mistermikev

nice save!

for the record I'm not copying you... yes, that scratchplate is a beauty chunk of wood. going to look really nice on this. nice work.

yes some interesting stuff there. that bloody neck is awesome (that's bloodwood right? or purple heart? can't tell from here...) looks like this will be an interesting build to check in on.

funny, even IF you find matching binding and pickguard material (rothko and frost?) once you toss some copper or silver shielding on the back of the pickguard... and glue in the binding channel... probably won't be a perfect match anyway. had you not said anything i wouldn't have known as I guessed that the binding just was darker due to the fact that you are looking through its depth moreso than the pickguard. looks great and that's all that matters. I love the look of spruce. plan to do either a cedar or spruce tele at some point. afa hand tools... it appears we are opposites! I avoid hand tools and try to do everything with the router as it's much easier to get things perfectly symetrical. I have all sorts of respect for hand tool gurus... and I'm slowly gaining confidence as I carve more necks and do more belly cuts, etc... but still try to use my router wherever possible! Perhaps we'll learn a little from each other. Certainly am inspired by your work.

that's a beautiful color combination there. If one wasn't observant they might miss the tortoise binding. v nice work!

thank you sir, will have to give that a try.

hmm waxing you say... what do you use for wax? I have typically used the turtle wax super fine buffing compound... then some micro scratch remover, but then just some guitar polish.

you pretty much nailed my experience. I had 4 different blues and mixed several different ways on test pieces. Add to the confusion that it goes on and looks one way but then drys and looks another... then I added tru oil to the mix it changed it again! I underestimated you blue... you are a worthy adversary! weird things is... as I get closer to gloss it seems to be getting lighter and bluer??? I've got a little spot at the bottom that I had to fill as a piece of carpet tape ripped a small 1cm chunk out... when I've tried to wet sand it I've gotten to bare wood really fast so at this point I think I have no choice but to continue with gloss. thank you re "sharp" I really appreciate it! My wife tells me she likes my delta cloud better so... hard to outshine beginners luck I guess! again nailed my experience. when I started it was hard to get enough blue on to hide the yellows of the wood and not cover up the beauty of the wood. Now, it's strange... if I look at it from a player's perspective the grain shines like a diamond... but straight on it looks dark and slightly dull. also... it's not blue and black. I started off with navy blue and sanded back... but I had to add so much blue that the navy blue is now black! Honestly I get the feeling I would have done a lot better had I asked you two for advice going in but stupidly I thought "what's to ask... it's just blue"! funny - lately I've been looking at the headstock and thinking firebird. I guess I took influence from a lot of dif places! thank you all for your responses: I very much appreciate!

I worked for this one. I can't even tell you how many tests I did. Could not find a stain that would get me saffire blue, and while it turned out a bit darken then I wanted I'm pretty happy. Not sure if I'm going to bring it up to a gloss yet because wet sanding at the edge is impossible due to the binding. Original intent was satin so... may leave it.

thank you sir! thanks AD. I don't know if you can tell from the pics... but the binding is very not conventional! I put it on after dying the top and left it square. It actually made it more visible so... pretty happy w it. Unfortunately I think I'm going to redo the other one as I did it different (the original plan) and I do not like it. oh well... no schedule!

got some color on... finally got my binding right:

looking great! nice work.

beauty finish.

very nicely done.

wow. that's pretty cool. thanks for sharing.

I had a slight issue with my first bass build as the neck neck needed a hair of a shim - very slight... I just took a block and sanded in an angle to the neck. I guess it depends on how off yours is... but in a pinch. cheers.

looking fwd to i!

nicely done. a beauty. would love a shot of the pocket all done if you have one... just curious - don't go to any trouble. you really nailed it.

really? I think that is the most beautiful pattern. IMO it's just beautiful. almost a checkerboard pattern and it tends to sort of 'sparkle'. ah, "one mans trash"... .

looking really great. nice work. that top looks to be quartersawn? lots of fleck? never seen that in a top before. very unique. rock on.

I'm just a jr here so... what if you dyed the purpleheart AND neck with a darker purple? man this sounds like a cool project. I immediately thought perhaps the upper bout would only touch the neck just at the fretboard. Can't wait to see some pics!

wow, creative but that is awful close to both the trem and the cover edge. you can get really nice 9v box from china for less than $4

I've never realized how that trem works. Thanks for the pic... it is an interesting take on a trem for sure. If I understand, the strings sit on a plate that is against a knife edge... the strings pull fwd while the 'shocks' or 'springs' counter that force? that would seem a lot like a kahler except w knife edge instead of a roller piece yes?

Personally I like to get hammered, THEN do my frets... but that's me. did my frets last night and used a clamp for the most part but then got to the last few frets and had to hammer em... it has occurred to me that evo frets are probably easier to hammer than reg. little chance of bending them out of shape. I did NOT ding my fretboard... but I'm going to credit norris for that as I read his last post and consciously avoided it! (thanks norris)

gibson srv, fender zack wilde... it's all good. looks cool.