!WOOD!!

I have tried doing a 15 degree scarf on my Dewalt 12 inch sliding mitre saw and don't recommend it. You cannot just set the saw to 15 degrees and start cutting.You would need a saw that would rotate to 75 degrees and they don't make one You would have to set up an auxilliary fence that would increase the max setting on your saw to equal the desired angle. Most saws don't rotate past 50-60 degrees.If you try this make sure it is securely clamped.I still believe you would need a slider to get the length of cut you will require.I found it too dangerous to attempt again and resort to my bandsaw and a plane.

Gotta say. I like that Ibanez

Man I am not sure who Paul Gilbert is but I am sure I won,t be taking the comparison as a compliment. I like the idea of alternating grain rosewood.I am going to take a closer picture and see if it changes anyones mind . I really like the contrast. Rich

The Fhole is actually fake MOP and looks better in person.It is also not placed on top but flush with the top. I truly wish I had never cut out the F hole but looked horrible before I filled it in.Lack of interior prep work was the culprit Thanks Rich

This was a quick little project that ended up taking about a year.Had the body ready for finishing in a couple of nights and was dyed with water based aniline the next day. That was when I realized that I had routed the pickup cavities 0.25 of an inch out of centre. The body almost became firewood but about 6 months later I gave it another go. The pickguard covers the routing booboo and as much as I don't like pickguards this one doesn't bother me. I love the colour of this one.Learned a lesson on not using too much water when wetsanding and have a couple of blemishes in the lacquer but mostly around the knobs and are mostly covered. Tuners are vintage style Klusons and bridge pu is a Seymore Duncan and the neck is a Dimarzio.Both are from the early 80's Not a bad player and with the pickups sounds excellent

Another recently completed guitar. This one was started about a year ago and has had it's share of problems.It was supposed to be a solid mahogany Tele but over the winter the completed body cupped significantly. I ran it back through the planer and capped it with the curly maple.Binding is 6 ply pvc. The other problem I had was drilling for the string through ferrules a little off.Close but looked bad enough that I had to do something.I added in a maple block the same as the top and in the end became a nice feature. Tuners are Grovers and the pickups are Alnico humbuckers. Guitar is a nice player and does not sound anything like a Tele.Has a nice crunch but reasonable clean. Back was left natural and left a semi gloss.Top was dyed with water base aniline dye and coated in Nitro. Happy enough with this one and will be replacing the pickups with some Dimarzio's I have kicking around. Thanks Rich

This is one of a number of guitars that I have just completed Rosie has a completely chambered maple body and a rosewood cap.Binding is walnut. Neck is Canadian maple and rosewood fretboard. I didn,t like the F hole so I filled it with some pickguard material and am satisfied with it now. Bridge pu is a US Fender and the neck pu is a generic alnico but sounds not to bad.Tone is a little bright on the bridge but the neck seems to darken it up nicely. This is a great player and has been my player for about 2 months now.Very happy with the outcome. Thanks Rich

That guitar is looking great.How about some more pics.!!

The threaded rod at the body was ground down to the same as the pilot hole for strap button and the one is ground down to fit inside the truss rod nut.The thing going into the imput jack holds it from spinning. It holds the guitar very solidly and this is an extremely heavy guitar

This is a Bass I carved a few years back If we could find a drummer that played on skulls we would have a hell of a band

That is some fine looking lumber. How soft is the cedar?I would be terrified not to put a pickguard on it. Looking Fantastic!!

Thanks for all the replies This is a better picture of the top Needless to say that this is going to be a back breaker.I thought about chambering this but decided to suffer the weight.I hope it is worth it. 6 more coats and it's done

This is a picture of the way it sits now Also showing off my new guitar rotisserie that I use for spraying this peticular guitar.With this I can spray flat and can lay on a nice wet coat with no runs.

Thanks for the replies.The colour is gold and is on it's 9th coat..Will post pics tomorrow.This is an old pic but shows the mahogany nicely

Been a while since I have posted anything but have had a rough go lately This is an LP that I built while I was going through chemotherapy.People react differently to the drugs they give you and unfortunately it really affected my hands.My fingers were very sensitive and had to work with cotton gloves on when I built this guitar. Any way enough of the excuses The back is beautiful 20 year old mahogany given to me by a good friend and the top is curly maple donated to me by the same good friend. The picture I have shown is from about 4 months ago and the guitar has progressed nicely. The frets are now set and have strung it up and plays very well.This was the first neck that I have made. Specs are as follows Grover tuners Late 70's Dimarzios(haven't heard them yet) Gotoh bridge and tailpiece Gibson jumbo frets Real mother of pearl fret markers Standard LP switching All gold hardware This guitar was a number of firsts for me.First neck;first archtop;first fret inlay;and first bound. The colour is a trans Gold that shows the figuring very nicely and the back and neck were left natural and all done in nitro. I am at 6 coats so far and is looking quite nice. Will post pics soon of it's current condition No longer have to wear gloves and life is good Rich

Replacing a trussrod is really not that hard.You have to remove the fretboard with heat ;replace trussrod and reglue the fretboard.Search this forum and you will get detailed instructions and tutorials.Your builder should be able to do this in his sleep.Sounds like the nut was cross threaded before installation

You are truly a brave man.My first project cost me less than $100.I think if I spent $2200 on any project that it would be my last as my long suffering wife would surely kill me

I seem to be a sucker for cheap Japanese guitars.I have probably refished 10 Squires alone.I love the ones that were bought for their kids and after 3 lessons they have a need to modify their guitars with stickers screwdrivers and spraycans.I think I am the crazy cat lady of the guitar world and feel sorry for these poor little beasts and see if I can salvedge some of their questionable dignity.If nothing else it has given me the opportunity to learn how to strip;respray and buff some bodies with no real consequence if I screw it up.If they turn out acceptable than I resell them and put the cash into a fund to buy guitar parts.I think I am addicted to trading guitars for guitars that I have rebuilt.Last week I traded a Squire that some young girl had taken a marker to with absolutely no artistic talent plus a really beat up semi acoustic that I attempted my first refret on for a mint Epiphone V with case.The Squire took some thinners and a light buffing and a new pickguard to look quite nice.The old semi was a guinny pig that showed me that I had a lot to learn about refretting.The Squire cost me $20 Canadian and the Semi was a $25 Ebay with local pickup.With a little bit of work and a new pickguard I had a mint Epi V 58 RI.The V is going to be traded on Sunday for a Godin SDXT.So for my $45 and a bit of work I have a nice little underated Canadian guitar.The Godin will hit Craigslist or Kijjiji and will get me more parts for what I want to build.I am on a bit of a Tele kick right now and the proceeds from said guitars will get me enough parts for at least 1 good build or 2 if I have patience.I definitely prefer my guitars to name brands because I have control over what goes into them but almost need the others to get me there.I have about 5 Epis acouple of Fenders and some really wierd Japanese guitars but to me they are tradebait or waiting to be sold.The only guitars I keep are mine and acoustics because I have yet to build an acoustic.Would not consider buying an electric that cost me more than $100

I have built an SG ;a bass and a Tele with a maple cap out of oak.The Sg and bass were painted and the Tele was dyed blue.It is very grainy and time consuming to grain fill.As for tone it is really subjective.My Tele sounded very good on the bridge humbucker but a little bright on the single neck.The bass guitar sounded excellent.The Sg sounds pretty darn good.Started out with a maple neck and was really bright then switched to mahogany and it seemed to even it out pretty good.I am also a cabinet maker and I also hate oak.As a guitar wood I think that I am done with it .All the oak I used was free and wouldn,t have used it if I had to pay for it.

Perfect.Thanks

Trying to piece back a Westone Dimension IV and having some trouble with the electronics.I have all the origional parts but all the wires have been desoldered and have no clue how to reassemble them.It has 3 push/pull pots and a 3 way switch.Pickups are HSH.Anybody have one of these or another similar configuration?Thanks Rich

Hi there.Try Exotic Woods in Burlington,If they don't have the Birch you are looking for I guarantee you will walk out with something.They have woods specifically for Luthiers.Nice people and won't rush you.Happy New Year!!

I loved working with Walnut.It works about the same as Mahogany and sands down to almost glass smooth.I cleared mine with Nitro and used no grain filler.I am more than happy with the tone but weight is a factorbut not much more than Mahogany.This Tele has P90's and sounds like no Tele I have ever played.If I could afford to I would use walnut exclusively.I just hope Matt that you are not going to paint it flat black.Can't wait to see the progress

The routers I would steer clear of are the Ryobi,s ;anything that says Craftsman ;Skil and all Chinese knockoffs.A router is not the tool you want to skimp on.It requires presicion adjustments and is safe and can take a beating.Save up and buy a PC ; Dewalt or a Hitatchi.You won't regret either router

The bridge I used is a stringthrough and really seems to help with sustain.This guitar plugged and unplugged sounds much better than my Epi SG.Making a Mahogany SG as well so I will see the difference in wood choice