Lex Luthier

Constructive criticism: The whole body is off center.

Try a couple of drops of BLUE Loc-Tite on the threads of the jack.

If you can't find Loc-Tite brand stuff at your hardware supply store, just look for any kind of "removable thread locker". One or two drops will go a LONG way.

I also use it on the tuning machine threads. They don't ever come loose now. :-)

Great tip. I actually use that stuff at work - blue, red and green. Definately use the blue, or equivalent, it'll hold your threads, but you can easily loosen the nut when needed.

No pics of the actual process, but I use the idle drum of a stationary beltsander.

I have a selection of trem, body, neck, pickup cavity, control cavity, pickguard templates adding up to 24, all made out of 1/4" MDF. There will soon be a few more for a neck-thru bass I wanna do.

Thanks guys

Looks like I'll be drilling then rounding off the corners by hand.

Lex, did you take a normal spade bit then grind off the outer points?

Thanks

Genbloke

No they came like that, Im sure HomeDepot and the like would have them.

I've used spade bits that have a rounded edge, instead of the pointed scoring tips. Gave a nice rounded look to the recess, and just hand sanded the transition of the top edge.

First to vote!!!!!!

Looks like a good month, good luck and great instruments everybody.

Something else valuable, "ALWAYS CHECK THE EXPIRATION DATE" with ANY type of glue. I know for a fact titebond wood glue goes bad, as does a carpenter's glue Lee Valley sells, usually 6months - 1 year. Sometimes you can tell by the smell...

i am sorry but i have to be realistic here.it is obvious that jeff's building has only improved minimally.the string eyelets are not in the least bit straight,the neck pocket(the part that you see from the back)is not a smooth arc,the neck humbucker is crooked,the bridge leans TOO far back at the bass side(intonation anyone?)and there is just an overall feeling of clunkiness.

Jeff reminds me of a guitar builder 'round here in BC, (I won't say any names, but I was told of him by a local professional lutheir who know's him personally) these guys both have the drive and want to be building guitars, but they (much more so Jeff) lack the actually skills needed to execute the construction of a quality instrument, like maybe they are missing some natural ability you can never learn.

I've never said anything on Jeff's forum because I didn't want to be mean.

Is it safe to try and polymerize Tung myself? How would I cook it without oxygen? In a vacuum of some sort?

I'm not sure, but you could just buy pre-polimerized oil.

Show me a few pics of the guitars you've Tung Oiled, let's have a clear close-up look-see and let everyone form their own opinions. Democracy at it's finest.

Here, just the headstock is painted.

Here, this one was played for a few years buy the owner before I could get it back for these pics, a good example of how oil wears. The body of this is a Danish Oil.

Here, the body is lacquered.

All these.

All these instruments are finished with THIS and THIS, except where otherwise noted.

Here is an artical from a recent issue of a woodworking magazine. I don't have a scanner so I took a BIG picture.

Oil finishing artical - very large.

you know,i have some pure tung oil...it is what i used on my first vee and is why i don't use tung oil anymore.

I once used pure tung oil by "bear" or some brand back in high school to finish a clock I made and it sucked. The stuff I use now is much nicer, I have the ability to spray poly and nitro but don't because I find it much easier to finish with oil and I like the results.

Personally I let the big three inspire me and build something better. Better tone wood, better pick-ups, better neck construction. If I want a exact copy of a Gibson or Fender I will buy one.

Well said. All the guitars I've built except a solid wood body for my plywood body Strat have been original designs.

Are we just small fish not worth going after?

Bingo, there's no reason to go after someone like us, we're not a threat, just don't rip-off logos.

My original idea proved to work OK, but too much fine sanding dust from the edgesander would get through, so I decided to redo it when I got my thickness sander.

Hooked up to edgesander.

Hooked up to edgesander again.

Hooked up to bandsaw.

Blast gates and Y of the out take.

Aircleaner as filter.

Ducting coming from thickness sander.

Ducting at thickness sander.

Hooked up to thickness sander.

I have seen the one you have- but am not sure if I would be satisfied with its performance

I have changed the layout of it since I got a thickness sander. I now hook it up to each tool individually for maximum suck.

I bought this one, it's a portable version. I currently have my homemade dust collector hooked up to it: a small blower motor from an oven hood is hooked up to each tool, and the dust it sucks out is shot through this thing which filters the sawdust, and cleans the air in the room at the same time.

You remind me exactly of myself when I made my first few guitars nearly 8 years ago. If I still had any of them or any pictures you guys would get a kick outta them.

Keep at it.

I had a set of the double sided stewmac nut files and sent them back. I found that they were not very accurate for slot size and required alot of rolling side to side to get the slots right. They tend to cut a "V" shape.

I have three of those and notices the exact same thing, but I still use 'em.

yeah but if you only want to change the E string it would be a bit of pain. I have a guitar with a bridge thats positioned very much like that one in the picture and its frustration when I have to change just a single string. Not that its that much of a deal for me, because i generally change all my strings when I change one, but on the odd occasion I get a dud string in a new set or something it presents a small problem

Never thought of that...

I was at the Canwest Woodworking Tool Show & Sale, or "Woodshow", today. I wasn't really looking forward to going as the show focuses mainly on tools then wood, and I have all the tools I now want, but I came across a booth of a guy selling figured maple.

They call themselves Specialty Craftwoods, and said they sell to StewMac and PRS and the likes. They had some larger pieces, a few other spieces, as well as stacks of guitar billets, 2"X8"X22", of flamed and quilted which were all seconds.

I did however find a few billets that were acceptable, and bought one, pictured in the links. The pictures suck, the piece is a second because of some small knot holes. It was only $40.00CDN, so I think I did pretty good.

They said they are opening a retail store the middle of next month, but currently have a barn nearby loaded with "100,000BF" of wood.

This is pretty good for me, I have found a few other "order online" type places that are fairly local, but no one locally who deals in figured maple where I can go hand pick my pieces - and I'm very picky, I can spend HOURS looking through an entire stack for the "right" piece.

http://fullservesite.com/lexluthier/flmaple1.jpg

http://fullservesite.com/lexluthier/flmaple2.jpg

Another thing, I just found this if anyone is interested:

Buildyourguitar.com Supplier Addresses - Woods, Tools Etc.

Funny how in the photo Stew-Mac uses has almost no clearance with the pickup, stringing the high e must have been a pain. Wes, let us know how you like it.

The bridge comes off the posts.

"i hope i don't have to notch these"

Just string 'er up without notching and see how it is.

Yeah I know about the QUOTE function, I'm just not using it for some reason...

"but can someone tell me what is the purpose of unnotched saddles?"

The strings curve around from the back of the bridge, so they may not need a slotted saddle - acoustic guitars don't have slotted saddles because the string is pinned within a half inch of the saddle so they won't move much. That's what I'm figuring...

Hi Lex

How you think that it would be the behavior of two layers Santin Polyurethane lacquer with out filler in the maple neck?

All I can tell you is you don't need a pore filler on a maple neck, other then that I've used solid finishes only a few times. You need to ask someone else who knows more about finishing.

Sorry I can't help in that field.

"there are a thousand brand new "custom guitar builders" who on their web pages describe tung oil as the be all/end all in guitar finishing"

Really? I honestly started using it because I didn't have the equipment or know how to do a hard finish, and I continue to use it because I love the "naturalness" it gives wood.