Bizman62

That's a simple one: There's a nail varnish of any imaginable colour available! There's semi-transparent ones as well, or you can mix some clear with the colour. Most likely there's a clear coat over the colour on the neck so applying a thin coloured layer first and a clear to finish it might give you the best result. AFA the truss rod cover, can't you just flip it to make it fit better? Maybe some reshaping at the edges after that? For that price a brand new guitar like that is a steal, given that the guitar originally was worth the original price. The woods alone can be worth that! Also, it's rare that a guitar is perfect right off the box. The better guitar shops usually do a thorough maintenance worth $100 or more even on boutique guitars. I've seen a $1800 brand new Gibson whose fretboard had visibly shrunk sideways so that the sharp fret ends were sticking out on both sides.

It would be nice to see the methodology of that very test without having to sign on FB. On YouTube I've seen some "tests" that have a ton of other variables other than the body wood, and I've seen a couple that try to restrict the testing to the body wood only. Looking at @Drak's recent posts I think I have a vague hunch about his opinion, looking at my builds same can be said about mine...

Not exactly sure, I guess it's more about the name. However, it's a strong perfume for late night use when the men can already be in a less responsive mood. When I tried to find out the target audience I stumbled upon a thread where someone asked if anyone knew any knockout perfumes - apparently some women use perfumes as the modern female substitute for the caveman's club! Bedrock revamped...

If there's a shoemaker's shop ask them if they have any leather dyes. Jerry Rosa uses mostly those as they seem to work well on wood. And they're already liquid.

You were thinking just right, the overwhelming scent that flows around older women so widely that you can't hold your breath long enough to bypass them.

The Leopard on natural wood matched colour wise and it worked with the coloured body quite well... But it gave me shivers! You know the elderly ladies who like to stuff their puffed bodies into tight Leopard knitwear, flooded with Poison, scruffy makeup and a rattle can of lacquer over their hairdo, thinking all that will make them the wet dream of any oncoming male. Then again, a guy in tight Leopard leggings and lots of hair could look good with that guitar, playing homecooked country music with a stadium attitude!

Your home made plywood looks perfect! And if the tapping sound is solid all over then there shouldn't be any voids inside either. Very nice!

That's one nice looking guitar! That's not reliced, that's antiqued. Not looking like abused, instead looking like loved a lot. The electronics... I just wish I could play at the level I could try to emulate the sound and style of certain players. At this point all I can say is that you've done a great job in building a guitar carrying the heritage of your guitar hero!

White seems to be the basic colour, and for a solid base I'd paint the entire guitar white to start with. There's no difference in the order of red and blue, you simply put masking tape over the areas that have to stay white and also mask either the red or blue areas depending on which colour you're going to paint. A clearcoat over it all will then protect the artwork. I assume you're going to spray the paint but if you're applying it by hand, masking the white areas only may be sufficient. Then again, it's easy to drop some red paint on the freshly painted blue area so letting each colour properly dry and masking them before moving to the next may be wise. Better safe than sorry...

That's a good reminder. For my current build I used the cup of a tealight for mixing the Stunning Stain Shots (syringe included) with alcohol. Half a cup was plenty enough for the body and I believe most of it got sucked into the palm size piece of old T-shirt I used for applying.

To improve the heating effect, I'd even build a box out of cheap board and either cover the inside with aluminium foil or wrap the project into a heat blanket (the silvery sheet used in emergency situations to maintain the body temperature) to improve uniform heating. A digital meat thermometer with a cord might also be useful.

I tend to use Paint a lot. It's fast and simple so it's perfect for sketches to make a description more undestandable. The drawing in my previous post was made by simply copying the lower part of a drawing found in the Internet with the Windows Snipping Tool, then copied and flipped the copy to complement the image. And then I just wiped the excess controls off of the upper part. For real designing and blueprints there's other tools much better than Paint for the purpose. Photoshop and the likes can also be used as proved in the video series whose link I once read somewhere on this forum: http://www.crenshawweb.com/guitar_design.html

How about an electric blanket? Would such be warm enough?

I've heard about successfully using fabric dyes for guitars so that's definitely an option. Leather dyes are another commonly used product for wood. And if memory serves me right I've read about someone having successfully used food colouring. If your test pieces stand the test of direct Mediterranian sunlight for some months, compared to similar pieces stored where the sun never shines, they should be as good as any wood dyes. Actually, there's photos online of old guitars in mint condition other than having faded despite having been stored in the case. Many "tobacco burst" vintage Gibsons have started their life as a 3 tone sunburst, the red having faded away. If you believe hard water is the main issue with your dyes, try distilling it or use rain water. When cotton yarn or fabrics are dyed, salt is added to the dye bath as a mordant to help the fibers absorb the dye. As wood is somewhat similar to cotton, both being natural materials, you could even try sea water!

The link didn't open, here's an image from wdmusic.co.uk:

Obviously you didn't think like a shoemaker when you resoled the boot...

Oh - My - Goodness! How long has that been just sitting there, unfinished?

Well, so I applied some dye... Spirit based yellow to start with, sanded back to leave only a hunch. Then some thin Amber all over, followed by a bit heavier water based Amber, trying to blend with water. I'm pretty happy with the result, it's my first direct on wood dye burst.

Glad you liked it!

I can't tell about brands but basically you should get a decent quality neck even for $50. One with a "paddle" headstock you then carve to whichever shape you like would add to the "made by yourself" theme. The fret ends will most likely be rough and the frets may not be leveled, even some loose frets may appear. As long as the scale is right (which seems to have improved) any straight neck should do. The "flaws" can be considered as part of the building and learning how to deal with them is part of the fun! When experimenting with an inexpensive and replaceable neck a total catastrophe won't ruin the build. Truth to be said, the "above average" necks have started their life as average. The love and affection of a builder is what raises them. And the tricks are pretty simple: Check that the frets are properly seated, level them, file the fret ends flush with the fretboard, round the ends of the frets, adjust the truss rod, adjust the nut, adjust the bridge. There's videos about making a $100 guitar play like a $500 guitar and that's what they do. There's companies that make kits more or less finished according to the wishes of the buyer. Crimson Guitars in England are one of those, you can get anything from a rough CNC'd piece to a polished and finished item you'll just have to attach. Gotoh make good quality hardware for a decent price. There's also cost effective pickups available. I've been toying with the cheapest Chinese parts and to be honest that's a lottery as the parts can be picked from the reject bin. Paying $20 instead of a tenner for bulk Korean tuners is worth the price, the benefits of a $500 bridge can be questionable compared to a sub $100 one.

I meant that the clothes vacuum bag isn't too strong, it might stretch, burst or start to leak with a "real" vacuum pump.

Not to mention low pressure and a one sided mould.

If you're thinking about mirroring the lower horn, the result would look quite a lot like a double cut LesPaul, or a PRS of the same ilk. The Strat horns have more space for the fist, though, which will make the guitar a couple of inches wider at the tip of the horns. Shouldn't look too bad:

I was thinking about glueing one layer at a time being more forgiving and it certainly looks like it should work!

Oh well... I've done binding on one guitar only. Twice. The rosewood wanted to crack rather than bend and the binding channel was slanted. After lots of filling I noticed that the binding was partially razor sharp looking from the top so I made the body a bit smaller and rerouted the channel, this time for fake turtle. A little better success, but there was some splinters missing at the edge of the body so glue and dust to the rescue it was. Next Saturday will show if the top will take dye at the edges...