willliam_q

I'm not into Bass guitar in anyway but I really like the figure in that chunk of wood, gorgeous!

Personally it's not my taste, although a black burst might look alright, you might have to stain the mahogany though, maybe go for a tobacco burst type of thing...if thats possible.

I got a bandsaw in Gumtree belfast for £60! bargain. Local ads really can be the best to get decent kit. There is very little specialist guitar making tools that you actually need. The first guitar I built was built using a jigsaw, cheap router, surform and sand paper. I cut the fret slots with a hacksaw. Admittedly it wasn't a very good guitar, but it was playable and only cost me very little to build.

Love the swirl, looks class! Excellent work so far.

very nice, I hope my finish comes out as nice, that is top class

both of the projects are looking good, got some tips on routering out body shapes so nice thread.

Thats looks really good, I'm not normally a tele fan but can see the appeal. The quality of the build looks class, keep the pics coming.

i haven't been on the forum for over a year, just came back to see how things are and had to post when I seen this guitar, I usually prefer a strat/gibson guitar shape, something a bit more mainstream, but I really like this guitar, there's just something about it. Nice work

Hi guys, another update almost 1 year on!!!! I finally sat down to wire the strat up properly. I haven't used a fender style pickup selector switch on this guitar so hadn't wired it up right at all. I decided to finally correct the problem and got the multi meter out. It is now wired up in the same configuration as all standard strats. Because it's now correctly wired I am now getting much more sound, it is absolutely beautiful!!!! I've said that I was disappointed with the way this guitar turned out, but while I had the strings off I decided to work at the neck to see if I could make it better. I put a shim in the neck heel because the neck was sitting too low in the body. It's amazing the transformation!!! I have been able to properly intonate the guitar and the feel from playing is so much better. Because the neck now sits higher in the body I am able to properly adjust the pickup height to get the sound I want from them. I only wish I could have been bothered to make these changes earlier. I can't wait to start another guitar, now that I know I can make a neck that feels good.

I'm stuck!!! At the mo it's a toss up between the les paul and matt's guitar. I love the Les Paul cause it looks so classic. It's like it's straight out of the '70's!!!! And matt's guitar is just absolutely gorgeous!!! that is one beautiful guitar. I'll prob end up voting for matt but I think the standard is so high this month that it's gonna be really unpredictable. Any of those guitars could win it and deserve it!!!! Oh, and that hall of fame idea is one of the best ideas i've heard yet.

Guess whats on my list of stuff to buy when I get a new job !!!!!!! They are some really nice pedals. I love the bulldog distortion pedal. That pedal is amazing!!!

I would say to try ebay for a cheap used amp. I got a Laney Supergroup for £140 including p&p. It needs all new valves but sounds great. It's a 1970's amp and has a great classic tone. If you want to build an amp you could try www.18watt.com. It is a site dedicated to building marshall's 18 watt amp from the 60's.

I get a 4 x 8 ft sheet of 1/2" MDF for about £15. I got a computer desk out of it and have loads of space left to make several neck templates and a body template. It turns out the MDF I have isn't too bad. The mold just brushed off and the board seems in fair enough condition.

Tenacious D, the one note song!!!! Green day, time of your life. it's pretty easy. I find the easiest are songs with the fewest finger movements. When teaching absolute beginners I found that the hardest sequence was going from C to G. I usually try to get a song with Em and D in it cause they are easy chords. Any 2 finger chord come to think of it.

thanks guys. Great info on the MDF. I'll get started tomorrow. I was workin on my car and hoped to be finished sooner. not to be, looks like i'll be workin into the night.

I have a load of old MDf that I can use for making templates. there's a bit of mold on it but not to bad. Is MDF any good for making templates? does it warp easily? I would want my templates to last a while. Just wondering cause I am home for easter and don't have much time. The timber yard is closed for easter so I can't get any plywood. thanks

Does anybody know what the Ibanez licensed floyd rose is like from the RG's? I don't know what model of RG the trem is from. What I really want to know is would it be the same low quality floyd rose copy as is on my Ibanez S370? Thanks

I bought 2 rio grande tallboys for the neck and middle positions and the MuyGrande for the bridge position. They are great pickups. The Muy Grande is a bit hotter than the tallboys which makes for a really versatile setup. I love them.

just wondering if anyone has tried the new Celestion Century speakers yet? I'm hoping to get some for a 2x12" cab i'm building. The reason I'm interested in them is cause they are supposed to be 1/3rd lighter than the Vintage 30. easier for haulin about between gigs. Just wonderin what the general consensus is. cheers

Just received my new Laney Supergroup 100 watt head! It's a monster. I couldn't believe the size of it. It weighs a ton as well. I haven't built my speaker cabinet so I tried wiring it through my wee Kustom 15 watt solid state piece of junk. I turned the volume on both amps down low and plugged the laney through the input on the 15 watt. No probs there, the amp worked a treat though sounded bad cause it's going through two stages of amplification, the final stage being solid state! Then I noticed a port to plug the Laney straight through to the speaker on the Kustom! Uh oh! The next thing I know there's a smell of burning wire and then a load of smoke comes flying up from the transformer on the Kustom!!!! Guess that wasn't a straight through speaker jack after all!!! I have a fender 100w solid state so I'll wire it straight to that speaker and see what damage I can do with that. I have to wait till monday to do that though cause the amp is at work

For the flourescent green to flouresce properly you will need a white base coat. I tried spraying a flourescent yellow onto a black Ibanez and it wouldn't flouresce. Didn't matter how many coats it just came up as this pale green tint on the black guitar. It was only after about 4 cans of the stuff did I read the instructions. it told me I should have been spraying over a white base coat. DOH!!!! Your experience and brand of paint might be different from mine though. just read the instructions carefully! I wish I had!!!!

I worked in a welding factory as a summer job for 4 months. It was only the last 2 weeks or so that I started wearing the supplied masks. There was only one other guy in our section who wore a mask, it was he who convinced me to wear one. Before I started wearing them I would come home from work and blow my nose out. All this black stuff would come out. i was always thinkin what that stuff was doing to my lungs!! After I wore the mask there was very little or no black stuff. It is very important to wear a mask. When I sprayed my guitar about 2 months ago I sprayed poly out of an aerosol can. I was in an almost empty 20 x 20ft garage. I never wore a mask and kept the doors closed so that dust wouldn't blow in and ruin my work. I used about 2 to 3 cans of the stuff. Since then anytime I do any sort of physical exercise, like running, I hock up flem and I have a small cough. It is finally starting to go away, but if I am like this after 2 months after only spraying 3 cans I can't begin to imagine what you guys who have done it for years are like. I have learned my lesson! I'm also gonna start wearing safety goggles as well cause even though I wear specs dust can still get in my eyes.

I built my first guitar recently. I had it well planned out on paper, measurements for absolutely everything I could think of. However when building I realised i still didn't have enough measurements. some of the measurements to know: String spacing on your trem depth to route pickups and neck pocket I thought I could shape my neck comfortably to my hand but I found this hard without the strings on it so in future I will use calipers and have the depth worked out before I begin. I routed freehand. NEVER AGAIN!!!! I was disappointed in the results so in future i'm gonna put the effort in to make templates. Lazyness never pays! Fill the grain. I just sprayed the paint without filling the grain and the paint work looks b*****ks. I have since met a new friend through work who can do airbrushing. I'll hopefully get mine done labour free in future. mmm just thinking bout the beautiful sunburst now!!!! Be very careful when making the fret slots. My guitar ended up very slightly out of tune the further up the neck I travelled. The reason for this is that I measured each fret from the previous fret. I have since learned to always measure from the nut. That way only one fret would be out of tune if you make a mistake. Finally, I am glad I made so many mistakes. Building my guitar was a journey of disappointment and frustration but in the end there was an enormous sense of achievement, even though I know the guitar is not perfect. It has made me more determined to make the next guitar simply because I know I won't make the same mistakes again!!

I've just started a new band and the other guitarist has a great sounding Laney. It's the best amp i've heard yet. Since then I found a laney 100Watt head goin cheap on ebay and snapped it up. Still waiting for it to arrive though. I didn't buy it because it was laney, I bought it for the value for money.

I love playing guitars and always wanted a £2000 guitar but could never afford one. I just thought I would try to build one. I always knew it would take a few guitars to get up to the required standard. I also built a guitar to challenge myself. I love setting personal challenges. I had never worked with wood before and my technology teacher at school had it in for me and put me down at every turn so I thought it would be great to be able to prove him wrong. although I never got into building my guitar until 4 years after I left school, it was a great confidence building excercise in which I proved to myself that I could work with my hands. Also the fact that my friends and family thought I was mad and was just throwing my money away just made me do it even more. So if my technology teacher is on this site (highly unlikely) - **** YOU!!!! HAHA!