mattharris75

Yeah, this is the one I was considering. The local store said he should have some of these in later in the month, but I really liked the sound of the 15 watt, so I imagine i'll like the 30 watt at least as much.

The local store was out of the Line 6 Spiders, but said they will have some in a few weeks. I tried the smaller 15 watt Vox Valvetronix and really liked the sound of that. Particularly in AC30 mode. It has plenty of amp models and effects too, but not as many as the Line 6. I'm going to try them both out back to back before I decide. My birthday isn't until the end of the month anyway, so no hurry.

I went looking for a few of these amps the other day. Used a Godin LG with only the bridge P90 on to most acurately simulate the guitar i'm building. Played the Crate, and it wasn't bad. I also played a used Fender Blues Junior. I wasn't impressed with it, but then again I didn't crank it up that much, so I'm sure I missed out on its strengths. But given the fact that it's not as flexible as some of these others, it wasn't really a serious contender to begin with, so I wasn't as concerned with giving it a full test drive. There's a store in town that sells Roland, Vox, and Line 6, so i'll head there next. I checked out the sound clips from a Vox Valvetronix online, and really liked that. So we'll see which I like best head to head in the next few weeks.

Link to thread

Wez, Just out of curiosity, what would a superglue and dust mix do underneath an oil (tru oil) finish? It seems there is some interaction between the oil and the wood, unlike lacquer, so I wasn't sure if this would look odd or not. I'd like to try to fill some tiny gaps between my headstock lam and the end of the fretboard and was thinking about trying this technique. The neck finish is going to be tru oil. Any idea how these interact?

Yeah, the way they phrase it definitely could be confusing.

Well it looks good regardless.

Beautiful bass. I really like the detail of having your logo inlayed on the pickup cover.

That 3/8" is for the hole for the threaded portion, which goes into a plate which is then screwed onto the body, not the wood. I believe if you were to measure the overall diameter of that jack it would significantly larger than that. Think about it this way, based on that picture a 1/4" guitar jack going into that is going to require a much larger overall diameter for the part. That's only 1/8" difference in diameter.

The shape looks like a cross between a LP and an SG to me. With the wood and finish choices, should be pretty cool.

Looks pretty sleek. What does the circle on the headstock have in it?

Got a lot of work done over the holiday weekend. Tidied up a bunch of little things on the neck and got the fretboard glued on. Also got the control cavity cut. No major difficulties with either process, but I certainly tucked away some pointers for the next time I do them. The second build is going to be so much easier! Glued Fingerboard Control Cavity So the next step...Do I bind the fingerboard? And if so, what is the best jig/tool to use for the process? I've looked at both of Stew Mac's dremel router solutions. I'm not sure which would be best. I believe that with a pre-radius'ed fingerboard i'm going to have to make a jig to go under the dremel router base if I go that route. What does everyone else use for routing their binding channels?

The edge routing on the top gives it a neat effect. I like the color of the maple on the neck too. Excellent looking build! It has some cool classic touches to go with the modern design. Melds the two together nicely I think.

This should probably be in off topic chat, but anyway... From what i've seen mine are a bit odd compared to most here: Trey Anastasio, Nuno Bettencourt, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Dennis Casey (Flogging Molly), and Billy Joe Armstrong.

When you cross the finish line with your first build. He heh, only a couple more months for me then...

Well there you go guys, the exact process with no need to search. BTW Russ, that was a really cool little guitar. Made the little wheels spin in my head for a future project when I have a kid.

Thegarehanman has a thread where he makes a child's guitar with a purple finish similar to this one. It's basically what has been said. One color of grainfiller with another color of stain. I was thinking of doing the same on an ash tele body in the not too distant future. It's a cool look. Search for that thread and there should be more info on his exact process.

Contact HuntinDoug on the forum. He produces shattered mirror tops. http://www.parableguitars.com

Ehh, i've got a decent mic if it becomes necessary for recording. I listened to some sound smaples of the Line 6 Spider III 75 on the Musicians Friend website. Sounds really good to me. Think i'll probably go with that one.

Sounds like I'll have to give the Line 6 a serious look. It sounds like it would be a great solution for home recording and just playing around. However, there is something really appealing about a small tube amp, the synergy it has with the guitar. I may have to eventually buy something like the Valve Junior, or perhaps build my own. This amp would be a birthday present for me (end of next month) I'll let everyone know what I end up with.

Thanks guys, all these sound like good options. The tonal flexibility of the Line 6 sounds like it would be fun. The pignose being a tube amp makes it more enticing... I've read good things about the Crate Palomino V16 tube amp as well, slightly on the high end of the price range though.

OK guys, basically what i'm wondering is what you all think of any amps at this general price point. I'm not a gigging musician, and have no aspirations to be so. I don't need a $2000 amp, because i'll only be playing around the house. I'll probably do a little home recording with it and that type of thing. It doesn't need monster volume. And obviously i'd like for this to be a combo amp. (most that i've seen in this price range are anyway) I'd like for it to be relatively flexible, because I like to play a fairly wide variety of music, from AC/DC to Green Day to Guster to Jack Johnson. I know that no single amp, especially an inexpensive one, will be able to get me all those tones, but I would like to at least have some flexibility to the sound, something that may at least get me into the ballpark of a couple of them. So, anyone that may have some experience with any amps in the $300-350 range feel free to give me your comments and opinions as to what models I should check out. Thanks!

I hear good things about Atkins. But seriously, the easy answer is sandpaper. If you're trying to change the profile of the neck you might have to break out the surform or spokeshave or other woodworking implement of your choice. You've also got to think about the finish currently on the neck. Do you know how deep the truss rod is and how much wood you have to work with? Most people would probably say don't bother trying this, too many variables. It's not a process that can be fully answered in a couple of sentences and will take some woodworking skill and specific knowledge of the guitar neck in question.

Thanks Jon...I'll give that a try. I tried that initially when I was cutting down the neck to approximate size, and possibly I didn't get the saw set up right, the cut had a very slight angle. This was on my father-in-laws saw, which has an aftermarket laser attachment which may not have helped. I may try it on my Dad's, he's got a really nice saw which should give me no problems. JMRentis, as far as the safe-t-planer goes, it was a bit scary to use at first. Took a bit of practice. It actually helped me to use it on a less powerful drill press. Forced me to go slower. If you use it on a monster drill press it will cut through your workpiece like butter. It's a very handy tool, it helped solve a couple of problems for me, both the back of the neck and the thicknessing of the back of the headstock. I also used it to make the laminate for the headstock and it will come in handy when i'm ready to make the control cavity cover as well. Well, next step is getting the fingerboard measured, cut, and glued!

On sanding the veneer down, I realized that I didn't actually need to plane it down flat with the neck surface, rather I needed to cut out a small section, so that the end of the veneer will still butt up against the fretboard. I scored the line in the veneer with an x-acto knife and used a coping saw to cut it. Looks like it should work fine. I used my safe-t-planer to get the back of the neck planed down to 5/8" and smoothed the transition from the headstock to the back of the neck into this. Everything looks good. The next challenge is getting the heel of the neck cut/sanded perfectly square. You can see in this image that I still have a small distance to go until I hit the line. Is there any sure fire or simple method to do this that I am not seeing right off the bat? I was thinking of using a belt sander. While this would give me a nice square line in at least 1 plane (assuming the belt angle is set up properly) I know it would likely not be the most controllable method. I've been trying a combination of hand sanding and the random orbital sander to get it close, but I can tell I won't be able to get it quite perfect this way. Anybody got any good tips on this? This seems to be one of those fundamental and simple parts of guitar building that nobody ever thinks to mention and for some reason I, in my inexperience, have once again caused myself to step back, scratch my head, and question my methods. Thanks!