Bizman62

You know it and so do all the other regulars, but just as a reminder: A great builder isn't the one making no mistakes, a great builder is the one who can turn his mistakes into features and learn from them.

That's the standard thickness for neck screws, don't know if Ibanez has originally used thicker ones. But that 4.2 mm is the standard for e.g. Fenders and I've never heard that the neck would come off because of the screws failing.

That sure is pretty. I don't like pointy guitars either but there's pointy and there's pointy. Personally I've always liked Florentine cutaways on an otherwise round curved guitar. Well, the SG to me looks a bit like my ham fist wouldn't fit into the opening but your build looks actually more like a Vox SDC. Pointy guitars shaped like an Orcish Battleaxe look like cosplay props. Well built per se but not for humans.... Similarly to Maleficent: She's flawlessly beautiful in her own way but would she turn you on?

First, welcome! Second, I'm not electronically savvy at all so I can't help you. Sorry. EMG's are active, aren't they? Thus their amplifier may act as a radio transmitter and something in your amps acts as a radio receiver. The reason why you can't hear your phone through the pickups is that the sound of your phone isn't made by vibrating ferric metal within the magnetic field of the pickup - a microphone that picks acoustic sound works differently. Speaking of amps picking radio signals, back in the day I made all sorts of wire loops from the amp to a pair of cassette decks to record multiple takes on top of each other. Often that mess also caught a Russian AM station! Why you don't get sound when fully plugged in... Start from the easiest part, the jack. Triple check that the ground really goes to the sleeve and the hot to the tip. Also check that when fully plugged in the hot prong doesn't touch anything grounded, including any copper tape or shielding paint inside the cavity. To test that simply unscrew the jack and pull it out of the guitar, then plug in and see if it works.

For what it's worth I've never seen or heard about a dyed natural binding but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I guess the biggest issue with dyeing the faux binding is keeping the colours separated. With the dark brown back you could have dyed the entire sides and sand them back without fear of a strange hue on the brown. Preventing the yellow dye to blend with the stained sides and top may be tricky but if you apply some sort of clear outside the binding that should be doable. A highly figured faux binding sure looks nice!

If you're going to paint the guitar with a solid colour, filler is a valid option. Most any filler should do, stone, plastic, whatever. And after that a primer. Painting a guitar doesn't differ from painting a car, you'll have to get the surface perfectly level as all scratches will show exaggerated. If the finish is going to be transparent, there won't be that many options. Any filler will show sooner or later as the wood will tan while the filler won't. Wood dust and glue can be used to minor flaws with the limitation of other fillers. A block with matching grain pattern can work and I've seen stunning examples about hiding the seam. In some cases cutting or sanding then defected area off altogether can be the best option as no one will notice if the guitar body is one mm smaller or the cutout that much larger. So a little more information would help us help you.

Never done it, but as there's the word "natural" in the name... Then again, I've never heard the expression "natural binding" before! "Faux binding" on the other hand is something I've seen done many times. And as it's "faux" you can make it any colour you want! Just as there's all kind of binding materials available in all imaginable colours you can dye a faux binding to enhance the properties if you think it would look better that way. There's no right or wrong. Just make it look good!

Welcome to the addiction! Learning how to make a guitar playable is the most crucial thing in building guitars. And even if you're never going to build one from scratch it can save you tons of money if you know how to make a cheap guitar feel and sound great. Things like shielding the cavities, grounding, leveling the frets, rounding the fret ends and adjusting the nut and bridge take quite some time which is why manufacturers often skip doing them. Yet they're not rocket science, anyone with two hands can learn to do them.

That makes the whole thing a piece of cake! Oil finishes are very easy to patch, new oil will blend into old. So you can polish the dots with sandpaper after filing them flush and then just wipe on some more truoil.

Yup. I once met a luthier who had salvaged some logs from an old house. Pine... But they were perfect for linings in acoustic guitars. Slowly grown tight grained definitely dead wood. So that's what we can find in our old buildings... Doesn't that mean that all guitar builders in the world should unite and share each their local woods? If only mailing abroad wasn't so darn expensive!!!

I'd vote for black or none.

There's something very fascinating seeing someone tinker with electrickery! To me it's magic, similar to how the magicians make a ball disappear from under a cup and reappear under another cup, and when they raise the first cup where the ball should have been there's a lemon and under the second cup where the ball was found there's now an orange. But it's fascinating! The 18650 batteries look like a good option for longevity as they're not brand specific. Will there be a built-in charger that can be used simultaneously to power the guitar while the batteries are recharging?

Ahh... of course. Silly me. Then again, the woods I have seen stored in a barn have been some birch and pine planks instead of exotic woods like flamed cherry. My ex father-in-law was a farmer and he used to have those under the barn roof. Birch stems having grown lying on the ground before starting to grow straight up have apparently had some serious value for sled runners because of the natural curve. I have a do-everything book from 1957, the first version published in 1930. Among other things there's lots of woodworking and the instructions often start with "take some good furniture wood"... Obviously people back then automatically knew what that means. No matter the species, it had to be properly dried, first outside and then in the attic of a barn.

I can't read those diagrams either but fortunately there's "diagrams for dummies" showing more life like pictures with colours. Does this help you: http://www.danieleturani.com/wiring-diagrams/guitar-pickups-wiring-hsh-configuration-autosplit-and-push-pull-coil-split/

"Out of a barn"... Our better barns are made out of pine - either logs or sawed - and the lesser ones on far away hay fields out of 3 - 4" thick mixed logs of alder, birch, willow and whatever has grown in the vicinity. Not much use for guitar building:

That or a mockup with the actual parts.

You're not telling the length, but for comparison the Full Titanium two way rods linked above weigh 56 (14.2") or 72 (18,1") grams depending on the length.

As long as the wood is properly dried there should be no major risk of deformation. A live edge is no exception. By properly dried I mean either kiln drying (fast) or years of natural drying outside under a roof. After both methods at least several months proper storing in the final conditions is highly recommendable. Professionals may store wood for decades, saving the best wood for their masterpieces. Regarding grain orientation, there's some facts about how wood tends to live with climate changes. Here's some science: https://www.conservationphysics.org/wood/wood1.html So when you glue a thin top to a thicker body, both should be properly dried and acclimatized so that their moisture content has stabilized to a level where they won't suck water in unless they're literally sunk for a longer period. Having the top and body end grain orientation mirrored may also help as they would counteract the forces. One might think that the top is so much thinner that it wouldn't matter, but as it's of a different species it also may have a lot more bending force. - Oh, and in case you have a three piece or a single piece body, you can still try to mirror the grain.

How come it so happened that I was thinking along similar lines without reminding myself about the actual shape! Apparently that is the optimal position for about any guitar.

Congrats! That's a classy and stylish build that could be used even in the royal band - I guess there's one.

Start by answering these questions: How much does a truss rod weigh? Is that weight too much for me to handle? As I didn't know I weighed a bass size cheap dual action truss rod - 22½" (572mm) long, 180 grams. For a guitar some 16-18" would be long enough and would weigh about 150 gr. A D-tube alone might suffice BUT there's no adjustability. A player I know told that he has to adjust the truss rod of his Strat during outdoor gigs. The riverside stand can get quite cool after sunset but the halogen spotlights can be pretty hot so your back is freezing while your front is roasted. One sided thermal expansion can be that tricky! If you can't guarantee that a) you'll get the neck right on the first try and b) you'll always play in a controlled climate, I'd suggest a truss rod. There's several types and materials available. These weigh less than half of the cheap one mentioned in the beginning of my post: https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/truss-rods-washers-and-nuts/two-way-truss-rod-full-titanium-extremely-lightweight/

That little trick, a piece of paper with a guitar shaped hole, is way too underrated! It wasn't too long ago when a fellow builder asked for an opinion in a similar case. He had pondered upon it for quite some while and every suggestion made ended with "well, but what if it doesn't quite match". It only took a minute to lay the template on a piece of paper and cut the outlines with a scalpel. And after turning the hollow piece around a couple of times it was obvious that there was one place where the grain pattern seamlessly continued the sides of the neck.

Have you tried any swirl removers from automotive shops? On my latest lacquered one I sanded down to 6000, jumping back and forth until I could see no scratches. At that stage the lacquer had a slightly milky hue. Then I used the finest Flexipads (R) named Zero Swirl. Guess I shouldn't have skimped there, the final process may have been easier had I bought at least the mid-fine compound to start with. And I did all the buffing by hand, using the cheapest microfibre pads. After several years I can see rotational mini scratches wearing +1 and +1.5 reading glasses on top of each other and an illuminated 5x magnifying glass.

I've got a 70's - 80's Eko CX7 Artist featuring three single coils with individual on-off mini switches. There's a fourth switch as well and it seems to change the tone a bit but I don't know what it does - maybe it's a phase switch. Toggling one pickup on or off is as fast as with any switch but changing between neck and bridge can't be done instantly in the middle of a solo. Versatility has its cost...

Huh? I paid $6.78 for 200 including shipping.