albertop

Hello, it's been a long time since I post here My question is this: I was using the old StewMac Les Paul plans and it said that the trussrod length was 16" long from the nut to the 16th fret and on the new plans it says about 18" long from the nut to the 21st fret. So I already cut and prepared 4 trussrods which measures 16" long aprox.... Will this affect the guitar??? all the necks are to be setnecks (a Firebird, a Flying V...) Am I screwed? thanks for the responses, do you think that if I change the anchor can I use them for Fender-type necks???

Hey brian d, I would like to build for my next project a guitar with an alternative wood; maple is hard to buy here in Peru (that's why all the wood I use is mahogany because it is cheap here) so I'll try to find some exotic or another wood that suits guitarbuilding. And also I think I'm gonna try a design of my own . Thanks eddiewarlock, I know thar you are also from South America, tell me: what kind of woods do you use? cedar? I have worked with cedar but I think maybe is too soft for guitars... Hi Feild Craddock, yes, the guitar does have a neck angle, it's about 2,5 degrees and I prefer angle the bottom of the tennon, for me is easier that way. CleverPun I don't have any soundclips, but I use the Guitarfetish products after reading good reviews in this and other forums. And they're a bang for the buck, of course there are other brands with higher quality products but for $34 I think they're damn good. You're right Erickbojerick, the bridge is so important, I got lucky this time but I really dont recommend it, seriously. And I use some polyester I buy from a national company. I heard that McFadden's is a really good brand. But there's other options for finish, I really would like to try that water based lacquer that StewMac sells. And also I would like to try urethane, I looks really good and hard. Thanks for the comments and sorry for the slow reply, my computer almost die but now it's all good so I'll try to post more. Cheers, Alberto

The back: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1353/132672...80d9170a0_o.jpg The headstock, where I'm gonna put a little plate engraved: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1144/132583...fb9772791_o.jpg And the rest of the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27263073@N00/...57601873415727/ Well hope you like it and I expect to hear your comments, cheers Alberto

Another shot:

And now the end results, sorry I don't have the painting process, i can tell you that the finish is poylester and the sunburst is a b*tch to paint. It's the first sunburst and I think it looks cool. Here you see the pickguard and the harware. Let me tell you that Guitarfetish sells pretty cool stuff, I think it's the second time I order from them and the items are righteous, the wraparound is well made and the same for the p90 and the tuners. Really cool stuff if you're on a budget like me.

In this pic you'll see when I glued the neck to the body, notice that I didn't carve the back of the neck, in this case I glued it and then carved it. You can try the other way I think, at the end it's basically the same. This way you have more control over the neck but it's a little bit difficult to carve the heel I think, but nothing a good chisel or rasp won't do. I also routed the control cavity, it's really small because of the 2 controls, this also helps the guitar to be on the heavy side, if you think that you only make two holes (neck and control cavity) you'll see what I mean. I don't count the pickup hole because in this caseit very shalow been a dogear p90 rout.

This one is from the headstock, after I did the trussrod rout I put a template and rout the headstock and then glued a mahogany overlay and carve a trussrod nut hole ala Gibson, it doesnt need to be like that, it just that I like it that way The overlay helps me to make a nice space for my bone nut, that way it's difficult that the nut moves from its place, you just need to slide it from the side and voila!.

This one is the fitting of the neck, notice that the neck is not raised too much, at the end I put some veneer over the bottom of the the mortise to raise the neck a little bit. I did it all without the bridge and I don't recommend it, you need to have your bridge, so please be patient.

This is when I routed the mortise, I made the mortise the size of the whole tennon, I think Gibson also used to use this method at some point (I'm not entirely sure if they still do it like that but they built several guitars this way), I mean the heel is the bottom of my tennon, it doesn't haver different heights.

Then I align the neck and the body to outline where the mortise (is that the name?) will be. Is not that hard if you have done the tennon right, I mean it needs to be square and symmetrical Trace the center of both neck and body and you will be fine. Note that In haven't place the bridge yet.

With this one I'll explain how I glue and work the fretboard: First I cut and sand the neck to the desired size, then I glue the fretboard very carefully and size it with the router. You need to be precise and careful with the gluing, I have very nice results with this method because it's very little wood I remove (just the wood of the fretboard), you just need the fret lines to be paralel to the nut line and your neck needs to be inside the fretboard. I hope you understand me. For the dots I just run a line at the center across the frets and then draw X's inside each fret space that needs to have a dot, then is when I see the center of my dot. And I drill the side dots with my Dremel drill bit at hand with the same method.

This one is from the neck building, the angle degree is 14 degrees and I use a scarf joint which is much better than one piece:

Hi everybody, I finished this guitar about a month ago but I just finally have the time to show the pics. The guitar is pretty simple: magohany neck and body, rosewood fretboard, a p90 pickup, chrome wraparound bridge and chrome tuners (I bought them from Guitarfetish and they're really good), 1 tone and 1 volume, gold buttons and bone nut. I really love the sound, the p90 sounds cool, it's the first one I build with one of those and I'm very happy with the sound, the guitar is kinda heavy but rich and full and the scale (24 3/4") is really comfortable. I will post pics from the beginning till the end, hope you like it, I will only put the ones I think are important so you would not get bored The first one is when I routed the body from the template:

Thanks eddiewarlock, I already finished that Junior I just need to take some pics and post them on the forum. I appreciate your words, really. Muzz the guitar would not have a lot of modifications, I think the owner is thinking on changing the pickups and she's very happy with the coil split, she says it isn't no Strat but she digs the new sounds (she always plays humbuckers). Yeah Maiden, it would have been a crime to put a pickguard on that one, it looks so good without one, sometimes I wonder how would have look like is she would have use the stainless steel pickguard she had thought in first place cheers Alberto

Hey thanks for the kinds words, it really makes me want to build more guitars. I also think that the SG's should be neckthrough, I read somewhere that they wanted to build it that way but it was very expensive so they kept with the weak neck union. When you rout the neck pickup cavity you inmediately know that you are indeed making the union less stronger. That's the main reason I built it like a neckthrough, and luckily it sustains really well and balances nicely. About the inlays, well she's a professional so she guides herself from the side dots and the Galaxy inlays does not confuse her. But I get the point Elysianguitars. The main color was "Wine Red" stain, and then added a little bit of red and blue. I'm glad that it came out a nice color, and it suits the mahogany prefectly. Me and her debated a little bit about using a pickguard or not and we thought it would be better if we didn't put anuthing, that way you can see the finish and the beaty of the wood. Thanks again for your comments , cheers Alberto

Thanks eddywarlock for your words, I didn't knew that poliester was that expensive, here it costs very much like polyurethane and automotive paint, the only catch is that you need the be careful with your paint gun since it uses a hardening component. I agree with Maiden69, I recently was choosen a finish for a project and the Dupont paint was really fab, the only think ands correct me if I'm wrong is that the seller told me it was better if you but the finish in an oven to harden it faster (30 min instead of several days) but I don't knowe if you can do that with a guitar.... Zyonsdream you're right, it really is hard to paint anything with black, but with practice you can achieve good results. Many thanks guys, cheers Alberto

The paint is polyester as on all of my guitars, the finish is hard and it is very glossy. You need a good polisher to achieve that kind of gloss. And black is very difficult to achieve I guess because it's not very much forgiving, it tends to show little things that you don't see when the sealer is applied. But if you are careful you will not have much trouble. I've been investigating about alternative finish but I haven't find another one that could be as hard as polyester, what is auto grade? Thanks for your words, and Eddie I'm looking forward to see your guitar cheers Alberto

Well I finished this one also, it's been a while I now. About a month ago this one was finished and let me tell you it's awesome. I'm really proud of this one. Like the neckthrough SG (http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=31878) it has a lot of sustain and rich tones. I think the sustain comes from the fact that is neckthrough and the strings go through the body. The hardware is black, Seymour Duncan sh1 and sh4, the jack is placed on the upper horn and the location is very smart. My brother is very happy, we could believe how much it rings without even be plugged. And it's as mean guitar you know Here are some pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27263073@N00/...57594411756928/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/27263073@N00/...57594411756928/ and the rest of the set, including some of the construction: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27263073@N00/...57594411756928/ Hope you like this one, I'm very happy with how it came at the end, cheers Alberto

Hello everybody, It´s been a long time since my last post, I've built and finished three more guitars so I will expect your comments. This is the first guitar I build with collaboration, the guitar now belongs to a friend of mine that plays guitar in a rock band. The name of her band is Valium and she asked me to build one especial SG for her so we started to have ideas and drawings and this is what we came up: a neckthrough SG made of mahogany and rosewood with special inlays (stars, planets and pills). The hardware is gonna be modified but is essencially nickel and you can split the humbuckers to act like singles (coil tap). The color is special too, it's based on a Bouganbillia flower (I don¿t know if it spell like that ) and it has a little of a sunburst, very subtle. She is an artist and from the begining she wanted that color. At the end I think it looks amazing. http://www.flickr.com/photos/27263073@N00/...57594413542742/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/27263073@N00/...57594413542742/ and the rest of the set, included some pics of the process: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27263073@N00/...57594413542742/ Well I hope you like this one, the fretboard is a little bit odd, some might think, but we use the inlay art of my friend's new cd so there you go... Oh and the guitar sounds really good, pure SG magic, it's well balanced and very light. I think any guitat would beneficiate with the neckthrough construction, the neck it's not weak and responds really well. It has very rich tones and subtle nuances like the special ringing and overtones. She's really happy so I'm happy too. Cheers Alberto

Thanks for the response RGman, does anybode else thinks the same? I would like to know if it's more like a gamble or it is a real solution; I really dont know. Have anybody had this problem and solved it with moving the strap to the horn? best regards, Alberto

Hello everybody, I´m just finishing a LP Junior (yes,another one ) and I have this little problem: it´s neck heavy. It´s not too much but it bothers me and I don´t know how can I solve it. I saw a while ago a SG with the same problem but I didn´t think I would have this problem with a Junior. I read that it can be solve if I move the strap from the back of the heel to the upper horn, would this solve the problem?? what do you think? I´ll post pics very soon, as soon as I fit the nut, but please help me solve this, it really is bugging me. Thanks, Alberto

Wow, that was fast Garth! thanks a lot, now I can work without guessing, now I'm happy Well if you don't mind now I will start to finish this guitar, i hope you can see it finish really soon, oh and does anybody have any advice on working with graphite nuts? cheers Alberto

Thanks eddie, I think my background as a sculptor helped me in this business. I learned a while ago to use machines and tools, but everyday I learned something new about luthiery and construction. I specially try to put attention to the little details that make a good guitar a great one, not that I'm close to it really I didn't paint it by myself, I don't have all the equipment yet so I rely on a friend, and as I said I'm learning all I can so when I have to do it by myself I can do a good job. Hey Xanthus, you are very perceptive aren't you? Yes, the nut isn't carved yet, yesterday my brother bought some strings and I'm going to carve it today I guess. This will be a challenge since I have never carved a graphite nut, any advice from any of you?? And about the logo, I thought about putting a little carved piece of metal as seen on the Zemaitis guitars, that way I can do something special because I always loved the engraved logo he put on his guitars. Being an artist I can do etching and engraving because I learned a while ago some printing techniques back in my university days. And one last thing, does anybody know a string spacing ruler on the internet? I really don't feel like paying StewMac for their ruler. It's not that I don't order from them, but I remember seeing a string spacer ruler somewhere, does anybody remember? Or anybody know how to do string spacing properly? Many thanks, cheers Alberto

Hey Maiden, it's looking good! About the carve I think it's a matter of taste, the flat carve reminds me of a Yamaha AES series . And I also love the PRS singlecut, but I'm sure whatever you choose it will look cool. Also I like to wood selections; what kind of finish are you going to put? sigue asi que está excelente, cheers Alberto

thanks yahilltrade, it's my 6th I think, I'm building another neck through SG and a LP junior that it's coming out awesome. I had my doubts about the pickguard, since it has a backplate it wasnt necessary to put a pickguard but I tought it will look really cool, as is the original guitar. And now that I put it I believe it looks right.