prs man

I have done the belt saner thing with no trouble.

Pick up a copy of melvyn hiscock's book, and it should help answering any questions all the info you need is in this book it is worth buying. for a bridge I would start with a string through [hard tail] strat bridge. you might find you get more tone and better sustain with a hard tail I know I do. building your own is not any cheaper in fact it might be more it will depend on what you want and how much you want to put into the project. good luck to you

Melvyn Hiscock's "Build Your Own Electric Guitar book has so much info. read through the book you will see it goes step by step vary good to have. if you have the cad drawing can you print this out on papaer then glue it to ply wood whitch will be your trmplate for the guitar. start with the body and go from there.

Hi I have read everything. yes I need a cookie here is what I do.[ this works for me] first thing is to tape the fret board with masking tape so the only thing showing is the frets. now I use a fille from home depot and slid it up and down the frets to get them level. work from the edges into the center of the frets you need a lite touch when doing this. not a lot of pressure on the file is needed you just want to level with a lite touch. now using a black marker mark all the frets so they all look black. [ no silver is showing] now use your fret file to crown the frets. if you have a diamonde file this don't take much. when done I use the black marker again to cover the frets. I use the marker to see where the fret is been filed or sanded. start with 320 grit sand paper that is wraped around a small piece of rubber that is 2X2X 1/4 thick . I found the rubber at a auto body supply store they cost about 1.00 each. I filed a grove in one edge that when sand papaer is wraped around will be used to polish the fret. this is what I use as a sanding stick. start with 320 grit and polish untill you see just a slight black line left in the middle of the fret. then go to 400 grit and then finish with 600 grit. now at this time there should be all nice and have a good shine to them. finish off with some steel wool. I forgot at some point you need to file the ends of the frets with a small file to round over or leave the stright what ever you like. now check to see if the fret are level with each other. if one or two rock a little you can go back and take a little more sanding at that time. I have found fret leveling take time and not to rush it. I hope this helps you and once you do a couple fret jobs it is like a ride in the park no big deal.

fookgub is correct when saying Painting guitars has a different set of requirements than cars. that is why paying 200.00 for a good job is worth it. the can finish sounds like it might be the way to go on this project. I started spraying my guitars a couple years ago and it take a little getting use to the spray gun. once you got it you will think why did I not do this sooner. good luck to you.

I paid 180.00 to get a tele finished before I started to spray myself. sorry to say this finishing takes time. some sanding between coats and then wet sanding when all done and buffing so 200.00 sounds ok if you can't do it your self.

that looks cool I have always liked p90s. It looks like tele meet prs a little. I like the body shape will the back have a tummy cut like a strat.

I have used the truss rod and put the top block under the nut. In my case I used a gibson stlye hot rod and I needed to get to the nut with a truss rod nut wrench. if your using the kind that takes a allen wrench you should be cool.

I have used the hot rod and I put it under the nut and had no trouble.

the maple fret board will have a lirttle more of the high twang to it depending on how you set up your amp. the fret board will need to have a finish on it. maple fret boards are nice and if you have a nice flame maple the looks would be cool.

awesome job you have done. I like the woods you used and I like the head stock. the peg head shape looks like a cross between prs and taylor to me.

for the rock stuff anything from these guy's Ed VanHalen Steve Vai Joe Satch Peter Frampton santana lynyrd skynyrd and not to be forgotten TED NUGENT for the blues I like SRV albert collins,bb king, laery MCcray, robben ford and buddy guy when in the blues mood these player's play with a lot of soul. country pickers jerry read and Roy clark this is hard to think of my favorite there are so many so where do you stop.

I remember playing a Gibson made L5 guitar and they used maple finger board. there is nothing wrong with using maple on your project.

Hi Richard I think you would be o.k. I have used some nice maple and walnut that was not as thick as it should be for a tele body. be sure you have enough room when routing for pickups.

your songs are are awesome. MY favorite is Haunting You. there is something about that song that does it for me. I would say that is as good as anything I hear on the radio in the USA no question. the sond reminds me of some local blues I have heard.

stewmac has the templates and bit you will need. http://stewmac.com

I bought a 16'' jet band saw last year and love it. buy the bigest one you can get. you don't need a huge band saw but when you need it you wish you had saved a little more and bought the bigger one. do research on the motoer size and compair the different sizes and guide bearing or block. the guide bearing I like better then guide blocks. if you need to get parts to repair can you get them near you. if you can stay with a 14'' band saw for cutting the body shapes and necks. I bought timber wolf band saw blade from woodcraft.com they cost a little more but worth ever penny. if your doing re-sawing someday timber wolf is a nice blade for re-sawing wood for book match tops.

go with the stew mac hot rod 2 way adjustable truss rod. they do ship international orders I have used the truss rods in a few guitar now with no trouble and vary simple to put in. stew Mac web site also has info on how to put the truss rod in. they sell a router bit for this all I used was a 1/4 stright bit for this. here is there website. http://www.stewmac.com/ happy building to you

looks good for a first time cabinet will you cover it. next time if you just glue it together you can round the edges with a router. hey if it works that's cool.

that is correct forgot to say MDF is great for speaker cabinets.

I just finished a guitar and I used duncan 59 in both bridge and neck. I also have a guitar with a duncan 59 in the neck and a jb in the bridge both sound awesome when you crank it up and sweet smooth sound when volume is low. the 59 in the neck and the jb in the bridge is like magic.

your demention sound good to me be sure to port the cabinet. I coppied a soldano 2 X 12 cabinet 28 long and 14 wide and 18 tall all out side dimentions I have two 3'' ports between the speakers. this is a closed back cabinet with plenty of bass for a 2 x 12 cabinet. this has a stright baffle that is set in about 1/2 from the out side edge of the cabinet. when I was done and things where dry I took a spay can of insulation and sprayed the joints on the inside to make sure the cabinet was sealed good. you can find the spray insulation at you home depot or a store like that. I will say for your cabinet I would use 3/4 good dence ply wood for evevything. pine is good for the bracing and the baffle if you want but the ply wood works fine. pine wound not be my first choice . my thought is that pine is to soft to use. my cab is made out of cherry wood I had laying around so I diden't need to buy wood. if you have built things like this you would have all the clamps you need. clamp the cabinet real good you want to see nice clean joints. do you know what kind of joints you want to use. what kind of speaker do you have for this. one thing I thought about doing with the next 2x12 I build is to make the back in 2 pieces so the top half of the back can be removed. [more for the fender sound when needed] I think I have the plane if you would like them pm me and I will get them to you.

I say it is up to you and your style of playing . I like a nice deep sound from the neck pickup. rio grande pickups muy grande single coil in the neck is the sweet spot for me.

spokeshave are great for roughing out a neck when they are set up and sharp. finish with rasp file then scraper. I had some worry's when I first started using spokeshave and hand plane but the more you use them the better you will get. the one place I have seen spokeshave is at woodcraft.com if that is any help.

awesome good info.