low end fuzz

i think wahts more important is how 'long' the crack is; and even then its not as bad as it seems; go with C6 and epoxy the crack (for strenth) and level it off (for looks) and paint, just dont force the neck in there and/or wobble it from side to side to get it out

well, now that you can see how godawful it will look w/colour, i hope you'll be clearcoating that buety!

misunderstood; i use a 1'' forstner bit to start my poskets; this guy used like an 1/8'' drill bit; that is what was funny; i just think you can spend your money on way more imprtant things than 3 saws that do one thing; i would rather have 2 fret saws and when one weras out you have a backup; and.. i meant the x's were easier; i hate measuring for inlays; that was the one part i liked! and, using a duplicator to carve the comfort zones and the neck is NOT taking you thru the process; im gonna stop now because im choking on my own rage! (j/k)

not to go out of my way to be a prick, but........... im gonna have to go ahead and BOO that pictoral tutorial from mr.Lowe in the midwest, that showed ,every last useless thing stewmac sells (not saying stewmac is bad, just exxescive, anyone who needs a seperate saw to clean out their fret spaces should be shot) i dont think ive even seen dan erliwene use so much of the stew. whats with the 1,000,000 drill holes before routing? have they ever 'carved' a neck before? they didnt even make the elbow cut by hand? how are they holding that guitar with any pride? sorry that really made me laugh; but to be fair, i learned someting very 'common sensical' making the x's to find the center for fb dots; i always just measured and used my centerline; thats much easier! but im still shakin my head!

clear coat; you have natural colours at work, which will look better than anything out of a bottle

buckeye is like styro foam; when i glue my tops i dont even use clamps because of the danger of crushing them; even plasticised it would not be strong at all, and if you tried to put frets in ,it would be like hammering on glass (i know its fretless btw) unless you pan on mass production or making a lot of money off of very few of these basses, you dont have to worry about copyrighting anything, the worst you would get from people is ''hey you copied an alembic"! which is only bad if it bothers you; i like there designs, and it looks like a nice replica youve planned out! oh yeah, also, youd never find a piece of buckeye burl that big; if you like the craziness and outragous colours, go for zircote or bocote!

no problem, the way i post pics is thru photobucket; start an account (its free;just costs time) put all your pics on there; you can resize them there aswell; click on the pic you want take and there will be 3 adresses on the right hand side; copy the one that is for msg boards and paste it in your post; i think theres an easier way; but thats how i got used to it.

ya i might try it; i hammer in my frets, but i dont ding them, if theyre being a bit@# popping out side to side i end up flattening them a bit; i like low action, so i rarely remove them unless theyre really smooshed.

if i understand, you inlayed pearl onto a radiused board, then when you were cleaning it up you took more wood off, changing the radius? if so, id sand it so it looked nice, put in the frets, and do your best to stay true to the radius while dressing them;

for dressing the frets i use the only method i was exposed to; long flat bastard file; supposedly using a coarse shapening stone (6-8'') is much better at removing metal and leaves less 'file' gouges in the fret itself making polishing a less involved task' has anyone done this before? i hammer in my frets so sometimes theres a dent that i just level down to; is that too much to remove for a stone? it seems like a gentler job; the only thing i dont like is how wide they are; your radius turns into a triangle!?

There are countless "ordinary" instrument builders. I'm confident enough in myself to know that I am never going to be one of them. If I built a standard strat or LP replica I would be ashamed of myself. Plus I'm not original enough to come up with something simple, tasteful and unique. My first guitars, the ones that have to be standardized, will be standardized, save for being unfretted (I respect music too much to ever allow frets into my creations). I'd say the only thing I'm straying with here is lengthening the fingerboard, everything else is just extensive carving, not avant-garde luthierie. Plus why do something that's already been done a million times? or 100? or 10? The body of the electric instrument is how you show who you are. I'm a two toned curlycue in natural tones and an aversion to right angles. i think you missed my point and went to the defensive; i get that, its not that 'out there' in retrospect of a design; my master told me while i was staying with him; whenever i wanted to do something crazy was, while your next to me your learning, theres far too much to know to waste your time on asthetics, when you go home, you do whatever you want, spend your time learning the mistakes and lessons of those before you, while your in a place you can, and save the time consuming art work that you can do anytime else (he calls it dinosaur work)?) for when its not costing you money. whats the point of being a luthier if you cant do repairs? and if you refuse things as simple as dressings and other fret work, you'll starve; i personnally like the design but am confused to why you would go to a school to learn and improve but make something that is all from your head; anything that is wrong with it, you can pass off as custom, whereas youve earned a diploma in b.s. didnt want you to think i was raging on you design is all.

i was hoping you were actually calling it the exploder! very nice; wasnt it you that said your sick of wood, and paint is where its at? i could be wrong, but if not, i hope you had a change of heart and are not going to paint over that!

anybody ever think of installing gps in their guitars? i mean it may sound kinda dumb because it could be removed; but if it was hidden inside and was a split from powered pickups battery, it would activate when it was plugged in/turned on like a cell phone and unless they knew about it and changed the pickups to passive or rewired it,it would send a signal; i dont know if you have to pay monthly payments for that or if they charge you just to find the signal (cars/phones etc) but it would be an interesting way to catch the theiving bastards! maybe an insurance break too!

no message; i just think this picture should be on every page of this thread!

idea stolen......definitly

it seems like too much; can we see some other stuff youve finished to get an idea of why your straying so much from an ordinary 'instrument'? i love creating things that are different, but when your at school, you want as much 'practical-practical' experience as possible, before these frankenstein collaberations.

if it is at all possible, id get a portable sawyer to come down and get you 8ft lengths, 1&2 '' ;sticker' em on your driveway; and either wait the 3 years or take a cut in profit and sell them and buy some dry wood

aside from the ''ass-kicking'' id say this is the most reasonable way to go about it; it would be like 'a loan' from this guy; no one could say if this guitar 'works' or not but im sure you could definatly break even on raw materials selling it to someone that wants a beutiful instrument in their home. just tell him it was a big prank and you didnt even start the project, you just wanted to see how long it would take to upset him.

straight black ebony is boring imo the grey (ghosts i like to call em) and the mac is what makes ebony at all interestng on another note; iwas told that black (true black) hardware is becoming extinct? something about an ingredient in the dye that has really bad emissions or something? theyre will be lots around for quite a while but supposedly they'll be the new gold; the black is being replaced by a gun barrel type of black; prolly unnoticable from a few feet away.

fryovanni; totally i understand; i hope you didnt think that i tottally passed off and discredited what you were saying; i have ideas in my head and the way i seem to perseve them and thats how i go about everything i do; i'll listen to everyone and try to keep an open mind when testing new things, but my mind is still in my own reality; its like someone reading and doing all the research about your home town but never being there; then trying to tell you about it; they got all the facts; but its not the way you see it; btw; i enjoy all your posts and you make sense of what your trying to explain which someday i might be able to; i also loved the xmas acoustic thread, and hope to see some finished pics soon!

well fryovanni; you definatly have science on your side more; good articles; alot of info; reading some of these points in the thread it seems that some are combining attack,sustain, decay and tone all in to one thing; and their judging these things with the pups; i guess i dont see it that way; i only go on what my own eyes and ears have witnessed you can make anything sound like something with pickups; plywood body and soft maple neck; but the true instrument is the sound of strings and wood; the bridge IS a major aspect aswell of course but any hardware will only accenuate what youve biult to hold them;

You don't feel like getting more wood? Wha..? I mean, how? Why? Wha..? My poor wood-addicted brain fails to understand this. (other than that, sure, use as fingerboard). i thouth i was the only one with this type of addiction; im mostly an exoticholic

i find tone to be the warmth or' hum' the woods make when a vibration is rung thru it; like an acoustic, this is happening inside the box; the 'definition' of attack is, the speed of which the highest volume is gained; 'which i find' happens in the neck; fast attack is the sound of each note hitting its full potential before the next note is played, no matter how fast theyre being played when a neck is like a rock and little vibration occurs the 'attack' is fastest; visa verca when the neck has open pourussy(sp?) or soft grain the sounds are cushoined taken longer to reach its absolute volume;which could be desired; but thats not tone when you pick a fb you want a hard dense piece of wood that will make the strings bright; when in reality the entire neck contributes to this; this is my explaination; although i reread the post i originally responded to; and he never said it was neck tone; he was talking of the body which cherry is great! but ya mahog is the weakest, i hate it, it has no attack; which is fine for classical guitars which are soft and 'melty'and electrics that are being played through so much distortion you lose the 'real' sound; going for the 'vintage' sound, but attack is nessacary for basses and guitars that are meant to be heard cleanly and alive; its just me; but then again you asked

if im wrong, im sure i'll be corrected; but you wont get different tone out of varying woods in the neck; you get them from the body; 'attack' on the other hand is what your gonna get by changing the neck woods; if your getting tone differences from the neck; your not using hard enough wood. but cherry is awsome in the neck, i saw alembic use it and had to go for it (centre strip) the more it ages the cooler it looks! and with a b.e. fingerboard it has great 'attack'

when i was trying to steam a fb off, the heat popped out the dots; i dont know if i would recomend it; id rather drill , but it worked; and they were epoxied in.