are a good depth guide, but also a rick if you go too low. also, dont scallop right up to the fret - i like it close but you still need a good deal of flat area to help with future refrets

he means a razor blade.... held like a mini wood scraper wood scrapers are just a rectangle of tool steel that gets used like this: a proper scraper takes some setting up, but razors or utility knife blades can often be used as mini versions straight out the pack ... but the real question is if you really need to remove all the finish to get what you want. could you not just key the surface and over spray

thats the stuff the easiest way to get that look at home is with actual wood. i suppose you could do it with a waterslide decal - if you could print it large enough, get the colour tones right and apply it without ripping

both those guitars have full width tenons specifically to let the contouring look good. if you want a contoured heel then use a full width tenon (or neck through ) full width tenons do sound a bit different to traditional tenons to my ears - and its a very good difference, generally things seem livelier. i suspect this may be partly because its easier to fit a full width tenon well no need for extra support like cf bars - unless you want to use them anyway just think about how far the fretboard/neck tenon is going into the body on the front. the further the fretboard/neck join goes into the body - the more you can contour. I would generally want at least 3" of neck pocket left on the bass side and no less than 1" on the treble.... but if you are doing a full length tenon that goes most of the way through the neck pocket you should easily have more than this. also consider the depth of your neck join as this allows you to increase the glueing surface without going further into the body and it helps with the carving... make the tenon about 2/3 - 3/4 of the body depth

that is what i was hoping you were going to say. still not the aesthetic choice i would make - just because there is nothing else of that colour on the guitar

yeah i did notice, but i reckon aluminium could look better on yours and suit the overall theme of the instrument nicely. but i dont really like the way brass hardware ages - at least not on something that looks as 'high tech' as this is anyone doing this style of bridge at a reasonable price yet - because as much as i want to do a headless i cant afford ola's

i still havnt decided if this guitar by andy manson is more creepy or not http://www.andymanson.co.uk/the_mermaid

the bridges look just like ola strandberg's design http://guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com/products/

the english is as good as anyone else's here i like a nice maton - its looking good

i like the 3rd - the first 2 have proportion issues. generally when the horns on a guitars are as wide as the rest of the body the look a little off to me. the first one either needs the lower horn a lot bigger to make a point out of it, or it needs to be perfectly symmetrical or smaller than the top one - slightly bigger just doesnt work ] the 4th one just isnt my thing oh - but i do like the headstock on the first 3 - its quite like mine, which is quite like a dan amstrong plexi guitar

same as above - but with a metal bar and heat lamps, not for the whole two weeks but a few hours at the start. obviously you dont want to melt finish so careful with the heat lamps - you want it hot as possible without damaging the neck. the heat will help the wood remember its new shape - just make sure you let it all cool down before removing from the clamps. it should be enough for you to put normal strings on, for a few years at least you may also find your neck bow is highlighted with a slightly pulled up neck join - meaning it will need a reset

they are the lowest of the standard range, not the lowest of the low - that honour goes to the current melody maker range some of the faded guitars are pretty nice, but they are gibsons so the quality is very inconsistent

they are the lowest of the standard range, not the lowest of the low - that honour goes to the current melody maker range some of the faded guitars are pretty nice, but they are gibsons so the quality is very inconsistent