GuitarMaestro

Wow....I did not post on these boards for about 1 year and people still know my real name? I never would have thought that you could finish a whole fretboard or more with a little bottle of super glue. I am curious how he applied it as well....

I love the look of this guitar. To me the peghead looks really awesome, no matter what people say. @Wes: Doing things only because "they were always done that way" without understanding and questioning the reasons is why many people do not become great luthiers or craftsmen in my opinion. I am not saying that you are wrong on this one, but I dont buy an argument about sealing the fret ends without proper reasoning. I dont see what is supposed to happen when the frets are not sealed. I guess it's done for looks and feel on guitars without binding....

@soapbarstrat: You really did that finish with superglue? At least here in Germany super glue is sold in very small bottles and quite expensive. You'd have to pay a lot to finish a neck with it. And I am suprised by the mirror look you got with it as well. Maybe it is a special kind of super glue?

Hi there! I have a new neck finished in high gloss nitro and a waterslide decal I want to apply to it. The neck was really expensive and the result has to look pro, therefore I need advice from someone who has expirience with decals. I have two questions: 1. Should I put the decal on and spray a new clear coat over the whole front of the peghead or would it be better to carefully put a gloss finish only over the decal (and a little arround it) with a brush? I would preffer to mess with the original finish as less as possible.... 2. What would be the best paint to use? A nitro-based laquer? Or something that will not react with the existing nitro finish.... Thanks in advance, MK!

Sorry....I really forgot about this thread. Here is a picture of what I am talking about: Thats my way of thinking usually, but sometimes there simply are situations where you DONT want these imperfections to show....especially as the piece is already a completed neck and the streak showed during final sanding....I dont expect to get rid of it by bleaching, but as I never bleached wood I am curious....maybe it will get rid of it?

Hi! I have a very beautiful piece of birdseye maple that has a small dark brown spot which could be a knot or some other kind of streak. Do you think I have any chance of getting that as bright as the rest of the piece by bleaching it? Thanks in advance, MK!

Hi! I wonder if there is a floyd locking nut that is NOT the standard 15mm wide/deep and can be installed on necks which do do not have enough wood/fingerboard behind the nut to accomodate a 15mm nut? Thanks in advance, MK! P.s.: I discovered that there are locking nuts for retrofitting necks which have a bullet trussrod. Do they only have a recess or are they smaller as well? It seems so from the pictures....

That bass is one of the most impressive builds I have ever seen. So many different woods combined so well. I think there is excellence in every detail. The shape is awesome, the bubinga fretboard looks so cool, all these patterns created from contrasting woods.... I would not want to have to play a 8 string bass and have to use that gazillion of switches though, but I dont play bass anyway....

@jmrentis: Yeah....I agree with you. I still am convinced that they nowadays can play their songs very will but not much more. I doubt they are really good at their instruments. But as you said that is not the point of Greenday at all. @BJC132003 and Gem012: Thinking that you "can play a song easily" if you are a beginner and recording it in the studio are different worlds. Most people that only play for 2 years neither have the ears trained well enough nor the rythmical ability to pull of the most simple stuff in a way that is good enough for use in studio. Sure they might be able to play Pagnini and do some tapping etc., but to make a pro sounding studio take you simply need way more musical skills than a beginning player has. In studio every nuance counts and I did enough studio work to see even advanced players fail in playing something basic tight and good enough for use on a properly produced cd. And then there is the whole live thing. To play the shows a band of the size of Greenday plays you simply need alot of epxirience....

Did you read my post at all? Would have saved you some typing....I never said they have no talent. I even stressed their songwriting talent. I simply told some facts about the Dookie records and that I(!!!!) hate most of Greendays music. I never said that it is bad and I have nothing against people who like them. And I am still convinced that they cannot really play in comparison to people who really mastered an instrument. Sure they can play their songs now, but their songs can be played(not composed and that is what I respect them for) by everybody who is playing for 3-4 years and has some talent.

Interesting fact: Steve Vai thinks that "American Idiot" is quite a good album and one of the albums he bought and listens to at the time. That said I hate Green Day. I dont like their songs, I dont like their attitutude, and that they cannot play their instruments is a fact I know from the engineer who took part in the Dookie recording process: All Drum Tracks were manually re-edited to be somewhat tight and in time via Protools(or what they used at the time). At least they are good songwriters if you like their style. I am not sure if they still write the songs themselves though....

Hey that looks awesome....especially because the guitar was trashed. How good the finish really is, is impossible to judge by this picture though....

Thanks!

Looks excellent so far! One question: Where did you buy the pre-cutted vine inlay? This one looks to be way closer to the original JEM vine than most look-alikes I have seen so far....

Man....thats tempting! Wow is it hard to resist this one: beutiful black limba ONE-PIECE(!!!!) for only 55$. But I already have this huge stack of wood(containg limba blanks) which will keep me busy for years to come. Additionally I dont even like the sound of limba that much, but the look! Still I have to really fight to not buy one -> now thats wood addiction!

This is normal if you have a crt-monitor and no flat screen. What you hear is the refresh rate of the monitor. And it's different between different PU's. PU's with higher output for example amplify the noise more. And singlecoils are way more sensible to unwanted noise then humbuckers, etc.

@falbo: Excellent advice as always! But do you really think anyone could feel a difference of 1/64" in neck thickness?!?!?

Depends on which songs you heard. The new album has good and boring songs in my opinion. But some songs are exellent: "Living Dead Beat", "Trashed, Lost & Strungout", "In your Face" for example. That said I think it's their worst album so far, but still a very good record.

Every luthier worth his price will make you a nice copy. There is no "secret" to making a Wizard neck. It's a basic and simple design. Nothing special about it at all. In fact it could be improved in several ways: Order one with a bubinga stripe(I know Ibanez offer this as well for quite some time now) or carbon rods for better stability and use a top-mount locking nut. Makes the neck ways more stable than the original without changing the feel.

Man....I know that was probably a joke....but think about that sentence again. A damaged piece of wood is nothing compared to the fingers you need to play a guitar at all. Id rather burn my whole guitar collection than loose a finger.

Try Usa Custom Guitars. They were founded by an ex-Warmoth employee and usually are very motivated to do stuff that is "more" custom than what Warmoth does. Just ask them if they would build you a Wizard copy with the features you want. I bet they'll do that and they have an excellent reputation.

Hehe....great set of projects! I know what you are talking about. I have wood here for about 10 guitars, but simply not the time to build them. And I always HAVE to buy nice wood. Maybe its good to not have a finished guitar. Since building my 7-string went so well and I use it as a main live and studio guitar my motivation to start a new build has declined. Seems that proving myself that I am capable of building a nice guitar was enough....hehe

The pictures of the guitar look great, however the pictures are way too bad to judge the finish or anything, so I know what you are talking about when you say the details arent that pretty. But the way it looks on the pictures is very cool. I simply dont get it. COB is one of my favorite bands ever and Alexi is an excellent guitarist. However what is wrong with HCDR? To me it is the best album of the band, containst awesome riffs (bodom beach terror for example) and the songs are structured and composed a little better/more mature than the older stuff. I mean if you don like AYDY(pretty different sound) I understand that, but how can anyone like FTR and not HCDR?!?!? And why is it so common that people loose respect for certain bands/players only because they do different new stuff? Does that make the old stuff worthless? That's got to be a joke?!?!? Or did you really build all three with inlays, etc.? If so please post some Pictures? I will build one too soon, so I am really interested in seeing other people's clones....

Yeah....there are quite some cool licks to steal there!

You cant have enough patience and be careful enough during building, but the occasional nick or dent is not as terrible as one might tend to think. I only built guitars that are stained and most nicks, dents, etc. could easily be steamed out of the wood again. Aside from that I think a good builder does not use Bondo or any other foul tricks even for a guitar that will be finished in a solid color. The guitar looks great btw. Only thing that confuses me is that I lost track of the builds you started or thought about, but dont remeber a finished guitar. With some builders it's no wonder they never finish it, but your stuff looks flawless. Whats up?!?!?