spindlebox

By width I meant the width of the characters, not the spacing in between. I did desktop publishing and graphic design for many years so I understand the terminology. Anyway, perfection and exactness of lettering and logos is an individual choice and design and is not necessary in all things. Fender's logo is simply a script for instance. Some makers use their signatures. I am going for a raw - "handmade" vibe, so I'm not concerned with that. In fact, my logo may be the only thing that's consistent, and I may get a brand for just that, and then hand-do the name/serial using Pyrography methods and stencils. Yes, I am looking into everything, including making my own brands. Since I first posted this thread in early September, I have gotten much closer to where I need to be and what I'm going to do. Thank you for your input!

No I will be doing wood burning as in branding with fire.

Thanks for your input! I will play with the width. However, I have since moved on from doing a printed idea, and I am going to BURN the letters in. I need to find metal letters that I can heat up and "brand" into the wood. So in that case, I'll get the width that I get. I already figured out how to do the logo! It looks so cool burned in!

Starting my new Tele-style project. I was pleased to discover the wood that I salvaged was red Cedar! I am going to use Cedar oil to preserve that wonderful smell, it is beautiful wood! I think I may do an HH configuration..I will NOT be copying the Fender and my guitar would NEVER be mistaken for one - I just like the basic body style!! This will be for ME, as it is my 2nd build. Really loving the way this Cedar looks. I found a bunch of this and jointed it, planed it and glued it together. I'm really thinking about just keeping it natural like that with only a Cedar oil finish and a super super fine sanding. Neck is going to be made out of reclaimed oak slabs, very nice wood!! And my Bloodwood fretboard material will go great! I am wondering if I should do a traditional Tele style neck, or if I should do an angled neck and headstock with scarf joint. What do you think?

Thank you, this is actually what I was looking for! Yes, my first neck was laminated and it was a great deal of fun. I am going to try visually going for a few different species - I love how it looks with contrast running down the neck. To add to your suggestions above (for future readers), I found an app (PICTURE THIS) that identifies flora and fauna, and it can also look at grain/endgrain and tell you what it is. I tried it a couple months ago, but didn't have enough laying around here to fully try it. I will visit those links above, and I appreciate your time!

Well, I just made a guitar to test out my templates and new equipment (and some of my burgeoning skills), out of scrap plywood and some spare pieces of Harbor Freight drawer fronts (hardwood that I laminated for the neck). The guitar sounded great. Of course, I used bloodwood for the fretboard, but still the rest of it was definitely not quality materials. I planed and glued everything properly however, and still followed correct procedure to the best of my ability, and it worked GREAT. But again, it sounded awesome enough to use on a recording I did recently. The pickups, hardware and wiring ARE quality. Certainly, this is never anything I would attempt to sell or pass off as quality, and it was just a "starter kit" and experiment for me - and I fully intend on using wood that's in good condition - but I'm also planning on using things like - a customer's wood table that he ate on when he was a kid for instance - somebody's grandmother's kitchen counter from their old family farm - etc. So I'm just saying, for electric, I don't think it's nearly as crucial as I believe it is for acoustic instruments. There are many that would call me stupid and crazy and wrong, but I have a physical guitar that says otherwise. But this conversation is way beyond the scope of this thread and I don't intend on getting into a debate. I'm just trying to identify the wood that I salvaged. Thank you all.

I didn't even know where to put this question.

Cool. I don't know if I really believe in tone wood for electric guitars. For acoustic guitars yes. But we all must believe what we believe. Brian May wasn't too concerned about it, and I am going to be making guitars from reclaimed items that have sentimental value for people. Thanks for the link!

So I am pretty horrible at wood identification. How do you guys do it or is it just something something that takes time and experience? I have some pieces I salvaged I'd love some help with! I am pretty sure the boards I am pointing to are Oak; they're pretty heavy and look like some furniture that I know is Oak!

Well I'm not going to simply be buying guitar blanks for my work - I'll be using reclaimed wood and things like that. So something like that will help me with A number of different scenarios, To establish a baseline, or if something is even worth grabbing.

Thanks, I'm actually surprised there are so little recommendations for these things. Ben from Crimson Guitars literally espouses their use - especially when purchasing new wood.

Hello all. I think a good addition to my shop would be a wood moisture meter and so if anyone here is using one I'd like a recommendation! I'm not a rich man, but I don't want something that's inaccurate either. Thanks in advance!!

Better!?

I'm gonna look for those gif converters.. I went through all of that earlier and I noticed that you couldn't do MP4. GIF seems the easiest. There may be a post following if I am successful!

Sorry I can't figure out how to do that.

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZSnFSVZgs1Y8WJmNSHikJfddC8qauee3mK7

Anybody have any experience with these? Obviously StewMac has a super expensive one, and then there are others by Amplified Parts and Elmer guitars I'm sure they all produce good results, but if there's any other advice you have. I was SUPER SUPER careful measuring and it seems as though I still mucked it up slightly. Not really sure how. I used my small square to help me get the slots started, but even that was difficult due to the fact that I stupidly tapered the sides of the fretboard so I didn't have a square beginning point. But also, the wood that I bought was not square to begin with, so I thought perhaps a miter box solution would be helpful. Anybody build one? Just looking for some ideas folks!!! I'm not made of money, but I also don't want to stress getting this part right. It's kind of important!!!

Anybody ever heard of this term? I've used it for a while and it's hard to describe. It's more of an overdrive sound vs. distortion - kind of "tubey" and fat. I had a guitarist in my studio last night and this is the tone we got - a combo of a Twin Reverb, a Vox Copperhead Drive and a Les Paul. Here it is: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZsTnhVZCu4Yxl1kH7S0VnvkQd9X0zFCy7E7 Anybody ever heard of this term? What do you call it? PS, hopefully that link works!

So I thought about buying some radius gauges so I can check radius on my necks, but I also thought how cool it would be to duplicate/copy the radius of a neck I really liked. I thought of a tool my Dad had when I was a kid, and I thought it would be perfect!! This one on Amazon is like $20, and it's cool because you can take the radius and then LOCK it, I figured I could use it while I'm shaping a neck, or make my OWN radius gauges with them!! Anybody else have any experience/ideas/suggestions along this line? I can't be the only one that's ever thought of this!

Aha! Thanks AVENGERS63. As far as my "brand", all of my web presence will be SAMSARA GUITARS and probably rarely just SAMSARA, except for maybe that headstock, because it seems excessive to put "guitars" on it. I think it's going to be pretty obvious it's a guitar. But as far as the IP situation, it will always be that term together, like my Instagram profile @samsaraguitars.

Ah yes!! Thank you for researching that. Actually, this is a pretty common symbol used in the Buddhist tradition, so it is pretty much open source - and I am not surprised it has been utilized by others, and will most likely continue to be; though like you say, I don't think it's being utilized in the world of guitar manufacture. I was mostly referring to the shape of my headstock more than anything. I appreciate your help!!!!

Yes! I've DEFINITELY not gotten the geometry/locations of the tuning pegs yet. I'm going to wait until I can do a proper mock-up of the entire thing, and then make sure I can get good clearance for all of the strings. I will then adjust locations based upon that, and perhaps tone down the middle "points" a bit. Definitely a work in progress!! Thank you for your input! You confirmed my concerns.

Thank you so much for that! I think since I am so new here, I am not getting an edit option yet. I joined another forum a few years ago, and I had to have like 10 posts or something before I could have full privileges. So I guess I'll have to get busy!! I'm a recent Facebook expat, and I no longer have access to my luthier group, so I'm looking forward to getting involved in this community here!