mattharris75

I'm close to pulling the trigger on a bandsaw for my shop, I've been using my father-in-laws to this point. Here's the saw I'm looking at: Craftsman 12" bandsaw It has a good price, $320 after rebate, and is fairly compact, which is a big consideration for me since I am very limited on space. It has 7" resaw capacity, which is larger than most 14" saws without a riser block, and should be large enough to resaw tops and whatnot. The combination of price and features seems pretty good, not to mention the fact that I can pick it up rather than ordering it, and avoid freight charges. I went and fiddled with it a few weeks ago, and the quality seemed quite solid. The reviews seem pretty good too. It looks to be a good piece of equipment for its price range. Has anyone here had experience with this particular saw?

Well, since you mention Dave Matthews (Although I can't see the video at work), I will mention Jack Johnson as a possibility. He's got a low vocal range, is fairly rhythmic as a guitar player, and most of his stuff is acoustic. Generally he's got an intro with a bit of 'blues-pop' flavor to it, but the parts while singing are much simpler and more chord oriented. I would recommend songs like 'Posters', 'Inaudible Melodies', and 'Taylor'.

It's a black wood fiber veneer from LMI. Honestly, I don't recommend the stuff. It sands like plastic and stinks like plastic when you drill it, kind of melts a bit I think. And it seems to be harder than the surrounding wood, which is tough when contour sanding with a soft pad or something of that nature. It might work better in the thinner sizes. This is the thickest that they offered. I will probably try using dyed poplar or something of that nature in the future.

Your post doesn't make any sense. There are lots of different types of 'router jigs'. You don't explain what you're doing or what you need it for, etc, etc...If you actually want any help then you'd better provide information.

Very cool. Great design and execution. Looking forward to seeing how #2 turns out. What kind of finish did you use on this?

More work done on the redwood bass. Got the pickup routes cut. I plan on doing a bit more shaping to the body before I glue the neck in. I'm also going to do some more shaping to the headstock before then as well, make it a bit more organic. I'm very pleased with this one so far. The task for this weekend is my arch nemesis, believe it or not, side dots. Once that's taken care of I'll go ahead and carve the neck with my new shinto saw rasp, looking forward to trying that tool. As you can see, the redwood burl is quite beautiful with a little naptha on it:

Are your prices listed in Euros? If so, what would they be American? Swedish Crowns, SEK. Exchange Rates

Gotten some work done on this one. As you can see in the picture, the fretboard has been sanded flush with the binding and radius'd. A lot of the detail work on the headstock has been done or started. Carved out the area where the strings will break over the headstock. Drilled the tuner holes. Inlayed the bloodwood logo disk and filled it with black epoxy, and have started rounding over and smoothing everything out. This style of headstock has been significantly more work than I anticipated, and I'm not sure I'll do it again once these two builds are done, but it will be really cool once it's finished.

Use a free service like photobucket to host the images. Then, when posting a thread, hit the little image button in the toolbar and insert the path that you copy from photobucket. Pretty simple. Also, limit of 4 pictures per post in this area of the board.

Phenomenal work Doug. Really love that neck. And this headstock design will compliment the rest of the guitar so much better than the strat headstock on the first build!

Simo, I've got a couple of necks that I'll be carving in the next month or so, and your build inspired me to buy a Shinto Saw Rasp as a Christmas present to myself.

Wow, that is really sharp! Great design, great execution. Love the carving. Looking forward to seeing the progress on the neck and finishing process.

He heh, now that's a great idea! Actually, I may be asking you about doing some laser cut templates for this one. I really like this design, and I may want to make a handful of these, so simplifying/streamlining the process as much as possible would be good.

FYI, I ended up purchasing a flamed maple 'bass wing' from Fraser Valley Fine Woods. It was roughly the right size, if a bit too long and thick. However, I should be able to get 2 small-scale tops out of it as well as some neck stringers long enough for use in one of these small scale necks. I've purchased from Fraser Valley before, and they have good stuff. So, if anyone is looking for something odd like this, they would be worth checking out.

measure it with a cloth tape all the way around and you will know for sure.

Got the neck pocket cut on the redwood topped bass. The wenge bass has had the carving cleaned up on the top, and the fingerboard has had the flamed maple binding applied. Hoping to get the majority of the major woodwork done on both these basses while I, theoretically, have some time during the holidays.

After the success of my 4 string mini-guitar this past summer that I built for my god-son, I've decided to build another. (here's the thread for the first one: 4 string kids mini-guitar ) This time it will be for my first child. We're not pregnant yet, but intend to start trying within the next few months, so I figured I'd get a head start and start planning this thing out now. I've got a plan completed that shares some visual similarities with my previous attempt, but is a bit more sophisticated and less 'jaunty'. I learned a lot from the last build that I will be incorporating into this build. I plan on making this one a six string rather than a 4 string, and using a purchased bridge instead of homemade, for greater adjustability. I really only plan on starting to collect the wood for this build now, to let it acclimate to the shop. I will be starting the real work on it in a few months, once I get to the point of finishing up the loose ends on the two bass builds I have going on right now. The reason I'm posting so early is that I need a top! I posted this in the classifieds but have yet to get a response. If anyone has a flamed or quilted maple top or a piece of wood that can be re-sawed into one that would otherwise be too small for a regular guitar, please let me know! The dimensions I need, after bookmatching, are 10" x 13" x 1/2" (or 7/16). I'd prefer not to pay for a full sized top when I don't need it all, and thought one of you guys might have something lying around. Here's a picture of the design for the new one: The plan is for a flamed/quilt maple top (as stated above) with a mahogany or possibly bloodwood back. The neck will probably be a combination of wenge and bloodwood, with either a bloodwood or macassar ebony fretboard (You can sense the theme here ). Plans are, of course, subject to change as the mood strikes me. Thanks for the help, guys!

I'm building another small guitar like I built this past summer, as pictured below. Except this time it will be a six stringer. What I'm looking for is a flamed or quilt maple top suitable for it. I'd prefer not to be forced to purchase a full sized top for this project. If anyone has any off-cuts, or perhaps top sets with defects (but that will fit these size requirements clear of the defects), or somehow ended up with a piece that's too small for a regular guitar for any one of a number of other reasons, then I'd like to buy it off of you. It needs to be, after it's been bookmatched, 10" x 13" x 1/2" (or 7/16) If anyone might have something that would suit my needs, please send me a PM. Thanks!

This would be an electric tenor Uke, actually: Electric Tenor Uke

Very cool! I built a 4 stringer like this just this past summer, and it was a lot of fun to build and play. In fact some elements of your body design remind me a bit of the one I made. Excellent work, looking forward to seeing it with a finish on it.

OK, got more work done on both of these basses. The fingerboard is currently in clamps, being glued up to the neck for the wenge topped bass. Ive spent some time contouring the wenge bass body as well. I'm attempting to give it a nice organic and curvaceous appearance. Here are a few pictures of that progress. As far as the redwood burl topped bass, I've done a fair bit more sanding on that one, and continued to smooth the contouring on it, including getting the arm roundover to flow more organically with everything. I cleaned up the headstock on it, which has been quite a bit more work than a traditional headstock, but will look great when it's finished. I've also added the binding to the neck, which looks great. However, the fingerboard is about .8mm too high, so I've got to sand that down and radius it, which will be quite a chore. I hope to get the neck pockets and pickup routes done in both of these basses in the next few weeks. I'll have 11 days off at Christmas, which will be great for getting most of the woodwork done, hopefully. I also finally ordered pickups for them, got 2 sets of Tonerider P/J pickups on the way from rjhalsey as we speak.

Wez, this guitar turned out great. Could you describe your tru oil finishing schedule? I have a wenge topped bass that I am working on that I would like to end up looking like this. Thanks!

I know it's been a long time, but I finally got some more work done on these basses. I was sidetracked while completing my 2/3 scale build, and then football season started. Now that it's over for me, life is a bit more back to normal. Spent some time working on both of these basses over the last week and a half. The wenge topped bass has had had the round-over done on the top and back, as well as the belly cut carved. I'll be doing quite a bit more contouring/carving on the top of that one in the near future. I've been spending more time working on the redwood burl bass. Front and back round-over, arm carving, belly cut. These are all rough carved, and will obviously require a little more smoothing and whatnot around the edges, but they are looking pretty good I think. Also got the bloodwood fretboard glued on and got it tapered to the width of the neck. Also got the P/J pickup templates finished. Next up on this one is getting the binding channel cut on the neck and getting some more rough sanding done to give everything a more organic look. Then the neck pocket and pickup routes. Also need to catch the wenge bass up to this one. So, here are the pics:

The brushed aluminum pickguard is really great. What tools did you use to cut it out and do the bevel?

Beautiful. If I was only going to have one electric guitar it would be something like this.