Drak

Yeah. All Redwood is like that, like Basswood, very soft.

I thought you were offering up a prayer for me there for a minute until I looked closer. Neat bit, thanks again, that looks kinda like my binding channel bit, but much wider. I'll be picking one of those up. What kind of grinder/sanding disc do I need again, I only have the normal grinding discs for grinding metals.??? PS, hey, the guy's got more! I called him and asked him if he would do some resawing for me before he shipped it (my local guy's resaw machine is not that trustworthy) ...and he's cutting 2 slices off of it for me, leaving me a 1 3/4" slab left over fo' later on. Really nice guy too. I also might try to make an acoustic with it too, but me no make no 'coustic gee-tars yet

Lucky bastards!

Not to worry Wes, I've sworn to everyone the stains will be kept far, far away from this piece. She's fat enough to get a few projects out of her tho! I'm going to take your idea and grab my grinder and try out a carved top for one. Wish me luck (and thanks for those carving pics, me no wanna use no stankin' spokeshaves, electricity is my FRIEND!)

Check out this Redwood and see what ya think. Prolly won't turn into anything finished until next spring... Flamed Redwood

You could use shellac. But if you do, buy the flakes and make your own, shellac has a shelf-life, I wouldn't trust anything pre-made in the stores. Remember to de-wax it, but past that, it is a good wipe-on finish. Completely safe and non-toxic, buffs out well, repairs easily, lasts for at least 100 years...

I agree. By the time you shoot finish on the neck and body, that much will get eaten up, not to worry me thinks... If you need to fatten up the joint, I've used small pieces of veneer glued to the neck pocket sides if you need to go that route. Try to get veneer the same shade/wood as the body tho... I've had to sand finish off several times because the finish had built up too thick and made the pocket too tight.

When I look to buy Birdseye, I look at the size of the birds (I like 'em big), the quilting patterns in the wood that are associated with them, and the 'whiteness', or 'clearness' of the piece. No darkened mineral streaks if you can avoid it. Also, the 'busyness' of the birds. Some of it can be just too 'busy'. There's a difference between 'busy', and 'lots of clusters'. Busy just doesn't look good, even tho there are lots of birds, they're grouped much too close together and the look just doesn't quite cut it. 'Lots of Clusters' is SWEET! It's busy with birds, and very attractive too. #1 and #5 are like that. Nice quilting going on, but the birds are 'too busy' for me. If there's very little quilting, I pass. It's only the Birdseye that has a good amount of birds of good size and a good amount of quilting along with them that I buy. If there's very little quilt, it just looks like 2-dimensional dots to me. A generous amount of quilting topped by great 'birds' takes it to the 3-D level. Out of that bunch, #8 is the only one I'd consider buying, it seems to have more of what I look for than any other one there. Nice fat birds, a very good 'clearness', or yellow color to the wood, good quilt, no mineral streaks. #8 seems to have a very 'patterned' look to it, which I take (if I was building a neck anyway) as a good candidate for stability. Also, if you look at #8, the birds are big enough to where you can see the 'quilt' in the very eyes themselves. Good overall quilt, even and clear coloring, and good quilting even in the birds themselves. That's a winner looker. Also, a piece with tons of birds in one part and none right next to it would speak 'unstable' to me, maybe prone to warping. Yup, #8 wud be fo' me.

I like the tail end of it, and your curves seem to be in the right places, but there's something about the top end that's bugging me a little. I think it needs to be stretched out a bit more...something... Once you get the basic shape you like, just keep adjusting the finer points until you get it. On a body, the Slightest Change can have a dramatic impact. A guy I know makes life-sized pencil drawings and hangs them up on his wall at eye level for a few days to let them 'sink in', and does minor adjustments, hangs it up again for a few days... The last 'new' body I did a few months ago (haven't even made a guitar of it yet) I had the -basic- concept drawn in one night. And it took a week of refining it every single night until I had 3 versions I was happy with. Then I hung them up, slid a little of this from here over there, etc...it really took about 1.5 weeks of constant re-drawing before I finally had it and knew it, when that big fat sassy smile come a creepin' crosst my face, it was done. But I bet there's a good 12-15 hand-drawn hours in it, seriously adjusting very small points, over and over... So, I like the basic concept, I just don't think you're done revising it quite yet. You're close, keep at it.

I don't know about the other one, but the Stew-Mac 3/8" is a great bit, it lasts almost forever, and you can buy extra collars (from stew-mac too) to stack on top of the one it comes with, I use 3 collars, works great. I use a 1/2" to hog, 3/8" for the final cuts. I try to keep the 3/8" in good shape by not using it more than I have to, letting the 1/2" route all but the edges and corners... If I'm using a bit that has no extra collars, then I make a wooden 'lifter', that makes my template about 3/4" thick instead of the 1/4" plexiglass, and keep it double-taped to the plexi.

Why not keep it here instead of going e-mail?

Jehle, I like your new avatar

Set your neck in deep, use a hardtail style bridge and recess it into the wood a bit, and you will lower your overall string height to be closer to the face of the body/concealed pkps.

I have 3 (pint/door jamb) touch up guns, and 2 different types of airbrushes. But over time, I have really started to use a very basic and inexpensive pint gun (the Campbell/Hausfeld $40.00 Home Depot special) as my primary gun to do almost everything, and the $80.00 Sharpe with it's finer tip for everything else. What I'm trying to say is that I've made that one gun versatile enough to be able to do almost anything I need it to now, I've almost completely stopped using the airbrush lately... I have learned different 'bursting techniques that allow me to use just that gun to do almost anything. Almost. Learning to vary the fan pattern and gun pressure goes a looong way. If the rain lets up around here, I'll take a shot of my spray rig, mine has got to be the cheapest thing going, but I've used nothing but it for 8 years now. I use a propane gas grill container (free) and a 1/4 hp compressor (under $100.00 I think) a few line driers, and a $40.00 gun primarily. Top that for cheapness! PS, there is a bit of danger to using a propane container so I'm told, but I don't take it over 70psi at any time, and I keep the moisture down to a bare minimum, the 2 danger points of such a system is having the propane tank blow up in your face from too much pressure (i've been told they hold about 130 psi comfortably, so I should be OK) and moisture buildup inside the tank can weaken it's inherant strength from internal rust. But you can buy a holding tank from Home Depot for $20.00 that is the proper deal, I just have no reason to go buy one. If I had to do it over, I'd probably opt for the compressor/holding tank all coupled into one portable unit, but this is the way I started out, and it's still working fine... Get a pint gun as your starter gun, not an airbrush! I believe the Badger pint gun has different tips, I think it's $200.00??? but with different sized tips (and if you don't mind changing tips...I do, I'd rather use 2 guns) then that one gun would really cover almost everything. You could go from laying fat clearcoats to very fine airbrush quality mists. I consider having to change tips a pain in the arse tho...for the same money, you could buy the C-H and Sharpe guns and be set too... Again, I have stopped using my airbrush almost completely now and I'm getting fantastic 'bursts with the pint guns. I think my point here is that lots of fancy equipment can, to some point, make up for lack of good technique. But once you get enough experience, you don't need as much equipment. Analogy = Jimi Hendrix could make a $20.00 Sears Special sound good, while I see lots of people spending thousands of dollars on gear and they still suck. It ain't the equipment, it's learning to use what you got to it's fullest potential that really counts. Spend the time learning to use that one pint gun and all that it can do, you'll be surprised how much you can do with it. JMO...

...I actually had to walk over and look inside the CD player, I forgot the last thing I had listened to. And what did I find inside??? Pantera, COWBOYS FROM HELL!!!

I went to your site and had a good look-see at everything there. It sure is nice to have you aboard here! Thanks guys for the resource tips, I'm heading into deep waters, but really looking forward to it.

Where do you guys go to buy your inlay materials, and what are your personal favorites to use besides the common paua shell varieties? I'm getting ready to start doing some inlay work, and I've found a few resources from the MIMF, most want you to buy in some decent quantity I've found. It's like your going to have to gear up to do lots of inlay whether you like it or not That blue atlantine is sweet, I've not run across it before, where can you buy it? Resources, please!

I plan to load the ballot box next month by entering 5 guitars

Yeah, it was just a picture of a raw burl slab, I didn't know it got taken so seriously. Maybe I should screw a neck and a pkp on it real quick and enter it

Yes, Danno is right on the mark with this one. Sharp eye there, mate! You want grain filler (thick paste), not wood filler (more like putty patch). Grain filler comes in either water-based or oil based, and can be thinned (if you need to) with either water for water-based, or (I think) paint thinner for oil-based. It also comes in either natural or Walnut-colored varieties I think. You might want to find the thinner for that wood putty stuff and clean it out of the pores, it's not what you want in there... Truly transparent grain filler = Hot Stuff CYA (superglue) it really works, trust me. It comes in 3 viscosities. Green (gap filling, thick) Yellow (medium) and Red (runny, like water) I usually use the Yellow, seems to work best for me. Do NOT use any accellerator with it tho, just let it dry normally. Will give you a completely hard and crystal clear surface. Wear a respirator tho, fumes are killer for a few minutes. I use a playing card to spread it around. I also know some folks who use clear 2-part epoxy, but I haven't tried it myself yet. Epoxy might work better for Ash with it's large pores...

I'll just hook up with another pic hosting site, I'll re-post it in a few... It's sweet!

Mods, delete this thread please.

A violin bow can be fun, sho 'nuff... but an E-Bow will take you soooooooo much further into incendiary strang incursions... Dying Whale Songs, Satanic 'Page' excursions, Oblongotus Del Maximo Primavera territory. E-Bow>(tremolo-equipped)guitar>digital delay>chorus>harmonizer>(your favorite mind-altering substance)= a helluva lot of fun! In the case of the missing E-Bow and all ya got is the violin bow, make sure you still have the delay>chorus>whammy thang going on. ...A Volume pedal helps too...

I would really recommend you listen to a lot of Roy Buchanan for the 'pincher' technique. You really gotta hold the pick so that there's almost NO pick showing, it's hard to explain, it's really pick and flesh in the right proportions...but you can really get pretty much any note to squeal if you get the right-hand pick-holding technique down... And Roy was 'DA MASTAH' ad dat... Zakk would have been bowing at da mastahs' feets..