ihocky2

Just for the sake of arguement and education, what makes the 18" better for cutting bodies? Resawing, the bigger the better hands down. But for cutting a body shape, you are only cutting 2" thick lumber, and I would use a 3/8" blade on either saw. Not arguing, just looking for some informed input.

I've never heard of them, so I can't help with that. Alsa Corp sells 2K uro's in rattle cans as well, and I've heard it is pretty decent stuff, but it is pricey.

I have to agree with Killemall on the 14" not being too small. I would love to get a 18" or 20" Laguna to do some serious resawing with. But I would still keep my 14" around to cut bodies from. 14" is the perfect compromise in my mind if it has a riser block. You can resaw with it, as long as you are making a business resawing lumber. And you can still cut any body shape on it. You might still have to cut one side then the other, but the extra minute it takes is not going to break the bank. The big saws make resawing easy, but you'll need to do a lot of fancy tops to recoup the several thousand dollars a good large bandsaw will cost. Unless you are building guitars full time a 14" will do the job hands down, and even then I would keep the big saw set up for resaws only and use a 14" for cutting profiles. The one supplier I use locally has a 20" Laguna and it took him six months to get it dialed in perfect for resawing. He makes his living selling lumber, so he has to get as much from a piece of lumber as he can. But I would not take that much time to dial it in and then swap out to a 3/8" blade to cut a body profile.

Catalyzed urethanes are easy to find, and every one I know of is water white (non-yellowing). House Of Kolor is very well known, but pricey. Kustom Kolors is cheaper and only a 2 part mix instead of 3 part. PPG has several lines of product, I've used the PPG ShopLine which was decent stuff and is pretty much the same thing as Kustom Kolors. Dupont has catalyzed poly as well as Imron. The trick is finding a local autobody supply shop or hobby shop that specializes in airbrush work. If not you are going to have to order online. The hard part is going to be applying a proper finish to a guitar with an airbrush. Most catalyzed urethanes are not recomended to be thinned to the extent that an airbrush needs. Which means your atomization will be poor and you'll get a lot of orange peal. The second problem is that your coats are going to be very thin and for decent protection you'll end up having to spray a lot. Airbrushes are good for graphics work and sunbursts but when it comes to a nice finish, they fall short. Also, read up in some of the threads on here about the hazards of catalyzed finishes. They contain isocyantes which are not blocked by any respirator, even the charcoal filters, they are also absorbed through the skin.

I'm not going to get into the tonal differences or anything along those lines. But one big drawback is the size of the lumber you'll need. Rhoads are pretty wide, so to find a board 8/4 thick and roughly 20" wide in one piece is going to be hard, and very expensive. On top of that you are paying for the entire board, and in reality using less than half of the lumber you bought. It's a pretty big waste of material.

There are plenty of woods commonly used for electric guitars that are noticeably stiffer than walnut. Right away ash and maple come to mind. Walnut has been discussed as a fretboard and the general consensus is that it is too soft and will wear poorly. Personally I love using walnut. It shapes very easily. It has a brighter tone, but is not a harsh bright like maple or cherry.

You definitely nailed the problem with the graphic headstock. It just wasn't working with the maple neck. The ebony neck and the abalone dots look killer on it.

We definitely need pictures of the fire hose clamp.

I have the JB/Jazz combo in one guitar and love them, but that guitar has a mahogany body. That is the set that Dave Mustaine played for a long time. But using so much maple I would replace the JB with a Duncan Distortion or a Custom (that's just the name, it's not custom made). The JB has more pronounced treble and with the maple it could easily become too bright. The Custom and the Distortion are very similar in sound to the JB, but have the treble rolled back a little and more pronounced bass. All three are very popular pickups, especially with the Jackson crowd, it just depends on your taste. Check out the Jackson Charvel forum. Those pickups are discussed a lot on there.

More non guitar related, but one is shop safety. A machinist I used to work with was missing one of his fingers. I found out many years before I worked there he was running a drill press and had work gloves on, reached to clear metal chips off the bit while it was running and the chips caught the glove and ended up ripping the finger off at the top knuckle. In the process it pulled one of the tenons completely out of his arm, all the way to the elbow. I referee ice hockey and never wear my wedding ring on the ice. There is a picture from a guy who wore one working a game, got caught between players or a stick and crushed the ring as it pulled the ring off. It ended up pealing everything down to the bone, about half way up his finger.

If you look at the Jackson's they put the jack in two places depending on which model it is. The high end Rhoads such as the RR1 and RR3 has the jack on the inside curve of the upper wing. The rest have it on the inside curve of the lower wing. Most people who play a Rhoads sitting place the crook of the vee on their thigh, so upper wing is a little better and it keeps the cable out of the way better when standing and moving. The upper wing is harder to get a wire run to though. As for pickups, give us an idea of the woods you are planning to use since that will affect the overall tone. Some woods being brighter do not go as well with certain pickups.

I've also super glued myself to a guitar. The best (or worse) part of it was when my wife comes out to tell me dinner is ready and there I am with a guitar stuck to my hand. She ran to get the camera I ran to lock the door before she got back. I had to rebind the neck because the acetone used to fre my hand also botched up the binding really well. It never fails, I use medium or water thin super glue on something and it takes several seconds to a minute to cure. I get the slightest drop on my finger and I am stuck to something in less than 1 second.

Using an old router I learned the hard way that the collet was worn as the bit slowly climbed out in a control cavity. Didn't blow through, but pretty close. Sprayed finish too thick and had it crack. Had one painted guitar fall on the concrete and chip out. Neck too thin. Fretboard too thin. I think Wes made the best statement yet though. We learn more from error and backing off to fix it. On big O.S. moments I've wanted to smash the work in a fit of rage. Only once have I done it. I felt better that the offending wood was punished, but it didn't help anything. Every other time I've gone and relaxed for the night, not even thinking about the mistake (or as little as I could) until the next day. Took anywhere from 1 day to several weeks to decide the best way to repair and they all came out pretty good. We all need to have an O.S. moment every now and then. If everything go perfect we never learn. You learn more from a mistake, and you remember the mistake so you never make it again. Mistakes keep us humble and remind us that we are not perfect beings and help keep the egos in check a little bit.

I'm not a bassist so I can't point you towards any specific brands, but don't forget to check out local pawn shops.

You had me worried for a minute there Jon. From the title I thought you were going to do something normal, I though you might be getting sick. But the pictures show that all is well. A little too late now, but I think that would look good as a neck thru with the canarywood.

Trying to copy a studio sound is very difficult usually because you don't really know what was used. Jimmy Page is known for playing a Les Paul, but in the studio he used plenty of other guitars, even Telecasters. Getting a Les Paul to sound like a Tele, isn't going to happen. Guys play Mesa or Marshall on the road because they are sponsored to play them. In the studio they have a huge choice of amps to play from. They'll even layer tracks with different amps and different guitars. Live sounds you can at least get an idea what they are playing and try to get closer to the sound.

I absolutely love the way the fretboard got with the triple binding. I am not sure how that will work with the canarywood neck though, having the white binding. I would be more prone to go with something draky for the neck. But too late for that now I would imagine. Regardless, the triple binding looks great.

After a long break I've finally gotten back to work on this and have a few new pictures. I would have rather kept working on this but we got stuck on mandatory overtime for a few weeks.

More than likely it is an automotive polyurethane which is almost bullet proof. It is VERY chemical resistant so chemical strippers won't do much good at all. But the good news is that you don't need to sand down to bare wood. Painted guitars are 90% of the time made from several pieces of wood, usually not matching grain patterns so they are not too nice to look at. Only sand down to the original finsh and then start your priming and painting from there.

My main concern would be the weight. Ash is VERY heavy, so a thick ash neck is going to want to neck dive pretty badly.

I stumbled across this thread a few weeks ago and have been meaning to link it over here. Basically the EPA is cracking down on who can spray how much paint and where they can do it. Some information in the link below is not 100% accurate, but some good stuff to know. You can also Google the EPA 6H rule to get more information. I haven't gotten 100% accurate information yet on everything, but most of us won't be affected by this. It is more for body shops, but it is good to know what is coming and that you may run into problems getting some paints. Coast Airbrush will still be selling, and will still sell to weekend warriors because they are considered a hobby supply and not an auto body supply. But your local PPG jobber might not be able to anymore unless you are certified. http://www.kustomkulturelounge.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=21211

You can search on here for waterslide decals, that will get you some good info on those. They are the decals you put on model cars and planes and such. You can check around local sign shops for prices on vinyl decals. They're thicker, but better quality.

I like that idea, and it's quite fitting.

I'm interested to hear Drak's response to what happened to it. In the mean time I'll throw my guess at it and see if it matches. I am thinking that the amount of wood left between the control cavity and the front it pretty thin. When you applied a water based dye the wood absorbed the water and swelled, with the exposed end grain in the hole it drank up even more causing the wood to swell and move. You might have had a spot there with less glue and with everything around it being held down to the thicker more stable body the wood had nowhere to go wit hthe extra stress, so it split. Remember this is only an educated guess though.

It could be just coincidence, but I've had the most trouble with lumber from Wood Craft. Kiln dried from the local mill, never had a single piece move. Lumber from ebay, only 1 or 2 pieces moved a little and never moved again afte adjusting to the climate change. 2 pieces bought from someone in Arizona shipped to Pennsylvania in the summer, so hot and dry to less hot and very humid and they never moved. Every piece bought at the local Wood Craft moves a ton when I get it home and most of them move a little more when I cut them. For me Wood Craft has officially become Tool Craft, I won't buy lumber from them again.