Muzz

I see the point that the results are not likely to get published in New Scientist, but these dudes get away without independent repeats or analysis of variance all the time. Should be cool for school. I am interested to see how it goes.

Fun research, how were you going to measure the sustain?

I guess you could record the guitar in a program like Audacity that displays the sound signal versus time and measure how long the signal takes to reach 10% of initial volume.

Yeah but you know that strat neck is going to look awesome on the tele body, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. I also think hang in there, or drop it off with your local luthier, good luck with it.

Since some (not all) of the overhang at the end of the fingerboard will need to be trimmed off so I can fit a trim ring for the neck humbucker, I've thought about just living with it,,,,,,,, with some of the fingerboard overhang still being there you don't really see this "misfit" but you can see it if you're looking for it,,,,,,,,,,, and of course I know the if the neck fit nice and tight at ALL points it would be more stable and sustain better so I'd love to "fix" this if at all possible,,,,,,,,,, from my understanding, if I took enough wood out of the neck pocket to make the neck fit it then I'd need to move the bridge that same amount BUT the holes for the strings are already drilled so that would create a problem,,,,,, so again,,,, Any ideas guys? Any at all?

Slick wood. You could fill the gaps almost to the top with Builder's Bog, it sets fast and forms only a light bond to wood so if you want to get it out again it's easy to remove. Cut two pieces of veneer to finish off the fill and glue them to the builder's bog. Sand flush. I would be tempted to cut the neck pick up ring to accommodate the neck overhang rather than the other way around. That way everything is reversible.

While differences in tone from body mass and shape can be subtle, I like the idea about musing about different possibilities in tone. Here are my favourite experiments, none are particularly innovative but they are fun.

a) Put a single space pickup in a Gibson style guitar, bridge position.

Get the local amp guy to put an extra valve in your preamp.

c) Put a 100 watt Marshall amp in an isolation booth in a recording studio, turn the preamp to 10 (obviously) and the master volume to 8, close the doors and go and sit in the control booth and connect your guitar. At this volume lots of things will resonate as well as the wood, hell, the steel reinforcing in the concrete floor might be adding to the tone.

d) Increase the distance between a tune-o-matic bridge and the stop bar and press the heel of your hand down on the strings behind the bridge and wobble for squawking vibrato and pitch change effects.

Any others that I have missed?

Yep, I would believe it, I would be interested to hear what pickups and amp were used. If you use something like, for example a DiMarzio Super II pickup through an ADA preamp and into a Marshall power amp, it's going to sound killer whatever the guitar is shaped like. The shape and materials might add subtle differences, but there is not too big a chance they will mortally wound the tone for most ears.

A respray is an easy and fun job, why not have a go at it yourself? Have a look at some of the threads and tutorials, practice on a lump of wood and then go for it. You can get professional level results in the back yard.

I really can't tell what's going on on your photo, Muzz.

Seems that you've done a great job repairing whatever problem there was.

I just made a diagram and basically this is what happened to my cutout:

I intend to glue the sawn off piece back to the body and do a second cutout.

Cool, that will work, the glued back piece in my pic is just under the strap button.

As you can see from the markers I put, the jigsaw's blade wobbled too much at different sides while I was cutting out the overall body shape and even though I was strictly following the line on the facial side, the blade cut out the wood in a wobbly way underneath it.

So now I will have to correct those irregularities.

First I will glue small wood pieces and then use a filler (epoxy, wood putty, plastic wood, whatever turns out to work best).

OK, the picture makes it clear what has happened, I had a similar experience, I think you are on the right track gluing bits of wood in, here is a picture of such a repair,

If you glue in as many pieces as you can, you can keep filler to a minimum, then if you re route using a template and just skim the surface with multiple shaving passes as opposed to digging in, it should come out fine.

Oh yeah Scott, your guitar is full of woody goodness

I have saw dust with only a few real chips and shavings in it. If color is the only issue, that's not a problem.

The guitar will be painted in a solid jet black color that will be hiding everything underneath it.

Cool, I am a big fan of black guitars. If you are doing a solid finish another option is Selleys Plastic Wood

it works well in guitars, alternatively you might want to use spirit based two pack, brush it in and on the rough patches and cover with a piece of grease proof paper, this will leave a smooth surface when it sets. 30 hours later peel off the grease proof paper and sand back. Epoxy would be fine also, so many choices

Looking forward to seeing more pics.

OK, I will try the PVA+wood chips mixture on scrap wood and see if ti behaves alright.

I have seen people using it for filling parquet gaps and it worked without shrinking or cracking.

Will not use the wood putty that I got from the mall.

Wood slices glued in will work but be carefull with sawdust mixed with PVA, it looks fine at first but with some finishes it can go really dark brown as soon as the finish hits it, best to test on scraps first.

That's right, it might be an idea to mask off the sides of the pocket where they are not covered by the paint stick while spraying, or prepare to do a little bit of pocket sanding, but it shouldn't be too much of a biggy. I am also interested to see how the beech affects the tone.

I think this advice is spot on, the combination of construction style, wood and electronics in a guitar tends to be like a relationship some combinations just work. I like the idea of not worrying about it, just select the woods that appeal to you and go for it. Really, if you use good pick ups and and plug into a honking amp, you can't go too far wrong, and if the planets are lined up just right or you do some tweaking you can hit the sweet spot. For the tuners its a matter of personal choice but Gotohs are rock solid and stay that way for a long time. Hope it all goes well for you.

I love everything I see on this guitar so far, really innovative I have not seen the Dean model so I do not know how much was inspired. I agree the headstock is great and the triangular (pizza slice) sound hole sets it off. Are those ferrule holes or screw holes? So is it going to have an accoustic style bridge? Fantastic project

I like both fixed necks and screwed in necks (often incorrectly called bolt ons)

Yes, technically you are correct that the neck is screwed rather than bolted, unless of course you happen to be using neck inserts and bolts when it does truly become a bolt on neck.

but its an industry standard term to refer to a neck fixed with screws as a bolt-on neck and has been for quite a long time. I dont think it is incorrect to refer to something by its common name in a given community.

That's right, technically but not politically incorrect. Now this is a bolt on neck

You can use Feast Watson Pine Sealer to stop uneven staining and sanding. For sanding, mix the pine sealer half and half with polyurethane and brush it in. The wood will keep drinking in the mix for quite a while, keep working it in it will not leave a skin. When it is saturated leave it for 24 hours and your sanding worries are over. It will get a beaut colour after a few months as well, good luck with it.

Thanks guys, it didn't come out looking too fugly I think I like the old but cared for look in guitars.

I found a packet of new DiMarzio pickguard screws (unsuitable and unused from a previous project) in my box of spare parts that I had forgotten about that were perfect for this job, don't you just love that when it happens. Little bits of shiny chrome always gives things a lift.

I tried a new technique (for me) to repair a couple of varnish delaminations on the neck, the finish there is nearly a mm thick and there were two sections that had peeled to the wood. The thought of masking and spraying in about 15 layers of clear coat into the craters didn't appeal to me so I tried spirit based two pack. Has anyone else tried this stuff? it worked great, it went into the wound like thick treacle and overfilled it, even on a curved section. Next day I sanded it down and buffed it and it was perfect to the touch and really neat to the eye. I am wondering if you could even use it as a finish on necks and bodies.

Good luck with the next go at the nut, the last piece of the puzzle. The guitar looks fantastic.

Now it's finished

Body

Body shot

Whole bass

Back

Nearly finished, tested the electronics with the iPod, great for two pickups. If you want to determine which pup is which, play early Van Halen, Eddie's guitar always comes out of the left earpiece

Managed to get the old pup covers off today, I ended up putting the edges on the table and hitting the poles with a screwdriver and a hammer. A bit of the innards stayed with the cover, I don't know if it will make any difference to the sound.

I put the new covers on with a bit of glue on the edge and clamped them down

Second go at the decal worked fine, I have built up the clear enamel over it.

With any luck I can buff up the body and start putting everything together tomorrow.

Wow, are you really going to make the headstock as pointy as in the blueprint? If so I have a new name for your singer, Shish Kebab

Hi RGman, Yep, the terminology has got a bit ambiguous along the way, Wikepedia even has a site on Pine Disambiguation

I think this is because the term 'pine' can be used to mean several things including,

a tree from the genus Pinus, e.g. Pinus radiata and this is often the term used by botanists,

or

coniferous trees which, as you say, includes genera such as Araucaria e.g. Araucaria bidwillii or Hoop pine, and coniferous tree is the definition for pine often used by the timber and hardware industry, at least in Australia.

While a lot of Aussies would ask for "Cypress pine" you are right, it is not of the genus Pinus and it can also be referred to as "Cypress", I have never tried doing this in a hardware store though .

Using the broader term I hope a lot of woodworkers, including guitar builders check out some pine timbers that can be great to work with. Have you checked out Huon pine? It looks fantastic.

Question for you guys, how come people often refer to pine as if it was one species with one look and density? I am sure a lot of the forum knows that there are many different types of pine and they produce very different timber. Cypress pine for example is a very hard wood (often used to make floors and outdoor furniture) and very different to Radiata pine which is soft, Maton have been making guitars for years out of Bunya pine, although they call it just "Bunya" and Hoop pine is a good tonewood.