ihocky2

ADF, the one bit of advice I can give is to route the truss rod while the neck is still square. Lay down a piece of masking tape to remark your center line.

I've been out of the game for some time and after building a guitar for a Christmas present I have the bug to start building again. I have a few plans in mind to try and have ready to paint when the temperatures warm up. At least one of these I want to be a neck through, which I have never made. I am unsure how to go about handling the width of the neck, I've seen two viable options but I am not sure if one is better or easier than the other. If there are any other ideas I am certainly open to all of them. Neck blank the same width for the entire length. The appeal of this is easier glue up to the body wings and aesthetically the neck width through the body is the same the entire way. I don't know if I should make the blank the width of the fret board at the widest point, or if I should make it wider. My other concern is where the cutaways meet the neck, creating a smooth transition without a divot into the neck. My preferred method of mounting the fret board is to glue it on over sized and taper the neck and fret board at the same time, but that doesn't seem like it will work for this method. With the neck blank tapered to match the taper of the fret board is easier to mount the fret board and continue the taper. Again, I have the concern of blending the cutaways to the neck without damage. Aesthetically (especially on a laminated neck) the reveal of the neck lines will widen for the length of the body. Is it any harder to glue the wings onto a tapered neck blank than a square one? If anyone has any other tips, please feel free to chime in.

Not to disagree too much with Drak, but certain paints you need to be careful with over thinning. 2 part systems are a good example. The catalyst wants a certain amount of component to link with at a certain rate. Too much thinner and it doesn’t dry right. A lot of the base coats for these systems are still one part products though and the thinner only slows down the cure time, at doesn’t affect the result. Make sure you understand the paint you are using and how it works. Like Drak said, get good with taping and get your color down in minimal coats. The less coats the less of and edge can build up. And practice, practice, practice on scrap first.

I've never really played a P90 enough to say, but I've always heard they are versatile. Keeping with the look of the original Surfcaster, is there any issue installing a P90 slanted?

I've decided to build something along the lines of the Charvel Surfcaster and am contemplating what pickups to put in. To stay traditional to that style, I could go with lipstick tubes. For something a little different but I think will fit the style would be P90's. It's not really a heavy metal guitar, but suits most other styles of rock, blues, and some jazz. This is one that I plan to sell if it turns out well, does anyone think the P90's may take away from the appeal?

My current build is coming along nicely and I am getting close to painting. I am going to spray on nitro lacquer but haven't used it in so long there are a couple things I can't remember and didn't find in the search. I will be spraying with an HVLP gun, roughly how much should I thin it by? The other part I can't remember is how many coats to lay down? I plan to spray 3 coats the first day and give it a quick flattening, spray 3 coats the next day and another flattening if needed and 3 more coats the last day. I am not sure with nitro though if that'll give me enough build up? Thanks,

Welcome to the world of hand planes. The scary sharp technique is second to none and you will enjoy using the tool. I find myself using hand planes and scrapers far more than my power tools.

I wound up switching to a standard hard tail bridge with a 2-1/16” string spacing. On the shorter neck it didn’t make a huge difference in the width. I’ve got the neck roughed out and the body shaped. I’ll start on getting the neck and fret board ready so I can cut the neck pocket and started locating cutouts. the second picture turned out a little dark, but shows the size difference when sitting on a strat sized body.

I’ve been away for several years after a couple rough builds that turned me off from building for a while. Life got in the way and I finally have the bug to start building again. Nothing like the last minute to decide that Santa needs to bring a guitar for my 6 year old son. But with a simple build that is also cleaning out some old scraps of wood it should be doable. It will be my version of a S-style, about 7/8 the size of the body and I am leaning towards a 23” scale. Poplar body, maple neck, walnut head and fretboard to be determined. Rickenbacker style bridge for a 1.938” string spread and two humbuckers. The two areas I could use some opinions are the nut width and the scale length. I think 23” should work, but I also pulled that out of thin air. The nut I am thinking 1.59” to make it a little narrower and thought 1.563” seemed too narrow, but had nothing to compare against.

I am not sure your CAD background, but Solidworks and a few SolidWorks courses may be beneficial. I am pretty proficient in Autodesk Inventor, but find that Solidworks can do a lot more. Plus there are a ton a 3d files for guitars floating around online already that you can look at to see how people overcame contour problems. Even if you skip the courses, you can buy the books they uses at the courses online used at low prices and learn the same stuff. Most CAM software is designed to work very well with SolidWorks files.

Thank you very much guys. That is what I was hoping to hear. Also thank you for the heads up on testing some ways to reflect the light or setting the cast all the way through.

After a couple year hiatus I have decided to get back into building a few guitars and have taken on a project with a lot of meaning to me and hopefully even more meaning to whoever winds up with the guitars. It will be auctioned off for the Keystone Wounded Warriors. My initial thoughts are a patriotic design and my first thought was an outline of the Freedom Tower as the fretboard inlay. As I was thinking through a few ideas I remembered that I have a few pieces of rock brought back during the excavation for the Freedom Tower and would like to include a piece set into the body and have it visible. I know people have done stuff like this before but I am not sure what material they use to encase the pieces. I thought of epoxy, but experience has shown when it is that thick it does not dry as hard and never dries very clear, usually a little yellowish. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I can't comment on tension or feel since all of my personal guitars have standard headstocks. But for asthetics I usually prefer the reverse head stock, especially on more aggresive shaped guitars. Certain head shapes I don't think lend themselves as well though. A Strat or Tele headstock I think looks odd when reversed. Jackson or ESP I think look awesome reversed. The one I am undecided on though is the Gibson 3x3 headstocks, I don't know if I like them better standard or reversed.

I'm surprised to hear someone say that Deft doesn't dry hard enough. Most of the complaints I have read and have experienced are that it drys too hard, making it prone to chipping easily. Bumps that my other nitro guitars have only received dents from or even no damage, save a scuff mark, resulted in decent sized chips of lacquer and paint missing on my Deft coated guitars. If it is all that you can get your hands on I would use Deft. But if you can get Behlen or ReRanch or Mohawk I would use those first.

I'm going to add another vote for start from scratch and build a new one. Especially since this one has sentimental value, leave it as is so you have no chance of it getting ruined. If you try to repair/rebuild it there is a very big chance it could get damaged severely. Starting from scratch does not take much more work and preserves the original. Plus, you could build a new neck and do all of the upgrades and find out that it is just the body that is robbing the sustain and tone you are looking to achieve.

I think my most heartbreaking was dropping a guitar that just had it's last coat of clear applied. Up to that point it was my best paint job and it flowed out beautifully. I sprayed the last coat and let it flash off, I went to move it to my drying area and I lost my grip and the hanger and ker-pow. Right into the concrete and a gouge in the paint down to bare wood.

Probably the one I get the most is "I have a guitar design, can you draw it in CAD for me so I can have it CNC cut"? I am trying to build guitars and build a name for myself. I am not going to draw up a guitar just so you can take your business elsewhere.

A big difference also come between the brand or style of tube amps. Marshal sounds different than Mesa, which is different than Peavey, which is different than Diesel, which is different than Bogner. I've played through various brands and at higher volume I like the tone from tube amps better. But I only mess around at home so I don't play at those volumes so a SS amp suits me better since you don't get the true tone of a tube amp at bedroom levels.

Is that a God of Fire I see in there? If so, excellent choice! I am in the same boat as Chris, when I have a major error I take some time off. I've tried working through it to keep momentum, but things just got worse from there. I have no set cool down time, I just come back when it feels right. I haven't built any guitars in almost a year because I fought the last one so much that I was just burned out from the stress. The end result turned out great and the customer was thrilled, but all I remembered was the time spent making repairs. But it still does not discourage me from pursuing this and trying to make a decent go of this as a side business. I just knew it was time to step back and clear my mind.

It sounds like you are expecting it to take only a few minutes the first time around. Every adjustment affects the tension on the neck, so it takes time to get it back to equilibrium. It is even worse with a Floyd Rose because you now have to watch your bridge setup as well. It isn't something that is going to take only 5 minutes, unless you get lucky and the saddles are pretty close to start with.

I usually use 1000 grit on a small hard block to sand only over the decal once I have a few coats of clear on, just to keep it smooth and to keep the thickness reduced. Once I have it level with itself I use red Scotch Brite to scuff the rest of the head and then spary my next coats.

This is common on factory guitars, and the cheaper the model the more likely the gap. It is due the using a standard template and allowing room for adjustment to save time versus a well fit neck on a custom guitar. It does not need to be filled, though it will make the neck more stable. On a guitar like a Squire, I doubt you'll notice a tone difference.

Here are my thoughts. I tend to not like chemical strippers, but more than likely the current gray finish is from a spray can and will come off easily with one of the more mild strippers. But the original clear coat that is still there should be polyester which won't be touched by anything by the harshest stripper. Remove the current paint, clean and lightly sand the original paint just to roughen it up and then paint over that. Use the original paint as a nice primer/base coat. If you want to go back to straight wood I would go with a heat gun and scraper and then sand. These guitars have a thick sealer coat on them that I would just sand to and not go all the way back to the bare wood. Use the stuff that is on there to save you work.

Part of the order of application will be dictated by the type of grain filler you use. Waterbased usually absorbs dye pretty well, so you will end up with black grain filler.

Please don't take this as trying to start a flame war or personal attack, I just want to add clarification and information for any future readers of this thread. Of the companies named, they only use 100% tung oil as a finish on custom guitars, and even then some will not use it because it provides almost no moisture protection. Their standard line of guitars with "Oil finish" necks fall into one of two categories: either oil finish or a polymerized oil. Oil finish is not tung oil, it is usually a varnish that has been thinned with tung or linseed oil. If you open a can of tung oil and smell any kind of solvent or polyurethane smell, it is a tung oil finish. Tung oil has a sweet, kind of nutty smell. Tung oil does not, and will not dry to a gloss finish. If you leave the lid off a can of tung oil finish it will skin over and the rest will remain liquid. With 100% tung oil it will absorb any oxygen in the air and begin to cure, if you put the lid on a bottle of it without squeezing out all of the air, you will come back to a bottle that has turned white and become semi-solid. I use 100% tung oil a lot on plaques and display pieces for the warmth and natural tones it brings out, but it will never acheive any kind of reasonable film thickness nor be polished to a high gloss. Polymerized oil is an oil finish with chemical hardeners if I remember correctly. I know that it is different from a standard oil it that it will dry hard and will build up a glossy film. This is the most common "Oil Finish" on guitar necks. Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil is a common brand. Polymerized oils though tend to be more expensive. Wes mentioned Bob Flexner's book. I cannot recommend that book strongly enough. It is very thorough and puts a lots of myths to rest. It is easy to read and understand while giving more information about various finishes than you would realize.