Lex Luthier

Do you sell your guitars? I am in a similar situation. I bought a billet on nicely flamed maple, and had it cut into an arch-top blank, and a laminate top, which I used on the guitar I've entered in The Guitar of The Month contest. Personally, I figure I could make more money by getting the arch-top blank re-resawed into two drop tops. I could sell each guitar for, maybe, $1000CDN, but if I made the arch-top, I doubt I could sell it for $2000CDN, maybe $1500CDN. Especially if you used the ENTIRE piece on one guitar, I, personally, could probablyonly sell something like that for, say $1500, maybe, but if I machined the piece into, say four drop tops, I'd sell each guit for around $1000. It would be fun to make a super cool guit, I but personally I'd rather spread the wood out over a number of instruments, maybe sell them in different music stores, and get my name out there and build a reputation.

Bandsaws are useful I shape necks with this I'd get a drillpress, though maybe not as big You will need a router Maybe a router table Hand drill and palm sander are helpful Useful for cleanup You will need an assortment of clamps Nut slotting files are helpful, as well as radiusing blocks, neck cauls, fretting hammer and files for fret work You'll need a compressor and gun unless you are going to use spray cans or apply the finish by hand ...This is just what I use

Looking in a book I have, American Mahogany weighs 34lb/cubic foot. So figure around 11lb per blank, maybe.

How much would you pay for a 1-piece Honduras (Honduran) Mahogany body blank - 2"Thick X 14"Wide, or even wider X 20"or more in Lenght, rough cut? I am wondering what the market for 1-piece Mahogany blanks is. I am going to be buying a large amount for cheap through my work. The price I can get it at is about $30CDN per blank, and I've seen Mahogany blanks go on ebay for $50CDN - over $100CDN. I was thinking I could invest in a large board to get like 10 or so blanks, sell them on ebay and make at least double my money back, then buy some more through my work, though I wonder if my work would dislike me doing this (if they new). I can also get other woods as well.

Rock, European, Bigleaf, Western, Silver, Red...there are five species that are important to the timber industry, I don't know if these are exactly them. In terms of musical instrument construction, I think basically Rock Maple is used for solid necks, most commonly displaying bird's-eye figuring, and sometimes curling, and Bigleaf or Western tends to display intence flaming and quilting, so I believe it's Bigleaf or Western that gets used for figured tops or backs, and laminated necks. The furniture manufacturer I work for uses Western Maple in it's maple furniture.

I heard flame and quilt figuring are produced when the tree's weight compresses the wood and forms the curls or quilts, like the grain basically collaspes on itself. Quilted figuring is best viewed on a flat sawn surface, and will actually look somewhat flamed when quarted, and vise-versa with flamed figuring. I don't know if the two figurings are interchangeable in the way you saw them, because I've heard quilted maple only appears in the first few inches of a tree, but you can get pieces wide enough for acoustic guitars because you cut it flat sawn. Flaming and quilting a very commen in Soft and Bigleaf Maple, not so it Rock Maple. Rock Maple is more often seen with the birds-eye figuring, which, like posted earlier, I believe is a disease that causes the "eye's", because I believe the eyes are where new branches were supposed to grow, but they don't get past just a little knot. Burls are obviously from some sort of a disease, like where a branch was supposed to grow, but something went wrong, and new knots and buds just keep forming on top of each other. Crotch figuring is pretty obvious by the name, you just open up the portion of the tree where the stump bisects into two new stumps.

Yeah, I'll post pics of the bass so ya guys can see it, but I'll enter it next month. More questions: If someone's instrument wins Guitar of The Month, are they allowed to enter that guit again? If someone's guit DOESN'T win can they enter it again?

Are we allowed to enter more than one instrument? The woman I sold a wicked fretless bass to is interested in another one and she's bringing it by on the weekend so I can get measurements and stuff, but I'll also finaly get some digital pics of it.

I would like to officially enter this bad boy. WAY More Pictures Here are the specs: Birds-eye Maple neck Scarf-jointed headstock Compound radius Ebony fingerboard 1/4" pearl dot inlays Jumbo frets Scalloped upper 4 frets Ping tuners Scarfed neck joint One-piece Honduras Mahogany body What I consider a AAAAA-Flamed Maple cap 1/4" round over - 1/2" round over in waist area for comfort Dimarzio humbuckers - Tone Zone-Bridge/Air Norton-Neck Wilkinson Licensed stop tailpiece/bridge with adjustable A/D G/B saddles[chrome] Master volume and tone Speed knobs 3-way toggle switch Recessed rear control plate Black hardware Hand rubbed oil finish

YEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! Kench complained to Ebay and got my user ID terminated! I have been trying since the summer, I even edited all my contact and registration info to be completely false and make no sence, and I STILL emailed ebay a number of times asking them to close my account saying it's STILL open, I can STILL post auctions and bid, and they'd just say, "It's been closed". This is what it takes to get your account closed?!? DUMBASSES!!!!!!!!

I have a 19" wide piece of Mahogany I plan of using for a 6/12 double neck, one day, maybe even with a lightly figured Koa top. You can see the template I made for it if you scroll down 3/4 of the way. It's in the upper left corner of the picture. My Tools Page

I doubt I'll ever make my own PUP's. I've made fretboards, but it would just be so much easier to get them cut. LMI slots their boards, in a number of scales, for about $7 each, and $5 on orders of 5 or more, or something like that. I think I may start getting my fretboards, slotted, from them. I've been slotting them by hand, and it's just so much work, ESPECIALLY Ebony. Any "custom" boards, like some cool looking piece of Ebony or Pau Ferro I find myself, I'll still slot.

19, been buildin' guits since I was 12.

I voted completely from scratch, how 'bout you?

GO HERE

12-string necks tend to be wider, and maybe thinker too. I was thinking of making a double neck - 6/12 with a 1-piece Mahogany body, and I would make the 12-string neck wider.

A Canwood 13inch floor model, AND got over 30% off the price, to replace my little Craftsman 8inch bench top. Now I can drill holes for bridge screws or posts on my drillpress, as well as side-mounted output jacks. Scroll down a bit

Kenche's responces to the negatives I left him: Hey lets hunt this man down like the spineless terrorist that he is. Who's in? Are you ken to Osama Bin Laden? You terrorist! Ebay will be fixing you good! What's with this asshole and everybody deing a terrorist?!? I'll leave some follow-up feedback.

1) If you mean the truss rod slot cover, yes. The other exposed maple on the edge of the headstock is a scarf similar to the waist contour on a Strat. 2) I bought PUP mounting rings for it, but they looked to big and bulky. 3) Yes, the FDP and some others. 4) I did set the bass side back, but not by much. You can probably see that I had to adjust the bass side back more with the allen screws. EDIT: Looking at the pictures, I guess I didn't set the bass side back, but just adjusted the bass side back with the allen screw. 5) No, I just put those in there for fun. The reason I left it natural is because I didn't have spray equiptment to do a more pro looking dyed and tinted top. Now that I have spray equiptment I could refin it. It is currently for sale, and has a buyer interested, he just needs to get the money, $800CDN, but if the deal falls through, I think I'd refin just the body in nitro lacquer, probably with black pore filler, and pop the grain with some amber, or maybe black dye, then red, then tinted red lacquer on the whole thing, possible a black and red sunburst and maybe with scraped binding. I'd also then raise the price by $400CDN. EDIT: I just phoned the store where it's forsale, the guy interested in it put a down payment on it, so I will not be refin'ing it. Thankyou for the nice comments guys. BTW, I have more of this maple is rough blocks. Enough for one arch top or two drop tops. We'll see...

That's the brand. Sorta on the cheaper side.

I have a very lightly flamed set of Koa in an acoustic guitar back/side set, but I'm not sure what I'll do with it. I was thinking the back would be good as a top for my 1-piece double neck idea.

Here is a link to detailed pictures of the guitar. Here are the specs: Birds-eye Maple neck Scarf-jointed headstock Compound radius Ebony fingerboard 1/4" pearl dot inlays Jumbo frets Scalloped upper 4 frets Ping tuners Scarfed neck joint One-piece Honduras Mahogany body What I consider a AAAAA-Flamed Maple cap 1/4" round over - 1/2" round over in waist area for comfort Dimarzio humbuckers - Tone Zone-Bridge/Air Norton-Neck Wilkinson Licensed stop tailpiece/bridge with adjustable A/D G/B saddles[chrome] Master volume and tone Speed knobs 3-way toggle switch Recessed rear control plate Black hardware Hand rubbed oil finish

They are all made of solid woods, with wood binding and bridges. I assume they sound better then those NASTY plywood things I remember playing in elementary school, I've never done a side-by-side comparison, though the triangular flame Koa one in my sig was a custom order for a local ukulele group who are quite famous in Hawaii, so they must sound pretty good. The difference in sound is probably similar to a plywood acoustic guitar and a high-end solid wood hand built acoustic guitar.

I build guitars and other instruments from start to finish, so I voted master, but I consider myself more of a hobbiest.