postal

What? Did you *NOT* like the idea of getting advice from a few experts? I appreciate all the insight they have to offer. To say it is "mahog" can be very misleading as pointed out above. Most commonly found mahogs seem to work okay generally with the huge exception of 'philipine' mahog. Avoid that stufflike the plague. As far as "who" buys from "who".... Dunno, but outfits that can supply enough of the right wood to maintain production of a huge factory, and keep the costs down is who they use..... Generally the cheaper the guitar, the more pieces of wood are in it- and this is generally considered "bad" 2-3piece bodies are considered the norm for higher quality.

If you do a lam nec with another stiffer wood, it will be fine.... I made 2 zebra/ wenge lam necks with no issues, and have 2 more in the works. Zebra alone, I wouldnt trust, but with another dense wood, should be fine.

I'm in the same boat right now. gluing flat fretboards are so much easier... I urge anyone to use some type of straight block to support the neck during the glue up. I found out the hard way about accidentally gluing in a backbow once, and I dont wanna go through that again, ever. I like Melvyns' (thanks for writing that book!) and Son of Magni's approach, assuming that Sons' block is nice and flat the length of the FB.

The 2nd set of strings arranged ball end on the headstock with string ferules on the headstock, and the 2nd set of tuners on the body.... depending of course on the body design.... But there are several things to consider.... An extra set of tuners on a standard guitar headstock will make it dive like a MOFO! Balance is an important issue.... 2nd... depending on the style of body, and the bridge used, the 2nd set of tuners on the body alleviates the balance issue entirely.... and has little impact on headstock strength with the small string thru holes.... Search for 12 string "bich".... It's a good example. but 3rd.... you are doubling the string tension on the neck and headstock... it *COULD* cause a catastrophic failure..... and no.... trying to make the existing headstock longer to hold the extra tuners is not a good idea unless scarfed and laminated like mentioned above.... but you still have the balance issue to contend with.. Yes, a standard neck is tight for 12 string.... ideally a 12 string should be a bit wider to allow the pair of strings to vibrate, and still have separation from the next pair..... but I guess personal preference has a lot to do with that......

Sizable amounts of CA do get hot when drying. Part of the chemical process.... I'm no scientist, but I've used a lot of CA before, and had larger drops of it on my skin... which also get uncomfortably warm.

Does best-decal have fenders? I know they do most other brands.....

EVH charvels and all other charvel/jackson "oiled" necks are a thin coat of tru-oil..... If it's good enough for them......... I thought it was normal to wax any finish..... I use johnsons paste wax.... go to your car parts store and get a can of any brand straight carnauba wax.

Install, then sand/file is the norm. it "can" be done before install, I know someone who has, but just saying it, paints a bad picture in my mind... I wouldnt to it. My friend had to because the fretboard was custom airbrushed without frets installed, and coulnt risk damaging the paint.

I know zebra is a "rosewood" but I thought it was too soft for a fretboard wood? Wenge is cool though. Tulip is interesting too.

It really depends on the thickness of the top. Primal is right, but still, thicker veneers are easier than thin ones. A solid top, how much glue used isnt too much of an issue. On a THICK veneer like 1/10" or bigger, it isnt too critical either... on a real veneer- (thin- like 1/20 or less) then the amount of glue is crucial, and hard to get right the first time. Too little glue has bad adhesion, too much glue and the veneer will wrinkle and theres nothing you can do to stop it. I'd suggest staying away from a thin veneer, but anything 1/10 or thicker shouldnt be too much trouble. Just remember to use glue sparingly.

Schmexxy beast, It just boils down to personal preference. Hand a classical player an old strat with a 9.5 radius, they'll look at you crosseyed.... hand a classical flat radius to somebody who grew up with a strat, and they'll look at you crosseyed. I like rock/punk/metal/alt.... but most classical players stomp all over any of those other types of guitar players... hands down. It isnt the radius that counts- obviously For you're build, I cautiously say go for it. The caution being, leave the fretboard a full 1/4 thick, and after you've tried it out for awhile, if you dont like it, you can pull the nut/frets, sand in a radius, refret, resetup and have a normal guitar. You're only out some time, frets and a nut.

Except for epoxy type glues, glue needs material to adhere to, not just a blob of glue. The drilled holes may work with epoxy, but I wouldnt try it with any other glue. Personally, I think I'd run a bunch of short 1/4 inch dowels through the lams, and use epoxy or your cottage cheese conconction to get a thin clear glue line. PITA to line up that many dowels, but would provide the strength you're looking for.

I agree with spaz. That headstock is firewood, but the neck should be salvaged with a scarf joint.

Some of that stuff is really cool. Gives me some ideas......

It's really tough to make a rev headstock..... Trace a normal headstock, cut it out, and flip it over. hahahhaa!!!!

Neal Moser, the ex BC rich guy who designed the "bich', builds his personal guitars with no radius, and says they're the bomb. I agree with Alex. A sharp radius, fretting out on a bend is a concern unless the action was set by someone that really knows what they're doing. Even a 12 radius can have ultra low action, and bend right if setup properly, but this requires the upper frets to be ground down a tad more than the rest of the frets- about 5-7 thou lower than the rest- starting around fret 16-17.... just sand them about 5-6 passes more after the frets were levelled.

EMG HB's have a very sharp corner... So I took a chisel to the corners of the PU routes. For "normal" HB's, the 1/2" bit I use fits perfect. I would not try drilling a corner, as it would be difficult to get them placed perfectly. The trussrod should be fine. I've heard many times that the nut side anchor should sit 'somewhere between nut and first'.....

Jackson does frets over binding standard, but will dobinding over fret ends on request for an upcharge. -there is no difference in the glue or glueing method For ABS bindings, 'weld on' is used. for nitro bindings, it is acetone with small pieces of nitro binding melted into it until it becomes a gel like consistency. The fret end may or may not adhere to the binding itself, but is not a concern, as you would really have to try to bend that small nib out of place.

I just got my rounded spokeshave from rockler for about $20. It's a "kunz" germany spokeshave. The blade does need to be sharpeneds, as it has a huge burr... wish I could get a burr like that on my scraper! I still need to sharpen, and tune up, but it should work fine. I'll try it out soon, but before this, I've use the cheese grater sureform, rasp, sanding block and small diameter sanding drum in a cordless drill for shaping the heel. It goes pretty quickly using the old method- I want to try the spokeshave to see if it goes faster, but I have my doubts.

Everything from stu is ridiculously overpriced. Granted they do usually have good stuff, and good service, but when you can buy most anything they sell for 1/2 the price at other places.... well... let's just say that I will not order anything from them that I can get somewhere else.... Most of their toolkits are *too* complete... they include a lot of things you dont need. Getting just what you need somewhere else, will save a ton of money. Off the top of my head.... Warmoth, allparts, grizzly, LMI, guitarfetish, luthier supply... You should be able to find what you need.

I think the official answer depends a bit on temp and humidity... but 45 min to one hour in the clamps works fine with titebond origional. It is not completely dry until overnight, and obviously will not be at full strength until then, but it doesnt need to be in clamps after an hour. I also know that fender vacuum bags their maple tops for exactly 1 hour with titebond.

Jackson is 15 deg. Gibson did 17 for a while, but brought it down to -I think- 15 deg because they lost too many heads too easy with the steep angle. Too shallow an angle would require string trees to get enough downward force on the nut. I've heard generally that 11 deg minimum, but it would depend on the tuner post height as well.

titebond origional woodglue is the norm. Elmers carpenter is okay too, but titebond is considered better.

A great deal of guitars are 1 3/4 thick, so that body thickness is fine. That bridge does not require a neck angle, but strats are "stepped" so the neck wood and fretboard sit higher than the body. You will need to account for this height difference as well.