ihocky2

Wez pretty much sums up why my pricing is at the low end and Not You also touchs upon it nicely. In reality I am just starting out, yes I've built guitars but not enough to charge what an established builder can charge. If you look at what is offered, you can basically get a standard simple body shape, i.e. strat clone, tele clone, vee. It's going to be a flat top with one or two colors of paint and it is woods that are easily and commonly available for low cost, there is no figured wood in there. From the suppliers I have tracked down I can buy enough lumber to build two bodies, 3 or 4 necks with fret boards for less than $75 total. Standard grade hardware is going to be along the lines of Gotoh TOMs or trems, nothing fancy or expensive but not cheap junk parts either. I'll use precut inlay which can be had reasonably cheap. So I am not spending a ton of time on it, and my material cost still stays within reason. I am not going to rip someone off, but I also carefully worded everything so it sounds better than it is. For $750 you basically get a hand built Strat, nothing really that fancy. I took some time to find out what others are charging and gave it some serious thought and considered that I am truely an unknown and essentially an amateur builder. $750 as a starting line is still a lot of money for most people, and having no reputation I need to start somewhere. If I had a reputation like Perry, my price would go up very quickly, and one day I hope to get there. But for now this is truely a hobby and I am only looking to make a little money off it. As long as I don't spend my money on it, I am happy with it.

I would think 3/8" wide on that small of a saw might be a little wide. You don't have as much horse power to get you through the turns. I have a 14" and I use 1/4" for all of my none straight cuts.

I finished my seventh build recently which was my first true commissioned build, not something asked to be done by a friend. After maybe guitar #3 I started selling them, but only on eBay or a small local shop. Knowing that I am an unknown name people would not be willing to shell out high dollars for my guitars. The eBay guitars I listed once at what I felt was a realistic, but a high number. None of them sold, so I relisted them and knocked them down to what I thought was fair and they sold. I made maybe $100 or a little more on each of them. That did not pay for any time though, that was only money above materials and parts. I felt it was a fair deal though, because this is not my livelyhood it is a hobby. The two I sold locally I told the store owner the price I wanted to list them at and told him the lowest I would accept and that he could negotiate the price on them. I've dealt with the guy for a long time and trusted him to get me a fair deal, which he did. I made about $250 on each of those. So I earned enough to upgrade a few tools. I'm still early enough in the process that I feel if I can build a guitar with no money out of my pocket and make a little to keep upgrading my tools I am happy. This is my hobby and it doesn't cost me money. I build guitars for fun and to relax, I'll worry about making a profit when I start getting weekly requests for quotes. Until then if I can walk away with a few dollars in my pocket I achieved what I wanted to.

It's not so much that back of the necks that see the wear, it's the fretboard from the strings rubbing. This is what happens on the maple boards. Picture this with black paint though and rosewood showing through where the bare maple is. I've never seen one of those Deans that's been played, they've all been new on the rack.

I would stay away from painting the fretboard for several reasons. First, it's rosewood so it is an open grained wood and will require grain filler. When the finish wears off the grain filler will show in the pores and look horrific. Second, rosewood is an oily wood and is not always successfull getting paint to adhere or dry properly. Even if it does dry, the oil will make it more likely for the finish to fail early in the guitars life. Third, look at maple fretboards, even with a polyurethane finish, the finish wears off quickly from playing. You'll end up with gloss black on the areas that area played less and bare rosewood showing through where you play alot. That will look a lot worse than a non glossy rosewood board against a glossy guitar ever will. Like Guitar2005 said, use some black fretboard dye and then polish the fretboard up. Rosewood will polish to a mirror like shine.

What Dark shadow said is the most common way to do grain matching covers. It requires a little extra thickness when planning the build and a router sled to remove material across the back and leave enough for the cover. Unfortunately, not the best option for apartments.

Even with a thin kerf you are still going to have a gap around the ring that you glue back in. You are not going to get a seamless joint. Cutting by hand with a coping saw you are going to have a very tough time staying exactly on the line the entire way around, so you'll want to sand to smooth out the shape. As you sand you create larger gaps in the ring and the cover that might be seen. To do what you are asking is going to take a ton of patience, and should definitely be practiced on scrap until you see how it goes.

I have a small power jointer that I will ocassionally use. Mostly on other project when pieces are really badly out of square. After I cut something on the tablesaw though I just grab the handplane. If the edge is close to square it literally only take a few passes with the handplane to get it flat and square. All of my planes are OLD Stanley handplanes that needed a good deal of attention. Maybe one evening of working on them each and they are in great working order again. All I did for sharpening was to buy this sharpening jig http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003114/576/Honing-Guide.aspx and then I found a place that sold tempered glass and got a 12" square piece. I took a precision straight edge to make sure it was perfectly flat and then I use sand paper to sharpen on using the Scary Sharp technique. Took some time to get the angle set right and to clean up the blade but now it takes less than five minutes to sharpen 4 blades before I start a project. I only run them across 1200-2000 grit to refine the edge. After some time I bought good blades for them, but the originals worked okay as well. For what you'll pay Woodcraft to do one sharpening I would spend the money and get one of thesehttp://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2020080/19129/Pinnacle-Honing-Guide-Kit.aspx. Their pricey to start but I think woodcraft is like $15 per blade to sharpen, I might be wrong on that price though. Do some searching on Google for Tuning a Handplane and Scary Sharp. It's less intimidating than it seems.

I've used the Bezdez rods and have never had a problem with them. The first time I bought them I got two figuring they were so cheap I wanted to test one and have second to use for the build. I tightened and loosened that thing to the point that you would have a full inch of relief if it was used in a neck and it didn't brake. I also put it in a scrap neck I have and glued a piece of scrap wood on for a finger board and eventually got it to break, but I adjusted it far beyond any normal amount would be and it was at the point that other rods would brake as well. So I feel confident at least that their rods are good quality. The rest on their components are junk. I won't even use them for knobs or jack plates. I've used their binding because it was cheap and found that it does not work as nicely as stuff from other suppliers.

I would go with what Quarter recomends. Oily woods can cause havoc with any oil finish. the oil in the wood is a non curing oil that will mix with the curing oils used for finishing and will cause the oil finish to never fully cure. This does not always happen, but it is not a fun gamble. The alcohol or acetone trick works well for gluing or rapidly curing finishes since they penetrate and harden before the oil has a chance to work it's way back into the wood. But some wood workers feel that technique can cause other problems, thinking that the lack of oil causes oil inside the wood to rush to the bare area and flood it with oil. If this is true or not I am not certain, but either way the area will have oil creep back into it before and oil finish fully cures and could cause issues. Shellac is a great barrier coat, and if you are already using shellac why not use it as your finish. It is the easiest finish to repair and even easier and cheaper to buy then Tru-Oil.

You're in the middle of a build right now so it won't help much, but I would recommend doing some reading and research on setting up and sharpening hand planes. The initial setup takes some time, but once it is setup it doesn't take much extra work. I am a huge proponent of hand planes, since I learned how to set them up I have never made a body joint with any thing else. I use hand planes for everything I can, body joints, scarf faces, minor flattening after gluing, truing edges. Once you get one setup they are a joy to use. They are so much quieter and less messy. I still use my planer for quick rough thicknessing and flattening, but when it comes time for the fine detail work I go for the hand plane.

I'll second the Wilkinson VS100. I just used one and it is a very nice unit. Not too expensive and I like the saddles for it.

Where did you buy the board from. I bought a few pieces of lumber from the local Woodcraft before I knew there were lumber mills around and every single piece of wood from them moved like crazy. I bought them nice and flat, but after a week at home they twisted and warped a lot.

I don't play bass, so I don't have much insight into the matter other than the fact that I think it will look pretty cool.

Did you change gauges, brands, anything different about the strings. Different strings have different tensions and if you have a Floyd Rose that will through off how the bridge is sitting. Make sure the bridge plate is level to the guitar top.

Do a search in this section, I know this was covered within the last month roughly. There is really no set answer for the width since it is determined by the bridge you use and your prefered width at the nut.

The first thing I would do for you and your friends is decide how you like the guitar to feel. IF you like the close to the body feel of a Fender but want a beefier bridge, than go with the recessed bridge idea (my personal choice because I like the close feel with the feel of a TOM). If you like the strings further off the body, like on a Gibson, then use a neck angle. If you use a neck angle for any, or all, of the guitars I would go about drilling the holes in this manner. Set the neck in place and align it with the centerline of the body. Then clamp it in that positions. With the body holes for the neck bolts already drilled, drill through those into the neck. Just becareful of the depth so you don't blow through the front. This way the holes are perpendicular to the body, and drilled at the correct angle into the neck.

I absolutely love the work you do on your Tele's Drak. I hope one day to come close to your skill with finishing. If there is one thing I have learned on this board, it is from you that you do not need the best or the biggest equipment to make beautiful guitars and to do professional finish work. It is all about the patience you have and the time you devote to learning and practicing.

What method do you use to line everything up? I use a laser as well and find the beam a little on the wide side, but I don't really have much better of a method. I've tried using a piece of fishing line, but found that as I am setting parts on top of each other the line snags on parts and tends to move with the wood. I use templates for as much of the routing as I can, but I still like to have a nice straight line for verification.

I agree with Wes, it's a decent price but not a major score. There is some decent curl to it, but it is not all the way throughout the wood and is rather random. Most of the look is in the grain lines and wood coloring, to most places that probably falls around a AAA grading. However, I like it and would grab it for a guitar top. I'm not one to go with the traditional PRS quilts or Gibson flame tops, I like wood that I think has more character and is different than what you normally see.

I would recomend auto-body puty, as known as Bondo. It cures very fast and hard and does not shrink back like most wood puties do. It's easy to sand and level and takes a finish very well.

I have found I get a little better finish with 2K's if I let them sit for a few days. Even when they are cured and hard it seems like the finishes still cure a little more after 48 hours.

Do a search for veneer in the finishing/inlay section and you'll see how many things that can wrong with veneer that you don't get with a piece of wood. Drak is very experienced with finishing and does some amazing work. Almost all of the veneer posts you'll see him chime in at some point. The first part is getting the veneer clamped down properly. Even after that, there are a lot of things that go wrong that you don't expect. Even if you get a great finish on the veneer when it's laying on the work bench, it will react differently on the guitar.

I do it the same way. Template with a 5/8" mortising bit in the router. My first was done with a forstner bit and a straight end for the router and I had the same problem. I could line it up close, but not perfect. Some like the look or feel of a recessed TOM, others don't. I personally like they way they look and I like the strings closer to the body, but I prefer the feel of a TOM compared to a Fender style hardtail so for my tastes it is the perfect fit.

Check out Reranch for nitro lacquer spray cans. The forum over there is also very good for finishing, especially with the Reranch products. The store is not always open, so you have to jump on it when it is, but it is supposed to be a very good prodcut line.