Xanthus

That is ALL done with spray cans? Incredible! And the binding came out so clean, much better than my first pinstriping experience. What was your method to get the paint so well, just patience? How many cans did you end up going through?

I hope you're not serious, Russ That tut has your name written all over it. Literally. Here's the link to it, in case anyone else is interested (in not having to use the search function). "Why not get something like those disposable toilet-seat protectors? Bet that would look cool with your multiple-studded-belt look tongue.gif" -Mickguard That'd be pimpin'! I could cover the whole back of the guitar with double-sided tape and carry them in my guitar case! I suppose it'd be fun to market the back-of-the-body-beltguard, make it come in all shapes and sizes, and construct a "How the hell have you been able to live without it?" marketing campaign.... Then I'd have more money for building guitars

Aaaah, you got me there, Southpa! I didn't exactly sit down and think it out to its fullest, haha, more of a passing idea that I threw up there. Speaking of putting your precious investments in cases, I was just reminded today that I don't have a case to put my finished product in, hoping it's done by next Sunday. On top of that, there's nowhere to store it in the dorm. What do you people do with all of your completed custom guitars? Do you buy a case for them all, or hang 'em on the wall, or something? The "make your own case" tut is pretty enticing...

Man, it's been a while since I came around this corner of the interweb... But on the plus side, the black was painted last night, and I'll throw up pictures on my Explorer thread (depending on whether or not any of them actually came out) when I can get them off the camera. But onto the body of the post: Has anyone ever thought of putting a pickguard on the back of a guitar? Maybe you're a guy, like me, who likes to wear a belt, or even multiple belts, on stage. Moreover, I've seen quite a few questions regarding the best way to fill in belt scratches/gouges on a guitar. Now I'm not a vintage/relic guy, and I don't know if people like that LIKE belt marks on their guitar, but taking a clear piece of pickguard material, cutting it out, and screwing it to the back of a guitar, seems like a pretty nifty idea. Both of my electrics have their share of marks on the back. I mean, unless you're that guy who doesn't play his guitar with a heavy metal spiked belt \m/ or the guy who's got that 1/2 inch thick finish. Thought I'd throw it out there, in any case.

Oh wow, that is HIGH quality! I love the colors, paint, everything! How did you do that lettering, a decal?

Damn... That's quite a job and pretty f'ing metal, if I do say so myself \m/ Put that neck on a guit and feed it through a ton of effects, and I bet you could get some weird sounds from it!

Pics are missing You don't happen to have any pictures of it floating around, do you?

*looks at unfretted.com website* Ooooooooooooooooh............ That's something I'd be VERY interested in trying.

Wow! It's definitely the choice of wood and the way they're blended together that makes it for me Supreme work!

Hmm...... I like PaintIt's idea a lot, though it might be a lot of work, depending on your skill level. I know my computer graphics skill ain't up to snuff I think it would work the best, to do it that way. On the other hand, I've seen many an inscribed/relief-ed guitar, which I think would look nice as well, but only if it was one color. To carve that design shallow and then paint multiple colors over it seems too busy to me. If you painted the whole thing black and did the whole top of the guitar and fret markers with abalone inlay, I might cry. Either way, I'd DO IT, because that is one of the coolest designs for an LP top I've seen Kicks the ____ out of the bullseye any day \m/

The most common method after the cardboard template is to transfer it onto 1/4" MDF/plywood/somesuch, cut that out, and go from there onto the wood. I know you said you wanted to create your own design, else I would have directed you to http://www.guitarbuildingtemplates.com/ Of course, you can go there and check them out, basically what you would want to do would be to make the template of your own vision like they've done, knob placement, neck pocket, bridge/humbucker/routing, as much info as you can fit onto one piece. Most everything I've learned here has been through the search function, which I would definitely suggest to use liberally, as well as the tutorials on the main website. And, of course, Hiscock's book wouldn't help, either the posters here swear by it Good luck!

Oh.... wow.... Oh my..... wow..... Any bass player would be more than happy to play that piece of work. Except, perhaps.... mine but that's another story. How many different types of wood did you use for that one? I LOVE that body shape

Holy !&@&%* People USE such beasts? How can their backs sustain it? That's tuned F# - E, right? I mean, I'm not bassist, but if I were to build an 8, I might just go all the way and build a Stick. But in other news, your massive a** bass is coming along quite nicely! Very clean, and I love the look of those woods together.

I drilled my ferrules right along with the rest of the holes and routes. I drilled the skinny chamber from the top down, flipped the guitar over, and kinda just... eyeballed the larger holes for the back. It wasn't perfect, and I still had a few chips, but I filled 'em in with putty and they're fine now. I never even thought of drilling into another piece of wood, though, but that's a great idea!

A buttload of pinstriping tape, wood dyes, and a hell of a lot of patience/nerves But damn.... if it ain't a beaut. I don't think I'd EVER be able to make something like that, hahaha. Makes me want to jump into my '41 Plymoth and play some rockabilly!

The FR nut needs the shelf cut to work properly, else your strings will be way-super-high off the fretboard. If you're buying an unfretted fingerboard, I'm assuming that you're going to be building your own neck. If this is the case, you can very easily plan your neck construction to accomidate for the shelf. You'd need to find the nut dimensions, fingerboard thickness, fret height, and everything, and draw your plan out full-scale, and you should have no problems. Don't quote me on this, but I don't think that you need to have the nut mounted on the fingerboard wood, if that's what you're asking. I would look up more information regarding FR systems with a compound-radius fretboard, to make sure they're compatible. Also, unless you want that particular scale length, I might go with a Gibson-style fretboard, so you don't need to risk cutting the fretboard before installing the nut. Not that it'd be a particularly tough job to do, just that accidents happen. Not to dissuade you from building your own neck, but I know from experience that Carvin makes very good necks. I don't know what your estimated price range is for buying a neck, but a Carvin bolt-on with a FR shelf is $185. And, of course, any options they list on the guitars can be applied to the replacement necks. Hope I helped some.

Aaaah, learning something new every day. Thanks for adding to my collection of info, Robert! I personally like the feeling of "tight" strings, and used to attribute it to the s***ty Wilkinson tremolo on my Carvin, or just tremolos in general. This is why I went with a TOM stringthrough on my Explorer project. Unfortunately, it's not quite done, so I can't play it and see how it feels. I was thinking also that a locking nut might do it, and contemplated adding a nut and a Floyd fixed bridge. But your information has made me go hmm... because there's gotta be at least 2.5 to 3 inches of unplayable string behind the TOM alone. How will it play? I'll just have to get painting and find out Good info, though, Robert.

Hooray!!! Actually, I didn't even think of intonation, hmm... I do indeed like the ability to adjust every string for intonation, but when the money comes around to do the second guitar, I'm confident that my measuring skills will have improved

I agree here, I'd go with the cheaper one. I mean, I'm sitting over here crying because it's going to cost around $80 to paint the guitar, and every penny counts. Both of the bridges look really nice, though. I'm thinking about a wraparound for my next project, but they don't come in black :-P

Ok, then, correction. Trace a King V. Then enlarge it by 10% all-around Good to know, MzI. I can't stand the King's, far too too big for me. So I'm building an Explorer instead? hahaha. Next up is a RRV, much more proportionate than the King, imo, seeing as I'm only 5'9"

+1 to future career! I've always liked the stuff I've seen from you, Godin, but this is exceptional! Just a beautiful build, everything about it! Ok, except maybe the cream pickup covers fight a bit with the gold bridge, but other than that

To me, it looks similar in size and shape to a Jackson King V, and I've seen plenty of them at Guitar Center. I'd trace a King V and slap an ESP headstock on it. Or if you can't find one, take this picture http://espguitars.com/images/guitars/DV8R_MS.jpg and blow it up to correct proportions in an image-editing program. You should find a few threads that cover this process. Or go to the ESP website and click on "dealers" in your state.

Ooooooh, I agree, I really like that zebrawood, but I LOVE the snakewood picture you posted up top. The neck looks like, for lack of a better descriptive phrase, it just wants to beat you up. Very awesome! By the way, whose necks are those, the zebra and snake necks? Damn, you could start a jungle-themed guitar with those if you wanted, hahahaha

Well, if it's going to be mostly black, I don't think there's anything wrong with an ebony fretboard. The first thing that jumped into my head when I saw the pics, though, was some maple, a nice light, quilted maple to contrast the pretty dark neck woods.

Thanks for the link to Mowhawk, guys! I've been doing some intensive research into finishing, and I'm pretty set on getting HoK BC-25 Black in the ready-to-spray bottles they sell. I assume that 8-12 ounces is enough to do one body. Along with that, I want to do red accents with the KK11 Apple Red in the same ready-to-spray bottles. The black can be finished with either lacquer (acrylic = nitro?) or urethane enamel, but the candy red is urethane, so I'll have to finish with a urethane clear. But thanks to the Mowhawk site, I've come across some clear that is far cheaper than the HoK stuff. http://www.mohawk-finishing.com/catalog_br....asp?ictNbr=213 Does anyone have an opinion on the urethane/nitro combined clear? Some of that and some reducer is much cheaper than getting the required bottles from HoK. I've never heard of the brand OR the combined clear, but if it's reputable, then I'll get some. I couldn't find any straight urethane clear on this website, and this was the closest thing. Any feedback or additional sites I should look at would be helpful