Muzz

Over the past two days I've routed the control cavity, the pickup cavities and the neck pocket. Unfortunately, i routed the neck pocket a little big. there's about a millimeter on the left and right side of the neck. Is this gonna be a problem? and if so, would i just put in two little shims to fix it?

If you leave the pocket wider than the neck, the neck can wander to one side. It can be disconcerting at a gig to look down and see your high E string no longer over the frets at the top, especially if you are coming up to a solo, it has happened to me with an Ibanez Les Paul copy! You can fix it without too much drama if you cut two bits of wood about 4 mm thick and slightly wider than the neck pocket and glue and clamp them to either side of the neck pocket. Then sand down on the top to level with the body and route again to the perfect size. You will have a very neat fix and a stable neck.

What technique did you use to route the neck pocket?

I would skin my knuckles and wrist on the top of the swoosh on the Moser,

it looks from the pictures as if it comes out of the body very high, yours looks as if it doesn't get into the thrash area.

I know what you mean, I still have my 'best' school woodwork efforts, the standard bird sculpture flamed with a blowtorch and a car model made from balsa wood with a Stanley knife!

While CAD could be replaced by a bendy curve and a pencil, I don't know how a router could be replaced in electric guitar building although I have heard that some luthiers make lovely instruments without them, how do they do it?

That is a cool vintage guitar, are you going to replace the headstock decal?

What a beauty, the silver pick up in the gold frame really works for me, especially on the blonde wood.

The access is the same as a Strat, the cutaway gives easy access to the 21st fret, so the frets (which look to me to go up to 24) past the cutaway are 'extra'. So there is heaps more acess on your guitar than Jimi Hendrix had and he did OK!

It's a fantastic present, if someone had given me a guitar like that when I was 10 I would have been stoked.

You can join on the pointy bits and the joint will be the strongest part of the guitar.

You are definitely on a goer with the biscuit joints, you are probably going to use a good space filling glue because of the end grain issue. At that point you will have two halves, front and back both with a transverse join. Then for each front and back half get a couple of metal joining plates, route out sections for them to sit in flush across the pointy bit joint (in what will be the middle of the guitar) then screw them in. When you later join the front and back halves together your body will have a metal skeleton that will hold those pointy bits on through real hard knocks and in years to come your grandchildren will be playing that guitar as you made it! Remember, design whatever you like first, then solve the problems. Good luck with it.

You got that replacement piece in there real tight there must not have been much margin to fill around the edges. A professional level repair like that often adds to the look and character of a guitar, especially if you colour match to the surrounding wood. My Iceman has lots of little scars from being knocked off its stand in pubs, having cymbals dropped on it etc, it's a '78, I am guessing yours is around that vintage too.

That restoration is coming on a treat, I have an Iceman very similar,

How did you fill the trem block cavity?

That is looking fantastic, I like the departures from the Firebird design, the cutaway and lower horn looks a bit like an Ibanez Iceman, the neck through wood in the body gives a really striking look, all together it works. What sort of hardware are you planning on?

Great paint job, the blue really sets off the chrome. How are the pick ups that come with the kit?