Southpa

I've made pickguards etc. from mirror acrylic. The scrap bin at Industrial Plastics and Paint had some manageable sized offcuts for a reasonable price. There is also 1-side scratch resistant "Acrylite" plexi. You can use some decorative paper (pearlescent Xmas wrapping paper is cool) as a backing or just paint the backside. I've also used 14 ga. stainless. The cutting and polishing process takes a lot of effort and a lot of steps. I've gotten it down to where you can clearly see yourself but its certainly not flawless.

I just love this kinda stuff. Lets consider the basics. What happens to the energy imparted by the vibrating string? Its absorbed at the string's anchor points ie. the nut and the bridge, and then transferred through everything in between, from the tip of the headstock to the strap button at the butt and even into the player's belly. Ever plucked a string with the guitar body right against your belly then plucked agin with the guitar away from your body? You will notice that the latter rings longer and louder, that why classical guitarists are trained to hold their instrument that way. Otherwise your body sucks up the vibrational energy. Of course, the energy is also emitted into the air as sound waves, thats the part we are most concerned about. Unfortunately, thats where all the variables occur, eg. how hard the string is plucked, the amount of room given to the string for vibrating, the material the string is made from etc. etc. The longer the string can vibrate the more sustain you have. We know that vibrational energy passes more easily though denser and more homogenous material. We know it travels better "along" the wood grain rather than "across" the wood grain. Q-sawn straight-grained wood is desirable in necks not only for its physical stability when expansion and contraction come into play, it also conducts vibrational energy more readily. Glue joints, non-straight grain, your big fat soft gut, etc. across the path of vibrational energy will cause a loss in this energy, a dampening effect, but not so you'd notice. What would it take to make a string continue its vibrating longer?

I would consider density rather than hardness/softness of the maple I'm buying. Its easy enough to get the dimensions and figure out the volume then weigh the piece and compare with average densities on the internet. That way you pretty well know if the wood you are buying is suitable for building a neck so long as its cut right. aside: my monitor looks really strange, just got back from the eye doctor and one pupil is dilated bigtime, looks kinda creepy.

The real money in repairing guitars is with vintage and high end instruments as well as warranty work. Are you good enough and qualified to do this kind of work? Otherwise, forget it. Over the past few months I've done repair work on numerous guitars, the most expensive was a Larrivee acoustic. I sure didn't make a lot of money, I'm talking 30 to 70 bucks a pop. These were mostly guitars that a regular established "luthier" would turn down because their price would likely be more than what the guitar was worth, unless the owner was fool enough to spend that kind of money or rich enough to pay because of some sort of sentimental value they had for the guitar. But in most cases the owners wouldn't want to shell out that kind of money on a cheap guitar. I only do the work to get the practice.

I was talking to a guy at work the other day and it turns out he used to build guitars. Of course, we talked in depth about this 'n that and he says he just doesn't have the time, inclination or interest to make guitars any more, just wants to play them. So he asks me if I want to buy a bunch of miscellaneous stuff that he has laying around. I told him to bring it all in and I'll buy. Heres a pic of some inlaid fb's (radiused but unslotted) I picked up. I also got: 5 rosewood fb's -unradiused and preslotted to 25.5" scale w/ rosewood binding and drilled for fb dots and sidemarkers. 3 rosewood fb blanks 1 gold Gotoh style strat hardtail bridge (brand new) a set of nickel Schaller slotted peghead tuners for steel strings (brand new) a cone and spider for a resonator guitar 5 sets of nickel stop tailpiece studs (brand new) 10 Alpha 500KΩ pots (brand new) about 25 ft of white/black plastic binding 1 resonator guitar tailpiece (brand new) 2 stereo endpin jacks (brand new) Picture He will also bring in a fret slotting saw with rosewood handle, lots of big fat rubber bands for binding work and a bunch of misc. Grover tuners and parts. All he wanted was $100 Cdn. for the whole lot! So I said "OK, Ya talked me into it!" I figure if I wanted to buy all that stuff and pay for shipping I would probably be looking at about $600.

My first was a mahogany neckthru, 2nd was a unique design (custom SG), sort of a deep set neck tenon encased in 2 hollowed out body wings. The third was a bolt on tele. I found the neck thru is the easiest but with a neck angle you'd better get it right the first time.

I haven't been posting much lately, lots of changes have occurred and I haven't had a lot of time. Well, I manage to make time to report those pesky, spamming parasites. It takes a little patience, a little understanding...and a lotta beatings. I got a new full time job, working for the Feds at the Esquimalt naval base. I push a broom around for a real good wage, full benefits, pension and no mandatory retirement. In essence, I plan to drop dead there. I've been there for about 3 weeks. I have maybe 4 hours worth of real work to do each day and have to stretch it into 8 hrs., no pressure and nobody on my back. So I have lots of time to shoot the breeze with a bunch of real nice and VERY knowledgeable people, quite a few guitar builders, players etc. there actually. I work in the electrical shop, I can get pickups wound there if I want. Anyway, the shortscale bass is out for now, I made a little mistake at trimming the headstock with my table saw and had to render the neck down another 1 1/2", now too short for the 30" scale holly fretboard I already made. I visited the woodshop at work and found a scrap of purpleheart (19-3/8" X6" X 3/8") that I can use for about 3 fretboards and I'll make a neckthru mahogany tremolo strat. Heres a pic of the neck, 1 way truss rod, fillet and holly bass fretboard. You can see that I still have lots of carving to do but I'm in no rush and its turning into a weekend thing. And here is where I went fishing last weekend and here is what I had for dinner a month ago. BTW, I mentioned purpleheart earlier. I saw a block of the wood about 3' long, 2' wide and 1' thick, yes, must've weighed over a hundred lbs. They use the blocks for supporting ships in the drydock, I guess it doesn't float away.

Both can be used but multistrand is the best alternative. Solder soaks into the braid which gives a more solid joint. Single strand is more likely to break inside the insulation from fatigue (too much pinching / bending in one spot).

I like to keep things simple. My hot water tank is 10" radius, stick some sandpaper to it and attack it with a block of wood. Slide it up and down until one side fully comforms to the curve and repeat with finer grits. Maybe one afternoon I'll visit a place that supplies various sized water pipes, barrels or whatever, with a bunch of wood and make a variety of radius blocks. They'd probably think I'm nuts.

Burns Bison body style. I have to admit it... that Silvertone headstock shape makes me want to GAG!

I shoot on the bench in the backyard. I just avoid shooting on windy days and make sure the project will always be in the shade. I like to spray the first few coats with the guitar hanging then lay it flat on the bench for the remainder. If the wind decides to pick up or the sun moves onto the work (too much heat buildup is not good) I'll place a large CLEAN cardboard box over the work.

Make sure you use BLUE masking tape made by 3-M. The adhesive is less reactive than white and green varieties. No adhesive residue and it won't take the finish with it when removing.

The standard rod size is 3/16 dia., maybe go with 1/4" to beef it up a little?

Yeah, definitely the minimalist approach.

Neither, I use ACAD. I'll get the numbers from a fret calculator like Stewmac, I also have a guitar repair book (Complete Guitar Repair - Hideo Kamimoto) that has pages full of fret distances for almost every scale length (23.5" , 23.75", 24" etc. all the way to 34.5"). I'll draw my fretboard in ACAD to 1:1 scale and print it out , like wfret method. Measure each fret individually with a ruler? you gotta be NUTZ!

I use a Flush Cut Pull Saw. Blade thickness is perfect for fret slots. I run it along a straight edge for starting cuts and its ideal for your needs. Just gotta be careful, 3 pulls could easily cut right thru a fretboard.

Just to add, be aware that the diagram is for a Seymour Duncan HB. Wire colors (and number) vary with pickup brands.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schem.../1hum_1vol.html

I doubt you would find a marette (screw cap thingy) small enough to hold the wires together. Soldering the ends together w/ shrink is ok, but a royal pain when working inside the guitar. If the remaining length isn't enough then just replace the whole wire.

You can't get any more personal than this...my name is stamped into the wood inside the control cavity of every guitar I build. And I'm damn glad I do that. ya see my first project was stolen from my truck one day and if my name was not on it I would NEVER have seen it again.

bingo - So long as you are sure you did all the spraying evenly/thoroughly and thick enough to make you feel comfortable to wetsand without breaking through. It could go either way because the finish will shrink when curing further. Thats why its important to make sure the wood has been grainfilled well (depends on what wood). If you see grain popping out then you have to fill with more coats and wait another month or so. I think 15 coats in 5 days is rushing things. The first layers are likely still curing and it makes the whole finishing process take longer in the long run. I've learned that lesson before. The finish sands and polishes ok but still has some plasticity. When you lay the guitar on any patterened surface for an hour or more it makes an imprint. Its nice to see everything shiny but that would be a perfect paintjob. There are a LOT of variables that work into a quality paint job. If you can practice your technique ie. constant distance from work, constant angle, even overlapping etc. AND have the equipment set up properly, paint preparation is perfect AND the surrounding conditions ie. temp, humidity, dust level are perfect you might get away with it.

The oil finish wasn't the only thing I did to this guitar. When I originally acquired it the original mahogany soundboard was torn off. I bought the guitar from a friend for 50 bucks along with some bookmatched spruce for making the new soundboard. What actually made the deal worthwhile were the old style Grover tuners that were on the headstock , now on my tele those ALONE were worth 50 bucks IMO. Anyway, I rebuilt the guitar's soundboard with the new spruce, however I did not thickness the material properly so it was a little on the thick side and the guitar had a shallow tinny sound. Now years later I hit the top of the guitar with a good even sanding, thinning out the soundboard to the proper thickness and did the oil finish. The guitar was originally built with out ANY finish, they were considered an inexpensive student model at the time. But an oil finish beats a poly or lacquer clearcoat in the sound department any day. Either way, the guitar has more volume and a deeper tone now.

Finally finished. Now I can concentrate on my new "from scratch" build after refurbishing the Hagstrom III and the Fender Newporter. I made a pickguard out of mirror acrylic, bought a piece of scrap from Industrial Plastics and paints for 5 bucks. Its nice stuff, cut it with a jeweller's saw and then bevelled the edges with a barrel sander on my dremel and sanded / polished back to a clear shine. The oil finish really brings out the qualities of mahogany. I also made a new bridge saddle and nut for this guitar. I'm getting some real good use out of all that bone I prepared a while ago. A few more pics

The rod should not turn, its function is to provide lengthwise tension on the neck by tightening the brass nut (the only part that moves) at the adjustment end. Did you buy the rod prefabbed or make it from parts? It should be fused at the anchor end and the anchor is not supposed to turn. The end of the rod is either welded to the anchor or threaded into the anchor with the exposed end peened flat.

I made my own. Just cut up a 3/8" bolt into 5/8" long sections, drill a hole through a section and thread it with NF 10-32. Those anchors are easier to install, just drill a 3/8" hole at the end of the truss rod slot and pop it in.