Hydrogeoman

Man, everytime I start to feel good and confident about the progress I am making on my builds the GOTM entries start showing up to knock me down a few notches! Nice work guys, there are some seriously good looking guitars (and bass) in the mix this month. Right now though, I think I am feeling the love for Pukko's. Very cool and tastefully done my man. Cheers Greg

Band saws - I can't speak to the utility of a bench top band saw, but I have the 14" Grizzly "ultimate 14" bandsaw" model with the 6" riser block. It is absolutely one of the best and most used tools in my shop. It will set you back about 3x as much as a bench top model, but if you can hold off and save the extra dough, I think it would be worth the wait and extra investment. I personally don't feel I will need or want to upgrade from this saw anytime soon. Drill presses - I have a small 8" benchtop model that I paid about $35 for. It is a very handy tool to have, but it has its limitations. The main one being that with an 8" (swing) it only has about a 4" throat capacity, which prohibits drilling holes for tuneomatic bridges on most guitars. This was very frustrating for me , so I finally purchased this floor standing 34" radial drill press that can be adjusted to give a throat distance of 17". Radial drill press I think a bench top drill press can do most of the things you would want for guitar building, but I would try and get one with at least a 12" swing, otherwise you may not have the reach needed to drill some things like bridge holes in a body. Oh yeah, as far as power, my bench top has only a 1/4 hp motor and is a bit underpowered. You can make up for some of this by adjusting the rpm and going slow. It only really becomes an issue when trying to use larger diameter forstner bits. This is a problem with the radial floor drill press also, which is rated at 1/2 hp. It is not a big deal for me though, as the power is adequate on both drills for 98% of what I use them for. Good luck with your choices.

McFaddens nitrocellulose lacquer is great. I just shot my first guitar with this stuff and it is very forgiving. You can order it from Grizzly.com

Thanks man. LOL - I knew I should have explained. I am building the guitar for a friend and I emailed him this progress pic. The initials are suppose to be a surprise - thus the tape. I have a pic of the guitar on the 1st page of posts that shows the ebony inlay.

It has been a while since I have made any progress updates, so here are a few pics of the LP Jr. as of last week. The neck was shot with ambered clear to try and get a 50 year old yellowed look and the body was shot with a slightly ambered white lacquer. I am shooting McFaddens nitro and I really like the stuff. Now I just need to upgrade from my $12 Harbor Freight spray gun. Tomorrow we are suppose to be in for record warm weather (about 70F) for this time of year so I am going to play hooky from work and spray a few coats of clear. Hopefully, I can get this one wrapped up soon with a few more nice days in the next week or so. In case you think the 12th fret marker looks weird it is because it is actually a piece of electrical tape I put there to hide the initials that are inlayed. Here is another shot of the body: CLICKY Cheers, Greg

Yeah, I was really surprised at how much the paint "settled down" over the course of a day (considering I was using a $12 dollar Harbor Freight spray gun). I can't wait to see the results once I get better gun. The pickup, BTW, is just the P-90 cover in the pic, but I have a Kent Armstrong one that is going into the guitar. It is one of the hand wound jobs from Kent himself (not the import ones you can get from WD Music), so I am really looking forward to how it will sound when completed. It was wound 10% hot with a coil tap to punch up the output with a switch when needed.

Thanks Drak, I always appreciate your replies because I know I am getting a pro's advice. I put the guitar in a warm room all of yesterday and I was surprised this morning as the finish appeared to continue to level itself. No orange peel to speak of, only the dry spray in the cutouts, and a few dust specks on the flats. This is my first attempt at spraying, but based on what I am seeing at this point, the McFaddens lacquer is great. Based on your feedback, I think I am going to go with a light scuff sanding with 600 grit before shooting the clear option. Cheers Greg

Anybody?

Buy the Gibson now so you can learn to play with a quality instrument. Spend a lot of time learning as much as you can from this forum and elsewhere (Melvyn Hiscock's book for starters). You are going to have to invest a fair amount of money in tools just to get started (and if you are like a lot of us here, you will get addicted to adding to your tool collection as well and end up literally spending a fortune). After learning a little about what is involved and it still interests you, save a little more cash and GO FOR IT! In the meantime, you will have a great guitar to play while you are making your first creation. Just my 2 cents

Just finished spraying a white LP Jr. with McFaddens nitro colored with Stewmac white pigment and a bit of amber. The finish is fairly smooth but not perfect (a bit of dry overspray in the cutouts and not like glass everywhere on the flats). I level sanded the white after the first round of spraying and fixed pinholes etc. However, I am not certain if I should level sand it again before beginning my clear coats. The Stewmac finishing book is not entirely clear on finishing at this stage, but indicates that a light scuff sand should be all that is needed at this point if at all. My questions are: 1) If I go ahead and just give it a quick scuff sand and then shoot the clear nitro, will the clear melt the color smooth and flat enough to hide any imperfections i.e. slight orange peel? Then do a level sanding after about four coats of clear? or 2) Should I level sand the color now because any clear on top at this stage will only magnify any slight uneveness in the color coat? Basically, level sand when done with color and then level sand again after sufficient build of clear has been laid down? Thanks for any advice Greg

Thanks Mattia, after doing more research, I am definately sold on the Minijet size spayer for guitar work. Thanks Komodo, I found the site you gave the links to yesterday, and I am seriously considering going with one of these two sprayers (leaning towards the CAT for no other reason than it is made in ). I would like to hear what you think about the CAT when you get a chance to try it out. I may go ahead and buy one of these sprayers and if it does not fit the bill, I can always save up and get the Sata down the road. You can NEVER have too many tools

Thanks for the input. Although the minijet is still expensive, it is easier on the wallet than the larger Sata guns.

How do you deal with the "fuzziness" of the laser light? Or do I just have a cheap laser?

+1 I think I am going to try Mattia's approach on my next build. I have an inexpensive laser (the kind that shoots a visible straight line across a flat surface) and used it to align the neck like this: Laser Alignment I found that my neck pockets were close, but not perfect. The problem I have with the laser is that it does not shoot a perfectly sharp line. The light beam is a bit fuzzy (as you can see on the white card placed in the nut slot on the neck in the pic) , so it is hard to get pin point accuracy with it. It wasn't until I installed the bridge and the strings that I could tell that the alignment was a tad off. May as well use the bridge and strings from the start to know what you are going to end up with.

To the owners of Sata guns out there (or other quality sprayers). I am thinking about upgrading from my cheapo Harbor Freight gravity feed guns (a mini with a .6 tip and the other with a 1.4 tip) to a quality gun. I am leaning toward picking up a SATA but I don't know if I should go with the RP (reduced pressure) or HVLP or which model for that matter. I have heard negatives about going with the HVLP for guitar work. Also, I don't know if the SATA minijet 4 would suffice for all of my guitar finishing work or should I go with a bigger model? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Greg

Here are some ebony initials I inlayed in a birdseye maple fretboard. http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j140/hyd...gwithnaptha.jpg I mainly like the contrast from a darker inlay material on maple - makes the effect more attractive IMHO, e.g., black pearl vs. white

I have about $40 invested in this setup: Harbor Freight 1/2 ton press (I had a machine shop drill the hole in the bottom of the square steel bar to inset the caul holder as I did not have a large enough drill press at the time) homemade caul holder (complements of Jay5's instructions) clicky Stewmac brass fret caul It works like a charm.

Check out the Wilkinson aluminum wraparound. http://store.guitarfetish.com/wigoliadinwr.html I recently installed one of these on an LP Jr. build and am very happy with it.

I would say leave it be. Although Rds are not sought after as much on the vintage guitar circuit, an original finish is always preferable to a refinished vintage guitar. The back of the guitar look to be in pretty good condition and the fretboard wear just gives it character. You got a steal for $30. Cheers Greg

Hey Al, I just mounted this Wilkinson today for a test fit (I got it from Guitar Fetish also) and to start working on the nut for this guitar: LP Jr I will give you an update when I get it strung up. Greg

Very, very nice!

thank you for continuing to prove correct all of my previous comments

Rich your point is well taken, and I do agree that no forum rules have been broken here. My main point is that if a member wants to respond to discussion in a manner that is generally considered rude by most people's standards, then that person should expect to get occasional flames in return from other members. Most of us are here to learn, I know I am, but just because I may know more or less than somebody else on a particular subject does not mean I have to be disrespectful to them when stating my point. Maybe Mr. Ormsby could take this opportunity to work on his communication skills, but as his post stated "you know, i really don't care." I am just calling a spade a spade. Greg

Stating the obvious? Insults free of charge. You are right. They are all the same. I have read many of your posts, and frankly a good portion of them are nothing more than inflamatory and of little use to anyone other than to feed your inflated ego. Actually..... I take that back, I have found myself occasionally looking for your posts not so much for the educational value but the entertainment value. I am amused that you are always blowing somebody up with your rude responses. Were you not loved as a child? So does that mean you really are not an A-hole in real life, just here as a VIP? Not quite sure what you are trying to say here mate. That you are the only professional here and we should bow and kiss the ring so to speak whenever you decide to chime in? You really think that a guy has to do this for a living to be able to give valid useful information? I have seen the work and input of many of the "guys who don't do this for a living" on this site and their skills and knowledge are on par with any self proclaimed "pro." This stuff ain't rocket science brother. I don't think anybody around here wants flowers and cupcakes Perry, they are mostly looking for honest (and civil) discussion without having to be insulted by self important know it alls. I just wonder if you would be as rude to people in person as you are to people on this forum knowing you have this nice safety zone of the web around you. I doubt it. Maybe you should check yourself. Yeah, cheers. Sorry to pipe in here Sexybeast, I just get tired of some of the poor manners of some of the folks around here. Just caught me in a mood. Nitefly, I don't think it is that people don't listen to Perry's advice. It is the way in which he communicates his advice that puts people off. Not everybody here is in awe of his $3k guitars and just because he can command that price, it should not give him the right to act like a tool anytime somebody disagrees with his assessment.

sycamore or oak?