Southpa

I make my own single action truss rods now. Cost is a couple bucks each. I make necks that don't require dual adjustment action. I've repaired more guitars than I can count over 25 years, and in all that time I might have come across 2 with serious backbow that could only be righted with a dual action trussrod. And those guitars were not really worth fixing anyway! I still have one, an EKO X-100 archtop that makes a damn nice slide guitar.

Its a good place to vent the anger, channel it right back into the guitar. get medievel on the thing and strip it down to bare wood again. Use scrapers and chemicals, coarse grit sanding, etc, what ever it takes. Then rethink your finish. Otherwise your main issue here is

I've used half-round rasp and riffler files. Half-round coarse file is actually better to finish. A rasp can potentially tear out the sides if you take it too far.

Ah what the hell, I'm bored. Some of the glues are also used as fillers, like that 2-part pourable epoxy in the box and the tubes of black epoxy. Its nice to have the applicator for these things too. Sometimes the crap doesn't squeeze out evenly when doing it by hand. Foreground, in the plastic bottles are the very same West Systems epoxy you have, WS. Its used quite a lot at work in the shipwrights shop and they are generous. I also have a little bag of the 404 additive (NOT for snorting) for the epoxy, a MUST HAVE when doing our thing. As well as syringes for measuring the resin and activator, 5 to 1 respectively (And for gawds sake don't switch them! ) You just count the pumps when measuring from the original cans. CA glues in the foreground, Loc-tite 495 and Devcon Zip-grip. Then there are the wood glues of the "bond" family, namely Weldbond, Probond and Titebond III, prob'ly all out of the same vat anyway. I'm waiting for the "double-o-seven version". OK, fun over, time to put all this crap away.

There are also DA sanders ie. "dual action" which are orbital but do not spin in a perfect circle. They provide a little extra lateral movement which is much more effective for finishing. I've used them quite a bit on boats etc. where an extremely smooth surface is required with fine grits. There are also random orbital sanders which work well for rough surfaces bugt on close inspection you can see a path of little curlicues made by the grit. http://www.ehow.com/about_6673244_dual-act...on-sander_.html

I had my ears cleaned back in the mid-80's. Doctor told me to drop vegetable oil in my ears once a day for a week before coming back. Then he had me hold a kidney dish under my ear while he went to work. The tool was a large syringe loaded with warm water. It was a double walled affair with the outer layer pushing warm water in and the inner sucking out the core. The oil was to loosen up things between the dirt and the skin. What emerged surprised the hell out of me! All the dirt, dust and pollen (and who knows what else) that had accumulated from places I lived throughout my lifetime. Kinda weird when you think about it, just like looking at sedimentary layers in chronological order. The things floating in the dish looked like little turds and they were about 1" long each. I have to admit that the procedure felt great, warm water swishing around inside your head. Afterwards my hearing was greatly improved, all background noises that I normally would have missed were present.

36" on my mahogany neck-thru(26 frets), no laminating, just q-sawn wood w/ a stewmac hotrod.

I still have some yellow carpenter's glue laying around from 8 yrs or so ago. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again. Goes by the name weld-bond or some such. As far as I'm concerned all the yellow stuff comes out of the same vat. But recently I've become stuck on (pun intented ) West System 2 part epoxy with a wee bit of thickener added. Sure its permanent. What if I need to take the joint apart and start over? Well, I shouldn't have to...

Damn, I think they should stop using gorillas and go back to horses.

Bolt on like Epiphones are tilt adjustable (I've set up some pretty good action on those ) otherwise its just a matter of getting it right the first time. Other SG "issues" ? Make sure your body bevel lines remain sharp and concise with the outer edge.

Looks nice so far. The theme is hard to do without making it too tacky. Would need something that represents the entire SciFi genre rather than just doing images from a third movie. But there could be some melding in for your fb. The original Star Trek series wasn't all that far behind the 50's SciFi. For that matter, it was more a product of that genre and likely even conceived during that time by Gene Roddenberry. I can see the original starship Enterprise (upper frets) shooting photon torpedos at a Klingon warbird off in the distance (lower frets). Can you do the rest?

Drill the hole thru the veneer after staining. Did you use a drill?

http://boardreader.com/thread/Yamaha_FG_42...gs__028385.html

Taping 2 sheets of paper together??....c'mon Now where the hell did you hear that!?

I stopped screwing around a long time ago and started doing all my fretboards with ACAD. Its the easiest and most accurate method I've encountered. There are plenty of drawing programs out there that you could use to get the job done. Make it 1:1 scale, print out in 2 sections and tape them together. Then cut out and tape onto fb wood and etch w/ ruler and sharp OLFA or X-ACTO knife. And marking the slots is a lot easier before the board is tapered.

Trying to achieve a square corner, flat surface etc, ie. general "uniformity and symmetry" with hand tools requires much discipline and attention. There are rules you must follow. Utilize any existing machined edges and surfaces as reference points for cutting / shaping adjacent edges and surfaces. If you don't have anything to use as a reference then you have to make one. Concentrate on getting just that one surface flat and oriented with the grain the way you want. Then shape adjacent surfaces. This requires that you have the proper tools to closely monitor what you are doing. That is, some good straight edges for flat surfaces and carpenter's square for corners. Here is a setup I use occasionally to get a square edge. Just a flat sanding table w/ 36 grit sheets glued down and a hunk of angle iron. Its not as easy as it looks. You have to be aware of what you are doing throughout the operation as just a few swipes at the wrong angle could ruin a perfectly square edge. Check your work often, mark areas that you are sanding with pencil.

'88 American Std. neck pocket depth - 11/16" - 18mm neck thickness - 15/16" - 24mm (to edge of fb, ie. not including radius)

I don't sell my guitars, however, I gave one away for a charity raffle at work. I was also curious about how much interest it would generate. Of course, what was raised for charity ($1800 @ $5 / ticket) doesn't represent the value of the guitar. Its whatever someone wants to pay. :0

Thats happened to me with acrylic lacquer. Too much heat, too much lacquer and too much convection. The lacquer has to gas off solvents to cure. What is happening is the surface of the lacquer is drying too fast and skinning over resulting in trapped solvent vapor bubbles. In my case it was quite prevalent and the bubbles were fairly deep. I basically stripped it clean and started over. What should you do? If the finish doesn't look like swiss cheese like mine did perhaps you can do spot fills. What can you lose? If it doesn't work you can always strip it back and do it again.

You also have the option of angling your neck heel.

I always use a jeweller's saw and then shape and bevel with files, coarse to fine sanding then polish.

Thats pretty lame.

Try using a whole different compressor. Maybe some sort of machine oil mixing in w/ what you are spraying? You have to systematically knock out potential causes, starting with the simplest.

None whatsoever. Just make sure your under coats (filler and sealer) are well cured. Poly is considered to be relatively inert compared to other types of coatings ... like lacquer. Its a little more work too but well worth the effort IMO.

I just picked up the 2010 Vintage Guitar Price Guide and its a good thing I did! Prices have dropped overall in comparison to the 2008 price guide. I'll have to assume that its just a reflection of how our relative economies are faring. Money is tight and the last thing anyone needs is a new "old" guitar! All of the higher end Gibsons are valued considerably lower than 2 years ago. The 58-59 Flying V dropped from $125,000-$225,000 to $135,000-$170,000. (like it makes a difference). But its a very significant trend and I've seen reductions as much as 40%. Some may not care and view it as a "the guitar is worth what anyone wants to spend" situation. But it works both ways, guitars are more affordable to buy, however, the ones you own are now worth LESS!