mjrbuzz

I am building a bass for a friend and local bass player, He is pretty specific on what he wants. 35" scale 19mm spacing at the bridge, oh and the big thing, as close to a 51 p bass as possible. So here we go haha. also this will be my first attempt at building a neck. i saw some downloads in the downloads section i would like to look at but i cant seem to get it to download on my phone so any help there would be fantastic.

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/here-comes-another-one-or-two.650038/

this binding jig looked pretty promising used drawer slides to let it move up and down freely, I'm interested on what you do cause hopefully soon i'll be in the same boat.

I found these while looking through a knife making catalog...too many hobbies go through my head. wanted to get yalls oppion on using them for both side and top fret board markers,

http://www.knifemaking.com/category-s/24.htm

thank you, I am a virgin at building a neck this will be my first time. I think I found a nut that's already spaced http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and_Supplies/Nuts_and_Saddles/Slotted_Unbleached_Bone_Nut.html the Gibson 1 3/4 one

and a bridge http://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_Parts/Bridges_and_Tailpieces/Bridges_and_Tailpieces_for_Archtop_Guitar/Tune_o_matic_Bridge_For_Archtop_Guitar.html both look like they give me the string spacing numbers to plug in to the program. scale length will be 25.5.

Those numbers i'm pretty confident in. some other numbers I have no idea where to start with, like the fretboard overhang, and the tuning.

also if I use 24 fret and only decide to make the fretboard 22 frets it wont mess with the scale I would just cut 2 frets off correct? any help would be greatly admired  the parts are subject to change but that's what i'm working with right now. Thank you again for your time.

*edit

I took the string spacing on the nut and subtracted it from the total nut width and divided the result by 2.

I came up with a measurement of .171875  does that seem like the number I would use for the fret board overhang measurement?

Is this a good place to ask some probably noob questions about using this tool and designing a fretboard for my build?

had some fun today got both of the insides roughed out for carving a little slippage but nothing drastic pretty happy so far

got frustrated with the sides so I started on the inside carving of the top and back

Thank you for the link, I have some wood bending blues right now, I think the mesquite I ripped for the sides is just a little too far gone to bend the tight curves for the sides. so I'm gonna practice on some more maple to try to get the process better understood. I'm a little frustrated and may when it cools off outside see what other mesquite I have in the shop. I love the topic graphical templates in that thread and would kill to have something drawn up like that for this guitar but alas I cant find anything online. I definatly need to get a beter result on the sides before I move on.

I may try to rip even thinner sides right now they are about .08 - .09 in or 2.3 mm laminates. If I cant find a good piece of mesquite I also have some pecan to try but I was hoping to keep the body all one wood

well the bending hasn't gone all that well with the homade bending iron. thinning the stock helped but i'm not sure that's the answer either. So we spent this morning making a steam box! We are gonna wait till the sun goes down and it is cooler before we fire this thing up and i'm gonna have some Mexican beers and watch a pot of water boil. wish me some luck I have no idea what I'm doing

feeling accomplished, think I have my forms sorted out for the sides. not sure still what I am going to make them out of yet tho. XX time

Thank you Scott, yes I got the slabs from down in Kingsville. also got some Texas ebony for the fret board and headstock. I did get some free pecan while I was down there to use for the sides, but upon milling it I'm not so sure its gonna be a fit. I'm gonna look through the shop and see if I can find enough mesquite to do the sides out of to even if its just a thin laminate on the outside. really need to learn how to draw it all up on the pc like some of you guys do. just flying by the seat of the pants right now.

I guess I should start coming up with hardware specs before long. the hardware I know I want on it :

Gretsch Bigsby b6 I think it is

T.V. Jones classic Filtrons

bridge ?

electronics?

tuners?

probably gonna make knobs either out of shotgun shell brass or the texas ebony

Trying to use native wood through out even inside.

25.5 scale

thanks if you have any suggestions please don't be timid I want all the info and others thoughts

Go big or go home they say.... 

I had a grand plan to build a gretsch country gentleman, and now I'm getting into it,  it's a big project.  This is only my second guitar so wish me luck.  

I realize this is mostly a solid body forum but I wanted to put it up in here so I could get some help and advise as I move along with it. 

Pictures,  at first I couldn't find a good PDF of the guitar so I blew up a large photo.  But when I got to measuring all the numbers were off.  The photo looked straight on,but it was at a slight angle and threw everything off. So here is where I am at. 

I have been looking around deciding that when I make another tele style guitar I want a bigsby on it and have been looking for a sutiable bridge that doesn't need an neck angle? I found this but havn't even really found onything else that would be a decient bridge or if what i'm trying to do is really possible. any suggestions would be fantastic. I have been looking at jasmaster type bridges

Ok so I had a gentleman offer to commission a guitar after seeing the mesquito caster. I don't really want to start a business but its hard to turn down the 1,000 dollars that he is offering. I guess my question would be should I do it, what kinda profit/material ratio should I be looking at. or actually any advise would help a lot. If he wants a tele style I still have all my templates so the time wouldn't be as much involved but I feel I would want better hardware for a guitar I plan on selling. I just really don't know where to start

I would like to submit my first guitar build for the guitar of the month. This really was a proof of concept for me, I wasn't sure how or if it would even work. Over all I a very happy with it, I would for sure do some things different if I did it all over again but it plays and I think it is pretty.

The body is made of a maple 2 piece back and a mesquite 2 piece front.

the neck is a fender replacement made by guitar fetish (their gfs lable I belive) maple with rosewood finger board

The pickups are again guitar fetish Slick old school pair. I wasn't sure how the build would trun out so most of the parts are from guitar fetish  The tone is a push/pull to split the humbuckers to single coil. I will likely be turning some knobs and strap buttons out of texas ebony before all is said and done.

I am mostly a wood turner as far as wood work goes but I do all kinds of smaller projects. and this guitar was mostly made on the top of the table saw out under a popup shade.

I did a lot of research before diving in, I really wanted to be successful and really feel that it was a complete success!!

here is the build thread and I probably have a hundred pictures of the whole process

I wanted something unique ( I realize a tele isn't all that unique) that's why I opted for the tele delux but a thinline verison the finish ended up being lacquer on shellac. next time I think I would try a black grain fill on this wood.

Thank you for checkin out the Mesquito-Caster I had a fantastic time building it and learning about the whole process!!

I will put it the gotm I'll have to take some better pictures tho. I don't really feel it stands a chance but why not

I am thrilled with it but also very humbled looking at the crazy beautiful stuff people in this fourm create. I am just trying to decide what I would like to try next

better late then never here is the final product! just got it back from the local musical store (I had them do the setup on it) thank you all for your input and help. I can' hardly wait to start the next one

I put one coat of Danish oil on it a while ago, not happy with how dark it made the maple so I may try something else is Shellac a forgiving finish?

strings are on, gonna hae taking it back down to nothing to finish the oil finish.. but at least I got to hear it make some noise!!! Again thank all you for your help and motivation with your amazing instruments!!

10 hours ago, Prostheta said:

It's a good option. You're not restricted to just using wood scraps though. Having drilled craploads of ultra-high density molecular weight polyethylene (PE1000, UHMWPE) the last few weeks, I think engineering plastics have a lot to offer. Specifically, if you're using a spotting/centre drill bit in a pre-drilled template the flutes shouldn't bear against the template itself. Once the locations are marked they can be opened out without a template. It's all about getting them lined up cleanly and reliably.

well I got it done with a mixture of your suggestions, I had a drill press kinda thing that hooks to a cordless drill. marked from both sides and drilled half way through from each. It worked out beautifully, i'll try to put some pictures up a lil later. thank you all for your suggestions and help this far!!

1 hour ago, Guitaraxz said:

Those are some boxes the humbuckers came in! They look superb. What are they, hand made, custom?

Personally  I have a collection of pickups, just like some people like guitars some people like pickups. Let us know, let us know!

I really was shooting blind on the pickups as I don't know anything about electric guitars... I am learning on the fly! I bought them from Guitar fetish they are their Slick 'Old Shoool" pickups with a faux distressed look to them. will tell ya more when I get them plugged in

well my planning fell a little short... I went to do a final mock up and drill the string through holes and figured out that my drill press doesn't have enough length to fit the guitar in there to drill the holes. trying now to locate a larger drill press or order a bridge that loads from the top. any tricks or tips would be a great help hahah

well got some parts in and some work done, should be ready to start the finish this weekend!! I still am leaning for an oil finish I just love the warmth of the wood. oh and i'm not that good of a painter!!

well I had some numbers for the plate in the back from a blue print and they didn't match exactly, also the neck pocket was a lil large, and by a lil I mean maybe 1/16 or 1/32. I would just check them all out before drilling or routing out anything. it wasn't much but too much for me