low end fuzz

whoa whoa; just chillin

i wasnt against seat belt 'material' just using a seatbelt as a strap; which i thought was the suggestion;

but if i was against using the material; just because steve vai used it, wouldnt change my mind;

its about what can be done, not whats been done and accepted

well, a good angle eliminates the need for ugly string trees;

i dont calculate to any extent what my agles are, just that i have one; you can usaully tell after you designed the template wheather it looks stupid or grossly off

very good point on the leather;

actually i will be using viynal with only the ends being actual leather; stuffed with cotton with leather ribs on the inside; if i know anything about fabrics (and i dont) it should work fine

my thinking on it is that, the fret is fatter than a 64th so spot on shouldnt be do or die; the closer definatly the better; i have a jig now , but even the then i know my saw prolly moves the slightest bit from perfect every now and then and i have no problems;

the way i use to do it was get a old fretboard i knew was good, rip out the frets,flush cut the new piece to exact; hold it upside down against your new board and tick where the lines were; then grab your bevel edge

match the old ones to the new ones; check and change the degree every 3-4 frets for symnetry, and cut;

now thats even more of a chance of being off and it STILL worked perfect;

hope that helps a lil

i guy around here uses one (the duplicarver) for doing les pauls; he loves it;

hes got one to do the carve and pickups,neck pocket; and one to do custom stuff of very intericate carvings;

its cheating 'in a sense', but at the same time, you have to make the template; or well you could ; to be fare you could just run it over another guitar ,but why not make one super custom carved and duplicate that

then noone could tell;

with the interacite one you can make and fire lil clay sculptures and rout them into the body; its not bad for very busy inlays

i hear ya with the simplicity of seat belts; but pardon me; thats cheesy

after actually looking at a few leather straps with material lengthener (?) i know

its tottally within the skill of a friend who makes her own clothes;

i wanna mae it super padded, and silk screen it, thats another reason the seat belt thing is not exactly a go ahead;

i wonder if i should make a lil sewing post; but its prolly better on some crotia website

i know enough girls that can sew, that could prolly copy a regular strap design, but is there any cool tutorials; like good materials and where to buy the (latches;tightener;doo-hickey)?

its an idea i have in my head that id really like to see some pictures and info on someone doing it

thanx

ya ,there was a chance it was still partially green, but the epoxy should plastisize it enough from doing that.......but i guess not;

it was bought p.a.d. but it sat around for a good year and a half before i even dressed it; so maybe not the best example, but i couldnt see myself waiting much longer or doing any more steps than i did.

alder is the simpleist wood to work with without extrordinary headaches; no crazy grain, soft spots or anything, good weight and as far as sound i cant even say, its like it adds nothing but takes nothing away; its like a blank canvas for your pickups;

swamp ash is super light, but the grain makes handwork very hard , the sound of the finished product is definatly worth the extra effort;i much prefer this wood for basses , you can feel the notes resonating all thru it.

i tried a burl body (about 35mm) with a spalted top; it looked awsome and the weight was pretty sweet;

but 2 months later all the laquer de laminated leaving prolly a mm or 2 of air between it and the wood and cracked around the roundest edges;

i guess its from the warping; it was all sealed w/ epoxy first before spraying didnt even leave my shop exposed to a different humidity;

but man WAS it beutiful

of course its all "my opinion" and ive gotten that way through "my experience"

if i knew everything better than 100 other builders i wouldnt ask questions; but i write with confidence;

not to sound like a know it all;

and you cherry picked my quotes; multi-lam i always use quarter sawn pieces; and they are organised in a way that replicates being flatsawn; when you look at the bottom grain all together they will all be making a "U" or a "W", that is not only cosmetic but strength;

but your right; if wood wants to warp it will warp; so why would you use a piece more prone to warping?

the status-quo for fender and washburn is not my idea of a real neck worth the time it takes to carve.

but since its unamynous that im crazy, i'll kepp my 2 cents in the bank;

goo times

what about those 'multi radius' boards they sell ?

are those done ,say like an upright bass, with different levels on the treble and bass side?

ive never seen one, only by legend

gladly;

when using a quartersawn piece, no matter how quartered it is ; once you start carving it into a radius it changes the direction of grain; meaning it will most likely spur off to one side more than the other;

where if your using flatsawn(perfectly flatsawn; i dont even like 1 piece necks btw) after any curve (radius) carved into the wood the grain will continue to be straight through out; that s because your carving 'into' the rings instead of through the side of them;

granted if your like necks to look like a bow (the grain not the profile) go for it, you'll get a few years out of it before it twists;

plus the look of tight grain close to the fb and wide on the back is beutiful and way more stable;

thats why i like multi-lam because as long as its 'somewhat' quartered as soon as start carving the grain finds it way to be straight (i try to have any grain direction pointing towards or away from the centre in a bookmatched form to further detour the pull to one side) which in a sense is putting it into a flatsawn type 'pattern(?)'

***DISCLAIMER***

i know i'll get responses from people that have owned guitars with crazy grain necks that havent moved or needed adjusting since the day they bought them, but the necks i see that need to be fixed or are total write-offs are ALWAYS a bad cut and the warp follows the poorly selected grain;

i know some of you seem to like soft(hard)wood as opose to the rock(heavy) so i bet it sounds like nit-picking and being difficult but i almost cry when i see a handmade built with a neck that looks like a van gogh.

bring on the crucifixion

remember; if your lazy enough to make a one piece neck;

make sure its flatsawn, not quarter sawn;

quartered wont help the warping if theyre is only one piece going one way!

why opposed to the yellow pages?

your not going to find someone specializing in planing your wood, but look for cabinet makers, or a place that sells dressed wood; theyre the ones with the equiptment, especially if theyre small they appriciate the simplicityof running your stuff in while they do thir own ;for a price of course!

or if your really against looking someone up, you could pick random streets in your town and knock on every door till you find someone with what your looking for; to cut down on time only try the houses with big sheds/garages

j/k

just throwin it out there......

did you try loosening it back to straight?

i have yet to expeirience the 'two way'; im sure if they just sent you a new one ,its probbly not that easy, so i dont really know;

but i am waiting fro a couple from them thats already takin 9 workin days; i hope theyre not f**ct!!

+1 for veneer (or binding is great)

end of the 12th fret;

technically the highest point of the fret, because thats where your string stops vibrating, which acts like the nut, that makes it exactly half scale, which is also how you intonate;

end of the 12th fret

i'll check them out;

and ya this guy is a bit of a rip off with everything; hes old and thinks hes the only guy out there; really though; the last time i ordered from stew mac and got hit up w/ duty it was about 3/4 the price of getting them from him but i had to wait 3 weeks;

i thuoght you meant coating your tuners and bridge in laquer!

they sell stuff in cans like polyurathane, thats fast drying, that might work;

spray some real thick coats w/ light sanding inbetween, and (unless you have a buffer) one final coat without sanding real light so its shiny but wont collect dust;

although id suggest a tube of goo-gone instead!!

does anyone know a distributor who sells their frets in a roll?

i buy frets off an old teacher about 12 ft at a time; im not sure how long it is because he cuts them first and bags them;

its pretty good, its worth buying them from him because it already has a radius started and i have had no problem banging them in with no extra bending;

he tells me he has to buy it 50lbs at a time, he must because his roll looks like a michelin tire;

and hes a dink that wont even tell me where he gets them from(obviosly likes my money at 12$ a set(24/$.50 each fret) so i dont even know if they sell smaller bundles;

the price isnt a major deal, i just want my own roll; and i gave away the straight ones i got from allparts and stewmac;

ive been spoiled and its a pointless headache of a step pre bending them

thanx in advance

i got my wood bridge to work, just the other day;

its like the 'acoustic saddle' idea but no saddle;

i laminated some stuff together and cut it out and shaped it;

my best way to explain it would be like a 'giant wooden nut'

its only a four string but thats how im gonna do a 5er so i dont have to buy another bridge;

strung thru the body with ferrules on the back; you could but some bushings on the front but i just dremeled some angled slots to give the right angle up to the bridge;

i let the strings add their own grooves then dabbed a small amount of super glue to keep them from getting quikly rasped away;

c.t told me i should try the same thing with a piece of fret wire across the top as a saddle; i might try that next

if its for your brother; take the opperatunity t otry something cool!

good luck!

what do you think of shellac for a finish?

i love the 'close to wood' look but it reflects like laquer (polished)

i know some use it as a sealer then coat overtop; but i like to stay the same ingredients right thru.

i know its a 'soft' finish, but is it any softer than tung-oil?

countersink the tuners in; it looks cool and adds to the angle from the nut!