pariah223

I notice alot of sources have you attach the bridge after the guitar has had the finish applied.. Is there an obvious reason for this or is it just the way it has been done, so its the way it is taught to do it?. Only real benefit i can see is buffing will be made alot easier without the bridge in the way... but other than that... i am not seeing any real reason.

im not worried that the tuner will go anywhere because there are 2 screws on each tuner that screws it to the back. I am just a little concerned that the bushing itself that presses into the top will come loose. These are the tuners i got. You will see if you go to specs there is the tuning machine that gets 2 screws.. and a .344 diameter bushing that presses in. My concern is that the 11/32 (.343) diameter hole they say to drill isnt enough bite for the bushing to stay in place unless i want it to come out. I know it may seem like a noobish question, but i just wanna be positive before i go and do this.

I cant seem to find a solid answer on this, so i figured i would go to you guys for a quick opinion on how you tight you make your bushings for your tuning machines. My headstock is mahogony and the bushings i got (sta-tite grover's) from stew mac say to make the hole 11/32 diameter for the bushing. I always thought your bushings were supposed to be kinda tight, but i may be wrong. When i counterbore a test piece of mahogony to 11/32.. the bushing dosnt fall in, but it dosnt take hardly any pressure to get it to go in all the way. Once in, it dosnt seem to spin and i cant pull it out with my fingernails, but if i put something in the hole from behind it pops out very easily. So just out of curiousity, how tight of a fit do you guys suggest for bushings... should i need to slightly hammer them in? or should they be press fit? I also am aware that once i put a finish on the hole will tighten up a bit.. but its alot easier to make a hole a little bigger than to make it a little smaller.

thanks for the excellent reply Myka... exactly the answer i was looking for.

im not sure i understand... or maybe im not wording it right. What im trying to say is for me to get the action i want, i have to have the bridge height a little higher than is suggested in my resources due to a greater neck angle than intended.. So the action over the strings will be good... but it will make strings in the strumming area higher than suggested.

i know i have too much of a neck angle, what i am trying to figure out is if the extra 1/8 height at the bridge is going to make the guitar totally unplayable? or just not quite as comfortable as it should be. I can settle for it not being as perfect and as fine tuned as i would want it to be just because this whole first guitar is more of a learning expereience... im not expecting to produce a perfect instrument... i just wanna make sure it will still be a guitar i can play and not a longbow i could hunt with.

EDIT: Just so its clear.. i went the dovetail route.... so removing the neck and fixing the angle might be more trouble than it is worth if the strings being a little higher than optimal at the bridge position is not the end of the world

So my project was moving right along nicely, looks great... but now i think i might be in trouble. I think somehow the neck angle ended up being too much (not sure how, i kept checking it as i was mounting the neck... ) I was wondering at the bridge... what string height becomes an unplayable instrument.. or even unpleasant? I want to go ahead and finish this guitar but i want to make sure im not making a useless instrument. I know i wont have any action problems as long as i make the bridge saddle high enough... but i also know that the strings will be quite a bit off the body where i will be strumming. Right now, without the frets.. if i put a straight edge on the fretboard, and measure where the bridge would be.. its about a half inch gap.. About 1/8 more than my sources say it should be. am i doomed?

following kinkaid's method, it made sense to rout it after it was mounted because his rout goes a little into the body as well. I however decided to go with a different truss rod design last minuit that stops at the neck block. So it wasnt so much poor planning as it was change of plans.

well the problem is, as has been numerous times in the past.. is that i am following kinkaid's book, and therefore carved the neck before routing the truss rod... which i realize now was a bad idea because then it is a real pain to rout.. I was planning on doing a traditional truss rod so i would have routed it while on the body if i did it his way, and then it wouldnt have been an issue... but i decided to go with a truss rod that went in a flat channel and therefore i had to do my routing off the body. But the neck is all carved and everything and there is no truss rod sticking out of the back of it.. haha. Thanks

after doing multiple test pieces in my jig, and having them all come out good, i went at my neck with the router... and something must have shifted because now the channel is a little off to the right. It is still straight and it is parallel to the center line, but it is maybe 1/16th to the right. What problems could this cause? should i build a new neck now, or is this not the end of the world? I wanna build a new neck just because i am unhappy with myself on this one, but at the same time.. Its my first build and if its not something that should have any real negative impact.. then i might be able to live with myself just because its not visable. Thanks!

I am interested in attempting to build my own violin. I have always wanted one, and since i have built many guitars, i would love to build my own violin. I am just having trouble finding resources or good books. Have any of you made a violin before? Any good books or websites related to this?

I wouldnt think you would want to put the powder in the clear.. i could see that causing issues when you go to wet sand down the clear for buffing.. but i could be wrong.

Forgive me if this has been asked before.. But if i wanted to have my acoustic look like its still made out of wood and not all shiny... but still want it to be protected.. what is the best finish to use on something like that? I have this stuff called bush oil that i picked up at a woodworking show that is used on bowls and stuff.. Thanks!

i notice in that shot there is carbon fiber in the neck. Should i be planning on doing this? Kinkaid doesn't even mention it by i know about it.

yeah, i was juggling whether to do bolt on or dovetail, and the main reason i went with dovetail was because that was my plan from the start, and i didnt wanna switch it up midway. I didnt even know about acoustic bolt ons until a few weeks ago. Im sure future guitars will be bolt ons, but now i have dovetail joints under my belt which if nothing else... is a personal accomplishment

so i have made a decent amount of progress in the past week or so, but most of it was mental progress because i had alot of dilemas i had to sort out. But anyhow, i got the dovetail routed into the body using a jig i thought up and that i am quite proud of.. If anyone is interested ill post some pics, and if anyone is looking to do the same thing, i could write up a quick tutorial for my jig. Ill get some pics up of my progress once i have the neck sitting in the body.

i actually had a lightbulb go off and think i came up with a great way to do this. if it all works out, i will make a tutorial if anyone else is looking for the same information

I am about to get ready to cut my dovetail, and i am just looking for the most effective way to clamp a guitar in a jig so the area where the neck block will rest is 90 degrees to the jig. Since the guitar is domed, I cant just clamp it like i would a normal guitar for routing. I noticed kinkaid clamps from inside the soundhole which seems like it might be the best way, but i wanna get your input. Thanks

i meant which rout gets the 1.5 or 2 degree angle for the neck angle i am pretty sure its the neck end

small update, which is more of me just thinking out loud and hoping for some feedback. I have been tossing around whether i should go with a bolt on or a dovetail neck. Up until about a week ago my plans were to just follow kinkaid's instruction and go with a dovetail.. until mattia brought bolt on to my attention.. After a lot of research i think i am going to stick with a dovetail for this build just because that was the plan from the beginning and i don't wanna run into any unforeseen problems by switching at the last minute. What do you guys think? Bolt on seems a million times easier.. but i would rather have that built into the plans from the beginning rather then changing it. Any objections? agreements?

EDIT: A quick simple question... Which end gets the angle of a dovetail... If i had to guess, i would say the rout in the body is 90 degrees and then you cut the angle you want into the neck.. but i just wanna be positive.

excellent, looking forward to seeing your progress... Everyone uses those bending machines except me huh?

would it be a good idea to do it this way? I just found this picture. http://www.woodsongguitars.com/specs/w/id/5/Bolt-on-Neck

also found this for anyone looking for an answer to my questions... a pretty decent looking tutorial

http://liutaiomottola.com/construction/Bolton.htm

are there any good tutorials for doing bolt on necks? It looks pretty straight foward and im sure i could figure it out, but i just like references.

this seems way more logical than a dovetail joint. Easier to build i would assume, easier to adjust if needed, and easier to replace... any reason to pick dovetail over this?

mattia do you have any pics or tutorials or anything for a bolt on acoustic neck.. that seems like a good option at this point in the game, but im having trouble finding resources.