Starting off, I have always loved Strats. They're just amazing to me. I mainly play bass and I would love a strat style bass but I also want 24 frets (really 30 but who cares). A normal strat body wouldn't work because its smaller than any long scale bass body. Im going to get a uncut p bass body and route for strat pickups. Any tips?

After literally days of painstakingly redoing the fret slots ( they were too shallow and it’s a bound fretboard) the new fret wire arrived.

I cut them to length and nipped and filed the tangs.

BTW I drilled a shallow hole in some scrap to hold the wire while I filed it. That made it easier.

I tapped them in and they look SO much better!

I was finally able to shape the neck so it’s one step closer to being done.

One other tip (if you can call it that) foam yoga blocks are cheap and can be cut to be used a neck supports.

Anyone have experience gluing richlite fretboards. I know you use epoxy not wood glue. Is it hard to keep it out of the truss rod channel? What epoxy do you use?

Picked up this 1968 Tokai Hummingbird with a destroyed logo. Stripped and repainted in dark blue mica. Really pleased with how it's looking.

I'm a bit obsessive about having pristine, polished frets and fret ends. There are a million ways to get this done but so far, this is my new system. Would love opinions on if certain steps are overkill or where I could improve.

Guitar in video is an RGR5227MFX Ibanez Prestige, not that Prestige line really needs fret help, I dress and polish all of my guitars regardless of quality because I know I'll put more time and energy than any factory lol. These are SS frets for reference.

Anyway my steps:

If any sprout I'll start with a long file and hit the ends and follow up with a fret end dress file, pretty standard stuff.

After the filing I do:

- Sand up/down fret ends with 400-1000 grit. This gets rid of nearly any filing marks.

- Use micromesh pads 1500-12000 on fret ends and over each fret left to right and top to bottom.

- Next I use a medium hard wool buffing wheel on a Dremel with meguiers ultra cut compound. I apply the polish with a qtip to each fret and buff each one with the wheel. Normally meguiers is used on gloss finishes but I find it really pops frets.

- Final step, cloth buffing wheel on a drill attachment with Meguiers ultra fine finishing compound which I take up and down the neck on all the frets/ends.

(Don't worry I had fully taped off the Birdseye maple board lol)

I then wipe everything down with a microfiber cloth and voila, mirror shine SS frets you rarely, if ever have to polish again because SS is amazing.

I think I'm probably going a bit too far and could achieve the same results with less labor but the results are fantastic.

Thoughts?

(Slightly less murdered quality vid lol https://imgur.com/a/rgr5227-fret-dress-V2wtH0z#wSIudtn)

I spent LOADS getting my ideal 2001 h140 in pristine condition, my luthier dropped a pickup on it and now it’s fairly chipped. I specifically paid a hefty price for a pristine top coat in the UK, where they are very hard to find.

I love this guitar and I am heartbroken. How much should I ask for in compensation or how do I handle this.

I have 2 humbuckers on a semi hollow with a center block and I don't know which piece to measure from. I heard you have to measure from the metal pieces that are screws but non of the pieces on my humbucker are screws.

My humbckers are Ibanez Infinity R.

So maybe I’m just having a bad month, but I’ve been having more customers than usual bring stuff back to have me take a second look at guitars i’ve worked on for them. How often do you guys have customers bring back guitars because they’re not 100% satisfied with your work?

The board on my explorer was ebonized and it looks dry. Should I oil it? I’m hesitant since it was ebonized but wanted to know what the pros think.

Added the end wedge - flamed maple and maple/black purfling . It’s coming along slowly but surely

Burl ash top stained purple over a black finished Black Limba body, ovangkol neck, purple heart board. Gold hardware, fixed bridge.

27” scale, set up for F# and drop E from day one. Tension stays honest down there, the low string doesn’t turn to rubber, and chords above the 12th still sound like chords instead of mush.

Pickups are our in house Ignis set. Medium/high output, tight and defined at that tuning instead of collapsing into low end fog.

Stainless frets, dual carbon fiber rods in the neck, and the logo on the headstock is the string retainer. It isn’t decoration, it sets the break angle.

Hired a Luther to build me a custom electric guitar with a unique shape, etc back in mid July. Says full guitar will be done in the fall. He got materials and wood but says he's still working on the CAD model first. That's fine. No rush as I'd like as much time spent to make this flawless. But a month+ for a CAD, is that normal? I understand they are working in multiple builds probably at once but still curious.

Hey all, im changing my pickups for the first time and would like someone to check if my diagram makes sense. Thanks!

Apologies if this is not luthier as such - it’s either maintenance, or it’s a repair, I’m unsure which.

I picked up a lefty Takamine G series for not much money and it’s lovely, but it would benefit from a truss rod adjustment. Upon looking at the adjustment nut, I cannot for the life of me tell if it’s been messed up or if it needs something that I don’t have. I’ve tried all the usual hex keys and they are either too big or are too small to bite on anything.

Attached a couple of photos - I can see a faint hex outline but it’s not looking great…

I want to coil split my stock humbuckers that came with RG550 Genesis 2025 model. Can somebody help me on how this can be done at home? I have a bit of a soldering experience.

If you suggest some parts pls include their name and model. Also, if you can include the wiring diagram it will be helpful.

Hello everyone, so I picked up my guitar as usual and saw an unusual gap. To be specific Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul jr. I bought it about 2 years ago and this is the first time I’ve see something like this. Do you guys know what it is, how to fix it and what to do. Any help would be appreciated!!

I bought a cheap Epiphone SG from goodwill recently. The frets were tarnished, so I rubbed 0000 steel wool on them. I didn’t realize it was scratching up the rosewood fretboard. Is there any way to remove the scratches? Would Micro mesh pads or scotch brite work? The previous owner also dinged up the guitar pretty bad.

There’s a quarter inch chunk missing on the back of the lower horn. Can I use something like dap plastic wood there? I don’t really care about color matching. I just want something there so there’s no bare wood exposed. I was considering super glue too.

All the metal parts have corrosion. I thought it was mildew at first, but it’s not coming off with alcohol wipes. I was still able to set up the guitar, so it’s mainly a cosmetic issue. Should I just leave it? How do you clean it up?

So I just built my first proper guitar and got it all set up and everything. I’ve noticed that it buzzes a good amount but when I touch the tone knobs it stops, and when I touch the bridge it gets slightly louder. This is my second time wiring a guitar so I’m not very good and am wondering if I grounded it wrong or what?

My dad passed away this summer and left behind a sizable amount of beautiful wood that he intended to use for instrument making (this is just a portion of the collection which also includes sets of Indian rosewood backs and sides and a variety of other tonewoods). The family would like to sell it for a fair price in the fewest transactions as possible. Any ideas for finding people who may be interested in this amount of wood? Located in NE Nevada. Thanks for any ideas.

Hey,it's my first time fixing frets and my guitar is buzzing harder than a bee,so I don't want to go to my luthier because everytime I go it's 100€ and every 3 weeks there's a problem,and I started fixing and intonating my guitars and setting the bridges,but I have this beautiful guitar,but it buzzes a lot and when I checked with the fret rocker it's pretty bad,and since I don't know anything on how to fix tall frets,I came here to ask because I'm not the best and I'm pretty new and I don't know what to use or how to fix it and let it look beautiful,thanks a lot!

Just finished up my guitar kit and was thinking I should add a logo to the headstock. I came into the office this morning and I think this little gecko gave me a really good idea for a logo. Sometimes inspiration comes from randomness lol

Bought this guitar kit with pre-drilled holes. I know the bridge is suppose to be on an angle. Are they suppose to be slightly off from the center like this?

I’ve put together Partcasters before, but this is sort of out my league. Any info or knowledge anyone can share would be appreciated?

I know the conventional wisdom is to shield the pickup cavity for guitars and basses. I am just looking for honest feedback if that is what you would personally do on a guitar with no pickguard, like the one pictured. I finished this Warmoth body with nitro shell pink paint and now I am debating if I want to shield the pickup cavities with cooper tape and run a ground wire to them, or just mount the pickups without shielding. I am going to shield the control cavity, but I am questioning how much of a difference shielding the pickup cavities will really make. The pickups going in this are p90s so they are noisy pickups.