Bizman62

@Drak just yesterday I was thinking about this project and remembered how we carved moulds for acrylic sheets which we heated in a regular electric oven. At around 0:50 you'll see how much pressure they use for a Höfner bass laminate:

I'd like to join such a meeting as well... Having @Gogzs with us would make Berlin, Germany the location. Guess I'll pass this one, though, until the big C has been tamed.

Wow, never thought it could be done that way as well! But yes, the logic is similar to drilling the holes for the bridge after the neck is set, keeping one or the other end loose for potential adjustments. The reason I haven't installed the bridge first is that I've been building thru-necked guitars since the first Tele which was built using the templates provided by the Master Luthier of the course.

The neck pocket should be tight, sideways adjusting is the last trick in the book when there's nothing left. As has been often said, a continuous centerline is the key to guitar building. As this world isn't perfect we sometimes have to improvise. It often happens that there's a minor sideways angle where the neck meets the body and that is the reason for leaving the installing of the bridge until the neck is firmly in its place. That allows for locating the bridge with the strings rather than an inaccurate line. No one can see if your bridge isn't spot on the centerline of the body, but everyone can see if the strings fall off the neck on one side. @ScottR you beat me again with your lightning fast fingers!

By custom paint job I suppose you mean something artistic. A 2k clearcoat is most likely the most durable option - lacquer, varnish, poly or whatever they call it in your whereabouts. Whatever you choose make sure it works with the acrylic paint! Some products may rip the paint below off in large flakes. If you're the tiniest bit uncertain, use shellac in between. It can have a golden hue so choose the clearest variation.

For some reason I visualize it backwards , Their 10th anniversary ad was visually even closer: That's a bicycle, translated the name would be EVBI for EVerybody's BIcycle.

Just for the sake of getting the competition running, here's my resubmission: With this one I wanted to challenge myself properly. This is my fourth full build, built at the community college workshop during wintertime Saturdays. She's a semi hollow LP-profile neck-through as I titled the thread but let's just call her Ovie... So: Top: Flamed Ovangkol from Madinter, Spain Body: Torrefied Estonian Alder from the sauna department of the local hardware store Accent laminates: 0.55 mm flamed Birch a fellow builder got from a bankrupted flooring factory Neck: Maple with Cherry and Nogal stripes from the outlet of another flooring materials factory Fretboard Merbau from the same flooring factory Hardware from AliExpress, Banggood and Ebay Pickups: Humbucker sized P90's (Ali) Finish: Crimson Guitar Finishing Oil Final finish: Self cooked wax mixture of Carnauba, Beeswax and Pine Turpentine Weight 3,36 kg/7.4 lbs As you can see, the body has been shaped using a Les Paul template and the headstock owes a bit to PRS. The rest has just been improvised. Designing the F-holes: Just short of putting it all together: The pickups were a bit tricky to install, especially the springs: Fast forward to today: The devil is in the details: The jack is recessed - and that's wax I didn't notice when shooting these pictures! I tend to leave the upper neck too wide so I widened the nut with offcuts of the fingerboard. The truss rod cover is also from an offcut. The back: And how does she sound? Well... When I play she's yelling and screaming but a fellow builder got some very pleasing music out of her. Just as expected...

Yep, the story... Having now seen some of your builds and read another story I believe there's going to be some amusing moments with this thread!

I guess I should write a question here and answer it myself before doing anything as I don't seem to follow the advice I'm giving others: I had sanded the body down to 180 grit - once. And then in eager to get something done I tried to apply dye for a burst... Fortunately only on the back and sides, as I had not a) sanded through the grits down to 320 or 400 and b) I had not even thought about moistening the surface for raising the grain! Oh well, the bottom was so lightly dyed that it took just a second to sand it clean. On the sides I found some glue squeeze-out and gaps along the binding so I made some black putty with TiteBond, sanding dust and dye. And I've changed my mind about the colour scheme. Guess the sides have to be quite dark. I'm currently planning on dying the bottom Cherry Red, darkening it to reddish brown on the sides. The top looks so nice as natural that I may just leave it that way. Things I should have done: The pickup cavities are way too shallow, at least 5 mm deeper is the minimum. And I should have measured the length of the jack before routing the control cavity. But I've sorted it out as you can see in the pictures. Oh, and there's going to be a third hole. I had ordered a couple of sliding pots to be used as a blender pot but they never arrived. So I'm going to put a 3-way switch in the middle and the volume closest to the pickups.

Clever! I have a guitar with dual strap buttons but until now I couldn't figure out any real use for them.

Ahh, you got documentation! That makes things so much easier... The Ali/Ebay/Chinashop versions rarely have anything else than a Minigrip bag. There's many ways to skin a cat but if the end result is acceptable then the method is right.

Builds like that make me want to learn to play those four-(double/triple)stringed instruments well enough to justify building one!

Drawing a square line for the bridge is an easy task with a protractor, getting the bridge centered can be a PITA especially with bridges standing on two posts. The chromed bridge is slippery and often if/when you get it aligned just right it doesn't stay there long enough for you to mark the exact drilling marks. I've heard about using a brad point drill bit the thickness of the diameter of the forks at the end of the bridge. In theory that should give a center point for the stud holes. Done that, plugged the holes and redrilled. A piece of thin low tack dual sided tape might help keeping the bridge located long enough for exact marking. 0.5mm off centre is within tolerance. If you've drawn the centre line with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil there's already a margin of error of that size! Also notice that 0.5mm at the bridge is only 0.25mm at the 12th fret which means there's no risk of the outermost strings to fall off the fretboard with the standard 3mm space. Very well done!

I'd say you could change it to a bolt on even without changing the body. There's a long stretch inside the cavity. If I chose that route I'd use machine bolts and threaded inserts especially under the pickup. On a Strat the neck cavity bottom is about 3" (76mm) long. On the upper side the bottom is ½" (13mm) longer than the body, on the lower side there's only about ½" support on the side. On some models the bottom "lip" is curved to even less. Below is a sketch for a Fender type neck pocket extension, both rectangular and curved. Judging by the pickup cavity I'd say a ½" extension would stretch the bottom of the cavity at least as long as on Fenders with more side support on the lower side.

It's easier to either use an angled template or plane the angle on the body for the desired neck break angle than to make the end of an angled neck match a straight cavity in the body. Remember that a router bit is perpendicular to the router base.

One hint for the first sandings: Sand with 320, wipe with a damp cloth and let dry to raise the grain. Then sand lightly again just to knock off what's risen. Do this a couple of times. The sealer may be moist enough for the same effect but with solid woods like maple a filler is often not needed especially if you're after a satin finish or want to use oil and wax instead of poly.

That's not too complicated. Unless my logic thinking fails on me you should be able to choose any scale length you wish. The 12th fret should be right halfways between the bridge and the nut, the rest of the frets being placed according to the math used for calculating frets. If you want to be very nitpicky, the bridge pickup sitting right at the location of the 24th fret has been told to utilize the harmonics in a most pleasing way. That said, a humbucker is 1½" wide which ruins the accuracy of that theory. But you can use that idea as well for determining the scale length: Measure from the bridge to the neckside half of the neck pickup and quadruplicate the value. Then choose the closest common scale length. If you need to know how long a piece of wood you'd need for the entire neck, add the length of the headstock to the scale length.

I always flush the empty can to the scoop. Just enough for a subtle scent.

A cold beer just after having thrown water on the hot stones... Mmm-mm! There used to be an American columnistess writing in English in the local newspaper. As she was married with a Finn she of course had to have got accustomed to the sauna. Her mother-in-law had told her the difference between steam and "löyly" which is the word for the effect of throwing water on hot stones: Steam can be seen, "löyly" can't be seen. The stove is not hot enough if you see steam. The most ghetto sauna I've ever built was the cover of my igloo tent. I first built a makeshift stove out of stones laid on a flat area on the rock. After the stones had got hot I flushed the ember and raised the floorless tent over the heap of stones. An upside down bucket served as a stool. For more frequent use I was planning a steel basket for the stones but then I got married...

I'd say that's about right. If you can adjust the bridge pieces both directions from the measured intonation line you should be golden. Also, your bridge design allows for moving the bridge further back if needed. Getting it properly centered is more difficult!

You think so? The first thing a group of Finns do when they stay longer anywhere is to build a sauna. There has been UN Blue Berets from Finland in several African countries near the Equator which I believe are as hot as Texas. For what I've heard a sauna has been a must. After having sat in 80 C/176 F for an hour the outside temperature may feel refreshingly cool! I've heard that the habit of drinking hot tea has a similar effect.

Just keep asking. I guess quite a few people read old posts unless there's something very specific information. General building questions like to be answered over and over again to stay high up on the list.

Guess that was a good idea. Burnout is not fun and in the worst case it could even make you hate what you love.

Yay! Yet another episode! I saw this in the morning and had no time to watch it then which is a good thing since now I really had time to enjoy the show.

For a guy with your woodworking skills building one should be a no-brainer. Or a sweat lodge which is basically the same thing. Funny how white immigrants didn't adopt that from native Texans...