MIMF

Always use a sanding block. This alone will eliminate most high and low spots. After that, use a raking light to check and double check. Sometimes a bit of mineral spirits or a sealer coat will bring out some imperfections and then you can try to finesse the leveling by taking down the area around t...

Well now I feel a lot better. I was kicking myself for not drilling that output jack hole before I routed the pickup cavities, but I forgot all about the binding router bit. Now I am glad I forgot.

I think using fish glue would be similar to using HHG. Some builders prefer to use epoxy to glue on the fretboard, to avoid introducing water (which is in both fish glue and HHG) onto the fretboard and neck. Now, as far as the fret ends, my feeling (and this is only my opinion) is that Gibson's meth...

When I bought my mahogany body blanks, I asked the seller to sell me slightly thicker blanks, and then he cut a slice off the back. Since this is pretty straight grained mahogany, the grain on the thin slice should match pretty well. I think you technique should work well too. By the time you put fi...

Thanks for that information. My question really was two questions. 1. Could you use a drop top on an already carved body (so you would get an extra thick body, carve the appropriate shape into the body and then laminate it with a drop top)? 2. If one would not work, because the drop top was too thic...

Thanks, Eric. I also found some other videos on YouTube, where they show the process. I now see what you mean about the center seam.

Beautiful work! Lots of nice details. About your tailpiece, do you find that providing more afterlength for the high strings makes them feel looser? Normally the low side of the tailpiece is shorter, to give more afterlength to those strings. In my mind, if the whole afterlength principal works, you...

Eric, I took a look at that video. Very cool. Can you please give me some more detailed information. How thick was the piece you glued on? Was it an actual veneer or something thicker? How thick? Also you mentioned a frame around the body. Was that just so that the top would not get bent over the bo...

I have noticed that the availability of wood for drop tops is much greater (and a lot less expensive) than wood for carve top electric guitars. I am wondering if it would be possible to carve the top of a body blank like a regular carve top (Les Paul type, for example) and then use a drop top cap or...

I recently purchased a vacuum press setup to glue the top caps on carved top solid body electrics. I have not used it yet, but will in the next week or two. I did a bunch of research and talked to several vendors, and luthiers who use vacuum setups. My take on it was that the vacuum pressure will be...

Greek bouzoukis have the dot on the 10th fret. The Greek bouzouki is tuned CFAD (low - high) so the 10th fret is C.

Thanks!

I decided to go with the Lace Hemi pickups rather than the Darkmoon Overkills. Lace has a lot of great reviews and from what I heard and read, I liked the sound.

I have built several Greek bouzoukis, which are basically a bowl back mandolin with a longer neck. I built my first one in 1980, with the help of a local lute maker. There are a few things you need to adjust. On a lute, the bowl is basically a semicircle in cross section. On a mandolin, the bowl is ...

Anybody ever use Darkmoon pickups. They make several humbucker versions which I am considering for a set neck electric guitar build. I am looking at the Aurora from their Vintage series and the Overkill from their Dark Arts series.

I am working on two set neck electrics right now. They are not chambered, but they are weight relieved. I came up with my own weight relief routing pattern, cut it out of 1/2 inch MDF, and used it to route cavities in the body.

Freeman, I have these Faber Tonelok's in god l https://www.faberusa.com/product-category/faber-bridge-studs/for-nashville-conversions/faber-bswkit/ . I am building this guitar from scratch, and it is for me. It is not a Gibson or a Les Paul copy, so I don't have to worry about being accurate. I have...

David, these are the posts from the bridge. The original Les Paul's had these really thin posts that had threads on them. You screwed them into the top, and then put on the big wheel that held up the bridge. Then the Nashville style bridge came along with the threaded stud plug you pressed into the ...

I am working on a Les Paul style build. I am using ABR style bridge studs (although much beefier ones to prevent them bending). After drilling the hole, is the ABR stud just twisted into the hole self threading itself, or do builders thread the hole first? I am a ways off from this step, but just pl...

You can just buy a "black" veneer, which is some plain wood dyed black, or you can get the black fiber veneer. Many companies use the black fiber in lieu of ebony, because it is jet black, cheaper and does not use valuable and scarce ebony for the look of jet black-no grain veneer.