erikbojerik

Neck dive. And you'd need carbide or diamond tools to work the stainless (depending on what kind you use - there are many). How does one decide whether one metal is more "resonant" than another? Just because it's been used to make some other kind of unrelated instrument before? Almost surely the gold and silver flutes Avenger speaks of were plated - if they were pure, they would be too soft to stand up to any kind of regular use. Silver especially. Not trying to be contrary here, just wondering what it is you want to achieve with a metal fingerboard.

Besides the epoxy adventures, one of the toughest things about re-topping an Ovation is how to deal with clamping the new top on when when re-gluing it to a rounded back. Best way is to go old-school - wrapping the whole works with a couple of bicycle inner tubes used as big rubber bands (the Cumpiano book shows how to do this) with the back sitting in a flat-bottomed jig. Cut off the valve stem first.

Cyanide is C-N (carbon bonded to a nitrogen) and cyanoacrylate (CA) is a an organic molecule with a CN attached and also an alcohol group (methyl mostly for commonly available CA). In contact with air, the CA molecules suck up moisture and form long polymerized chains that do the bonding. What you smell when using CA are the un-polymerized individual CA molecules - once they hit anything with moisture (mouth, eyes, throat, lungs) they will bond and stay bonded until that layer of cells is removed. The cyanide group on the CA molecule is never broken off separately when curing - maybe if you burn it, but not under normal use. I like Tru Oil on all necks, and on bass bodies - other bodies it depends. In general I don't puke - unless I'm using CA.

"Use the Search, Luke!" Why 3-way? What do you want the 3 functions of the switch to be? ON-OFF-????

...mainly because it can be A TON of work to level, depending on what kind of epoxy you use. I've done a few bass fingerboards now with Mirror Coat - I have been toying with the idea of finishing a whole body with it. It is very hard, and it actually levels reasonably well and will buff out to a glassy gloss. If you want a more satin feel, just stop at 1000 grit and you'll be good. Beware that if you use successive coats and sand through the top coat, you will have witness lines when you buff out - just like polyurethane. The trick for a neck will be to #1 avoid getting it on the fretboard, and #2 because it will want to flow out/down the sides of the neck, the finish will be thinnest right on the back of the neck and thickest right at the edges of the fretboard (if you apply with the fretboard face-down) - the opposite if you apply and then flip it over face-up. Because of the highly curved surface, it will be impossible to get a uniform thickness everywhere - it is much more runny than the "epxoy" you get from the hardware store (which should NEVER be used for a finish).

+1 on the runout - not just QS, you need to be able to gauge the runout.

+1 Get yourself a feeler gauge at your local hardware store. On the nut height - if you can "see" the gap its too much. You should be able to slide a strip of paper under there, but that's all. The amount of relief you need will depend on how heavy you're strumming action is - the heavier, the more you'll need. If you can't get it with the truss rod, you'll have to start gradually milling down your fret tops in the middle of the neck where the strings are contacting the frets to create the buzz.

Looks well done, though I would round over the edges of the nut a bit more. What are the pickups? MIM Strats are the perfect base for mods - IMO they play just as well as MIA's at half the price. Mine is black with a parchment guard and Lace Holy Grails and its a dead ringer for Clapton's strat. The trem still isn't the best but I rarely use it anyway. I thought the HGs were the be-all-and-end-all of passive Strat pups until I installed a set of DiMarzio's in a friends MIA - Area 58 in the bridge and Area 61s in the mid and neck - holy crap! If you ever want to replace your pups, get those!

Pretty cool! Melvyn did a great job with his electric book, I expect this one will be equally good. I have Cumpiano's acoustic book in which he builds both a steel string and a classical, and it is great, but in the book he does not build using a mold for the rims - although he actually does now. So it is maybe a little different from how most folks are building.

CHRIS! Charlotte? Go check out Steve Wall Lumber - you won't be disappointed. Not much more than an hour away from where you are.

A good way to tell the thickness of your finish is to put a few small pieces of tape inside the pickup cavites - take one out and measure the thickness with a micrometer - if you feel you need more, keep going. It is possible you're thinner on the body than on the headstock, it wouldn't hurt to keep going. I'm assuming you're using standard nitro for the clear coat as well - if so, you should wait a month or more to let it harden up before buffing out. Nitro stays soft and continues to outgas for weeks - if you try to level & buff out a day later, you'll be sorely disappointed at the result.

Any luthier that would do an inexpensive finish repair - on just the part that you sanded off - it would still be noticable. Maybe not as obvious as now, but still apparent. Much more so if you try to refinish it yourself. Either would take away from the resale value of the instrument (which is not great to begin with). It would run at least $300 minimum to finish just the body.

Search on the MIMF and maybe the OLF. You might be able to get close with a properly-shaped dish and vacuum clamping arrangement under heat, but expect some spring-back (which you might have to build into the dish to compensate).

THE major anticipated pitfall is this - to get acoustic tone, you need the top to vibrate and move air. So you need a hollow box, which is apparently what you're trying to stay away from. The only other way to go is to get a piezo to vibrate in some way, and do something with that - but that is not "acoustic tone" sensu stricto.

In a nutshell, the idea behind a flattop acoustic guitar top is to thin it and brace it so that it is very responsive to string vibration yet still holds the string tension - basically designing it almost to the point of collapse, and then keeping it there. Getting a top like that to sound good, and stay stable over time, is the holy grail of acoustic guitar building and is what all acoustic builders are striving for every time they build one. It is a continually evolving art. IMO it is much easier to try to get the best acoustic tone you can out of a solidbody or chambered/semihollow instrument. There is a LOT of experimenation you can do with piezos - you will (for example) hear a distinct difference between a transducer piezo mounted directly on a Strat trem block, and one mounted on a 1/8" thick sliver of spruce mounted onto a Strat trem block - now substitute different woods, etc. Now move the piezo transducer to difference places on the guitar - use multiple transducers - you see where I'm going. Then there are undersaddle piezos or individual-saddle piezos (like Graphtech/Ghost) - on any acoustic guitar with an undersaddle piezo, you will (for example) hear big differences in tones if you replace a plastic saddle with a bone saddle with an ebony saddle. You could also mix/blend piezos (undersaddle + transducers). Finally, you could just transplant the saddles and electronics from a Variax acoustic into a solidbody and get a digitally-modeled acoustic tone. Many ways to go here.

DDC-5 from Scotty! Wenge board on a killer bass.

Absolutely fire it up and just make sure you can get the blade to track well - but if the blade has been abused, there's only so much you can do. Definitely check the tires, they can be a pain to replace.

Shellac is a great sealer - but lots of posts over on the MIMF demonstrate that even shellac is a hit-or-miss proposition when trying to seal cocobolo. The problem is that even if you wipe with acetone (NOT naptha which takes too long to completely gas off), the oil will wick back to the surface in about 15 minutes - and anything that takes more than 15 minutes to set up runs the risk of never curing completely. That's why catalyzed finishes work well, they're typically dry to the touch in 10 minutes or less. Here's a lefty bass I did a refinish on with pre-cat conversion varnish:

Probably doesn't have the safety cable then... I got this one for free by fixing the motor - new ones are something like $500.

Acoustic guitars derive their sound from the string vibration driving the top via the bridge - so if you fix the bridge to a solid block that is also attached to the back, then any acoustic connection between the strings and the top is entirely sympathetic. Not all that different from a hollowbody (cf. ES335) except you might get a little more of that hollowbody warmth. You won't get hardly any acoustic sound out of that soundhole.

Some wide wenge and bloodwood boards radiused at 16" for 6-string fretless basses:

If any of you guys are far enough along in your projects, post some photos!! I'll kick it off - you've probably already seen this one, hope Perry doesn't mind a few more props - this is a killer axe! Ziricote fretboard on this one (Perry did his own slotting, radiusing and scalloping artistry).

The order form linked on the first page of this thread is up-to-date to reflect the new reality in ebony prices. It should have a small "v. 11/2008" in the upper-left, that's the most recent version. Or email me and I'll send you one.

$75 ?!?!?! Why aren't you there with cash in hand right now?!?! In all seriousness, it does most everything a good table saw will do - it will cut slots in the fretboard (albiet easier without having to make a jig), it will cross-cut with a perfect 90° angle, and it makes a nice workspace with the arm swung out of the way. Those are my 3 main uses, and if you are already used to doing all that with a table saw, then there's probably no need for the radial arm saw. The main reason I like it better than a table saw for slotting is because #1 I can see what the blade is doing, and #2 you can slot fretboards with a radius, they don't have to be flat like they must be for a table saw. With deep slots in very hard woods, the blade will have a tendency to grab and run the saw toward you (in the same direction you're pulling), but with the newer saws this is countered with a cable that is supposed to let out slowly and prevent the saw from running away (the handle has a trigger that has to be held down otherwise the cable won't feed out). Mine is a bit older and doesn't have this feature - just a jury-rigged spring. Since getting one, I find that I now use a table saw only for ripping long boards. Yes you have to be careful that you don't cut your fingers off, but what else is new?

Glad to be of service