Setch

I didn't get what you meant the first time, but now I do - very smart! I've not had any trouble since I started using pins, but I might try that technique anyway. Cheers!

+1 Those pieces are *obviously* consectutive slices cut as a bookmatch, and the grain is quite clearly symetrical, or as close as possible. You're simply not going to get a pefect bookmatch in flatsawn stock with such defined grain, unless you devise a way to make a 0 thickness kerf. Those pieces are bookmatched perfectly well, and I actually think it's a very nice set - not wild flame, but very attractive grain.

Follow the tuorial, but disregard the comments about steam. You need heat to separate titebond, steam and/or moisture are not important, and could cause stains or watermarks on a pale coloured timber like maple.

You need pressure to make the dye penetrate, and I've not heard many accounts of people getting good results dying their own veneer. Of those few success stories I've heard, most agree that it wasn't really worth the additional time and effort it took to dye their own veneer rather than buying from a specialist vendor. IMO, you should look into buying from one of the many companies who supply veneer for marquetry etc, they carry a pretty wide range of colours.

Both Mario Proulx and Charles Hoffman have pretty thorough accounts of their respective construction methods online - google should get you to them.

I've done epoxy grain fills over a sealer coat of PC with no issues, so I imagine you could sandback the wiped-on PC, then grain fill with clear epoxy and overcoat with nitro. As always, test on scrap first.

3mm off centre is not a small difference - that's a job which requires a do-over. Use a hot iron to and spatula to separate the fretboard, and then scrape away the old glue residue with a scraper or sharp chisel, taking care not to guage the gluing surfaces, and keep them all nice and flat. Reglue it, and this time use brads, or cocktail stick location pins to stop the fretboard slipping. **Edit** Of course, it's actaully only 1.5mm off centre - doh. Still, that's enough to merit a re-glue. It's not a difficult procedure, and you'll be glad you did it right when you finish.

It's stranger than that - he's an American who knows how to write the date properly

Omega have a UK site, and carry the correct size of blanket for use with a fox-type bender. I expect some one here knows the model number - Rich, Mattia?

As others have pointed out in other threads, a heat blanket will pay for itself the first time you avoid snapping a side and having to buy a replacement. Given that this is your first go at bending, and you're using a wood which is eye-catching precisely for the reason it has lots of runout, I'd buy a blanket without hesitation.

I've used it over epoxy and shellac with no problems.

The covers over the bridge, or the pickup? Eitherway, they were intended to conceal the pickup and/or bridge saddles, and were purely aesthetic.

That's a good idea, and exactly what I did on my last guitar, with a Gotoh 510 wraparound bridge.

The best way to layout a TOM is to fit your tailpiece, or through body ferrules, then sit the bridge in place and string up. You can place your saddle in the middle of the range of travel, then shuffle the bridge around until alignment and intonation are spot on for the two E strings. Mark the spot with a bradawl, and you're all set to drill for the studs.

Very nice Phil - I like! For thicker veneer to make accent lines, try asking for sawn veneer, or constructional veneer. It's commonly about 1.5mm thick, and much less work than cutting your own! I know Anita Marquetry in the UK carry it, but that's probably not too handy for you... there must be someone in Aus' who sells it.

As far as I know, the coloured MOP sold is actually sprayed with a transparent colour coat, not dyed. MOP is pretty impermiable, and even if you could get a dye to take, you'd sand through it or wear through it very, very quickly.

I suspect you intruduced the bowing during glue up - waterbased glues often do this, and/or not clamping the neck and fretboard to a deadstraight caul during the gluing. You need to heatset the neck to straighten it, or remove the fretboard and reglue with a flat caul. To heat set, heat the fretboard with an iron, until the surface of the fretboard is too hot to touch for more than a few seconds. This should allow the glue joint to creep a bit, and allow the neck to be clamped up straight. Leave the neck to cool (still clamped to a dead straight caul), and re-check for level once it's cooled fully. If it's still back bowed, try repeating the procedure, but use a shim in the 5-7 area to introduce forward bow whilst clamping - sometime you have to go past straight to allow for a bit of spring back.

A kyuss/QOTSA fan by any chance?

Well, it's simply down to the way wood glues work. They create a chemical bond, rather than a mechanical one, which results in an extremely strong bond inspite of the fact the glue itself is relatively weak. As such, you want the tightest wood to wood contact for the best joint, and you want freshly exposed surfaces. The best way to acomplish this is to use a freshly planed or scraped surface. It is a longstanding woodworking myth that a slightly roughened surface will glue better, and this idea is based on a fundamental misunderstanding or how glues work. The roughened surfaces is beneficial when working with adhesives, which are a different thing to glues, and rely on the mechanical strength of the adhesive to make a strong joint. Epoxy is an adhesive, ergo roughing the surfaces is beneficial. Titebond is glue, so a perfectly flat, smooth surface is best. This isn't to say you don't get good results by sanding with 180 grit, simply that you don't need to do the extra step of sanding unles it's already part of your process for getting a flat glueing face. I don't sand my glue joints if I can avoid it, and if I have to, I follow up with a scraper to smooth the surface and remove and sanding debris and broken fibres.

You guys have seen this, right? http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/radius.htm About the first thing I ever posted on here!

Sharp! Is it separate sections or 1 piece engraved?

You know there is a whole range of shades or grey which exist between black and white... right? Just because people point out ways to improve your work, and try to suggest how to avoid mistakes or resolve problems you have, doesn't mean that everything you've done is crap. Nobody has ever said that everything you did is garbage, or that you waste wood except you. If you believe this, you're wrong, and that's your problem, but you do the other members of this board a gross diservice by placing the responsibility for the comment at their door.

No, it's gospel truth. A guitar with pickups that don't work, or a guitar with too narrow neck for the bridge would not pass inspection at any guitar factory. You don't need to see or feel the guitar to know that. How about you stop getting protective, and *listen* to what people are suggesting - if you don't you'll never improve, and you'll be right back where you were a few weeks ago, considering jacking it all in. We all make mistakes, but you have to learn how to slavage them, when not to bother, and how to avoid making them again.

I'm a little sceptical of the way of making radius blocks, not least because my own experiments (and the picture that accompany the article!) show a curved 'v' shape, not a smooth section of a circle.

Would you care to explain what criteria you use to judge that the wood is 'good enough to make a guitar out of' given that you don't appraise it in a way which allows you to determine the grain orientation?