ihocky2

You don't want any oil getting into your spray gun or it will ruin the finish, same thing with water. I have a filter on my compressor, and a regulator at the gun. I haven't gone to the extent yet to set up a desicant canister in line, so I just by sections of desicant hose for now to keep the water out of the gun.

I would not say that you have a limited color pallete if the wood is alder or some other light wood. In fact I would say you can do almost any colors you want because it is light to begin with. Try turning a piece of mahoganny lemon yellow. Oil finishes give a great natural look and can either have dyes added to some of them or can be applied over a dyed surface. I have found that making your own dyes is easier to work with than premade stains. StewMac sells their own line of dyes, but Trans-Tint is the same thing and can be found through wood working suppliers. Several of the luthier suppliers also sell analine dyes which work the same, they just arrive as a powder. Check out the Reranch forum. It is guys that are mostly working on Fenders or Fender clones, and go for a vintage look so, there are quite a few guys over there that do great burst finishes and can offer a lot of advice. As for stripping the bass, I would recomend going with a heat gun, it works much quicker and easier than anything else I have tried. You just have to be carefull not to scorch the wood.

Flon has pretty much nailed it. I am just finishing up a second build on the guitar shown below. The first one ran into some major problems late in the build that forced me to start over. So I had the body laying around, all buggered up and decided to do some destructive testing on it to see how fragile it was. I was dropped and slammed repeatedly onto a concrete floor. The two rear points only mushed up and chipped the finish, but they stayed intact. The front horn however snapped off right away on the first drop. But that is due to the direction of the wood grain versus the amount of area that it has to hold it to the body. So most of your pointy guitars will chip and ding up pretty badly, but for the most part they stay intact just fine. http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b192/iho...rd/DSC03174.jpg

The one question that you haven't answered that is critical is "Are you getting a new neck or just cutting a half inch off the existing one"? If you are buying a new one, then it is a bit of work, but you can adjust the neck pocket to meet the scale length and the shape of the new neck. If all you are planning on doing is hacking a half inch off the neck, then it is impossible. You can get the correct length from the nut to the bridge, but all of the frets will be in the wrong position and every note will be wrong.

I'm not sure what year it is, but I just double checked my JS1 Dinky and it is a 22 fret with a 2-3/16" neck.

Jackson and Charvel are big on changing the profiles and sizes of their necks. Even on the same model they can change from year to year.

I do have to appologize, I spoke too soon. After I went back and double checked that book everything you said is completely correct, I had crossed it in my mind with linseed oil which is the one that is not quite as effective. I will still disagree that using it to prevent stains from beer and straight liquid is a bad idea, since it will still absorb them. But as for the water vapor exchange, it is a good choice. But it is one that does need occasional coats placed on in the future. O went back and edited the post so that the incorrect information is not in there to confuse future readers.

Edited: incorrect info removed. For the OP, your best bet is to get Bob Flexners book on Understanding Wood Finishes. He gets very into detail and dispells a lot of common myths. Out of the oil finishes the only true oils are Tung or Linseed (straight or boiled). The rest are either a wiping varnish or polymerized oil, even though the name says something different.

Dumb question, but do add any clear over the shielding paint? I just finished using it for the first time and it if very soft and flakey. Just brushing against it and your finger is grey and there is paint dust all over the body. The few guitars I bought with shielded cavities never were like that.

I don't have any templates, but the only difference the larger bodies make is to avoid lawsuits from Jackson. Jackson has the King V shape copyrighted, so no one else can make a guitar that is the same shape and size, or closely resembling it enough to be easily mistaken. The ESP and Dean models are obviously going to be heavier due to the extra wood, and probably balance a little better. But Vees are all about strap placement to get a good balance. Part of the reason behind the King V size was to eliminate some of the weight from a Gibson V.

I don't have any templates, but the only difference the larger bodies make is to avoid lawsuits from Jackson. Jackson has the King V shape copyrighted, so no one else can make a guitar that is the same shape and size, or closely resembling it enough to be easily mistaken. The ESP and Dean models are obviously going to be heavier due to the extra wood, and probably balance a little better. But Vees are all about strap placement to get a good balance. Part of the reason behind the King V size was to eliminate some of the weight from a Gibson V.

I've cut wire twice for bound necks with the tang nipper and never had a problem, and it is already radiused. I won't even cut frets for non-bound boards anymore without using it. By eliminating the tang it really seems to get rid of a lot of the twisting or hard cutting problems I used to have. There are few tools I don't try and save money on, but those are definitely worth the money.

15-20 minutes is normal time for automotive paints. They cure very quickly. Here is a link to the S-W Auto site. Pick the clear that you are using and pull up the tech sheet or product data sheet. http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/products/ Now that I look back you said you sprayed 10-15 coats of LACQUER. Everything I have seen that they sell is either a poly or acrylic urethane, which is completely different than lacquer. With auto paints you shouldn't need to go heavier than 6 coats of clear, or you will generally run into the finish cracking (I learned the hard way).

There is a thread stickied in the tool section or the tutorial tool section about what tools are needed for building a guitar and I know the fretting tools are covered in there.

There is one tool that is free and is probably my most used tool, the search function on this website. If you have a question, it is a good bet that it has been asked before and answered. Before you even finalize your design, read as much as you can. You'll understand why certain guitars have certain design features. Some are just for looks, some are very functional. Also, check out the ReRanch forum. Almost all of the finishing work over there is done with spray cans, so you can gain a lot of finishing knowledge from them. You can buy a premade neck, but expect to be at least at $100 on up. But the tools to make and fret a neck are going to cost well over $100. Good luck and welcome.

You don't really say much about how big the custom design is or what types of woods you are going to use or anything. A mahogany Les Paul without a maple top is going to need a lot smaller of a body blank than an Explorer, so it will need less wood and be cheaper. But a 1/2" flamed maple top is going to add some cost. For a body with a maple top, I don't see any need to use AAA grade mahogany. Just a nice flat or quarter sawn piece that is free from knots or odd grain run out. It may not be pretty but that is what the maple is for. Go to www.woodfinder.com and enter your zip code, it'll give you the lumber dealers and mills in your area, you can find out what they have and what kind of cost they have.

I am about ready to start finishing a neck, but am not sure yet what finish I want to use. I have either polyurethane or Danish oil. I would rather use the oil finish to get a nice thin and smooth finish, but am unsure about what to do with the binding. If I use the poly, I can just spray right over the binding to protect it. But I doubt the oil finish will do much good over the plastic. Any experience or advice on this would be appreciated.

The one place I could see the X-bracing working a little better though is when using carbon fiber reinforcement rods. They are thin enough that you should not carve into them, and in theory it should help prevent twisting better.

I used a few different syringes, depending on how much I need to mix. I think I was using a 10cc, and a 30cc, along with a painters mixing cup. So I know I had the mix very close to dead on. I think I am just going to have to experiment more with it over the summer since I can start spraying again outdoors. This guitar is actually for a friend, so I am glad I got too busy to polish it out right away. I would have hated to have finished it and given it to him, to have it crack only a few months later. If you haven't stripped down the two guitars you have to refinish yet, I can tell you a heat gun a scraper does a fantastic job. Only the slightest bit of residue is left. I think it took me 2 or 3 minutes of sanding with 100 grit on the random orbital to get the front and back totally clear after scraping.

I stripped it already and have pretty well determined that it was from being sprayed on too thick. I ended up with about 8 coats I think. It didn't really seem like it was building that heavy at the time. When I used the heat gun and stripped it yesterday the stuff was pretty darned thick. After I had two or three coats on I could still see the pores pretty well, so I figured it wasn't building that well. I think you need to go with more than the 2 or 3 they recommend, but only a couple more. I'll have to experiment more over the summer. I am probably going to respray tomorrow with 2 part poly. I got a lot of good advice and recomendations from the guys at the auto body supply, so I think it will turn out pretty nice.

I only use either mineral oil, or mineral oil thinned with mineral spirits anymore. I gave up on water over a year ago when I got tired of plugging all of the holes just so I could wet sand.

I am in the process of sanding out and polishing my Warbird build. I have it down to 1000 grit and had to let it sit for about a week or more. I started working again tonight and noticed a bunch of little cracks through the finish on the side of the body and a big one on the front that runs between the two pickup cavities. I am not sure why this suddenly happened. I used the Sherwin Williams Conversion varnish on this body. It was painted back in January, but has been kept indoors in 70 degree weather the whole time. It has been kept away from the windows or the heat vents. I know that I am not going to be able to fix this without stripping the body down, which I am going to start tomorrow. But I wanted to find out why it happened. This is not the greatest picture, but it shows the big crack. And even more annoying is that it is not along a glue line, that is only solid wood.

I'm not terribly familiar with the Kahler style, behind the nut locking clamp, but I don't see why it wouldn't still work well. I think Floyd Rose, just tried to eliminate unneccessary parts in his design.

You can use pine, but it it usually avoid since poplar, basswood, ash, and alder are superior hardwoods and not nearly as soft and cost right about the same as pine. Oak has been used, but is generally not used since it is very heavy, and not as dense as some other woods for the weight. But it can be used. Usually you are not going to find thick enough wood at your normal hardware stores. They are usually only 1" thick, and I rarely find hardwood their that is dried properly, and to the right amount. You are better finding a local lumber mill and buying from them.

The other question is, what type of metal do you play. Guitars tuned down to C, B or even lower playing a lot of palm muting with the gain at 10, you are nto going to hear much of a difference between neck through and the other styles. If it more hair metal with 10 minute solos, you are going to pick more tonal differences.