mistermikev

thank you sir. means the world to me. also, couldn't agree more about the pictures... it seems each guitar finish I encounter has a new list of challenges afa taking pictures. some look better w flash, some without, some look better washed out, some look better dark... I need a live in pro photographer!

just my humble observation... not neg in any way... please take in the spirit of friendly observation: I can't help but wish the back was the front! Such a beautiful back it's a shame to not have it up front on display. Really love it. The guitar is beautiful no doubt, and the front color choice is very nice... but a matching front would have really pushed this to another level for me. Just my humble and unfettered opinion.

tru dat ron!

sure did ron, and thank you for asking. I ended up just drilling little holes right next to the two, and once I could see the screw used a needle nose to work it back and forth and then pull them both out. then did a 3/8" hole w a forstner, then plugged it with dowel. Painted over with conductive and it disappeared.

NAME: SWEET SPOT BLONDE a.k.a. "Texas Sweetspot" - scratch build #4 for me! SPECS: overall weight: 6lbs 8oz - hair lighter than the blue and 'feels' very light NECK: nut: Graph Tech nu bone string trees: Graph Tech scale length: 25.5" fretboard radius: 12" frets: 22 med jumbo Jescar fret markers: ceramic cream .25" dots neck profile: vintage 'C' profile - classic strat feel neck format: 2 piece, heal adjust via fretboard, 6 inline reverse headstock CBS style, no headstock angle neck joint: sculpted access bolt-on via steel ferrules truss rod: Allied Lutherie flex strong - access via 19th fret spoke wheel neck wood: birdseye maple, rosewood fretboard, rosewood headstock veneer neck finish: tru oil flat w nitro clear on headstock HARDWARE: Tuners: Kluson Tone Pros vintage style reverse Tremolo: Gotoh 510T FE1 pickup format: 4 single coils - body mounted Pickups: Bootstrap custom set - oatmeal stout (8.6k A5 43AWG), golden ale (7.4k A5 42AWG), golden ale(5.6k A2 42AWG), 54 Vintage Pro (5.6k A5 42AWG) pickup covers: black w rosewood veneer Controls: master volume, 6-way 'mode' rotary, 3-way lever, push-pull (true bypass) active mid booster w volume/boost control modes: 1) outside singles (tele), 2) inside singles (strat), 3) outside vs inside parallel (prs), 4) 2xbridge vs 2xneck parallel, 5) outside vs inside series 6) 2xbridge vs 2xneck series(Les Paul) pots: bournes lever switch: CRL knobs: rosewood BODY: body design: based on a 62 strat template available online... but then reduced by 5% for approx 1/2" less length/width in dimensions body top radius: 30" body edge: 1/2" roundover with inset rosewood binding body format: solid tremolo block encoumpases two bridge pickups, birdseye neck pickup block - neck pickups sit in semi-hollow chamber, deep sculpted belly cut body thickness: 2.125" at center body wood: 1pc african mahogany w bookmatched 4A flamed maple top, rosewood binding body finish: champagne frost (mohawk) nitro with watco nitro clear, back is finished in tru oil flat "A bit of information on your own background as a builder helps give context to your build." have some woodworking and solid surface fabrication in my background. Have assembled many partscasters. "Was it built in the garage, at school, work or in your own shop?" built in my humble garage (thanks to my wife Lori for allowing me to take it over!) "A summary of the build's history. Was it built for yourself, friend/family or a client? Did you design the instrument and its specifications or was it built to spec?" it all started when I was going to build a strat. I got some design feedback from a few guitar forums and it was pretty brutal. Most of the comments centered around the idea that my 'blue' design was quite a departure from the std strat style. With that in mind I did a second design of something I thought would have more of a 'traditional' feel... but I couldn't see scrapping the blue so I decided to do both. "What were the inspirations behind the instrument and why were various build aspects chosen?" I have been dreaming about a 4 pickup strat for a long time... my goal was to make something that wouldn't compromise the 'stratty' sound, but would have more hum canceling options, tele options (bridge + neck), and would do series humbucker (ie les paul) sounds fairly well. "Any background on what makes it special?" this is my strat. there are many like it but this one is mine. without me my strat is worthless... without my strat I am worthless! Lot of lessons learned, lots of hair pulled out, lots of hours of doubt... it's the struggles and overcoming them that seem the most special to me. As always: couldn't have done it without the advice/input/shoulders of many here who are quick with advice and help. "Posting a link to your guitar-building website, Photobucket, Facebook, etc. is fine, even if it is your business. In the spirit of fairness towards less experienced builders, we encourage professional builders to consider whether their entries constitute being "fair". I have a facebook 'business' page... but only because I just wanted a page where I could build a shrine to my scratch builds. www.facebook.com/mvmeguitars build thread here (note first post has all build updates uninterrupted): and below is my humble video demo from youtube:

btw... by lam... I meant like kitchen counter top lam. you can buy strips they use for the edges of countertops at home depot or other hardware stores. usually have heat activated glue. if you apply this to the edge of your template... it not only makes it water tight and protects the edge... but it is a great surface for the router bearing. On a tight curve tho... you'd have to heat it to apply. I did some laminate cabinetry back in the day and this is what we did to all our templates. Haven't done it to mine yet because I don't plan on much re-use, but it works very well. Just thought I'd mention.

i hope you mean 10"!! on one of the build sites... I saw a pretty interesting take on how to build one. guy took aluminum sheet and bent it into the desired circle. then put wax paper on top, then made a cardboard box to sit on tthat... filled with epoxy. the trouble w that is... pretty sure aluminum sheet costs a lot! anywho... also have seen them built using a bandsaw. using a radius arm to cut blocks with the radius in them... then glue all the blocks together. just thought you might like some other ideas.

lots of jigs you could build to guarantee a consistent fretboard radius. Another idea... I believe you can get sections of pvc pipe in 10" and 12" - assuming that would be the radius you want... could just cut a piece and glue it to a handle. then again... you can get decent quality wood radius blocks for less than $20.

lot of interesting details there... looking fwd to seeing this come to life.

you taught me something... a new word... muck? love it! like the idea of watered glue on the edges. ideally... I'd have some laminate strips and lam glue... once you've got lam on the edges and put some mink oil on it... makes for a very nice template... but lacking that... wood glue is a great idea. observations: 1) you should ad an intro theme song. 2) might have to try that bit... you should get linked up w amazon so you can get a comish if folks buy an item you advert 3) nice details on the end grain directions... I think it's simpler if you just think of it as going opposite directions from the apex of any curve... but your explanation is nice and concise. 4) so this is your music? that singing is really very good - I'm not a fan of screaming metal... but the clean parts are outstanding. well mixed, good themes. rhythm guitar is a good tone (what are we using there assuming this is yours?) ah 30 men on a dead mens on a dead mans chest... love it. this video is a big improvement over the prev imo. kept my interest pretty good. good job.

it's called channel bound. fender does it. pretty beautiful IMO. I think you could achieve 99.9% of the effect with 30% less effort via a method like AD pointed out. That said... much respect for those who dare. afa 1 piece... there is a guy on a few of the luthier forums on facebook that builds 1 piece guitars out of really exotic woods like quilt maple and such. Beautiful stuff and requires a whole dif skill set. There is a lot of talk about how it's superior afa 'no glue' and I don't personally subscribe to that... esp when you consider how many glue joints there are on the typical acoustic or hollow body guitar. Seems to sound good there! That said... I think it is def something that sets this particular builder apart and can't help but feel a 1 piece should be somewhere on my build bucket list.

that is so beauty... I feel like I should congratulate you.

Thank you Mr Natural! I appreciate all the support here. I'm going to try to do a video this week as my gear is going to be going through some changes soon... so I hope you'll all give me a listen and some feedback. cheers

I think he was saying he's going to file slots in this like they do on a few fender models. i dunno, I have an es295 (just an epi) and with the stock TOM bridge it def wasn't great. W a roller bridge it was pretty decent.

I've never considered solid state amps to be good for fender amps hehe. GO TUBE. love me some tube! that said... honestly I think a practice amp is really only good for practice. You will quickly outgrow it so I'd follow the good advice above: either snag some sort of pod/digitech/boss multi pedal and go straight to pa, or perhaps consider a small tube amp... because both of those devices will be small and will serve you for lots of differing needs. IMO - tube amps - no matter the size: never get outgrown.

tis a nice bridge. I like a lot of the wilkinson stuff. very underrated. I've got this sm bridge in chrome that I was thinking of using on upcoming tele. That said... not entirely sure how it would work with a bigsby... they are not great at staying in tune even with a roller bridge, but then fender used to put them on teles with barrel knobs so... might not be a problem at all.

thank you sir... I'm workin' on it... need to clean up my office! currently "not suitable for film" hehe. probably next weekend I should get a moment to shoot some vid. thanks for the interest and replies!

#1 for me. nice.

thank you ad. yes, this one is the same wiring as the blue but the pickups are a bit less output - 7k to 5.6k instead of 9k - 5.6k. has a dif (more subtle) booster too. Very much has an SRV thing going. I was talking to some guy who works for moonstone guitars and he said they have an upcharge of $300 for body binding... now I know why! was quite the learning experience.

finding it difficult to get good pics of this... my wife says I'm not very good at taking pics (sad face). chin up... here's a shot of the binding up close and some others. need to get my office in order to work on a video. this guitar very much turned out 'texas sounding'.

my observations... it's hard to concentrate with your accent (hehe, I do realize I have the accent). You are a very calm person on video! just my two cents... but in general my fav build videos on youtube are all time lapse or otherwise edited to show fast progress. I find it difficult to follow along in real time... just don't have patience (I don't know if I'm alone in this but these are MY thoughts). I watch this guy a lot: no idea what the kids these days like but this guy has 400k views. If I were trying to do this... think I'd setup multiple cams as it's hard to have one that will 'follow along' with the action unless you pay someone to operate the cam. just 2 cents

thank you sir. I followed 90% of that... hadn't thought of heating the screw... good call. (btw I'm a big fan of many of your build threads at tdpri!) I do always make a pilot, I never use screws that come with stuff - good advice. The orig steel I used were from ace and were pretty decent quality (I over-tightened)... but the replacement was also from ace (dif location), the same thing, and was horrible. Perhaps just a bad batch. Def sticking to the stainless! thank you for the response.

well I know none of y'all will be able to sleep until you hear the conclusion to the broken pickup screw saga so I thought I'd better update ma thread one last time... drill several small holes next to each screw. started working them back and forth with a thin screwdriver. used a needle nose to pry them out once they were loose. drilled a 3/8" hole on my press. used a scored dowel - the type you might use on furniture, as these expand a bit with the moisture from the glue. plugged it up, painted the area with conductive, drilled a new hole and voilla. swapped all the screws out w stainless... think I'll stick to stainless from here on out. the originals were steel but the stainless feel real solid. crisis averted! in the process i managed to create another little fix... I dropped my screwdriver and put one little ding it the body. it's hardly visible but I'm thinking I may spray some lacquer into a cup, and try to fill it, then wetsand... for now I'm enjoying a minute to play the damn thing!

you are too kind.

i think it boils down to how figured it is... as I've routered some light/med/heavy figure and it wasn't bad... but then some really heavy figure and it tears out just looking at it. it has been my humble observation that if the wood actually looks shiny... it will tear out like crazy. that said, I suspect wenge is hard as a rock. probably a lot like rock maple. and that tears out about as bad as really figured maple - whether it's figured or not. all that said... I know nothing!