mistermikev

well my first q is... how does it react to nitro? I like nitro a lot. just makes things easier. if it works with that... I'm sold!! I gave up on trying to keep bookmarks in firefox/chrome. just keep a word doc and make links in it. that way - I know where it is and it's cross browser. have dif pages for 'guitar parts', 'forums', etc.

well shielding shouldn't be an issue as I'm using push back wire to carry the signal from the jack into the ctrl cav which is shielded. so... yeah aluminum would work. good idea

well that's a nice idea (brass tube). Good option to know about, thanks for that. I think I'll try the simple approach first on my 'test' build and depending on how secure that sits...

thank you sir. exactly the answer I needed. wasn't really sure how to phrase it to get proper answer from google. well, for better or worse... ima gonna gyv dis a shot.

ah... right on. makes sense. carelian birch is caused by stress?

if you haven't looked at that site (where I heard masur) - pretty interesting. not exactly in depth but lot of good info there. they backed up what mikro told me - that indeed stress on a tree can cause little fleck pockets. had no idea. i often wonder about the lengths lumberjacks/mills go to to identify the wood they are sawing. it is entirely possible that birch would get mixed in but then again... 31.25" - that'd be the biggest american birch tree I ever saw! idk if it grows bigger by you... but about the biggest it seems to get here is maybe 8 or 9 inches diameter. then again... it is at least possible in nature that two trees can graft into each other... so who knows. it is some really interesting looking wood either way. don't think it'd be a good candidate for dye... but could def see some sort of 'rustic' looking build working well w it. someday! got a crap ton of wood - I often have anxiety that I just want to build with so many pieces i have and get them done!

haha... just reading about masur in birch now. does look a LOT like this.

well was just looking at this: (bear claw specifically) http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_figureandgrainterms.htm and top left maple example looks pretty close. that said... I love the idea of it being 'mutated'!!!! I haven't used birch other than birch plywood... but I was under the impression it was fairly soft by comparrison. altho this is soft maple... it is quite hard. i spose that's cause of the figure.

is solid advice for sure. given that it's going to be mostly ash... should be pretty forgiving but I'd hate to find out I'm wrong!!

right on. I very much appreciate your expertise. interesting. there are some bug holes in the live edge part of it... but I suspect there will be some sort of bug holes in 'any' live edge part. I didn't necc think it was actual ambrosia... as in my experience those marks are not this small... but I thought perhaps/maybe some other bug. it does look sort of like mineral staining tho so I'm inclined to believe you. I didn't know that sort of thing could be caused by stress. very much appreciate the insite.

your welcome for the reason to build another! (please return the favor some day - like I/you need any encouragment)

hehe, the chained link thingy... yeah in some spots this does look a lot like that but in others it looks dark like flek. def unusual and idk why but it is attractive to me.

does remind me a lot of the 'chain link' think we see in ash... perhaps it's the sm thing. still would love to know if anyone knows!

well... begining to think that it might be from beatlejuice wiping his arse on the wood? he was very small. it reminds me a lot of the fad in the 70s/80s to distress furniture.

was just about to say how much I like the natural against that dark brown... doh!

for the record... found the tap size and ordered one, and ordered the jacks too. i have zero tap experience so q: when they say 9/16-12 tap... do you cut a 9/16" hole first and then tap? or do you have to cut a hole smaller than 9/16 to tap? anyone know?

thanks for the timbermate tip... might have to give that a try... after I get through the lifetime supply of filler I have. I don't recall the name, but i searched online and it came recommended from many sources. it is water based and very clear... but my gripe with it is that it recedes so much... I was literally gobbing it on my last build only to have it recede beyond the wood line! doesn't react to nitro... so there's that. really not font of the stuff. might leave the jar open because it is very soupy to begin with, and perhaps drying it out would make it work better. having to do 5 applications of it to get it level seems ridiculous!

so had to snag some baltic birch for some jigs I'll need for scarf and laminate tapers... and while I was there I fell in love... again. so this is 13.25" wide soft maple 13/16" 9 foot long. has a really cool 'rustic' vibe that I think could be exploited. that said... I'd love to know what these marks are. at first I though it was fleck but looking at it closer it looks a lot like that ambrosia stuff. like some sort of path a bug created (whoa... heebie jeebies!)

thank you sir... very much appreciate the feedback. so... have considered the wiring. Originally I planned an electro socket where I'd drill the outside holes and then use a long bit to break through the inner chamber wall. I planned to pre-wire the output using 2 conductor push back wire plus a seperate ground, and then stiffen it with shrink tube. my path is illustrated below - note that the third ouline in is actual guitar.has approx 3/4" of inside material to go through, then a ~2" gap to the inner ctrl cavity wall. good call on the pre-twist. good idea. worste case I could get a tweasers through the f hole but I think if I just put enough length on the wire, hold the guitar upside down, thread wire, grab it from the control cav side, then thread in the jack I should be ok. the bigger concern, is the threading. I don't know if my tap set would have anything for such coarse thread. I would have real concerns about splitting the wood right there w/o the proper sized hole. I'm thinking I can make the hole the size of the jack + half the thread, wax the threads, thread it, unscrew it out, then put ca glue on edge to fill in the thread gap and thread back in. wax should allow it to be removed later. the football or square plate is def an less risky option. then again I'd want it countersunk and doing that at this point... would likely involve chisels or a jig... so more work... and I'm not sure it would look as nice as the threaded jack. further, if I traverse these uncharted waters - I could see using it a lot more. I don't like having to put a nut on the other side of a jack like that. have to factor in a flat spot on the inside... just seems more complicated than it should be. just thinking out loud here. thank you for stirring the pot!

so... just finishing up my final run for my tele. going very well. i had originally planned an electro socket for the jack, but early on I realized that wasn't going to work. my first run - body is only 1.125" thick at edge.. this worked but wouldn't fit a push/pull in the ctrl cav... just not enough room so my second run I expanded that out to 1.325. electro sockets are just shy of 1" around at the widest... .87" thick at depth. doesn't leave a lot of wood on top/bottom esp when you consider the 1/2" roundover at the back! so... could do a football jack... that would be the easiest solution. I've seen these acoustic guitar jacks that are like the barrel jacks, but have coarse threads that look like they would hold in wood. that's an option. I'm kind of leaning this way because they are fairly discrete afa look. would be easy to recess... and there is approx 3/4 of wood so countersunk it'd prob have ~5/8" to grab. normal barrel jack won't work as there is no way to get the nut on (would be inside the f hole cavity. thought about trying to fit a strat jack plate on the back side... the positioning of it might be ltd as there is a lot going on inside the body... probably not worth the effort. if I was going this route I should have gone there in the design. penny for your thoughts? which one do you think would 'look' the best? anyone use one of these coarse threaded jacks?

lovely stuff. very clean indeed.

what I admire about you... is you aren't afraid of hard work. good for you. idk if it's just looking larger in the pick... but that aluminum looks really thick. I'm assuming the sanding part was sped up and was actually 19hours - haha, jk. Only a true gilmour fan would persevere! bravo.

i bet the executives at fender/gibson think the entire building of the guitar is grunt work... so in the end it's really a matter of perspective!

well in it's defense (conventional wisdom) it has kept me out of trouble more than a few times... but yes... no harm in trying something.

well... thank you. i see you freq dye above 400 and that is one of the things I'll take away. honestly i guess it was superstition that I never considered dying when it was sanding above 400, but based on things I've read. Will try asap!!