Prostheta

Drak means the pores in your wood.

Sounds like you've got good reason for being quiet recently then.... :-D I'll be needing a bunchload more rod covers and possibly inlaid boards soon....will discuss this closer to the time! </mystery>

Thanks Doug - i'll definitely do so! Good to hear from you too. It's been a while.

You're very right. We've moved house and i'm in the process of setting up space for working. I have less dedicated space now, so things have slowed down somewhat. The current status is that the neck pocket is complete, and the fingerboard has been bound in flame maple and black. I'm going to delicately dye the maple a dirty black/yellow, bring back with steel wool, dye yellow and seal with a paintbrush. The large space beyond the zero fret area is for a guiding nut which will be made from yellow Corian. I may change tack on this, as i've found that the strings resonate on the headstock and may require some form of dampener, like a string bar with soft rubber underneath. back of headstock/rough volute

Those lip-and-spur bits look good for starting the hole using the "normal" direction for sure.

The words, mouth, out of etc. I agree. That's UK sense for you.

Yes - I found the sound a little overprocessed, and should ideally be played uncoloured as solo to let the sound shine through. The harmoniser didn't help! I think they perhaps are a little too ultra-clean in theory, but i'm not sure. It's not as though the demos helped me figure anything out :-\ The reviews on harmony central lean towards positive on the bass pups but not the guitar pups. Perhaps the low number of reviews doesn't allow it to be representative.

Perhaps the No7 is coarse enough to "catch and clog" in the pores of the maple? This is purely a guess to be honest. I would think a simple wetting agent (naptha as suggested?) and slightly finer abrasive to upset the clogs might do the job. This post is more to gauge my line of thinking once somebody experienced comes along. Don't observe the above. Really.

I agree about the reverse shapes ToneMonkey. I'm digging my Zeta 8 right now, but I think that for an all-rounder my Ibanez S can't be beat.

Heh. So if you're going to use your hellaciously powerful new bandsaw, turn off the TV, the music, all your amps, the freezer and more importantly the LIGHTS.

Awesome, thanks! Those are the puppies.

Anybody remember these crazy looking things? I think they were coils cast inside acrylic or whatever with polepieces drilled through.... TIA!

Pfft. You're really on a compressed air binge this week Drak.

I've got some Rustin's grain filler which i'm going to experiment with as I didn't like the waterbased junk either. Black CA is expensive but good for effects or stabilising. Stinks something rotten too.

Try Drak's epoxy method - the black CA I use has a very short open time, and is more expensive per job than epoxy.

Buy more wood. Lots of it. Let it sit and projects will come to you :-D

So yeah okay, whatever all those posts were about anyway.... *~%'\... Okay, the only thing I would change about this guitar is to have had it sealed/primed/levelled before the hand painting. Not really a change in mood or theme for the instrument, just a little kicker about what I would do on my next one for progression and makes-for-better-perfectionses. Step away from the guitar man - it's a beauty and nothing said here will change the fact it's yours, and yours only made to how you wanted it. Sod how everyone else wants it to look. They can go build their own. Your job is now to make another and another and another. All to your individual and personal specifications, perhaps with more pointers and new experience in mind. Asking too much of other people's contributions to your personal instrument is like sleeping with their wives instead of your own. Perhaps, anyway. Nobodies offered their wife up for me yet after asking them opinion on my geetars. That and my wife isn't and will never be in need of re-spec'ing. Maybe this is where the discussion went wrong and we're all going about our builds the wrong way. What do I know? :-D

I found a black CA glue in the UK which works nicely as a black grain filler same as your epoxy method Drak. I bet that would increase the contrast very nicely for a trans black finish.

I certainly hope not. It's extremely offensive. It could be worse in terms of offensiveness. I don't like upside-down squares very much either.

Oops...short memory...same thing applies though really. Use a straightedge to ascertain the high and low spots, then level it with the same tool with a slightly coarser grit like 180 or whatever suits the piece. A china marker is good for showing any uneveness as you sand. Again, if you're knocking down a high spot, be careful you're not sanding down other parts when dealing with that area otherwise it becomes like whack-a-mole :-D A good stick or bar is a better tool than most.

It did - thanks Rick. I used pretty much the same method of rounding over on my Zeta build, but I haven't gone to the same lengths of carving as yourself. You're so right about the large roundover bits....seeing the grain appear as the bit takes a 3D contour out of the sides is almost hypnotising which is a pretty bad thing considering how a bit like that can propel a workpiece across the room if too much is being taken too quickly! A couple of mm at a time for something that size when getting near to the full depth.

My steel box section is longer than the fretboard by about a foot. It's about 1-1/2" wide. I use double sided tape (DST) to attach strips of 240 grit along the length. Pressing down just serves to wear out your frets and your stick unevenly. Mark and scuff your frets with the sanding stick evenly otherwise you'll end up with uneven frets. If a a very small number of frets are higher than the others then it's better to level them individually else you'll end up sanding out the height of your good frets. Pop to Stewmac and buy a book on fret repair....it's an investment and a real eye-opener! Plus books are cheaper than their tools.

Hi Rick! Very good of you to drop in. I was wondering how you created the JS-style radii around the instrument....purely by hand, or did you create some machining method? As I understand it, the radii change constantly around the JS.

Those are great for radiusing fingerboards too ;-)

The Mirage I mentioned had a Tonezone in the bridge position with an OFR bridge. I'd like to build something like an S in a seven or an eight myself but the crazy large radii across top top, behind the bridge and across the back are a challenge. An eight would mean getting a custom pickup made, which I don't think DiMarzio dom unlike SD. I scored a neck-through blank of honduran mahogany today which I might put to this very use, although I do think that alder body wood in combination with a maple bolt-on neck has just as much character as a through-neck of course. This is what I meant about the heel. Those are dust flashes by the way, not dings :-D Your staining is crazy! In the photos it makes it look almost like an oiled wood like bubinga or padauk. Lost in action.