TheIRS

Seriously though, it's one thing putting a Gibson logo on a guitar just for yourself. But seriously, by giving it to your friend you have now broken the law. If Gibson could get your personal information from this website (which I believe they could via court subpoena and going through IP addresses etc) you could end up in court. If he asks you should be smart enough to say no. Take the guitar back from him, sand off the decal, and put your own makers mark on the front. Be proud of your work for crying out loud.

I couldn't agree more. Doesn't matter if it's his idea or not you should remove that decal ASAP. Big companies like Gibson will go after the little guy for something like that to make a point on their trademarks. Don't be a victim of that. The guitar is nice but you really need to remove that decal before something bad happens.

I love the shape.

is that your design?

looks classy.

Thanks. It's a design my friend and I came up with for his guitar and I liked it so much I decided to keep using it.

The curves and shapes of that guitar are exquisite. It really appeals to my eyes. I love how the curves seem to flow well. Great work, and for an excellent cause.

Wow! Some cool stuff you have there! The dobroish one is really interesting, I'd love to play something like that. Very unique, at least to me. I think these Cigar Box guitars are just as interesting as normal or other guitars, they're just smaller and perhaps a bit stranger looking.

Either way now I want to make one!

The body came in yesterday. I had a space set up in the garage for me to work on it. I couldn't get to it until about 9:15PM - I was really antsy all night. Go figure. I popped in one of my home-mix CDs at random and started sanding it down. By sheer luck, Stairway To Heaven was on the CD about halfway through. I couldn't resist the temptation to squat down with the body on my knee and "air guitar" the solo". We're all kids with our toys, right? Anyway, it was at that exact moment when my wife popped in to see how I was doing.

I'm going to be a while living that one down.

But it's all sanded now. Tonight I get to put on the first coat of sanding sealer. I'll post pics as the project moves forward.

Reminds me of when I was repairing one of my guitars and a song I loved came on so I picked up the guitar and started air-guitaring along with it. It seems that the one moment we deviate from what we are doing, someone comes in to see the project or whatever. Anyway, that's a nice looking body, can't wait to see what you do with it.

Cool idea, I like this. I was thinking about making a guitar out of a shoebox but I need an acoustic neck.

I think he's saying the fretboard he used is 24.75" scale, and he shortened the neck before attaching the fretboard. So as long as there's 24.75" between the nut and the bridge, and the original nut end of the fretboard is against the nut, he should be okay.

I think that's exactly what he's saying. So yeah in that case there shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, that is one pretty V! (I feel a bit dumb asking this but here goes-) Are those two small switches for the coil taps?

Once you have pictures up someone will surely be able to answer you but for right now if you could maybe explain the damage that might help a bit.

Sorry it took so long to reply. I was away for the holiday in a land of no internet!

I really appreciate all of the support! I think we’ll just consider it a tele mutation and call it a day. I should have it ready for paint in the next few days. When it gets back I’ll post some finished pictures for everyone to see.

That's exactly what I was going to say! A Mutated Tele! Pretty darn sweet guitar you got there if I can say so myself.

Oooh, good-lookin' explorer you have there. This is turning out to be a fine guitar. Just make sure that when you thin the neck you dont go down to the truss rod this time because that would really suck. Your work makes me really want to go and finish my guitar but with my shop situation right now I can't. Very nice looking wood on this instrument too.

Holy bejeebuz! I love that guitar!!! NICE work!! Now I want one, great job! How does it play?

Happy birthday Drak!

Holy crap thats one nice shelf! Great job.

I'd love to check it out but your link just leads to photobucket.

Most informative book I've ever read. I thank you for taking the time to create this excellent source of guitar building information.

It's despicable that people would copy and distribute this book illegally. You deserve a massive amount of credit for making the book, and every builder out there from the novice to expert should have it to rely on.

Thanks again Melvyn.

If you clean the sound hole out that will be one of the best looking acoustics i've seen around.

I think something that I am going to do from now on is find wood from torn down houses and use as much of that as I can for body wood. I mean, hey I love the look of nice, high grade wood. But if say maple from an old house thats been torn down is laying around somewhere headed to be made into woodchips or something, it might be good to ask the people removing it if you can have the piece.

But to really address what Rich was saying here, yeah the wood prices are pretty high. It hurts for someone to be learning nowadays because if you make a huge mistake and trash the body or neck, you just basically burned your own money. I bought a large plank of redwood maybe 2 1/8 thick, only cost me $35 on eBay. Now, eBay is NOT the best or even really a great source of wood, yet if I can find it for cheap, I'll take the risk. For the most part, I've received good wood for my money. The alder I'm using on my guitar now cost around $30 dollars, and its a nice solid one piece of alder. Good color, good grain, no problems. It sucks to see a lot of the big manufacturers or parts supply websites or stores selling alder blanks for $80!!! I can't afford that! It's really just not a buyer's market for us humble guitar builders.

Wow, that's pretty cool, I'd want one if I had a dremel! Clean work, great job!

Hey Matt,

I really like your work, and it doesn't matter to me what you finish and what you don't but your designs are excellent. I wish you would finish the one you call a super strat because thats one of the coolest looking guitar bodies I've ever seen! Too bad you don't want to go through with that one. I don't mean to insult you in any manner but I don't like the replacement, I think its no where near as interesting or awesome as the other one. Now that doesn't mean its a bad design or anything, I just liked the other one more.

I would like to see some of your awesome designs finished but if you aren't able to finish projects at the time then okay, thats normal. My build has been on hiatus since late August and I probably won't get to do anymore work on it for at least another 3-4 weeks. Oh well.

Keep making the cool guitars Matt.

Wow, excellent!! I really wanted to make one of those but I couldn't find a template or a good enough picture of one to make a template from.. One day I want to make one with the same specs as Chuck Shuldiner's and call it a tribute. On that subject I think you should paint it black and replace your pickup with a Dimarzio X2N with the creme bobbins and black metal poles.

Make that two votes! Excellent work Brian! I've always wanted to make a guitar with a small body like that. I hope you make another Lahav, I really like this one.

Probably NOT the best idea, but what if you clamped the neck down and just routed the wood away until its just fretboard?

What got everyone so fired up lately over a couple burned rejects (WOD paved the way, of course)? Seriously though, with all of the intense flaming surrounding these threads is anyone else getting burned out on this topic? Anyway, I've got a couple smokin' new builds that I am just stoked about. I'll post some pics later this week.

By the way, does anyone else find it ironic that a person with a screen name of Phoenix Rising is the one smoldering in the ashes over this?

~David

Is that a guitar burning in your avatar?

Because thats freaking awesome.

Sure, if someone can piss lighter fluid.

Ah....that explains the burning sensation....

Hopefully you aren't experiencing what is detailed in the song "Why Does it Hurt When I Pee?" by Frank Zappa because that would suck.

Anyway.. After all that anti-WOD trash talking, where is Phoenix Rising?

Mmm.. barbecue.

Anyway, how are those wood dowel chunks working to fill the body? I'd like to know if it holds together properly because I might try it to fix some I have.

Aren't those nuts intended for a neck with a larger spacing for a nut? I have a neck with a spot for a locking nut, and it is different from the normal. Unless you want to cut away at the top of your fretboard, I say you go with a standard nut(one of the slipperier ones for a trem) and a set of decent locking tuners.