Drak

Hmmm, never had that problem before, it's locking me out too! (from here anyway)

I'll investigate...

Here's what I got done today, shooting the first few coats on this one.

This git has been with me about 3-4 years now, undergoing several different looks.

Check out the 'Carriburst' turquoise look, it was my first try at that look, I didn't like it, too green. Oh well, it was a first try. That was about 2 years ago when I first heard of that look. I'll do one one day...

I think this one will have to have black Hardware, it just seems to call for it.

The body is Honduran Mahogony, fully chambered on both sides. Birdseye Maple on the back, Quilted Maple on the front.

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Decide what kind of stain you want to use (water, alcohol, metallic, etc)

Then buy yerself a container of blue and yellow.

Custom-mix them yourself until you get your desired shade of turquoise.

Start with a cup of blue and then add yellow to the blue in -very- small drops until you get where you want to be.

You are drifting from blue to green (blue+yellow=green) and the turquoise is just a few very small steps from blue on the way to full-on green.

Same thing for purple. Start with blue and add red in small doses until you get where you want to be...

Start with your stains full strength to find the desired tone of turquoise first.

Then, once you get the tone you want, start to dilute it down with the proper thinner (water for water-based stains, etc...) to get the SHADE you want. Sometimes full-strength is too strong and you want to tone it down to find the right shade of turquoise.

For flamed/quilted woods, I recommend either water-based or metallic (metallic dilutes with water too) these stains bring out the figure more (in my opinion anyway) than alcohol-based stains, at least on bare wood...

Yeah, that's kinda what I meant, not that Walnut was a bad choice, but my experience with it was that other woods sounded better.

But we all know the story...even 2 pieces from the same tree will sound different...

If I had to put a label on it, it was that nothing really stood out about it. I can usually 'hear' the wood tonality of different guitars. I.e., play enough Maple-necked guitars, and you can start to 'hear' that sound and identify it in the tonal mix.

The Walnut just didn't offer anything substantive of it's own that I could hear and appreciate. Nothing bad about it, but nothing that stood out either is all.

I'm starting to feel like the doomsday machine tonight!

I built a guitar out of Walnut, and it is chambered, and, well, it is not one of my favorite axes although I do like it, there are other woods that, to me, were much better tonewoods than Walnut.

On the face of it, you would think Walnut would be a GREAT tonewood...I did...

...but found out, at least with mine, that it isn't the best out there, I can't say exactly why, but it is very noticable to me, in the fact that that guitar isn't one I immediately pick up and play...actually I am getting ready to rob it of some of it's electronics to use on another guitar.

Just speaking my experience, not my opinions...

Actually, the guitar school in Arizona (I think Roberto-Venn?) teaches an actual 'bolt-in' neck, that is very much like a set-neck w/ mortise and tenon, but is bolted in, so the neck can be removed for adjustment. They 'say' it is superior to anything else out there...

I believe Ed 'opted' (hehehe) that idea from one of his custom-builders (McNaught I believe) and I think 'HE' lifted the idea from (Queen) Brain May's original hand-built Oak guitar, so proper credit for all that 'long-tongued' foresight goes to Brain May and his dad who built his guitar together. Probably moreso to his dad than Brain who was but a teen at the time!

His dad was a mathematician I believe, who wanted to extoll to Brian that rock-n-roll wasn't all chicks and glory, but involved mathamatics also, primarily in building the neck and frets and scale length...

That guitar sports a very long tongue which is glued into the body, it is not a 'bolt-in', or 'bolt-on'...FWIW...

I seem to be the 'odd-man-out' here, as I build exclusively 'bolt-on', 'store-bought' necked, usually Floyd-equipped guitars. Oh well, they make me verrry happy

Then again, I am a believer that only so much technology need go into a good guitar, vastly more effect is in the hands that handle it

I have been able to tweak and modify and twist my guitars to the point where I am really digging all of them, and they all are bolt-ons...

But good on ya who believe in those neck-thrus, love ya all the same

Yup.

I don't have a locking nut on any of my Floyds, I do it just the way Scott described, by using locking tuners and a graphite nut.

Works for me, I absolutely HATE locking nuts, but LOVE my Floyds

That's a gorgeous piece of wood.

...but unfortunately, you're gonna have to sit on it for at least a year, two would be better, three would be even better yet.

I know that's probably not what you wanted to hear...

If you try to use it now, it will probably shrink and split or even possibly twist on you down the road, it's not remotely dried out yet. -Especially- with curly or quilted figured woods.

If you try to cut it, make sure you have the same finish on both sides or it will DEFINITELY curl and cup on you and be useless.

I.E., don't have a rough saw cut on one side and a sanded finish on the other. Definite disaster will await you. Both sides need to have the same 'texture', even if it's rough-cut, for the piece to dry out evenly.

Even if you cut it into thin pieces, you will still need to wait it out, and if you cut it into thin pieces, they are more prone to warp, cup, and bend quicker than if you left it the way it is for a few years.

If I remember right, the old saying goes 'an inch a year' for natural drying purposes.

This works great for me and I do it all my ebony or rosewood necks:

I use Stew-Mac's Fretboard Finishing Compound first. A coat, maybe two.

Wait 24 hours for it to completely dry.

Then use my Dremel tool with the white cloth mini-buffing wheel and go over the entire fretboard, one section at a time.

It will shine like the Bejeezus and be very slick and fast.

I love the very fast feel of all my necks after doing this, much less the shine it gives is just a bonus.

I also use their red polishing compound with the same wheel (not the 'very' same, but another cloth wheel just like it) to polish the frets. Between the fast fretboard and the polished frets, the neck will feel and look phenomenal.

If I want to darken a fretboard, I use the black leather dye from Stew-Mac first, then wipe it off, give it an hour to dry, then follow the process as outlined above.

The Fretboard Finishing Compound 'locks' the dye into the fretboard.

A Naptha wipedown should do the trick...

Whammy Bars!!!!

For general 'it'll do everything' gun, I use a pint-sized Campbell-Hausefeld from Home Depot.

It's pretty affordable, I can go buy one on Sunday if I have to, I can beat it to hell and not really care that much about it, etc...

I also have a more expensive Sharpe pint-gun that I use for more detailed stuff, it falls between the C-H and an airbrush, it's tip is a bit more refined than the C-H. The C-H is great for laying on thick clear coats.

If I had only once choice it'd be the C-H. Cheap, and it can do most any job you need it to.

Man, that is one really beautiful guitar, I love that finish.

You = lucky dawg!

If you are cutting real pearl blanks, please wear a respirator.

Pearl dust is -deadly- so I've read from pro pearl cutters...not immediately lethal, but assuredly deadly down the road...

To find it locally (Tru-Oil), most all gun shops will carry it, as well as any big superstores that have a gun section.

It is primarily used to coat and protect gunstocks.

Use lots of really thin coats, not a few thick coats.

PS, I do a lot of 'stain black and sand back' finishes, that guitar doesn't look to me like black was used, just brown.

There 'is' a powdered anilyne stain made by Lockwood called silver-grey that reminds me of that look, the one above looks more brown tho.

I think PRS used the silver-grey as a base and shaded the sides black, I think that was one of their finishes years ago, but I'm no PRS expert...

FWIW, I also use the 3/16" rule, placing the bass side 3/16" back from the string length mark.

Eggggggcellent, Smithers!

In that case I can enter Burl Ives, my favorite drop-top!

Burl Ives

Foyhteeh-TWOOOOOOOOOO.

Now, where'd mah damn TEETH get to agin?

I usually clamp for at least a few hours, a full day if my patience can take it

Well, I use the 5-way on most of my guitars, with no pickguard.

Yes, I use the dremel with a tiny cutter, I use the Stew-Mac router base and double-tape something straight and flat onto the body for the router base to follow as a straight guide.

HOLD that SOB tightly! Sometimes the dremel wants to grab and spin out of your hands and ruin the damned thing.

I also have to use some tiny jewellers' files to clean up the slot afterwards.

Be sure you make it wide enough w/o being too wide, as the finish will eat up some space, and it's possible to make it too thin, and the switch will 'grab' and not slide smoothly if you cut it a bit too thin...

I also route the underside of the switch (inside the control cavity) thinner than the rest of the cavity, but not toooooo thin!

I honestly have no idea, since I've never owned/built one, but I have used Paduak before, just not for an entire solidbody, and it is in the 'oily' woods family, meaning it would be on the heavy side and you'd have to be careful about what finish you used for it.

Paduak (at least mine did) has some pretty large pores to fill, but it can be rather pretty wood.

I have a Paduak neck from Warmoth that is quite nice tho.

Here's my September Offering.

Meet 'The Floyd Bird'.

Perticuliarities:

Birdseye Maple capped front and rear

Honduran Mahogony body

Stew-Mac 'Jackson' neck, with same Birdseye veneered on the face

Sperzel Locking tuners

Floyd Rose Original Wham-O recessed route

EMG 'Lukather' pickup setup (SV/SV/85)

Controls: Volume, Tone, EMG EXG control, EMG Afterburner Pre-amp

Fake-Out Gibson truss-rod cover

Regular Nitro Lacquer finish

Body includes a rear tummy route and an upper fret access route

It was really rainy and overcast around here today, else the pics would be a little nicer with a better reflection on the finish...oh well..

Headstock Shot

Left Side Body Shot

Right Side Body Shot

Close-Up Controls Shot

Rear Body Shot

In today's world it is a buyer's market for speakers, there's as many tonal choices as there are ice cream flavors out there.

What kind of (guitar) cab are you sticking them in?

What amp are you using?

(I can't help much in the PA dept.)

2-12, 4-12, 4-10???

Open backed, closed backed?

What primary kind of music to be played?

What primary kind of guitar to be used?

Over the years I have gone thru dozens of different speakers for different app's.

So, what's yer perticular poisen?

Sure.

Made by Satellite City.

CA = cyanoacrylate adhesive

Hot Stuff is the red label (runny)

Super T is the yellow label (medium viscosity, my favorite)

Special T is the green label (thick, gel-like, gap filling abilities)

I also will use NCF Hot, which is an accellerant. You spritz a shot of this stuff on CA and it dries -instantly-. But not always crystal-clear. I don't use the accellerant if I'm using it to seal.

Stew-Mac should have it in their catalog.

PS, Brian is right. I use eye-goggles and respirator when applying it as a sealer coat, the fumes (for about 2 minutes) will knock you on yer ass and burn yer eyeballs silly!

I've never found anything else that dries as brick-hard and crystal clear as CYA.

I mean, sanding sealer has soap in it for chrissakes!

Me no want no steenkin' Soap in me finishes!

Also, pretty much anything else I can put a fingernail into. CYA dries as hard as freakin' stone, and it's my favorite sealer. Actually it's my only sealer, I don't use anything else if I need something to seal.

Generally I just use whatever I'm finishing with from the get-go 1st coat, and use the CYA if I need to harden some soft or punky wood, like Spalted or Redwood or something like that.

So really, my favorite sealer (what I always use) is the finish itself. Straight lacquer usually...a great sealer.