ihocky2

I really like the way this turned out. I love the color on the front and the color on the back as well. Well done all around.

The reason it CAN work with shellac is that the thinner/solvent for shellac is alcohol. If you have alcohol soluble dyes it will work, but not if you have water soluble.

I'm reading this a little sideways I think, it sounds to me like you're saying you don't like the BIG guns (quart) because you don't use all the product, which I agree with. But what you SAID is that you don't like siphon guns for that reason, but gravity or siphon shouldn't really make a difference, it's the size of the gun you're referring to, right? My siphon guns are pint guns, not quart guns. Unless I honestly don't understand what you're really trying to say and need some clarification... I think I worded it badly looking back at the post. My gripe with the siphon feed is that you always have some paint left at the bottom of the cup, because the tube never goes all the way to the bottom. Gravity feed you don't get this problem. If I mix my batches right I get the required number of coats with a little left for any areas that I feel might be a little thin and can use as needed. When using either a gravity fed or a siphon fed, I get the same quality spraying though. As long as I set the guns up right I get the same finish with both of them.

I am waiting to see the answers to Drak's post as well, but my first gut feeling is when you wipe off the excess with the rag. I'm thinking that when you do that it is pulling some of the filler out of the pores. Generally I squeegee off as much as possible and let whatever remains as is and sand it off once dry.

The issue I have with going right at the frets is that you don't know what the problem is and you are only fixing the current issue and not resolving the underlying problem. If it is the truss rod needs adjusting because of seasonal changes, then leveling the frets is great for the next 6 months. But then when the weather swings again, you have new problems because you didn't fix the correct problem. There are at least 7 steps to a proper setup, once you know the frets are level. Without the proper tools you can't perform a good setup, and from the OP it is clear he doesn't have those tools. Second you need to follow the steps in order. Jumping around the order throws off the balance of the setup and it won't get right. If he goes right at it to level the frets he has a 50/50 chance that he'll fix the problem. If he takes it to a tech, he'll know it is fixed right, and in the process have a better setup than he does now and a better playing guitar. The original post says that "The only good tech is 2 hours away", not the only tech. So there are others around. For a full fret dressing or a refret, you only want to go to someone very good. For a general setup, anyone who calls themselves a guitar repairman or guitar tech had better be able to do a setup, since that is the most basic and common work. I am sure if you ask around to some other guitarist or at local stores, they can tell you who is nearby that can do a good setup.

Thanks. Yeah I have all of the switches and pots already. The hard part right now is keeping track of which ones go where. They look like they were in a masking tape tragedy with all of the flags hanging from them.

The only draw back I have with siphon guns is that you never use all of the paint. I have only one siphon gun, and I get the same results from that or my gravity feeds. I personally like the mini-guns, they are lighter, easier to handle, and I only ever need a few ounces of paint at a time. I can do a full 3 coat set with 4 ounces and be able to do two guitars at once with it. Unless I was turning out work like Perry, I have no need for a quart size cup.

I agree. You can get by with some make shift tools in a pinch, but you really need to know what you are doing and at least have a few specialty tools to really set it up nicely. It could be just the truss rod needs a tweak, which a tech could tell. But since it is only two frets, I doubt it is the truss rod. The truss rod doesn't have much adjustment that far down the neck, the majority is concentrated around the 7th fret. You don't say how new the guitar is. It could be a poor setup from the factory, which is common. Or if it is a little older, you just wore a few frets down quicker than others.

A little more progress, the carves are mostly done. A little fine refining when I begin to prep sand, but other than they are done.

Not really as bad as you would think it would be. Only about 1/4 of the cut aways becomes more difficult, and that area has the least amount of wood removal.

Yep, they are already glued. I know it is a dangerous situation but I only use a grinder with flap disk to rough out the back half of the carve, so it never gets anywhere near the neck. The rest is done with a rasp and scrapers, and the rasp never gets near the fret board. So even though it is a little tougher work, I try to minimize the risk. Plus I feel this method gives me a lot greater control of the contour. The first few carved tops I did, was with the neck already glued in, so this is just the method that I got comfortable with. I am still trying new techniques every time, but I only try those on guitars for myself or to sell locally on consignment. So while this way is a little higher risk, I feel the risk for me is still lower than trying something new and messing things up worse. But the day I do it this way and mess up the neck, I’ll be eating those words.

You could take a look at a set of glue bits for a router and use that to basically make a shallow finger joint to help increase gluing area. Just a though, but it might help.

I'm going to suggest putting this build idea on the shelf for a little while and making one or two other guitars first to learn on. You are going to have a lot of portions to learn to make this into the guitar you see in your head. Unless you get someone to custom make the neck for you, you are going to have to learn how to do fret work and no one gets that right the first time around and usually take several times until they get good at it. Quilted maple is not cheap and is not forgiving. Trust me, watching a chunk of your $150 quilted top tear out and be thrown across the room is gut wrenching. Wenge chips easily. Thru-necks take plenty of extra planning to make sure everything connects as needed. Binding itself is not difficult if using plastic, wood takes a little more practice but is not hard. Abalone is a completely different animal. You need to cut small sections at a time to match the contour and you need to create seamless joints doing so. Not impossible by any means, but it takes some time and practice. Everything you want to do is very feasible but for a first guitar is jumping straight into the deep end. Some people have joined here and built first guitars that were absolutely stunning. However for every one of them there are a lot more that make a playable instrument but it is not the work of art they envisioned. You have a vision in your head of a beautiful guitar that you will cherish forever and will play better than anything you can buy in the store. We've all had that vision or else we would not be here. But the chances of your first guitar meeting what you expect it to are very slim. Take the time, build a few to learn on, get a feel for how everything goes together and how different woods act, then move onto that dream guitar.

Any close ups of the inlays? From what I can see I like the design of the inlay. Any ideas on finished color on this? As a general rule, most builds don't get a ton of comments until it is finished up. Usually if you are not getting comments people like it enough not to rip on it, but there's nothing special to make it stand above the rest. An ash Superstrat usually falls into that.

A few more updates from the last few days Neck blank and fretboard glued on Neck tapered and headstock Body routed, back Body routed and drilled, front

Great, I have a pear tree out the inlaws farm that will be coming down sometime in the next 12 months, and now I have to figure out a place to store that for drying. I do think the sheetmetal kiln has merit, but I am just trying to decide if I should paint it or not. I know that galvanized sheet metal gets plenty hot in the sun, I am just debating if painting it black would help it get any hotter or stay hotter.

Draw everything out full scale. We cannot tell you how far to space the tuners because we don't know what type they are or the shape of the headstock. Most tuners have the screw tabs on them and in different locations. Tuners too close to each other and the tab gets in the way. Spacing that might work for Gotoh's might not work for Sperzel. And then there is the asthetics of how they look on the headstock. Only you can answer these questions.

First thing I would do is loosen the neck screws just a hair and then pull the headstock towards the bass side. Even in the tightest fitting pockets, there is still a little wiggle room. This is what Wez was talking about. You want the screws just loose enough to allow the side to side movement. Pull the neck so the stings are evenly spaced on noth edges of the fretboad and then retighten the screws. You notice that the dots are not center between strings 3 and 4 either. Get everything lined up better first and then see where you're at. If you move the neck and get the edge spacings even and the dots are centered properly, then you're fine. Just get the nut work finished. If the dots are off centered worse, or in a different direction, then adjust to center everything up properly and then re-evaluate.

Absolutely plane to thickness first. Unless you have your planer set up 100% flawlessly perfect, you are going to get some snipe at the ends. With the blank still oversized, you set the template in between the sniped areas. I usually just take the blank to just a hair over 1-3/4". Unless you really want to, you don't remove that much material sanding. Unless you have tool gouges or something you really are just cleaning up the surface with 100 or 150 grit and then progressing down to 320 or 400 grit. Sanding should not take that much time to do.

I'm not sure how much you would notice the difference, but even a better quality top loading will be a tone gain over the original cheap trem. No experience with the G&L though.

I like the JB/Jazz combo, but some people find the JB too shrill. They usually either go with the Duncan Distortion, Duncan Custom, or Custom Custom. Similar to the JB but with less highs usually. The '59 is nice, same with Pearly Gate, Screamin' Demon.

There are slight tonal differences, which if you really want to get overly nuts about it would be a reason to add the wooden blocks. They are not going to do anything to help add sustain though. The sustain comes from the neck, a good neck joint, and a good bridge, basically everywhere the vibrations enter the body. Plus I am still not sure where this sustain craze has come from. I can understand some cheap guitars sustain like mud. But there are people that want to add sustain to high end guitars, how long do they really need to hold that note. The one that confuses me even more is the guys who is see playing death metal wanting more sustain. They are mostly palm muting anyway.

Make sure you make a full scale drawing of the side profile before you do anything else or order anything. A TOM bridge sits quite a bit higher than a Strat bridge. Thus requiring a neck angle to achieve a reasonable action. You will either need to modify the neck pocket or neck to achieve the angle or reccess the TOM into the body slightly. Staying with a Strat style hardtail you will not need the angle. Look at some of the other companies such as Schaller or Wilkinson for hardtail bridges. There are quite a few that are top loading and require only a slight cavity under the bridgeo or none at all.

Since he has started some of the pruning work already, I grabbed a thicker branch yesterday and cut it so it was essentially a 4/4 board and put it out on the firewood rack in the sun to see what it would do, and within 20 hours I am seeing the blue staining appear already. So it looks like if I am going to get anything usable out of this I am going to have to try it in some kind of solar kiln. Like WAK said, I am getting pretty much everything for free, so I think I'll give it a try. The worst that happen is I get some stained holly, but it might looke pretty cool with the staining, or at least be usable for pen turning. I will say this much for it, the stuff is pretty darned hard. Even green I would say it is harder than the dry ash pieces I've got.

I like that. I could even see that working as a way to sell MDF bodies.