mairj40

I have a couple options as far as paint. I have the Encore Brown from Behlen that I can use, but it needs to be put on pretty thick in order to cover the work area. Or, I have some black lacquer that I can use. Not sure which one to go with, bit I'm leaning towars the straight black.

Yeah, that's another thing I am concerned about. I don't want to kill the sound.

I guess this is something like how it will look .

Right. My point was that if we are all supposed to be here to help each other, not to just post a one or two sentence criticism and be done. On another note. Thank you for your input. I do appreciate the constructive criticism and advise. That is what this forum is supposed to be for. Thank you. I'm over it. I sanded the finish off of the top last night. I will try and do a solid black top. I was worried how it would look with brown sides and back, but I have seen pictures from manufacturers where the tops are custom colors and the sides and back are brown. Not really me first choice of how to finish it, but I'll give it a shot.

My issue with the comment above (guitar2005) was that there is a way of offering advice, suggestions, and criticism without being a jerk about it. Everyone else has seemed to be able to do it. To just tell someone that what they have dome looks awful, does not help them learn what they may have done wrong, or where they can improve. As you say, why post on a public forum if you are not here to help, and just to criticize? I am going to sand it down and do something different with the finish. It's no big deal. I was just experimenting with this guitar. I toyed with just making it a solid color on the top, but thought I'd try a burst before I made my mind up completely. My concern with a solid color on the top is that the rest of the guitar is a dark-ish brown color. I really don't want to refinish the whole thing. Thank you SwedishLuthier. Good advice as always.

Well, luckily your opinion doesn't mean sh*t to me. It was a free guitar that I got to EZPERIMENT WITH. I can always sand it down and refinish it. Thanks for your negative comments, douche.

Here is the burst with the first few coats of clear on top. Since this guitar is from the 70's, I tried to make it looked "aged". I figured that I got this guitar for free, so I would use it for some experimenting.

Thanks. It didn't originally have a pickguard, so I designed one and had it made at my Dad's shop. Yeah, each saddle is able to be adjusted independently.

Here is what I am working on. It has a hardtail strat bridge.

Good deal. I made a radius gauge, so I can check my neck radius. Hopefully one of those will work. I was thinking that I should stay with 24 frets since the original had that many. If my current neck radius is 14, for example, is it going to totally mess things up to use a 12 radius board? Sorry if my questions are dumb. I haven't replaced a fretboard before, but I wanted to give it a shot on an old project guitar that I have.

I have an Epiphone from the 80'd that needs the truss rod replaced. The fretboard was ebonol, and I was not able to get it off in one piece. I'm ok with that, because I didn't really like the ebonol anyway. My question is that it is a 25.5 scale, and the old fretboard had 24 frets. I am having a hard time finding a replacement fretboard. I have found several that are 25.5 scale with only 22 frets. Does the number of frets matter?

Here is the progress so far. The first picture is the guitar sanded down. The second is the guitar with the base coat on it. Hopefully, I can get the burst done this weekend.

I have supported the broken section from inside the guitar with some cedar cleats. I have it all put back into position. I think I am going to have to use some wood filler to completely finish the job. I was hoping to not have to do this, but I don't see any other choice. I was thinking that I would put a tobacco burst on the top to help cover the work area. But now I'm wondering if I would be better off to repaint the whole top. I don't know which way will be better. I'm not worried about the value of the guitar, since I got it for free. I doubt that I will want to sell it once it's done. I'm just looking to have a decent classical guitar when it's done. Also, the experience of fixing it.

I got the Dixon up and running. I got it all set up, and it sounds pretty good. The only hangup is that the electric part does not seem to be working. I'm thinking about replacing all the electronics and seeing if that does any thing. It is just an under saddle pickup, two knobs, and a jack. It shouldn't be too difficult.

No, I haven't. I was sitting here thinking about it earlier, and I'm wondering about taking the back off, so I can access the back side of the front that way. I have fixed numerous cracked necks, but never the face of an acoustic. I think that if I can get to the back side of the face, I can fix it. All the wood is there, it just needs put back in place and glued. I figured that since I got the guitar for free that I don't have much to lose.

I just picked up a 1977 Giannini AWN classical guitar for free. The lady I got it from said that her ex boyfriend broke it a few years ago. It really doesn't look like too big of a fix to me. The problem in that I can't get my hand into the guitar far enough to push the edge top back up where it needs to be. I was thinking of making a couple jacks out of turnbuckles and putting them in there to push the top up, but I'm not sure I have room to do that either. It's really not a very deep body. The guitar is beautiful, and was hand made in Brazil. It has gorgeous hand carving on the headstock, and there is not a scratch on it, other than the damage from the lady's ex. I was wondering about trying to just replace the top, but I don't know if the guitar is worth it. I'm pretty sure that I could fix the top and then sand it and refinish it. But there just isn't room to work inside it. Anyone have any suggestions? Here are the pictures that she sent me of the guitar before I picked it up.

I have an old acoustic electric that I am working on. It originally had two knobs (one volume and one tone) sticking out of the body by the neck. I would like to install a more modern type of preamp setup on it. How difficult would it be to install a newer system?

Here is the finished product. It's far from perfect, but it was a good project to learn on.

I picked up a Dixon DG-5E acoustic electric guitar for $10. It needs new tuners, and it's a little beat up. No real damage, just nicks and bumps from being an older guitar. I cannot find much information on these. From what I've found, they were Martin ripoffs. I read that the company was sued by Martin and Gibson because Dixon had copied their design. I'm not stupid, I'm not expecting this thing to sound like a Martin. Is this thing worth fixing up, or should I just use it for parts to fix other guitars?

It's been awhile, but here is a picture of the progress. Lighting is not the best. The guitar isn't perfect, but it will work. After all, it is almost thirty years old.

Ok. Here's what I came up with. Can anyone tell me if this will work to accomplish what I need it to do?

VERY cool! Thank you so much. I checked that website, but didn't see that diagram. Can't thank you enough.

I have, what I believe to be, a unique situation. I have an Epiphone X1000 form the late 80's. It has been redone, and it's time for wiring the pickups. The guitar currently has one volume knob (push pull for original coil splitting), one tone knob, and three mini toggles to turn the pickups on and off individually. It has NO selector switch at all. It is originally a H/S/S setup. I am installing a hum back in the bridge. For the middle and neck pickups I am installing strat sized mini humbuckers. What I would like to do is replace the original on/off toggles with three-way toggles so each pickup will have on(hum)/off(no sound)/and on(split). I don't know if I am using the exact terminalogy, but that is esentially what I am looking for. I am having a really hard time finding a wiring diagram for the setup that I am looking to do. Does anyone have any insight into this, or know where I can find a diagram? I'm attaching a picture of the original guitar so you can see what I am working with.

Yeah, I wanted to. But, the only way I could find a board wide enough was to buy one 12 feet long. I only needed about 6". Seemed kind of wasteful.

Lol. Yeah, it would probably be too late. It's ok though, I am enjoying this experience. Thanks for the kind words. I'll try and get some pictures of it sometime this week. I will be getting the clearcoat on it during this week, so it might be a good time to get some pictures of it. I think I solved my pickup issue also. I am going to try some GFS pickups. I've heard good things about them, and they are pretty reasonable.