Ben

Does electronic switching mean using relays? Edit : 100th post!

That looks fantastic! I think the pickups come like that, but I totally agree with the comment about the wooden pickup rings, they look fantastic! It looks completely flawless.

Once its all glued up and sanded, (in the photo its just been placed together), I'll see how easy it is to selectively dye the wings without it bleeding into the other pieces. If I can preserve the difference in colour of the laminates I dont think I'll go with the big pickguards, if not, I'll reconsider them. I might ever make some mock ups from black card and place them on there to see what it would look like... if I can be bothered. Well they'll look a little similar, but far from identical. I very much doubt they'll sound or play the same. The other has a scalloped fingerbard & tele hardware, this has a sustainer and my own (most likely P-90 style) pickups, so they are pretty different. I know what you mean.... I could always make a card one like I said above (if its just the #5 design, it wouldnt be any harder to make the real thing really), I could just place it on there and see how it looks before I do anything permenant. I'll play it by ear and see how it turns out. Thanks for all the comments!

Heres a photo: I'm thinking I may have changed my mind pickguard wise... I'm really liking the contrasting laminates, and the dyed body wings, so I'll try to do my best to preserve the contrast in colour and I'll go with pickguard design 5. Still not set in stone though. Fretboard dots are dowell rod the paw thing was a sort of 'spur of the moment' thing. Its just lots of dots drilled close together. not quite finished yet though. I'm thinking of doing a smaller paw on the 5th fret. As you may deduce from all the smiley faces in this post I'm pretty pleased with it so far! Definitely not perfect, but about as good as I could hope for with my very small, cramped 'shop' (garage floor ), and all my crappy, annoying, blunt handtools!

Bad thing sometimes. Stops me concentratring on maths, which I really need to do right now.

Also looking good! You'd better reduce your photo size though, i think the rule is 640x480 max. I love flying V's.. I want to see that too when you start building it Your taking on lots of projects in a short space of time! What finish will the LPJR have?

Maybe I just got lucky with the quality of the particular kit I bought, but my favourite guitar is a saga PRS copy, with all stock hardware. (I think the pickups were potted by the guy I bought the kit off though). I like the feel of the neck, the action is low, I like the sound and it stays in tune. (When I say its my favourite guitar, the ones its up against arent exactly top-of-the-range boutique things, but some cost more than double what it did.)

I look forward to when theyre finished. Please post pics of your LPJR when its done too! I'm thinking of using all the scrap bits I have around to make a super cheap flying V when I get the time too.

I made that explorer pic by taking the strat one and reshaping the body on paint. The strat headstock just looked wrong so I quickly reshaped it. I'd give it a lot more attention before I built anything. As a little side project I might try to build a flying V, with a budget of about £10. I have lots of spare bits lying around that I could use, like the crappy tuners from my saga tele kit, Pot, knob and jack from a broken effects pedal, aluminium box section to act as neck reinforcement, scrap oak and plywood for the body and neck... Depending on what sort of pickups I make for this main project, I may have a spare magnet that I could use to make a pickup for the V too. I have some thin steel rod that could be glued on as 'frets'. Could probably try to make my own bridge too... In fact I might not even need the £10!

Theres a prices section on Scott's site: http://www.scottfrench.com/?m=Information&s=Prices If I ever come into a lot of money I'll buy one. I really like all your work Scott!

Looking good so far! I like the design and the neck laminates very much.

It'll be a fair while and many design revisions before I build any of those! I've got my hands full with this project at the moment. The strat, RR and RG designs were all done using THIS SITE, (BTW Thanks to Fraser linking to that site on his Guitar Build Page, its great!). I just did a few designs because I was bored with my art coursework My next project is going to be a clear acrylic guitar actually. Any of these will have to be the project after that.

Just a few more quick questions from me! 1. Does anyone know a UK source for 7P3T or 8P3T rotary switches? (actually anything with 7+ Poles and 3+ Throws is good) Or alternatively I have found THIS SITE, but its an american site. 2. I'm making my own pickups, and I am wondering which magnet configuration I should use for the neck pickup which will have the sustainer mounted on top of it.I have 2 alnico humbucker magnets to use. What do you think would work best? stacking them down the centre of the pickup (1), or a P-90 style layout (2) I was originally going to go for #1, but reading what people have writen in this thread about EMI made me think #2 may be better. ( I may have completelty misinterpreted what I was reading, I dont know anything much about EMI except what I have tried to deduce from what other people have written here.... I was thinking that the opposing magnetic field at the edges the pickup would help prevent the driver interfering with the bridge pickup somehow... I think pete posted something like that about paperclips..?) Thanks! EDIT: it was staples: "One used common staples to create a magnetised sheild up the sides of the driver with a polarity the reverse of the core. Theoretically this should have been great, but in practice, it seemed to make little difference...so I didn't mention it much." But as you say pete; "in practice, it seemed to make little difference" .... maybe I'm worrying too much...

Any progress on either of these?

I've done a fair bit, but I havent taken any photos yet, so I'll take some on monday and post them. I have slotted for all frets, glued the fingerboard to the neck, cut it to the correct width and carved the neck profile (a sort of chunky, slightly asymetric V-profile) Meanwhile I'm already coming up with ideas for my next guitar...

They look great! Do you have any closeups of the body on the strat? I think your post might break the photo posting rules though... How easy was that to finish over? I've thought about trying that before, but I wasnt sure I'd be able to get the finish flat.

I think it will look great without it. Looks really good so far! I look forward to seeing the finished guitar.

That happened to me.

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om13130.html That one's funky!

Lucky son! Great guitar too! My dad did a part time job in the postal service (ages ago), and said that some people there were deliberately rougher with the packages with fragile stickers on them. They'd drop-kick them into vans etc.

I'm still following! I want to see how these turn out. Looking great so far!

Hey come on! You ask vague, unspecific questions, yet people still do there best to try understand and help you. Then you get angry?! People are giving their time to try to help you, they dont have to. I still cant decide if that outburst was for real or if its a joke thats come across wrongly... I still think you should get the book

You could use a jigsaw if you have one or a coping saw if you are a masochist. Guessing that if you dont have a router you wont have a bandsaw! I actually cut out a guitar top with a drill and chisel. I started by drilling loads and loads of holes next to each other all around the outline, then got bored and drilled them further apart and chiseled the bits inbetween. It worked... sort of... I split the wood and had to glue it a few times. Invisible afterwards, but it was a pain. Took AGES to clean up the edge too. You would be better with some sort of saw.

Also, whats the "thinned plastic coating." you say you put on the neck? Or is it a secret... Edit: Or maybe its just thinned laquer... Edit #2: Or maybe its thinned Rustin’s Plastic coating, which you mention further down in your blog... Did I answer my own question?

I like the thin veneer lines on the neck. Looks classy.