ihocky2

The lumber from the big box stores is always hit or miss. I've seen some nice figured pieces, but they were twisted pretty bad. I've used oak from Lowe's for a shelf and within a few hours after cutting it it was twisting already. Their stuff is kiln dried, but not always completely, or dried correctly. Some is dried correctly, some is still too moist and moves when you cut it, some is case hardened, so it's always a crap shoot.

I am not an inlay expert, but you pretty much have a spiral shape inlay. I woud just pick the center most piece and work out from there in a spiral.

Easiest solution might be to find a pre-made neck with the woods that you want to use and make sure it has the correct width for your string spacing and the nut width that you want, and just get one with a paddle head. Then you can cut a Telecaster style head and still have a neck that fits what you want. That will probably be easier than finding a Tele neck with the specs that you need.

I know Dan Erlwine touches on this method in his fretting book. There is the whole tone voodoo of gluing the frets in, but I won't go into that. There are a lot of advantages to gluing the frets in, and it is not necessarily a bad way to do it. I've seen of people that use this method only and they will put glue into each slot and then place the fret and use a long radiused caul to clamp all of the frets at one time. Definitely faster than hammering and pressing. For a refret the repairmen should be heating the fret anyway to lessen chipping when he pulls the frets out. This method is really handy if fretting a large inlay, no chance of chipping the inlay while pressing the fret. You also eliminate the chance of adding a backbow to the neck from the accumulated pressure of the frets, so you have a flat board after fretting. From what I've seen hide glue, super glue, and PVA all seem to be common glues. The downsides I see are that you have to be a lot more careful of you radius in the fret wire and that the slots are not too far oversized. If too large your fret could be out of position.

I am normall very anti-control plate, but this one to my eye looks better with the control plate. I know it is covering up a good bit of the nice figuring, but some reason it just catches my eye better. If you decide against the control plate I would go with the variation on B. I like the offset look better without the plate.

You have received a TON of great advice in this thread so far. So I am only going to add a few things. Be willing to start at the bottom and work your way up. I've seen new builders start right off the bat with prices that match experienced and established builders. Name and reputation are everything, but price is a close second. I won't buy a $20,000 concept car built by a guy I know nothing about when I can by a Ford for that same price. Decide how much you are willing to invest in time and capital up front. Especially with kit guitars, most people are looking for a low price, so while I think you have something with unique designs in kits, final cost will still be a determining factor for the customer. Decide how far you truly want to take this and take your time to get there. I would love to become a full time builder that does nothing else, but I will be happy if it only ever stays as a hobby that funds itself. In my area I could go out and post flyers and business cards and place ads, but I don't have the time to commit yet to the possible amount of work that might generate. So for now I work at my pace. I hope this works out for you and wish you the best of luck with it.

To expand on Killemall, you will need to use a candy color paint or trans-tint dye mixed into your poly. Scuff the existing finish for adhesion and spray a toner coat to get your desired color. You will then want to clear-coat again. Though you have to be carefull that you don't develop too thick of a finish. Some finishes don't like to be laid on thick and will crack. The poly you already sprayed on is now dried and is plastic, if you apply dye or stain it will wipe right off.

I've usually heard that the blue comes from a fungus that is common with holly if not dried quickly and properly. I got a few logs from my neighbor when he cut his down and cut them into strips that afternoon and put them right into a home-made solar kiln. The off-cut went on the firewood pile and all turned mostly bluish-green. The stuff in the kiln ended up with a few minor streaks of color but stayed mostly white. I left them to finish air-drying and are finally ready to use. From most of my research it seems the key is to get the majority of the moisture out of the wood quickly, so I am guessing your piece may not have been dried properly. Though I could be wrong on this, I never found any 100% definitive answers.

Would you mind expanding a little upon your "X" pattern of spraying. I have never heard about it before and am rather curious. Anything that might help get a better result is always nice to learn about.

My suggestion would be to get Melvyn Hiscock's book on building and electric guitar. He does an excellent job of walking you through 3 different style builds and explains all of the important details of a guitar design. The major ones are scale length and neck angle, and he shows how to determine both. This book falls just short of being required reading. After your read it a lot of your questions will be answered, and the ones you have left will be a lot more specific.

I've used that bridge, but I don't have the measurements for it handy. One thing to keep in mind is the wood you are using will make a little bit of a difference. Betweem mahogany and soft maple you wouldn't really see a difference, but between basswood and hard maple you will have a strength difference. A harder wood will be able to go a little thinner.

I personally prefer 10's on my guitars no matter what bridge, but it is personal preference. The thicker the gauge the higher the tension will be to acheive the same pitch, meaning bending notes will take more strength and will hurt finger tips more until he builds up caluses. 9's are great to start out on and he can move up from there is he likes. But plenty of guys stick with 9's after years of playing anyway.

+2, 1/16" is a pretty sloppy gap. If you're refinishing to make it a better guitar, than do it right and plug a redrill. The only thing I will go against Not You on is the dowels. Don't use dowels, use plugs. Dowels will you drilling into the end grain, plug you drill across the grain, like the rest of the body.

There was an episode on American Choppers last season that they had a dipped finish put on the one bike. That was the first time I saw how they did that. It looks like you can have anything you want done if you send it to one of the shops and they work better with auto finishes.

Thanks for the help so far, if anyone else has anything to add, please keep it coming. I have not checked the major acoustic forum/s yet, but will give them a try and things progress. I figured from the start some woods might not work well for major components and would be releagated to inlay, but I am okay with that. I plan to get fairly extravegent with the inlay work, so I'll have plenty of places to use it. I do not expect it to be a great sounding acoustic since I don't know much about them, I just thought it would be a great way to pay homage to family and American heritage. Black walnut sounds like a great idea for the neck. I love walnut as a neck. I have used it with poplar, mahogany, and ash bodies and it has paired well with all of them. It is easily becoming my favorite guitar wood.

Let me start by saying that while I am comfortable with building electric guitars I have no idea how to build an acoustic. I will be getting some books and doing some practice before I undertake my real attempt at a build. But with the winter storm that hit I have some trees that fell and are now moving in the right direction for my dream build. So where I need help is, what can I use these woods for on an acoustic. The basis for this project is that my wifes family owns a small farm that has been in the family well over 100 years. My idea is I want to build an acoustic guitar (along with a fwe other projects) from woods only coming from the farm as best as I can. I also want to keep it to woods that have family significance. This is a project that will be slowly evolving since I am not going to cut any trees down that do not already need to be cut. The rest of the family likes when I am cutting some of this up as well though since I always use the apple wood to make a big barbeque for the entire family. There is an apple tree that uprooted in storm that I can get some nice lumber out of that was planted by my wifes great grandfather. I will be cutting this up into usable boards. There is a small peach tree that came down that is the last surviving peach tree and again was planted by her great grandfather. There is some lumber that is stored in the barn that is rough sawn. I know some of it is black cherry, the rest could be hickory, ash, maple, oak, chestnut, or sassafrass. These boards were cut at some point by her great grandfather or even earlier. There is also some lumber that was used for furnitire making that I have to identify, but it is probably one of the possibilities listed above since that is what primarily grows there. These would have been milled by her great great grandfather. I know spruce is common for acoustic tops, but we don't have any of that (I don't think). There is however some type of conifer that was her great grandmothers Christmas tree one year as a child. I will not cut the tree down just to get lumber out of it, but when it is time to take it out, I will keep lumber from it. I just still have to identify what type it is. So here is the list of woods I will have to work with. Can anyone give me some ideas on what parts of an acoustic these could be used for. Also can an inlay be done on the top of an acoustic or only the back? Apple-must use Peach-must use Black Cherry-must use Conifre of some type that has to be identified. black walnut maple oak ash sassafrass

The pressures could just be the difference in the model of the gun. Like I said, mine is the Finex 1000 which is the mini gun. I run a 1.0 tip for base and clear and am going to pick up a 0.8 for detail work. The gun is rated at 100 psi max and 10 psi max at the air cap. So I would guess that you are using a larger gun. I can tell you for certain that if I slow down at all I get major sags and runs in the paint, so I am getting plenty sprayed on. Once I figured out my settings I could get away without wet sanding and go straight to polishing if it was a car. My guitars I like a dead smooth finish, but most days I can get away starting at 1500 or 2000 grit, just to get the slight imperfections out.

Dumb question, but are you mixing components from any other companies for anything at all. Even using die or pigment to mix to get your color or Brand X primer and Brand Y basecoat? Some just do not play well with others. I don't think it has anything to do with your problem, but why are you spraying at 20 psi with a low pressure gun? I run my conventional at 25. I have a Finex 1000 and I have to run my compressor around 70-80 psi to get it to run at 5-10 psi with the trigger open. At 10 PSI with the trigger pulled it's like a hurricane coming out, I can't imagine at 20. I would think you would getting organge peal problems from that much air.

My suggestion would be mahogany or limba. I've done mahogany with a maple neck and love the tone. However, it will not be a Les Paul tone. Your going for what at least sounds like a Les Paul tone with more highs and a bit more snap. So your taking essentially a Les Paul body and adding a brighter wood for the neck, a brighter wood for the fretboard, and a longer scale length which will result in a snappier tone. It might get you exactly where you want, or it might turn out brighter than you want. I personally love walnut, but have found it to be a bright tone, but different than maple. I always say that it is bright but less harsh and less piercing than maple. A walnut body with all of that maple though will not get you close to a Les Paul type tone. If it were my build I would go with mahognay or limba and adjust the final tone with pickups and electronics.

I use both methods listed above. 1/4" or 1/8" vinyl painters tape for bindings and f-holes. The AP I have seen called Frisket(sp), I use that to tape off inlays in the body if I am laying down color.

Unfortunately I do not.

I use the technique accomplished with Myka's jig but without having the jig, basically the one you are describing. I don't remember where the thread is though. Here is my technique though. Clamp the neck in place. Make sure you have the center line straight down the length of the neck. Once the neck is in place, place a board along each side of the neck and extending the length of the body. I prefer to use the factory cut ends from a piece of MDF because I know it is straight. Clamp the board in place. Watch your clamp placement so you have room for your router. Clamp or double face tape a piece of wood between the stringer boards along the heal of the neck. Unclamp the neck. You know have a perfect template to the exact size of your neck.

I would go with option #3. You learn more from your mistakes then from your successes. This is not your fault there is a mistake, but you can take advantage of this and learn how to work with it. Even though it is only a fret board, it is a waste of lumber if it is salvagable, which it is in this case. You'll get practice doing inlays, which ovals would not take much time. The worst that can possibly happen is your bugger it up and have to scrap it and get a new one. Then you're only back to where you started, so there is really no down side to trying to make it work.

Glue in a block of wood and then fill any gaps with auto body puty. Wood puty shrinks back over time, once dry auto body puty doesn't. It is well worth the time though to get the block of wood to fit as tight as possible. The less gaps the better the end result will be.

I never thought mine was too high, but I did have the bridge apart so that it was nothing but a pile of parts, nothing attached to each other at all. The allen screw is tight, but did come out.