Bizman62

Yepp. Loose strings, less stress on the top. This is going to be an interesting journey!

Ouch! What did he do, sit on it? The bass side cracks don't look too bad but the soundpost poking through the treble side isn't that easy to fix! The soundpost makes it easier to get glue into the crack but fixing that bruised endgrain isn't going to be easy.

I already said that the f-holes have a traditional vibe, now I must say that your colour scheme really fits that mood! That looks like a vintage body waiting to be restored. That colour and figuration reminds me of some sideboards from 1940's or so, flamed maple dyed brown and lacquered shiny, worthy to store your silver cutlery even in an upper class parlour. That looks like young Charlie Christian would have wet dreams of!

Why have I never thought about making the cover before the ledge?

In that case think of the biggest truss rod you know and you'll be golden! Or, if it's a Ricky, two of them...

Your accuracy with the angle grinder is a pleasure to watch! Not saying that there's anything wrong with the other tasks you performed. But that was the only thing I can compare my skill level with yours - no doubt about which one us can do it better!

Me neither, although my store bought guitars have a thick clearcoat on their necks. Sanding the neck matte helps a lot! Just last summer I took my acoustic and abrasive felts of 400 and 1200. Taped the ends and sanded wet. The result doesn't show any sanding directions and it really feels different. And it can be redone several times as it only knocks the shine off without actually making the finish significantly thinner. Hmmm... A lot of "clumsiness" of a neck may not be because of the actual thickness, it can be about the shoulders as well. A "U" is both thick and wide on the palm side, a "D" is similar but thinner. Both work well with your thumb in the back in the classical style. But if you want to wrap your thumb over the bass strings you may want to knock the corners off. A "V" shape of sorts still has all the meat around the truss rod especially at the bottom side so the overall strength remains but the diameter is significantly reduced. This highly simplified picture illustrates some of the options:

I can see hints of - something... At least it's already obvious you're not just carving the right foot of Bigfoot!

Baby seals learning to swim and catch fish in the shallow waters in the center, sharks lurking for an easy meal in the depths... Saw that on TV just a week ago!

Shaving the neck with strings on can be most satisfactory! (No, I'm not talking about spending some quality time in the bathroom wearing minimal undies with a razor in your hand...)* You already know how you feel about the current profile and having the guitar ready to play you can easily test your success. Oiled necks are very forgiving for that method as re-oiling blends with the existing finish seamlessly. Thus you can apply some oil after shaving and if you feel like you'd like to shave some more all you have lost is a tiny spoonful of oil. Although hands truly can find all bumps and humps better than eyes I've found out that after a while the fingers get numb of scraping and sanding and you really can't tell anything for a fact until both your hands and the wood have settled, *What has been seen can't be unseen... Bleach doesn't help!

Thanks @ScottR for helping me make that decision. I was already leaning in that direction, it's good to hear others share that line of thought.

Well, she shouldn't as you're building them for others. My wife knits, mostly socks. Big socks, small socks, colourful socks, jacquard socks, patterned socks... Once I counted over thirty pairs without a home. But we have an agreement: I don't nag about the socks and she doesn't argue about the guitars. Agreed, her socks find an owner at some stage, my guitars aren't good enough to be sold or inexpensive enough to be just given away. Nor am I such a player that I would really need more than just one guitar. But both of my daughters are musically talented and when I leave this world I hope that they'll share my builds and learn to play something in my funeral.

It may or may not happen that I'll strip this finish off. There's at least one spot on the top where a spot the size of a fingerprint looks like a hundred tiny burst bubbles. As it doesn't show at all angles it must be in some inner layer. There's a couple more questionable spots but I've decided to finish the build to hear how she sounds before even thinking of a refinish. After all this was meant to be a "cheap" build with just a couple of bargain rattlecans for finish and now I'm on my sixth can and still not happy. Still within two digits for the lacquer but not within a single tenner as I had planned.

An intelligent wife is worth her weight in gold! It would be a pain trying to explain every detail. A good wife knows you, your strengths and weaknesses and if she's really wise she'll accentuate the former to make you do what she wants without you ever noticing it!

That greenish grey looks awesome, especially as the pale wood at least at this point matches with the neck.

It's Easter Holiday so no work done today. But last Saturday was quite productive: Not only did I finish the fret job, I also went through the guitar with 6000 grit and after that a swirl remover. As the photo shows, there's circular hair scratches I couldn't see with my bare eye! @mistermikev , notice how the background goes dark when the actual target is well lit! I had the guitar on my lap in a spot of sunlight, the automatics of my tablet took care of the rest.

It's one of the two common ways. Totally acceptable.

So you're of the school of even distance between string centres instead of measuring from one string to another? For those who don't know, there's two ways for spacing: Either divide the width of the nut to equal parts, in this case .276" (7mm) or add the thickness of the next string to the measurement. The former method will make the thicker string to be closer to each other whereas in the latter the space between strings is even. Which one is better is a matter of taste.

Thanks for the information! A half safety file is an obvious tool but as Mike said you'd still have to cut the fall away. I've never considered cutting the nut slots as a very time consuming task even with my roughened feeler gauges. But for what I've seen on videos it can be made such. Take Jerry Rosa for example: He tends to start the slots with a razer saw as the files are so slow. But he starts with a large margin. If the nut is cut low enough before slotting it shouldn't take too long to file them with just a few strokes. The string spacing ruler is a nice thing but the full set looks like it takes more time to set up than it saves time.

Exactly what I found out in my studies earlier today! When targeting to the "just above fret height" with the flat pencil and third fret methods you end up a quarter of a hair higher than the frets. Another thing is that I can't think of an easy way to cut the slots exactly to the same height with the frets. A flat spike scraping a thinner line than the pencil?

Now that you asked, I had to find my capo. I had already tried with my fingers but after testing the capo may press a tad harder. It appears that the high e string could hold a post-it note of 0.10mm/0.0035", the low e enabling a folded note go through easily. That was with a relatively straight neck. So yes, I was wrong there. There's a reason for the high e having a narrower gap when a capo is being used: The thickness of the core of the string. Metal strings are stiff, they tend to continue upwards in an angle until they bend towards the bridge - where the same thing happens again and which is the reason why we need to intonate the strings. The thicker the string the stiffer it is and thus the higher it reaches until it arcs towards the bridge.

Just a warning: If you take the chemical/heat gun route you'll very easily end up to bare wood. If the original finish is still there and you want to save it, mechanical removal is the safest choice. All methods are messy and require respirators and eye protection - you don't want a chip of paint into your eye or paint dust/smoke into your lungs!

As this is a poll, there's no right or wrong, right? My logic tells that the nut slots should be just a hair above the fret level. Not much, just a hair. The trick to cut a pencil in half, sharpen it and slide it across the frets to draw a line on the nut is what I've learned to give a ballpark. Cutting that line will end up being lower than fret level and that would surely buzz! But I can also understand the logic behind the "level" thing. Fretting a note creates a similar break angle to that of the nut and fretted notes don't buzz if the setup has been done right. You're most likely familiar to pressing the third fret to see if there's space between the string and the first fret. But what happens if you put a capo on the first fret and press the fourth fret? Will there be a gap between the string and the first fret after it? Most likely not! As said, I tend to roughly mark the fret level with a split pencil and cut the slots just to that line, and then work my way down by pressing on the third fret until there's only a tiny gap between the string and first fret. Out of curiosity I took my digital calipers and measured the string height from the fretboard right after the nut and right after the first fret. The difference was a whopping 0.03 mm/0.00118" which is about a quarter of the thickness of an average human hair. Conclusion: If you start from a pencil line higher and sneak your way down you'll end up your nut slots being almost level with the frets. Thus the original question is about splitting hair into fractions!

Hi and welcome! A lot depends on how the repainting has been done. If the previous owner has just painted over the existing finish you may be able to scrape and sand to reveal the original finish. The Japanese used quite heavy clearcoats so it's possible that the original finish is intact. You can't tell until you've carefully done some scraping. FWIW I've got a natural coloured Eko that was painted grey with regular indoor wall paint. That peeled off with a plastic scraper and the original clearcoat is as good as new! If however you see sanding scratches under the current paint it most likely means that it has been roughly sanded to bare wood. In that case scraping and sanding to bare wood and starting fresh is the best option IMO.

No panic, mistakes happen and this one didn't do any harm. Hope you get your problem solved in the Electronics!