bvalentine

I am officially done with this forum. You guys are the biggest bunch of condesending a-holes I've ever met. I've tried to be nice. Just wanting to understand a couple of things BEFORE I actually build a guitar. You know, before I buy parts. I can't draw anything out to scale without having the parts in front of me. But no, I'm just another idiot right? I wonder... Is it just a certain type of personality that gravitates towards building guitars? Maybe it's the same disease that you find in guitar shops. Anyway... I don't need the negativity. So, congradualations... I'm gone. No need to reply, I won't be reading it. You folks can go back to building yer 9 string cocobolo basses and I'll leave you alone. By the way...

Just thought this would be a interesting topic. I've only rasped some knuckle skin. Weak.

Right. If I was you I'd take some tooth picks, dip em in tightbond, cram em into the empty holes, break em off. Let it dry, sand em down (or trim close, dont sand your paint off). NEver ordered pick guards from them. If I was you I'd call and talk to a live person about what you need and what they have.

Hi, I'm wanting to buy your tune-o-matic. The new build I am doing is based of the neck and playability of this early Dean Baby-Z short-scale I have. Do you think the tune-o-matic's string spacing will work for this project? Here is all I know about the Dean: 3/4 Body Size 24-3/4"" Scale 1-5/8"" Nut 22 Frets That's all I know right now.

Hey, great info. I have a question, or, just wanting a clarification to see if I understand. If you are useing a Fender style neck and low profile Fender style bridge.... you don't angle your neck? But if you use a Gibson style neck build & tune-o-matic bridge you must angle your neck because the tune-o-matic bridge is higher than the Fender Tele/Strat bridges. Am I right? Question/Clarification #2: If I'm building a guitar with a flat sawn Fender style bolt on neck, BUT I am wanting to use a tune-o-matic bridge (or in my case a LP Junior bridge) I will STILL have to angle my neck because of the bridge? Of course I would like to all together aviod angleing my neck (seems like a narrow marigin of error). But I guess it's a trade off; either do the Fender thing with a more complex bridge or do the simple Gibson bridge with a more complex neck?

Interesting: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6665726

Of course it is possible... but my opinion, unless you're trying to crank out 10 guitars a day... why bother. Seems you'd be more accurate by hand. Here is Gibson's:

Hi. I had to buy a set of 6 because I broke one of mine on my Strat. Now, I am wanting to build a guitar and use my remaining 5. But of course I can only buy in a set of 6 ($50). Now I hate to keep having to buy set's of 6. Can ANYBODY please help me? Do you have one, just one of these I can buy? I know with all of you luthiers out there somebody must have one:

I should add that I am trying to have a neck flat sawn like a Fender neck, but with the shorter 24-3/4" Scale & 1-5/8" Nut of the Baby-Z, and bolt-on.

First of all let me appologize for posting this question here because I pretty much asked it in another thread. But the question was burried and I figure I would get a better range of answers by starting a new thread. O.k. here we go: The neck that I am basing this off of is an 80's baby dean short-scale neck. Pretty much a Gibson scale neck. Before I left the house I measured the thickness (of the Dean's neck) with my digi-capiler. Then I measured the wood (Rock Maple) at the dealer and was disappointed that they did not have anything thicker to work with. But, cosidering that the Dean neck was measured with a fret board on... I figure buy the time I get a fret board attached to my maple, I will have enough thickness to work with. (Somebody PLEASE tell my I will have enough to work with help.gif ). Here is the thickness of the maple I bought: They did have short pieces of Rosewood I could have bought. But after giving it some thought I decided for my first project I should just put my pride to the side and order a fretted neck board from stewie-mac or all parts. Everything measures out ok when I added the fretboard width .

You might be right. My stomach it turning a bit. But when I was in the store everything measured out ok when I added the fretboard width . If this doesnt work out I'll just order something.

O.k UPDATE!! Yesterday I drove out to the only hardwood dealer in town's shop and picked up a plank of hard maple for my neck. I had to buy a 24ft plank (which is ridiculous) but they were able to run it through the planner for me. Oh well, I guess I have plently of wood to screw up on. I got home and cut off about 35in to work with. Here is a picture next to my pine proto-type practice neck. (please note that the maple plank is not wrapping around on the sides, that is just the grain fooling ya). Now, the neck that I am basing this off of is an 80's baby dean short-scale neck. Before I left the house I measured the thickness (of the Dean's neck) with my digi-capiler. Then I measured the wood at the dealer and was disappointed that they did not have anything thicker to work with. But, cosidering that the Dean neck was measured with a fret board on... I figure buy the time I get a fret board attached to my maple, I will have enough thickness to work with. (Somebody PLEASE tell my I will have enough to work with ). Here is the thickness of the maple I bought: They did have short pieces of Rosewood I could have bought. But after giving it some thought I decided for my first project I should just put my pride to the side and order a fretted neck board from stewie-mac or all parts.

I live in a really old neighborhood. Once the a big deal, but now it's mostly college students. Anyway, I was useing my new hand plane to fix a couple doors that stick. I have no idea what kind of wood this is, but it's solid and safe to say at least 40 years old, maybe more. Hmmm.... wonder if old land lord would notice a missing closet door?

Yes, I do intend to carve the body contours but I figure it would be easier to do the pickup cavity & neck pocket routing first while the top is still flat. Yes, good tip there. The only reason I went ahead and carved the back was because I knew I wasnt going to use it. I'm off today, so I'm going out in search of a good piece of maple. (cant find a hard wood dealer in town). Fingers cross.

I don't mean to quible with you, but for that particular project he uses manual hand tool all the way through. http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/tools4.htm and the router thing was just an opinion.

WOW!!! Whatever happened to this guy's project? That is insane on so many levels, but he said he pulled it off before. Please, project update!

Nevermind

This guy uses only hand drills (not electric) and chisels: Of course this guy is building a lap-steel, but it's the same principle. I would imagine that when Les Paul and Leo Fender built their first they did it like this. Expensive pin routers are usually not sitting around your average mr-fix-it shop. Actually, I'd bet anything that they did it like this for the first few prototypes. There is nothing wrong with doing it like this (if you're handy with chisels). IMO this would be better for the novice who has never used a router. Routers can be EVIL!!! They'll turn on you like a pitbull on crack. The old fasion hand drills & chisels arent gonna run away from you or rip big chuncks out of your tone-wood. Also, they are rather rewarding so use.

O.k. Sorry folks, this topic has been addressed alread: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...6&hl=router I promise I really do search before I post.

Yeah, I kinda figured that was why it was burning up the wood so fast. I had to be gentle and move quickly. The other problems with it was, of course, I couldnt have the drum scrapeing my router table (that would have made an interesting sound huh?) so I raised it about an 1/8 in. This meant that the bottom 1/8 wasnt getting sanded. So I got a small piece of plywood to jack up my guitar body. No big deal. I'd rather have a real drum router.

Last night I put a drum-sander bit in my table-mounted router. It worked very well. Is this common? Am I tearing anything up? I noticed that it easily burned the wood if not used carefully. I also read this thread, which is kinda the same idea: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...hl=sanding+drum

Hey Everybuddy, I was looking at an old military desk I picked up at the rescue mission store for really cheap. The top seems to be solid mahogany. I was thinking it would be perfect to rip into a guitar body. The right thickness, and it being from the 60's I'm sure it's well dried out. But I like my desk and I'm not going to tear it up. It got me thinking though, I might drop by the mission and look at some busted up desks. How bout you people? Have you found any sources for wood?

Geezz Louise... Sorry guys, I did'nt mean to tick so many folks off. Sorry. I just did'nt understand and failed to make myself clear. Yes I know how to make templates. The thing is, if I was just looking for one guitar in particular I would have just made my own or gladly pay the ebay dude for an already cut out template. What I was hoping for was to find a resources where I could scan through as many templates as possible, mix & match, and try to come up with something new. It just seemed kind of odd that the vast world of the internet does not seem to have such a resource. Especially since certian more popular guitars have been in production steadly the last 40 years. I mean, I can look up my Chevy Nova and find diagrams of it. Stratocaster, Les Paul, Telecaster, SG... these things are as common and Americana as Coke & Pepsi, McDonalds & Burger King. If you were to find out the formula for Coke and wanted 10 bucks from people to share it... then you'd get sued. But you could publish it freely and get away with it. If some guy was to say: "hey, I have this diagram for an original guitar shape that I'm willing to sell" than I'd understand that. Or even if it was liscensed to factor specs. I'm well aware that making guitars is not a cheap hobby, but personally I think it is way cheaper than many hobbies adult men endulge in. I believe I have most everything I "need" to build. I've been woodworking for the past 15 years, if it can be made out of wood..... I can figure out a way to do it. And I believe in working with what you got. Then, if you still can't do it... then buy a new toy. So why don't I pay to use this forum? Well, probably because I've been on it less than a week. If I use it more, than perhaps I will decide donateing would be the right thing to do. I don't have a problem paying for information. I have 4 books on building guitars... I paid for those, but then again that was the initial agreement. Usually, online discussion groups are free. I'm tired.. but, you know. i hope.

I probably should have thought about this before cutting the body out. Oh well... first time ya know... I expect mistakes. But other than this... everything is looking better than I thought.

I got my body cut out & the neck is just about finished. The problems is my body is thicker than I want it to be. I need to take 1/4" maybe even a 1/2" off of it. It's too wide to turn it sideways and run it through a band saw (of course). I guess I could take my hand plane and start widdling it down. But that's a lot of wood and I doubt it'll come out straight. ANy ideas? p.s. I used wood from a hardwood dealer... not stewie-mac pre-cuts.