Jump to content

postal

Established Member
  • Posts

    234
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by postal

  1. I was told the "evidence" pic is not to be distributed on the net for now at Ken's request. I heard about the incident from the guy who took the picture and was a witness to the confrontation. I saw the picture as well. Yavcons designs are built under permission by Moser Custom Shop. I don't think Neal has to worry about mark taking any of his business.... Neal is SO far outta his league, it isnt even funny. Thorn- I take it you're Ron Thorn. Sorry to hear your origional works were pilfered as well. I've seen some of your work as well, and it just drops my jaw...... Kudos to CSuttle for declining copied work! Talent, and morals!
  2. This is wenge FB with bleached wenge block inlays. Porefilled with CA and a very light sealer coat of Tru-oil. As I said, I did 2 wenge FB's... the other is identicle, but the FB is bleached, and the block inlays are "normal". I've found that the amount of shine from porefilling with CA is fairly easy to control. I hadnt done it yet, but in the near future I may just use superglue as a finish itself. Sanded to 600 grt then 0000 steel wool it starts shining like crazy. 320 or 400 it wont shine too much. If you sand it back to where it is only in the pores, it wont stand out too much regardless. It shows the color of the wood underneath, and is almost invisible. I've read about people porefilling with epoxy, but I hate working with that stuff. I only use it when I absolutely have to. If you decide to use thick CA, wear a rubber glove and smear it on with your finger. Dont stop moving your finger, or the glove may get stuck.. Preferably do this outside..... and even then have a fan blow fresh air toward your face...... The fumes you normally notice are nothing compared to when you cover a large surface area..... Let the glue dry on it's own without any accellerator. It can take up to an hour to dry like this when using a large amount. It's important to point out that moisture makes the glue dry faster. I live in the deserts of S Kali, and the glue dries fairly slowly, but had heard that people in wet climates have problems with it drying too fast and having it "bloom" with the white fog in it.
  3. Sound advice there. If it's a modern 2 way rod, you should have a lot of room.... Fender/gibson rods.... well, you just dunno.... Rasp or scraper followed by a lot of sandpaper will get you there. There are faster ways, but this is probably good enough as it doesnt *sound* like you have a great deal of woodworking skills. Not meaning to insult, it's just what I read between the lines- Of course I could be WAY off as well. Finishing- the easiest is to do it yourself with "tru-oil" search and you should fine a lot of info on it. It works very well and is easy to use. Be quite sure you want to take the risk before you start. You can trash the neck, or you could make it feel perfect. Realize that both outcomes are possible.
  4. Oh, you'r talking about the "dome".... I thought the orkigional question was about the "PC1" which is a fairly common shape/thickness. I saw one about a year and a half ago, I agree, it looked like a good 3" thick total when laid flat. Great pics there.
  5. I looked at that axe on Sat. I suppose you met Ed (early fifty silver hair goatie) I've known him for a number of years, and apparently recenty he became a salesrep for Minaric.... I asked him where they were made, and he told me they buy wood in the US, send it to china, and china spits out a completed guitar that is setup here in Kali. He never mentioned the customshop pieces. I took it as a blanket statement that all their work is done by 6 yr old kids in China..... and a few people in kali do the setup work. I've known that guy for almost 10 years, and I know damn well to only believe about 1/10 of what he says..... but that's what he told me as we walked to the booth after smoking outside. The incident with Ken "Yavcon" was the previous day (Fri) Soon I should be able to get a pic of the stolen guitar in the minaric booth before it was pulled, and the entire upper half of the body is identicle, and it's a VERY unconventional shape, I cannot believe it was merely a coincidence. It's a blatant copy. (I didnt take the pic- I'm waiting for the person to post the image, but he travelled quite far to get to the show- It may be a few days for him to recover and then get his pics up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to *diss* your post. You did a truly superb job, and clearly you have the talent to do intricate detailed work, and you take well deserved pride in a job well done. I would like to see you get job orders from brands far more reputable than them- is all. just *MY* opinion.
  6. "Made in the USA!" are also words that don't exist at Minarik.... They also stole a design from "Yavcon". After Yav confronted them at NAMM, the guitar was pulled from the display, but friends have pictures of it to show they had it...... and some small time emplyee of Minaric got all up in Yav's face about it too, even though Ken was being polite.... Firm, but polite... Great job on that inlay Cliff- Seriously, it's BADASS! I'm surprised it wasnt done on CNC in china though, and the design stolen from someone else as well.... :D Needless to say, I have a very low opinion of that brand.....
  7. I use thick CA to porefill wenge. I have 2 guitars with wenge fretboards, both were porefilled this way, and I put on a very thin coat of tru oil as well. I dont think the T-O is necessary, but the porefill keeps it fairly clean, and although these are still fairly new guitars, I would be surprised to see uneven wear in the grain with the stabilization that the superglue added.
  8. going a little thick is okay... you'll lose some sanding anyway... going thin.. the only conserations are- will the electronics fit? and is the balance goibg to be okay with a thinner body? id go with the thicker one sanded down myself. excuse the lack of caps and punctuation... but i'm eating and typing with one hand....
  9. An MIA strat, I believe the nut is normally not glued in, it is a tight press fit only. Try some end cutters (dont squeeze too hard) just grab it and try to gently pull it out. If it is anything besides an MIA strat, I dunno if it's glued or not..... Custom shop strats are glued in as well... If pulling doesnt work, then try and cut out then bust out as much of the middle (Between D and G) as you can, and pound both sides of the nut towrad the center to break the glue bond, then pry out.
  10. I paid about $210 for almost all the parts to my super-strat-ish project (i still need to get some wire, knobs, and a few screws), and i got some ugly mahogany for free. it doesnt always have to be horribly expensive! ...... and yet a squire bullet costs $100.... with free shipping...... Which brings up another topic.... why dont we all buy cheapo guitars and rape them for parts? Could use everything but the truss rod.... People are not meaning to insult, they are just warning you that it does cost significantly more to build your own than buy one.... We buy parts retail where as manufacturers buy bulk wholesale..... Don't be a jerk, or no one here will help you. Your response will incline people to not help you..... If you cant find a drawing or plan anywhere, the *OBVIOUS* thing to do, is the same as I did on my first build... and print a pic from the manufacturer website, go to kinkos and play with the "enlarge" button until it measures right.... In my case I only did this with the body, so looking at the specs from the manufacturer, I knew that the 24 fret was 2 1/4 wide... and kept playing until the I got that dimension on my copies. It cost all of about $3.50 or so.... If you cant figure this out.... maybe guitarbuilding is beyond you.... Maybe not... but hey, I decided to act like a jerk just like you.... but I even still tried to help....Sheesh
  11. Go to "MIMF" tools and jigs. There's an active discussion on this right now, and I dont feel like typing twice. But I can answer questions you may have after reading that thread.
  12. My makita works fine and doesnt break the bank. Some guys like flap sanders, I use disk. Either works.
  13. Keep us updated! I'm really curious....
  14. Cream binding, with that small of an overhang, the safest thing to do is use a radius block... then clean/smooth the binding scraping it with a razor blade. You will need to scrap a touch to get it looking nice after sanding. What Setch means by scraping at an angle, is to hold the razor so the side of the razor over the fretboard is lagging then side hanging off the board. hold the blade at an angle like that while you scrape, because if it is held perpendicular to the board, it will catch on the fretslots... angling the blade keeps it from falling in the slots. you want the razor at an angle that will match the radius of the FB. When the binding is flush to the board, the razor should touch the FB and the binding. Do not *Over round* the binding or there will be a gap under the frets. Don't sweat this too much because a razor removes such small amounts at a time, if you do scrape wood a little wood off, it will be okay. You can also run a file over the binding which is safe and easy, also leaves them looking nice, but in your case, block then scrape is safe, easy and fast. A file is safe, but very slow.
  15. I thought he had the drill in "reverse"!!!! LOL!!!
  16. *most* guitars are in the neighborhood of 1.75" thick. You can go quite a bit thinner like an SG, or thicker if you want, but shoot for 1.75, and it's hard to go wrond as long as the electronics fit. I have a friend with a PC1, I can measure for you..... but still, plan on 1.75..... The fastest way to shape a top is with a 4" angle grinder with a sanding disk. Try it on a piece of scrap first befause it goes really fast, and is easy to screw up or gouge.... 5 minutes on some scrap so you know what to do makes easy work of it though. Generally a neck thru blank minimum thickness is 1 inch. Then add extra material under the blank where the body is. The only draw back of this is, with a neck angle. the bottom edge of the body, the neck thru section will only be about 1/4".... no biggy for a solid color, or with a drop top where you basically hide the neck section, but a visible neck with 1/4" neckthru at the bottom of the body doesnt look good.... Other wise, you'll need to read up on neck angle and neckthru construction along with neck angle and bridge selection to determine what is the best combination fo you. Note that a 1" neck with a TOM bridge will only leave 1/4" or less neck visible at the bottom of the body, but there are many neck angle bridge combinations....it was just one example.
  17. There are 2 ways fender does this, and it has nothing to do with a screwdriver. 1- Fender MIA line....after fretting, the edges are scraped rounded with a razorblade. Go back and forth all the way up to the fret. Change the angle of the razor on each pass to get a rounded edge. 2- Fender custom shop.... after fretting the fret ends are carefully shaped with a file, then they use a buffing machine which has "scotchbright" abrasive pads on it- similar to dishwashing pads.... they run the fretboard edge back and forth over these wheels which smooths the fret edge more, and rounds over the edge of the fretboard at the same time. 3- if you have binding, the edge is carefully shaped with a razor scraping it to shape, and you need to spend a great deal of time dressing the fret ends with sandpaper/files.
  18. Most instructions say that the end block of the truss rod should end near the middle between nut and first fret. The exact location is not too critical, but you dont want that block under the nut itself.....
  19. HAHAAA! Perfect advice there. Don't even think about drilling those holes until you have all the hardware, and get it placed properly. Once you have that, drill the top holes, and be aware that they will probably wander a bit, so go very slow clearing chips frequently to try and keep the bit as straight as possible. Then drill the ferrule holes on the bottom, which is also no easy task to keep them perfectly aligned. The ferrule holes should look perfectly straight and evenly spaced regardless of the string holes themselves wandering.
  20. binding is normally ABS or Nitro. ABS is easy to find and cheap- Why would you want to try something so different if the goal is to make it looks like ABS? I wouldnt risk it myself.
  21. The reason you rarely see a complex inlay in maple is simply because maple is nearly impossible to hide ANY mistake. If the inlay doesnt fit *PERFECT* it looks really bad. RW and ebony are very forgiving when it comes to filler/dust/black epoxy to hide any gaps, but even the smallest line/gap in maple looks dark. Because of this, people dont want to inlay maple. I'd say a CNC'd job is the ONLY way to go, and HuntinDoug should be able to tackle this job pretty easily.
  22. "true african"?????? maybe????? I've heard the terms "true mahog" and "african mahog" but not "true african"....... Although my local supplier calls Honduran mahog "true mahog".....
  23. I think dowels is the safest way. It's what I would do. Note that I ALWAYS check drill sizes for new hardware on thin pieces of scrap before drilling the body. Pop a hole completely through like 1/4-1/2" scrap, and test fit the part. Even if it fits too tight, it's easy to knock the part out from the backside of the scrap without marring the top side you're gonna see.
  24. I've never seen stained figured maple fretboards and I'm not sure why not... I think it would look great. But to make things difficult..... I want to stain it black, sand out, stain 2nd color, add narrow black burst, and have natural flame maple bindings.... Real bindings, not the cheese PRS fake ones..... I'm thinking stain black, sand out, stain 2nd color then a couple coats of clear nitro to protect the stain in case the burst goes badly and I need to sand it out and redo..... Black nitro burst, then a couple clear coats to protect the burst.... glue in the natural bindings, scrape the excess glue/binding down. Install frets, then hit the binding/fretboard with a few layers of clear nitro. I know normally a maple FB is fretted then finished, but the bindings need to go on before the frets, and I would like to do the binding after the stains/burst..... Does this sound reasonable? Does this explain why people don't stain a figured maple FB? Thanks! Postal!
  25. I highly recommend the griz 14" bandsaws. They are really great for the money, and you through a long blade on there, the resaw ability is fantastic! Dont have much info for you on a press, except that you need to make sure there is enough room to fit your work in there as mentioned above.
×
×
  • Create New...