ihocky2

I usually use the heat gun and a scraper to remove finish. As long as you're carefull not to get too much heat in an area and burn the wood I think it's safer and easier to controll than a belt sander. Works pretty fast too. Either way you do it, do it outside in good ventilation and a respirator (not a dust mask) is always a great idea.

Very nice looking so far, I like the color and the grain comes to life nicely. What is that extra route between the pickups for? Gibson Cherry Red I think is red tinted grain filler and then red lacquer. At least that's what's coming to mind right now.

I saw the same thing on StewMac, but that seems like it would have a lot of little gaps showing. They show how much it would take to use MOP for binding on a dreadnought, so it must be done somewhere.

I've had an inquiry about using real mother of pearl for binding on an electric guitar. I know this is used for purfling, but I can't wrap my head around how to do it for binding. It seems like you would be cutting pieces every few millimeters or less around the curves. Can anyone point me to a good resource on how to do this or offer advice? Right now with no experience doing it, it is something I must decline to do but I would like to learn how.

For something that small and in tight corners for an area to get a block glued in, I like a small sanding drum in a Dremel on low speed. Just go light and it showed removed the paint in not time. Even if just to get through the thick poly and then finish up by hand.

Before you go any further, I would HIGHLY recomend reading through the tutorials. There is good information in them and especially on the SAFETY of using different finishes. I would also recomend checking out the ReRanch forum. You're asking basic questions such as "Guessing a few coats between drying"? A lot of this information can be gained by reading the tutorials and at the ReRanch forum. There's a ton of good information about using lacquer over there and the ReRanch brand is supposed to be pretty good. Once you have a little understanding you'll still have questions but they'll be more specific and it is easier to get answers from guys. As for needing a finish, I would say Yes you need one. Even if it's just an oil finish. This will keep the wood cleaner, but it also slows down moisture transfer. The moisture causes swelling and shrinking of the wood which can lead to damage. Search Danish on here to learn about Danish oil and there is also a ton of threads on Tru-Oil, but the words are too short to search. Shellac is also a nice finish and EASY to use.

I would wait until you have the pickup in hand. If you want dimensions accurate enough to the outside of the tape wraps, then there will be some variations. Dimensions A and B GENERALLY do not change, but C and D can vary greatly between pickup models. I would wait until you have them in hand to be safe.

I like bloodwood for the skunk stripe. Purple heart turns brown with time, bloodwood stays truer to it's original color. Maple has the issue of sanding dust getting ground into it and if you are leaving it unfinished it will get dirty and gray and grimey quickly.

Upright basses do not use an adjustable truss rod, but have much heavier necks. It is not so much that the truss rod resists the forces of the strings, though it will help. It is more that you can adjust the relief to your liking. Early Martin's used a steel bar, but you could only adjust relief by carefull fretting work. Doing it as experimenting to see any tonal differences could be fun, but if you want it as a daily player the truss rod is a better idea. At least in my house I have to adjust every guitar twice a year as the weather swings if I want it completely buzz free, some more than others.

Cool find. I wonder how thick and how mard of material it can handle. I find that 1mm is about the thinnest I usually like to play with. It would also be nice to see it offered with either interchangable die sets or in other shapes. I personally preffer jazz style picks and a lot of guys like the big triangles, although the Fender shape (as they call it) is the standard go to shape.

I've used DEFT a few times and find it to be one of the harder lacquers making it more prone to chipping. In fact both guitars I have still with DEFT on it both have chips from only very minor bumps. For DEFT my experience is that I can still press in a fingernail at 3 weeks of curing, meaning it is still too soft. But that could just be my enviromental conditions. Check with your local auto body paint suppliers and see if any of them do a two part paint in a can. I've heard of it being done, but never looked into it. I know Alsa Corp. offers it, but as mentioned above it is expensive. If you don't mind some work wetsanding you could go with a 2-part finish and use the Preval sprayers. A little cheaper, but the atomizing is fairly poor on thicker finishes so they orange peal pretty badly.

I cry heresy. PRS uses two piece bookmatches, therefore that is all that is acceptable. Just kidding, I think that would look great in a 3 piece top, maybe some thin strips in between for contrast. With the wood being from Home Depot though either check the moisture with a meter or else sticker stack that board and give it at least a few months before you use it. Home Depot wood is seldom properly dried.

Not always the best place, but try eBay.

I would guess that the neck has binding on it. Be careful with the lacquer thinner around the binding, it will melt the binding as well.

How thick is back of the body?

Fair point about forgetting your strap. My straps either live on the guitar or come off and go right into the pocket in the case. I've never really played live, not counting a couple of times at church, so I don't really know the common items to forget and thought it seemed like a logical thing to forget. As for ease of adjusting the pickup heights, how often are you adjusting in it? I set it to a standard height right off the bat and then tweek a little until I find the sweet spot and then it lives there forever. I've also never had any issues adjusting direct mounted pickups from the front either. I still like that it is a unique idea and I could see a few ways I would work with it to make it a little better. The nice thing with mounting from the back is you could potentially use normal pickup screws and not have to drill out the holes in the pickup ears.

Pictures please. Depending one where and how much wood is missing around the jack will help with better answers.

Nice work. The build looks clean and I like the wood combinations. You have a few nice touches in there, like the chamfers on the ferrule recesseses. I would say there are only two things I am not liking on it. #1 is the pickup screws being mounted through the back. It is a unique way of doing it, which I like. But instead of a nice clean looking back there are four big honking screws in the back. If it was done with smalled screws it might not be as noticeable? #2 is the recessed strap buttons. At first I thought it was a great looking idea and was a fan of it. But then it hit me, you can only use a strap with Dunlop strap locks on it. What happens when you, or whoever may buy a design like this, goes to a gig and forgets their strap. Or at least one with locks on it. You can't just borrow another strap, it must have Dunlop locks on it. So you get points for creativity with it, but lose a few as well for feasibility.

Is this a bolt on or a set-neck? If it's bolt on I would not hesitate to set the bridge. You'll still have enough play in the neck that you can tweak it side to side a little to line up the strings properly before you tighten the neck all the way down. With a set-neck, if you are comfortable with the outside string locations I would still set the bridge. The strings in the middle can be adjusted later.

Epoxy is a good choice. Polyurethane glues such as Gorilla Glue are supposed to be good for joining non-wood materials to wood as well, but I don't have much experience with it. I know it is not a traditional choice and have no idea how it would hold up, but I wonder how something like Liquid Nails construction adhesive would work?

Unless you're feeding too hard, I see no reason that a 1/4" would fail. I would actually expect the 3/8" to fail first because of the small readius of the wheels. The 3/8" requires more tension which is being pulled over a tighter curve causing is to weaken faster.

Why can I picture a bunch of guys out in the moonlight tonight with a rack of guitars tone-tapping them? Does the tone enhance at all if tapping them while in the middle of a pentgram with candles lit and chanting incantations. Sorry, I enjoy these threads but I couldn't let that one alone.

The one very important thing that Huf mentions that I think should be expressed to all new builders who dream of building full time is the cost you MUST sell your work for to sustain yourself. At least in America I would guess $30,000 - $35,000 a year is the minimum you need to make to live comfortably. That means you must take home at least $3000 a month after you subtract parts, materials, tools, and overhead. All of those push your price up at least $500, usually more. That is figuring if you can work out of your garage or basement. If you have to rent a space to work, that's at least a few hundred more a month you need to bring in. After figuring in all of the costs I would say $3500 is minimum you need to sell for to live off of, if not $4000. That means either 1 $4000 guitar a month or 2 $2000 guitars a month. You are very unlikely to become rich off of this business which is why I think a lot of people revert to working it as a part time job/hobby. I remember Perry saying at one time that it took him several years until he started to turn a decent profit.

Digital pictures are a wonderfull thing when taking things apart. I take pictures any time I undo wiring or even when working on my car or pretty much anything else with several parts.

That is the one thing I love about the situation that I am in right now. I have a real life still so I limit the amount of work I'll take on. Plus I can turn down customers, because this is a hobby and not a carreer. I had one guy whoe lived about 15 minutes away that was very interested in a bass, but he was not 100% sure on some of the detail and he was talking about coming over to see the progress and watch me work at least once a week. I work out of my garage and only when I feel like working. I was not going to be held to his schedule and I refuse to have someone watching over my shoulder all of the time. If he wanted to stop in every couple of weeks or once a month to see how it looked and maybe make sure the feel was what he wanted, that would be fine. But once or more a week was too much for me, so I told him I appreciated the interest, but I had to decline.