ihocky2

This has been discussed several times in the past and the one key point to doing this successfully is a solid glue joint. This means that the fit needs to be snug to achieve maximum bonding. Most factory neck pockets are too sloppy for this without shimming first. Since I see that this is one of your builds you'll know better than anyone how tight the fit is. A good rule of thumb though is that you should be able to hold the body by the neck without any screws or anything. Then you'll need to sand off just a hair to make sure the neck fits in once the wood starts swelling from the glue.

Awesome story. It feels nice when people start paying you to build or modify, but it doesn't even come close to how you feel when you know someone truely cherishes what you made for them. Do you have any pictures of the work in progress?

Thanks for the kind words. Played very nicely, great upper fret access without having to re-adjust your hand. I really liked the Wilkinson bridge and was having a blast messing around with the midi output.

Yes it is a P-Rail. I can't remember exactly how it sounded anymore, but I can say I will be putting one of those in one of my personal guitars in the future. Not overly powerfull as a humbucker, closer to a SD Jazz, it gets nice a gritty, but cleans up nicely as well. Split it gets a pretty good P-90 sound and the rail is nice and glassy. The painting wasn't actually that hard around the inlays, just time consuming. I used frisket paper over the inlays and trimmed to the shape. Once the paint once on I gave it enough time to set up that I could pull the frisket before it started to actually dry. After that it was only a little touch up here and there with a broken exacto blade as a scraper. I will agree that the headstock got a nicer fade than the body. I've been working on sunbursts more since then and most of them are getting nicer than this one.

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of this. I actually finished it up before Christmas, it just took forever until I got pictures sorted and uploaded. So here is the final result. The customer wanted a paint job that looked kind of like a nebula, so this is what we agreed on. This is a light amber center out to a candy green out to a transparent midnight blue which carries around to the back. The inlay work on the back was done in house and the inlay work on the neck was done by Cliff at Shark Inlay. I ended up taking pictures and decided after I did to move the Ghost Saddle wires under the bridge, so even though they are shown here they were moved, but that was a last minute deal that was done in the final hours before it shipped and I never got to take pictures of it. Custom Typhon Gallery

I don't remember where I saw it, but I remember seeing a lapsteel bridge made from aluminum round bar as well.

I've had LUCK with figured wood so far that it hasn't torn out on me too badly. VERY sharp blades are key as well as LIGHT cutting depth. If you can adjust the feed rate, use the slowest setting. I try to get the side I want to have showing flat and as soon as it is I take the rest of the thickness off the back side. That way if it does tear out, it is on the glued face anyway.

Another tip, that is similar, to getting good pictures is to take them outside on an overcast day. You don't get much in reflections and it is a naturally difussed light. I always take some with and without flash and see what gets best. Some pictures get really nice on sunny days, but it's hard getting the light right to avoid glares and bad reflections. When I can get my hands on my wifes good camera with the separate flas, I'll angle the flash so it brightens the picture but the light is not directed at the guitar.

Nicely done. Not my cup of tea in the shape department, but I am not a fan of PRS or SG shapes, both of which I see in there. But the craftsmanship is there and they look well built. The finishes look great. Not trying to steal any trade secrets, but just curious, what brand of paint are you using to get that finish?

Nice job on the recovery. I would have given up on it early on and ended up making a new neck, but you decided to fix and and found a way to make it work and executed it very well. Congrats!. It is super looking, but it doesn't look that bad either. The only thing I'll pick it, is in the top down shot the right hand side has a very smooth and symmetrical curve and the left side is a little more jagged. I would do a little light sanding or scraping work to smooth the left side a little more. More than likely the jagged areas are from low spots, so they should clean up during sanding, since they are only marginally lower.

Remember, there are not mistake or flaws, only FEATURES. Personally I would leave it like it is. I love the way that looks, very unique.

I would say give it another week or two. I know having it hang there and looking at it is a killer and you really want to finish it up, but you'll just end up having to go back and re-polish it if you do it to early. Not worth rushing it. Plus the softer finish tends to clog sand paper faster and makes wet sanding more difficult.

Good point on getting the doctors okay. I've worked at a few places where part of our pre-employment physical requires a breathing test to allow us to use a respirator. I've only ever worked in the office, but it is still required. Talking with the in house safety guys, they've told me there are some people that thought they would be okay, but ended up failing the test. Filtering respirators take more force to breathe through than you would think.

You're best bet is to find a local plating shop and ask if they can get added to the next batch of small parts they are plating. That should keep the cost down, you just have to wait for their schedule. These guys do refinishing and plating on guns, and their prices are pretty decent. They might be able to do those pieces for you at a reasonable price. I can atest that they do nice work. http://www.fordsguns.com/

You can't go wrong with a superstrat, or another hot chick for that matter. Both lots of fun to play at loud volumes and look great on stage. At first look at the strat style guitars it looks like there is not much you can do to make it stand out, but there is a lot more there to work with than it looks like at first. Sleeker line, different edge contours, I personally don't like the flat bottoms on most strats, so I like to make that more curved.

The Floyd Rose is a system, and part of that system is the locking nut. By only using the locking saddles you still can have string binding at the nut or strings slip at the tuners. To get everything possible out of a Floyd Rose you need the locking nut. If you are not dive bombing heavy enough to think you need the locking nut, then I would save the money and setup time and get a quality non-locking two-post trem, say a Wilkinson.

If it's glue you can also use mineral spirits, naptha, lighter fluid, rubbing alcohol. I would stay away from more aggresive solvents like acetone (or nail polish), lacquer thinner, MEK, Xylene. I've used Goo Gone before, but I don't know whats in it so I would check first to make sure there is nothing that will harm the plastic.

Very cool. Congratulations on getting licensed. I think it is still one of my favorites I've seen done on here.

I hang vertical when I can because that's what I have the most room for and it the easiest to hang. I've tried spraying bursts like that and find it hard to do though. I made a craddle to hold it by the neck and a screw where the strap button goes, but that has problems with painted necks. I'm trying to figure out a better horizontal system but have not gotten there yet. I'm going to build a spray booth soon and don't want it 6' tall to be able to hang a guitar, so I need to come up with something to work horizontally. I can get almost flat finishes hanging vertically so you can get very good finishes vertically, it just take time to work out your spray settings to get it just right.

Awesome looking. I am not a Tele purist, so in my mind that is what a Tele should look like.

If I am reading this correctly is sounds like all you are trying to do is paint the guitar by dipping it? If that is the case, you should still have some type of clear coat to protect it, how are you going to apply that?

Pre-built necks are absolutely cheaper than buying all of the tools. Unless you want to be able to build highly customized necks, it's not worth buying the tools. Or at least not until you are going to build enough guitars to make them worth while. Look at Drak, he still uses pre-made necks on his work. eBay is a good place as well if you want to find a neck from another guitar, but it is a crap shoot if the neck is in good condition. I've been lucky with the 3 I bought off of there, but they were all from guitars that were being parted out and all parts were listed as new.

I see you mentioned using primer. That leads me to believe this is going to be an opaque paint job. What type of paint are you using, rattle can or 2-part auto paint? With either of them you can skip the sanding sealer, but it will help a little with the rattle cans. 2-part primer can just go straight onto the wood. For primer straight to wood I don't sand above 250 grit. The primer has such a high amount of solids it fills the minor scratches in and you'll never see them. 2-part primer is generally sprayed over 80 or 100 grit scratches on cars so it'll have no problem covering 250 grit scratches and the 250 gives it a little more tooth to grab on to than 320 or 400. Once your primer is on then sand with 320 or up to 400 grit to level the primer. Even for transparent paint jobs I don't use sanding sealer. It's a higher solid clear coat with soap added to make sanding easier and it does not dry as hard. I just use a few coats of the finish to do my sealing work.

Good call on the eye protection. I haven't heat stripped in a while and I forgot how the paint likes to literally pop off the body when scraping.

SWEET, thanks a lot.