ESP Viper clone kit that I put together and finished, drilled and routed all holes and cavities, leveled and dressed the frets.

Mahogany body, maple neck, ebony fretboard, 25.5" scale. The finish was done by applying different shades of green Angelus leather dye with a wadded up piece of paper in multiple layers.

Pickup is a humbucker made from two AlNiCo 8-loaded P90s that I wound myself and created the custom 3d printed cover. It measures 24.5k ohms. The toggle switch goes from single P90 (down) or both humbucking (up), essentially like a traditional humbucker coil split.

Pickguard, control plate, and truss rod cover are all cut from an old junk vinyl record.

Playing through a clean amp, dual fuzz/distortion pedal, and 1x12 cab, all built by me.

This thing sustains for weeks.

I wanted to create an ultra-thin, single cut electric inspired by old arch tops but with the visual twist of Aluminum on Mahogany!

I’m just a DIY/amateur partscaster builder. This isn’t my first rodeo with roasted maple, I know it can be brittle. I thought I drilled sufficient pilot holes for these tuners, and I also used beeswax on the screws, but I guess I should have gone a size larger. The crack is not visible on the front of the headstock, only the back, and only from between the high E to past the low E holes.

What’s the best way to fix this? I can clamp it, but I don’t know the best way to get glue in the crack.

Shoping locally for some tru-oil and beeswax to help seal an unfinished maple neck. On their website they say it can be used on guitars, would this be alright for that purpose?

I dont want to pay a luthier i dont trust for an easy repair i can do myself i feel. What kind of clamp or trick can i use to make the crack line up before gluing it?

Also i just use a titebond3 or titebond red?

Can’t wrap my head around building a neck that’s both pitched at 3 degree or so and flush with the flat top body. Or is there actually and small angled gap with the fretboard and body.

I just bought a JP15 and it has a very slight click in the neck when I first pick it up. I tightened the 5 bolts and it didn't seem to help, and it has the tiniest bit of play in the pocket when you pull it sideways (unsure if enough to be a problem, you have to do it with considerable pressure). It seems the only solution I found so far is pulling it off and putting wood wax on the pocket or neck? Do you agree? Any other solutions?

I just installed some new Custom Shop 54 pickups into my MX Standard Strat and the bridge pickup is really quiet compared to the neck and middle. When I turn my amp way up the pickup sounds fine but even with it set much closer to the strings it’s less than half the volume of the other two pickups and much quieter than any guitar I own.

I’ve resoldered the grounds and even swapped the hot wires on my switch to rule out an issue with that component. The low volume follows the bridge no matter which joint it’s wired to and the other pickups are still fine.

It’s not my first time installing pickups and a pretty straight forward install so I’m landing on there being something wrong with the pickup itself but wanted to see what the gurus thought before I reached out to Fender.

Thanks!

Hi folks. Given the tariff situation, I recently ordered a pickup fro Tone Emporium in Ottawa. Good service, quick turnaround and a nice hum bucker-sized P90. Made in Canada. ELBOWS UP!!!

Hi! A family member has this guitar to offer and im trying to find reasons not to buy it as i have 1 electric and 1 acoustic already and i dont like to spend money. However im studying classical nylon guitar at school and i dont own one and ive always practised at home with acoustic. Also i practise very rarely 😅 Is this something to worry about? Other than that the guitar seems to be in great shape. 350€ euros seems such a bargain for this guitar (you can correct me on that too). I thought maybe its just a finish. Any help/advice is appreciated.

Is this ok for polishing stainless steel frets?

It plays, not well but I am satisfied, I can say I burned out and want to take a long break from it, its an experiment, mostly and I didn't have a big expectations, but, it's enough. P. S. (Check out bridge assembly and Headstock design, I think my idea is better than conventional 12 strings you can find)

Pic for attention

For those of you building from scratch, What are you guys doing for wood storage? I haven’t been building for too long, couple years, but I’m starting to get a decent stockpile of neck and body blanks, as well as some acoustic back/side sets.

I’d like to make sure that I am storing them appropriately. For example, can I store neck blanks vertically, or should I lay them flat w/ stickers.

My gut feeling is that it doesn’t matter much for the neck blanks, they’re thick enough that they’re unlikely to cup, and any twist they develop would be likely to develop on the finished neck.

The back/side sets and acoustic tops I don’t have a clue about, though.

Humidity is fairly stable in New Mexico, 10-25% generally. Most wood stabilizes around 6-7% here

I’m also curious what kind of seasoning/aging best practices are. Most of the kilned lumber I can get locally is still not quite stable enough to build with, so I just try to buy wood at least a couple months ahead and rough cut blanks.

I would love to add some form of kiln or maybe an oven for roasting, thermally modified wood seems to be pretty popular right now.

In case anyone was wondering, instrument in the pic is a white oak neck thru iceman-inspired short scale bass. I have a big pile of foeder staves that are roughly 8/4 and 6’ long, 4-7” widths. Oak isn’t used much for guitars, no clue why apart from weight, so just trying something out. The fingerboard is the inside of the barrel that’s been stained with wine.

I am waiting for my 28/30” fret template from sendcutsend so I can cut the fret slots before I rout the neck out. Stew Mac is out of stock on all the fret slotting template and it’s about $20 cheaper to have SCS cut it out of the same 14ga stainless.

Tia

Today i received my order (new Harley benton bass guitar).
I noticed the scratch on body but started wondering if its not going deeper in wood. As its very cheap instrument i would prefer to just stick to it, im completely fine with paint scratch, kinda do not want to send it back just because of visual reasons. Maybe you guys can tell if this is rather scratch or can be something more serious?

Are they any good? I realise the electronics and hardware are likely to be cheap and could be upgraded but what about the body and neck?

https://guitarkitfabric.co.uk/products/kit-double-cut-junior-p-90-ebony?_pos=5&_fid=399e0ee72&_ss=c

Been calling around and trying to find help in southern California to help cnc guitar parts I don't need anybody to post process just need them cut if anybody could help me or point me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated!

I work inside a guitar manufacturing factory in China ,I’ve noticed many overseas players and dealers often have misunderstandings about Chinese‑made guitars.

A lot of people automatically assume factory‑built instruments here are poorly checked. From what I see day‑to‑day in our workshop, every raw wood board will go through moisture testing and visual inspection before entering production. Any material with hidden cracks or unstable grain gets rejected immediately.

One process we rely heavily on is the Plek‑Pro fret calibration machine. It levels every fret precisely, so each finished guitar can maintain comfortable low action right out of the factory. Honestly, this step really helps cut down return rates for retail shops.

I’m genuinely curious: what qualities do luthiers and music store owners value most when picking factory‑made acoustic guitars for their inventory?
Looking forward to reading your thoughts in the comments.

my friend gave me this p90 for free because the lead wire was super short. when i was trying to strip the wire(the small white wire) it just fell out🤦🏻‍♂️ should i cut the tape and solder to the coil? or can i cut the black wire and extend that?

i’m very new to soldering and really appreciate any advice. Thank you🤝

How do you guys feel about this bridge and a possible boe in the body ?

This is how I received it back from a local luthier. I’m a beginner player with minimal knowledge in guitar set up. Should take it back to the luthier? Playability on this guitar is a little rough. ( yes I played other 12 strings ) this one is much harder and the tone seems a little off. It’s a late 60’s sekova made in Japan. So far I’m 330$ in this guitar. I’m willing to put more into it, in hopes with a 12 string I’ll fall in love with. Located in Southern California. If anyone wants to recommend a Luthier!

Hi everyone, I was told to come this way from r/ukelele in an attempt to figure out what this is and how much it is worth. I found it on the side of the road in Australia, gorgeous and in good nic. Thanks!

The left side of my bridge is lifting and the guitar is only 2 years old. Pretty disappointing. I’ve never done any major acoustic guitar repair so looking for advice. Could I throw some wood glue in there and clamp it down or should I remove and replace the bridge?

Hey guys, have this old power play guitar. Honestly pretty lousy and unplayable(needs a saddle reset or replacement because it pulls up when you try to tune it, also may need cross braceing on the inside), but I figured it might be fun to take apart and fix it up. It's some Chinese crap that I found in a closet, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for cool things I could do to it. It is surprising a really responsive and resonate body, believe it or not, and I think that with some work it could be at least half decent. I was thinking maybe fix it up and paint it, it if any one here has any cool ideas, I would appreciate you letting me know. Thanks everyone ❤️(ps this is my first post)

edit( I have now realized that it is a 1/2 size guitar)

some time ago I stumbeled over another cheaper Special DC kit and wanted to try a bit different build. I already had an intonated Tele bridge as spare and two Fender big hat knobs. So I decided to just go little different route and try a more fenderish style DC.
(sorry for the poor photo quality)

first pic: finished guitar with vintage white spray finish ( not the best but wth)

second pic: kid as it arrived, neck had this infamous 'paddle headstock', predrilled tuner holes but ugly square form. I always loved a Strat-style bely and forearm cut, I used a rasp to give the body this basic forms and then fine sanded it..came out quite ok.

third pic: now the thing of the fender neck angle, it is much flatter that Gibson (3%), so I marked the angle and sanded it down, test fitted it into the neck pocket, fine. (You have to alter this this because the Tele/Strat bridge is much flatter than Gibsons')
glued in the neck and and after waiting 24 hours.

fourth pic: neck and body marriage.

fifth pic: redoing of the paddle headstock. doweling of the old, predrilled tuner holes.. I learned from earlier build to always use real hard wood sticks as dowels, not these grooved cheap plywood dowels from the hardware store. Just get some hardwood sticks of different diameters (6/8/9/10mm) and cut them, you will need these sticks also for other projects.

then I printed out a standard Paula headstock with marked tuner holes, transferred the holes and outer form. Sawed and drilled..much better.

after that, stringing it up and determining the position of the bridge. Then a fretjob and filing down correctly the wooden nut base ( was quite uneven).

sixth pic: altering the P90 dogear cover, wanted to use the P90 that came with it but it was too high ( another result from changing the neck angle). Cut it in half, sanded it down, still too high.
I then just stacked individual single layers of pickguard material and glued them on top of each other to get to the correct height. The final, top layer was white, which also fitted the overall whitish fenderish idea.

after that I did the necessary finesanding/watering multiple times and then just giving it a spray can off-white finish. Then cutting/ altering a pickguard.( also tried some alternative pickup ideas of different singlecoils but the already cut P90 cavity was showing.)

All in all a fun project, I have done four Special DC kit builds, the best quality was the one from precision guitar kit..but you can have fun with this cheaper ones too.

I can press it and go in and out like about 1-2mm. Sounds okay just a bit of extra vibrations.

First how do I join and close this gap.

Second can I paint and make it unnoticeable with wooden paint and polish?