PunkRockerLuke

After starting an interest in the hobby during my edgier, child years and a few failed attempts, I finally finished a build I started in high school Body: 1/4 spalted maple I got free from a user on here and locally-sourced Alder. Neck: Squier w/ logos removed. Hardtail top-loading bridge from GuitarFetish Electronics: PAF clones from a GFS pre-wired pickguard I was smart and swapped for black metal rings; Gibson style selector switch; 16mm Alpha 500K pots w/ black Tele-style knobs from Vintage Forge; Switchcraft jack w/ knurled nut from a lamp switch. Finish: Minwax "Island Water" water-based wipe-on stain and equivalent water-based clear coat. .

Well it seems I have horrible timing to get back to work on this as I leave for college at Iowa state next week. I'm going to try and mark out the neck cavity and drill it out. Since I never really had a good enough template to begin with I have no obvious centerline to refer to besides the join of my topwood,which is in "the middle", this will be tricky. I'm going to have a friend help me eyeball it to where "it looks right", then stare at it for an hour and re-mark it if I have to. Hell I may not even try to work on it at all. Since I'll be off to college. I'll have to manage my money so I probably won't be ordering templates or anything. I may buy some cheap shite strat body off the bay and use that as a reference. Any suggestions/better ideas on how to approach this? EDIT: well I just found a image of a stratocaster plan and it showed that the centerline in 6 3/8 from the left edge of the lower part of the guitar, and 6 5/16 to the other, so I'm going to be marking the centerline and going from there.

is that not the biggest contradiction ever? I just didn't let it dry long enough and used too little glue. I used a lot of glue the second time around Better now?

It was clamped. I just didn't let it dry long enough and used too little glue. I used a lot of glue (cleaed up excess of course) and used quick-clamps and bar clamps. I switched out leather for a piece of a business card (it was mentioned in a guitar maitenece book written buy a guy who used to write for guitar player or some guitar mag) I also believe my tuner is dying on me so that is part of the issue.

The neck block seperation problem is fixed. However the action is muffed up so I've shimmed it with a thin piece of leather and I hope it works. Oh and a friend gave me a no-name flamenco-esque classical for nothing today.

It was broken , then I fixed it ( or so I had thought), and once I had begun to string it again the main part I had fixed was broken again. I had purchased the guitar from a member of my church for only a whole whopping $1 as he had boughten a better nicer guitar. The neck block for the bolt on neck had seperated from the front part of the side panels and the soundboard, and a piece of the soundboard containing part of the rosette was missing. I glued and clamped the block to front of the side panel and i used a weight plate on top in lue of an extra clamp. I also removed the ugly plastic rosette and used hemp twine. The scratchplate was peeling off so I replaced it with one made, out of all things, plastic from a DVD case. However when after I had be to string the bugger up I heard the unmistakable sound of glue seperating from wood. upon reoving the bridge pins and the neck I discoverd that there was an unnoticed gap between the bottom of the block and the backboard. Any tips or ideas on how to fix it or is it a glue it, clamp it, and pray it works sort of deal?

Very nice, elegant too with the wood..

They sell standoffs at radioshack. They might be a bit much for inside a guitar but go with what you want.

Here is the body planed: and here is it with the figure maple top glued on and cut out: sorry for the schlecht quality.

I am finally getting the old pics back up and putting some new pics up. I'll have the ones of the cut out body and with the top glued attatched later today. Progress. the body had been cut out around may last year. then this build kinda took a back burneron the list of priorities. Then I recently had the shop teacher plan the badly cupped body level, then I discovered that one of the halves of my maple top was cupped as well. I set 4 paving stones atop it and wetted it down. Two days later it was still slightly cupped but not so bad that I couldn't glue down the top. Once the glue had dried I used my youth pastors scrollsaw to cut the top to the profile. I have been sanding it and I am kinda freehanding it down the fender shape. I'm going to jerry-rig something to sand the inside of the horns though. I believe that the heel of my strat knockoff neck is slightly longer after testing the template I have printed out. I will have to either shorten the heel a bit or lengthen the pocket a bit (The latter option seems like a less daft choice) I am going to compare it to an actual stratocasters neck and test fit it into plywood "neck pockets" before I do anything I have to get the $15-20 to pay for my fretboard to be slotted and then it'll just be fretting, finishing, and then Cocobolo fretboard Quilted Maple top; Body blank glued up: As you will see later on I glued the top on wrong, however it was intentionally done. I did it that way because the pickguard would've covered the nice bits. and the way i had it glued one weird thing in the grain would be part of the neck pocket and would therefore no longer be there.

Thank You

Well I have no Idea on the control but I was thinking about it and I have the scrapwood to test the neck and jack ones but I have still no clue on the control unless anyone can come up with something I'll just punt.

First new update in... forever. The main body has been palne by the shop teacher at school and the quilted maple glued down. I cut out the 1/4 maple on my youth pastors scrollsaw yesterday and was sanding it down.. I now need to sand the body(specifically the horns), fill dents/tool marks, sand again and mark out cavities and the pickguard. ( It's a P.O.R.) I need to finish sanding the neck then get my fretboard slotted and fretted. Can anyone reccomend whether I shoould go with traditional bone or a brass nut? It's getting there slowly but surely!

Now that i am not typing on my Ipod I specifically need a template for the control cavity, jack cup( Im apprhensive about using mine. Fear that in may be off) and neck pocket ( to check if my strat knockoff neck will fit.). again please and thank you in PDF Danke schon Bitte schon

I need to have the layout of the templates so I don't mess this up. Can anyone Please provide me with a PDF with the layout of the cavities?