MIMF

The bari sounds much better with a different distortion pedal :) The Boss super overdrive just couldn't quite handle the low end on it. Probably less a case of "can't handle" and more a case of "rolls those frequencies off completely". A lot of pedals do this especially tube scr...

3 ways to do this, each have their own points. Decals: Work well for black and colours when over light or midtoned wood. Made professionally they used to be silkscreened but these days are either inkjet or laser. My experience says that the laser ones work considerably better for guitars. The reason...

Contact adhesive is a no go for veneer, at least for anything with a visible edge. Given it's flexibility it "might" work with a bound edge but something tells me it'll end up lumpy even with the best intentions. Before anyone else mentions it the single worst thing to use is epoxy, I'm no...

Don't know if you've ever heard this but in the old (70s) BC Rich workshop they used to do it with rope! Just start winding it around tight and go from end to end. Apparently this is how all the Mexican luthiers who worked there learned to do it building acoustics. They also had these big home-made ...

I just use vice-grips to pull them tight. The StewMac things have a little wheel that tightens them, I wonder how much leverage you get going with that but the pressure is shared over all of them http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Neck,_fingerboard/Fingerboard_Band_Clamp.html . Spre...

I use a caul (read as sanding block) at the body joint end. After trying everything under the sun I realised I get the best results using a heavy duty zip tie at every fret more or less. It applies huge amounts of pressure, centers the fingerboard on the neck, keeps the sides locked down AND, most i...

... But assuming a line from the nut to the bridge should be equal distance from the fretboard & both pickups, I think we need to sand down the top a bit more to lower the pickup closest to the bridge. Do you agree? Just noticed this, you may be right though I can't quite see in your photo. I j...

Typical stationery type white pencil eraser. I use the cork type blocks as well but only for sanding the wood. Regarding the wood, where I need it to stay hard and flat I use the small aluminium sanding beams you get from model plane shops, I use double sided tape to attach the paper. I also have a ...

Ah, no (how would that work!?) but I do fret unbound boards off the guitar then glue them onto the neck. Usually that's after the neck has been fitted and glued in. I only mentioned it because there's only really a procedural reason to do it with a bound neck with nubs. It's still simpler (to me any...

3.5 degrees is roughly what you have on a Les Paul with a lowish sitting tune-o-matic. For a Trem I'd say you want about 2 degrees, maybe a bit less if you're recessing the pull-up. I generally work it out in Illustrator but you could just grab a big piece of paper and do it that way.

Fretting the board before it's glued on is one of those things you'll never get anyone to agree on. I always do Gibson style "nubs" on bound fingerboards so it's part and parcel of the procedure of doing that, nowadays I do unbound boards that way too. I was terrified the first time I did ...

This is the Strandberg one? Looks great http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/2008/06/floyd-rose-drop-in-replacement-tremolo.html (Copyrighted photo removed by staff - click the link above if you want to see it. Please do not attach images that you did not take or do not have explicit permission to ...

I've done this sort of rack before. In the end the best thing seems to be thick natural undyed vegetable tanned leather. The sort that people who do leather tooling use. Pretty much anything else has the potential to imprint a mark, react with finish etc. etc.

I recall also there being a ton of info regarding hardware on the "Building the ergonomic guitar" site.

http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/

Have you considered ABM, their stuff is very high quality. Personally I think there's no big deal with pot metal when it's a tune-o-matic base or a stop tailpiece but its a whole other thing when dealing with something actually mechanical like this. Consider that routing for these sort of things is ...

Probably closer to one can of Vintage Amber (or just straight yellow, this can be wiped on with a cloth full strength) 1/2 of a can of Tobacco brown (would be 1/8 other than the neck) and 3 cans of clear. Wipe the yellow, then seal, then spray 2 coats of lear then shoot the brown. Clearcoat to finis...

I just use a regular solder pencil to do pot backs. The main trick is to use a scalpel/box cutter blade etc. to scrape the back of the pot first. They seem to coat or plate them with something that inhibits soldering. This is an issue with Alpha pots but not CTS if I recall.

Like I said the fretted thing is just a wild guess but I've never had the neck issues some people have with gluing the fingerboard with titebond. User error and problems with the sides not clamping tight, sure. In the end I found that the best way for me to "clamp" is with about 20 heavy d...

I use a single action rod that looks a lot like the allied one except that it has a removable nut and washer. I always use a thin filler strip with it, it's maybe 1/8" after its planed flat. The main reason is to lock the rod hard into the neck to eliminate any possibility of a rattle. I insert...