mistermikev

so... minor update here... I got my body chamber all figured out... the chamber is radius'd to the same arc as the top... so I'll be cutting the body in ash, then cutting the f holes in a top, then bending it over and gluing down, then cutting the pickup holes and neck hole... but this gives you the jist of the inside anyway: also, did a goto meeting with my friend and we hashed out remaining details like controls, headstock, and tuning machines. We also named it... was thinking "wang master" but since my friend has kids finally settled in on 'Twang Master' so this is the final version:

well, in your defense I DID encourage you.

I actually have a saw stop. My brother and mother bought it for me as I had mentioned that I wouldn't buy a tablesaw because they are the most likely candidate for accidents. The thing I didn't expect is how nice of a saw it actually is. the fence/blade came true out the box. you can test wood to see if it's too wet by turning on power (not power to the blade) and touching the wood to the blade - if the light goes out - too wet. I'm told that you can't put a thin fret slotting blade on them as the mechanism won't work. There are some thicker blades that will work. having worked in the cabinet industry for a bit when I was younger... you can't help but notice how many 'old timers' there are who are missing a digit. Go to your local woodcraft and chances are someone there can give you a look at reasons to be really careful. all that said... even the saw stop will shoot a board at you with enough speed to kill so... still have to know that machine before you mess w one.

well, I won't miss the opportunity to get analyzed by a psycho so... here goes: I often think about things in relative terms. so... it seems it is generally agreed upon that the wood plays a significant role to the sound in acoustics... and it is generally more contested on solid bodies. So I think "at what point does an acoustic become an electric?" In other words... if you take an acoustic... and start adding wood... where is the crossover point where the "tonewood" starts to be inaudible? Similarly... how much wood can you remove from an electric before the "tonewood" becomes significantly audible? just a thin guitar? a thinline? 335 style hollowbody with a solid wood center block? full hollow like an es295? I don't believe it ever 'stops' mattering... it is just less and less a significant part of the total makeup. so it matters, and to what degree... well who cares because even if it's .00001% that is going to matter more or less to each person. further, pickups... sure they are magnetic... is magnetism influenced by materials around it? I think so. further, lets disregard that... is the vibration of a string influenced by the presence or lack of material around it? I would say yes. Is it influenced by the density and rigidity of the material around it? I would say yes. is the strings own vibration influenced by the reflection off of said material? I think so. again... is it significan't? well that's a matter of opinion/taste/perspective - so in my mind there can be no right or wrong... but I would say that it would be hard to argue that it makes zero difference. conclusion: If the vibration of the string is influenced, and that vibration of the string in turn influences the resultant disturbance in the magnetic field... seems reasonable that the type/density/rigidity of the wood has some sort of influence on the sound of a guitar. (I know... really going out on a limb here). I would now like my free evaluation as promised. going to go read up on prs 21 rules... there is some amount of truth in everything... even if the author has a vested interest in the sway... so will see if I can find those slivers there.

the fact that you created that in paint... kind of bumps it up a notch for me! lol. nice work. i hope those purple areas are meant to be purpleheart reveals. think you might want to mock up your tuners because it looks (to my untrained eye) like you'd need a bit more real estate to get the machines on there w/o issues but i could have no idea what I'm talking about (full disclaimer) nice job on the design.

Never done... u r silly. I dunno... not sure unky spalted maple would be a good idea, but I smell what yer stepping in there. So... more symmetry than absence of runout? I guess it hadn't occurred to me that symmetry was something to look for but now that you said it... seems obvious! Good call. This is going in my trick bag... maple is more rigid if flatsawn... that is a jem! Sorry for ignoring your posts after I called yall out... rude of me. I am enriched by your knowledge and am very thankful for the responses!

little update... got my 'real' run off the cnc... spent some time with my dragon rasp yesterday... she needs a whole lot of sanding and some details worked out... but getting there... got a little bit of wavy gravy on the underside due to not smoothing the transitions between several arcs... and a little 'brithmark'. will have to decide if I want to do the work to smooth it out or chalk it up to 'character'.

guitar there looks great... love the stylings. excited to see some purpleheart... it is fastly becoming my absolute fav wood. that 'swirly' wood there is lovely too. hss - right on. I need to do a hss... such a great combo don't know why it sort of fell out of popularity. looking fwd to it!!

build is looking great. really great. if I may... and this is NOT meant negative in any way - just... the pickguard... the one half of it looks A+... but the bottom half... in my humble opinion... you should re-work it and make it follow the lines better. in my humble o... it's one of those details that can really make or break a guitar. again, the guitar is looking really great, and I think a little change there would go a long way - just one aholes 2 cents so don't take it to the bank. rawk on.

first off - glad to hear you are feeling better!! "i love the smell of tools from stew mac in the morning" (hehe, heart of darkness). welp... that's a think I do... just wondering if it's catching on or if you accidentally hit the p??!? hehe. looking fwd to build pics

looking great. that camo would be noice.

I have one on my es295 as the bigsby was pulling it out of tune w std saddles... but that guitar has an archtop bridge so... doesn't really answer your question but it is angled. Personally, I would def angle the studs because that way if you ever decided to go to something else it wouldn't be a problem. just my 2 cents.

mocked up using a few pieces of maple from the ole garage and this is the one he chose so... not doing that headstock but haven't designed one yet so...

so... a lifelong friend of mine, who happens to be a cop... has been asking me to build something for him for a while. I'm gonna do it despite being nutz deep in my bass builds. should be a nice way of saying 'thank you for your service' anyway, and tele's are a lot of fun so... this is my placeholder for that adventure. talked him into letting me get a bit experimental so... doing a complex radius... sort of a bell curve between 12r and 30r. this is the guitar I think I'm planning to do a bookmatched fretboard on... probably do a radius back and thinline with a radius hollow area. here's what I have so far... anywho... this one is now verified... this shot here (below) is my best attempt at capturing the transition (or lack thereof) between the neck and neck pocket. It has come to my attention lately that what feels good to me afa upper fret access is all about the thumb. With that in mind... I carried the profile of the neck right up to hilt. it looks like it would be less comfy as there is not much transition... but it actually feels really good and I think I'm going to expore this some more going fwd.

couldn't agree more. strings flop around pretty good on a 30 and it feels like a toy... but two inches bigger and 'perfection'.

hehe, literally took the words out of my mouth. I was saying the sm thing a couple sentences back (fender) because that occurred to me. if it's good 'nuff for them! thank you for chiming in!! i read that whole post.... but what I have to say about it is - such a fan of david mitchel! smart guy, and super funny. mitchel and webb look... I gotta go speed watch that again!! again, thank for your insight! for the record... was just mentioning birdseye because I read that it was only flatsawn and found that interesting. I'm interested in using flamed maple... which is much more prone to warp/cup/bow. yeah, doesn't really make sense that it'd have to be flatsawn... but I always default to assuming I have no idea. thanks for the reply. very much appreciate your perspective.

I deeply respect yours and many opinions here... so much so that I will frequently listen to what you have to say... I mean... it's a pretty low bar because you just have to know more than me! haha! Seriously tho... group knowledge isn't always stronger than individual knowledge... but solid individual knowledge peppered with group knowledge is ALWAYS stronger than almost any individual knowledge... at least in my experience. and you came through... because I hadn't even thought to go check my stack of fretboards... and there are indeed some qtr, some 'sorta qtr' and some flat sawn. one of the flat sawn is twisted a hair... and it is birseye. despite that I'm inclined to think flatsawn would be fine as long as you cut it, seal the edges, let it sit w both faces in contact with air... and give it a week or two to move. I think you are right about the dry thing. thinking about it... fender necks were always one piece and flatsawn. Given a choice between two identical pieces but one qtr sawn I think I'd go qtr but I don't think I'll shy away from flat at this point. my mind exploded reading that last part... so... eep... oop... bla... does not compute. I get it tho... even qtr sawn is only relatively qtr sawn as grain is never perfectly perpendicular. that said... as you get further and further away from perpendicular grain... there is more tendency to move albiet maybe fairly mitigated in well dried and seasoned wood.

so I've read around a bit on mylespaul, thegearpage, acousticguitar forum, few others.... from what I have read it is not at all uncommon. I guess birdseye is ONLY flatsawn so... any birdseye fingerboard you see is flatsawn. At this point I'd like a couple more opinions to either dissuade me or push me forward so I'm calling you out: @Andyjr1515 @MiKro @curtisa @ScottR @Prostheta @komodo and whatever other devil's will be summoned - what say you?

hmm, did not realize this property of flat sawn. I guess it makes sense... stack of papers flat vs stack of papers on end.

I'm 6'1" and 250lbs... but I LOVE short scale basses! they just play and sound so great! this is gonna be a cool build.

interesting... you are saying quareter sawn wears different? I had not considered that. Honestly have zero wear on the fretboard of any of my guitars... but I imagine folks with long fingernails have more of an issue with that. Something to consider anyway. thanks for the reply.

that's a good call. the one with the nipple is actually pretty close to the edge so.... might spare my drill press and just use a clamp but it's a good idea and will keep it for reserve. thanks for that.

so... have this long time friend of mine - he's a cop. been asking me to build him something for a while and I've given in... least I can do to thank him for his service. So... one of the things I thought would be cool would be to use the sm material for a top as the fretboard and headstock overlay. I'm going to use birdseye for the actual neck - some really rock hard birdseye so that should add some serious rigidity to a 25.5" scale neck. I have some 3/4" x 12" flamed maple that he likes... so was thinking I'd resaw it for a top and have enough left over for a fretboard and headstock overlay. I'm half considering bookmatching the fretboard cause I think that'd be really cool... to just have it bookmatched all the way up the neck. I am aware that typically fretboards are made from quartersawn materials, and while I'm sure someone has done flatsawn... just wondering if any one here has any experiences doing that and what they learned from it? I imagine one stumbling block is - you don't want to resaw it and have it sitting around too long - way too prone to bend/cup/twist. Other pitfalls you can think of?

interesting read. It would seem he's focused on solving the locking mechanism more than the gentle install... but admittedly the idea that you could suck the studs into the hole as opposed to hammering - well it would def be more gentle. so with that in mind... just would need some really deep jaw clamps. I don't like the idea of drilling thru the bottom, as it would require some leveled off holes on the back, but if I can find some deep clamps that would def be a more gentle way to get them in. thanks for the suggestion.

my money is on it's a bad jack. if you aren't on the tip then you won't get signal at all (assuming the plug is pushed in all the way). just use your multimeter and test that your live is going to tip to rule that out (as suggested by curtisa). those jacks are notorious (specifically the cheap versions) for the prongs loosing their integrity. they are really pretty small and delicate mechanical connections. btw and for the record... I can't prove it but I am almost certain I have had barrel jacks like this that did NOT follow the convention based on lug length. If memory serves me this thru me for a loop at one point - but again... easy to test.