Logical Frank

Glad that worked out for you Matt. I bet you can find something suitably vicious to do w/ the parts from the smashed guitar. There is exactly one way I know of to make sure your package gets through if you're shipping UPS or FedEx (both are equally bad in my opinion). What you need to do is pay for an extra ten or twenty grand worth of insurance and they cover it up w/ this special tape that says, "Seriously, if you drop this, you're gonna be in a hell of a lot of troube" (not literally, of course). You can write "Fragile" on the box all you want but the shipping company employees only understand the tape. It's expensive but if the instrument is priceless to you and you have to ship it, that's what you gotta do.

Here's the deal (it's a little confusing to explain): The scale lenth is the total length from the nut to the bridge but that's not the end of it. The distance between the frets has to be proportionate to the scale lenth. So if you're neck and body don't match up, the frets end up in the wrong spots so you can't get proper intonation. They will either be too close together or two far appart depending. And, by the way, just because your neck and body came from a guiat w/ the same scale lenth, doesn't mean they'll work together. I have a 25.5 inch scale guitar w/ a twenty four fret neck here. If I were to take that neck and put it on, say, a Strat, it wouldn't work. You see on the twenty-four fret guitar, the distance from the body to the base of the neck is slightly shorter but the neck is slightly longer than on the standard strat. It addds up to the same distance but each half is different. Hopefully that didn't confuse you anymore.

I was curious on the tuning as well...

Just round that sharp corner point on the headstock a wee bit more and I think you'll have it. I really like the body shape, by the way, a nice subtle diversion from the norm.

Nice! That guitar is exactly too my tastes--really nice wood w/ some subtle, classy touches. And it's a tele! (Bolt neck, yay!) I'm not big on gold hardware specifically but I think you'll pull it off well here. I really want to put some Rio Grande's in my baritone tele once I get the neck from warmoth--specifically a Dirty Harry in the bridge and a Muy Grande in the neck--but haven't tried them yet so can't say anything. If you hadn't have started it yet, I would have suggested to rout it for some G&L Magnetic Fields pickups like in ASAT specials (if you can even buy those to put in other guitars). They're my favorite pickups in any guitar I've played.

Can you get away w/ a coping saw? That's what I kinda had in mind originally but figured it was kina of a pipe dream. Anything powered will have to go outside except for maybe drilling a few holes. What is this "drill press adapter", something that allows you to use a regular drill as a drill press? I searched and all I found was adapters that you attatched to your drill press. As far as finishing, I was thinking I would try this wiping varnish technique: http://www.liutaiomottola.com/PrevPubs/Wip...pingVarnish.htm

Looks nice. You made a mistake on yourwebsite in the caption under the nut and the jack. The current one would have us to believe that slotted bit of carbon fiber is a bridge.

Wow--that second try looks about ten times better. Nice.

Well--if it's good enough to build decks in a swamp for retirees, it's good enough for my guitars! Thanks again guys. It looks like this is not gonna be as expensive as I thought nor as cheap as I'd like. I was hoping I could maybe pick up the jigsaw and router for fifty bucks a pop but, thinking about it, I'd rather just wait a couple months and get something that'll last longer than five years. I am pretty excited to get the tools just for their own sake but the idea that I could make guitars w/ them is something I wouldn't have imagined I could do three or four months ago.

A kill switch does just what it sounds like it does. It kill the signal from your pickups. It's basically an on/off switch. You can use it to do Tom Morello-style stutters. It's pretty neat.

Thanks for the help, fellas. Just a few more questions... Would I want a fixed or plunge based router? And what kind of power would I be looking at for that and the jigsaw? I'm not gonna be using these all the time by any means. I can't see myself making more than a couple guitars a year. However, I have been know to become obsessed...

Seriously. Just go for it. You're not really gonna know how to do it until you struggle w/ it a bit. After that, it will seem easy.

Could I use a hand held jigsaw or do I need a benchtop one? This is starting to seem doable. You kinda look through all those threads where people go through their whole build and it starts to seem like you need bandsaws and laser-defense systems and such... I guess that is not the case.

I first was just interested in modifying my mass produced guitars but seeing all the great stuff you folks do has got me wanting to build my own guitars. The two problems I have here is I'm starting pretty much at zero as far as tools go and I live in a small appartment. I have a back yard I can use to work in but I'm packed in pretty tight so I don't have hardly any storage space. Anyone have any ideas as far as how much I could get done w/ handtools and such and what would be good to start w/? I figure people have been making instuments since before there was a such thing as electricity so there must be some way to about it. I dunno if it's gonna work out but I managed to brew beer in my little place so I figured maybe I could get a guitar or two out of it as well. I suppose, ideally, I would just find a friend w/ a workshop I could borrow but I can't think of anyone at the minute...

The white looks better w/ the chrome.

Really nice work. I think it'd look best natural as well but I don't know if that's just because it just looks so good as it is...

Love the shape. Really dig that eight string too. Are there seven-string TOMs? I think that would look real classy on that guitar.

Every guitar is a little bit different but it's really simple to figure out. Basically, if it unscrews, unscrew it and it will all come apart. (Make sure to bag and label the parts so you can get it back together.) The one thing that's tricky is the electronics. In most guitars, you will need to detatch the pickups from the rest of the circuit to get it all out and then reattach them when you put it back together.

I, for one, dig the color scheme. It looks just about perfect for playing an epical guitar solo. I was thinking the same thing as NiteFly as far as the upper horn but maybe not so big as his is. I like the subtlety of the original design.

It will all pretty much unscrew apart but you will have to desolder the pickups to get everything out. Really, though, if you want it to look like you've been playing it for forever, just play it for forever. That's half the fun.

I actually like the top horn but the bottom one did look a little funny. I like the plain headstock a lot better as well. The bursted one is too busy. Looks really nice, I like the positioning of ferrules.

I had my doubts but that headstock looks pretty freakin' great.

Good to know. I got a Mex Tele body off of eBay a while back and was worried it was messed up because of those extra holes... I guess it's normal.

Not to threadjack this but where? Are you getting 'em used of eBay or something?

I was thinking of getting some of the Dream 90s myself when I got the Retrotrons but decided in the end I wanted to keep my old SG as a two humbucker guitar... Couldn't be happier w/ my decision but I suppose I've never compared. What's really funny about this is I was *this* close to buying a set Duncan Invaders of all things but saw how sweet the Retrotron looked and couldn't pass 'em up for the price. I had always thought of this particular SG (old Faded model w/ the half-moon inlays) as being a particularly heinous brand of death w/ strings (and I mean that in a strictly positive way!) so I was uneasy about turning into a jangly pop machine. I plugged it into my Fender Champ a couple weeks ago and have unplugged maybe twice. I put just a wee bit of tremeloed dely from my Memory Man--hoo boy, that sound puts a smile on my face. So are the pickups better than the stock Gibsons? Yes. Are they better than if I got some TV Jones Filtertrons? Dunno, probably not. Do I love them anyway? You bet! But I am no expert.