Jaden

the way i do now without going into details is: re-crown after levelling with a beam as someone said, I use a waverly type steel burr crowning file. then I start getting the file marks out with 320 wet & dry paper I move through the grits to 1200 wet & dry - I stop doing the sides of the frets at 800 grit. then I use steel wool to finish. this process takes quite some time and if I have been making plenty of necks it can easily take me a whole day. I understand that mechanising the process would be expensive - I might as well buy a PLEK machine all im looking for is a faster way to go through the grits really, I was thinking along the lines of using a very small detail sander that I could affix a shaped sander to (in the shape of the fret crown) and these shaped sanding pieces could be interchangeable all with different grits.. I was wondering if anyone had already made something like this ?

Guys, any recommendations for fret crown and polish to speed the process up ? sometimes I have to level and crown quite a few necks in a day and its a real bind, I was thinking along the lines of making some shaped cauls and ftting them to an electric toothbrush (or something that vibrates, you get the idea) each caul with a different grit. does anyone out there use a similarly "mechanised" process ? I looked at the polishing stick things from stewmac but they just look gimmicky..

This month its a seven string. i'll call this one the JHM 7. spec: quilted maple topped mahogany body dyed purple and finished in poly 5 piece maple and bubinga neck with customer designed headstock and my name on the top of it. dimarzio pickups - tone zone and air norton edge pro 7 locking trem volume control only with 5 way switch skull inlay with offset small dots on rosewood. all in all this guitar plays great and has a huge sound. ive loved making it and the owner im sure will love playing it. Front Back Body The Skull and a few more links http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...TM/IMG_3920.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...TM/IMG_3921.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...TM/IMG_3922.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...TM/IMG_3924.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...TM/IMG_3925.jpg

thanks man - like Paul says, "you can take the man out of the 80's" the next one of these is going to be fluoro pink and green - aargh.. I wish you could split your vote ! - it was a tough one this month. I loved the LP's and took some time to decide, in the end I voted for RDub, I loved the spalt top on the BigD and the pure stylish simplicity but im a sucker for a shred machine and went with RDub's. if it were mine I would have turned the skulls thorugh 90º and changed the knobs... cool ! - a hard month to vote..

OK chaps im gonna be cheeky and enter this swirly pink guitar I made in November - but I only just got it finished! between November and actually getting it completed its been my #1 player so as you can image, its already been through the mill and in and out of that proverbial transit van a thousand times and is no longer in showroom condition I hope you can look past that and just appreciate it for what it is, which is basically an outrageously 80's shred machine Paul Gilbert is one of my fave guitar players and I made it to take to a recent VIP lesson thing that he did while on his european tour, I got him to play it too check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KGFkwL9WWY...re=channel_page so with this in mind im gonna call this guitar "The Pablo-Saurus Rex" - Paul Gilbert and his crazy dinosaur fetish specs are: one piece, 5 laminate maple and walnut neck with maple fingerboard and 6105 frets basswood body fixed bridge string thru pink and cyan swirl with "inverted" ghost F-Holes (I know someone here hates F-Holes ) D Activator bridge and PAF pro neck pickups and all the usual other basic guitar type stuff

Low end fuzz got my vote, just stood out for me.

ive tried tonnes of ways but my fave way is to inject the glue using a syringe into the slot. the glue is a 50/50 titebond mix and I hammer to locate before pressing in. gives the most consistent fret jobs ive found so far..

it depends on the size, bigger fatter wire = less lengths but at a guess its about 15-20 lengths ?? I dunno really, I never counted. and yes the fretwire itself is fine although I tend to use dunlop where I can.

I liked your comments on mine avanger - thanks for them ! it is supposed to be a workhose that ages like an old, old sideboard so your comments made me feel as though I had achieved my goal. now im off to see if I can enter next months too

My vote went to Simo, that bass is simply kickass !

cheers guys, that stuff looks exactly what I was after !

Guys, ive heard of people using (or pouring) coloured epoxy into fingerboard inlays and levelling off etc when its cured. is this normal ? ive always cut solid inlays but I have some inlays that are just too fine to cut and would like to use this method. can anyone describe the process please ?

yes, ive used behlen's brushing lacquer, like anything wlse like it get it on quick, dont brush it more than is 100% necessary and you can get a pretty good finish off it once its flatted and polished. thats the only one ive used though, I found that rustins plastic coat was much much better and ive not used it since.

like other say, sounds like the nut is just too high possibly, fret the 3rd fret and check the clearance over the first, what is it ? if its more than a gnats wotsit over a hair then its too high and all low frets will sound out of tune

and its impossible to have too many clamps, I wish I had more..

interesting, thanks.

I also do this, rough radius, slot (not to depth) and then glue it on before radiusing and fretting etc. swedishluthier, im intreagued that you say you level the frets under string pressure.. ive never heard of it done like that, I ensure that the fingerboard is perfectly flat before I level frets with the truss rod and then go ahead and level.. I get great results but im interested in knowing more of how you do it. excuse my ignorance here but if the neck is under string tension (simulated) then it will have relief... ? no ?

I know it tries to eat my fingers fairly regular !

for me ive tried many ways. the best though is bandsaw and jointer, I can run up 20 neck blanks in about 30 mins, finished and ready to glue.

I agree my #1 http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...mp;#entry406981

hehe - real men play pink guitars here is my current favourite - and Yes, I did make it like that on purpose, its my main instrument right now, I only put it down when I need a trem, I may enter it into GOTM when ive painted the headstock but, would I play my own guitars exclusively ? NO because ive got some great guitars with emotional attachments which ive worked on extensively to make the better and they play great.. bring on teh pink guitar. aaaah, the 80's will never die

I use the stewmach blade in a radial arm saw, I bolted a custom made table to the saw with a registration pin glued into it. I take a fingerboard and insert it into a "mask" that I CNC'd which has the registration holes for all the frets cut into the side of it and then index it along while pulling the saw back and forth across the board. it takes about 30 secs to slot a board but I only cut about 1mm deep and finish with a handsaw with depth stop because no-one likes gaps under their frets the whole thing took about 2 days to design, make and test. it cost about £150 all in and the value i waaaaaaay beyond that.. If I wanted to make a particular scale length I just make another "mask" to fit the fingerboard into using about £5 worth of acrylic.. this is my 4th fret slotting machine, I have used a dremel sliding on rails and bearings in the past but it does not have the guts to cut 1.5mm deep slots.

Chaps, here is my first and hopefully not last entry to GOTM. I call this guitar the Proto Shadow, as its a prototype for a small run and when its hanging on my wall looks like its trying to hide in the shadows, ninja-like anyway specs are: Body: 2 Piece Mahogany - French Polish finish Neck: 5 laminate wenge and purpleheart, one piece tilt headstock - Oil Finished - 24 frets, Dunlop 6100 Fingerboard: Ebony, offset small dots and last 8 scalloped to A string Bridge: Fixed Gotoh Tuners: 16:1 Gotoh Pickups EMG 81 TW (bridge) and EMG SA (neck) Switching: 3 way see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvPwNcU2BDk...re=channel_page for details Nut: Custom made, Brass Some Pictures. and some more clickable pics. http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...Ferrules_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha..._Profile_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...le/Front_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...nd_Truss_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...ear_Body_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...ale/Rear_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...eadstock_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...Top_View_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...e/Tuners_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...nge_Neck_fs.jpg http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/wha...le/IMG_3185.jpg there is also a slide show on my website here http://www.guitarworkshop-uk.com/pages/forsale3.html and a link to the vid once again here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvPwNcU2BDk...re=channel_page thanks for looking guys.

indeed ! pos 1 - bridge - series pos 2 - bridge - parallel pos 3 - all of em baby ! - in series pos 4 - neck parallel pos 5 - neck series when you split the coils you just get the remaining coil - series or parallel for your single coil sir? I love that config, I have it in an ibanez guitar and I can get really good stratty sounds as well as rock and blues and metal... great stuff !

forgive me, ive not read any of the other threads about this logo issue but... ive been a regular over at jemsite for some time and many many people there create there own custom guitars that look identical to popular signature models currently sold by Ibanez. Representatives of Ibanez regularly visit the site and answer various questions or make announcements, they also read much of what goes on there (the way I understand it) and they see that people are putting their logo on there own custom guitars. they never mention it , I reckon that they couldnt give a monkeys to be honest. people say that imitation is the finest form of flattery.... in fact the only legal case(s) im aware of are the ones that are regularly cited by one Mr Edward Van Halen, who seems to think that he owns the patent on red and white stripes.... and continues to make himself popular by sueing his (ex) fans for making copies of his guitar. however, making logo'd guitars on a large scale is a different matter, for personal use..... why not ? most people 'in the know' with guitars recognise a custom, even when its logo'd - no-one is going to create a perfect copy of an existing instrument and try to pass it off as real.... apart from the Chinese fakes that are flooding the market at this time... Chibanez etc..