erikbojerik

Wonder how they play those instruments.

The Chapman Stick, reinvented. You play it mainly by tapping/slapping the strings with as many fingers as you dare (think "hammer-on"), as well as the usual technique. Tony Levin was the master...

How good is the durability of food color as a dye?

What I mean is, with time and exposure will the food color not fade too much compared to off-the-shelf dyes?

Minwax polycrylic is more "milky" than the fast-dry polyurethane; the latter is a bit slower to harden, but will give a truer color.

Maybe its Nez Perce...?

...and like Brian said, the Minwax will do just fine if you wait long enough for the cure. Like, a month or two (not that long if you have a day job...). Then it'll polish up quite nice.

For my clear coats I've been using fast-dry polyurethane (not the water-based "polycrylic" stuff which ambers more) in off-the-shelf spray cans from the Depot, 15-20 minutes between coats, 6-8 coats applied with the body lying flat (not hanging), about 1 can will cover the entire body (but also sputters when it gets low...). It is a thin coat, but won't impede the resonance and polishes up nicely.

OK...

...after cleaning off the corrosion, I re-flowed all the solder joints on all the jacks, so they all look nice and shiny again. Good as new!

The wood had better be nice and dry if you're going for a long neck-thru without a truss rod...some older Fender bass necks were 1-piece maple, and even with a truss rod they were prone to bending and twisting.

Nope...not the amp(s).

Things seemed to improve when I took the jacks out and cleaned off a bit of corrosion with a dremel; we had a humidity episode in our house this past summer, and combined with my finger grease which must be something like pH 2 = instant rust on the metal if not immediately cleaned.

...based on the response, I guess a jack is a jack is a jack...

I've already done all the various cable shenanigans...either all 15 of my cables are bad, or its the 4 jacks.

...and where can I find them? I've got stock jacks on my 4 main guitars, and they all suck eggs (noisy when the cable is tweeked).

2 Strats (normal jack cups)

1 LP

1 Jazz Bass knockoff

thanks!

I'm new to the whole inlay thing. When routing for inlays, do you guys work on the fretboards before or after they're glued to the neck? Which is easier, or does it even matter?

I'll be going for a 12" radius, so i'll most likely inlay flat, then radius-sand.

thanks!

Beautiful work!

I just can't see the link between creative music, players, and botany I guess..

Being both a scientist and guitarist...the connection is this. The scientist spends the better part of the day starving the artistic side of the brain, which gets its exercise only evenings and weekends.

The fish (besides being pretty unique) makes it a bit easier to transition from one to the other (speed-shifting between the two sides of the brain is not to be recommended...).

And (ahem), he's a biologist. The botanists prefer stuff like vines, trees, etc (you know, plants).

Oh BeAR...what a nice job you've done, it looks great and sounds even better!

Am I right that you've got regular electric strings on it? I wonder how it would sound with bronze strings, or even nylons...

If your veneer material you want to use for inlays is only 1mm thick, be very careful when sanding the neck down. You risk sanding through the edges of the inlays if the neck is not already radiused.

Common sense (rather than experience...) tells me the best way might be to radius the neck first, then rout the inlay channels (keeping router flush with the radiused neck), then apply the wood inlays (unlike MOP etc, the veneer will flex and follow the radius), then you should be good to sand and go.

I generally get Fender necks off eBay and bolt them onto bodies that I make, but I've only been doing this about a year so there you go. I do have access to most of the proper tools (and actually own a few myself), I just have not gotten round to doing a neck yet.

But I will soon...a small travel guitar is in my near future. I'll try to make the neck myself (no headstock).

Ho S-D-Dan

True enough about the heavy elements and supenovae...the difference with the diamonds is that there are enough atoms to make a discreet mineral grain.

I'm from northern Illinois originally...there must be something in the water that brings out the inner-physicist...

About the horse...burn it down too.

It appears this thread has been officially hijacked.

Nice job Bear. What a great way to turn an el-cheapo into something different.

It occurs to me that the back-side trem route will make it a bit easier to thread in the electronics.

Glue to strips onto pickguards...

Solution (just to keep things going...)

1) Burn down haystack

2) Dump ashes in tub of water

3) Needle sinks to bottom

Betcha didn't know that a lot of meteorites contain at least 0.0001% diamonds from other solar systems...and this is how they find 'em (metaphorically speaking)...

The plan is to glue down a figured maple laminate on a strat-type body, then do a dye job (prob. water-based). How thick should the laminate be, in case I need to sand it back to scratch several times due to finish screw ups?

Sounds like a cool project...but I can't really think of a reason to use locking tuners with a hardtail bridge.

For a while (a short while!) I used a locking nut on my LP (tuneomatic bridge), and making fine tuning adjustments was a pain in the rear. The strings stretch, you go out of tune, then you need to unlock just to tune up again (which I need to do at least once or twice during a gig). I personally would not use locking tuners unless I had a trem with fine tuners. With a hardtail bridge I would say just go with regular tuners.

Then again, I am a believer that only so much technology need go into a good guitar, vastly more effect is in the hands that handle it.

True enough...."better" is often the enemy of "good"...

The tuners on the body of this Washburn N8....what are these? They're not normal tuning pegs (check out the back of the guitar). Anybody know what these are and where might I find them?

I'd like to turn a 6-string into a 12-string without adding tuners to the neck.

Washburn N8 doubleneck

thanks!

These guitars have some of the best handgrips I've ever seen...or is that a soundhole?

I particularly like the finish...more subtle than the Antigua, which is much too stark IMO.

Just curious...when you play a scalloped neck, do your fingers actually touch the wood beneath the strings? I would think this takes a really precise touch to stay "on tone" (in tune?).

USA Custom Guitars offers all sorts of options (radius, frets, etc) for 1-piece necks, and Tommy's customer service is second to none.

USA Custom Guitars

USA Custom Guitars

GREAT customer service, and lots of options w/o upcharges