TheIRS

No matter what anyone sees in it, it is one SICK looking top! I'd love to get my hands on a piece like that anyday. Can't wait to see what kind of beast you make this into.

Tis a very fine looking instrument you have there. Personally I'd go with the Wenge knobs on all four pots, they contrast much better and having all four would flow better than 2 and 2. Also I don't know about the brand name thing, Timberlan is too close to a big shoe company, Timberland. Good luck, i can't wait to see more progress.

Personally, if it were me, I'd put the fretboard of an Upright Double Bass on there to begin with, which will save you the insane amount of sanding to get that radius. I'd also change your design to have the fretboard and bridge be higher off of the body, to give some room for bowing. When I say higher, I mean have them literally raised on top of the body. Just a thought, good luck with it.

That is a very nice looking instrument you have there. If it were mine though, I wouldnt paint it, i would stain the body with a natural wood stain and try to match it with the neck a bit. Black body with a black pickguard looks strange IMO. No matter what you do to paint or finish this bass, I'm sure it will look and play well. Nice job.

the pics arent working for me either.

Wow. Good luck with fixing that one. I dont use routers to work on rounding or shaping my work, I do it all with a sander and the finishing with lots of elbow grease. Back on topic.. That body looks quite beautiful with that coat on it, I really like the stripes. The epoxy may have darkened because of it all being in one spot, so it built up and darkend. That happened to me when I was coating a fretless bass neck, one section had a little tearout and it is somewhat darker than the rest. Anyway, I can't wait to see this beauty finished, keep it up!

Yeah I understand you. I think I will focus on finishing it. The original incentive for starting it in the first place was that I couldn't finish the guitar I was already building since in the summer I had no access to a woodshop. So i took this damaged old Mako and stripped and reworked it. But the finish was damaged, and i decided to try and get it to work anyway. I haven't had a chance yet to finish it, so maybe i shouldnt have posted it yet. I probably should be just focusing on the one in school that I am building, but I will leave the Hellcaster up here and delete the info about my future projects. thanks for the help.

I am pretty new to this site, and as of last April I have become somewhat of a guitar builder/ repairman. I currently have one guitar that i built myself, all but the neck because i haven't learned how to properly do that yet. I will put pics of it when i get them, and the guitar pictured is the Hellcaster!! You can imagine why I named it that if you look at my pictures. My Hellcaster is made from an 80's Mako Stratocaster copy, which needed so much work that i completly stripped it and rebuilt it from bare wood up. The Hellcaster may be strung up and in working order, but it is FAR from finished. When it was drying from painting, my friends mom decided she needed to sweep the garage so paint chips got mixed into the finish. Also it was not evenly coated, and I am going to sand it down a bit and re-apply the clear coat. The wiring must also be redone, it turned out that the switch that was installed wasn't good and only the first two selections work. Along with a few more little tweaks and such, the nut will be replaced with a graphtech one and the trem will be fixed (it needs new springs and such). Fretboard close up Pickguard Close Up Guitar Back Headstock Logo Thanks so much for checking it out and any criticism/ help/ advice or whatever is appreciated as long as it is not cruel!! EDIT: P.S. My initials are IRS so I decided to name any guitar I make an 'IRS Guitar'. Also I'm just a 17 year old kid working out of a school woodshop so its hard to get much done in a day unless I'm over my friends house in his garage like how the Hellcaster was born.

Well i happen to think pine is an excellent choice for a body wood (Sugar Pine specifically) since I happen to be using it for the guitar I am building right now. The figure of the wood is beautiful, and despite its trait to be easily damaged, hardware and such does not warp or move it around. Also, I am using old growth Sugar Pine which has been sitting around in storage for about 15 years so it is quite dry and required no planing at all.