mistermikev

hehe, well anything sparkle will do then! cheers

I would love to see how you make pickup rings... not enough good threads about this so... go for it... that said, if it were me I wouldn't even give this a second thought. build looks great and doubt anyone would ever notice. just my 2 cents.

dang diving back in head first w 4 builds - good for you! love the idea of a solid cedar guitar. such a beautiful wood. look fwd to seeing that one specifically but all of them too. cheers

thank you sir... always a kind word and I appreciate that.

added a higher gain demo... figured I'd post both demos here as i'd love your feedback low gain demo high gain demo

wouldn't have guessed you could improve on the before pic as it looked great, but you have. nice job. how did you do your binding? did you finish it first and then apply, or do the dye first/apply binding/then clear?

that's going to be a beauty. nice work.

experience w drum shells?? I should hope to see some gretsch style sparkle jet build photos soon hopefully? (hehe) I have a bigsby on my epi 2195... like this one es295 was going to say I could check it when I get home but on mine there are two screws that clearly need to be fastened to the body... so on that model it is def flat - I don't know if your model is different... sorry, not much help.

looks like you are just a few steps away from 'invisible' so... i guess just keep following your instincts!

that looks pretty cool...heavy duty.

the s body is a fav, on my bucketlist of guitars to do at some point. I don't know what you plans are for recreating the arches but look fwd to seeing what you come up with. it's a very thin body and there might be some challenges there, for instance the 5 way switch depth. ibanez uses a plastic riser that gives the switch just a little more room... I think you can buy them. there are some plans on the net... there is def a plan for the satch model but i don't think the s is out there. might have a look around tho as the pay plans show enough to get ideas from.

gold and cream... what a lovely combo. not crazy about the ash grain breaking up the finish but it would probably grow on me if i looked at it for a while. beautiful guitar.

is a beautiful blue there, and goes well with that shape... which is a lovely shape. your stuff is always so clean/pro looking. hats off.

that's a nice neck. the wizard profile is about my fav all time. I have an 89' jem 77fp with the wizard and it is about the fastest feel of any neck I've played. ibanez necks were designed to mount a bit differently than your typical strat... in that there is nothing against the bottom of the neck(last fret) other than the pickup... only on the sides. something to keep in mind while you work things out. You also might want to take some measurements of the flat spot on the back of the neck as I'm not sure how it compares to that of a strat... so just another thing to keep in mind while you plan. for reference you might want to have a look at the fender heavy metal strats of the late 80s as they where designed to be pretty much that - a strat with a 24 fret neck that could compete with ibanez. It's a great strat-like shape altho a little more square, and with great upper fret access. anywho, welcome to the forum - I wish you all the luck in the world on your build and look fwd to seeing it!

that there (in your picture) is beautiful. love it. ^you do such nice work. can't tell if it's the pic or is the sword made out of something else? looks like it has a cool patina to it.

tru dat

hehe ha ha ho ho... I hear ya on the cedar. I kind of want to work with it now... just for the smell.

no I meant if the wells are closed on the bottom. not even sure if that exists because I looked at some I had laying in a drawer and I was sure they were closed but they aren't. I would think the screw down method would put some turning pressure on your wells. so if they are in there soft... you might actually make them more loose, no? it's a good trick and I'll keep it in mind for the next time I'm in that situation.

is a good idea as long as they aren't closed (I'm almost certain I've seen ones that are). that said, I've done this many times w/o issue. haven't even scratched the studs. it depends on how tight your stud is in there, but in most cases I've been surprised how easy they come out - as long as your pulling straight up. mind you I'm not saying to use it like you are pulling a nail out... just using the claw to grab onto the stud and lifting up. for anyone who didn't realize you didn't mean a wood dowel, if you actually used a dowel instead of something metal, you could compress that dowel and lock the stud in tighter. that's what I actually thought you meant at first.

very clean. looks great!

hehe, my bandsaw skills are not quite skills yet. I've setup my bandsaw according to the many suggestions, and it does run pretty great for a lot of things... but I can't resaw worth a shyte. also, it only has about 8" clearance. so that's out. so... if you were to steam something like this... how would you get steam in there? what do you use for steam? just a rag on the edge? yes the top is super thin... and cedar is very brittle. I tried a little heat + paintscraper last night... on the downside... I ended up with a split right off the bat... on the up side - man it smelled awesome. like a sauna. thank you both for chiming in. I very much appreciate it. at this point I figure it's practice. if I can get decent chunks off I might use for a pickguard or something but wasn't overly concerned about it in the first place. I got enough of a wedge in there to see the upper bout and it looks like it's got enough left that I should be able to cut this into a std tele shape which is great. tonight I'll probably take another wack at it and worste case scenario it will smell good!

so... was looking at this and comparing to one of my teles. the body shape is slightly larger (maybe 1/2"). This is good news because I think I could cut it down to a tele shape which I'd prefer... and more... if I could somehow remove the top w/o damaging it... I could use it on a future build. which brings me to my next question... how to remove it w/o damage. I think it is yellow glue so I'm guessing I would want to heat it with an iron and push a paint scraper in? Looks like he didn't do a great glue job on it so it's got some dry spots... I guess start there. what would you do?

don't just practice... make a template. it will be good practive and guarantee a good result. I would just drill two 3/8" or 1/2" holes in mdf and then connect them using a straight edge. this will make a pretty solid template. you will have to remove your studs... put the stud back in and use a claw hammer to grab it (assuming it's not in there too tight.(def don't push against the top tho!)

some good looking mahog there. don't dispair, if you need to redo - nothing a jigsaw and router won't fix! I don't know how you did your joint but I've had good luck using the front and back on a router to get a good joint. just gotta make sure it's perfectly flat and secured when you run... and only taking off 1/32 or less. anywho, welcome to the forum, you will find this place a fantastic resource for several different perspectives on any given question. lots a knowledge and even better, lots of very nice folks. Look fwd to seeing your progress!

great illumination of the point. kind of what I was trying to convey above about throwing the router but much better stated. In my case... it def ruined a $250 router but no one was hurt. It is difficult to override that natural urge to grab something that falls... and I think the only way you can combat that is by thinking about it a lot, so thanks for the contribution. on that note... I've read a story about a guy loosing 3 fingers via a palm router. those IMO are very dangerous. hanging on to something like that with one hand is looking for trouble in my opinion. You think they are small and cute but that little palm router might as well be a 1.75hp if it hits your bone. not even going to slow it down. I'll admit another of my stupid accidents... had to file off about 1/16 from a solid surface square. it was only about 1/8" to begin with. I took it to a wheel sander... once I got my 1/16 off and was almost done the wheel pulled it between the rest and itself and shot it back out perfectly vertical into the ceiling. no one hurt... but man it was loud. if that had hit me in the face I'm certain I would be dead. stupid stupid stupid. was too lazy to just sand it off or tape it to a bigger piece. just thought I'd do it the easy way. that's usually when you get into trouble! the pizza guy visual.. cracken me up. pretty sure I've done that exact thing in the home oven!