mistermikev

you've been so kind to me and lots of good advice prostheta - I don't know if I'm being stupid but I actually just realized I didn't see this post before... and I felt like perhaps it was rude of me not to comment... at the same time was conflicted because I don't want to domineer and think I need to respond to every post... long story short - I think too much. but this is true... altho I think 6 coils in this case. could be two strats even! anywho, I'll shut up now.

thank you... thank you very much. you are too kind sir. there is a fine line between kiss and too complex. I know because I constantly cross over it. So much so that I've begun the practice of putting a cheat sheet on the control cavity of many of my guitars/basses -reminding myself of how the controls work. I'm a spice of life kinda guy... that's not for everyone.

no worries... I didn't exactly explain it and am admittedly a newby here so... was a natural conclusion. I thought about bondo... but (i think) it is hard to keep it liquid enough to really drip into the seam unless you don't use much hardner - then it will take a long time to harden... that said I may try it next time as it's cheap and I have lots. Plus that epoxy really sticks to the tape so... students, sisters... sounds like good things your way -cudos.

as always - a wealth of info. i will have to move it indoors - good to know - also it hits 115 here pretty reg in a few months so would have to anyway. afa fingerboard: couple things... I was thinking that if my neck build is a disaster I'd want to buy a warmoth neck and that has the rounded heel... so just being conservative there. afa epoxy - I'm not sure if you smell what I'm stepping in there... what I was doing is rough cut out the neck, sand it right, put tape around the edge, put it back in the piece it was cut from, epoxy in the gap... then this is just used to create a template. The final neck will have no epoxy whatsoever. Now I have a template that is tight.

thank you very much for chiming in. Lotta good info there. I'm not sure I undersand your first line other than that you have discerned that it wasn't a huge tree... my process was: "gee it looks pretty - lets make a guitar of it!" afa dry: I know it was sitting at the place I bought it for at least 3-4weeks. By how fast the pile moved I'm gonna guess they got it 2-5weeks before that. It feels dry when I touch it... not 'cold' altho it isn't really resonant when you knock on it. Not sure if that's just because it is so dense or because it is full of water. For now - the two pieces are pretty much straight as an arrow . You've just answered my prayers with your info regarding sawdust and now I know exactly what I'll do next - cut a corner and see what the dust looks like! I bought this early in my process because I have read that you wanna let it sit in your "shop" (for me a garage!) for 6-12 weeks prior to doing anything. If this is anything like letting my saltwater fish tank cycle... well lets just say I'll do my best to work on other things for at least another 3-4 weeks! afa neck joint... well I know you can do it with straight edges screwed in next to the piece... but the sanding of the heel radius to make it match is an achilles heel (pardon the pun) for me. I am aware that collets would have worked, however the epoxy method is just something I wanted to try... and I like to think it worked pretty good for first time (pics above). It was surprisingly easy. Surely my process could improve and frankly it was impeded by a combo of not enough epoxy, should have used 2 layers of tape for a 'less tight' joint, and a cheap bit that wasn't as wide as the bearing. That said - my joint looks ok yes? no? I thought it was pretty tight, especially on the cavity cover. I don't even think I'd need screws to hold that - just friction! then again... once I have some finish on a piece it would be too tight. Lots of room for improvement in my skills for sure. Thanks again for the response - if I ever sound like I'm not appreciative I don't mean to. I just think out loud a lot and frequently think as I speak! cheers!

thank you sir. if I may ask a question? what should I spread on the cut end of this board to preserve it while letting it acclimate to the location?

so... I know this is going to be sorta 'meh' for you old pros but I can hardly contain myself right now. I found a local source for black walnut... and not just black walnut but 14" wide black walnut. I don't think I got all that great of a deal on it... but then again I don't think I did 'bad'. Got a neck of 8/4, also black walnut, for $23 tho... so that may make up for it a bit. At the end of the day I'll be paying approx $50 per guitar blank for 1 piece walnut... so how'd I do? anywho, kind of considering of NOT doing thinline now as the grain on this is really cool... I dunno. be a shame to cover it up. I've been dreaming on this build and working on my templates (pics below). Used my idea of filling in with epoxy to generate some fairly tight neck pockets... see below. again, for you guys probably 'meh' but for me... as tight as I'll ever get it. In fact too tight... should have used two pieces of tape to give myself a hair more gap. got some cool figuring on an area too...

scottR - hehe, I changed my facebook avatar because I was getting zero responses trying to buy a router on offer up. Figured the zombie face may have been putting folks off! Not sure this was an improvement as I'm told I look fairly unhappy. I've already changed it to one where I'm smiling... I'm guessing that one hasn't trickled out yet. Anywho, thank you for your advice -echoes what I was suspecting. I did some experimentation with differing things - some minwax pecan poly, the dye, etc. None was satisfactory. Also, the acetone/dye/tru oil I poured out over sawdust in my garbage can gave me a pounding headache. I'm so stupid. I leaned that lesson once long ago. working at a cab shop my boss, as a joke, asked me to grab a wrench that was sitting in some solution at the bottom of a barrel. That was a mean joke because it was acetone and it nearly knocked me out. 20some years later - confirmed - I'm still stupid. probably for the best as since I've had some time to sit with it... I think I'm over the shock of them being so different and onto being 'ok' with it as is. With the pickup covers and knobs bringing the lighter color into the body I think it looks ok... just not what I initially envisioned. Did some more work on my knobs... inlayed some abalone to match the fretboard. My first 'inlay'. Not perfect but it'll do. Have some ideas on a switch tip... need to get a plug cutter so... to be continued.

very nice work! I learned something - write the rout direction on your template!

testing some mixing... keda dye plus true oil plus acetone... keda is water based so I should've known that wouldn't work. dumped it. guess this venture is either going to involve a trip to the hardware store for ??? or I'll have to order something. open to suggestions... would really appreciate.

so... looking for vote: add some brown to tru oil and hit the neck with another few coats or leave as is? got quite a bit done this weekend... put my studs in, mounted the trem spring hook thingy, had to router out my control cavity a bit to fit my knobs where I wanted them, rebuilt a little plexi piece to hold my dummy coils, more finishing on the neck, and bought some 1/2 flamed maple to build the knobs. started finishing the body at which point I was really surprised at how different it was th an the neck. The wood for the neck didn't soak up much... this body just keeps drying as I pour loads of true oil on it. love the color had I known I would have sprung for a roasted neck. you live and learn. So at this point... feeling like I'd like to darken up the neck a bit. I can add some dye to the tru oil... and I think that should work... any suggestions would be welcome. said pickup bracket and earlier attempt below...

well, my orig plan is for a 22 so... that'd work. Thanks for the response. I suppose one drawback would be that you aren't going to be switching to another neck... then again it's only .092 off. Likely could make that up with saddles.

Hello, as the title questions... any issue with taking a 34" scale bass fretboard... and reslotting the first fret into a nut... taking off 1.9xxx for the first fret and use this for a 32.x" scale bass? Should work no? Possible issues?

thank you all for your help. I was looking at it this morn with a clear head... got out my 64ths ruler and making comparisons and thinking - I was way off with thinking it was a strong 32nd bigger... more like a light 64th, if that. So I got out some 220 and with relatively little effort I got it to go in. still a little tight so will sand in prep for a little expansion from true oil, but nice fit. on to the next step!

thank you gentlemen. I'm going to guess that's a vote for "router it". was thinking last night... I could test fit on a template and always add some tape to bring it tighter if I need to. good article and very similar to a few threads I've watched on you tube (I'm sure that is where the youtube folks got the idea). just thinking out loud here but unfortunately I don't think it would quite work like that for me since the joint is so close it's hard to get the neck to sit on the body without half dropping in (if that makes any sense). in my case, both neck and body have a rounded heel. square isn't going to be right (although it is covered by the overhang) so I'd have to make the middle board a radius. right now the rounded edges match pretty good but the corner is more square on the new neck. I suppose I don't need to route that part and could just use the middle board as a stop assuming I could get the neck set on there. certainly would be a lot less work and avoid the risk of getting epoxy on my neck so thanks for that! (Still going to use this idea for a control cavity template so - "the south will rise again"!)

Hello friends... got my neck today and have some questions: heel is just a hair too large to fit in this pocket and ends are more square. a heavy 1/32 too wide. Now, I could A) sand the neck till she fits or B ) create a template based on the neck and rerout the pocket. I have some ideas on how to make a good pocket template using the neck, some tape, a 1/4 piece of board with a rough pocket cut out, and some epoxy. fill in the blank, let dry and clean up the edges. there is the risk that i get epoxy on my neck if I'm not careful and it's a biotch to get off. could use bondo. The flush cut bits i have (red devil and stew mac): the cutting edge overhangs the bearing by a hair... so I'm concerned I take away too much and end up with a sloppy pocket. I think I stand a little better chance with a sanding block. IF IT WERE YOU - WHAT WOULD YOU DO? i will sleep on it tonight... new neck: starting to look like a gtr below. shout out to evilbay gent I got the flamed maple pckup covers from!

well... this guitar will have all bumble bee caps, carbon comp resistors, vintage fender pickguard screws... and pickup wire that was blessed by the pope so it would fit the theme - hehe. Seems like it would fill any void with decent material tho. Will it make me sound like srv (on bass perhaps, I dunno, was he any good on bass?)? Probably not... but it seems like with anything really good you'll pay 75% more for .0001% more performance. that said, and given this is my first build and will likely be riddled with mistakes (and possibly 22 rounds depending on how it goes)... I'll probably go with the cheaper recommendation in the end (barring possible lottery win b4 then). Once I get some confidence, and build my next - I think I'd like to try the wood sheath ones.

gentlemen: thank you very much. I will have to digest as I'm not sure what makes a good truss rod although the idea of a wood sheath seems fairly obvious and interesting although very expensive. thank you both very much for your advice.

no worries... glad you like the idea.

thanks Prostheta. The only examples I've seen have been tapering with the neck but good point - I suppose it doesn't have to. Prostheta / curtisa / norris: I hope I'm not being a pain, but could you recommend a dual action truss rod... if you had to pick one what would you go with?

I had considered it... however figured it probably wouldn't be necc since warmoth doesn't do it on their 30 and 32 necks. Also, this project is already probably more than I am capable of and graphite rods tend to be done at an angle... not sure I am up for the added challenge. Perhaps just consider making the neck a bit beefier? I don't know... I suppose another thing to consider is the weight added by those big beefy hot rods. Perhaps the low profile one would be better.

true that Norris

infinity - oh wow that is pretty. I hear ya ala "oh no another internet thread spirals into fighting over whos right". I would guestimate that it has more to do with the "throwing the turd over the fence" quality of internet convo. Freq, without even trying, I read my words again and think dang - I am a jackwagon. My typical sarcastic (playful) tone often comes off way worse when you don't have inflection to decrypt. Then again I've def come across folks who were just lookin' for a fight. All I can do is try to be less sarcastic and perhaps inject more warmth in my writing since I have zero control over others. I have to say - so far this site - probably due to the mature and intelligent nature of the general population - has been nothing but kind to me. afa truss rods... some good info there. are the 'thinner' two way rods any better? as I mentioned in prior post - I like a deadly combo of thin neck plus very low action - I have lots of gtrs that are classic style (I think anyway) the best of which is a classic fender style handmade neck that needs adjustment 2x a year. That all has culminated in my desire to at least try a 2 way truss. also length... the fretboard area is 23"... stew offers an 18 and a 24... I'm guessing that's common? 1) is 18 going to be trouble? 2) I'm guessing if I use 18 I really want it adjustable from the headstock then huh? I love your wanderings... and TO EVERYONE HERE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR INFO. I do really appreciate. afa ibanez... I bought an sr805 that is from the late 80's and it'd def a fav.

ok now I need a recommendation because you have convinced me that perhaps I'm going in the wrong direction. I was interested in them only because I really like extreme low action - to the point where considerable string vibration buzz is ok w me. As a result... I have to micro adjust 2-3 times a year despite quality quarter sawn necks and such. I understood that the dual beefy rods would be the best at keeping me stable... but now I want to know what you (and others if they are inclined) would suggest.

can anyone tell me: I'm thinking of getting a stew mac hot rod for this project. for a bass... i imagine the longer that better? IOW as long as it's not so long that it pokes out both sides, right?