Lex Luthier

Pretty nice for a $9 piece of wood. I can get four drop-tops outta it - that's $2.25 a top.

You can kinda see the flaming. I'll use this for laminated necks.

I use bent out hangers too, but I've just finished a guitar I will be relicing, so I don't care if it falls.

Don't use water to wet sand. Using mineral spirits or paint thinner will stop that. Wear a mask and gloves obviously. Or even don't use any lubricant, but you'd go through alot more paper.

I GOT THE LEFT OVERS!!!!

I got a 38" long piece of the quilted, the good end too, plus a 41" piece with some mild flaming, that looks pretty good on a planed board. I got the quilted board for $9CDN, and the flamed board I haven't paid for yet, but I'm not sure they'll know if it's gone...

pics in the mornig.

Thank for the votes guys!

I have finished the neck and body, except for the aging.

You can't really see it, but when I stained the paint, I went over it again to make it blotchy, mostly lightening the edges and certain areas, as if the clear coat yellowed unevenly.

You can see in this picture how smooth the finish is, and that's just outta the gun, no sanding or buffing.

20 Year Old Dude

Here is the painted, sanded body. I went through in a few places around the edges, so I'll touch it up, then tint the color with a stain, then clear it tonight. I'll also finish off the neck tonight, first sealing the decal with light coats, then a final heavy coat all over.

TSL, yeah, I think I'll try the KIWI stuff on the neck. Do you know where you can get it? I would think like Walmart or anywhere would carry shoe polish.

IT JUST CAME!

Overall the kit is quite nice looking. It's seems a little rough, the neck is literally rough, it's only just been filed by hand. The fittings, which I think are boxwood, are a nice brown tone and will look nice on the finished product.

Yup, I went across to the other building today, I usually don't go there, looking for something and came across a 10' long board of quilted maple in a stack of boards. It's not like AAAAA or anything, but it's also not junky looking, uneven quilting like I see at Windsor Plywood.

I recently got a 1-piece body blank of plain maple from my work for $10CDN. That piece has 3BF in it which works out to $3.33PBF. So if I can get the board of quilted - 7.5"x1.5"x120"=9.375BF - for the same price, it'll be just over $31!

I was thinking about it at work and if I got it at that price it could work out to $2.50 per drop-top!

I will go to work with cash tomorrow and make the owner of the company an offer...

Swamp Ash is Southern Ash. The other common Ash is Northern Ash and is what baseball bats are commonly made out of, and Fender Tele's too.

The southern is lighter and typically more resonant, the Northern is heavier, harder, denser, which helps Tele's get that clear high-end twang thang goin'.

I always thought Tele's were made from Swamp Ash.

$11.65 is what it should cost for that wood. (20x7)\144x2x5.99=11.647222...

Nope, it's closer to $23.30...ya didn't figure in the thickness.

7Wx2Tx40L=560/144=3.89BFx5.99PBF=$23.30

...and that's just for the 1", it may cost more for the 2", like 6.99PBF or 7.99PBF.

You only mask off the top of the fingerboard. If youmask off the sides you get a nasty seem.

I doubt it's legal, there are a bunch of people selling them, though. When people talk about bootleg decals this is usually where they come from. The quality isn't that good though. It looks great from a few feet away, but up close it's pixel-ish and stuff.

I began finishing the neck yesterday.

I sealed the neck with lacquer, then tinted it with stain. The first stain I used didn't look right, so I redid it with a much darker, oranger tinted stain. I got it as dark as I could get it, which doesn't look very tinted at all, but I like it. (At least it's not a bright white, like when I first sealed it)

Here I am applying the decal. I used a book for the placement and cutout of the decal.

Decal applied.

anyone know if that long neck caul stew-mac sells has the same exact shape from end to end ? I want to make another one, but it's easier for me to make them the same shape from end to end (I rough-in the narrow radius with a router table, then sand it by running it back and forth on a car jack-stand "tube thing" with sandpaper stuck to it)

I think it's the same. I made mine on a table saw.

May I see some close-ups of the vintage Fender tuning machines? Do you know how vintage they are, like what year/model they came off? Are they possibly avaliable for purchase?

I think someone on the MIMF uses pine.

How many peices would an American Fender Strat ash body from the 60's and 70's be made of??

I don't know if they were ash in the 60s, but I'd say 2 - 4 pieces, most likely 2, maybe 3 on the natural finish ash bodies of the 70's.

i disagree with the reason for using 2 piece bodies.the reason is that it is tough to find lumber large enough to make one piece bodies,so they glue them together.simple really.

Yeah. I think it's more so an avaliability issue.

what woods work best with oil finishes, i know some woods need to be hard coated like mahogany

MzI

Doesn't need to be. I did a guitar with a mahogany body with an oil finish, and a bass with an oil finish, both porous woods. The finish was great.

I use a polimerized tung oil and sealer on my instruments.

NICE!!!

could you (or anybody who has strats - tsl ) post EXACT dims of the strat body, please? I need W and L of the strat body cause I'm working on a blueprint of something like Pensa Suhr which has reduced strat body shape.

Just go to a Windsor Plywood if you just want Ash. It'll cost like $30CDN.

These are what guitar type places charge, in US dollars, too.

LMI's prices

StewMac's prices

I installed the rest of the hardware that required holes drilled. I think next week I will begin finishing the neck and body.