Setch

Both instruments are by MIMF users - the bass with matching neckstringer/pickup covers is by John Watkins. If anyone here hasn't already taken a look at the mimf it definately worth a visit - great resource for builders of all levels of experience.

Maple has a very similar 'spankyness' to ebony. They are both closegrained, hard and as such bright. You will not get a satisfactory result trying to bleach ebony, so I'd abandon that idea now. Sorry

Ok... Tools. Don't buy all the bits you need now. Invest in the basic tools as and when you need them, and be sure you *really do need them* before you blow any cash. A trip to a local DIY store can get you a cheep and cheerful router for under £30, which is one of the essentials for solidbody construction. You can also get by with a jigsaw for rough cutting. With that, a jackplane a drill and a decent tennon saw you should be able to accomplish most basic jobs. Oh, and lots of clamps.... you can never have too many Selling. The simple truth is, dont expect your first few instruments to be saleable. If you're very lucky, or have good previous experience in advanced woodworking they may be great, but it is more realistic to expect a slightly homely instrument which plays OK, sounds good, and was an enjoyable project. People buying guitars have very high standards where aesthetics are concerned, and you will have a tough time meeting these requirements until you have some experience under your belt, especially if you're attempting setneck, gloss finished instruments with carved tops. A more basic flattop, with a simple oiled finish but rock solid construction is more likely to be a breadwinner. The exception here is friends - you can probably find people who are really interested and impressed by your guitars, and willing to overlook the inevitable mistakes. The only problem is most of my musically inclined friends are perpetually broke... so my dreams of being bankrolled by them are just that....

Rasp. Quicker, easier, more accurate, and less dusty than sandpaper. You can usually go straight from the rasp to 120 grit paper to smooth any tooling marks. I'm kind of down on just using abrasives when there is an alternative - that much dust just isn't good for you, or for your workshop. This may be because I spray in the same area I do my woodworking, so a 2 inch layer of dust on every surface is asking for trouble....

LIke I said - I can get a neck roughed in 10 minutes (still lagging 2 mins behind Perry ). I can't imagine a router setup where your setup time would be much less than that - let alone the machining time too. The tradeoff may be the consistency of product produced, but I think getting a good neck profile straight from the router would mean major investment in custom cutters. Of course I'm just waiting to be proved wrong by somebody...then I can steal the idea and use it to take over the world

No pics here either...

Nice. I got a free offcut of bocote in my last wood order, nice to finally be able to ID it conclusively. It's about the size of classical bridge blank, but a shade too thin to use for that....what to use it for? Have you tapered the board yet? If not, be very carefull around that knot - it will tear out in a second if you're not cautious... Is this your first neck from scratch? Looks great so far

Stones' - A roundover bit is a router cutter, usually bearing guided, which cuts a semi-circular profile. It is comonly used to radius the edges of guitar bodies, kitchen worktops etc. However.... ...Hands up anyone who has *actually used a router to shape a neck*? If some body here has done it, great, follow their instructions. Otherwise, I'd opt for a spokeshave, sandpaper, and a rasp. Bulk material removal takes virtually no time at all with a spokeshave or rasp - I can rough a neck in about 10 minutes. IMO a huge roundover bit on a routertable, combined with the relatively small workpiece of a neck, is a genuinely horrific accident waiting to happen, especially for the inexperienced woodworker.

Do what you like, as long as you leave enough meat to keep it all structurally sound. The warmoth route is very fiddly for a home builder, but you can replicate the small separate chambers by just swisscheesing the body with a forstner bit. I opted for two large chambers, one filling pretty much the whole bass side of the body, and a smaller one on the treble side, with a small separate chamber for the electrics.

Hehe... men of few words huh?

I put together this Top Carving photo essay for a buddy on guitar.com, it may be helpful here...

Padauk is pretty bright - think maple. It's also very heavy. I like it, but it can be troublesome to work, and is a mild nasal irritant, so a dust mask is advisable.

1: I buy approximately size of the neck, depending on the blank size available. Warping shouldn't be an issue if you buy properly seasoned quartered stock. Don't skimp on your neck wood, it's a false economy. 2: If you can break your body joint, you did it wrong. When glueing with titebond, the glue joint should be stronger than the wood, and a joint between 2 surfaces 16" x 2 " (approx area of centre joint in a guitar body) *should not* separate. There is absolutely no structural need to reinforce the centre seams of guitar bodies, or the joint of wings to a neck through. 3: You could use a wooden board. I'd opt for ebony, and use flatwound strings to avoid chewing it up. Round wounds are too abrasive for fretless applications. What exactly is the problem you're having with neck set at the moment? 29: See 2.

A good tip for fretting is to always assume you'll have to remove the frets. If you do a good job the guitar will outlive you, so it will inevitably need a refret at some point. With this in mind, always bevel the top edge of the fret slots with a small square file. Only a tiny bevel is required, and it will really reduce chip out if you have to pull any frets. The bevel also makes it easier to get the fret into place the first time.

I build my necks from scratch, it's easier than you'd think. The majority of your questions are answered in 'Make your own Electric Guitar' by Melvyn Hiscock, I suggest you buy a copy if you're serious about building a guitar. Re: Fretboards - If I'm using a handmade fretboard, I have a router jig to cut the radius on it, which I follow up with a radiused sanding block to remove tooling marks. Re: Neck carving - I use a spokeshave and scrapers, followed by some light sanding. This method is very quick and controllable, though you do need to be carefull not to go to quick, and avoid taking away meat which can't be put back. Re: Trussrod - Depending on the type you use you can cut either a straight channel, or a curved one. Straight is easier if you're a noob, but I cut a curved channel on my first neck and it worked out fine. If you check out the neck making tutorial on the projectguitar main site, be aware that it contains one glaring error - the builder installs a martin style rod in a curved channel. If you use this kind of rod, use a straight channel and epoxy the U-channel of the rod into the neck. You only need to cut a curved channel for a Gibson style single action compression rod, so using one with a Martin style U-channel rod is extra work, and will quite likely negatively effect the functioning of the rod.

Fantastic. The colour scheme is very tasteful, the body shape is unique, without being clunky, and the whole thing hangs together beautifully. One of the nicest I've seen on here for quite a while. I'm using that same bridge on my current guitar, so I'm also very impressed by how straight you got the ferrules! Again... fantastic.

Yes. Infact, you can probably pick up what ever you want for less than $100.

Sorry, that's not true at all. The sound a guitar produces is by definition the 'true' sound of a guitar. It may not be the pure, unaltered sound of a piece of spruce vibrating, but that is beside the point - the 'distortion' as you call it is part and parcel of a desirable accoustic tone. This is fundamental to what I was saying - the back and sides are contributors to the final sound, not simply reflectors. Again - you maintain that the tone is distorted from what is 'should be'. Adding overtones and harmonics creates a rich, characterful tone, guitar builders do not *tolerate* this - they actively encourage it, and use different materials to create specific tones! My knowledge of Ovations history is not expansive, all I know is Kamen used to build helicopters, then moved into building guitars. I think it is undoubtedly the case that Ovation reached the position they are in because of their stage instruments. That's a very charitable interpretation, but this is one thing I am 100% certain of - repairers dislike Ovations because they are very difficult to work on. The combination of non-standard adhesives, non spot-repairable poly finish and a back you can't clamp easily are not a boon to the repairer. Bob Taylor probably uses as much CAD in his guitar production as Ovation, but he is held in much higher regard by luthiers in general. Absolutely - I welcome all opinions, even if they're WRONG... uh I mean different to mine

Since everyone is so enthusiastic, I'll just play devils advocate for a minute. In discussion with experienced accoustic builders who make a living from lutheiry and/or repairs, it has become evident that Ovations and other composite guitars are widely disliked. Most pro-builders consider them to be pretty lousy accoustic guitars, which served a usefull niche when they came into being, but which are now a product looking for a market, rather than vice versa. Ovations were created to provide a good plug-in accoustic sound which could be amplified without feeding back horribly, and they were very good at this. The downside was, they sound lousy unplugged - thin and tinny are the common descriptors. This is probably due to their belief that the back and sides of an accoustic guitar are simply a means to bounce sound out of the sound hole, and not actual contributors to the final tone. This notion is vigorously rejected by almost all accoustic builders for the last few hundred years . Unfortunately for Ovation, times have changed, and the staggering range of piezo, transducer and other accoustic pickup types now allow any accoustic to be amplified without feedback and sound great. Products like the fishman piezo bridge even allow solid bodies to do a passable impression of an accoustic, so even electric players who liked the Ovations skinny electric-esque neck don't really need one anymore. Ovations are also despised by repairers, since they are virtually impossible to repair due to the specialised epoxy glues they emply in contruction - which is a pig since they are desperately prone to center seam seperation and sunken tops! They are also quite prone to top separation due to the different expansion and contraction rates of wood and fibreglass... Just my two cents, as someone who loves wood, and doesn't reaaally understand plastic guitars

I think he probably did you a favour... Solid marble blade cover? Like sheath? I reeeeally doubt it - Marble would weigh far too much! I'd be prepared to bet the blade was pure pot metal, and the sheath finest quality marbled resin. I'm also guessing it had the 'traditional' sandblasted ripples on the cutting edge to imitate the tempering on real swords...

Advantage - If you apply thin coats and allow them to flash, you can apply the equivalent of one heavy coat with reduced risk of runs. The 2 - 4 hour drying time is most likely based on a heavy application of the product - with the flash time you're simply applying that heavy coat, but in 3 light passes, allowing the finish to flash of between passes, and preventing horrible sanding to level later. I doubt many people here are using oil based (not to be confused with an oil finish), unless we've got a hardcore of undercover fiddle makers. Most people are using nitro or acrylic. Which waterbased product are you applying? All the different varieties handle well, differently and so will yield different advice. I've used target PSL, which is waterbased and can be applied by brush (I sprayed). This is the same product Stew Mac sell as Colortone Waterbase guitar laquer. Finally, I'd be prepared for a world of misery if you want to apply a transparent coloured laquer with anything other than spray. Getting an even appearance will be *virtually* impossible. If you're going solid, that should be fine. You can also apply the stain to the wood with a rag and get decent results.

You don't need trussrod in the area of neck which is glued into the body - this area is too rigid to flex, either from string pull, or from trussrod adjustment, so extending the trussrod that far would be overkill.

I've used their JB clone (sometimes called Rocker) which is a nice trebly cutting pickup. I've also used their motherbucker, which is a fullsize humbucker, composed of 2 single coil sized humbuckers. In my case they were cool rails. I found the motherbucker a little muddy at first, but I'm now using it in my padauk SG, and it sounds great, since the padauk is pretty bright.

Yes. They're well made, on a par with Seymour Duncans and Dimarzio, and they cost much less than either of those brands.

I cannot recommend the 1mm underlap of finish under the bridge - this is the cause of many many bridges popping. Your finish will raise the bridge above the body wood, and you will end up with an undesirably thick layer of glue holding the bridge. Good bridge glues *do not* gapfill well, and the glue joint created will be weak. You are better off to score around the bridge very carefully and remove the finish completely in this area. It's a little more timeconsuming, but produces a much much stronger glue joint. Given what a great job you've done so far it would be a shame to cut corners at this point