Lex Luthier

Better to not work there than hate it & be miserable.

That's turning into my motto. I was actually about to quit the place I just got laid off from. Was gettin' annoyed with the work.

Today I went out to a place to hand in my resume, the job is for the exact same thing I was just doing, night shift finishing, and they basically said I was exactly what they were looking for and they'd call me in a day or two and if I don't have another job I would probably start Monday

The job blows. The place is absolutely DISGUSTING! I don't think they have ever cleaned the finishing room, at all! They don't even use proper filtering in the booth, half the duct is covered by a filter that has NEVER BEEN CHANGED, and the other half is completely open. I cleaned out about 25GALLONS of lacquer/paint/primer dust on Teusday when I had some free time to clean the booth. There are dissassembled spray guns all over the place, and the guns and pressure pots we use are neglected. The compressor is right next to the booth, and is COVERED with overspray. The dayshift sprayer only wears a DUSTMASK when he sprays. He's completely fried his brain. The guy doesn't always make sense and slurs his speech when he talks, kinda like he's drunk, and walks funny too. It's sad the way some people don't care about there health. Monday night nobody really explained to me what jobs had to be done, so I was there until 5:00AM finishing everything. Plus the boss says I'm REALLY slow at doing the work, so I'm thinking I'll just get fired in a week or two anyways. I'm quiting tomorrow.

I have a 14" JET bandsaw that I use a lot. It's great for everything but resawing. For that, supposedly, you need the riser block but I haven't tried that yet. I'm just not sure the 1 HP is enough to do the resawing job.

I resawed figured maple on my 3/4HP Delta 14" with a home-made riser. It worked fine. It uses standard 98" blades.

Is that one of the higher-end, meant-for-clear-top-coat Devilbiss's? I am thinking of investing in a high-end gun for top coats, like a high-end Devilbiss, or SATA like LGM uses. I have a Campbell Hausfeld, but it's more of a general perpose gun.

Though right now I am looking at getting a thickness sander.

You mean a Fender '57 reissue? They have a polyester base coat with a nitro lacquer top coat. I've heard of freezing the finish, with something you get at electronic supply stores, and then heating it with a hair dryer.

Yup, but I got tired of the small size of mine and got a 14".

do you still have access to all of the cheap cool wood?

I don't know. Maybe not.

mold the bent in a positive and negative mold. A two sided mold compressed together by clamps, left to dry and then shaped.

I'd be careful of the waist bend with that. When people use bending machines they usually bend the waist on a pipe or iron, then place it on the mold with a clamp on the waist and ease the sides down with metal 'straps' as wide as the side and clamp it.

Bending sides is not very difficult. It helps to have a good mold to work off. Start off my marking the waist and bend that first, then get the upper and lower bout curves. Don't leave the piece in one spot on the iron, you'll get creases, rock it back and forth, and don't force it.

I haven't really finalized my technique with the water yet. Using a spray bottle to re-wet helps, I think letting the pieces sit in water for at least 15mins is good, they can distort if you leave 'em over night. I also don't know if the water needs to be hot at all, because as soon as you remove the piece from the container, the water looses it's heat real quick and is just cold. It's the steam created by the iron that bends the wood anyways.

I, and seven other people, just got laid off yesterday. Today I went out to a place to hand in my resume, the job is for the exact same thing I was just doing, night shift finishing, and they basically said I was exactly what they were looking for and they'd call me in a day or two and if I don't have another job I would probably start Monday. My old job was $13hr, the add for this job said $12hr - $15hr. This is kinda cool, get laid off and the next day find a job doing the exact same thing that (possibly) pays more.

...Plus I just got a $964 tax return.

The differences depend:

If you compare a bolt-on guitar to a bolt-on bass, I'd say the neck maybe takes longer, but is not nessesarlly(sp?) more difficult.

If you compare set-necks, they are fairly the same, the main difference, and difficulty will be with thru-neck basses.

I've built both, I can't really say which is harder, though I can say the basses I built were funner, with bassists being more open the the use of exotic woods, exotic body shapes, plus I have found laminated necks to be cool looking, funner to make, and stronger.

If I don;t see avatars I don't know who I'm talking to...

Same here I like avatars

Nope, I'm working on my vintage Strat project right now.

hi.. Lex...

use veneer company..

this maple is come from canada.

i think lex your nation have good maple.. and find your local area veneer wood company..

veneer company all way use vest quality wood..

if lex you want buy good wood & cheap.. find wood veneer campany..

good luck..

WOW I didn't know what you were using came from here!?!

Your guitars seem to be resting on about a 16" wide piece of flamed maple. Where do you get your wood?!? I would like to get some.

If you wanna use dyes you'd have to sand off the sealer, no? I've seen dyes at a local place go for $20 a bottle as I recall, but you could do a number of guitars with a bottle, and you could just use Deft lacquer on it which is inexpensive stuff, but good.

You can by the Deft in spray cans.

Relicing has begun.

I began on the back. The edge was easy to go through, but the paint is REALLY thick...

...so I had to sand the next part.

I switched to a frash buffing pad, and this part went ALOT quicker.

The color the wood turned is just from it being polished, and the compound getting into the wood, which I think looks good, however, I think I will put a light coat of polimerized tung oil on the bare wood portions. I also put numerous dings and scratches all over it, and chiped alot of the paint along the bottom edge. I'll do the treble waist portion, where it rest on your leg, the neck, and then more detaild pics.

My local Mom & Pop shop carry a Cort acoustic. It's $199.99CDN, has a SOLID Spruce top, laminated back/sides. Quite nice for 200 bucks.

You need to wet the surfaces with water if you use Gorilla Glue, I would personnally use titebond, or this other stuff I got from Lee Valley, don't know the name though.

WOW! That IS cheap! You should do Tele's too. Do you CNC them? 'Cause if I made bodies by hand I wouldn't sell 'em for that cheap, too much work. Good prices though. Had I known about you when I started my vintage Strat guitar I woulda got one of your's instead of an Allparts. How many pieces are they? Are they finish sanded? You're in too!

Hey, for future reference, how much would shipping be to Vancouver BC?

Yup, though it's more suited for a solid finish.

M

I would just get a selection of S M L XL.

I'm gonna go with a tortise PG instead, looks nicer, plus I won't need to mess with it.

What do you mean "distort the paint"? I'm gonna chip it and wear it away in some areas if that's what you mean. I'll just use tools and whatever to chip it, I think I'll over buff it to wear it away.

Titebond or a SMALL drop of super glue. You don't want the nut perminantly in place, you just want to hold it there.