Southpa

Yep, same goes for Larrivee. However, I DID repair a body split in another friend's Larrivee, much older model though and I don't know what sort of warranty specs they offer, ie. 1, 2yrs. or lifetime? One thing about the friend with the Martin, I asked about his receipt and documentation. Apparently, he paid cash for a brand new Martin from a reputable dealership but did not get a receipt, manual or warranty info. I asked "what gives?" if you can't prove you are the ORIGINAL owner then warranty is void, goes with ALL brands. But he says he knows the shop owner well and the guy should remember the sale, I shure hope so. Otherwise, I told him to bring it on over. Sorry about digressing from the thread topic dj...well sorta.

I do repair work at home all the time. Mostly for friends, co-workers and friends of friends, so far everyone is happy. I just turned down a potential fretjob on my friend's Martin the other day only because he should be taking it to an authorized Martin "repairman" because the guitar is still under warranty. As far as legal issues go, ie. setting up a "business" and dealing with the taxman for income purposes etc. its up to you. I don't charge enough to bother and consider it "under the table" beer money. Everyone either pays cash or there is some sort of barter involved. Depends on how legit you want to go.

I voted "other". 3 / 3 arrangement, Fender dished side profile ie. no headstock angle, staggered tuners, arrowhead shape. Strings straight through the nut. I never had such a slinky easy-bending feel on any other style of headstock, makes for a real player.

Well Done! and good choice for a first build. I found its one of the easiest, straight forward, tried and true guitar designs you could do. Its really hard to bugger up when building a telecaster. I'll definitely make another one some day.

Rub a body part long enough and you will surely form a callous eventually. A bit of trivia, Larry Fine, of 3 Stooges fame, had a callous on one side of his face from being slapped by Moe all the time. I had a friend who played his guitar "chickin pickin" style and he used his fingernails. He used superglue to fortify his nails and keep them from splitting.

It works very well. Most of those guys at L&M are just flunky salesmen. I've hardly met anyone there who can give me a straight answer about a guitar's structure, hardware etc. I'll bet he just took the word of someone who didn't even know how to use the tuner.

I bought a 5-pack of D'Addario strings a few weeks ago and realized tonight that a Planet waves "strobe-on-string" guitar tuner was included. Very cool.

http://www.musicextra.co.uk/tuners/planet-...uner-p-976.html

Yeah, go for it! I made a tele a few years ago with a 1-piece maple body. Your main concern is choosing the right pickups to get your sound. And you can modify with different capacitor values to see (or hear) whats right for you. I used a SD Hotstack (stacked HB) in the neck and Vintage 54 in the bridge. I also wired the two pickups in series/parallel for the middle switch position. I'm very happy with the results. But I couldn't tell you what results your EMG's would produce, just try it and find out.

I'll take some pics later but the wear is not visibly noticeable. When you turn the peg it just binds up, something out of synch there. I gotta admit, I made a real good score. I'm moving soon and no longer work as a painting contractor, got a gov't job and just signed the form for my term extension, good til March 09, can you say YAY!!?? Eventually, I'll get my permanent number and thats where I'll spend the rest of my life. Anyway, I traded my 3-way ladder and $150 for the guitar. He initially paid $250 for the guitar w/ hardshell case. I initially paid $100 for my ladder, got a couple years use out of it and then basically got my money back thru the trade. I didn't realize how good a job I did on this instrument. Action is extremely low for a 12-string and it plays like butter. All I can say is... DAMN I'm Good!

I haven't quite exhausted all my resources. Right now its a 9-string and I'll play it as is for a little while. The 3 missing strings hook up to the worn tuners. And I will check the local music shops but the odds of them have something like this on their shelf is pretty slim. I'd just like to find some better quality hardware for this guitar.

I just picked up a Yamaha FG 412-SB from a friend. I already repaired, setup and did fretwork on the guitar last year and really liked the way it played and sounded. My friend likes playing his martin more and just put the 12 string into a closet. A couple of the gears on the tuning machines are worn and I'd like to replace both sides. I know its an oddball guitar, only made from 1978-81, but its in pretty good shape. Anyone ever seen 12 string tuners for slotted pegheads in their travels?

This talk of compound radius has got me thinking. Heres a real nightmare... how about trying a fanned fret, helix neck with a compound radius??! Yeah, getting weird all right.

Good Timing! I'm nearing that stage myself and was considering a compound radius. I'll probably make my own templates, thats the easy part. Maybe 5 or 6 should be a good enough guide. But as far as HOW I will go about it will be a matter of experimentation. I'll probably start at the nut with a 10" and progress up the neck with shallower blocks. Checking the progression of the radii (damn weird typing 2 "i"'s in a row), should work well, the trick is ensuring the fb is dead straight along the way.

http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/tips/fbradius.htm

Been a while since I posted on FDP meself. I simply don't have the time...or the inclination anymore.

Not much but enough to see more of a gap in the center of the fret when placed level across the board. I just bend the fretwire by hand, eyeball the radius and then tap it in.

This WAS going to be a short scale bass but I've changed my mind. The 30" scale holly fb I made will be used later when I get a bass worked out right in my head. Holly, if you can get your hands on some, is an ideal wood for fretboards. Its extremely dense and hard, even harder than eastern maple, and readily takes dye if one was inclined to try something different.

I also have a few pieces of purpleheart kicking around that I will use for fb's. Very heavy, hard and dense. The trick is to UV protect it soon after cutting/shaping. When left to the elements it loses its color and becomes a dull greyish brown fairly quickly.

errr, looks like a drywall screw to me, tons and tons at your local hardware store.

I've stripped a few over the years and have learned some valuable lessons. Those older poly finishes could be as thick as 1/8" in some places and it can actually add a lot of weight to the guitar. I've had to get "medievel" on guitars at times and couldn't avoid some scrapes, scratches, dings 'n dents in the wood. Learning how to use a paint scraper with some finesse is essential. I've tried most paint strippers and found that they all need a little mechanical elbow grease to help things along. Some more than others. The best that I've used so far is something called "Circa 1850", not only for its effectiveness but also ease and evenness of application (spray). Unfortunately, it can't be used indoors.

I've also used heat gun and scraper (ideal for thick finishes). I don't even bother dry sanding until I see an appreciable amount of wood showing. Sanding fairly thick finishes (by hand OR power) generates heat which melts the finish and which then sticks to your paper like s**t to a blanket. Buying paper can get expensive.

Not a D17 they were only made from 2000-2005. The 0-17 was made from 1906-1917, 1929-1948 and 1966-1968. The 1937 0-17 Martin is all mahogany, 3 white-black-white soundhole rings, thin black backstripe, solid peghead (ie. non-slotted), 14 frets (T-shaped). In mint condition 1934-1939 Martin 0-17 is worth $2800 - $2900. Info from 2008 Official Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide. (A nice Xmas present from my bro, )

I've done a water-based dye burst, golden glow --> tangerine --> pagoda red on a flamed maple tele. I used 2 carboard templates, one about half size of the body and the other full size and notched the edges deeply with scissors to help diffuse the dye. I also sprayed using Windex sized spray nozzles feeding out of mason jars. This gives a heavier pattern, what I call a "spatter" burst. First I ragged the entire body with the golden glow then used plastic bulletin board pins to suspend the smaller template over the body and shot the tangerine, then used the large template and shot the red. If the pins are set in far enough with sufficient weight on top, and you keep your shooting angle steep enough, you can avoid hitting the pins underneath and leaving behind those little 1/4" circles. When dried I coated liberally with rattlecan poly. The results looked like a big ripe peach, very close to a classic tequila sunrise burst.

covers all the seams on those "veneer over plywood" knockoffs.

you would probably be amazed at how much time goes into THINKING everything out before I ever pick up a tool or a piece of wood

Took me 8 mos. just to decide what SHAPE to make my next guitar, the rest should / will / better fall into place. Gonna be a Jass Master-ish shape one-off in mahogany, holly and purple heart.

Just finished rewinding a SD Quarter pounder by hand, no machines whatsoever with 44 AWG wire. Its my first try and I'd like to share a little bit from my experience. I've read that random hand winding (which results in true "scatterwound") will give a more unique tone to the pickup. After about 4 failed attempts I finally got it together and am about ready to pot in paraffin. The machine wound QP has a rated DC resistance of about 14.8 KΩ. Mine reads at 10KΩ (ok with me) which makes sense as NO WAY would you be able to scatterwind as much wire mass as you could a more uniform machine wind. I counted about 8500 turns, made a tick mark for every 100 turns, and it probably took me about 3 hours over a dozen winding sessions.

I tried to wind as tight as possible but those first few attempts resulted in broken wire. So after chopping it out and starting over I lightened my touch a bit. Also, my results look a bit on the lumpy side compared to a machine wind. I actually did get a full wind done but did not get a resistance reading at all. Then I realized that I didn't prep the end of the wire when I began the coil (OUCH!) I tried to disconnect and lightly sand the varnish coating but it broke off snub to the coil, yes buried wire so I had to chop it all out and start over. There you have it, if you ever want to give it a try make sure you have lots of patience and think it out right.

Tough call without some pics, it depends on how long/wide the crack is and if there is any damage to the structural "innards" of the guitar. If bracing is cracked and/or separated from the back then things get a bit complicated. You have to figure a way to glue and clamp simultaneously in 2 dimensions. But you would have had to hit the guitar mighty hard to break internal bracing. A common practice is to span the width of the crack (where there is no bracing) with thincut, lightweight hardwood "splints". I recently fixed side cracks this way on my friend's Larivee. (For god's sake, take that bundle of keys out of your POCKET! ) You have to see how much flex the crack(s) have for getting glue into the right spots. There is some excellent info at Frets.com regarding fixing, maintaining etc. acoustic instruments.

I've used latex quite a lot. They last a while if you can avoid direct , long term contact with those hardcore solvents, like acetone and thinners in general. Vinyl is the worst, they disintegrate on first contact and I just picked up a box of nitril gloves, haven't used them as much. But they ARE ALL "disposable" gloves, may as well use a new pair for every session.