mattharris75

I really like this build, very nicely done. The only thing i'm not sold on is the finish. I'm thinking a glossier finish would look really nice with the black stain.

I've never been a big fan of double necks in general, but this really is turning out to be a super cool and unique build. Good job!

Yeah, I remember reading that a while back. This stand is actually for another guitar. I've got another stand that has foam padding rather than surgical rubber tubing that I will end up using for it.

Finally got a little time to work on the guitar, and got the neck fretted. Jumbo wire. Turned out pretty good, and with the fret pressing caul and fret tang nippers everything went fairly smoothly. I discovered that fretting the neck is no place for cutting corners. However, my $5 set of harbor freight end nippers that I modified on the belt sander worked quite well for cutting the excess ends of the frets off. Maybe in a couple of weeks i'll have time to get the neck rough carved, then it will all be a matter of finish sanding everything and a few little details before starting the finishing process. I've wavered back and forth quite a bit about how I am going to finish the body, but right now i'm leaning toward nitro. As glossy as I got the pickup cover with tru oil, i'd really like to have that super glassy look over this walnut that nitro will provide.

Same here, Mike Virok. But man, this is by far the strongest field of entrants I've seen since I've been around here! Lots of great work!

I would love to one day do something like this as an intro into acoustic instrument building. Plus, it would just be a neat little instrument to have around. Looking good so far!

And when that day arrives, Wez, I will return to this thread and announce to the whole online community that you were right all along.

Yeah, I considered recessing the cover, and it would look neat, but I decided to save that for the next build. It's really not as thick as the picture makes it appear either. It's right at .18" thick. As far as the magnets go, while that would be cool, I really don't change strings often so I'm not too concerned about the inconvenience of it.

So, I think I'm going to order some new fret wire and pull out the one fret that I pressed in. No reason to rush it or doing anything halfway at this point. Especially since fret wire is so cheap. While I've been debating and messing with this issue I managed to get a few of the small things done that I needed to do on the body. I finally got all the remaining holes drilled, including the cavity cover screws, the strap button holes, and what is sure to be the most controversial; the string thru hole cover. I made this little cover to go over the string thru holes, which weren't 100% perfect. There were other options to fix this, but I really thought it would be neat to have one more little custom feature on the guitar. Now I've just got to figure out a good way to do the counter sinks for these tiny little screws. Once I finally get my new frets delivered I'll get those installed and carve the neck. It seems like I've been nervously anticipating that task for months now.

It's not always a cost issue. On my first build I didn't bind the end of the fretboard because I cut a recess in it in order to allow access to the heel end truss rod adjustment. I thought it would look odd to bind the end and either leave a blank space or make the binding follow the cutout. And personally, I think it looks quite nice. But it's rosewood on koa, so there is not a tremendous amount of contrast. Leaving it bound or unbound is as much a matter of personal taste as any thing else. However, if I hadn't had the recess cut in the fretboard I would certainly have bound the end, simply for aesthetics if nothing else.

How exactly did you screw up the truss rod channel? Did you use an edge guide?

Plenty of people make wads of cash based solely on the concept of overkill, in a wide variety of industries...So many people want to be able to say they have something exclusive or different that they will pay exorbitant amounts of money to make it happen. I wish I had a process or product to take advantage of those chumps. Note - This is not to say that the cryo process is not perfectly valid and applicable in certain applications and industries.

Looking at this makes me think, what if there had been a guitar made based on the movie 'Predator'.

Finally got around to messing with the fretting of the neck. I built my own fret bender and gave that a whirl. Because the notch for the fret tang was too wide I couldn't get quite the radius I needed on the fret wire. It looked to be dead on 12", but I couldn't get it any tighter. I decided to go ahead and cut the frets and try pressing one in regardless. I used a dremel to get rid of the tang under the binding and used the stew mac fret press and caul. It worked perfectly except for the fact that the unsupported fret ends didn't sit down 100% flat. It's very close but not good enough. So, now it looks like I need to fix my fret bender and make sure all the frets are radius'ed tighter than 12" before I move ahead and make a major mistake. Will bending the wire after its been cut present any problems? Progress has been a bit slow in recent weeks with the beginning of football practice keeping me busy (I'm a coach). I initially thought that being done by Christmas would be a breeze but as the small setbacks begin to pile up and I have less and less free time, i'm beginning to doubt this timeline.

That doublecut is going to be one slick guitar with that burst on it. Can't wait to see it finished.

Here's a link to Stew Mac's information on the subject. They have a wiring kit for use on a LP Junior, which uses a single P90 pickup and a volume and tone control. This is how they show to wire it: Stew Mac's Wiring

I just use 'The Force'. But then again, i'm a very powerful Jedi, your mileage may vary. I believe if you search for the topic you'll find a reasonable amount of information on various people's interpretations of the magnetic cavity cover.

I really like the 'built like a tank' feel I get from the JET. I think i'll probably end up buying a JET Bandsaw in the not too distant future as well, possibly as a christmas present.

Yep, it does have a breakdown diagram complete with replacement part numbers for every piece. I used it tonight, worked very well. I'm excited about having this tool, I know it's going to be invaluable!

Also keep in mind that you will have some distance after the 22nd fret (say a half inch or so) as well as the nut slot which sits sits on a flat area of the neck( 1/8" or 3/16"). You can add all that in, but like I said, it's close. That's why i've decided to lengthen my neck slightly and go with 24 frets. All this will do on your design is slide the bridge a bit closer to the neck end of the guitar. Unless you're building an exact replica, this probably isn't a huge deal.

I've drawn out plans for a 24" build and discovered that an 18" truss rod is pushing it in terms of length. This is with a spoke wheel truss rod. Definately go with 24 frets to give yourself a little extra length. I think I may have to send my fingerboard back to get two more slots cut in it for that very reason.

Yeah, I was given a free drill press which so far has sufficed, It's a cheapo model and it's not going to last too far beyond this first guitar. A bandsaw and a good drill press are probably my next two investments. I'm really fortunate that i'm able to use my father-in-laws wood shop, but it's not nearly as convenient as having my own tools. What kind of Drill Press did you end up with?

My first 'major' tool purchase, and one that is not specifically guitar related but should come in quite handy, particularly when I start my next build. JET Oscillating Spindle Sander It looks like a quality product, and i'm hoping it will last as long as I do in my slowly evolving shop. I'm going to fire it up tonight and try it out on a small maple cover that I am working on.

He heh. Apparently Unless you intend to work from a very strict set of plans it should be quite simple to add .07" to your scale length. And using 24.07 gives you a much wider range of options.

Jon (www.jonsbasses.com) can slot a scale length of 24.07". He also has an interesting slection of fretboard woods. Also, a 24.07 scale is just a fender 25.5 with the first fret cut off, so you could purchase a pre-slotted fender scale from stew mac or somewhere like that and cut off the first fret.