ADFinlayson

yeah I realised that after a double take of the bridge design as that would only work on the bigsby style bridge which a lot of artcores seem to have. So I removed that part from my post.

Is the bridge not fixed to the body? If it's not, strings popping out of the saddles would indicate that there is not enough break angle over the bridge from the trem, could mean the bridge is too far forward, it certainly looks like the bass side of the bridge is forward, they're normally back from the treble side by 2mm or so at an angle, your bridge looks like it's closer to the pickup on the bass side than the treble side. I would start by checking the intonation to work out the correct bridge and saddle position

Yep, decent folk like their toast toasted, but I'll let you off because you've got a great rack

I hope you're not calling that toast, that's still bread mate.

All poly has the potential for yellowing as it's oil-based, if you want something that will dry clear then look at acrylic/water-based finishes. Have you considered wipe on finishes? I've had some success with Minwax wipe-on poly which is far easier to get hold of on your side of the pond than here. I followed Andy's fantastic tutorial And these are the results I got.

Well observed! Yes I used it to hold the board still and as a stopper for the router, I also had a clamp and a block at the other end to stop the headstock moving around as I don't have any dogs in that bench. Well that's good, it's about time I taught you something instead of the other way round

Alas he was at nan and granddads for the day playing with their dogs. I'll try and get him in the next one.

If you're sticking to the traditional PRS style carve, the very centre of the top is flat (as apposed to arched like a les paul), so you can easily stick pickup route templates to the top and safely route. I would recommend you carve the top and stick it to the body before you do your pickup routes though, because if you route the pickups prior to sticking, you will lose the screw holes you've been using to locate the top - You definitely need those because both your top and body are at final dimensions. My process on the red one was to carve the top, then stick it to the body, then plane in neck break angle, then route pickup cavities.

Just finished episode 5!

yeah the actual cost of the timber isn't insane although it's hard to come by pieces thick enough to carve through my usual channels. It's the cost of shipping it to the UK + the import duty that's the killer. The piece I bought cost £250 by the time it got to my bench.

When I drill pilot holes for screws, I use a micrometer to measure the thickness of the inner part of the screw, then measure the outer diameter of the thread and choose a drill bit as close to the size as I can get to halfway between the two diameters. If you've got a good fitting neck pocket, it's so much easier to glue then neck in, a drop of wood glue is cheaper than screws, ferrules and a neck plate too.

Welcome to the forum. If you've already got some tools and a modicum of perfectionism (it sounds like you have) then you're already 75% of the way there. I was in your shoes about 18 months ago, had no prior woodworking or setup experience and didn't bother with kits. I would recommend you dive in to the woodworking too, researching each step as you go and you will learn the skills on the fly, Get some good templates, G&W sell templates for a lot of common designs which are reasonably priced, they also sell good African mahogany blanks which I've used on several builds. https://guitarsandwoods.com/templates/lp-junior-acrylic-templates.html There is a wealth of information on youtube and some really smart people on here that will give the answers you need if you get stuck. Manchester guitar tech sells TV yellow nitro in a spray can, which should achieve the finish you want, if you decide to do the woodworking then you've probably got a couple of months to research your finishing before you get there. https://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/product/tv-yellow-nitrocellulose-lacquer-aerosol/ Good luck whatever route you decide to start with, and be warned - it can lead to an obsession in no time. I've built about 8 guitars in the last 18 months and have a few more on the go

With PRS, I think it's more of a strength thing than a tone thing, the tenon that stretches under the pickup is particularly short (on the custom 24s' especially) the part of the tenon cut away to fit under the pickup is only about 15mm thick so there really isn't very much wood there and they're very easy to neck dive on which is obviously adding extra stress on the joint.

it's cream and gold for me out of those What wood are you using, natural finish maple cap an option?

If you're using a flap disc, I honestly don't think you will need to worry about the f-hole, it will just magically cave in the same shape as the rest of it. Using gouges etc would be a different story.

I often draw directly on to MDF as well, if you draw on paper, you either have to stick your paper plans to MDF to cut it out (in which case, you've lost your paper template anyway) or you have to trace the paper plan, then trace it again (or you end up with a mirrored plan), before you can transfer it onto MDF. If you've got a photocopier that will do A0 then fair play, but I haven't. If you're building a common design, like a strat, tele, les paul, prs etc. Then I would consider buying pre-made templates. They're only about £60+ and will save you a lot of time, ensure accuracy on your neck taper and won't cost that much more money because enough good quality MDF will cost probably cost you £30 from a DIY store. I've got some acrylic template from G&W and they're excellent. Acrylic although slightly more money is better than MDF because you can see through it. There is also the option to clone the templates and sell them on.

That is true, however when I was working on the red semi hollow I finished recently, I found it wasn't any more difficult to carve the top prior to glueing it in place - I just had to be more creative with clamps. Granted neck pickup route is a ball-ache (that's a technical term) which the neck is in, but the same issue occurs on a neckthrough build.

Did you have to sell a kidney to buy that?

Funny you say that, I was playing with after effects last night for the first time in about 5 years, playing with glitch to come up with a little intro/ident thing. I also copied some expressions

hehe well you said you're a designer, incidentally I started life as a graphic designer, then went on to front end dev in a marketing agency, now my role is a lot more codey. But I was specifically referring to marketing managers, account managers etc I will do my best to speak the Queens' in as articulate fashion as possible.

He happened to come in looking for trouble while I was filming so I got a shot of him, not going out of my way to include him but he does the odd photobomb because he's a tart and wants attention. Only difference between this vid and previous ones is the use of a separate voice recorder and lapel mic which has improved audio quality and more consistent levels. I may also be getting slightly better at editing the clips as I progress through the build. I hadn't done any video editing since 2013, so it's gradually coming back. I'm enjoying the videos process - essentially just documenting what I'm doing out loud while building instead of writing a blog post after each garage session, it also saves me going inside and talking at the Mrs about guitars which she is no doubt pleased about. Would be cool if you did some vids, especially on your body radius routing as that's not a common process, there must be a calling for info on your crazy wiring too. I guess you're already setup with some gear for your demo videos

I guess it's technically more neck-through than set nick because the bridge is sitting in the same piece of wood that the tuner holes are. Must be stronger than both set neck and neck-through. Only downside I could see to it would be impossible to unset the neck if needed. That being said, it's a flippin' cool design for a tenon, I'm especially looking forward to seeing this baby carved.

It's only an iPhone and a gopro! Something to note though, double the cameras is not double the editing, it's more like 4 times the editing. Yeah my body routing video got a bit of traction. I had something like 15 new subs after I uploaded that one. There is so much useful information in analytics, the audience drop off screen is such a useful tool. it essentially tells you what not to do again and what to do more of, if you're goal is a larger audience anyway. I can't see that I'll be keeping up 3 videos a week, maybe 1 tops, it's just too much work. I mean I could have built a guitar in that time

Thanks chaps, I’m got a voice recorder and lapel mic thanks to @Urumiko and used that audio over the footage. The recorder isn’t doing any auto levelling but it’s possible that the software is. Will examine further during the next lot of editing. Yes speaking slowly, probably due to 10 years of being a software engineer talking to people in marketing

Hey, where abouts are you? You have a couple of things I will be interested in, just trying to determine whether it would be worth the drive. PM if you want. Edit, i'm actually interested in most of it, but I'm not fitting a band saw in a TT Cheers Ash