Bizman62

Violins and mandolins among others have all sorts of curves, yet they have been made for centuries so complicated forms are not something only modern technology allows. I guess that's what "tonewood" does. Anything that makes you want to play more is good! There might be a small difference in the acoustic sound and the kinesthetic feedback. Would it matter is another question, only building several instruments of various wood combinations would tell what the average result might be.

Crimson Guitars is one of those. They cut the tape narrower so that it's only about 1 mm or even less past the channel edge. Judging by the looks and the explanation it's regular masking tape they're using.

I guess most of us regulars are curious. I hereby put myself on your PM list.

This one sure is a project I'm going to follow with great interest!

Thanks! I'll heat up the sauna.

Hehe... I'm saying it might be and that believing so you might have a more positive attitude to the instrument which in turns would make you play more which in turns will make you happier. That's basic kitchen psychology to raise your level of motivation. If we made you think that you've paid overprice for a rejected Malaysian copy worth a tenner you'd feel bad, wouldn't you? You'd also lose your interest to make it the best guitar you've ever had. Believing it might, just might be a real Gibby reject has already made you learn some valuable fret issue fixing skills - something that easily could cost a couple hundreds done by a professional. There's a reason why it doesn't say Gibson or any other name on the headstock. Let's accept that and make the guitar as good as can be!

That's most likely the best option. Based on what I've seen on Jerry Rosa's videos I'd recommend Titebond instead of CA (super glue). Try running some warm water with a small paintbrush to the cracks and after that the Titebond. The water is thinner so it will sink into the cracks and the pores of the wood, sucking the glue in after it. Wiggle the cracks for a pumping effect to get the glue as deep as humanly possible. If you take a certain amount of glue on a plate rather than just brushing it from the nozzle you can tell if you've actually used any glue. If the glue runs out and there's not much spread around the cracks you know it has to be inside them, don't you? When clamping, you should then see some squeezeout to tell that there actually is glue inside the crack.

Yup. With the black/gold trem, golden polepieces on the pickups and black/gold tuners. Heck, on the lowest picture the frets have a golden hue! Black, gold, Leopard on an Oak tabletop... Why do I think of perfume again? Black velvet pouch tied with a golden string carried by a leopard who's walking on an oaken floor in a stylish black and gold bedroom - and the feline morphs to a seductive woman... You know the ads...

Wouldn't that count as forgery? How about decals that look like Gibson but under closer inspection aren't? Like

Gibson has made them as well so that's not a sign of that particular make. Keep believing that yours might be salvaged from a Gibby subcontractor, it'll make you happier! The world is full of lookalike Far East made guitars, telling the real manufacturer by just a single square dot is not possible.

That Leopard sure looks like big hair and tight leggings 80's hard rock played on a stadium! Tarzan with a hardwood club... Wonder how the white pickups would match, though... Nope, definitely black pups with the Leopard if you ask me! MsPaint doesn't lie! Whereas the Tele with the blackguard is a true BarCaster, not a single word against that choice.

There's guitars with three p90's where one clearly is in the middle. And there's been some single pickup models where the P90 is in the middle position rather than in the more common bridge position. There's nothing wrong with a P90 in the middle, it'll be a bit brighter than the neck but not as brittle as the bridge position. One reason for big middle pickups not being too popular is their size, players may want to strum between the pickups rather than above them.

Exactly. You're not a professional. Apprentices don't get paid that much. You can dream... And I've seen a new $1800 Gibson suffer from a poor fretboard. They're not known for outstanding craftmanship.

Based on the photos the fret ends already look pretty nice, but do they pass the stocking test? With just the repressing and leveling you've just doubled the value of the guitar!

Don't try it. I was referring to how cleanly you got the finish off of the lower bout between the edge and the controls.

If you're talking about the area on the control cavity side one reason might be a bump/shock! You may have hit the edge so that the entire finish has just popped off but as the paint is basically some sort of plastic there may not have been any major visible damage. This reminds me of a Crimson video where Ben Crowe accidentally dropped an old neck so that the fretboard popped right off! It had been glued with epoxy in his early days as a luthier. And he could reproduce the effect to ensure it was not just because of a poor joint. Amen to that! No matter if the cavities are covered with conductive paint or just the finish, they'd be covered by the pickup rings. And even if you're planning on direct mounting the pickups and plug the screw holes of the original rings it's common practice to paint the cavities dark to enhance the shadows around the pickups and other hardware. Didn't @Drak just paint the trem cavity black in his current build thread?

Hi and welcome! Not at all. Your configuration is basically a SSH which is a very common option. A P90 is "just" a fatter sounding single coil, the wiring is similar. That's a good start for a nice sounding guitar.

Yes, my English may failed a bit on me with the "bubbling". When it's bubbling like boiling water it's definitely at the too hot end. "Starts to bubble" in my book means it's starting to wobble (?), raise (?), lift (?) instead of bursting into little bursting and burning bubbles. It's somewhat similar to steam raising the lid of a kettle the first time - most likely there's no moisture that would steam inside the pores of dry wood but there's some air that expands when heated. Thus it's important to heat the wood fast as deep as possible before the paint starts to cook.

My experience with heat-gunning tells that when the heated finish starts to bubble it's time to scrape. When it starts to change colour it's time to stop heating that area and scrape the finish off quickly until it cools down. When the finish has changed to dark brown/black and the bubbles start to sink, you're in trouble. Not only is the wood most likely a bit charred, the burned finish will also stick harder and reheating will then only make things worse. So, fast local heating and peeling when hot. Much like waxing a car: Wax on, wax off.

Don't judge it too hard, Pros. It's a lightweight hammer, you can't expect it to drive 6" nails into oak beams. It will drive plastic side dots into predrilled holes just perfectly without any risk of bursting. Tapping plugs is most likely also within its capabilities.

Thanks, I feel the same. And now that I've chosen the path to perfection, I guess I'll have to redo the bottom of the lower bout: The diagonal sanding strokes behind the controls are visible even in the crappy photo! The clearcoat would most likely enhance them to look like the Grand Canyon!

I've seen some pretty accurate and expensive ones. I've owned an analog one for decades. I bought a cheap clip on but I don't like it. My go-to tuner has lately been Universal Tuner, a free smartphone app from Google Play Store. At least on a tablet the scale is looong for accuracy and the tuning sounds correct enough for my ears. And it has a ton of tunings to choose from. There's plenty of others, that one was the first I tried.

Wax is most likely much better than tape, good choice.

Hey, that was some good news! Just to make sure: Does the high fret go down and pop back up. The other option is that there's something in the fret slot preventing the fret go fully down, in which case leveling is the fix. BTW burnish some masking tape on both sides of the fret with tape so you don't get a CA'd fretboard. And tear it off immediately after having pressed the fret down, wiping all excess off.

Yes, it's been used for centuries so it most likely still does the job. Boiled, not cold pressed so it won't go rancid. And as with all oil treatments, the procedure is as follows: Flood with oil, apply more on instant dry areas. Let the wood suck for a while, about 15 minutes to half an hour or so depending on humidity and temperature. Wipe the oil properly off before it gets tacky. After some five minutes wipe the sweating oil off again with a clean towel. The surface should be dry after the treatment. Repeat if necessary every year or so, again depending on the variables.