angry_jeremy

In the cabinet shop where I work we plane stuff like glued up panels for cabinet doors all the time. Even planed plywood before (clogs up the dust chute because it doesn't leave chips like wood, it leaves strands). The glue can put nicks in the blades that will leave a raised section on the wood where the nicked part wasn't cutting as deep as the rest of the blade. A sharpening will take the nick out most of the time. You might try planing while the glue is still not 100% cured and therefore not 100% hard. Say, glue up in the morning and plane toward the end of the day for an average glue with a clamping time of an hour or two.

I've got a DeWalt 5" random orbital sander, been using it at work for 1 1/2 years. Works great, the other guys in the shop use the same ones or Makita's version. The Makitas get noisy after about a month of use though, still work fine. My only complaint is that if you stain and you look closely you can see the little curly sandpaper marks. Not a big deal but I hand sanded my last guitar at the end to get rid of those marks. Those 1/4 sheet jitterbug sanders are outdated IMHO

"I know everyone here thinks they're super careful, and a bad accident could never happen to them, but let's be honest. We've all had close calls, which are usually followed by the statement "damn, that was stupid. what was i thinking?"" Yep, just about lost my thumb at the tablesaw. DON'T TRY CUTTING FROM THE BACK OF THE SAW!!! Seemed like a good idea at the time. In hindsight, not so much.

Whoa, sorry for the confusion. The guitar is and was always intended to be a string through TOM job. My strings fit, but just barely. That bit was more of a 'word to the wise' thing. Something that I never considered and figured prolley other people might miss it on theirs. Unless of course they read this confusing thread. My strings = OK. You might think about checking yours also if planning a string through. I have recessed the TOM to the point where the intonation screws are at the top surface of the guitar, any farther and I will have to make some accommodation to allow adjusting these screws. The guitar is painted, cleared, buffed, etc. which makes it a double pain in the butt to do any further modding. The neck has been glued for almost a year now... I don't know how to remove it -nicely-. Sure you can whack it out and wreck it but to get it out then back in is another thing.

Well the string length is not the issue. It almost was and I thought I'd share that tidbit to others who are planning on using the ferrules with a TOM to consider the length of a string when figuring out where to put the ferrules on the top and back.

It's recessed already...

It's a set neck that's been set for a while so getting it out would be disastrous I think. Recessing a Fender type bridge might be the way to go. Bah, I hate stupid mistakes.

So... I made a noob mistake and didn't check the neck angle on my guitar before gluing up the neck. You know the saying 'haste makes waste', well I was trying furiously to finish the guitar before I moved away from easy shop access. Anyhow, I got it finished and threw on the bridge and discovered the mistake. I then proceeded to make the TOM bridge recessed. It was planned as a string-through so no change needed there. A word to the wise about string through/TOM combos: Make sure the strings can actually cover the distance they need to! From my high E string on the 6 in line headstock to the ferrule on the back of the guitar is about 2" short of a new string's length. A near miss. Back to the original topic, is there another option other than removing the neck or just the fretboard? I've thought about recessing some kind of flat bridge like a hardtail Strat kind but there's that route I made and the post holes for the TOM. Sounds like I may be up the famous creek with no paddle...

Yeah, good advice all. The only reason I tried 220 is that I saw Don something-or-other level sanding with 320 on the Stew Mac spray finishing basics video. I guess in this case an experiment that concluded to NOT use 220. The finish is quite thick, brushed on lacquer but I may re-coat to be on the safe side and to try to melt in some of the deeper scratches. I usually level with 600 wet and never thought of going rougher until I saw the video. Ah well, I'll know for next time. I'll try a little soap with the water before I recoat and see if that helps kill the clumps. Thanks all.

I'm in the process of giving my guitar the final go-over, wet sanding, polishing, etc. First off the root of the problem is that I level sanded with p220 grit paper. It leveled nicely but I'm having a hard time getting rid of those scratches. I've gone back with 400, 600, 1000 wet/dry (used dry) then on to polishes but the 220 scratches remain. Then tried using a spray of water with the 400. Still 220 scratches. Both sanding rounds made little bits of finish build up on them which made marks as they were dragged accross while sanding. I stopped after maybe 10 seconds of sanding to scrape them off but they quickly came back. I then consulted Erlewine's finishing book. He suggests soaking the paper in water overnight to reduce the 'corns' on the paper. Did that, still loading up. The finish is maybe a month old, nitro lacquer. Any thoughts?

Wow, that thai rosewood is nice looking stuff! Cool project.

Naw, I'm not really gonna frame it. It's just cool to me that it's signed. Must be doing it for the first so many orders.

So Erlewine's book came the other day (awesome). Guess what I found by cracking it open? A dated autograph by the man himself "From my shop to yours... Dan Erlewine 12-3-08". Anyone heard anything about this? Is he signing the first X amount of books? Needless to say I'm pumped. I'd frame it but I can't wait to read it many, many times.

Thanks all, lots of good ideas

Nice match, I can figure there's a joint in the center but that's all! Never heard of this landscaped grain, that just mean unfigured with grain lines running fairly straight? I don't necessarily have to use curly stuff but there's a board in the woodpile at work that I have my eye on that looks like it would have a wave to it. That's part of the size restriction problem. We only have an 8" jointer at the shop so squaring up anything wider than that presnets a problem. That and the board that I've stashed away is only maybe 7" wide, not wide enough to span the whole explorer body if bookmatched.

Yeah, the center stripe was another option I was thinking of. The only problem I could see is that if the alignment of the strips and their joints weren't super exactly parallel with the center line of the guitar and the strings it would stick out really bad. Maybe if it was wide enough to get away from the strings a bit this effect would be reduced. Thanks for the heads up about picking the best side for the bookmatch WezV. I've never done one and never really considered that that could be a problem.

Anyone ever seen or have a good pic of a 3 piece figured top on a geetar? I want to make a top for an explorer but because it's so friggin wide it's hard to get a normal bookmatched top that is wide enough (somewhere between 16-18 inches accross). I'm thinking about doing a 3-way bookmatch (think unfolding a map) and am wondering if it would look goofy. I haven't seen a guitar with one and don't really know if I should use the wood I have that's 6-7 inches wide and do the triple bookmatch or keep hunting for a wider board somewhere (that means paying more...). Any thoughts? Thanks.

I once stained mahog with blue analine dye and it is now turquoise. I don't think staining mahog and maple with the same thing would give you a uniform colour at all.

For the headstock tracing without removing the tuners get yourself the same thin cardboard as buddy suggested for your f-holes. Cut a rectangular hole just wide and long enough to let the tuners pass through but not so wide that the headstock edge is no longer covered by the cardboard. You can then do the rubbing thing from above or just trace it from behind.

GregP- The customer didn't ask but they bought it at an auction and are just trying to find out about it. gosh-thanks for the email address, I'll see what they say :D

I've got a Hondo HL737 someone brought in to be fixed. Anyone know how to date these suckers? Looks like it could be from their older run (late 70's early 80's) :D

Yeah, I'll go with the recess. I like the look and am now kinda forced to do it. Break angle is OK now with the retardedly high bridge so should be smooth sailing with the lower one. Crappy thing is that I've painted it already so I'll have to touch it up a little. Not the end of the world. Thanks all for the replies. :D

Also quite similar to a MJ guitar, except for the treble horn http://www.mjguitar.com/mjguitar.html Me likey.

I actually like the look of the recessed bridge, just not what I had originally planned to do. Since I've already painted I'd have to rout the slot then re-paint the bare wood. Not a big deal but not part of the plan.

So, by some stroke of pure genius I forgot to put a neck angle on my set neck V. I only realised this once I had it glued and painted (anger....rising...). Anyway, I know there are companies that purposely do this and recess the TOM bridge and I may have to do that. Just wondering if there was a really short TOM out there. I currently have the Gotoh TOM from StewMac with the post/bushings and hex nuts on the intonation screws. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailp...s_Bushings.html :D