Prostheta

Here's the end of the scarf from my Thunderbird - as you can see, a visibile scarf easily hidden by a backstrap. Unavoidable. Early half-build pic too...the volute wasn't shaped at the edges before anyone comments :-D http://www.prostheta.com/guitars/thunderbird1_7.jpg Oh, this isn't meant to be a post saying you've done anything wrong - it's a "the way it turns out" post. Now that's the other way to do it....no pretensions in trying to look like one piece of continuous wood :-D

The back of my Thunderbird neck feels like wax fossilised into glass....the polish I got was mirror-like but I wasn't good enough to do this over the entire bass. I'll be refinishing in black anyway - the Truoil made a great grain filler!

Definitely! As long as it's in good working condition with no pitting or rust. Snag it and if it's not much good, you could probably sell it on for more....

I'm sorry but we've decided not to deal with the hassle of shipping overseas. We're not particularly focused on the money-making aspect of selling these items... more just getting rid of them quickly and efficiently to clear space. I apologize for that inconvenience. We WILL, however, ship to Canada for anybody else interested. Oh okay - are you fine with shipping to a friend in the US who can forward them through to me? =] I can certainly do that for you. I'm really sorry that we can't ship it direct to you... I've seen you around the board and have read some of your threads with great interest. We've just had a myriad of problems and headaches shipping overseas in the past... and as I said, we're really just trying to get rid of things as fast as possible. Its already not really profitable considering the time I'm having to spend answering questions instead of building basses... but its about clearing out space and shifting the feng shui so its worth it. I hope you understand. -bryan Entirely understandable Bryan! I've had nightmares in the past myself with receiving things from the US, and chasing unresponsive/plain annoying postal services trying to get your item located (in one piece) is more wasteful in time and money than most things in life. Catch you on the other side of the auction(s) Bryan :-D

Surely "ain't nothing" is a double negative meaning that there "isn't nothing" ie. is something? That Americanism always confuses the hell out of me. I agree with hiding the join behind the volute and backstrapping, and I like to backstrap even when it's not to hide a join....cosmetically they look awesome!

Nice toolguy's cheesegrater for the next BBQ! I can't see it revolutionising or replacing the techniques commonly used unless it sees it's own way through an entire body's worth of work (pricewise) as it's not exactly expensive. I wouldn't trust it with the last 2mm/16th" of working wood though.... This could prove to be a good thread to watch if anyone has had results with this beasty.

Draw around your jack and carve a recess in the side. - draw around the plate - use a binding bit to bring an edge in for reference depth to either side of the edge you marked out - change the bit to a 1/4" depth template bit and bring down the channel to the bottom a 1/4" at a time - sand it out to make it look like you meant it

I'm sorry but we've decided not to deal with the hassle of shipping overseas. We're not particularly focused on the money-making aspect of selling these items... more just getting rid of them quickly and efficiently to clear space. I apologize for that inconvenience. We WILL, however, ship to Canada for anybody else interested. Oh okay - are you fine with shipping to a friend in the US who can forward them through to me?

Oh, I forgot to add....car and bike custom painters would do the work with PRIDE too, instead of for the number of zeroes on the receipt.

Would you ship to the UK?

He'll probably be able to do you a good deal on a $200 paintjob if you have a couple of extra zeros to spare! Ring around some auto and bike custom shops and as long as your wood prep is good then you'll get a much better job done for a hell of a lot less.

A longscale eight-string guitar! Given that the lowest registers are in bass regions, I thought i'd design it to have better tone in those positions.

I went for the middle ground as i'm building a 30" scale instrument, so I got a couple of rods made up at LMI halfway between guitar and bass length.

Won't the dye takeup of spalted maple be a bit patchy compared to "pure" maple? I would be tempted to go for a black tinted lacquer over the top after stabilising the wood and sealing it....

24 grit?! I've never seen that....it must have the texture of Celcon aerated concrete block!! Perhaps this is why I went hell for leather starting at 80 :-(

Moving them pretty much 3/4 forward and placing from there seems sensible to me. You won't generally end up moving the saddles any closer to the nut unless - as you say - you misplace the bridge! Tune-o-matics need a bit more babying though - anyone got a good potted explanation before I start babbling? :-D

I found it difficult on the first attempt as it was difficult to mark progress, which is why I plan on "coarse radiusing" my next difficult-to-radius-sand board with a 1/2" round-nose router bit to reduce the stock removal needed. I'd be interested to hear any ideas on technique people have for this one short of longer radiused blocks or router jigs.... I think the 8" radius blocks are more designed to fine-tune router radiused boards, and to help level frets etc. as opposed to doing "coarse" stock removal work on unradiused boards. Quick answers: - How hard is it? I found it very hard work as it needed a lot of elbow grease and... - How accurate is it? It wasn't. I had a dip in the centre as you naturally pull the block over it twice and the ends a lot less.

A mm? That's a mile! Things could be worse though. You might get abuse from a wet n' dry forum about how much you're ripping off their wet sanding kudos man. http://www.wetndry.co.uk/ Nah, I think you're okay unless you make an unergonomic surfboard guitar. I think I must win an award for cross-referencing the subjects on PG. On with the show Mr Hoogle!

Indeed. Heels on acoustic guitars, violins, etc. have physical strength from the heel to the front end of the body and are therefore constructionally useful, but for solidbodies - why? Teles and Strats don't need heels and are perfectly happy joining to a pocket in the face of an instrument rather than the front end, similar to acoustic's dovetails/tenons. Heels do look nice however and give plenty of opportunity to embellish an instrument :-D I really like it when a contrasting set of heel woods are added as part of a smoothed neck transition and blended into the body giving interest to the look. I digress. As everyone else says - gluing up to the back of the neck pup is more than enough if done well, heel or no. Once the neck pup cavity has been routed, the constructional (and tonal? heh) value of going any deeper lessens as you've eaten most of the tenon. The Myka jig will give you excellent results, and with a little care a VERY tight neck pocket. As David says - you should be able to pick up your instrument by the neck without even gluing up with a tight pocket. Just don't make it too tight and split wood off the sides of the pocket of course!! Happy building, and do document your progress of course.

Blasphemer! I will re-invent the guitar so that it will have a mobile camera built into it. So rockstars can take pictures of the audience! I will call it the "iTar". I'll make millions! Maybe release a later model that plays the guitar for the player. I see your lip-syncing and raise you an iTar! Nyaha. My hand wins. A full house of pair of USB ports, full of MIDI jacks.

I wonder if the fact that the acrylic was bent up to the nut had anything to do with it? The most pressure (if the acrylic wanted to return someway towards it's original shape) would be in the cup of the bend - perhaps the first crack you heard? The second could be from the rest of the weakened join giving way. Just clutching at straws.

You're right...the link opened the thread halfway down at Hooglebug's purple mirror-top :-D As for a blind test, I agree! There aren't enough fundamental flaws in our exalted instruments at this stage in the 21st century to warrant going back and inventing the wheel again.

What about that pure cocobolo guitar? That was insane. IIRC, that was one or perhaps two glue joints.

+1 Jon. I use my soldering iron and press it into pea-sized lumps of soaked toilet tissue.

The weather has fluctuated between being fairly sunny to completely stormy so it's possible that it's humidity!