Desopolis

wonder how much it costs to have your stuff dried....

you could also get it printed onto a piece of clear plastic, like the headstock decals...

i just wanted in on the weird thread...

I find that as long as the two surfaces are planed correctly and I use enough clamps to hold the pieces evenly across the surface it shows no gaps.. and my latest: new neck

as long as you can shape it it will be fine.. I used MDF because its cheap and I have a ton of it.. remember though, the guitar will follow the TEMPLATE not the drawing.. so make sure it flows smooth and is as close to your drawing as physically possible.

I loved the porter cable stuff when I was using it.. right now im using a giant freud thats a bit to heavy for my liking, but for a router table would be awesome.

I'll reserve comments and let the data speak for its self, I can always use more practice making necks...

Sounds good to me. Shoot me a PM sometime. I've got to check out some of the lumber yards around here. Until now, I've avoided them because I don't have a tablesaw or jointer, but I've got to do something different. The last body blank I got was from eBay, and it totally sucks. What's it take to turn boards into blanks? about 30 seconds... seriously.. if you buy a solid wood like Mahogany, we could probobly find a 8/4(2") blank wide enough.. especially at fine lumber.. otherwise we can just use a jointer and glue the boards together with some clamps.. as long as the joints good you wont even see the gap.. from there we just got to plane it.. Im using a 12.75" planer at my friends shop, but we could get a place to plane it to whatever height for super cheap. (if its a single piece, if it were two boards, we'd just plane it before gluing) I buy my neck woods from there as well..

what I do is rough out the body with a bandsaw, then I use a template and a guide bearing on a table router for the final shape.. I also have to cut out the template and sand it most times by hand for final touches. I use MDF but anything works really..

well I used a fender Jazz bass to compare size wise.. its the same TOTAL length and width as a Jazz bass body.. but with the extra curves its slimmer.. I think I'll make a sketch 3x2 so he can see what it would look like, and so I can get some mass out of the neck... The brass bridge and active electronics will help a bit im sure...

Uh, this "highly doubt" and "even at all" are just giveaways that you haven't had your hands on, or ears open to, a whole lot of guitars. wrong, but I bet there is much more different between the guitars of different scales your used to hearing/playing then the scale itself.. if you think a Gibson 24.75 and PRS 25 are going to sound different because the note at the first fret is .25" closer or even the fender 25.5 one Im surprised. Sounds like its time for a bolt on neck challenge.. like the particle board one.. I'll go ahead and build a RH alder cheapy to test this... and Drak, always top notch!

I also used tape to prevent rattle

ok.. it seams the headstock is getting a bit of flack.. I know it looks goofy, but he said he wanted 6L tuner setup... in the cad you can see the tuner body but obviously would just be the center shaft.. should I just make it a 3x2 or do you think I can save the 6L design?

Does it really matter? regardless of the grain running perpendicular to the cut it will still run the length of the board. I think the lines in the sketches are more for directional purposes then what the piece would actually look like. Well I am curious because the mode of failure(fracture) would be different. If you are looking at quartersawn wood you would have to think about the slope of the grain and how it will relate to runnout. Runnout in the flatsawn orientaion is much easier to obeserve(at least as it relates to the fracture plane) because slope of the grain would be side to side. To illustrate; think of a well quartersawn piece of flamed maple. The slope of the grain is rising and falling(at very steep angles) thus you get the look of the figure. If the slope of the grain is the source of runnout in quartersawn wood(and leads to failure when runnout is present). Then the use of this type of figured quartersawn wood would lead to neck failures regularly then it would seem we should see more failure when it is used(but I have never heard of it). The fact is that necks with strong headstock angles show up in the repair shop. Thin neck shafts, strong neck angle, how much material has been removed for the truss rod nut(some neck have truss access at the heel, and some at the headstock), Size and weight of the headstock and hardware, volute or no volute, and of course how hard it hits the floor . All of these are going to come into play. No doubt grain orientation has an effect on strength, but I am not sure if we consider the bigger picture. Just kinda my thoughts, and I am by no means sure of my thinking on this subject. I just have not bought off on the "runnout"(based on slope of the grain) in quartersawn wood is a reason for failure. I am open to listening to reasoning and having my thoughts changed, but I have yet to hear solid evidence. Peace,Rich not meant to seam like I was arguing, just a question for my own reference. My wood knowledge is minimal compared to most on this board..

buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Own-Electr...2381&sr=8-1 read it, many times... then take your drawing, and some standard measurements(go to a guitar store) and build it yourself...

http://stores.ebay.com/Fraser-Valley-Fine-Woods

just PM a mod about it.. did you build the body? or is this a refinish? and as far as wiring goes id check out seymours website, they have diagrams for pretty much everything.. thats what I do.. your pickups are the same thing Im doing soon.. is it a Tele hot rail or a strat one?

oh yeah man.. one day we should all meet up... I live in RR, but am moving off Anderson mill. My girlfriend(or girl im kinda dating at the moment rather) lives in west campus, and I work at the Arboretum, so im all over town! and for lumber, Id go to Fine lumber off runberg.. that place is WAY better(to me anyway) than paxton.

or trace it with a pencil, mark the screw holes and go from there...

OMG.. where is the bad advice image when you need it!!! cherokee6 is dead on with his book recommendations, but the rest Id be weary of trusting. both the Tele and Strats use the 25.5 scale(at least the 2 I have) both of mine use a rosewood fretboard on maple, and my Tele is right handed(but I play left handed) what do you mean you want a left handed neck? necks are universal, its the nut and body that are the biggest differences, mostly with the tremolo bar(or standard bridge) and the knobs. So when you design with plans, yes you simply flip them. But a neck really isnt different but for the tuner locations and how the nut is cut. I highly doubt the 24.75(gibsonish, theres so many different ones) 25(PRS) and 25.5(fender standard) play a HUGE difference in tone, if even at all. Id say the wood and build have more to do with that. As well as the pickups used of course. the "LP" sound compared to a "Strat" sound has alot to do with the LP being a set neck, Made of Mahogany(EVEN THE NECK), using a TOM bridge, double humbuckers, or a ebony or rosewood fretboard. While the strat uses a alder(or poplar, or basswood) body, usually a maple neck with a rosewood(or just maple) fretboard and of course the single coil pickups. to get a "strat" sound out of my tele, I think I would change the bridge and neck pickups to something a bit warmer, (look at Seymour Duncans stuff) up the guage of the strings to 10's or 11's and maybe even change the bridge(although I doubt it has to much of a effect VS. a hardtail strat) but for you, Id READ READ READ READ.. Id buy Melvyns book, Make your own electric guitar.. Id say its the starting point for almost everyone off this board who takes pride in their work. Read it twice. Then go to the guitar store, and actually LOOK at what makes the guitar works after you read the book and understand. then you can start worrying about the tone, and sound, and resonance, and whatever voodoo you want to believe in.

as long as its the same size it doesnt matter.. the bit is just the same size as the end pieces are for the rod. and the rod works fine upsidedown.. I didn't even notice I was doing it wrong when installing it the first time because the rod is a 2 way...

So I just got into Austin not that long ago, and left all of my tools in Indiana in a set of 40 gallon containers... so I got alittle antzy after a while and met a guy with a full shop willing to let me use his stuff for a while.. I'll be re-buying some hand tools for a while, untill I get my stuff from indy back.. Also Im building my actual shop in my new house.. woot! anyway, a guy at work said he'd pay for the wood and whatnot, and I told him Im a newb but this is what we've come up with. Shapes based on a rickenbacker 4005Cii with a 6L headstock(not my choice) Slightly concerned with balance as the body is alittle small for standards, and the neck is freaking huge... Body: Solid African Quartersawn Mahogany (block was 15" wide ) Neck: Lamination of Quartersawn Mahogany, maple Veneers, and Quartersawn Paduak. will have a hot rod and carbon reenforcement. Fretboard: Ebony stew-mac 34" scale. (I dont have my slotting jig in tx ) deep set neck with fading heel Double black plastic binding(NOT MY CALL) No carve Finish will be a poly black gloss on the front, and a darker natural tru-oil on the sides/back/neck Im planning on using a hipshot A style 5 string bridge and hopefully not the standard butterfly style tuners.. He wants Gold hardware(against my better judgment) heres some pics for the time being: Rickenbacker for comparison Body blank Cad Templates Neck clamped Now, I normaly use Titebond I but he only had II in his shop and im alittle worried.. I've used TitebondIII before and it worked out well, but I slightly remembering that it wont settle or something... the neck will sit for about a week to stabilize before I work it again... Neck lam, planed to .850 looks pretty similar to my other neck lams: Texan neck Both old necks and finally, a slightly artsy pic of the tools I used to design this: my trusty sketchbook, some cad, and some SUPER pretty Mahogany.. the paduak in the background helps.. but those are both for something different Im not ready to post.. I did the pic a few ways in PS, and all are pretty in other ways, but I love showing the color of the paduak and the mahogany naturally, and the BW takes that away.. I have the templates done in MDF and we didnt think the blank would fit through the planer but it did late in the day after some sizing! its cool to work with a regular carpenter, because hes so into trying something new.. like the neck pocket, hes crazy gung ho right now.. hopefully next week I'll have more pics..

couple things before you get attacked, 1. this is in the wrong section 2. your pic in your sig prob wont live long 3. there going to go ape **** about the number of pics... just change them to URL's so we can click em... have you played it yet? all the pics look in progress... whats with only one nob?

nice, I noticed your in austin and of course the Utexas.edu URL, where in austin are you?

yeah, your thread got jacked.. its cool though.. read the book, read what tools you need, and show us when you make your cuts!