Unrealize

Sorry man, I believe that I have tried to open the file too (Illustrator), and I wasn't successful.

The Explorer's on the site are good files tho. Remember, doublecheck the measurements...

Good Luck!

Ok, justa couple of days before I am going to order, som I'm putting up a few links to have a few comments.

Does anyone have an opinion on these? They look like what I want,

but they suffer from the name.. hehe..

Dirtcheap TOM

Perhaps this one...

New style Nashville

With this stop bar...

Stop tail piece

Or this one with the above stop bar.

Tuneomatic black

What do you guys think?

I don't know if this is the cheapest place to buy, shipping and all, but it seems ok to me...

Cheers!

This is looking sweet so far! I'm looking forward to following this one, and see how it turns out.

Keep it up!

Cheers!

More about inlays this time..

I learned quite a few things, like don't route the cavity, and think that you will make the pearl fit. I'm sure it can be done, but the effort it takes can't be worth it. hehe. Another thing I learnt, don't cut pearl without a jig. I messed up badly when I first tried.

So, after some thinking, I decided to try out another design for the inlay, a little simpler, so it would more suit my inexperience. I did an Eye of Ra version, made a cutting jig, and it turned out quite ok. I got more skilled with the saw which then again made me want to try my original design over again. That one turned out FAR better than the first attempt I did, so now I'm drawn a lot between the two. I like them both.

The thing is that I already routed the fretboard for the star inlay, which doesn't fit to the pearl. I need to rout out even more wood to make the new cut fit, so I'm wondering, will it look ok to remove more wood, and use some glue/filler to make up for the gaps? I will stain the board, cause I want it completely black, so I hope that I can salvage the board.

I have another board that I can use, but I was hoping to salvage the first, so that I can use the second for the Eye of Ra inlay.

Can someone give me some input on this? I know the gaps will be kinda severe, but since I want uniform black I am hoping that it can be done.

Here are some pictures of the last progress:

Star inlay. Being very thin lines here it broke off on a couple of places, but I think there is nothing that I can't save. Still needs some fiddling with the file, but all in all an ok outcome I think...

Here is a picture of the fretboard routing as it is now. Do you think it is salvageable?

I'd hate to scrap this board.

Fretboard inlay rout

Here is the Eye of Ra design. This one also needs some finetuning, but it is coming along.

Eye of Ra

I'd really appreciate some input on this, cause I'm a little uncertain what to do about it.

Also, what kind of glue should I use to get the pearl fastened to the board.

Thanks alot!

Thanks a lot for all the replies folks, I really appreciate it.

I'm still not sure which one to buy, but it makes a little more sense to me now.

Cheers!

Thanks a lot guys, I haven't really made up my mind yet, still got about a week of thinking before I have funds anyway.

I'll probably end up with the Gotoh from Warmoth, though their ordering system is quite outdated..

Hey!

I'm about to buy a TOM bridge and stoptail piece for the explorer that I'm building.

Does anyone have any suggestion to what I should buy, why, and where..?

I see they have black Gotoh at warmoth, and it seems really cheap there too, which is kinda what makes me concerned, why are they so cheap compared to others. I find it really strange that a company like StewMac doesn't deliver Goto TOM in black, and Warmoth do.

Is TonePro something that I should go for..? Large post or small post..?

I'd appreciate any input.

thank you!

More progress... of sorts..

I have been spending a lot of time trying to get my neck to shape. I knew that my neck blank was too big to fit my bandsaw, so I spent like forever before I even dared to touch it.

It didn't get as clean as I had hoped for, but by using routers, a normal handsaw, jigsaw, rasps and files I managed to learn that I would NEVER build another neck this way, but it is turning out functional in the end.

I have made a few marks on it here and there, but so far I think that I will manage to hide them under the fretboard, or they will dissappear when I further shape the neck.

Here are a few pictures, don't laugh, I did the best I could with the tools I have available...

Neck shaping 2

Neck shaping 3

Neck shaping 4

It isn't perfectly clean yet, I still have a lot of work to do, but now it finally looks like a neck. Sorta..

I have a question regarding the trussrod. I'm installing a hot rod from Stewmac, have searched a lot on the forum, but I can't seem to find the answer to this. How is the rod placed under the nut? Should the the "brass" parts of the rod go under the nut, or should it stop at the nut..? I have seen lot's of tutorials regarding trussrods, but none I have seen has covered this...

Thanks for watching!!

There is one at www.guitarbuild.com if I remember correctly..

Well, I can only say that I did so out of inexperience. To me it would seem natural to cut the holes first, then make the MOP fit... I didn't know it was normal to do it the other way around.. It might be hard to get it to fit, but I'll make it in the end..

A few updates here, firstly, I needed some more wood to fit the headstock, so I glued it on.

Headstock Glue

Now this is my first ever attempt at inlaying. It looks slightly rougher than it is, it will be smoother when I sand and radius the fretboard. It is not as sharp in the edges as I wanted it, but being my first ever attempt, I'm am happy with the result. Probably should have made a simpler design, but this was what I wanted to do..

My first inlay ever

And here I am attempting my first ever fretslotting. I need to work a little more on a couple of the slots, they aren't entirely even, but all in all I think I did a good job with it.

I have one question regarding my neck. I do not have a bandsaw that is big enough to cut the neck.

I have a jigsaw that I could use, it's just that it has a tendency to bend while I cut, so I'm not comfortable using it. I could use a handsaw, and then use a robosander to do the final touches, but what would you guys recommend..?

Thanks a lot for reading...

Finally I think I'm back on track again. I got the tearouts clean, I simply sanded them down. Noone of them prooved to be too severe, it looked worse than it was, and I guess I got a little shocked when it happened.

I got a package with all kinds of stuff from StewMac today, got the miterbox and fretsaw, and I have a couple of questions regarding the fingerboard. Firstly, should I taper the board, and then slot it, or should I slot before I do the final shape?

Also, I got the fretscale template to use with the miterbox. I figure I could do without it, but this makes me feel on the safe side when it comes to slotting correctly. BUT I am unsure if the template starts at fret zero or fret one..? It doesn't say in the papers that followed with the templates, so I thought someone here might have some experience to share...

That's all for now, I appreciate any feedback.

Hopefully new pictures will flourish on this thread..

All the best!

Unrealize

Very nice and cleanly explained.

Saved to bookmarks and will put to use eventually.

That looks great, I'm glad it sorted out so well, personally I can't even see that it was ever broken...

I must say I really like the red, I just don't like the burst...

Agree with AlexVDL, add some red knobs and pickups, it would instantly look better..

All in all great job..

Thanks a lot guys, I think I'll just go with regular screws then, I don't tend to take of the neck all the time anyway, so I don't think it would wear too much anyhow..

hi ive been reading the forum and i see some members sugest screw inserts for mahogany bolt on necks. where would i get these inserts?

Uhm, can anyone explain to me what these inserts do, what it is good for, and why one would need them..?

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with inserts at all, and I'm just doing a mahogany bolt on...

I think that it will be a while before I try to rout another body.

I just recently started building my first guitar, and I thought I had it covered, yet I suffered some nasty tearouts. Luckily I have been able to sand away most of them, and I'm going for a solid finish, so I don't feel too bummed about it.

Anyway, personally I went for a quick order of robosanders at stewmac, and will be going that way in the future. It just seems to me that it is a lot safer using robosanders...

Good luck!!

Not only I'm now completely demoralised, but also don't have enough wood for a new neck AND don't have the access to a thickness planer/jointer that I used to do.

Man, that's a bummer. You seem to be a little haunted by bad luck. I'm building a KL Explorer too, and I got some nasty tear-outs when I routed the body, so your'e not alone. (like that helps).

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...c=25393&hl=

I don't know if this is possible, but if you don't have enough wood for an entire neck, maybe you can make the headstock, and glue it to the broken neck with a scarf joint?

Anyways, keep your head up, and don't give up. Like Red said in That 70's show, only quitters quit!!!

Stay Sharp!!

These chips are called tear-outs.

When going for natural finish, you are f*cked. When going for solid color, it just means you have some more filling to do. Any kind of putty (even car repair) will do. Depends bit on paint system your gonna use.

Thanks for the reply, I wasn't aware of the term tear-outs, I'll do some reading about that.

Luckily I was always going for a solid finish, so I am not that bummed. More work, ok, so be it..

Putty is also a term that I'm not familiar with, so I should buy some kind of component, or will it do with just glue and sawdust mixed together..?

It is my first build still, and I have learnt quite a lot already, thanx to everyone who replied to this thread, I really appreciate it...

I tried to flush trim the body yesterday. and I must say, it was waay harder than what I anticipated.

Perhaps I wasn't as patient as I should have been, but I spent more than an hour routing the thing.

I suffered quite a few chips in the wood, nothing "lethal" I think, but stil, they pulled my moral to the bottom.

So, a question this time, how do I fix those chips. I know that some chips are fixed by routing out more space, and glueing in a new piece, but my chips are not that big.

I was thinking of this substance that one can buy, glue mixed with wood, and then rout or sand this flush to the body after it has cured? Or..?

Or should I use normal wood glue, and use dust from the mahogany I have from the guitar already..?

Thanx, I'll add a few pictures laters...

Alrighty, at least I got a little more done.

I finally got hold of some wood, and I guess I was lucky. I got the idea of recycling wood (ok, not a bright new idea, but hey..).

I was a little afraid that I could buy a table, and then find that it wasn't mahogany all the way through, so I started phoning around to some local furniture makers, and I got hold of a great big slab of mahogany.

All in all I paid like 75$ for it, I guess that is a pretty reasonable price.

Here's the wood:

Mahogany image 1 - pretty neat...

And here's another one of the wood. It is actually big enough for the guitar as a one-piece. No need for glueing this baby...

Mahogany image 2

So, I headed over to a friend of mine who has a proper workshop with proper tools, and he helped me out getting the right thickness and planing the wood. Here he is at the thickness planer, with a nice piece of wood, and some really nice red pants..

Thicknessing by Lorenzo Mad...

Here he is helping out with planing the wood. I'm soo drooling over the tools they got in that workshop, I wish I had such tools, but I'm lucky that he helps me out at least.. :o)

Lorenzo Mad planing the wood..

Then I was homeward bound, and I was eager to try my new bandsaw to cut out the body. I quickly learned that the saw was just as bad as it was cheap, which I feared. It really was a challenge to make it cut straight, and my cutting really doesn't look good at all. I'm almost ashamed to put this picture up, but still, it is the progress I got. At least it is starting to look like an explorer.

Lorenzo helped me to rout the neck pocket with a template he had from an earlier build, that too doesn't really look good at the moment, but it will come through in the end.

So, now I don't get too much done until I get some new router bits, the ones I have isn't large enough. I ordered a couple today, so I hope it won't take too long to get them here. I'm eager to get more work done, but I keep reminding myself not to rush this. I can get some more work done on the neck in the meantime, but I can't get much more done without the router bits anyways...

That's all for now folks..

Seen him a couple of times before. Eric Mongrain is his name if I remember correctly.

But yeah, great playing. Kinda reminds me of this blind guy, don't remember his name tho, didn' he play in the Road House movie..?

MDF = medium density fibreboard. All the sawdust and grains from the excrement of a sawmill mixed up with UF resin and squashed under pressure into a thin sheet.

Thanks a lot for the information, that one has puzzled me a bit...

Normally I make templates for all items separately.

Yeah, I thought of just making new pup templates from the puphole that turned out best.

MDF is also easier to work with then multiplex.

To be honest I have no idea what MDF is, it is not an expression I'm familiar with here in Norway, and I don't know how to translate it...

Now, anyone up for that inlay question...