ihocky2

Follow the link inm Dylanwad's post. It gives you everything.

If you make anything from wood, it is not going to be rigid enough to accurately drill holes. If you make it from metal, you are going to spend more on parts than a cheap drill press. The only option I could suggest that is not overly expensive and lets you use a hand drill is a drill stand. Basically it is what you want to build, and works like a mini drill press. It's better than free hand, but still not very accurate. Please tell me I interpretted you using that router for drilling holes wrong and that you are plunging with router bits and that you are not putting a drill bit in the router.

You can use a hand plane. With a sharp blade, it won't take more than a few hours to remove a quarter inch and smooth it out again. Your arm may be a little tired when you are done, but I really enjoy the sense of accomplishment from seeing something come together that I made by hand.

This will be strong and more accurate than you can make anything at home. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Disp...temnumber=44505

First thing I would do is make sure everything is set up properly. If you first fret is buzzing, my first guess would be that the nut slots are too low. Read through the tutorials on how to do a full set up and get the guitar where you want it. Then see if it is still buzzing. If not, then you fixed with a setup. You may find during the setup that the nut slots are too deep and you know where the problem is and need to replace the nut. If you get through the setup and find nothing wrong and it still buzzes then the fret would probably need leveling and dressing.

I'm in the process of making a Tele with ambrosia maple as the top. There is a thread several pages back in the in progress section. I have to get updated pictures tonight and update the thread. Once you have some offcuts, PM me and let me know what you have and how much for them. I will definitely be interested in some.

Find a store that sells Plastikote auto spray paint. They are working with house of colors and have a candy and a pearl coat line of spary paints. Just skip the base color and you have a transparent color coat. I used it with Deft nitro spary cans and had great results.

I love the shark inlays. Adds a whole new meaning to sharkies for the Jackson crowd.

I agree on the forstner bit. I have yet to have a sharp one cut a ragged hole or have any chip out on the top of the hole. Spade bits like to waner until they get into the wood some, and even then they still can wander easier. And I usually get pretty bad chip out on any time I use a spade bit. I pretty much limit spade bits to carpentry work around the house.

That sounds like it is the correct length. You mainly want the relief to be adjusted around the 7th fret, maybe a few closer to the neck, but not a whole lot more than that.

It would probably be a quick way to remove the heavy two part poly's that is used these days. But you would still have to sand everything smooth. As long as you keep the gun moving and are carefull as you get closer to the wood though, I think it would be a quick way to remove paint if you have access to a blasting cabinet.

Instead of getting cheap wood at home depot get some poplar or ash or alder or even basswood. It will cost the same or only like $5 more than pine or any of the stuff home depot has. In fact it will be cheaper than the hardwoods that home depot selss. If you are not happy with the results you are not out much money, and if you are happy with the results, you just built yourself a decent guitar. A lot of people figure they'll start with cheap wood from home depot, but don't realise that you can get good hard wood for only a few dollars more.

I have what may be a dumb question, but if it is a semi-hollow why isn't the ash portion of the body chambered? You can see the f-hole goes straight down the the ash, but the ash is still in one piece, there is no cavity there.

I am not positive, but from my reading, it is my understanding that I can grain fill with oil based grain filler and still be able to dye with alcohol based. Is that correct or am I misinterpreting things? If that is the case, would I be better to grain fill the ash and the end grain on everything and even though it doesn't really need it, grain fill the maple and let it take whatever it will hold, and then spray alcohol based dye? Like I said I have plenty of scrap to do my testing on and plan on doing plenty of testing, but would like to eliminate any ideas that would cause problems from the start.

I am getting ready to start testing some scraps for my tele project for dying. I am a little concerned though about the body wood and the end grain. I have never used dyes before. The body has a 3/8" maple cap and about 1-1/2" ash for the body. I tried using the search feature, but most search phrases would not be allowed because of words being too short. I saw one post saying that ash can be a nightmare to dye. Is this true? Should I try sealing the ash first and then dying with alcohol based dye. I am mainly looking for some tips now on getting the end grain to match evenly and some tips on dying the ash. I am going to be precticing on scraps first, but would like to have a few good tips first, that way I am not wasting my time practicing bad habits. I have both water based and oil based grain filler so I could use either for the ash. I will be using Trans-Tints dyes so I can do either water or alcohol based dye. I want to dye the wood instead of spraying toner coats because I want to try and really get the grain to highlight on the maple, which I don't think I'll get with the toner coats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I knew he had it listed and it didn't sell the first time around because we were all watching it, but I didn't know if he relisted it at a lower price and got a sucker.

Did he ever get the first one to sell that anyone knows of. I guess I had better run out back and start ripping apart pallets now and get work started so I can be the first to make a 16 string bass. I might as well skip the 15 because someone is probably doing it already to beat his 14. I figure if I use one of the nail guns here at work I can have the body blank together in about a half hour. I'll just use the nails as a selling point, the steel has a better transfer of harmonics creating a nice tight low end.

Great to hear. Good luck with it.

Glad to hear that she found such a good home. I hate to hear those kinds of stories and it makes me sick that people actually find crap like that amusing.

Nah, they just need the right seasoning. Hey Matt, it looks like mom is a border collie, what is the father?

Can it be done with just a bucket of water or oil and a propane torch? Yes. Will you get the same results or the desired results everytime? No. The propane torch will be tough to control exactly how quickly you heat the steel and to what temperature. Just because the steel is red does not mean that it is hot enough or is not too hot. Then once you quench it, the steel is hardened, but is also very brittle. You will probably snap the knife edge off if you try to use it at this point. The steel now needs to be tempered, which means reheating it to a lesser temperature than before and doing it slowly. And then you need to control the cooling. Depending on the temper you want you either air cool it slowly or quench it again. Steels recrystalization temperture is 1800 deg. F (IIRC, if not someone please correct me) and melting point is around 2300 deg. F. But the steel will turn red hot before it recrystalises. And if you do not heat it high enough, you are not adding much strength to the steel. Plus a minor note is that you will ruin what ever finish it has already, so you will need to get it refinished.

Countries in Europe and Asia are a different story there. Less people drive and mass transit and walking is the main transportation. But they can get away with charging that because people that want to drive somewhere are willing to pay it.

That is what a lot of people trying to sell stuff don't get though. I could take a Squire Strat throw in $500 in pickups and electronics, but it is still a Squire and still would only sell for like $100. Like everything in life, a product is not worth what you think it should be. It is worth what people are willing to pay. Look at some of the ceramic figurines. To collectors they are worth hundreds. To me they are worth maybe $50, but I don't collect them. Is oil worth what we pay for it, probably not, but we are willing to pay the price so that is what they sell it for. Hamburgers only cost McDonalds around 10 cents. So why do they cost $1.50 or more. Because we are willing to pay it. The same reason that oil prices have gone up is the reason that it is not $8 a gallon for gas. There is a point where people are not willing to pay a price. You can charge what ever you want for what ever product you have. But it is still only worth what people are willing to pay.

Not sure if you would consider it or not, but maybe you could dye a maple board so that it is a light pink. Easier to work with, cheap and easily available.

I don't think it is really the overall length that makes it look long, nor does the body need to be scaled up. I think it is only the body it self that looks long. The only thing I would change would be to scale down the back half. That is the area that makes it look wide and long. And as I re-examine it, it is not even that terribly long, maybe just a hair. It is mainly the width of the back half.