Morben Guitars

John, I've done both for the back cover. If the burst goes far enough in to cover most of the cavity, I'll just use a black plastic cover. But if it's a "fancy" burst, I will cut a cover myself. The choice is yours. If you cut the cover and don't like it...there's always the plastic as a backup. When finishing, I use double stick tape to keep the covers in place so the burst matches.

Greg, Go to the Reranch link that hitone listed... Read up on guitar finishing. Let it sink in, then go read it again. You'll want to become familiar with the different products and the advantages/drawbacks of each. It's really a personal preferance thing. Personally I'm a traditional Nitro Lacquer guy - I shoot my dyes straight (I don't tint my lacquer). It's more difficult, and takes some experimentation - but I think it yields a superior finish. TIME TO !!

Check out the Graph Tech GHOST system, or the Fishman Powerbridge. both are piezo bridges/saddles. Essentially you have a little crystal with the unique property of generating a tiny signal when encountering a vibration. This signal has to be "juiced" up to an audible level, hence almost all piezo systems require an on-board pre-amp. In terms of how they sound, well the point of using them on an electric guitar is to generate an "acoustic" sound. Having used them on my most recent guitar for the first time - I was VERY impressed with them.

Seal the guitar first, then shoot your burst with dye. Read the "Tobacco burst???, with Dye?" post from a few days ago. As for an airbrush - an inexpensive one that runs off canned air (spaceballs?!)would work. Or contact your local school to see if they have anything you can use.

.25 what? .25 ohms?

After seeing it at thinkgeek a few times, I finally caved in and ordered one. Played around with it for a bit the other night. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I'm having a hard time getting it hot enough for typical solder work. I ended up just taking out my regular gun. It does take practice to keep it on, so maybe I'll work on it some more.

I don't fully understand it, but it was explained to me by more than one knowledgable guitar tech.. Apperantly when a signal is abruptly cut or grounded, it may have the tendancy to quickly reverse direction. As I said, in passive systems, damage to your electronics would be very rare...but with powered electronics damage is more likely.

I'm a little late to this one...but I'll add my two cents. I put one of these in a guitar I built a few years back.. I used a momentary switch to achieve stacatto breaks in the signal ala Radiohead...A switch is too much of a delay. Anyways... I just used a "Normally Closed" switch with two lugs. Wire the hot out from the volume to the Jack, then from there to the switch. Wire the Ground from the pot to the other lug. I should note that I put in a small(.25) resistor between the volume and the jack. This is to avoid any signal "backwash". You can do without on a passive system, but it's a must-have on active pickups...no harm in wiring it in I figured. Hope it helps.

ABSOLUTLY EASIER!! I was just assuming that he wanted to avoid using a selector switch.. But I'd use one.. Easier and more functional.

bob7, I think it would serve you best to wrestle with this yourself, and have us review what you came up with. I've learned that just following a schematic doesn't teach you anything...and you'll want to know what's going on. Studying other schematics and tweeking them to be your own will alwasy result in that "Eureka!" moment, when it all makes sense. So check out guitarelectronics.com and look at their various diagrams (they have a page just for hb options!) Post what you come up with and it will be a much better use of your time. On a seperate note...you're trying to pack a bunch into that guitar...You can make it work, but functionally, I'd swap the coil split function and the on/off. You probably change pickups more then tap coils..thus the mini switch would be better here. You may want to just use a normal guitar switch, becuase you need to take it out of the circuit when in series..

I agree with that as well, however I prefer the LP type switch, which would mean more switches...and I hate extra switches... Just curious, do you arrange the switch like this? 1: Neck 2: Outer Coils in Series 3: Neck & Bridge Parallel 4: Inner Coils in Series 5: Bridge Do you normaly wire in a way to play both HB's in Series?

If you have a humbucker and split the coils, you're not going to hear much differance between the two coils when split...Perhaps in a studio situation, but in your room or on stage? It's not worth it. Just split the north on the neck and the south on the bridge. There are lots of cool things you can do with guitar electronics, but in reality - most people don't use half of it...and the other half all sounds the same That's an exageration...but it's common to want to put as many options as possible into a guitar. I am currently working on a Tele Thinline for a customer that was sick of it's "thin & twangy" sound.. So we're putting a SD Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the Neck, a Tele Little '59 in the bridge and giving each their own volume. Now being a big Tele Fan, I wanted him to be able to get that sound back..so the knobs will be push/pull to split the coils, and the tone knob can switch from parallel to series (the pickups, not the coils) for a "turbo boost" when needed. That's about as much as I'd throw into a guitar... Jimmy Page's guitar tech once went on and on about the crazy electronics he had in his LP...then finished the interview by saying that no one could tell the differance..ha..

I wouldn't so anything withough testing on a scrap first. I would also strongly recommend applying a sealer coat before hitting the guitar with a lacquer. This is why I use Vinyl Sanding Sealer (not nitro based!) whenever I do a finish. It will provide a very safe **usually** layer to seperate the valuable surface design from the very unfriendly thinners in Lacquer. If you're shooting from a spray can it's even worse, as they typically have more solvents/thinners. I may suggest experimenting with the waterborne finishes that we've been chatting about!

It's best to order from the same source...binding colors and diminsions can vary a bit from company to company. As a rule of thumb, ALWAYS order more binding than you need. If you miscut a piece, you'll be happy you have it. Not sure of a place to buy binding as think as you are looking for. binding the entire side of a guitar would be a challange as well.

Travis, Welcome to our crazy hobby... I'm a huge fan of the mahogany teles.. I've built a bunch. Two of them are in the gallery here. One has a natural finish and may give you a good idea as to what you're planning. The other is chambered with a maple cap & Sunburst finish. Remember, the original tele thinlines were mahogany... I'm working on a customers now, and his main complaint is that it's just "Too Twangy!" So you can get that tele twang... single coils and the tele bridge will contribute to that sound.. So we're putting in a Seymour Duncan Lil '59 in the bridge, and a pearly gates humbucker in the neck...this thing will growl with the best of them! Drak's pickup selections are great too.

Yes, leave it be! It's not the binding that's changing color as much as it is the lacquer. You'll notice the same thing on an old guitar when you remove the pickguard. All those "vintage yellow" teles have a bright white "tan line" under the pickguard..

There are a few folks at MIMF that are writing in with reviews, you may want to check that out. For the first time in my life, I used waterbased products on a dresser I'm building. Man, what an easy task! I shot the Sanding Sealer coats...each was ready to sand in 30 minutes, went on super flat, and clean up hardly took any time! I'm using a satin top coat, which I'll probably shoot tonight.

No. You do not need to apply any finish/filler to the basswood that will be under the area that the Veneer will be attached to. If you're planning on using a grain filler on the back/sides of the guitar, I'd do it now. This will prevent any of the filler from accidently staining your maple top. I'd do the same with the dye if you're not planning on dying the top. Once the top (and binding if you're using it) is on, shoot your sealer coat. Shellac works, but I'm not a fan. I prefer the Sanding Sealer/nitro bond. If you're using an alcohol dye, shellac will make it bleed and run.

http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product_detai...=grain%20filler This is waterbased, just add some water to the wood filler and you've got a great grain filler...sands very easily. I'm using it right now!

What about getting a metal "Gibson" logo...like from a keychain or something, I know you could find one. Then attaching that onto the leather. It would be 3-D AND cool! The stiched leather sounds good too. The die set may not be as visible from the stage as you may like.

Why not use a dowel rod of nice wood? Most woodworking stores carry Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Maple etc dowels in many sizes...it will install and sand easily!

A body itself doesn't really determine the need for a neck angle...it's the angle of the strings relative to the body.. So when using a bridge that starts the strings off at a higher elevation from the body - you may need to compensate by using a neck angle. Fenders in general don't require a neck angle - but this is only due to the typical bridge design on most Fenders.. If you put a TOM bridge on a tele, you'll have to either recess the bridge OR use a neck angle (~3 degrees). If you're using a flat mount bridge with individual saddles, you'll be fine with a straight neck.

Saw this site on the cover of the new Stew Mac Catalog...thought it may help! http://www.stewmac.com/bindings

If you have a router, then go for it. Practice on some scrap first. You can't finish before you bind becuase of all the sanding/scraping/shaping necessary after the binding is attached. Lots of glue squeeze-out as well. You can tape off the Side of the binding with a good vinyl tape - but the top just stain over...it scrapes off very easily with a razor blade.

If you are using a wood that has an open grain, then yes..you'll need grain filler. This is applied to the wood, scraped smooth, then sanded after it's dry. Now some people go directly to lacquer from this point. I always recommend sanding sealer first. A few coat of SS will allow you to easily sand flat - thus giving you a very smooth surface to shoot your lacquer onto. There is no downside other than adding a step to the process...and if you're rushing the finishing then you shouldn't be expecting anything to come out well anyways.. If you're using a solid finish (paint) - then you'll want to use a primer after filling the grain. This will prevent the wood from bleeding through to the final coat. You can level sand the primer coat to give you a better surface to apply the final coats to. hope that helps.