Flon Klar Guitars

After I crown frets, I start with 320 paper, then go up with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, and 2000, then polish it up with good metal polish with a Dremel buffer wheel. If you're just redressing, you could start with a higher grit depending on the condition of the frets.

When I come across little surprises like inclusions, hidden cracks, or a misdrilled hole, I like to cover them up by exercising my inlay skills!

Yeah, you want the rod to "free-float" in the channel- but just barely, you don't want any room for it to twist or rattle. I always round the bottom of the channel to match the round rod, and (as stated) the flat rod should be flush with the surface of the neck. You don't want to glue the rod in or even get any squeeze-out from gluing the f/b into the channel (make sure you mask the channel when spreading the glue)- this will impede the operation of the rod.

So are you saying you want to file the sides of the fret without affecting the crown?

My fretless fingerboards get a coat of Mirror Coat on top- I prefer the sound of roundwound strings, so I need all the protection I can get!

Ampeg SVT4Pro- tube preamp, solid state power amp- the best of both worlds- plenty loud for any application!

It would only need to be face down if you're trying to get some backbow out of it. Otherwise, you'd want it face up.

+1 for strings tuned.

Hey People- I'm building a new fretless, and I want to use a piezo bridge in conjunction with a Bart soapbar. I have no experience with the piezo application, and the information I've found is sketchy and unclear, so I have some questions: I assume having a piezo buffer is a necessity, not an option, right? Once the buffer is in place in the system, is the bridge then treated as just another pickup? In other words, can I simply tie it in to the eq system along with the Bart pup? (A lot of the information I've seen on the subject refers to people wanting separate output jacks for the piezo and mag pups, so I just want to make sure that I'm not missing a piece of the puzzle.) That's it, at least until something else pops up. I appreciate your wisdom.

Sounds like maybe you're talking about a satin wax finish.

This is why I love thru-necks!

I often pull components out of old electronic gear before I toss it. You never know when something will come in handy. (I come from a long line of packrats anyway! )

Yeah, exactly. If you're going to simulate 1 wood, you might as well simulate both, right?

I'm reading that you plan to recreate the look of the rosewood with paint, right? If that's the case, why not just paint on the "sandwich" stripe as well, then lacquer over the whole thing. If you're a talented enough painter to accurately recreate the rosewood grain, I'm sure you could pull off a lighter pinstripe down the middle.

Stew-Mac and ebay, the usual suspects.

As a proponent and builder of pointy, sharp-cornered and otherwise precariously angled guitars, I have seen and built many such instruments. Structurally, they're all perfectly "sound" (no pun intended), but sure, you DO have to take precautions against damage. You've never seen a BC Rich Beast? The top 2 points of the body are very thin and flat, almost knife-edged; the bottom 2 points nearly ALWAYS break off the 1st time you set it down too hard; and the upper points of the headstock are EXTREMELY fragile. As long as the wood itself is good and strong, you can get very close points and edges. The main drawback comes when applying finish: the sharper the edge, the more difficult it is to get a good thick layer of lacquer on it. The lacquer will tend to run away from the point or edge, so you will need to pay special attention to these areas. Because the finish will inevitably be thinner here than on the rest of the instrument, you also have to be careful when finish-sanding, so as not to go through it to lower layers or even wood. The "rounder " you can make a point or edge, the fewer problems you'll have. More examples: Viszikon Firebird Voulge

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So the access to the truss rod is on the BACKSIDE of the neck, between the neck and the pocket?! I'm a bassist, so forgive my ignorance of guitar configuration, but WOW! that really strikes me as odd and completely impractical! All my builds, and all I've ever seen, have access ot the front of the neck, between the fretboard and the neck pickup.

Well, I'm not saying I never go outside the lines, and sometimes I DO have to do some fill-in with the epoxy, but it's minimal. After I trace out the piece to be inlaid with an exacto knife, I very slowly freehand the outline inside the line with a very small diameter drill bit (like .010"). I find that running the Dremel at HIGH speed gives me more control than at lower speeds. Once the outline is established, then I set up the Dremel in the router base with a larger bit to remove the rest of the wood. The larger bit DOES tend to bite into the wood more, giving less control, but the outline I've made with the tiny bit gives me a little margin for error.

I'm just making an educated guess, but I imagine that the heat involved in pressure cooking is integral to the process. I'm sure the heat probably opens up the cells sufficiently to allow the dye to penetrate well.

OK, so in case anyone wants to know: Roll your veneer up to fit in a pressure cooker; cover with water; add dye (a lot!); add salt and pepper to taste; seal cooker; cook at medium pressure for at least 2 hours (more is better); when cool, lay out veneer and weight down to flatten. Dyed veneer, all the way through! The salt and pepper thing- J/K! Don't do that.

That would be one thin (in width) neck!!! j/k Well, I just don't want to assume too much! If I was building a whamola, I might not want to go much wider than 3/4"!

Width or thickness?

What kind of angles? A Dremel will cut any line you ask it to. I have a very good article on doing inlays. PM me and I'll send it to you.

Dremeling "straight" lines is one thing- but dremeling the outline of a complex inlay, in my experience, requires a LOT of freehanding! My example: