Xanthus

Sweet, looking forward to it. I actually took another look back at the headstock and it's starting to make sense. It's a dragon's jaw, more or less, correct? Reminds me of the sketches in some of my D&D books (No, I'm not a geek...?) That'd work on the body, I think, to keep with the overall theme. One or two things: If you're keeping with the black-white scheme as well as the dragon theme, you could paint the headstock half-black and half-white with the design you had, to further define the dragon-jaw shape. Also, maybe if you moved the upper horn, or both horns, out a bit more, I think it'd make them look more wing-like. My suggestion, is all, but looking forward to your refined designs. Keep 'em comin' -Xanthus

Ooooooooh..... Excellent ideas, Nameless, you've got me thinking on this one. Either would look fantastic, I'm thinking. Perhaps the candy red would look more 'professional' just because my bevels aren't exactly perfect. I'd do some research, but I gotta run out the door to pick up a friend. Do you know, off the top of your head, where online I'd be able to get supplies for either of the finishes? Or would it be easier to run down to the neighborhood Ace or Home Depot? Thanks a bunch, -Xanthus

There's only one hand gesture I can give to people who actually PROFESS that they play power metal... \m/ >_< \m/ Had ya goin' didn't I? Good luck on the build, body looks awesome, headstock is a bit too 'busy' for my tastes, but all the more power to ya. In the name of Holy Thunderforce, -Xanthus

Yeah, I'm all for the color scheme too. Mad upps, I think is the phrase? Or something? Moving on... Congrats on the build! A bit more adventurous than mine, I think, if only for the hardware. I rate Floyd's higher on the difficulty scale than TOM's \m/ -Xanthus

Okay then. Not to revive a fairly dead thread or anything, but I'm back with an update. Just finished rasping and sanding my way to a sexy body shape (if only the gym was that easy), and aside from drilling a few miscellaneous things like pilot holes for control cavity and pickup rings and stuff, the guitar is done! With regards to everything except painting. And staining. Perhaps both. I dunno, but currently, I'm not feeling a whole hella confident about staining and painting right next to each other. I mean, there's probably a reason why I haven't seen the technique done on many (any?) guitars. Have you? I'm thinking of just painting the bevels/back of neck red, like the Kevin Bond Rhoads that Jackson makes. http://www.jacksonguitars.com/products/pop...;node0=0#bottom I mean, why potentially screw something up hardcore? I want to not Though the idea of the grain of the mahog and maple showing through on select parts of the guitar would look really cool. A wee tiny bit of class on the unabashedly metal guitar. I would have no problem with having opaque red as opposed to stained red, and it'd be much much easier to do. I just lose the coolness of half-stain-half-paint. So I'm more leaning towards the full paint, now. Any comments, suggestions, encouragement? If I paint the neck, how would I be able to get the smooth feel like a nice 'tongue oiled' neck? Or am I just under the impression that you can't tung oil paint? -Xanthus

Giggle :-P I can see it, heh. -Xanthus

hahahahaha, I never said anything about buying it! My thought is that they're making all their money on shipping. 190 GBP = 362 USD Still, who WOULDN'T pay $370 for a Korean-made Bullseye Les Paul? Anyone? Anyone? -Xanthus

http://cgi.ebay.com/black-GIBSON-LES-PAUL-...1QQcmdZViewItem /\ Check that link out, for a sec. I'm really not sure what to make of it. Who in their right mind would be selling an LP-style guitar for a Buy-It-Now price of 7 bucks??? I've read the description a few times over, is there anything I'm missing? Maybe this is a finely crafted 1/20th scale model or something? Just thought I'd pass it along for y'all. Oh look! A JEM for $5 plus shipping! -Xanthus

It's actually a pretty ****** file, and the sandpaper eats through the wood faster than the file does

I'm working on finishing up the bevels on my explorer (no forearm/beer gut cuts here )and honestly, this is how I do it. Take a half flat/half round wood file. Cut a 9x11 sheet of sandpaper into 3rds the short way. Wrap paper around file. Use flat side. Sand. Yes, sandpaper AROUND a wood file. No, I don't use the wood file on the wood. hahahaha Like it's been said before, I like working with the hands as much as possible. Oh, and by the way, anyone else tried the Norton 3X sandpaper? Hot damn, that's some good stuff! -Xanthus

*big whistle* What a nice combo of colors! It looks real "woody" and natural with the black hardware and pickguard. That burn texture makes me want to cut out some real flames out of aluminum and hot rod my old Carvin! -Xanthus

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...21292&st=60 /\ Check that link out, it shows how the illustrious METALMATT (there may be an ! or two missing there) fixed a similar type of problem. I don't know how hard it would be to cover a similar plate with your material finish or not, maybe you could choose a different finish that compliments your original idea. I'm thinking that if you go this route, a pickguard-thickness veneer or even a pickguard itself would cover it up; I wouldn't want a thick wooden faceplate jutting out from the body of my JEM. Best of luck, -Xanthus

hahahahahahaha, too true That means I'll never win. Ever. I've said it before, but sweet guitar, and congrats on a solid build! The recessed straploks is an excellent idea! did you just drill a hole and screw them in? -Xanthus

Hey, at least it's an opinion, anything helps. That procedure sounds like it'd work, yeah. So to recap, then: --"mask" around the bevels with clear --Stain the bevels cherry --Sand down the clear and mask the bevels for spray --Fill the mahogany grain --Spray, sand, repeat --Unmask bevels --Clear the whole guitar A few more queries, for anyone interested... Would I have to grain fill the parts that I want to stain, or no? Also, I like the feel of an oiled neck, nice and woody *snicker* Would I be able to tung oil over the stain? I've also heard some people taking some 0000 wool to the finished neck to give it a smoother feel... Other than that, the method sounds like a pretty solid way to go about it, and the way I'll probably go. Thanks for your help, Nameless! -Xanthus

To start off, I'm pretty much clueless as far as finishing wood goes. On the other hand, I have RTFM's. A decent amount of FM's I'm in the process of building an ESP-style Explorer. Right now, all I have to do is bust out the bevels, modify the heel a bit, and sand it down all purdy. Then I'm going to staint and pain it. Paint and stain it. Mix them. Who's hesitant? Me. What I want to do is paint the body and headstock top black, and stain the neck and bevels a deep cherry-ish red. I think it'd look cool. But is it possible? I don't know if it's feasable. I have a few bits of tearout/drill boo-boo's that needed puttying. Thankfully, they're not on the bevels, because I know stain doesn't like wood putty. So I know that I can't stain the body black, I'll have to paint it. I could paint the bevels red, but that's already been done. I thought that seeing the grain of the wood peeking through would be a cool effect. So is this paint/stain scheme even possible? I don't know if anyone else has attemped something similar or not, I'd like to hear some advice if they have Thanks in advance! -Xanthus

Thanks for the help, Rob! I'll try on a scrap piece first, just in case to see which method I like better, the rasp and sanding block, or a friend's spokeshave I was able to steal, heh. -Xanthus

Daaaaaamn..... Man, what an awesome lookin' axe! It looks exactly like mine is going to turn out... except mine's an ESP explorer... and it'll be the direct opposite color scheme... with a TOM bridge... and black hardware... But you get the point I'm at the critical "bevel-carving-nail-biting" section of my build. I was wondering what method you used to do the bevels on the V. I started a thread looking for help, but nobody responded to mine It came out reaaally nice, though. Seems like you've got more innate skillz than I do, hahaha Any help would be appreciated, thanks. -Xanthus

aaaah, that's pretty cool. Thanks for the info, crafty! -Xanthus

Yeah, actually I was wondering the same thing when I was picking out my bridge. Then I just got the only TOM that Carvin carried (which isn't even the "same" bridge they put on their guitars ) -Xanthus

Lucite? Like, the plastic stuff? That's pretty cool! No really helpful comments here, sorry but the post caught my eye because my dad, who is guiding me on my build, got inspired and mentioned a couple days ago that he wants to make a guitar out of corian (He's awesome with a router and a lathe, and has spent a lot of time making candlesticks, countertops, covers, everything). Hey, if you've got the material, why not? Give it a shot, man, be creative. I've heard, seen, and read about lots of guitars being built out of weird material, and I see nothing wrong with being unconventional. I know most people are going to skewer me for saying this... *dons kevlar vest* but it's an electric guitar, right? Doesn't that mean the focus is on the electronics anyways? hahahahaha Have fun! -Xanthus

Oh man...... *thinks of the time saved* I should've done that a looong time ago. Know what I did? I opened up my CAD viewer (the Free DWG Viewer), calibrated the ruler on something I was positive I knew the length of (a humbucker, for example) and used the ruler to get all sorts of crazy measurements. Then I drew them all on a piece of cardboard and ended up with a really blocky version of my template. Which I had to smooth out. Then I took a pic of the guitar off the website, converted to black-and-white, erased everything except the outline, and blew it up full size by guesstimating from the measurements I took from my CAD picture. Then I made a final template, a combination of the picture and the measurements. Man, I'm so dumb. Not that I think my body shape is incredibly UNaccurate (I made some of my own modifications to it, eventually), but man... It'd have saved me a ton of time. Next time, I'll know -Xanthus

Yeah, I'm building a guitar with the neck-through Carvin bridge and the recessed TOM as well. My calculations came out to (keeping in mind the Carvin neck has a 25" scale) that the treble side should sit at 25 1/16" from the nut, and the bass side should sit at 25 3/16" from the nut. I measured down to the little convenient hole in the Carvin neck to measure my 25", then drew the 1/16" line and a 1/8" line after that. Also, the stud spacing for the Carvin TOM is just a hair over 2 15/16". if you're setting the bass side of the bridge 1/8" inch back from the treble side *duh duh duh!* *whips out triangle formulas from freshman year algebra* Pythagoras says that the line at the 15 1/16" mark should be 2.903" wide, or 1.45" from the centerline on each side. Then, on the bass side of the bridge, mark the same distance, just back an extra 1/8" for intonation. Mark holes, make jig, route! The thumbscrews are 5/8" diameter, so that'll be the side of your route channel. Hope this helped, and sorry if I just rambled on; routing the bridge pocket is the next step on my build, so I've been calculating and recalculating to make sure everything is good, and to me, it's sound. But don't trust me. I don't know why I even trust me. Measure and calculate on your own build and good luck! And if anyone thinks that it's wrong, feel free to let me know, that I might save myself from doing something potentially very destructive. -Xanthus

Nice thread, guys, very helpful Yeah, I'm about halfway through my first build now, and I decided to buy a premade Carvin neckthrough, mainly because I have a Carvin neckthrough already, and it's the best-feeling neck I've come across in my limited experience of playing more than one guitar. Other reasons followed, such as it'd save me time and labor (though I actually waited a month for my neck... so I guess not) and I felt much "safer" buying one all pre-done. Still trying to work through this build with minimal screw-uppage. Don't get me wrong, I'm feeling really good about this build (overall), and I'm looking forward to building my own neck, when I have another $700-ish to throw down for a project. For a first-timer (or maybe just in my case, I'm not phenomenal with woodworking), building a premade neck might be the way to go, to help in getting your craftsmanship "bearings." I know it worked for me. And my nice premade Carvin neck means that the most nail-biting event in the build is going to be making sure I get the bridge routing pocket exact I think it was Verhoevenc who said on the first page or so that his Carvin neck was really bulky too. I found that one out as well, so a major rasping is in order. I dunno if I should profile it like my other Carvin neck or not, seeing as the build body is 1 3/4" thick, whereas my Carvin body is just over 1 1/2", but yes, the heel that neck ships with is CHUNKY! Eh, the body's a good looking piece of mahog. I'd hate to take off more than needed. 1 3/4" is fine with me. -Xanthus

Hey guys, first time poster, but I've been frequenting this site for about a year or so. I've started on my first build, an ESP-style explorer (sigh. yes, I'm a metalhead, obligatory first build, bear with me), with stats as follows: Carvin 24-fret neckthrough (LOVE their necks, I've a custom guit from their shop) --Ebony, un-dotted fretboard Mahogany wings TOM Bridge from Carvin (routed into a pocket for the lack of neck angle) string-through Sperzel 6-in-line's, black Volume, Tone, 3-way blade switch EMG HZ-H4/H4A (If they're good enough for Alexi [and they save me $80]) Straploks Meh. Details. Anyways, I've come to the problem of those oh-so-\m/ bevels that ESP has on their new Explorers. I direct the curious to [http://www.espguitars.com/guitars_ex.html] I would do them with a router, were they the same depth all the way around. But of course, nothing can be that easy. I actually saw a poster building an awesome-looking ESP F-Series with bevels and such. How to do it? I'm thinking that a spokeshave would be the best way, seeing as I can't think of a way to do the curve with the router. Trace a guideline on the top of the body, and one on the side, and use them as a guideline. Take to it with a rasp and a spokeshave, finish with some sandpaper. I've no problems with doing it using this method, save for the fact that I don't have a spokeshave (But nothing I can't obtain), well, and the obvious fact of ruining my project with a serious screw-up. I was just wondering if there was an easier/more effective/more sure/safer way of going about it, before I start hackin' up the mahog. Thanks for any help or comments in advance!