barry

I put a dimarzio solo pro in bridge on my strat I like it, but it cost like $60. Are there any cheaper ones out there that I can put in the middle and neck?

My guess though is that a tiny piece of wire from the leads is touching a ground...that'll cut out your sound. I speaketh from experience.

Sorry, but these terms are a little vague to me. What exactly do you mean by the leads touching the ground? Sorry if I sound ignorant, but I have no experience with wiring and uh....I guess I am ignorant. But this might be the actual problem, so thanks for the help.

I have a thought . I made my first guitar with a Gibson style three way switch. It came with no instructions as to how to wire it. On the switch there are three prongs that extend out, the top are double prongs. I did not know that I had to split the two double prongs on top, connect the two inside prongs together and to wire the outside prongs to the individual pickups. If you did not do this, you will get no sound as I did

You could use a push-pull pot in each position for eac of the pickups. That would work. You could also use a three pole double throw switch that you can find if you look. That woul tap all three with one click. If you want to do each individually and mix them then go for the push pull option.

You could use a push-pull pot in each position for eac of the pickups. That would work. You could also use a three pole double throw switch that you can find if you look. That woul tap all three with one click. If you want to do each individually and mix them then go for the push pull option.

Thanks so much. I was thinking of the three pole switch but I really want to tap the coils individually, so I'll go with your puh-pull in each position. Another question: can you tell me what type of pots to use? The Li'l Killer pickups are very hot. 500K?

Well, I intend to hot rod a Squier Japan Strat. I'm uprading everything and refinishing the body. I am going to put GFS Li'l Killers in the place of the stock pickups and want to know if someone can show me or point me to a drawing of wiring each pickup to be split. I thought I would be able to use push-pull pots on all the tone/volume knobs, one for each. Can anyone help?

For an upcoming project I want to make a guitar with a flamed maple veneer on top. I am going to use the blue dye from stew-mac to stain the whole guitar. Most guitars I've seen only dye the top and leave the sides/back natural. But I want the whole guitar to be blue (except maybe some natural binding). What different types of wood would dye well. I know ash looks nice stained. Do alder or basswood work well with dye? I've thought about mahogany, but it is usually a reddish brown, so I'm not sure if it would look nice blue? Any pics, advice, or comments would be nice. Thanks.

I am noe xpert but I once had a Tom Anderson Drop Top, that was stolen from me. The top was quilt maple and the body was basswood. Both were dyed "deep ocean blue" and the top and back both looked great, if this is any help.

I have sprayed my MIJ squier body with Rustoleum multi purpose enamel. It looks beautiful, but I think it is too soft for a final finish. I intend to spray Rustoleum clear nitro laquer over this and buff that to a high polish. Does anyone see a problem with this?

Oh and by the way, I waited a week to finish my first nitro cellulose finish, as per Melvin Hiscocks advice, and oh my god, the finish is still moving and stressing around pots and bridge etc. I will wait at least 8 weeks before finishing this one. I know I cannot hold a candle to the pros, but am I crazy thinking "what the H... was he thinking?

This would be for a: pure aesthetics, b: For the woodworking and problem solving learning experience.

Ah that's much different!

I've always liked the look (and feel) of set necks too, but I've recently really started to like the bolt-on/insert look. Like this.

In terms of aesthetics, you get the best of both worlds, I think.

The main issue I can see with the conversion is that the bolt on necks might not be tight enough in the pocket--but obviously if you rebuild and reroute the pocket, that won't be a problem.

Mickguard---thank you for your input. That is a beautiful bolt on neck to body joint. I am in awe. Back to the neck. I have, now that I think about it, a very good reason for setting the neck. I hadn't thought of bringing it up in my query until you mentioned neck pocket instability. My friend want to have total access to the whole of the neck and some beyond, so that he may (be able to) keep his slide perpendicular to the fretboard. I was intending to cut the existing cutaway close to the body and about an inch to an inch and a half back of the original profile. Since the body is not yet routed for a neck pickup, I can afford to do this. If I use the bolt on as is, I will have to come out about a half inch from the lower neck edge before cutting the cutaway, creating a lump that I could live with but I think a smooth line and curve would look better.

Thanks again for your time.

I asked this on a different forum, and a very knowledgeble person experimented with this and found a difference. Not that one is better, but some prefer the set neck. One advantage is being able to shave the neck heel down for access, but some luthiers have said that this heel is what contribute to the tone of a bolt on-not the actual bolts. I would give you a link to the thread, but much of the forum was wiped out.

I am not certain of any of this. I prefer set necks, but i am only representing someone elses experiences and theories.

I appreciate your thoughts. I will, thanks to you, take the heel into account and not shave it, but add a heel to the neck conversion that will resemble an SG neck.

Well, you can't pretend you're playing a Gibson if it's a bolt on, that's why.

This topic has been covered in the main section, have you bothered to take a look?

Doing to this to an existing guitar, I agree with Greg. Converting the neck for use with a new body--well, that's more doable.

Actually. I own two Gibson's, an ES335 and a gold top Les Paul. I just wanted to make the stretch for a learning experience. Having had a Tom Anderson (stolen from me) a G& L, two fender strats and one tele, I know how stable the bolt ons are. This would be for a: pure aesthetics, b: For the woodworking and problem solving learning experience. I am going to Zemaitis type pearl front it too, just for the experience. I know the base guitar is not very good, but the neck is awesome and I could use some help purely from an educational standpoint.

[quote name='LGM Guitars' post='14203' date='Jul 13 2003, 01:23 PM']
Ok, there have been a lot of paint and polishing questions asked recently, so I thought I'd do a brief description of the polishing process, first here is a list of what I use for polishing.

Stew mac Polishing compounds #1, 2, 3, and 4 (coarse, medium, fine, extra fine)
Micro cut sandpaper 2000 grit (unless my spray job sucked then I start with 1200, 1500, and then 2000)

Stew mac foam buffing pad and electric drill (soon I will have a nice big buffing wheel in the new shop though) x4 One for each compound

Water

Ivory hand soap

Patience.

Elbow grease.


Ok, This will be assumed that you have a nice clear coated body (see [url="http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=1362&hl=painting+tutorial"]The painting tutorial[/url] I did for painting and applying clear)

Difference being from that painting tutorial that I usually put on about 10 coats of clear on a guitar body before final polishing is done.

So, once the paint is good and cured, we go to step one.

Step one: Sanding
First thing you need to do, is sand out all imperfections or built up edges, if you sprayed well and the paint flowed out nice this won't take very long. It generally takes me about 1 and a half hours to sand out a body starting with 2000 grit. You'll want to do this with some water with ivory hand soap mixed in. Yes use Ivory, it is the only soap on the market that is 99% oil free. (you want oil free in case you should sand to deep or discover you need to spray another coat of clear for some reason)
Sanding always in one direction (I always sand lengthways on the body) use a semi hard block and level the entire body. If you have dust spots or really large built up edges use a hard block to knock them down, then go to a semi hard block (I really like the foam block you get with micromesh)

I start with the top of the guitar as this is usually the most difficult to sand because of all the cavities. Unless there is a dust speck or something on the very edge, don't sand the edges, the clear is always the thinnest there and it doesn't take long to cut through an edge. Then do the back, and then the sides, the worst part is in the horns, this is also where the clear always seems to stay the roughest so it takes a bit longer than the rest. When you do the perimiter, I sand with the body all the way around, never across the sides, just always along them.

Sand until the entire guitar (except the edges) is an overall dull flat sheen, if you see shiny spots, keep sanding, these will become awful looking marks once it's all shiny again.

Step 2: Coarse cutting (if you have sprayed with laquer, you can skip this step as laquer is far softer than the Poly's I spray)

Apply the cutting compound all over the top of the guitar with a rag. Mount your drill with the foam pad on it on your work bench (I used to hold the drill and secure the body, but that was stupid, this is so much easier) I run about 1500rpm. Using a good amount of pressure, cut the entire top. The compound will fly everywhere, so use old clothes, a shop coat, and safety glasses, a particle mask is a good idea too. I personally start with the lower half of the top and work through the cavities and stuff. You'll notice alot of shine come back with even the coarse. Keep wiping it clean and applying compound until you can't see the 2000 scratches anymore. BE CAREFUL AROUND EDGES!!!!!!! NEVER let the wheel come into the edge, I always polish so that the rotating wheel is going OFF the edge, there are 2 reasons for this.
1: If you are letting the wheel come into the edge, there is way more pressure and cutting through the paint is far more likely.
2: If it grabs a corner, you run the risk of the body being taken from your hands and zinged across the room (have had a couple close calls but never actually lost a body yet )

Oh, during all the cutting stages, you'll want to also wear rubber gloves, this crap will be messy, and the rubber gloves also helps you to hold onto the rather greasy compound.

Now do the back the same way. Then the sides, but be very careful on the sides, you don't want to burn through an edge. Inside the horns is very difficult, you can do these by hand if you want, but the foam pads will reach all the way in, even on the deep scoops of an ibanez body, but watch out for the plastic backer on the pad, it will cut into your clear in a big hurry.

Step three: Medium compound

Basically repeat step two with the Medium, just make sure to use a NEW pad and clean all the coarse compound off before you start with the medium.

The guitar will really start to shine now, keep wiping the body and checking for any deep scratches that are left over and get rid of them. At this point you will also start to notice that if you didn't sand everything flat all the marks are starting to show badly again. You might want to resand at this stage before you get to far into it. At this stage, when you wipe the body clean, use a soft cotten pad, not paper towel as it will put in scratches.

Step four: Fine compound

Same thing again with fine now. I use a little more pressure with the fine though (again use a NEW pad). Now this thing is starting to glow, with the fine compound I also hit all the edges now, but still be careful, just the foam pad alone will cut through an edge if you use to much pressure or leave it there to long.

Again, wipe it all down and look it over, it should look pretty close to factory finish now.

Step five: Extra fine (swirl remover)

This step is basically the same except I use 2000RPM and light pressure, you are now just buffing the body, not cutting, you dont' want to put heat marks or rub marks into the clear at this point. Again use a new pad and just do small area's at a time with the swirl remover, a little bit of this stuff goes a LOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG way, and it flings all over everything. Once you've gone over the entire guitar with this, wipe it all down once more and check everything, make sure it's perfect, if you have to go back, go back.

Step six: Finishing

Wipe it all down with a flannel cloth, and if you want, put some wax on it, I use meguire's automotive wax and then clean it all down with some Dunlop guitar polish once I'm done waxing (I wax by hand) then when you assemble, be sure to always set the body on flannel cloth. If you scratch it and it's your guitar, it's a piss off, if you scratch it and it's a customer guitar, it's a nightmare!


Hope this has been helpful to everyone, next time I polish out a body I will take pics of the process and add them to this thread.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask

Jeremy
[/quote]

Has anyone ever tried to convert a standard bolt on assembly to a set neck? If so I could use any advice that you have. I am frankensteinig an epeihone les paul junior and making my friend a slide only guitar. I would love to have a set neck for this.