Southpa

I'd go with Imron. Its on my truck and a few guitars and when (if ) I get a boat it will be on that too!

Good reading here: http://www.bronkalla.com/upkeep/spray_imron.htm

I've found most of the finer grits at JB Auto Supplies, mostly up (down?)) to 2000 grit, occasionally 2500. Most autobody supply stores carry finer grits. I've used quite a variety of rattlecan paints from Cdn. Tire, JB Auto even Zellers . They had some fine metalflake in acrylic lacquer, seemed to work ok. Also acrylic and nitro clears and colors eg. Duplicolor as well as Minwax high gloss poly. Cdn. Tire also sells Meguiar's deep crystal polish in the automotive section.

Gaps from the 2 pieces separating or is that how it was originally done? I would just use dust from the darker wood with a little CA glue whickered in. Sand flush and the gaps should disappear. But the border between the two woods might not be perfectly straight so maybe a little cosmetic work with a tinted marker can be done.

Bookmatched / flamed burl maple with mahogany backing. Going to be my next tele.

Ever seen flamed oak? Future neck wood maybe w/ a fb cap.

I almost suspect a finish crack despite the fact that its running with the grain. Get a small flashlight inside the guitar, turn off the lights and flex the area around. If light shines thru then you have a better idea of what to deal with. ie. gluing wood. Takamine is a nice guitar but not an over the top vintage restoration. If its just a finish crack, (the little ones obviously are), I would not bother. Something like that is hard to hide perfectly without doing a total refin on the top. If you are a perfectionist...or just want the practice and experience , you could sand it all down and recoat. I think those guitars have some sort of "poly" coating on them. Its much less forgiving than lacquer where it comes to repairing cracks, sandthrus etc and witness lines usually show up.

I can't believe Southpa makes his own nuts!!

Its not like I'm running my own smelter here at home. All I do is buy some 3/8" brass bell nuts, drill 'em out and then tap them through. The rest is making sure they are accessible for a 3/8" socket once the trussrod is installed in the neck.

I actually found that to be one of the hardest parts of building a guitar...dreaming up a unique shape. And once you've chosen one you have to fully commit yourself to building. It took a year for me to come up with the shape of my last guitar. I just sat there staring at the blocks of wood I glued together. Time well spent.

Kinkos can print out dwg. files,correct?

Not sure. You'd best phone ahead. For my (and our collective) uses I prefer full scale plots for making templates. I was telling a buddy at work about the scaled down V I was planning and he got me drawings of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full sized 58 and 67 Flying Vs after I emailed him the dwg files! I actually needed the 87.5% size and he promptly got me one . But its nice to know someone who works around this sort of stuff and enjoys doing it!

I was toying with the idea of inlaying actual numbers in the usual fretboard spots. Sort of a learning thing for reading tabs quicker.

single action rods require much less torque at the adjusting nut so they strip less, or never.

Thats why I use brass adjusting nuts. If anything is going to strip it will be the brass before the steel. So the nut is accessible and easily replaced. I've used the pre-fabbed 2-way truss rods, too. They work ok but I still consider it a bit overkill. Easy to install tho!

So long as everyone minds their manners and sticks to the rules. If anyone scoffs or takes your wishes lightly then I would expect to see trouble down the road. I don't care if people borrow my tools but they better put them back and they damn well better know how to use them and take care of them. If I need to even use my broom and its not where its supposed to be then I get pissed off. Its called common courtesy. Its serious business especially if one of your "partners" brings "friends" or "friends of friends" over. Next thing you know your stuff starts to go missing. And its a royal pain to have to put every thing away and lock it up every day.

I considered getting into one shop, they were asking $500/mo. but I wanted to talk to one of the guys who I knew and trusted first. There were also 2 brothers involved, one good and one evil . Long story short, one brother was a little napoleonic in his ways and was difficult to deal with. It got to where yet another member dreaded even being around when the evil guy was there.

I honestly can't remember the last time I encountered a severe enough backbow that required a 2-way truss rod. And I can't even count how many guitars I set up, repair and restore every year. Considering the expense I realized that they are no longer necessary in my build projects. So I'm now manufacturing my own 1- way truss rods, using 3/16" steel rod, brass bell nuts (for adjusting), drilled out and tapped, and 3/4" long - 3/8" bolt sections (for anchoring), also drilled and tapped. Its all thats really needed for a good playing guitar if its made right. I can make half a dozen truss rods for less than 5 bucks in less than an hour.

http://www3.telus.net/Alsplace/Truss%20Rod/

Its just simple common sense, but it doesn't exist in many instances. Lots of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" circumstances just don't pay off. So think about what you are doing a little longer and from a few more angles if you aren't quite sure about anything. Its a bad scene whan you have to say to yourself..."oh yeah...thats what I forgot to do, look at, fix, learn (or whatever) before switching on that little 30,000 rpm finger nibbler.

It depends on what kind of maple you have in mind for an all maple guitar. I made a tele with a bolt-on eastern maple neck and 1 piece wrn. maple body a few years back and I'm VERY happy with the results. I wouldn't hesitate to make another if I had a chunk of wood that size again.

3D rendering is nice if you are taking it a step further and applying CNC technology. For guitar building I'm happy enough w/ ACAD. I think I have a few drawings still kicking around. I've made lots of templates and printed out different scale lengths, etc. There is nothing like making sure you get some precision, accuracy and symmetry in your work.

Thanks, it looks much better than before. The heart shaped hole is the access for adjusting the truss rod. Seemed like a good idea at the time. but now I just see wasted space. I cut a slot in the new fb section over that hole (between 23rd and 24th fret) and can now slip in a 1/8" Allen key.

This guitar is one of my first. I recently extended the fretboard over the truss rod access hole making it a 26 fret guitar. Its still within the bounds of comfortable playing, you just have to get used to a compromise between a slightly longer neck and shorter body. If you want full access to those upper ranges then that is pretty much the only way you can achieve it without making the guitar too weird. However, I admit... this one is borderline but its still one of my favorite guitars to play.

I've made a couple 24 fret guitars and prefer to have the 2 full octaves, especially when playing in E. If you plan to make a 24 (or more) fret guitar from existing drawings of 22 fret guitars then you will have to do a bit of customizing around the neck joint area. Those extra frets have to be accomodated somehow.

Yup, it doesn't have to come from a router either. Way back in 1981 I worked at a steel fab shop making electrical panels. I can still remember the noise one of my co-workers made when he got the tip of his pinky crushed in a 70 ton brake press. Since then I've had a healthy respect for whatever I am doing and where ever I put my hands. All present and still acounted for!

There are also some misnomers around. For instance, riffler files are actually tiny rasps. VERY handy little tools for those close in little curves.

Fender style guitars (strat, tele, etc.) with Fender style bridges do not need a neck angle. Keep reading and studying up on those basics. It helps to REALLY LOOK at other guitars and see the differences in that context while in the planning stage. Some things are not as readily noticeable until you slap a straight edge down.

Well, they (tip cleaners) work fine for me. I've been shaping nut slots with them for years on plastic, bone, corion, tusq and even brass with no problems. It just takes a little while to figure out the best method(s).

Whether I'm recommending welding tip cleaners or expensive specialized files is not the point, (not my thread anyway) I just see it as a viable alternative. Its all trial and error and thats what being a "Newbie" is all about. If it doesn't work for you then you then it wasn't a big investment and you can always take up oxyacetylene cutting/welding or find some other use for those handy little buggers.

If I see this right I don't really think the truss rod is the main problem. If you glued an oversized fb to the neck and trimmed it down to the neck profile then the trussrod is still in the center of the neck, no stability issues there. The main problem is the preslotted board (I'm assuming as you already mentioned 26.4" scale) lining up with the centerline of the guitar. If you try to run the strings perpendicular to the slots on your "skewed" fb then your bridge will be projected way off the centerline. If you stick to your centerline then each fret will be skewed and the guitar will not intonate. So as mentioned, tear it off and start again OR fill all the existing slots (with glue and dust mix) and recut accordingly with your centerline, maybe no one will notice a little "skewness" in the fb grain.

In the nut file blurbs on this forum torch tip cleaners always come up. But no one goes into detail, now I know why. Yeah "Buy tip cleaners" is all anyone ever says. If anyone ever actually talked about using them or how they were made I would still have $6 in my pocket. You even say that they are very hard to file the nut while its on the guitar, How else are you supposed to properly set up a nut?

It all boils down to how you can make it useful. Obviously, it didn't happen. I like using the tip cleaners because they achieve the perfect shaped nut slot. If you are buying files then they better have rounded edges and those that don't will give you grief. Of course a tip cleaner is not designed for sawing into bones. Try first rough cutting the slot with a jeweller's saw and then finishing off with the tip cleaner. Just a few strokes will give you the proper shape. You only need to cut down to about 1/2 the proposed string diameter anyway.

WB Dracko, any word on that bassoon yet? I been building a few guitars, currently working on a scaled down custom V for a buddy's kid. I'm waiting to get some decent pics of my most recent build. I been repairing more guitars than I can count (basically bringing junque back to life) and making lots of friends at work...hmmmm....I seem to be getting some kinda reputation around my area. And I'm working on getting an inexpensive supply of highly figured maples on the local scene. If I can find the right piece of wood I'll be building a banjo resonator. And I painted my truck last August. (Look closely under the bumper )