Prostheta

+1 on the fret markers. My gut feeling is that guitar strings will be a lot harsher on the fretboard than bass strings, so go for a wood that is hellaciously hard and polish it up a storm! Perhaps some acrylised wood or an epoxy sealer?

Sorry I didn't read through all of the thread. I read the brief and went straight to latest. Staining is carried out on unsealed wood, but it doesn't look like you're using stain - more like solid paint. You can still burst with solids, but the blend of the burst is harder to achieve and doesn't look as good (IMO). You may find that the wood used might not like taking stain, and if it does, it might not want to take it evenly because of the sealer coat it had/has. I would slap the person who said you can't refinish a guitar, and then perhaps consider buying the spraygun and compressor before re-doing this refinish and ending the whole thing by slapping him again.

Yikes....the paint looks a bit thick in places there and the burst hasn't much of a gradual transition....also, did you reseal the wood after you sanded it?

Will do. Not much else is going to be done to the neck apart from fine finish sanding after i'm done the fret bevel, level and dress. Perhaps cutting the nut, but i'd prefer to leave that till string-up time. The body will be started in a couple of weeks as I have some gigs coming up to practice and prepare for (and play) plus other work commitments. By that time I should have the body and neck blanks for the other eight-string and the seven-string....

UPDATE: Radiused the fretboard, finished shaping the neck and installed side markers and fretwire. Still bits of sanding to do in the curves, so it's not exactly catwalk glossy standard right now. ANOTHER PIC YET ANOTHER PIC (wood wetted slightly, hence the dry stuff in the grain)

Totally, Brian! I loved your eight-string build. How is it turning out now you've had time to live and work with it? I've still got string gauges to work out, but i'm going to try a 0.80 for the eighth and see how it feels. I would prefer a similar tension over the "traditional" six strings to be fairly similar to how a 10-46 set feels on my Explorers (24-3/4") when in standard E. I'm not even sure if the string lengths of D'Addario EXL strings will fit the instrument. Wouldn't that be the stupidest thing ever? I was actually inspired by a Dolan Guitars instrument with a similar headstock so I won't take credit for that one, however I changed the design and added by own little eccentricities like recessing the tuner bushings and angling the tuners to make it more compact. It's not exactly too dissimilar from yours though - mine just has about 1/2"-3/4" cut from the middle :-D The resultant design is more like "made harder to build and was more annoying to get right" which is how I can justify using CAD to make sure everything is going to go right, as opposed to making tug material. I did go through two dummy headstocks before I committed to the final build though.

Of course she is.

Work hasn't started as I need some wenge before I can get underway on the neck, and the zebrano I have earmarked for the body. I might start the top carve however. My expected finish date is before next Autumn as my wife will be playing it at our brother, Sami's wedding in Finland.

Hey all! Well, this one has been on the boil for a long time now as making it perfect (it's for my wife) is paramount, and rushing the build is not. Nina has always wanted a Les Paul, but certain aspects of the "standard" design don't endear itself to her such as the weight, inlays etc. All easy to build out. The basic spec deviations "from Standard" we decided on over much deliberation are: - carved flame maple top/zebrano back with one large "U" hollow body cavity - nickel hardware throughout - P90 pickups combined with a 6mm post Graphtech GHOST Tonepros TOM bridge - Waverley 4067 nickel tuners with ebony keys or 4062 engraved - macassar ebony fingerboard with self-designed entwined vine - laminated neck with a zebrano central laminate and wenge outers - straight wenge headstock with zebrano headplate and macassar ebony backstrap - dual action allen truss rod We're still debating the proposed satin finish, over whether to go with wax or oil. Nina (being Finnish) would prefer the woods to be as natural as possible. No clearcoating! My hesitation is that the zebrano might become dirty, similar to how maple becomes a dirt magnet.... We are waiting on so good zebrano to come into stock, the maple is cut and good to go (might start the carve) and the neck just needs the wenge.

I think all possibilities have been said, but I agree in that the excessive bevelling can only be remedied by refretting (big job, but the correct way to restore it to 100%) or compounding the issue by then having to cut a new nut to work out the issue caused by the bevelling. Which is the lesser of the two evils is up to you :-D

I think the body shape is quite modern looking in general anyway as it has a sweeping offset look to it, same as how Explorers and Jaguars look more "jet age" as opposed to more traditional balanced shapes. I would try and fuse modern with traditional, but that's just me. I think it looks nice as-is. Maple as a headstock cap? Maple binding? That would tie the neck and body perhaps. Go for it Pukko. Love the previous build you did.

That's a possibility. I could perhaps even work a "faux pickup ring" around the EMG with a round-nosed bearing bit, and perhaps even a small raised round section around the volume knob. I'd not considered things like this, as I wanted a nice simple look to the body but a bit of tieing up never goes amiss. I am trying to get out of the whole "changing specs and designs mid-build" and stay true to the original spec'ed design. I do have one or two other eight-strings similar to this one in the pipeline of course.

True - the scale length would be conducive to the shape, but the balancing issue would be awful which is why I decided against the Mockingbird and Warrior proposals I threw around in the design stages of this (these) build(s).

I hate those things....the only use they have is to create access to Fender-style back-of-the-heel rod adjustment points :-D

Thanks Erik - that would be awesome if you're up that way. PM sent also. I will definitely be interested. I also managed to score these off eBay last night: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=009 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=009 The size of these would work very nicely as a central laminate between two pieces of wenge, or in the case of the 610mm piece as a neck blank if I grafted on an additional composite piece for the headstock....

Oil might be a problem as it won't take "the same" in the filler material as the wood unless your filler is just that - wood. You could infill slivers of wood made from scrap off the piece and clamp in with some Titebond. You could even compress the slivers to make them marginally thinner than the void, and then steam them to expand them a little to fill the gaps after you pop it in with a bit of Titebond or hide glue (it'll re-set after cooling). CA and wood dust for a clearcoat instrument would work as it would be glossy all over anyway. This is gut feeling or logic talking - not experience, mind! The epoxy idea sounds good because it would stabilise the soft spalted wood too.

Man, I just feel that you're considering making a potentially costly mistake doing something which might seem like a good idea (hey, ideas are what drives creativity) but compared to the experience of people who have been-there and done-that, it doesn't seem like a good idea. Chalk it up to experience and get to love binding materials!

If you hate the feel of PVC under your thumb and don't want to spend the time installing binding (and therefore refretting) then you're going to have to get rid of your thumb (or wear a glove) and then buy somebody elses time instead. Besides, paint doesn't feel any better than "PVC" anyway. If you have an aversion to PVC then try ABS, acrylic, pearloid, glass, brass, carbon fibre, wood, bone, jelly, clay or vegemite. All of these will have a better and longer lasting effect than paint. I'm afraid you're going to HAVE to find the time to do this properly or else you'll feel a right pranny for attempting something that most people would avoid out of general sense. Good luck, post your results and I hope you're able to prove the rest of the world wrong. Have you considered the easier option of giving up guitar and taking up drums? It could be your calling in life.

Search on Google for "faux binding paint".

Touché, Maiden! Yeah, the next job is the fretboard and truss rod cover before final shaping and finishing. As much as I would like to rush ahead and get the body done, I would rather wait till the right wood comes around instead of piling ahead into it. I think given the right amount of patience, I can rustle up some zebrano for a central body laminate and wenge for outers. Best go raid eBay methinks (thanks Travis!).

I've got more CAD drawings if you're wanting some more disappointment Maiden!

Chrome/nickel hardware Perry? Pshaw!

Thanks :-D Wenge is awesome, and as people point out regularly it has a strong resonant ringing tap tone. I've not been finish sanding anything up till now, but wenge does have this awesome habit of polishing up very well when you hit it with 400 grit cloth. Hopefully the zebrano won't get clogged up with wenge dust too badly unlike my annoying padauk/maple encounter. I'm holding off on the body work until later this month. I want to tie up all the woods for a nice cohesive look, but i'm finding it very hard to source wenge or zebrano in the UK any thicker than 1" for body stock. If anyone has any ideas on this score, I would be very appreciative. I'm not too worried about completing the neck so far in advance of doing the body as I have a 1:1 CAD plan for the build anyway, and i'm bang on with the measurements so far! Recessing the tuner bushings and routing the bevelled headstock top shape was a PITA. I wouldn't recommend trying it without balls of steel.

Sounds good to me. Gone to PM.

C'mon, you're a drummer so won't silver gaffer tape do?