rbjem

Now that its the summer I am eagerly continuing my first classical build. I got some flatsawn prebent Camatillo Rosewood sides from LMI, which have warped along the width of the sides. They are approximately .1" thick. I was wondering if there is any way to correct this. Most of the warpage is on the upper and lower bout, the waist however is quite flat. If anyone has any experience with this I would love to hear how they fixed this dilemma. Here is what I was planning on doing: Wet only the concave side and also put in some sticks running widthwise top and bottom with some clamps, increasing the pressure a little every day to try and gradually form the irregularities out. I would do this over a couple weeks, although I expect to need them before then. This may help visualize my situation: (the arrows on the side view are where it is warped most severely) Any ideas would be much appreciated. Cheers

Definitely laminate pieces of wood together. Usually a three piece neck is good, but you could go five and put in a couple thin strips of bubinga or even purpleheat. The laminates will be much much stronger and very resistant to warping because of the fact that they will try to shift in different directions at different rates so they keep each other in check. Pretty much the little extra work laminates involve is well worth it in the long run.

I would draw it out a little oversize and then shape it down by hand the last little bit. More specifically, cut the sides of the neck to the correct width and then the contour where the neck meets the body gets finalized with a rasp and sand paper.

Most automotive polyurethanes contain UV protectants. If you go that route you should be fine. Nitro on the other hand, I'm not too sure about that.

What I did with mastercam was draw the guitar in a CAD program and then import it into mastercam and create your toolpaths from there. If you donate to project guitar you can get access to tons of CAD files others have drawn. You could use these for the initial neck pocket drawings.

Something that helps a lot is to take a sponge and wet the wood where you are cutting it. Tear out is almost eliminated entirely.

I know LMI (lmii.com) sells their 4' rolls coiled. And I would assume they sell their 100' rolls coiled as well.

How about dribbling some thick epoxy onto the body?

Don't forget Luthiers Mercantile lmii.com

I have a handy tip. Be a teenager. Teenage = No Fear

I appreciate everyones comments, with this guitar, I just wanted to make a rediculous PGM and it turned out pretty... rediculous. This project had a few firsts for me to so I was really exited about how it turned out. It was my first, tune o matic bridge, set neck, and carv top. rokeros, I did use polyurethane paint as well as a two part polyurethane clear. The neon paint was really hard to spray in comparison to regular paint. It was really hard to keep even. Dash, I was thinking about the rings and kind of just decided not to because of the extra effort to get them tight to the body. But there's still a good chance I may add them on. Hughes, thats the plan.

I just finished this PGM and am pretty satisfied with the results. Lets see what you guys think. The Specs: Body - Mahogany with 3/4" maple top Neck - Mahogany set neck with an ebony fretboard Pink Shark Tooth Inlays JEM profile 12" radius 25.5" scale medium fretwire Pickups - 2 Pink Dimarzio PAF Pros Paint - House of color Neon Blue House Of color Neon Rose Hardware - Gotoh TOM Mystery Tuners (soon to be replaced with locking tuners) Black Dimarzio Cliplock strap The blue in the pics is actually a lot lighter than in person. It's really close to the JemVSBL in my opinion, and the pink is really orangy red in the pics too. Not very close to the actual color at all. I got it signed at the Amazing Journey show in Palatine, with Paul Gilbert, Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan, and Gary Cherone doing all Who covers, the other night. I was the only person to get anything signed after the show, that I know of. I have my drunken older brother to thank for that. He caused a pretty big ruckus with security, they actually called the cops on him, but they did take my guitar back and get it signed. I was kind of bummed because I couldn't go meet him and see his reaction, but I'm happy none the less. Now that its signed I have to take it all apart and refinsh it all again. Well heres the pics guys... http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j193/rbjem/5dc33c18.jpg http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j193/rbjem/e61bcf7f.jpg http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j193/rbjem/DSCN2614.jpg http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j193/rbjem/DSCN2610.jpg http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j193/rbjem/3aa6e0c3.jpg http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j193/rbjem/Dscn2607.jpg

Rich, I would definetly do the third pic with the naptha, sometimes the wood just has amazing figure but the pics cant show display anywhere near what it is actually like in person (although your pictures do look really good).

I am now in the market for a new router. Before I used a crappy Black and Decker I picked up from Menards. After about 6 months of fairly heavy use the whole thing broke completely broke down. So now I am going all out and getting a new, high quality router. I am probably goining to get somthing with around 3 horse power and plunge capabilities. I was looking at a Porter Cable and Bosch a couple days ago, but just found out today about Festool. These are what I am looking at now: http://www.festoolusa.com/category.aspx?ID=4 I am mostly interested in the 2000 E model. Their tools are a definetly more expensive than other brands, but they seem leaps and bounds better. Does anyone know if the extra cost is worth paying because I am willing to pay the extra money if it is significantly better than others?

The neck itself was definetly flat, as I have a great joiner, but... come to think of it, the ebony may have been a little bowed. This is the first time I am using ebony and didn't think the slight bow could make such a difference because I have used many rosewood and maple fretboards with similar properties. It was a 2nd grade board from LMI, so maybe that had something to do with it.