Bizman62

I can understand your concern about the TOM tilted half an inch further back on the bass side really makes a difference as the adjustment range of the blocks is another half an inch. The image below illustrates and exaggerates the issue by assuming that the normal situation would require the blocks to be in the front position while on the angled bridge the string line is drawn with the blocks being pushed all back. As you can see the issue would be bigger on the bass side. However, at the very maximum the narrowing effect would be about 3 mm for the low E at the bridge which means about 1.5 mm at the 12th fret and 2.2 mm at the last fret. And as the bridge pieces usually already are pushed a bit back on the bass side the effect would be even less. Take a ruler and see for yourself!

Have you studied it now that you've heard about it?

Back to the original subject: Congrats for the GOTM! The competitor was good and most likely fulfills the wishes of the owner but yours took the idea of "Built by Me in my Shed" to another level. The devil is in the details which you had plenty and then some more but apparently you're sort of an exorcist and managed to evict all evil mishaps.

That's what I've read the guy having done it saying. But he also said the combination sounds great so I thought why not give that option a chance. A new baseplate sounds like a viable option as the measurements seem to match with square ones. Getting chrome covers is another thing, not easily achievable!

How about building your own "humbuckers" out of two single coils. You know better than I how the polarities should go, but it can and has been done. That would allow for putting the pickups in an angle.

Yet another piece of wisdom to be buried in the back of my brain, only to be revealed after a monotonous build. The white binding on the headstock ties with the body nicely while the black face does the same for the pickups. Even more so with the maple fretboard.

I've only done it once on a guitar body. Well, actually twice since on the first try the router bearing made deeper grooves on the side than what the binding was thick so I had to reshape the body 1mm smaller all around... But yes, heating helps getting the curves right. Or straighten the springy plastic for the fretboard. A hair dryer is safer than a heat gun as especially the traditional material can easily burst into flames. For obvious reasons I don't own a hair dryer but the heat gun worked fine when used with extra care and some distance. The smell told that there was a risk of fire, though.

They sure do look to be of better quality than the screw hole ones - which I'm using in my current build. Then again, there may be a slight difference in price as well.

That wood is just so pretty!

That's a valid option but you'd have to attach the piece firmly to the backing board while leaving a thin layer untouched only requires securing the piece from rotating.

And you've just saved some $40 - at least that's the price for a Rockler branded one. Plus yours has that big knob for the bolt! StewMac make a similar one for Dremels, called the Soundhole and Rosette Routing Jig, to be attached to their Precision Router base. Together they're about $200 so if you fancy saving even more bucks, that would be the next build... Just a reminder: don't cut through with the router! Make a groove and cut the rest either with a saw, knife or trim router with the bearing running against the freshly routed groove. If you cut through, the center piece will go all over the place which will ruin your work and be dangerous for yourself!

Sapele is a bit on the heavier side of the various species called mahogany according to the Wood Database but there's mahoganies almost twice as heavy and the lightest was only about 20% lighter. The body has quite a little effect to the electric sound compared to the neck and pickups so it's mostly your budget that dictates how many pieces you make your body of. It also depends on how you're going to finish the guitar - paint will hide all the seams.

That's the most reliable proof that you have built it. Signatures can be faked, carving patterns and finishing methods can be copied but your DNA is unique.

Would this solve that?

That's only because I'm sort of involved: I'm one who has to view your photos so this is just trying to make reading your pictorials more enjoyable

All build threads are important and worthy. I suppose the main reason for this forum being more electric oriented is that a) building them is much easier and b) playing them through various buzzing gimmicks is easier. So please do show us some real guitar building!

Veneer sounds even better than the thick double sided tape I was thinking of as it doesn't give in. And you can even sand it off if you do like <forgot the name> i.e. CNC the cavity first and the inlay mirrored as one block and then just put glue into the cavity and push the entire block of inlay in, then sanding the base off.

Yet another thing to check: Does your camera show green rectangles for the focus spots when you press the button halfway down? If it does, you can "lock" that spot by keeping the button halfway pressed and move the camera a bit for a better composition and the autofocus should keep that very spot focused. When all looks good on the viewfinder screen simply push the the button all the way down.

Thanks for clarifying, otherwise some future reader might have thought that a hot shed would shorten the drying time of their wood.

I wonder if masking tape would work there. I mean, cut almost through the abalone and stop at the glue. Or some thick solid double sided tape? Would that keep the tiny pieces in place even when cut from the front face down to the tape?

But does it have a large air exhaust like kilns do? The temperature of steam is also high but it won't dry anything!

Hello and welcome! Here's some thougths that are just my personal opinions based on what I've learned. For stability, a laminated neck is often a better choice especially in the less expensive price ranges. Single piece necks are common but as wood is a living material a cheap neck may be just that, cheap. Ideally you'd want straight and tight grained wood which has been properly dried and stored in a humidity controlled space for a decade or so to make sure it doesn't warp or do any other unwanted tricks. That's not a cheap process! Fret material has nothing to do with tuning stability. Durability is another thing and that's where stainless steel is the toughest material. Then again, your playing style and activity play a big role in how fast your frets wear. Good tuners are a must, as is a good nut. And any neck should stay straight when changing strings unless you change the thickness which changes the tension. To your questions: a) get the kit of a well known maker. You never know what you get from the Chinese online shops. At worst the frets are totally off! Also get all the wooden parts from the same maker to ensure the right measurements and tight fitting. Crimson Guitars make pretty good kits and you can modify the order from almost square blocks to a painted puzzle. b) For a kit the minimum you need is a screwdriver and a wrench, and a soldering iron for the electronics, and some means of slapping the finish on. Of course that depends on the level of readiness of the kit you choose. If at all possible making the guitar tutored by a luthier would be worth gold. Joining a guitar building course, public or private, would teach you both how to use the tools right and how to build the guitar in the right order, not to mention how to fix the problems you'll most likely run into. My guitars have been built from scratch at a course offered by my hometown and under tuition of a Master Luthier, yet the neck of my first build is like a baseball bat. But it's playable, stays in tune and has the intonation right.

Yes, I exaggerated quite a bit and all that in purpose. My main goal was to hide the backing fabric as much as possible, yet maintaining the outlines of the guitar visible. As you saw it didn't fix the focus being off. Check the autofocus settings of your camera! IIRC there was several focusing modes available, I suppose you'd want the focus being in the center rather than all around the place. Your pictures all look like the focus is in the wrinkles of the fabric - they actually work well for focusing but in this case that's not wanted.

Regarding the amount of light, you most likely have either taken or at least seen photos taken with a flash in dim light. With the right aperture size and exposure time that makes the close up objects pop and makes the background dark similarly to Curtisa's photos or the Twangy videos. That means lots of light on the actual object and it's your task to control the amount that you get on the "film". One of my best shots ever was a closeup of a girl in heavy stage makeup in a well lit hall, shot with a very cheap (<1% of my summer job monthly salary, a tenner in current money) camera and a flash cube. Her face filled most of the area, nothing was burned through and the background went all black. Lots of light on the object, that is. @curtisa's pictures have very sufficient amount of lighting, they're not candlelight images despite the back being dark. With enough light you can get add contrast which you can control with the aperture size and the exposure time. You can also play with brightness and contrast afterwards but it helps a lot if your raw material already has what it takes. Look again at the collages in my earlier post. All of the images are "as is", they're taken in the same place under the same lighting conditions. The only difference is that one set has been shot using adjustable time and the other using adjustable aperture, the camera took care of the rest. Post processing the images can make a big difference as well as you can see here: The brightness has been reduced by 20 and the contrast increased by 20 - guess they're percents as the scale goes to 100 both ways... It's not perfect by any means but you can see the difference:

I'd say that's not the best option. My technically best shots have been taken in direct summer sunlight which is much brighter than most lamps. Light allows details to be seen, the exposure time and aperture size determine how much lit background you get. Play with your lights! You said you have three of them so you should be able to lighten the shadows or illuminate to the sides or even back to your object. When you see no shadows the object will pop up from the backing canvas.