spindlebox

3 minutes ago, woodfab said:

try https://customrubontransfers.com/

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

1 hour ago, woodfab said:

My first thought is you should adjust the letters to all be the same with.

I worked a quite a few hours trying to come up with a LOGO,  

I thought it has to be good enough so I don't need to change it later.

I don't love the one I came up with but I felt I spent enough time on it.

 

 

 

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?

17 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Fair enough. Here's something that may help you there:

https://kraycustomrefinish.com/identifying-wood-types-furniture/

https://woodhappen.com/how-to-identify-wood/

There's tons more available in the Internet plus a plethora of printed litterature.

Some old craftsman, a carpenter or a cabinet maker depending on where you salvaged the woods, might also know which woods were commonly used and potentially recognize that.

Finally, no matter what the species is, for a neck you'd need something that's hard enough to withstand the string pull. I like laminated necks, building them is like Ollivander crafting the magic wands in the Harry Potter stories. For a solid body most anything works (and has been used) as long as you can attach the bridge firmly enough. Fiberboard, chipboard, corrugated cardboard, plywood, any solid wood (except balsa), plexiglass, glass, concrete, stone... And they all can sound great!

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!

1 minute ago, Invader Zim said:

Hold at a spot 22.4% of the total length of what you want to evaluate.

Don't wavelengths change based upon frequency?  

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

We're in the same boat. The tonal properties of acoustic instruments rely more on the woods used although even among those you can find purists who claim that no good sound can be achieved by using other woods than what have been traditionally used. Still tap testing the wood is somewhat important for electric guitars, too, as it can reveal hidden cracks and other structurally challenging spots. I mean, you wouldn't build a neck out of spalted wood although it can look really great on the top. Brian May used the woods he had but he also knew that how they had been "stored" - a fireplace mantel most likely is the driest spot in a British house!

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.

9 minutes ago, henrim said:

Some species are easy to recognize from online pictures others not so much. These identification questions pop up frequently on woodworking  groups and typically there are 10 different answers out of which one might even be the correct one. 

Anyway I think this question is in wrong sub forum.

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

58 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I'd say the latter.

It's hard to tell by the photos, for identification a closeup picture would be the best, possibly at several angles so that the grain orientation can be seen. What makes identifying even harder is that furniture often is stained - as are the SG guitars.

This might help identifyining if it's Oak or not: https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/distinguishing-red-oak-from-white-oak/

If you're going to use those pieces for building guitars, do a simple test: Hang them loosely between your thumb and index finger at about the 1/3 spot and knock. If it makes a long ringing sound, it's tonewood. Even better if you can tell which note you get! If it says "thump" like when kicking a flat tyre, it's not tonewood.

 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!

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I did click... That said I'd rather see that video uploaded to the post.

Uploading directly to the post serves two purposes at least: 1) it's "clean", no junk coming from a potentially rogue image server, and 2) the images and videos will remain here for future viewers - there's tons of building threads without images because either image server account has expired or the images have been removed to free some storage.

 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.

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Your version is pretty original, but not quite: https://www.lawtonprinting.com/  has the similar outlines. Then again they have the black round background which you don't have. Shouldn't be an issue as printing services and guitars are quite far away from each other.

Further, your design seems to be for sale at https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-interlocking-circles-rings-abstract-icon-connection-concept-icon-124872107.htmlhttps://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-interlocking-circles-rings-abstract-icon-connection-concept-icon-124872107.htmlhttps://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-interlocking-circles-rings-abstract-icon-connection-concept-icon-124872107.html which means it's not too heavily protected.

 

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!!!!

21 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Doesn't remind me of anything as such - looks quite original and unique - but if this is your intended headstock design and layout don't forget to consider the practicalities of it. I suspect that the G string will struggle to get past the B string tuning post after leaving the nut if travelling in a straight line (B vs E might be a problem too), and that you might get a few skinned knuckles twisting the B string tuning button.

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!

Playing around with headstock and logo design.  Please tell me that this doesn't remind you of anything!  

If it does, please provide links/examples.  I don't want to copy anyone.