making your own guitar

wooooooooooowww i know a man called Mike who makes guitars ! thats pretty cool man !
it looks like my belly shape !!!

Originally Posted by BernardBikerchick

top guitar !!!!! i know this cool guy mike who makes his own guitars too

i think he guitar looks a bit like my belly lol !

Originally Posted by BernardBikerchick

wooooooooooowww i know a man called Mike who makes guitars ! thats pretty cool man !
it looks like my belly shape !!!

Talk about short term memory Dervla....

[phi-dan]

Originally Posted by widepants

thinking of wrapping it in tin foil for that shiny look

Hmmm, nice

blue leds up the fret board as well?

[widepants]

thinking of some the colour of dyno rod vans

Originally Posted by widepants

thinking of some the colour of dyno rod vans

Classy

carbon effect with blue anodised bits bolted on!

[widepants]

Originally Posted by mjc

carbon effect with blue anodised bits bolted on!

naaa
try harder

[ophic]

Originally Posted by Wideboy

i had 5 mins on Tuesday at work so i made the neck out of beech with a wenge fretboard. This evening i had nothing planned so dabbled a bit and drilled out a hole down the centre of the neck and screwed in a 10mm threaded steel bar to help prevent the neck bowing. Depending on how strong i feel the joint is from the neck to body i may whack some screws in from the back and grain plug them of make up a nice stainless plate to cover them

not heard of either of those woods being used for neck/fretboards. I've got a beech strip down my neck and it's been fine but it's also got mahogany either side of it. Is wenge hard enough for a fretboard? Don't know much about it. If it's as hard as rosewood or ebony it'll be fine.

10mm steel bar as truss rod? It'll be heavy. I know - my first guitar just has a steel brace glued in and it weighs a ton. The most common truss rod design is bar about 5mm dia laid into a curved channel. Tighten it and it tries to straighten, bending the neck against the string tension. I do know that some manufacturers use a straight rod but not sure how effective it is. But with 10mm, I doubt you'll need to adjust it at all.

Last point - when flatting off the frets, it's normal to tension the truss rod slightly to bend the neck back. This makes your frets slightly lower in the middle where the string vibration is the largest. This can't be done with a straight rod.

Looking good though

And +1 to not painting it. Oil + wax for a matt finish, or Rustin's Plastic Coating for a deep gloss. Oil + wax isn't very hard but is very easy to repair any damage. The Rustin's stuff is hard as nails and can be applied inches thick if you really want.

Nice project Wideboy!

Pickup wise, for a nice bluesy sound, you could try a Seymour Duncan 59- classic 59 Les Paul tone. I've got one in my Hot Rod Strat- it sounds ace. Nice and chunky, like.

Maybe a JB for the bridge?

[yorkie_chris]

I bet a rifle stock in that wood would look nice...