mistermikev

so I found this place 'gondor' that has a lot of different types of inlay stock - from recon rock to different types of mop... figured I'd give them a small trial run... and figured folks here might be interested in how that turned out... so here is my review. http://gondorinternational.com/ I think I spent maybe $28 for the whole deal shipped. Pretty good prices. It did take quite a long time to get it to me, but I think we can chalk a lot of that up to the covid 19 complications. I had reached out to gondor because my order was taking longer than expected and they really were very responsive. They kept following up on the order and reached out to the post office to get an update and subsequently updated me... and for that I would give them high marks afa communication and reliability. the abalone - it's 1.5mm thick. very colorful (not sure the pics do it justice). It does have some pitting in a few of the pieces but nothing that some black fill won't fix. Looks to be good uniform thickness. Really decent sized pieces and great color for quite reasonable. I got a number of flower shaped 1.5mm thick mop. They have a lot of dif shapes available and that is something that attracted me... will def have to order some of that next time. Thought the flowers might be nice for a 'tree' inlay like I've seen some here do (was that @komodo ? with the acoustic guitar with the little flower pedals? that was beautiful.) Unfortunately they were out of some of the other sizes but I can't complain - it's good looking mop, consistent thickness and at bargain prices. Mop ovals - very nice figure, 1.3mm thickness, a bargain but wish they had more of the variety in stock. The two little 'yellowed' pieces there are all white on the other side and good figure (should have snapped another photo but didn't catch it till now. Mop large blocks - now these are really thin cut .5mm but the figure, color, and quantity is crazy for the money. I think they'll work great for doing a logo or name or other decoration on a headstock since you don't have to worry so much about shaving off some on a fretboard radius. Quite delicate so it might be a challenge to cut them but I knew that going in... might just be really easy. Again, this was a test order to just get a variety of inexpensive stuff and see how it went. I'm thinking this is a pretty solid resource as their pricing is fantastic and am looking forward to placing another order now that I have some confidence in them. Hope this was a useful review for someone who might be looking like I was!

it would boil down to how much clearance above the body there is. iow... a floyd needs to be recessed on a strat style neck whereas on a gibson style it would likely be able to float above the body as the strings are much higher off the body at the intonnation line. has almost nothing to do with just being able to go up/down, but more to do with string height at the body. for example, I have a hamer steve stevens that is not recessed, the trem goes up and down... but it is a set neck with an angle. i suggest you go look at the design docs for your trem and pay close attention to the height that the string goes over the saddle, and where that is going to put the rest of the trem on your guitar.

not to contradict bizman... his advice is sound... but I have done this a lot with just an orbital sander. you have to keep her moving to prevent it getting hot but that's what I've done on every bound guitar I have made so... as a possible alternative... works for me.

glad it wasn't just me (snake oil) - I was really kind of put off by that advert... but have to admit the proof is there in the puddin'. It literally went thru 2" of figured maple like it was cutting butter. Eerie how quiet it was compared to what it would be with my other half inch blades. and a very thin cut which isn't something I was after, but with a smaller (14") bandsaw being able to apply more tension to the blade is important (I'm told).

sledge-o-matic-7000 there! afa blade... "Its outstanding performance is due to its 3-4 tpi variable tooth pitch design, in which uneven spacing between the teeth nearly eliminates vibration during a cut. The Wood Slicer's tooth pattern damps harmonic resonance extremely effectively; the result is superlatively smooth cuts and much, much quieter operation than ordinary bandsaw blades." admittedly sounds like a lot of 'sizzle' but they get really good reviews at lumberjocks so I figured it'd be worth a shot... and as it turns out, indeed it does limit vibration a lot.

well, yes, always setting up the bandsaw makes a dif... and new blade too... but there is something different going on with this blade. I don't want to sound like an advertisement... but the varied tooth spacing and kerf really do result in less vibration. I don't know how long it will maintain it... but it is seriously smooth. nothing like when I put a brand new timberwolf on. The timberwolf cut well... and you could feed it really fast... but it wasn't smooth like this. tablesaw... noice. I have come so close to buying a table saw on so many occasions... really is the most versatile tool one could have. I always pull back at the last moment because I remind myself it is also the most dangerous... I'm holding out for a sawstop! that looks pretty heavy duty and the color scheme is bang on! (go pack go)

would love to know what u think.

i think you can give yourself a whole lot more credit than that. yeah, it's the little stuff that would def be a killer for me. wow, that larry robinson... that stuff is craZ! thanks for pointing me to that.

well for the record I just meant temporarily. if you find it solves the problem you'd want to take it out and run it through some rare earth magnets to restore magnetism. "free you mind... and the rest will follow" hehe... also, I have some big magnets that I have used to change magnetism on single coils... man those things can pinch. I used to keep a number of them around but one time they were separated and got attracted and it actually connected so hard it chipped one of them and shrapnel went flying. can be seriously dangerous! I've since been very careful when having them out and making sure to return them all safely!

even watching you cut mop makes me uncomfortable. For me, that'd just be like eating rice with 3 foot chopsticks. the other day a buddy of mine sent me a link to a 8k prs with some elab inlay... I sent him back a shot of your mop in progress... really is a high water mark for inlay.

man, padauk... just so beautiful. nice clean cuts in it... this is gonna be a good 'un. rawk on.

yessir.

well... I suspect it is a magnet that is weak just on gut. can you test how magnetic one is vs the other (just with a low power magnet). you can stick a magnet to the top/side and see if it improves.

6.8k is decent output... but admittedly if it is too close to the bridge the output will be drastically reduced. lot of things you could try... changing the magnet for dif freq response, brass plate on the bottom(dif freq response), bigger strings, but there really isn't anything that's going to add output other than a boost circuit. at the end of the day... replace the bridge with higher output pickup would be the best. my dano style has a version of this issue going on in the bridge pickup. those pickups are all 4k so really low output to begin with. the one closest to the bridge is noticeably quieter. I have oft thought of buying a replacement... but you want to talk about hard to mount... it has dano style bent brass inside that similarly took hours to get in there without bending it such that the pickup wouldn't come back 'up'. further, it's not quite bad enough that it even sounds bad... so motivation is low! afa springs... I use silicon tube because (esp on p90 or other surface mount) springs are just a pain in the arse and can make noises that ruin a recording.

haha, I've been in this position so many times (installed but something clearly wrong and don't want to mess up my pretty wiring to rewire!) honestly those pickups are so closely matched... but then freq vintage pickups are close like that. I'm going to wager an issue with magnetic polarity. seen it a thousand times. if these are humbuckers... I'd start to consider that perhaps you got a weak magnet. You could probably swap the two magnets without fully taking them out... err... maybe. if it was magnet... you could pass it through a couple of rare earth mags and restore the magnetism. if this is single coils... I'd start to wonder about one or two poles being flipped. this has happened to me and it's a bear to track down. it ends up sounding sort of 'out of phase'. bass is all cancelled. you can test this with a camping compass - passing it over the top to check magnetism you'll see it flip over on certain slugs. hope some of that helps.

I think the sm thing. I often look at my own builds and thing 'I should keep this one matte or maybe satin' - next thing I know it's gloss and there's no going back. Someday! Guitar is looking really great tho... don't want to distract from that. I could stare at that thing all day. Just lovely! Take a bow!

(totally unrelated to comment above) - man that looks nice matte. You should just keep it like that! JK, I'm sure it's going to be amazing gloss!

nicely done.

so my name is mike v and I can't resaw to save my life. with that in mind I bought a wood slicer to do a last ditch attempt at this. haven't resawn anything yet... but I just cut a v in my neck blank (long story) and I gotta say... this thing cuts like butta. I have a few other blades... nothing too expensive but there is some timberworlf in there... just a 1/4" blade. I use that to cut profiles and such and it cuts nice... but NOWHERE near as smooth as this wood slicer. for $35ish... pretty happy. I will eventually be attempting some resaw with it... don't have anything I need right now... but I suspect this is going to be a game changer. so... for anyone looking for a solid bandsaw blade that cuts incredibly smooth - and for dirt cheap... this is it.

well, i dunno if it helps... but I believe trembuckers are 50mm and you can get 49.2, 50 and 52mm all over evilbay/amazon/etc (if yer not concerned about your tone molecules). I don't have any trembuckers, but have bought 49.2 spaced covers and they work fine on my 59s.

I think you may have cracked the code there. for years I've been trying to find their secret... and it all boils down to u...

it was humor... you may have heard it from me b4... but not the first time my humor has been accused of being, how do you say... 'not at all funny'. hehe. oh, snap... just saw the 'but more valuable'... you got me gooood. nice one.

every time I have to carve or scrape... I ask myself... what would scott r do. thinking about getting a tatoo of him on my chest so I can just pull open my collar and ask him when in doubt (hehe)! I think that stump should be carved into a cobra with it's mouth open and forked tongue waving at me...

well brother... here's to hoping things get back to normal for you and many other folks who are laid off right now. idk what that strange symbol next to the 30 up there is... but sd covers are outrageously priced! I'm told its because they use some magic metal that doesn't interfere with the tone molecules dancing on your strings... and they have to be blessed by the pope to be effective... but I can't confirm. anywho, may the gods smile in your favor and find you the hardware you need... looking fwd to seeing some more pics!

"guitar kit - some assembly required." it's hard to envision what that wood looks like with all the bark on it and such... but I'm confident you'll make it into something lovely. looking fwd to it.