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mattharris75

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Everything posted by mattharris75

  1. Cool, I was thinking of making a walnut/maple P90 cover on my project. I haven't gotten the pickup yet to make measurements with regards to the wood thickness and whatnot. I am trying to decide whether to route out a hole in a block of wood, then cut/sand the outside edges of the cover, or to use thin wood strips to glue together a small box. What method are you using for your pickup cover?
  2. Can't wait to see the finished neck. The neck laminate is really cool. I'll probably try a 5 piece laminate next time (instead of just 3 this time), 9 is a lot of lams! But it looks really awesome.
  3. not my style but it's pretty slick. The upper horn looks a lot better now too.
  4. Check his ebay store, I noticed last night several black limba strips posted on there. If it wasn't for the fact my next project is going ot be a neck-thru bass I probably would have picked them up.
  5. Got a little work done this evening. planed the face of the headstock, and rough cut a few laminate pieces as well as my headstock template. Here you get an idea of what the headstock is going to look like, as well as the pattern of the maple and walnut in the laminate for it. Next step is to get a safe-t-planer and finish the back of the headstock, thickness sand the laminate, glue that up and then cut the headstock. I've also got the control cavity template and routing I can be working on until I get the safe-t-planer.
  6. I set up a ghetto jig on the bandsaw to cut 3/16" thick pieces. It worked pretty well. There was a little undulation in spots, and on one of the pieces it dug in a bit when I shifted from pushing through with my hand to the wood block. But it should be quite simple now to use the safe-t-planer to get it down to 1/8" and 1/16" (for the cavity cover and headstock laminate respectively). Just have to buy a safe-t-planer now.
  7. Well, I may just hold off on it until I can scrounge up a little more cash for tools, then get the safety plane. I've still got several tasks I can work on (headstock laminate, control cavity, cavity cover, etc.) At this point I certainly don't want to do anything to risk screwing up the neck.
  8. Thanks Rich, a thickness sander sounds wonderful, unfortunately I can't afford to invest in serious tools at the moment. But I will certainly keep it in mind when I have the funds to outfit my own shop (Using my father in laws space at the moment). Sounds like the bandsaw is the way to go. I guess i'll just tweak the setup and run some 2x4's through there until i'm getting consistent results. Thanks again!
  9. Hmm...I like the last few ideas...Router bits I have, the safety planer not so much. I think I will try the router bit in the drill press method this time around and maybe spring for the wagner the next time around. Using the jointer on the headstock I was concerned that the length might be too short for it to work properly, but it is over 6", so I guess it's technically long enough. I'll give that a try. Any tips for using the jointer on a headstock? And as far as sanding over depth, I'm going to be putting a laminate over it anyway, so i'm not too concerned there. If I have to route the back down a little extra (due to imperfections) then i'll make up the thickness on the top laminate. Thanks guys!
  10. I'm constructing a neck out of a large maple/walnut/maple laminate. So, rather than doing a scarf joint, I simply bandsawed the profile. Using a belt sander with the angle properly set I was able to clean up the bottom of the neck to a perfect 3/4" starting point. The headstock, on the other hand, confounds me slightly. Because of its width and shorter length it's just not practical to try to use the belt sander to get it to a consistent depth. I've hand sanded it, attached the wings for sufficient width, and hit it on the belt sander to get the wings to the right approximate depth. But in order to accurately plane both the front and back to a consistent depth, what is the best method? Using a hand plane? I thought of trying a router with a pattern bit, but it would take quite a jig to get that set up properly, and I don't think the router I'm using has sufficient plunge to make it half way across the face of the headstock regardless. What do you guys use in this situation?
  11. I assumed there would be info here on this kind of thing, but my searching so far has turned up little of value. What i'm looking to do is create a laminate for my headstock. Not necessarily something extremely thin, but probably in the 1/16" range. Are there any special jigs, tools, or techniques for doing this. At this point i've got several pieces of wood glued up for a maple/walnut/maple pattern, and i've been pondering the best technique to get a couple of thin pieces out of it, but I haven't been able to come up with anything foolproof. Another application of this would be a 1/8" thick control cavity cover. Based on the projects i've seen here I know people must do this on a regular basis, I just haven't been able to find info on how they do it. At this point i'm considering trying both the bandsaw and/or the tablesaw with fences combined with delicate belt sanding and hand sanding. But they both have their downsides, deflection for the bandsaw and waste for the tablesaw. So what am I missing here? This can't be too tough. Thanks!
  12. Love them both. I love walnut! I'm so glad I lucked into a free stash of walnut for my first build, seeing finished walnut guitars always motivates me (Even in this case when mine isn't flamed). But regardless, beautiful wood and great craftsmanship in both!
  13. And I'd like a 2 piece black limba top myself, if you happen to have any laying around.
  14. War Eagle!!! Hope to make it to a couple of games this season. However, I coach high school football here in town, so any games I go to I have to drive up saturday morning. BTW, you know of anywhere local to buy good wood? I've visted the Hardwood Center in Scottsboro, which is pretty cool, but I was hoping there were more options.
  15. It looks like somebody who worked in a guitar manufacturing plant near chernobyl. Hey Jehle, I see that you are from my neck of the woods!
  16. I don't know much about zero frets, but I do know that Scott French uses them on all his guitars. He might be a good one to contact directly to get some info.
  17. Since you are looking for a chunk large enough to cut an angled headstock out of you might be better off laminating a few pieces of wood together to get you a large enough blank. It will probably be cheaper that way and as an added bonus it will be stronger as well. There are lots of places that sell 1" neck blanks, but for a 13 degree headstock angle you're going to need closer to 2.5" of depth. Which is why I say laminate. If you try to purchase 3 1" neck blanks to laminate it will be pretty expensive, so if you can find some rough lumber locally and have access to a planer and joiner then that will be your best and cheapest alternative. It took me quite a while to find a place local to me, all I can say is keep searching. Look in the phone book, talk with woodworkers that you know, not just guitar builders, etc, etc. And as Bilious Frog said, post your location in your profile. Someone might know of a place nearby you.
  18. I don't know what fender necks you've been looking at, but my tele neck is definitely 12.75" to the 12th fret. And as for the telecaster kid, well, I don't think anybody should be surprised at this post after reading his previous posts.
  19. That's really impressive, sharp looking neck! I'm building my first neck and definitely am not up to all that binding and inlay on the first go round. (Although on the style of guitar i'm building I don't want it anyway) Good job!
  20. How exactly does the cab bolt system work? Do you have a supply/vendor list? I liked the look of it when I saw it on one of your previous guitars.
  21. Thanks, that's basically what I tried. I used my dustbuster with the brush attachment on the end the other night and it worked surprisingly well.
  22. Thanks. It's actually just a fender scale pre-slotted/radiused board from stew mac. It's rosewood, but it has a lot more color variation than the rosewood fingerboards I have on several of my purchased guitars. I was really impressed with it when it showed up, really a nice looking piece of wood.
  23. Yeah, I've got a comment. I'm a rookie myself, and everybody makes mistakes, but honestly...Do a little planning. Sure, it takes patience to research everything you need to know and figure it all out for yourself, but even as a rookie I know that if you can't plan you can't build. Period.
  24. Made some good progress today. Transferred my neck measurements to the laminated neck blank and checked to make sure I didn't screw anything up about 5 times. Then proceeded to cut the truss rod route. I bought the rogue 3/16 bit and it worked great. Then drilled back 3/4" with a 3/8" forstner bit to allow the shank of the spoke wheel to fit. After that I got to the interesting bit, the bandsawing of the neck. I ended up not having any problems, except for the soreness in my back thanks to the tension because I kept expecting to screw up at any minute. Then used the belt sander to clean up the lines. Have a little hand sanding to do one some sections, but it's quite close to being ready to carve the back. Here's a couple of pics: Another view Truss rod channel with spoke wheel hot rod
  25. Here's a website that was posted elsewhere that has black veneer. (And other colors as well) Dyed Veneers
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