Setch

1. Those gaps shouldn't be there... a well made neck joint should be nice and tight, ideally you can pickup the unglued neck and have the body come with it. I don't always manage that, but I try to shoot for a joint which won't fit together if I put 1 thickness of cheap copier paper round the tennon. 2. Yes, the angle is deliberate. Most set neck guitars have some neck angle, to bring the strings closer to the fret board. Basically, if your bridge is taller than your fingerboard is thick (most are) your strings will be close to the fretboard at the nut, and get further away the closer they get to the bridge. To bring the strings almost parallel to the fretboard you can either: -Lower the bridge (seems to be popular on this board, a good example is Wes's V). -Raise the fingerboard (look at a strat, or strat style guitar). -Angle the neck (as in the pick above). I think angling the neck is the most proffesional looking way to do it, but thats just IMO. Wes's recessed bridge looks very slick, and the rasied fingerboard works well on Strat type low bridges, but I'd avoid it with a tunamatic or other tall bridge.

They'll be going on this... -3 piece mahogany/padauk/mahogany neck with EI Rosewood board and head veneer -2 Piece semi-hollow mahogany body with bookmatched flame maple top -2 ply tortoise/cream binding It's going to be setup with 2 Stew Mac golden age humbuckers, a volume control and blend knob, no tone or toggle switch.

His 'buy it now' price is £2.50 more than buying a 24.75 slotted and radiused ebony board from Craft supplies. So all in all, no it isn't worth it Order a free catalgue on the website, then you'll have an idea of what things are readily available, and what they cost.

Sneaky. Seeing the work you did on the first two I don't think you've got much to sweat, they were really sharp guitars. Where do you get that lovely maple from?

I posted this to another site a while back, it may be helpful to you. Building guitar bodies - Photo Essay.

Nice flame, and really clean work - not a hint of burning, even in the corners of your routes. What's your secret?

i'm not a genius, or *good* with a lathe. I think the real important thing is having a lathe to use at all Basically, I cut 2 rectangles out of an offcut of padauk, and used my router to make it 15 thick with perfectly parallel faces. I then drew a circle on it and chopped roughly round it. Once it was trimmed, I glued a piece of black plastic scratch plate material to one side of the blocks, and drilled a hole in approximately the middle of each circle. Whilst these set, I chucked a piece of scrap hardwood in the lathe, and turned up a round section slightly narrower than the final diameter of my knobs. I then turned a small peg on the end of the cylinder, which corresponded to the size of hole in the discs. This is to hold the discs in the lathe without having to grip them in the chuck. The discs were placed on the peg, and a small strip of doublesided stickytape ensured the discs didn't slip during turning. I then used a small chisel to turn the corners and wonky edges off the rough shaped disc. You have to go slow for this, because the uneven faces of the rough disc can grab your chisel if you are heavy handed. After the piece is round, I turned it to the final diameter of the base - in this case 25.5 mm. The next step was to glue on the second layer of black plastic, then turn this down to the diameter of the top of the knob - 15mm. Once this was done, I used a small round ended tool to join the top and base of the knob with a nice curve. I sanded each piece to 800 grit, grain filled them with 2 application of thin CA, and polished them with 2000 grit paper and finally some common or garden brasso.

The blue guitar is my #2. Quilt maple cap on a 2 piece mahogany body, with mahogany neck and ebony fretboard. There are a bunch of pics here.

If you want to go really custom, you can turn your own on a lathe. I knocked these out this morning for my current project. Padauk (to match the centre lamination of the neck) capped with black pickguard material top and bottom. I think they look pretty classy

Oh, looks like Butnut has some pretty good advice - makes mine pretty redundant Still I'll leave it here anyway... ***Original post*** What kind of finish is it - ie opaque, transparent, matte, gloss etc? If he's missing the chips it could be tough. I was going to suggest CA (superglue) but that seems to have been eliminated as a possibility. How deep are the dings? Is the finish all gone down to bare wood?

Sg's sound great made from Mahogany or korina (black limba). I've also had good results using Padauk, though this probably isn't the route for you, since the result was a bright guitar, which I had to balance with a bass humbucker to get the sound I wanted.

Check out wdmusicproducts.com - They have a UK division, and you can request a catalogue. Great range of products, not least the Kent Armstrong pickups, which are great quality and very reasonably priced.

Wes.... I think he's after the knobs not the pots (the stew mac pot's are good quality though) There are a number of UK suppliers who can help you here, but you're likely to encounter the same problems you did ordering the Hiscock book - fancy knobs are a fairly specialised item, and available mostly by mail order or online. I'd recommend asking in any local electronics store, or a music shop, but I fear they will only have stock parts for large manufacturors, so a unique design may be difficult to locate. **** Gah! Beaten to the punch!

A laminated body like a 70's LP is not an example of "the old method of guitar building". It is an example of Gibson's penny pinching and corner cutting during the Norlin era, which is widely reguarded as the low point of Gibson's long history. Accordingly, guitars built during this time sell for considerably less than those from the 50's and 60's. This isn't to say your guitar is a stinker - it may well be excellent. But if it is, it's in spite of the construction technique, not because of it. The instruments which built Gibson's reputation were built from one or two 2" thick peices of good quality honduras mahogany, which is perfectly stable without any extra laminations. Also, I put it to you that the construction techniques used in guitars are necessarily very different to those used in aeroplane props, not least because guitars are rarely called upon to maintain 30,000 rpm for hours at a time. Whilst your advice may be excellent for somebody planning to build a propellar, it is needlessly complex for somebody building a guitar, especially their first.

Well, I'd consider mailing Mr.Hiscock. Worst thing he can do is say he can't help. What exactly is the problem with buying online? If it's that you don't have a credit card, ask somebody with one if they will pay and accept cash from you. Amazon also accept cheques by post, surely you know somebody with a chequebook? Where in the UK are you? Search google for book shops in your area which can order it... If you provide the relevant information I'm sure we can get your hands on a copy, and that's what this is about, right? Because I'm far more interested in helping you out than argueing with you....

I found my spokeshave improved from a great tool to an excellent tool when I found out how to hold it properly. The handles aren't really for grip. I grip the body of the shave with my finger and thumb, and just lightly rest my other fingers along the handles, which really improves your control over the cutting angle and stops the shave grabbing or tipping. I use both a wooden shave which belonged to my grandfather, and a stanley model makers shave like this one. Both are excellent tools, though I prefer the stanley, probably because I've yet to completely master the wooden shave.

Ethics aside, the publishers of any book in the United Kingdom are required to make a copy available free of charge to the U.K library system. It is legal. Scanning the book is not - The notice on the inside cover of the book specifically states "No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without prior permission in writing from the publishers". We could argue about this for a month, but I'd rather build guitars with my spare time, so... what exactly have you tried to get the book? -Have you asked a book shop to order it? -Have you asked you library to transfer a copy from another branch? If you've tried these, how about contacting the author? There are many ways to get your hands on the book, most of them don't require a credit card, and you should try these *before* you even consider asking someone to scan it for you. Hope I don't sound like a crabby authoritarian (I'm only 24!)..

Go to a book shop or a library. My local library had a copy, and I was able to buy it in London. Any bookshop will be able to order it for you if you ask. Being in the UK is no barrier, the author is based in the UK! Anybody scanning the book for you would be commiting copyright violation, not to mention stealing from a fellow musical instrument builder - I for one would not be prepared to do it, and really hope nobody else here would. I'm all for saving money, but the way to do it is intelligence and hard work, not stealing the fruit of someone else's labours. </rant>

For all practical intents, yes. You will probably remove some material from the very top of the maple when you carve the top, but very little. Not enough to worry about. I wouldn't recommend taking any steps towards building the body unless you've also decided how to approach the neck, the relation between the two is critical to a playable guitar, let alone a 'good' one. Do yourself a favour and pickup a copy of Melvyn Hiscock's 'Make your Own Electric Guitar', it will make this whole process infinitely easier.

Listen to Rhoads - you want those slots the right size, or you're in for a world or hurt. Many things in the world of luthiery can be "close enough". Fret slotting is not one of these things. Not wishing to appear rude, I'd question how appropriate it is for people who've never done a fret job to comment on the subject, let alone recommend tools they have no personal experience of. At the very least I'd encourage people to state whether they are referencing personal experience or speculation when they post, lest somebody be misled into a dangerous practice or costly mistake. In that spirit, I've also heard the Stanley dovetail saw is the correct width for fret slotting, but I haven't personally verified this.

In simple terms: Maple top 5/8" Mahogany body 1 3/4" You can disregard the glue up without any worries, whilst a number of bodies were made this may in the 70's they are widely considered to be inferior, both in terms of wood used and qualtiy of constuction. Mahogany is a very stable timber on it's own, so a 1 or 2 piece body should be pefectly stable - it worked for me, and god knows how many LP's made before the dreaded Norlin era. I'd also stick to regular titebind for all your joints. Whilst poly glue is great for gap filling this shouldn't be an issue if you do your prep correctly, joints shouldn't need any filling unless you're being sloppy. For timber, you can use african, cuban or honduran mahogany, chances are the timber won't be from where it claims to be anyway, so worrying about the name unduly is wasted effort. Make sure the timber you select is straight grained and free from defects, shakes, knots etc. Take particular care with the neck timber, it should be quarter sawn, or very close. If you're feeling particularly thorough, try knocking on the wood with your knuckles whilst holding it by one corner, It should make a satisfying, clear 'bonk' - If it's muffled or dead sounding it may make a dissapointing guitar.

That is definately the voice of somebody who hasn't tried carving maple! Mahogany is infinitely easier to carve, because maple is *HARD*. The maple cap does affect tone, but a number of LP's have featured solid mahogany construction, and by all accounts they sound great too.

My first guitar is a solid paduok SG junior with a few tweaks - see below. It is fitted with a Kent Armstrong Mutherbucker, comprised of two cool rail singlecoil sized humbuckers. I'm only using one of the cool rails which I'm led to believe have a character similar to a PAF. With this setup it's very balanced, pretty thick sounding when distorted, and smooth with quite responsive attack when I roll back the volume to clean up. I think the natural sound of the paduok is pretty bright, since I found the mutherbucker a bit muddy in a mahogany SG it used to live in, but very nice in the paduok guitar. Even if you're going semihollow, expect a weighty guitar - mine weighs a ton despite some chambering on the bass bout.

Rasp, spokeshave and round surform. All of these are great for quick stock removal. You can just go nuts with abrasives, but that's a good way to fill a garage with sawdust. Rasps and spokeshaves produce shavings or large particles of saw dust, which you can't inhale, and which are far easier to clean up... Particularly important if you plan on spraying in the workshop later

Paul, Craft-Supplies sell 3/8ths thick bookmatched tops, and have 2 flavours of rosewood to choose from, Santos and EI if I remember correctly. Both were the right side of £25, so definately worth considering. They also sell headstock veneers, though they are of pretty variable quality compared to Stew Macs EI rosewood veneers. Now that I think of it, a tele body off cut would easily yield enough material to cut your own head veneeer... Food for thought.