Dave M

Hi Brian, I tried sending an E-Mail through the website too. (A couple of days ago) I don't know if you got it or not. I am also interested in a couple of pickups. Dave dmanley@i2k.com

I have them on a boltneck guitar. They are pretty nice to play on, but they chew through strings in a hurry.

I have seen purpleheart necks before, so I know it can be done. I even saw one with a flatsawn purpleheart fretboard, on a Quartersawn purpleheart neck. I got to play that one, and it felt really nice. A bit thinner than I like my necks, but it had a great feel. I might try using it for my next project, but currently, I have no experience with it.

I am always looking through guitar auctions on E-bay. I am starting to save the pictures from some of them onto a CD. This gives me a reference for my restorations, and scratchbuilt projects. I am getting a decent collection of Tele pics. Many sellers of high end guitars take a lot of pics, and show every part of the guitar. Photos of bodies, necks, and electronic parts are useful for reference too. especially when having to scratchbuild a replacement part. (Lots of "Naked" bodies are also pictured, which show the routing patterns) There was a '74 Tele custom that just sold for Four grand, that had over twenty great pics. The guitar was pristine, and even the tags and paperwork were there. (Look up Time Capsule) If I ever build a Custom, I now have the perfect reference. I also am collecting some "Oddball" guitars this way. You never know when they can inspire a project. I am actually thinking of building a Martin E-18 Copy someday, with my own twists, of course. I have the perfect pieces of wood ready to go into it... If you get really good, some of the head on shots could be scanned into a graphics or cad program, and serve as the basis for a blueprint. This is how I will probably make a body pattern for the E-18, if I build it. Just thinking out loud again... p.s. I am copying the pics strictly for personal use, so I should be okay with the law.

One thing Ilearned the hard way about steel wool... Tape over your pickups before using it. a tiny little strand will stick to them, and will probably work down where you can't reach it, and it will cause some stange noises as it vibrates! Other than that, steel wool is probably the way to go.

I use Plasticote, and Duplicolor automotive touchup paints too. some great colors, and they behave well for me. They are also pretty durable, but they are thicker than nitro laquer.

Great tip Brian! Better yet, make friends with the body shop guy, and get to use his spraybooth, or even get the paint applied when he is painting a car, or part. I am a dirt track racer in the summer. Our local shop sponsors a couple of racers, and keeps touching up their cars through the season. I really liked the color of a Modified running at the track, so I talked him into shooting a few coats on a Strat, while he was doing a new hood and roof after a wreck. All was well until the driver saw it, and ended up liking it too. I ended up selling it to him, and his kid plays it now. (I've seen him gigging with it, it looks great, and sounds fantastic... Although that may be talent, more than the guitar)

I've seen a couple of asian made acoustics with whammys on them. They were dogs. The heavy whammy killed tone, ,and didn't transfer it to the top of the instrument. They were okay, only with a pickup installed, then they just became an electric guitar, with a big body, and feedback problems. Remember too, that your volume drops dramatically when you push down on the whammy. Less string tension takes away some of the punch and sustain too, so the acoustic usually falls on its face under whammy playing. Sounds like you already have a unique instrument. I would go with an acoustic bridge, and jem out... I mean Jam on!

Thanks Soapbar, I'll look that issue up. I have used the drill bits you are talking about. My other hobbies include model car building, and Peanut scale flying models. I have drilled out many model car distributors and heads for spark plug wires with #80 bits! I break them too! Thanks again, Dave

I am using a new Porter Cable 1 3/4 hp router that I got for Christmas. I had only used a router a few times before this, mostly in a shop I worked at. I did have a Dremel router, and a lam trimmer, for cutting binding channels. Since I do this for relaxation, I have followed a mostly neanderthal approach to my woodworking, favoring hand tools over power tools. I have no problems routing the cavities, and neck pockets, and the like, and I have both the fixed, and plunge bases. The glitch came when I decided to use a larger, 1/2 " roundover bit to round off the body edges on my latest axe. The bit was just a bit bigger than the hole in the baseplate fo the router. I know there are all kinds of replacement bases out there for these things. Do I just get a plate with a bigger hole, and go for it, or is there a reason for the small hole on the baseplate? Is there any reason I can't make one out of acrylic, and do it myself? Where would I find one? The instructions say not to use any bit over 2 and some fraction (I can't remember exactly what it was now) inches, but this bit was nowhere near that. Am I limited to using these bits in a table mounting? Sorry for the newbie qiestions, but I mostly work with metal at work. Thaks for the help, Dave

I did the plywood pedalboard thing, but I then took another peice of plywood, screwed 2X4s to the sides of it, and put guitar case latches on it. after the gig, I took the makeshift cover, and latched it onto the pedalboard. Never had smashed up knobs, and busted cable connectors on my pedals after that.

'72 Tele Custom Club forum Not going for the sauce here, but still finding some interesting links. This is the forum of a '72 Telecaster Custom club. They are actually for any Tele Custom from '72 or later, including all of the reissues. (The funky Teles with the NECK humbuckers, and the micro tilt necks) It's a niche site, but kind of cool.

Telecaster Discussion Page Reissue TDPRI You have to register to view the messages, but it's worth it. They also have a Tele Tech page, a Strat section, bass page, and amp page.

Pickup Makers Forum For people who wind their own pickups.

Kronosonic Kronosonic boards. Moderated by "Infinite Ego" (Some tech questions, home recording) Lots of popups to navigate though.

Telemodders forum All about modified Telecasters.

Everything changes the tone a little bit. That thin a veneer shouldn't hurt your tone though. Remember, though, even the finish can alter tone. Be careful how you glue that veneer on. I have seen people use tons of glue, and real flexible stuff at that, and that would change the tone. Make sure your surfaces are smooth, and do a neat job of gluing it. Also don't use rubber cement, or a silicone based adhesive. (Don't laugh, I have seen these used) Squeeze excess glue out of the way, but don't leave a gap either. (BUZZZZZZZ!) (Don't ask me how I know veneer will create an untraceable buzz when not glued down correctly) Sounds like a great project. I have done veneered teles before, and I have always been pleased. How will you hide the edges? Bindings? trim?, or a sunburst finish, with opaque edges? I hate to do bindings, so I always cop out, and slap on a sunburst. If you get really brave, you can use Marquetry techniqes to inlay a design into the face fo the guitar. I am considering a tele like this someday. I have veneers of several different colored woods laying around now. Good luck, and have fun Dave p.s. funny story from helping a music store set up and sell at festivals a few years back, with a customer who did the following "Upgrade" at the Evart dulcimer festival, after buying a pickguard from us. I watched this guy use tub and tile sealant right out of a caulking gun, lay down a big zig zag bead of the stuff, and slap his pickguard right down on it, and let it set up. Must have had the guard 3/16" off the face of the axe, with most of the void filled with silicone! That night, he wondered where his tone went...

I am finally building a Just Intonation neck (23 tone JI) The problem is that I need a lot of partial frets under one or two strings to make it work. I have the blank fingerboard ready to go. I am in the mapping process, right now, trying to minimize the partials. Ideally, every fret should be separate for every string, ,but where they are close enough, I am going to run one fret under two or more strings. (No bending on this baby) What will be the best way to install and dress these frets? I haven't even figured how to cut the slots yet. I might use a sawblade in a dremel, or I might try drilling two very small holes, at the ends of the fret, and use an abrasive wire to cut a slot between them. The middle of the slot could be finished with a dremel sawblade. If I just cut them in with the sawblade, I won't have a vertical edge, and I will have to trim the corners off of the tangs to make them fit. Another possibility is to make a very thin fretboard, and cut the slots right through it, and them laminate it onto another board and install it on the neck. Maybe laser cutting would work best. Are conventional frets even the best way to go here? There won't be a lot holding them down, especially the ones up near the nut, which won't be more than a quarter to a third of an inch long. I was thinking of drilling holes at the ends of the frets, and forcing a "U" shaped piece of wire into it, like a staple. (Think resistors mounted on a circuit board) I would have to find a hard steel wire. Then I would probably use epoxy to set them. Another possibility would be to put my two E strings together, and Make a pair of A strings together , and then my D and G strings separate. That way, I could run a single set of frets under the two E strings ,and a single set under the As. The only problem here is that the high and low strings are now all out of order. It might make chording easier, since I am going to have to invent a new chording system anyways, but runs would be harder to figure out in my head. An even more drastic solution would be to make a guitar with EAEAEA tuning, and then slide the strings around so that they run EEEAAA, with the low ones on top, and thier octaves on the bottom. At least, there would be some sense of order there, and I would only need two sets of frets. (Octaves will give me the same notes as the fundamentals, so my E's can all be fretted the same.) That would mean some skipping around for runs, and some funny fingerings, but it might work. Just thinking out loud here. Any comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

What's the advantage to using the drill motor, and drill press, over just turning them on a lathe? Is there a special technique I am missing here?

Martin Koch has making a radius block in his book. I just saw it at a buddy's house. Great idea, but hard to explain. Take a flat board, and then lay up a pair of rails of a certain height down the outer edges of the board. Then lay a piece of thin ply down, and screw the middle of it down. This will curve it to the radius, and then screw and glue another piece of ply to it for strength and stability. I would suggest his book, if you can find it at your local library, or buy it. It's pretty good, although I would use Hiscock's book for making my first instrument. I also tend to agree with soapbarstrat's post above, though. I don't like making compound necks with radius blocks either. Sometimes, I will use them to get a bit of wood out of the way, before my final working, but I use a flat sanding surface (Glass, or a flat benchtop) with a jig and pivoting arms to sand my radius. I do it the same way as the pro luthiers do, except that I can't afford the huge sanding belt table, so I just use sandpaper and a lot of elbow grease. The only problem is that my sanding strokes have to go across the grain, so I have to do some careful finish work by hand. I usually fix the position of the jig, and then slide the abrasive unnder the neck, although I am thinking of mounting some roller slides to my jig, and trying that next. I do use radius blocks for making straight necks though, and they are great for that. I have actually been thinking of making a compound radius block, but trying to figure out how to use it makes my head hurt.

My first ever guitar body was made out of particle board and plywood. I made a sandwich out of several scraps, and used it to test my design, finalize my templates, confirm all of my measurements, etc. I built the neck out of maple, and did a nice ebony fretboard. After I confirmed that everything fit, the scale was correct, the intonation was correct, and the neck pocket and bridge were correct in relation to each other, I used it to test fit the pups, and control layout. Everything worked, so I broke out a humongous expensive slab of mahogony, and went to town. It never sounded half as good as the stupid ply/particle board one did. I even made another neck, ,and tried switching back and forth, but BOTH necks sounded better on the test body than they did on the real guitar. Even after a coat of housepaint, applied with a roller, that thing still sounded better than my mahogony. I ended up keeping it for about ten years, before giving it to somebody to use as a pattern. He still whips it out for a gig now and then, and tells me I was stupid for giving it up. It just rings and sings.

What would happen if you just used an existing item or object with the correct radius, and stuck some coarse sandpaper to it. You could use anything here. You don't need a full circumference, just a portion a couple times wider than your block. Steel pulley belt. PTO from an old tractor, architectural column on your front porch, snare drum shell, artillery shell casing, large tin or wastebasket. (Probably have to fill it with sand, or something to hold its shape) then you could just use that to dish out your block. If you looked around a bit, you could probably find some pretty close radii to what you want. Especially if you are near any junkyards. Just thinking...

I usually glue a veneer of wood, right onto the bottom of the nut, that matches the fretboard, and then sand down to height. Usually this leaves me with a very thin layer of wood, that is probably 90% glue, but it seems to work well. No beer can showing. No real harm to the tone, and it looks okay. (Almost invisible) I run the grain the short way across the bottom of the nut. (Running the same direction as the grain on the fretboard.) This helps it to blend in better. Probably not the official, approved method, but it works for me.

That's what our bass player has. He has a 5 string fretted ,and a 4 string fretless on the same body. That would work really well on a guitar too. I have a fretless, but I use it to play in strange scales, so I just switch guitars when we do a song in an alternate scale. I would probably not use the fertted and fretless guitars in the same song, but for most jazz players, that's a pretty good idea. Dave

Thanks Jeremy. I had seen the bent fret guitar before. That is nice. Great info too. I had not seen the thread on the first URL you posted. There is some practical stuff there. I am still not sure if I want switchable fretboards, or a bunch of instruments. (G.A.S.?) I hadn't thought much about John Catler's 24 tone scale. I guess I had my head set of Partch's 43 tone JI, because I had heard some of Partch's music, and liked the possibilities. The basic concept would be similar, but the 43 Ji is going to be about four times as hard to implement. I'll have to do some serious soul searching on that front. The 43 may have more harmonic possibilities, but the 24 tone JI would be better for our first forays into JI scales. OUr synth player is very well versed in 43 tone though, so he might not be so thrilled with the switch. http://www.microtonalsynthesis.com/scale_partch.html (Partch 43 tone scale) Just imagine a 43 Tone JI guitar with 8 strings, layed out in a Novax style fan pattern. Only 520 or so frets to lay out! Thanks again. I appreciate the links. Dave Also this link seems to be a good starting point for microtonal music. Check out some of the MP3 files too. (Halverstick's "Swing 19" is on there too.) http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret/microtone.html