Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all!!Im new here...I just bought this guitar kit from ebay...
Im preaty happy with it but as im completly new to this i got a tons of questions before i start workin on it....

Its a Lespaul shape guitar as you can see in the picture made from basswood with a maple top..The neck is rosewood-maple.Im planing on painting it all black..

Ill start with a few questions..
1-Should i paint it before i glue the neck?
2-Should i drill the holles for the 2 bridges piece before i paint it?
3-Also i have no idea how to drills those holes and where...I suspect that its got to be preaty precise as to where i put the holes??I need help on this..
4-Also is there anything special i should know before gluing the neck???

TX

Sebastien-
Check out http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/forum/index.php

Most of your answers (and more) will be there.

Cheers
John

I recommend a book like Melvyn Hisock's 'Make Your Own Electric Guitar', because it'll help you understand where and why everything needs to go.

Specific questions:

1) Glue neck, drill all holes before finishing
2) Go to www.stewmac.com/fretcalc and type in the scale length (= twice the distance from nut to 12th fret!!) and it'll tell you where to drill which holes

Hello,

Just throwing in my two cents here:

It looks like you paid for a moderately flamed maple top - maybe you might want to consider doing something translucent in order to show that off?

When working with tuneomatic bridge and tailpiece - you generally drill the holes bridge holes such that the center of travel on the bridge is roughly the scale length (the reference dimension of all your frets) plus about 0.125" on the low E side. The tailpiece is less important. Centered about the same line - I usally put it back about 1.875" from the bridge to get the break angle of the strings that I want. Do a little reading, check out Stew Mac (fretting supplies / scale length calculator - electric guitar @ x scale length), and feel free to ask more questions.

ALso, remember, when drilling the holes in the body - that when you glue on the neck, you are going to be effectively setting where those holes need to me, so make sure you drill either knowing where the neck is going to end up, or with the neck preglued...

Stephen

_________________
www.ziegenfussguitars.com

ok..so i should glue the neck before i drill the holes and before i paint it???
How many C thing whould i need to glue it togeter??

But will it not be hard to paint it once its glued??I mean if i dont want to paint the neck...??
(im french...my english is not that good)
tx

PS:yes its a flamed maple top but i really want a solid black finish...

Glue neck using titebond or similar wood glue, 2 clamps, thre tops. Then drill holes, then finish.

thre tops????

Translation: 'Three, tops'. In other words (I think that's what was meant): two clamps or perhaps three at most will do the job.

Sebastien- it is difficult to tell whether your questions are sincere- please do a bit of research online (here, MIMF, kitguitars forum), read some books, and then come back with questions about details.

John

Oh yea 3 top!!!Sorry bout that lol
Ok so i guess the next step is to glue that neck...

is it just me or is that neck pocket severly off center with the pickup cavitys? i guess it would probably still work but it just looks awfully far off to me. if so ya might want to consider doing something about that before you glue the neck in. it wouldnt be to hard to do, especially if you are going to paint it you, you would not have to worry about making it pretty.

_________________
~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/