Xanthus

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So what's wrong with grain filling the mahogany, then oiling it? Because it seems, at least to my experience, that close-grained woods and a "warm" sound are pretty much mutually exclusive. For a different wood type, though still open grained, you could try rosewood. Some species have the reputation of being particularly mellow.

I've known of people filing their blocks down. Perhaps this is an option? Provided that the spring attachment holes are still there when you're done filing, but I suppose they can be redrilled. It seems odd, though, that Fender would make a block that is exactly the thickness of the guitar, seeing as they've been around for a good half century and all. I'm sure you've measured and remeasured, but I still feel that you're missing part of the picture. What type of trem is this, and is it going to be sitting flush against the body? Keep in mind that you're going to be sanding down the guitar as you go along, as well as covering it with paint, so the thickness will fluctuate a bit. But something seems off... Don't get a veneer and hope that it'll match, because it invariably won't. Just work with what you have right now.

Yep, I'm a fan of the reversed headstock. I'd be a bigger fan if the horns were a bit more pointy to compliment it, but hey. It's yours. Looks like you've done quite a bit of research as well, and you've got the tools to help you too.

My vote is for the bobbin toppers, myself. You can remove them and retouch them if the paint wears off, or get whole new ones with a new design. And also, they're not active pickups

Looking much better! I'd taper off the end a bit more, but it looks good.

I second Wez and Andy; I feel that the rings would look better stained. I like the COLOR of the pickguard, but not the pickguard itself. The top is too pretty to be covered up. If the pickup rings were stained the color of the pickguard, we'd definitely be in business Or, what color are the knobs going to be, dark brown right? Why not a dark brown for the pickup covers?

In other fields, a cat piss scent is a good thing hahaha Always enjoyable to watch your builds, Blackdog

I tested the bushings for the bridge, and I think I'm going to have to redrill the holes. The bridge just doesn't sit cleanly enough, and I don't want to force it. The holes are just a bit wide, just wide enough for it to be an issue. It's too bad, but I'd rather have it 100%. Anyways, things accomplished: -Bevels -Control covers -Truss rod cover -Recarved neck It's nigh midnight over here, and I don't know where I misplaced the card to take my photos off my phone, but I wanted to put together a pictorial on how I did the bevels, so someone would be able to learn from my build. I'll try and get to it tomorrow, but I'll type the tut out here now. Bevels on a straight side: i.e. the outside edges of the Rhoads. You're going to need a half-round file, not too thin. The one I used was a little over a knuckle's width wide. Draw your finish lines in pencil on the sides and top of the guitar. Starting at the thickest part of the proposed bevel, use the flat side of the file and file down a channel that just barely reaches the finish lines. (1) Remember, you want to leave room for sanding. The channel should only be as wide as the file you're using. Once this channel is done, start another one further up the side, one file-width away from the previous. Repeat the same method to bring it close to the line, and repeat this method up the side of the guitar until the channel is too shallow for you to bother. (2) Then, start at the end of the bevel again and use the flat side of the file to shave down the triangular mountain things in between the channels you carved. These don't need to be as accurate or as 'to-the-line' as the ones you did earlier, just knock off enough of the mountain to get at it with sandpaper. (3) Once you're satisfied, wrap the file in about 2 revolutions of sandpaper. I started with 80 and moved up from there. You can start at 100 to take off less material. Put the file lengthwise against your rough bevel and balance it with your thumbs on the file and your fingers riding up against the sides of the guitar. Sand until you knock down the mountains and they're level with the channels you carved. Redraw your finish lines if you have to. So long as you make sure to keep the file at an angle and not let it roll (of course, change sandpaper as necessary) you should have a perfect bevel every time. Bevels on a curved side: i.e. the inside bevels on a Rhoads. Do the same steps above, except use the round side of the file instead. Only leave 1/2-file width in between channels, because the curved bevels change angle often. (4) Knock down the mountains, and wrap the file in sandpaper. Hold the curved side to the bevel, perpendicular to the bevel, and sand to desired line. Be extra careful not to roll the file on the curved edge (like I did..... ugh), because the length of the file balancing on the skinny bevel makes it more prone to doing so. That's about it, really. I'll get the pics off my camera to supplement the instructions. I'm not entirely satisfied with the curved edge bevels as they came out, but you can't put more wood back on, so I'm going to have to live with them. The bevel experience alone has motivated me strongly for my third build. I want to finally make a guitar that I'd be proud handing to a fellow player for them to inspect. Just gotta stop with the amateur mistakes, it really irks me. I recarved the neck and took a bit off the thickness. It's about 1" at the 14th fret, iirc, since I've wrapped up for the night. It's a bit thicker than the carves on my Carvins. I played a new Gibson Explorer and really liked the neck feel, so I tried to keep it on the thicker side. The truss cover is the same as on the first build, a knockoff Ibanez style, but a bit smaller than the first build, because of the closer tuners. I curved the side that sits against the nut to match the curve of the nut. It looks really good. The mahogany cavity covers are pretty good. (5) I had to make two sets, because the first set didn't come out tight enough to the lip of the cavities. The second set isn't perfect either (due to my basically freehanded recesses. sigh), but they're much much better. - - - - - - - So, I would really like some serious opinions on the finish for this beast. My plans for tomorrow are to get the whole thing sanded up to 220, maybe 320, before finishing. My options as of now are as follows: -Grainfill, stain black, tru-oil (or brush-on clear) -grainfill black, tru-oil (or brush-on clear) -grainfill, tru-oil (or brush-on clear) I don't feel like the black grainfill would be as consistent as the black stain would, so I'm leaning more towards the first method. I'm undecided on whether to dye black, though, because the natural colors of the wood are pretty attractive. I'm also leaning towards tru-oil, since I would need to buy a lot of brush-on clear (according to stewmac) to finish the guitar, and comparatively little tru-oil. Thoughts?

I feel that a template from the nut would be too cumbersome. However, I'd totally like to have a nice TOM/tail template for the holes, not unlike the pickup or trem templates that StewMac sells. I honestly just eyeballed the distance from TOM to tail, but a template of where to drill would be pretty sweet.

Benedetto makes a pretty snazzy tailpiece, I think. I grabbed a couple of other pictures off Google that I like, and thought I'd pass them along for possible inspiration: http://www.guitar-parts.com/pictures/1547b...ner-Jazzica.jpg http://www.buscarino.com/images/monarch/monarch-tail.jpg What did you make the tail out of, ebony if I remember correctly? The thought did cross my mind about cutting the middle piece out like you did, and if it would be able to stand up to the string tension. But, if it's ebony, I don't think it would be a problem. Here's to many uneventful nights!

Mmm, I agree, it's too stubby-looking. I'd give it another 2 inches or so. Just by guesstimating on pictures on google, it looks like the tip of the tailpiece should be about 1/2" from where the traditional TOM stoptail would end. Also, and this just might be a personal preference, but why did you choose to put the bass strings closer, and sweep away the treble strings? I don't know if there's a real answer as to why, maybe just tradition, but I tend to think of it like a piano, bass strings are longer than treble strings. Also, what job do you do where you can bring your guitar projects to work? Sign me up!

J, I thought about that too. I'll toss my completely uneducated guesses in here and say either it screws on from the top (i.e. not flush with the body) or it attaches to as-of-yet-unseen brackets, like Perry did with his Vine guitar.

Hello, Acoustic/Hollow forum! I don't believe I've ever posted a topic here. Well... here goes! I'm in the process of planning out an RG thinline, taking heavy inspiration from Stewey's build, as well as the guys over at BlackMachine. The body is going to be 1-1/4" thick mahogany, hollowed out to 1/2" from the sides. This will be capped with 1/2" mahogany on the front and back, hollowed out to, well, I don't know, but fairly thin. I do want it to sound akin to a smaller jazz box, after all. The neck/center block will be 4" thick, 5 piece laminate of walnut/maple/w/m/w, so the pickups will be contained within the center block. I want to put F-Holes in the top, because I want to capture as much of a hollowbody feel as I can without actually building one. I know all about the feedback and noise problems with jazz guitars at high volumes, and since I play either jazz or metal, this is obviously a concern. Though because the feedback is proportional to the size of the cavities, how much of this will actually be a problem with a thinline of my dimensions? I've been trying to squeeze the electronics into their own isolated box, separate from the main cavity, but because of the f-holes and the small(er) size of the RG body, I'm finding it very very hard to do so without compromising the placement of the electronics. I don't want my knobs and switches behind the bridge So I'm thinking of scrapping the separate control box and installing the electronics right into the cavity. I don't know if anyone had advice on how to do my electronics or shield them to get rid of any noise problems I might run into. Thanks!

The king of DIY has returned! I really like it. As always, it's clean clean work. If you ever put together a schematic/drawing/CAD/PDF of how you went about the construction, don't forget to let us know! I'd like to add it to my collection if possible. How did you go about making the holes for the speakers perfectly circular? I have seen a few router jigs, like the ones they use to cut soundholes on acoustics. I've also read a few articles detailing how some manipulate the dimensions of the cabinet to emphasize certain frequencies. I didn't know if you came across this in your readings, or what you thought about it. Congrats again!

Hot damn! You, sir, get the metal I've seen/read that some people use a box cutter blade or exacto blade, and tape the blade up with... well, tape, and leave only the thickness of the binding exposed. They then scrape the edge very carefully until satisfied. I've also resolved not to do binding on a build *shrug* circumventing a whole boatload of problems, not to mention the extra equipment I'd have to buy. I know I'm repeating myself over and over, but fantastic work Josh, I hope you're proud!

http://public.fotki.com/Xanthus/build-2/picture006.html I did it. Granted, mine isn't as close to the neck as yours, and you'll still have that bulky heel to contend with. I feel that the heel is the worst part of a V design, so I don't know how much your mod will help. And you don't need to cut down anywhere past the fretboard. I don't have any good pics of the front, but the wing resumes its normal shape at the end of the fretboard. Just take a straightedge and put it up to the end of the fretboard. That is where your carve should end. And yes, repainting will not be seamless. If you really must do this, then do a whole refinish.

It might just be the pictures, then. The bridge looked like something you'd find on the old Destroyers or the KISS signature models. We need more lime green guitars!

From what I've read/researched when trying to figure where to put the strap buttons on my Explorer and Rhoads, the general consensus is that you want the rear strap button to be much lower than the button on the horn. So for a V this means putting the button as near the crux of the V as is comfortable. Since the lower seems to be better, I'm not sure what a higher strap button will do. I feel that two buttons would definitely help "glue" the guitar to your body, but definitely not just a higher button. Looks really snazzy, Pukko

Man, that's the most bitchin' Tele I've seen in a while. I didn't know it was going to turn out like THAT! And an interesting TOM you picked for the ExploRer I've only seen those on Ibanez's. Where'd you grab that from? The X2N is a good choice. The guitarist in the "band that I sang for that never got off the ground" replaced his stock Ibanez's with an X2N and a Tone Zone. He's a big Michael Romeo fan, as you can tell. How do you like the Kahler? I'm going to put a hybrid on my next build, methinks. I want a trem guitar, and I DON'T want a Floyd.

Thanks guys! So I'm thinking something like a swamp ash or walnut, something in the middle. The next project is going to be a thinline RG for my jazz studies, so I might want to stick with an mahogany body. It's definitely going to be on the list of woods to tinker with, though, because it's readily available and pretty cheap. I'll do some more research into it.

I bought a pack of these from RadioShack, but haven't wired them up yet. You can probably find them at your store-equivalent. Unless that's the one you bought, and you're having issues with it, in which case we're both screwed

Man, the only word I can think to describe that is "intimidating!" A definite bookmark, thanks for the link!

I like how the neck came out. The contrast of woods is really nice. Is this going to be a bolt-on or set-in neck?

Strawberry red.... I dig it. Now it's time to bust out the green for the seeds! Uh oh.... now I've got to thinking how green splatter would look over that trans red. But I'm not driving down to Texas to find out, either. I like the knob recesses, but I guess I've just grown too accustomed to seeing PRS' with the rounded over edges. I'm partial to knobs parallel to the surface as well, and the carve isn't too dramatic that it would get in the way.