mistermikev

noice... so what kind of floyd? floyd floyd or gotoh floyd or? looking fwd to it.

I just used 4x2 n35 on my recent and they aren't quite strong enough for my taste... so I bought some 6x2 n50 for next time. I'm thinking it might be nice to use steel flathead screws on the guitar side so I can 'level' things after the fact. having seen yours I may have gone too big!

something lost in translation here... obviously the top/ring effects it. I thought we were talking about putting a grade on the actual pickup cavity. Thought that was the original question. not sure it would matter afa direct mount as really the only thing that matters is the angle of your drill as you drill the hole. having an angled area doesn't really guarantee that, but I get where your heart is.

just muddying the waters here but crimson guy above clearly has his pickups routed before planing the top... so pickup cavity itself is not planed. also, if you do (angle the pickup cavity)this... are you angling the side walls of the pickup cavity? did I misunderstand you? also... you can plane the pickup cavity all you want... it isn't going to effect the pickup angle. if it's on a ring... the ring determines the angle of the pickup. if it's mounted to the body, the angle the screw going into the body will determine the plane that the pickup is on... not the angle of the pickup cavity. Not sure I understand a good reason to do this unless I've missed something.

no, i take it as wood carved (hehe). by natural instinct I have loosely followed close to this pattern... but seeing it laid out like that kind of makes sense so... good call.

that is an interesting and informative tip... storing that away. thanks for sharing.

;( I imagine that if this happened to me I'd be a bit discouraged... sorry to hear. perhaps it can be hidden by pikups? inlay? just gotta find the right solution. here's to that coming your way!

hehe, I had to go google henna tattoos... yes I'm THAT out of the loop. fretboard is the one thing that kept me from ever trying to build a guitar 20yrs ago. Just couldn't reconcile getting that kind of precision w/o some time of tool, but people seem to do it all the time. that said, it'd the one part of the build I'd just rather pay for. down side to that is no 1 piece necks and it's also difficult to find really exotic/figured woods. will likely have to cross that bridge someday. yes, blind fretslots are cool. also the (I forget the term) fretboard inset into the neck wood. so many cool things that cnc opens up. that's on my someday list too.

I can't imagine keeping a plane square planing an edge of a fretboard... not much area there. again, nice choice of background music. I buy my fretboards cnc cut and radiused (yes I'm a cheater) so the back side has generally been pretty well prepped... but with ebony many recommend ruffing it up anyway, and also a wipe down with acetone as the natural oils might interfere with the glue bond. for those reasons I usually hit it with a level w sandpaper on it and then acetone. watching this, it hadn't occurred to me how much work I'm saving by buying those. money well spent... but admittedly don't get the pride of diy on that. anywho, just some thoughts. good job on your video.

if I may... once you have the plane in the top... you can cut the pickup holes too... but I think it is at least somewhat common to not bother putting a gradient on the pickup routes since it is really the top that will determine the pickup angle anyway (assuming you use pickup rings) and if body mounted - it's really not going to make much of a difference. iow you just cut those straight.

it's not really 10 mins w a hand planer... it's x minutes to setup the block the sm width as your bridge, then 10 mins to hand plane it, then 10-20 mins to cut the pocket. on my side... I literally only have to adjust two bolts and then rout. if you calculate the distance between the two sides of the router plane jig(3')... (x/y = rise / run so x = y(rise/run) )... 2.5degree and 3' between bolts would be 52/1200 = x/3'... solve for x - 3'(.043) = x == x = 1.548" difference between the bolt heights.. once the angle is setup - route the top, then route the pocket. Probably be less work if you factor in setting up your hand plane/blade - but like so much of this... the real obstacles ore more in your mind than anything else. for me hand plane would be more work, for you using a router sled would be more work. Either isn't much work at all.

well that answers the question of having to calculate it - thank you I now see how you don't have to calc if you are doing an angled pocket vs heel. "powered planer is necessary" - yeah but it sure looks fun! I think for me... the hangup is using a planer at all. I prefer to do it via router because A) don't need to buy a planer and B) guaranteed consistency w a router and no real setup/sharpening required. Thinking about it some more... it should be pretty easy w my router sled. Just have to get the right rise/run and set corresponding heights with the 4 bolts on my sled/plane... then cut the top, then dropping the bit lower and cutting the tenon pocket all from the same sled.

I'm all out of thanks... so THANKS!

ah... so would doing a filler on the maple prevent this? I ask because I'm about to refin my blonde (yes, again) and wondering if I should try to pore fill it. Honestly, since this will be a satin finish... I don't think it will bother me a t all... but might be good practice to see how it would have worked on a gloss. (thanks for the info)

so... please elaborate. why is shrinking an issue? I guess where there are seams it might be... but I would think using filler there would prevent any lines from showing - but I'm getting the impression there is something else you are alluding to.

some good info above on the blue. I learned how not to do blue on my sweet spot. it turned way too dark and I feel like it was a fail, in stride tho. one of the things that I stumbled into and haven't had a chance to really make use of is tinting my tru oil. it's what I did on the last step. saddly, the base was already too dark. I didn't actually tint the tru oil... I just put blue leather dye on top. what I liked about this is it really changes color depending on the light. When I get to do it over again, I'm going to do a much lighter base and a lighter tint on top of true oil. Like you've outlined above... seems like with dark colors you really can't see the grain... so I've learned that on my build and again here how I might get the darkness without dulling the finish - thank you for that! I would love to try what you did above, and will someday, but I've no sprayer at present... so storing that away. for the record your end result is stunning and about the most 3-D I've ever seen.

I'm going to have to do some more reading on your info above. this is a dissertation in finishing. LOTS of good info there... almost overwhelming. while I think your tests after this look great... I would not second guess the finish above. it fits this guitar very well IMO and wow... that is a stunner. I'm floored.

THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING i HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME!

queensryche... now there is a guy with some pipes. I saw them get booed off stage at 'and justice for all' and was probably the only person in the crowd who thought they killed it. had never heard them before that. the masses are so silly - don't know what they like until everyone says they like it! lately for me... I've been really enjoying devin townsend... another guy with amazing pipes. I don't love everything he does, and def am more of an "80's metal guy", but have to admit that some of the prog bands i've heard are getting me back into it... including above.

yellow hardware (hehe) would really set that thing off. also, love this finish and "GO PACK GO".

noice... that thing looks heavy duty. no elec planer here although that one looks like it could be fun! Either way... I would think you'd have to still plot out your angle because you'd have to apply it to your neck tenon, no? I imagine you could use this technique with a router to rout your neck tenon pocket (instead of putting the angle on the tenon itself). unsure how I'm going to put a plane into the top using a router. I suppose you could use this idea and plane up to the edge of the top... use a big plexi router base and leaving a 1/2" wall at the edge of the guitar that you could knock down afterwards. Always good to see a number of dif approaches to something so for that I thank y'all.

going to have to check this video out... thanks for posting op. snap... sounded like an easy button... but having watched... photoshop it is! good video and neat trick if you are using a hand plane to get there!

never heard of this band... not a huge metal guy these days but it very much reminds me vocals-wise of dream theatre. very good voice. will have to check some more out. thanks for exposing me.

I kind of figured that was what you meant... but was having fun.

the one side looks just fine... the other side: in retrospect probably should have dry fitted them and caught this but not the end of the world. I'm familiar with wolf fences in my code... but wolf notes... sounds cool. I bet someone would pay extra to get 'wolf tone' out of a guitar!