Guitar WIll

I don't have a problem painting it (i have had some of my artwork displayed in christies art gallery in london) so it isn;t the art side that worries me. More what will happen to the paint when I spary it. I did think about printing onto a clear coat, but this could lead to complications, such (as you suggested) ataching it. A vac bag will set me back about £400, so i don't want to spend a fortune on that. I am more worried about the long term dammage that the chemical in the paint will have. I want it to last, not to fade or peel off after a year. Thanks anyway though.

Right, to paint it I could us a air gun, but I doubt that I will, because as the project progresses I will hand paint features on. This would be a big contrast with the smooth gradient that the airbrushing creates. I may use sprays, however not to sure how this would look because i have never used them before. The guitar has been made now. It plays well, so I will dismantle it and begin painting soon. It has a great 2 piece alder body, with a maple neck and fretboard (bolt on) with a quality wilkinson bridge and kluson delux tuners A quick question though, would the nitro laquer react to the acrylic paint that i plan to use?

WIP Guitar Something me and my brother knocked up in preparation for my Strat project. Was done at 1+ oclock last night so it's not perfect yet. The guitar will be themed on the live earth art. It was inspired by a wallpaper on the live earth site. There will be other images at the point where the line meet. I'm thinking kinda like the statue of liberty you can find them on this link. Will post more images as the design improves and the guitar takes shape. Tell me what you think. Cheers, Will (P.S sorry about the anti-alaising on the outline, I used gimp, the poor mans photoshop . I will improve this when I have the time)

I have taken it into a local music shop and they showed me how to test the pickups without a multimeter (if I wanted to do it t home). They showed me that if you hold the wires to the correct place on the lead and then tap the pickup with a screwdriver. You can then hear a thud in the amp. The pickups were working, the lose wire was where the pickup wire is thredded through the hole and then looped over to help secure it more. It is not a problem. @DrummerDude, Its not a fender (which will explain why they do not fit), but an amazingly light (and nicely grained, think quilted) picece of alder. The whole routing job has been done very nicely (no chipped wood and it all loos neat). However it is obvious that it has been routed too small. I don't have a problem routing is bigger because it is quite an easy tool to use as long as you prepare properlly. It means that I have to go through the hassle of making a template though. Thanks for everyones help, Will.

Ok, on my pickups came with this really thin wire snapped on the bridge and neck pickup. Does that mean that they are ruined, can I fix them or should I send them back? On the ones where it isn't broken off, the wire from the pickup bobbin is connected from inside the pickup, and also wrapped around the pickup edge. Is this ok? cheers, Will.

Can you see the top part of the picture there is a close up of the bottom of the plastic? That is what is too big. It would be easier to remove part of the plastic, but if it is the only way then I am fine doing it. Incidently does anyone know why there is a tiny wire that goes around the plastic section? It is in the picture but very hard to see because it is so small (attached to the solder on either side of the wire). It looks like pickup wire. Is it for shielding?

Ok, I got a wilkinson loaded pickguard for my strat body. The thing is that there is a black piece of plastic on the bottom of the pickguard that is too large to fit into the rout. By far the easiest thing to do would be to file this off. However it looks like a very thin wire, proably the pickup wire is connected to the wires that join them to the next pickup. I would imagine that this would be for shielding reasons You can see what I mean on this picture (not my pickups) on either side of the main wire. What sohuld I do, make the routing bigger (a lot of effort and likely to result in tears) or to file down the plastic. And what should I do with the wires? Cheers, Will.

Ok, I have done a lot of research into the truss rod trouble. Firstly Southpa is right, i think that black labb is right that it is a doulbe action truss rod (does a compression rod fit this profile?) may even be two way bending rod. When it moves is when there is no tension at all. As soon as I tighten it up pressure is applied to the neck and it is held in place. I don't think that this is a problem. it may be that the channel has been cut too long, but it is not too deep. When I loosened it off if I tapped the neck firmly I could hear it move, when I tightened it it didn't. I think that all it well, and that I could have played the neck without noticing it at all!

You could try looking into the articles for removing the fretboard off a neck. I would have thought that this would work, but more care would need to be taken becauee of its akward shape. where did the cracks develop, because you could fill them using a mix of sawdust and glue. and then finish it in a burst with dark edges so that they cannot be seen.

Hi, I have a maple strat style neck that I have'nt put on a guitar body yet, however when I was adjusting the truss rod it slipped back into the neck. When I tried to remove the hex key it was a lot of effort because it was stuck in fast, but finally when it did come out it pulled the truss rod up. It can move about 20mm up and down. Does anyone have any idea why this is and if it is a problen, where is the optimun place to have it, cheers, Will. I should add, that the truss rod still seems to work, in that I have been able to adjust the neck relief quite well. I had an idea that I could glue a piece of tubing into the hole for the truss rod, to stop it moving. Thanks.

If it was me I would fill the holes with dowell. This may need drilling the holes bigger. I would glue the dowell in using a water based glue that would soak into the wood, and then sand it flat against the rest of the neck (make it a tight fit). Leave it to set for a while then re- drill the holes in the right place. Use your body as a reference. Put the neck into the guitar. The dip the wooden end of a thin paintbrush in paint and push it through the holes. Let the paint dry, and when you take the neck off you will have the exact place to drill.

Thanks, thats what I wanted to hear

I love the burst finish that you have put on it. I like the bottom one the most, but that is only my opinium. I would be tempted to use just a tad less black. As for the string throught i think that it looks better, but since i don't know what your palying style is, or what you want from the guitar it is hard to advise just on the looks. In my opinium tunomatic bridges are great, and string throughs are cool. However I have started to have a longing to have a tremmelo on my les paul after playing some hendrix, so make sure you are making the right descision.

I have a 21 fret neck, so i have no over hang. However what i intend to do if the scale length is not the same is move the neck so that the distance between the bridge saddles and the nut is the right lenght. This would only mean moving it further away. Thanks for your reply anyway Rick, I didn't know that most necks had an overhang (I always thought that that was on conversions) Cheers.

Sorry to ask another question on this subject, but I would rather find out now than later, (when I have bought the body). Would this body be compatable: with a 21 fret neck with a scale of (I think i am right in saying) 25 1/2. Up to twelth fret it is 12 3/4 inches. The width of the neck is 2 3/16. There is no imformation avaliable on the site http://www.axesrus.com/acoustic.htm (if you scroll down a bit you will see thebody that I am looking at) but I know that lots of people on this forum uses that site and could probs help me. What is more confusing is that they sell both 21 fret neck and 22 fret necks. The reason that I am asking this is because my brother has as strat with a 22 fret neck with the same scale as mine (21 frets). Now I thought that the frets would be in a different places, but they're not. I placed them fret to fret, and they are exactely the same. So I thought, even if the body is designed for a 22 fret neck, I could actually if I wanted bolt the neck on further away from the bridge (the length of that tiny 22nd fret). The pickguard should cover this, but to improve the guitar's sound it might be best to fill the gap with a block of ash, or alder. Thats another point, rom the picture what do you think that the wood it? Any help would be so useful, as I am a luithier noob (I can't even spell it) and although I believe in the police of learning by doing, when there is 50 pounds in it I am put off a bit. Cheers, Will.