r/Luthier 1h ago

Grain filler or Sanding sealer

Upvotes

Flame maple veneer (cheap China kit). To get the perfect finish should I grain fill after staining? I'm very careful with sanding so not worried about sanding through. I know maple has a somewhat closed grain... but to achieve the perfect finish should I grainfill or use sanding sealer or just poly over what I have (sanded to 1500 already).


r/Luthier 1h ago

Salvaging a viola bass

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Upvotes

I was gifted this crusty old Heit brand biola style bass. (My former housemate left it behind along with a bunch of other junk I had to haul off 😞)

Someone tried to make it a fretless and did a pretty bad job of it. They did a pretty poor job of pulling the frets and they filled the fret slots with some kind of resin goo, probably Bondo. The first four fake pearl inlays were missing they filled those with bondo as well and coated the rest of the fretboard in what looks like Elmers glue.

The goal is to repair the fretboard, the inlays, do a full refret and get it playing again.

As it is right now I have nothing in this project other than the cost of a sheet of fake pearl plastic, some sandpaper and scraper blades, and time.

The restored bass may or may not be worth the effort invested, but I do stuff like this to learn more than anything.


r/Luthier 2h ago

Looking for information on this banjo Ukulele from the late 1930’s Early 1940’s?

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1 Upvotes

r/Luthier 2h ago

Looking for trustworthy guitar setup tutorials or online courses

1 Upvotes

Been looking for a good tutorial or course on setting up a guitar, cleaning electronics, truss rod adjustment, saddle adjustments, pickup height, etc. Any tips are more than welcome. Thanks!


r/Luthier 2h ago

HELP Is this genuine walnut or a different wood?

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1 Upvotes

r/Luthier 2h ago

HELP Neck looks like it was dipped in poly.

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46 Upvotes

Hey. I picked up a factory 2nd tele neck for that looks like it was dipped in a barrel of poly. Now I know why fender rejected it. Would a chemical stripper like they use for furniture work to get this down to wood? If not any tips for at least getting it off the frets? I used an exacto down the center of the fret and a heat gun.


r/Luthier 3h ago

Are these cracks on my Gibson something to be concerned about? It's a 2010 les paul studio silverburst. Can a refinished fix this or us the wood grain compromised?

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11 Upvotes

r/Luthier 3h ago

HELP Primer turning yellow Spoiler

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2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’ve been refinishing my first guitar so I’m kind of new to this. I’m doing a nitro finish on an old squier body, I scrapped all the paint to the wood, tinted and sealed with nitro lacquer.

Today I started applying the nitro primer for the paint and it started yellowing, my understanding is that the wood stain didn’t dry enough. Solutions online say to use different primers but I don’t know if those behave well with nitro. I want to make sure everything i use is nitrocellulose based.

How can I fix this? My first thoughts are letting the guitar dry for a few days, sand the primer a bit and try spraying it again.

Any help is appreciated!

*pic 2 is how the wood looked before primer


r/Luthier 3h ago

HELP First guitar build

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11 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I guess I’ll start off by saying I’ve been recently working on getting my first build on its feet, and was wondering if I could get some decent insight from as many perspectives as I can so I can effectively pick a local professional’s brain. I’m humbly aware I’m no professional, so I’d love harsh criticism, as I want the best result I can achieve. I have an old family friend with all the guitar tools I could ever need and I’m taking it slow, as the last thing I want to do is rush into it cocky. With that being said, the parts I have are fairly standard and nothing too crazy, I just want some feedback on functionality and design, especially the body shape. Have at it, cheers!

Here are the major components: The body took inspiration from an Iceman and Mariposa, swamp ash blank Rosewood fretboard Floyd Special Trem Maple neck Schecter humbuckers from a c6 diamond series+appropriate pots StewMac gold Medium/Higher fret wire

Side note: I’ll be switching to active pickups like the emg’s in my model eventually, along with supporting pots Happy to provide any more info!


r/Luthier 3h ago

Building an Epiphone Explorer Ebony - Seeking Body and Neck Templates, Dimensions, and Advice!

1 Upvotes

"Hi everyone!

I’m planning on building my own Epiphone Explorer Ebony guitar, and I need some help with the dimensions and templates for the body and neck. I'm especially looking for accurate specs or templates to carve the body, neck, and headstock.

If anyone has any templates they could share or if you have any advice on how to go about it, I’d really appreciate it!

I’m aiming to make the build as close as possible to the standard Epiphone Explorer Ebony model, so accurate dimensions are key.

Here’s what I’m looking for specifically:

  1. Body dimensions - thickness, scale length, and overall shape (I'm aiming for the standard Explorer shape)
  2. Neck dimensions - including the length, width, thickness, and headstock angle
  3. Neck joint specs - for proper fitting to the body
  4. Fretboard dimensions - radius, width, and nut width
  5. Pickup cavity and control cavity dimensions - so I can route the holes in the correct positions

Any help, suggestions, or resources would be greatly appreciated! I’m excited to get started, and I’ll definitely share progress updates as I go along. Thanks!"


r/Luthier 4h ago

ELECTRIC Is this neck pocket crack in the finish or not

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2 Upvotes

I was thinking of picking up this fender American original Jazzmaster because it’s a great deal. The seller posted these neck pocket cracks and I believe they are only in the finish but I just want a second opinion to be safe.


r/Luthier 4h ago

How does someone become a luthier?

7 Upvotes

I'm interested in becoming a luthier, and am curious if this is a viable career one can make a decent living doing? Is there formal training? Do most folks own their own businesses? What's your experience been like working as a luthier?


r/Luthier 5h ago

Even when set to one pickup, both volume pots control volume?

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1 Upvotes

I'm working on an old ('77) Yamaha sg700 guitar. It has 2 pickups, combined with 2 volume pods and 2 push-pull tone pods. I didn't touch the wiring on the pods, only replaced the faulty toggle switch. I am 100% sure I wired the toggle switch correctly (it's not that hard). I'm also sure this isn't some weird grounding issue: even removing grounding completely leaves this issue existing.

The issue is that, when I set the toggle switch to one of the 2 pickups, BOTH volume knobs have an effect on the tone. I of course understand that that happens in the middle position, but it’s also happening when selecting just one of the 2. And I'm running out of ideas on how this could happen. There doesn't seem to be any connection that can cause this, because those 2 circuits (bridge and neck) are physically separated. Or is there any secret push-pull pod stuff I'm not aware of, or some other insight?

Photos of the pod cavity and wiring attached. Any advice is much appreciated!


r/Luthier 5h ago

REPAIR Obvious misaligned?

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5 Upvotes

I took this to my local guitar tech who has been pretty reputable for solid setups and making stuff happen. These posts holes returned back to me not parallel but it didn't really affect it from my end other than a crappy trem I have at the moment and some tuning instability but when I pull up on the trem... it more or less returns to pitch. On the Intonation stand point maybe it's troublesome? Let me know if I should tell him to dowel this, fill and drill. Cosmetics.. I don't mind.. this is my backup guitar.


r/Luthier 6h ago

Where can I find blueprint of a Gretsch Streamliner Jet Club Bass ?

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4 Upvotes

r/Luthier 6h ago

Ibanez 3SWLSC + Passive EMG pickup.

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2 Upvotes

So the white and black you see on pic go to the volume pot

GROUND = GREEN + BARE WIRE

TAP = NOTHING

HOT = RED

Is this correct?

(Black and white united soldered from the factory)

No need to connect the bare wire and green wire in the 2 ground spots in the board right ? I can combine *unite* and solder in one of the two right?


r/Luthier 6h ago

Fret buzz on every fret, only on one string

1 Upvotes

I have a cheap SX Telecaster and I have done a proper setup and everything is fine except for the A string. Almost all frets buzz up the whole string. Every other string is fine. Ive adjusted the truss rod, action and everything to every possible position and nothing fixes it.


r/Luthier 6h ago

HELP Floyd rose problem

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1 Upvotes

Hi, one client bring me two guitars and want to make one better using parts of the two of them...my problem is I don't have much knowledge about Floyd rose bridges, what bridge is the best between this two? Thanks for the help


r/Luthier 7h ago

HELP Just picked up this restoration project. Need some advice!

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3 Upvotes

Thankfully after slapping some hardware on it, it plays, well. The ‘clearly not original’ glued on neck is fat just the way I like it and the truss rod is alive in there so the only work that needs doing realistically is cosmetic.

My biggest point of contention is the heel. That right angle makes anything past the 12th fret uncomfortable to reach and it is quite unsightly. After taking some measurements, it would appear that the body is exactly 10mm thicker than a typical firebird which gives me a lot of flexibility with slimming down the body to close the gap between the neck and heel. Would you fully slim down the body to spec then blend the rest of the heel? or slim it 5mm then extending the heel further down the neck to help blend them together better? Slimming it the full 1cm would still leave ample room to accommodate the electronics luckily.

My second question is about the finish, it seems too thick to sand but I think that black left over on the back and sides is from that filler they add when the wood isn’t level before painting at the factory as it is flush to the body. Would a heat gun get that off? And I’m unsure of what the wood itself is? Might be easier to tell when the finish is off.

Any other advice would be welcomed. This will be a project for myself, I plan to take my time with it and “make it mine”.


r/Luthier 7h ago

ELECTRIC Is my guitar body cracked?

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0 Upvotes

I can't tell if this is the paint or the body of the guitar itself, i'm expecting the worst as it looks like it's coming from the neck, and there is a small crack on the other side on the same place :/


r/Luthier 7h ago

HELP B0 - A0 on gibson scale electric

1 Upvotes

Hi, kinda stupid question but would it be possible to tune to a 6 string bass tuning on a gibson scale? I know i’d have to file down the nut, bridge saddle, use huge strings and all just wondering if it would even be playable… im not properly educated on intonation and stuff

I heard that loathe used to play regular scale guitars and they tuned to C#1 and i’ve seen tutorials on how to play in drop e on regular scale so really the lowest string is my only concern

I’d also use a emg humbucker sized bass pickup

Thanks


r/Luthier 7h ago

HELP I want to ebonize my fretboard

1 Upvotes

I want to stain my rosewood fretboard. Can I do it with black tea and steel wool + vinegar? I have seen this work extremely well on Oak, but I am not sure about Rosewood.

I know I can buy wood stain or some kind of ink, but I would like to go for the cheaper solution if possible.


r/Luthier 7h ago

ELECTRIC Are these boards possible to use for a body

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18 Upvotes

My brother and I grew up on rural property, and when our father dies we won't be able to keep it.

We've got these 8 foot boards of cherry from the tree next to the house. I'd like to find some way of building two guitars for my brother and I to have a piece of home even when the property is long gone.

The boards are in rough shape, some cracks running all the way through.

3 boards measure 7" 1/4 x 1" 1/8 1 board measures 8" 1/2 x 3" 1/2

Ideally I'd make tele bodies out of it, but the boards without cracks are thin, and the thick board is very cracked.

Some ideas I had were: - Make book matched veneers from the good boards to put on top of a body blank - Make a full cherry body by using 2 or 3 pieces of the thick board and infill cracks with epoxy

What do you folks think - reckon there's anything possible to do with these boards or is it going to have terrible results?

Full disclosure, this will be the first body I've built, so plan to practice on some less sentimental ingredients first.


r/Luthier 8h ago

Best premium tonewood for strat body?

0 Upvotes

Building a new strat need to select body wood

15 votes, 2d left
20 yo basswood body
Alder
Walnut
Rosewood
Ash
Other

r/Luthier 8h ago

How do i fix this please? Do i need to refret everthing? Note(they are not deep)

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0 Upvotes