Mike Navarro

From my point of view, making guitars is an art, as a sculpture or a paint, it is not just a matter of money, it's about proud, any person who has the money to buy a CNC can make guitars, paintings, sculptures etc. that does'nt make you a luthier or an artist, a machine is doing the job for you, and it's ok if you goal it's just the money matter, but, it's not better if you contact some chinese with their CNC's and probably you can make the same product a lot less than buy the machine?

Olien, did you made the top book match with the traditional "same piece of wood split saw" ?

Devon, is very hard to say if I don't see the neck, I think neck is the hardest part of the instrument to diagnose, theres a lot of diferents problems the neck can have, using the E string as a perspective tool works only if the neck is in perfect conditions for regular trus rod adjust, but not for a diagnosis, sometimes the the neck is "twist" and in that case if you use the low E string to verify it's goin to look well, but when you try the same way with the high E you will see in that section of the neck is bend, but as I said, it's hard to say if I don't have the neck in my counter to diagnosis. You shoul bring the guitar to you're local luthier, I think you have a problem that only a professional can fix, if you want to experiment, that is another thing. Good luck!!

There's diferent options to your problem, what I will tell is base on limit information from you, I read some of the options our friends heres gave and all have some logic, but I will explain in terms of vantage and desadvantage. You can use a piece of acustic back wood, trace the the neck end in the piece of acustic back wood, then saw it as precise is possible, present the piece inside the pocket and trace the out side shape of the body in the in the excess of the piece of wood outside the pocket, sawe it, now you have a exactly shim, do the finish you like, glue it, and try the height now with the neck, depends on the thick of the piece of wood you used, if the neck got to high, then it's time for the router, in my shop I have a lot of jigs, one of the is a very big router acrilyc base, 14" X 9", and I put the router closed to one of the edges, so almoust all the router base stay over the body when you are working with the router on the pocket. Use a ball bearing template router beat and start rout the top of the shim 1/16 to 1/16 steps, tryin the neck in each sweep with a straight ruler adding some clearence measurement of the neck forward string neck pull, from nut to highest saddle of the bridge (remenber to set the height of the saddles of the bridge in a "happy mid" to have some adjust up or down later on), diferent than using a small shim in the end of the pocket to give some angle to the neck, the complete raise of the pocket with wood give a better full contact of the vibration of the neck to the body. The angle shim just give 2 points of contact, the edge of the pocket and the contact of the shim, giving a gap between this to points that deaden vibration. The bad part is that this is the hard way!, the small shim it's a lot easy. Routing the bottom of the bridge possition depends in the thicknes of the base of the bridge and this limit how deep will be this rout, not with out mention how complicate is, more getting in consideration the corners of the bridge and the diameter of the router tip, and in my opinion looks funny! but theres a fourth option, try another bridge with a diferent saddles height, normally Fender type round drums saddles are higher for example that the flat ones Gotoh bridges use, they are lower, so this is a option you can explore. Any cuestion you can write me to my web site Guitarzonepr.com and it will be a pleasure to help you! Good luck buddy!! Mike Navarro/ Guitarzonepr.comundefined

You don't need to clean the gun after every coat. Nitro can be left for days in a gun withouth any problems. To clean it just tip out the lacquer put a bit of thinner in it and spray it out the nozzle, done. Save the big cleanup with disassembly for when the lacquering process is all finished. Nitro isn't Poly, is won't get hard in your gun like Poly does. If Poly solidifies in your gun you pretty much have to throw it away. Nitro stays as a liquid. I've used a lot of the Clou Nitro through a spraygun when I lived in The Netherlands and can vouch that it's no cheap crap. Try it. Phil, if you read carefully what I wrote, the bottle sprayer is a contuinity of the option a gave of using Urethane as a top coat in the headstock, I gave this options in case this person wasn't a professional and theres a lot of places were nitro it's hard to find, also, urathane is easier to apply over water decals because this kind of decals react better with this kind of finish cause penetrate less. Urethane my friend in a spray gun for more than 8 or 9 hours is a cleaning nightmare, I know you can leave nitro or acrilyc in the pistol, normaly I have acrilyc all the time in one of my spray guns. In the case Guitar Maestro said he use spray cans because he dosn't want to clean the spraygun after each coat, you are right as I said! he doesn't need clean the gun after each coat, only if you use urethane or epoxy. Using nitro cans have some desvantege, for example, you are appliyng a pre mix you can't control with a spray can, the mix of the laquer and thinner is something I change in ratio terms depends what I'll going to do, taking as a example the nitro aplication over a water decal I use a diferent ratio mix for the first MIST COAT than the the ratio mix of the cover coats, that is something you can't control with a spray can, the other is the air flow,a second element important in the first MIST COAT. For me worked great for years when all my custom guitars necks were painted in nitro using water decal no matter what other said, cause a person can't do something, it doesn't mean it's impossible, water decal and nitro IS COMPATIBLE! you just have to experiment a little bit with the process. The Fender's guitars got in those years a coat lock over their decals, only that was a very thin coat and the decal looks relief, if you put a decal with out paint do not prevail! I restored a lot of vintage Fender necks over the years, including restoring incomplete decals, and it wasn't to easy to remove if you do the same job in a decal without paint lock!, without paint lock the decal doesn't give any resistance to take it out. My Webpage

West, Im totally agree with you, let me add to your statement, the tremolo needs a clearence about 1/64 to 1/16 in original Fender Tremolo, 1/16 to 1/8 on Floyd Rose tremolo from the body surface to have properly tremolo pivot, pre adjust of the middle saddles in the (3rd & 4rd saddles) tremolo in a height mid point so you'll have adjust upper or lower, and theres a neck front lift when the guitar is in tune, this depends on entonation key and strings gauge tension. All this facts are basics equations plus what West already said, pocket deep, neck height with out fretboard , radius, fret size etc, and theres your "perfect" fretboard thick Mike Navarro- Guitarzonepr.com

Sorry Guitar Maestro! the alternatives I gave you was based in a high percent of the people post here are musicians with a personal proyect, When I started post, I placed alternatives as the person was a luthier to find out that when they wrote me back, not only the didn't have an idea what I was talking about because the were only people witn own proyects, so thats why I give solutions more "Friendly user" in case this person dosn't have the skill or equipment to do the job, normally, what I post in this cases is not what I do professionaly in my shop, I have 22 years making custom guitars professionaly, and in my first years all my painting work was based in nitro, theres a lot of theorys you will read around in the net or books, and thats ok, but by my years of experience, I am not agree with a lot of mits about woods, paint etc. All the time my opinion is based in empiric information working in my shop and not based in what I read, I think 22 years of experiment teach a lot. In my shop almoust I don't do anything as they way I learned in seminarys, text books or videos, thats what they call "trade secrets" and when I post a way to do something, not necesary is the way I do it in the shop, problably it's the way I did it 5 or 10 years ago, but, sometimes, is a better way as I learned 22 years ago, when you tell a "trade scret", theres anymore a trade secret! But in good faith I post one more option apart the other greats posts guys here place to give another one! Normally, I don't read the post other placed as an answer of a cuestion cause I'm short of time because my guitar work (10 to 12 hours daily) and I post when I dinner for 15 minutes, so, I don't know if I repeat an alternative or not, doesn't matter, If I repeat, what I do is reforce what someone else said, if I don't, im give a different another option, the important thing is the genuine wish to help. Its allways a pleasure being here with you guys! Mike Navarro- Guitarzonepr.com One of my guitars headstock on nitrocellulose lacker with a water decal That's what I already said Almost, there is a world of difference between a thin coat and a dust coat. If the guy hasn't done it before and puts anything more than a light dusting then it can crinkle. I just thought it needed clarifying. The stuff needs to go on as dry as possible, like Mike Bavarro has said.

Hello Guitar Maestro, in my shop in one of my models I use water decal for the logo, no matter what kind of laquer you'll use, the key is spray just a mist over de decal, wait 2 hours and apply a second mist coat to lock the decal, then give a 10 hour rest to apply the thicks coats, the amount of top coats depends the tipe of laquer you will apply, Urethane laquer is the easy one because gives more thickness per coat, so thats mean maybe 2 top coats, if you dont have a spray gun, you can use a bottle/can touchup spray that you can find in any autobody piant shop, this is a can with a bottle in the bottom that you can fill with any paint or laquer, after you apply each coat, you will clean it filling with thinner and shooting the thinner for 10 seconds, then keep the bottle fill with thinner a take the spray cap for one hour sumerge in the thiner. Any cuestion you can write me to Guitarzonepr.com. Att Mike Navarro

Hello Xanthus, My name is Mike Navarro and I own a guitar custom shop it's name is Guitar Zone, when you glue, depends the kind of glue, you should seal with an activate primer, sometimes glue liberate quimical fumes, and those fumes try to scape through the finish and thats why the joint marks, if you paint in solid color, as I said, you can use an active primer, this kind of primer blocks any quimical reaction, but when you glue you should let it cure at list 48 hours. If you'll paint a translucent color, sunburst, clear etc, apply first coats, and let it dry 48 to 36 hours to verify if theres no reaction problem, sand, and repeat the coats. Any cuestion you can write me Guitarzonepr.com, will be my pleasure help you, you can also have a tour inside my shop! Mike Navarro---- Guitarzonepr.com

Hi postal, sounds to me razonably, but is a lot of work and time, about the fretboard clear coats, you can do it even after or before the freting, in my shop , depends the look I want in that fretboard, I apply the coats before or after, I do it before when I make one of my custom guitars, looks modern. I only paint after the fret jog when I restore a 50's reissue or CBS 70's Fenders Strat maple neck, thats the way they did it those years. Returning to the staining thing, you can do one of two ways, the first way is stain the figure maple fretboard with black water stain to raise the grain, sand it, install the natural bindings, cover it with masking tape, then paint the fretboard again but this time with alcohol black stain, this way doesn't run the black to the bindings, then lock both with the laquer you choose, apply plenty of coats, that way you have laquer thicknes to sand and stand the coats, then the bursting covering the bindings with low stick masking tape and then the whole thing or, make a sandwich between the fretboard and the natural binding with a very thin plastic black binding, the plastic binding will stop the water stain to run to the wood binding, of course you have to be very careful in the edges close to the bindings, so anyway you have to cover the bindings in this step, then the top coat to lock the stain, cover the bindings to the burst and paint the whole job. Any cuestion you can write me to Guitarzonepr.com and I greatfully will help you, mi web site is new, but I have 22 years as a Luthier making custom old school hand craft guitars to professional musicians from all America, get a tour inside my shop, theres few pictures of my work, but soon will post more new pictures of my new boltons & neckset models! Mike Navarro-- Guitarzonepr.com

Hello Vodooo! My name is Mike Navarro, I own a custom guitar shop it's name is Guitar Zone, my advise is to use the old finish as a undercoat by different reasons, first, the mess of striping the paint, second, if you aren't a experimental guitar painter the undercoat and wood preparation it's crucial of the final product, the paint can get wavy etc, third, paints, including undercoat gets time to cure and delay the process of painting, if you use the old paint as a undercoat, it will be a very strong resistable undercoat with out curing fumes under the finish and you goin to save a LOT of work, the trick is, you first, check all the dents scratches etc in the original finish and repair with bondo or fiberglass resin in big damages, spot putty for dents and scratches, then sand the whole guitar with 320 wet sandpaper, sand it with out fear until you don't see any of the previus damage, use a rigid sponge as a block sandpaper handle for the plane surface (front and back), then, apply white undercoat, sand it again but not complete, this step will show you some spot you have to work more and will fill some small scratches the putty didn't, it's goin to look as a pinto, and thats the idea, that means that the surface now is even, now put just one coat of the white undercoat overall, remember that this white undercoat will replace the coats you sanded in previus step and doesn't going to add thikness, now you are ready for color coats, 2 or 3, white color is tricky to apply if you don't have a painting room, so I assume you'll doit in your backyard, well the best time is very early in the mourning when theres no wind, air dust is a problem in in white finishes, then the top coats around 5 or 6 if it's acrilic laquer, 2 or 3 if is urethane, don't use enamels in paint cans, because probably you'll have a "nice" crackle paint job, in acrilic, one coat in the mourning, one in the evening for 3 days, urethane just one coat daily. When it;s cure about 48 to 36 hour, sand it with 1000 wet sandpaper, then 2000, and use 3M final cut to rubbing out, don,t use any wax or polish after the rub out until 2 or 3 weeks, just a clean cloth, cotton t shirts will do the job. Any cuestion you can write me to Guitarzonepr.com, and also get a tour inside my shop. Mike Navarro- Guitarzonepr.com

Theres some basics imperative in the action of a instrument, first is the adjust of the trus rod, you need for a acurate adjust a notch rule, the one you can touch the fretboard without touch the frets (you can do it your self with a regular rule, a scale rule and a bandsaw), then a perfect straight rule, for this kind of precision jog don't use the basic way by press both extreme of the string in the fretboard to verify the neck adjust, this way is not for diagnosis, just for basic adjust when the neck is in perfect conditions, then, you need a short straight edge around 14 inches. First adjust the truss rod using the fast way of pressing the strings, then, take a look of the neck the same way you point with a riffle, concentrate in the fret close to the nut and the one in the end of the body, don't look the nut as a reference because nuts normally has a angle and confuse, both frets in the end has to look pararell, if this is not the case, probably we have a twist neck and that is very tricky!, in the same pointing riffle angle, look one side of the fretboard and the the other side, if one of the sides looks straight or bow forward, and the other looks the opposite, you have a twisting problem, and that is something you can't adjust, with the right technique clamping the neck against a metal plate forcing the presure in the contrary direction of the twist, with heat, you can use infrared lamp 150w in the damage area in intervals of 30 minutes and let it cold it by 10 minutes, for 3 hours, then, let it cold for one hour, loose the clamps and let it stand for one hour without clamps, and verify the neck again, if still twist, repeat the proccedure until is traight, sometimes, after you straight the neck requires a fretjob, because like when you straight a bend wire dosn't return exactly in the original possition, probably you need to the little humbs and imperfections in the fret board, something you can do with the frets on. In the case you don't have a twisting problem, then you use the the knotch rule to verify the level condition of the neck, don't over tight the trusrod to get to the position you want, if looks bow, use the shorter straightedge check the neck from the middle of the neck to the body and then to the nut, if one of the half are bend and the other not, then, you need to straight the bend side with heat. If the case is that the guitar is neckset or one piece, with correct way of clamping you can reset the neck backwards, but in this case is the metal plate the one it receive the heat and not the neck directly. My name is Mike Navarro, have 22 years as a luthier, any cuestion, you can write to my web site Guitarzonepr.com and also get a tour inside my shop. Mike Navarro Guitarzonepr.com

Don't use enamel (cars model paint) on you guitar or you going to have some "crackel paint" effect! In !white urethane is ok, acrilic it's hard to find because the ambiental laws restrictions, use nason base color then nason clear coats, 4 clear coats minimum, each coat between 6 hours if you have a "hot spot" to dry, or one coat daily if you don't have it. Don't paint in windy conditions or you going to have a "galaxy" of black dirt points in the white finish. Don't paint it vertical if you don't have experience with a paint gun or the finish it will run, attach a long wood stick 3 feet X 2 1/2" X 1/2" in the neck pocket rout hold with 2 screws and hold it diagonal, more horizontal than vertical, start with the edges and then the front and back and put it in horizontal position hold in a way Im shure you goin to figure out and let it dry. Any cuestion you can write me to my web page Guitarzonepr.com and get a ride inside my custom shop. Good luck and have fun! Mike Navarro / Guitar Zone Custom Shop

Matrix, Im Igree with Maiden, diferent about most people think, wood is the 75 % of the sound of a instrument, my name is Mike Navarro, Im a master luthier with 22 years of experience making custom instruments and owner of Guitar Zone Custom Shop. Theres a lot of articles you going to read in books & the net, but the reality is that a lot of that information is not accurate, in all this years of experience I learned that ! theres no better information then the one you experience by your self, and starting from that point, I learned that the wood is more important that a lot of people including guitar techs think. I don't know how important to you in how you going to sound as a guitar player, I can tell you that the sound of a musician is almost important as habilitys and capacitys as musician. A squire instrument has a horrible wood proyection, of course, if the person does'nt have the music ear, is irrelevant, but, if that is not your case, don't degrade your self that way, if you know how to work with wood, you can get a very high cuality Alder, Ash, Mahogany depends the tone you like and as Maiden said, use you squire tele to make a template, then you can find a very nice quality USA tele neck in ebay for a incredible price. Tele instruments are relative easy to make because doesn't have body's contours, and trust me, it's a lot of dirference in the overall sound when you use fine woods. If you have any technical cuestion of the process to make the body, just write me to my web site Guitarzonepr.com will be a pleasure to help you!! ps in the front page of my web site theres the last Custom Tele I made in Nothern Ash (the one Fender CBS used in the 70s) MIke Navarro Guitarzonepr.com

Hi Mullet, my name is Mike Navarro, I own a custom shop, Guitar Zone, and one of the sevices we offer is the restauration of guitars, the are two popular colors in Gibson SG, Cherry brown & dark brown, in the case you are locking for the cherry one, first you have to strip the guitar to cero, has to be in bare wood, then, you need water stain red, to apply with a cloth (recomend to use gloves), depends the intensity of the cherry you want and the natural color has the mahogany in your guitar, is the amount of coats of the stain you have to apply (let it dry between coats), in some cases, you have to mix a very little amount of blue water stain in the red (just a tini touch) to get a tiny wine red, let it dry for 24 hours, and then start to apply the sandy sealer, several coats (4 or 5), sand with a wood flat block with 400 grit water sand paper ( carefull to do not touch edges with the sandpaper), it goin to turn white, don't get panic! it's normal, then apply with a spray gun de nitrocellulose clear (4 coats minimum) 1000 grit water sandpaper, then 2000 grit, the sandpaper backwards and buff with 3M final cut. Any cuestion you can write me to Guitarzonepr.com Pictures of a SG restored in my shop Guitar Zone

Orange peal is not a problem at all, depends how many clear coats did you spray, you can sand it with 600 grit wet carefully, then apply 3 more coats with a 50/50 in acrilyc and 4:1 ratio en urethane, depends distance with the spraygun air control (35 psi in touchup spray guns) not to far from the object, wet, but not run, then 1000 grit, 2000 grit, 3M fine cut ! any cuestion write me to Guitarzonepr.com

Hi Rookie, let me begin with a simple rule, "depends what laquer you going to use, and what kind of finish effect you want", is the procedure you'll going to use!. If I understood, you want this violin in a translucent color, if that is the case, depends what kind of wood top you'll stain, it is a figure wood top, you shouldn't sand it to smooth, this will resist the penetration of the water base stain, in this case, start with 220 sandpaper, for example, if you going to stain a figure top in blue, you will make two mix, one very dark blue almost black, and the other with the intensity of the final blue you like, remenber to check the intensity of the color in a piece of wood similar than the one you going to stain. One trick is heat up the dark stain, thats help penetrate deeply the stain in the grain, if you goin to add alcohol in the water stain mix, you shoul do this steps, heatup water to boiling in a pan, turn off the heat and put a bottle of stain inside the pan of water and let it warm, then apply it with chiessel cloth or any soak material, use gloves or you going to have for few days your fingers looking good!, don't get in shock the way it's looks, because you'll goin to sand it again, when you do it, it'll going to look with a lot of dark spot, thats ok!, now you going to apply the lighter color, start with a very light color intensity, and then continue applying coats of water stain until get into the color intensity you whant, remember to le it dry between coats, but just do this in high figure woods. If the wood is not figure you should'nt use water stain if you don't have the skills, it is better if you stain it with alcohol stain by spraying, it will be ease and look more even. Then, I don't use sanding sealer, I don't like the way it looks in the end of the finish, the way I do it in my guitars is using the same laquer as a under coat, thats mean a lot of coats, but it also means a brilliant final color, if is a acustic violin, use nitrocellulose laquer, if is solid, urethane or acrilic. Nitro gets more coats and is more difficult to apply, runs very easy, you start with four coats of laquer 60% laquer 40% thinner, and sand with 600 grit, don't use lower because if you don't have the skills, you going to "touchdown" the wood, 600 wet sand will give you more resintance but also make you go more " baby steps" in this stage. Repeat this steps untili you see a very smooth surface, then, you can do one of two things, one coat of translucent of course of the same color or, go straight to the top coats, this time laquer ratio it will be 50/50 (nitro), but remember to be carefull with the laquer run. When you finish all the topcoats, 1500 grit wet sand, 2000 grit, then, the sandpaper backwards, if you don't have a buffer, you can do it with a handrill foam buffer, you can buy this buffer in any body shop store, use 3M FINAL CUT compound and lets see how it looks. If you want to see some of my work, you can go to Guitarzonepr.com also you can write to navarro@guitarzonepr.com and I will help you in any cuestion you have! good luck with your proyect!! Mike Navarro/Guitar Zone Custom Guitars

We make custom instruments in the old school fashion way, take an inside tour in my shop in Guitarzonepr.com

CNC vs, Handcraft, in my company it's not acceptable to use CNC machines, more when a customer is paying you big bucks for a "old school handcarft guitar", in my shop I have a jig for each part of the contruction of the guitar, including headstock brand inlay, everything in my guitars is totally handmade, this make the instrument in a piece of art (do you paid big bucks for a art painting done by a machine?). About precision, trust me, I'm very persistent in how perfect the instrument has to be, trilple check all the time, using very presice tools and jigs, Maybe you concern about time, but in my opinion, professional musicians concern about a combination of presicion, sound and state of art, this is my experience making custom guitars for 22 years for almost 200 prfessional guitar players from all America, some few does'nt care about terminations, craftmanship or precision, thats why companys as Fender & Gibson re open theirs " custom shops" making guitars the "old way" for this very specials musicians who cares about this importants details! You can take a tour inside my shop in my web page...... Guitarzonepr.com

Hi Lex, in my web page Guitarzonepr.com I have a inside shop tour that you can see one of those overarm router Guitarfrenzy talked about, but the most important thing is your capacity to make your own gigs, templates and tools, if you see inside my shop, you'll going to find some of those. It's good if you learn from books and videos about making guitars, but it is also important that you learn from other topics books related to wood, tools, gigs etc. In my 22 years as a luthier I learned more from books with no relation on instruments makings. I learned tool & die metal work thats help me a lot making my own designe hardware, vintage furnishing restore etc. From those topics you'll learn about other tools & gigs very usefull to apply in the instruments making and never got in consideration. You are on track!! keep going!! Mike Navarro/Guitar Zone My Webpage

Themy, great guitar!! congratulations Guitarzonepr.com