Setch

I'm also in the home straight of a PRS-esque guitar. It was carving this that prompted my first post in this thread - LP is definately the way to go for yuor first carved top!

The LP style top is less complex, especially in the area where the fingerboard joins the maple top. I'd opt for the LP as a first project over the PRS.

3M have 2 different products in their spray adhesive range. One allows for repositioning and will release easily. The other doesn't, and sticks like **** to a blanket... make sure you use the right one!

A two piece flame maple neck will hold fine. Archtop necks are shorter than most electric necks, so can get away with less stable woods. Figured maple is very common, so can be considered tried and tested. Carving the top and back out of Bubinga or any other rosewood will be infinitely harder than bending the sides. None of these will be achievable using the tools you have described in you other posting. Indeed, an archtop is about the most complex stringed instrument you can attempt, maybe you should acrue some tools and experience on simpler projects first? It would be a shame to invest time and money in an archtop before you have the chops to do it justice. Roli - the archtop you posted has a flat back like a steelstring flattop guitar, not the normal carved back of a 'traditional' archtop guitar. This maybe a route for Snork to consider if he is hell bent of using bubinga or rosewood for his guitar.

The standard back and side woods for archtops are maple, and less commonly, mahogany. The back and sides are usually the same wood, and I have never seen any which use rosewood except for fingerboards or trim.

You'll find cheap MOP, the same place as cheap abalone, cheap AAA flame & quilt maple, and cheap Brazillian RW. Nowhere Whilst there are bargains to be had, basically you get what you pay for. You can spend every waking hour searching for a killer deal on materials, or you can just bite the bullet and spend more to get what you need so you can use your time for building. The more you build, the less you'll fixate on price, and more you'll be concerned about getting really good materials. Take the deals when you find them, but don't wish your life away trying to find them if they're hiding

Try this one for size. Should be pretty helpfull.

Do use sanding block. Do. If you don't, you will leave dimples in your finish because you fingers will press harder at the tips. Never, never, never, never, (never) sand a finished guitar without a block of some kind, it's asking for trouble. Sometimes you need a hard block, sometimes a semi-hard, sometimes quite a flexible one, but you always need a block. Did I mention.... use a block? Also, I'd keep meths away from the finish. If you need to clean use naptha (lighter fluid). This doesn't eat finishes, and evaporates leaving zero residue.

Lime is a common wood for beginners at carving. I've not ever heard of it being used for guitars. I'd opt for a more tried and tested timber for your first attempt. Stains are always tricky if you plan to apply directly to the raw wood. The problem is end grain soaks up far more stain, and ends up darker than the rest of the wood - this is particularly awkward since most guitar body shapes reveal a lot of both end grain and sidegrain. I'd recommend sealing the wood first and applying tinted laquer to get the colour. As for warm, mahoganay is the standard reference for warm, round tone. In a word, no. The only way you can entirely penetrate a piece of wood (even a thin peice) is to pressure cook it in dye, which is not a practical solution for the amateur builder.

Well, I'm not a complete idiot. The reason I was wondering is that I know it is not common to clear the face of an ebony fretboard. If you don't clear the face but you do clear the side, are you really protecting the wood that much? I could see an argument that oiling would be enough. If I owned a guitar with an ebony fretboard - I probably wouldn't have bothered you guys with this question - I just wanted to see what is considered the "normal" thing to do. Thanks for the replies. Dave I'm sure you're not, and I apologise if you though that was what I was implying! I simply meant you finish the sides of the board for the same reason you finish the rest of the guitar - protection. The ebony sides could be left unlaquered without any problem to the ebony itself, but ideally you want to seal the gluejoint between the neck and fretboard. As it happens, I do have a padauk neck with RW board, that is unfinshed, just treated with Danish oil, and it's been trouble free - so you could leave the ebony unfinshed, but since there is no advantage the extra time masking and feathering the finish edge between the board and neck would be time wasted. You also run the risk of complicating the finshing process by applying different finshes to two parts in such close proximity. Basically, it's easier to apply whatever you put on the neck to the sides of the board, and it has no negative effect on the guitar, and some possible possitives. As such, it has become the "normal" approach.

Yeah! I have a lemon zester that looks just like it I'm not surprised - Microplane make kitchen tools as well as wood working equipment. By all acounts the microplanes are pretty good, leave a much better finish than surforms, remove material very quickly, and are less dusty than just sanding. That is on wood - I've not been tempted to surform my cheese recently...

Why finish a guitar at all? Finish keeps dirt and moisture out of your wood, and away from your glue joints (and as Wes said, out from under you fret ends). It also means the sides of the board and your neck will have a similar lustre, and feel, rather than having a piece of unfinished timber on top. It's also easier than taping of the sides of the board

Tape just the face of the board - you want the sides cleared. When you've finished spraying you can run a bit of 400 grit on a cork block along the sides of the board at 30 degrees or so(depending on the angle you put on your fret ends). This will remove any ridge which builds up, and feather the edge of the finish. You will probably get a small amount of finish creeping under the tape by the fret ends - deal with this by scraping back to bare wood with a straight razor blade, taking care to avoid chattering. You can follow up the 400 grit with some finer paper if you want to polish up the fret ends. The higher grits can be used freehand, this will break over the edge of the board and make it really comfy.

That will be a tough first inlay, but it will look like crap if you try to do it on maple. Your first attempts should be on ebony, since this is the most forgiving inlay wood. If you end up with imperfect inlay cavities you can simply use black stained CA or epoxy to fill the gaps and get a good result. Maple is impossible to fill invisibly, so even tiny errors look like crap. Also, when you level the inlay you will rub the dust from your inlay into the grain of your maple board, which will make it look dirty. Basically, forget maple until you've got a whole shedload of experience. And then forget it then too, unless you have a highly developed degree of self loathing and a desire to make yourself unhappy.

No problem... glad people found it helpful.

The rubber has a bigger, flatter, more homogenous surface than your fingers. Quite simply, if you use a flat surface to sand, you should end up leaving a flat surface. If you use a bumpy pad like your fingers, you will leave a negative image of your pad (ie: dents) on your finish.

Small sheet of 400 grit wrapped around a pencil erasor. Pink pearl erasors are good, and I use a small steadler one that is flexible enough to follow contours, but wont let you put finger ridges in your finish.

Ace, sit the neck in place, and measure nut-12th fret and 12th fret-bridge. If these are the same, you're good to go. For the existing holes, don't fill them with epoxy - no offence to Blues' but that is a bodge. The neck is an important structural member, so you want to keep it solid. Fit hardwood dowels into the holes - drill them out a bit bigger if necessary. Glue them in with wood glue, and trim them flush with a chisel and sandpaper. Once they've had ample time to dry, clamp the neck in position (you can string the two e's to ensure the neck is correctly placed) then mark through the holes in the body where the new holes should go. Drill the new holes taking care not to go right through the neck and out the otherside!! A masking tape depth stop is your friend

If you use a recessed tunamatic the string through maintains a good break angle over the bridge, which is important for many reasons. To little angle leads to strings jumping out of their saddles, rattling saddles, and reduced sustain and tone. It also provides very good accoustic coupling of the strings to the body, but a stop tail is pretty good too, so the difference is quite subtle. A good tip for the string ferrules on the top of the guitar is to use the brass eyes from ball end strings. You can source the back ferrules from most parts suppliers.

They can seem strict, but that is the strength of the site. The library is Huuu-uuGE and does contain most of the answers you'll need, if you look hard enough. Initially I thought they were too disciplinarian and kind of uptight, but after a while you come to appreciate the fact that BS is not tolerated - if anyone posts anything which is misleading, dangerous or downright stupid, there is always someone experienced who will call them on it. As a result the information there is very good, and the forum is very focussed. If you stick to the rules (which are all pretty reasonable) then you will find the place very rewarding. However - if you are a noob, who loves to idly speculate about possibilities you've never tried, likes to post heresay as fact, and generally perpetuate all the myths and misconceptions guitars players & manufacturers create, then stay the hell away... you will not enjoy your stay!

Pah... way to diffuse a promising arguement...

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I didn't see any copy in that add which suggested any of those things. Infact, the image linked to and their website are both decidedly matter of fact and hyperbole free!

Are you opting for the singlecut junior shape, or doublecut? Like this...

I seriously doubt they got the idea from here. The recessed bridge has been used by Godin for a long time before I saw one on here, as has the string through instead of a stop tail. I don't see Carvin claiming this as particularly new or inventive, just that it is now an option they offer.

I just use an old rasp which used to belong to my Grandpa. I've heard good things about Nicholson's pattern makers rasps, but I have no idea how widely availale they are. Derek - spokeshaves are great for general top shaping, neck carving etc, but they lack the ablity of rasps to cut against the grain, and work in tight corners/radiii.