Is it OK when starting a build from scratch to finish the neck first before moving on to cutting out the body? I am starting my first build "Telecaster" soon and was curious if this would be ok.

"Who wants to watch a guy buffing a guitar for an hour?" Sir, I think you have severely underestimated your audience

Very cool. Glad I found these videos here. Informative for sure

I've measured several guitars at the store in there between 1 and 8 and they're all different . The guitar I built is 1 7/8 thick without paint. So I'm curious how much to leave for that cavity.

How much lumber do you usually leave where the neck bolts to the body.1 inch ???

Very good bro I'm doing this as we speak and you reassured me that I could do it I still hope I get the intonation correct with the scale length.

🔊👊🏻

I love to see how people do necks. I'm clearly less experienced, but I use tape for the lines and do quite a lot of the 'near finish' work with scrapers (I should credit Gino from Tornelli - my approach largely copies his). Interested that you don't seem to use scrapers. Like you, I love the Iwasaki for transitions. My take away from this is the use of a short sanding beam for the straight neck sections - I don't really do that. Thanks again - really enjoyed this video. Cheers, Simon.

So I was told about you from a coworker of mine when I was still in the Air Force. I have a question for you. I believe you live somewhere around Southern Pines in North Carolina. What would you charge to have a guitar building class? So, basically, I would pay you to walk me through building a guitar from scratch. At the end, I would have a guitar, it wouldn’t need to be branded with your name unless it met your standards, that is up to you. I could provide the wood.

Why doesn’t anyone show the post insert install. 3 videos in a row they have skipped it

Why doesn’t anyone show the post insert install. 3 videos in a row they have skipped it

Interesting machine, I didn't know it.

Hi Paul. I was just curious about how many rpms you are getting out of your buffing machine and what you feel the ideal number of rpms is for buffing.

Very nice. Might end up building something similar to do a german carve across body that's got some relief angles. Nice work on that binding bud

Enjoying your videos. I'm in the process of making some of my own templates and am stuck finding drill bushings like the ones you use - is there any chance you could share where you found them? I have found some at Carr Lane etc but they do not ship to Aus where I am.

This is awesome. I am in the middle of building my own buffer and this video is so promising. I bought some super assilex also and I am looking forward to my upcoming finishes

Damn this sandpaper is expensive

You didn't need to cut away the dust collector door, just flip the swing arm and sand with the headstock at the other end

Looks really good thanks for the info

Great video. This looks like an interesting product. I have to admit that I was a bit turned off in the beginning when you said that the table wasn’t flat right out of the box. I mean with a name like Flatmaster I’d expect it to be flat and not have the end user have to mess with putting strips of tape to even out the top. This still bothers me a bit but I kept watching and I saw how you were able to make the boards flat. I do have a Dewalt thickness planar, but it produces more snipe than I’d like and it’s only 13” wide. I didn’t hear you mention snipe at all n your video and the boards looked like you got them pretty flat. I did notice at the end when you had your hands resting on the top it looked like it had some flex/give to it. Looks like the top is made out of 1/4” aluminum or something. Not sure how much this device costs, but it does look good. Or with your 13+ years of experience with the previous model, you’re really good at using it. Thanks for the video, I thought your audio was ok, didn’t bother me at all, but I’m 50+ (bad hearing?) and watching on an iPad mini.

Many thanks - I've done it both ways, but I think I'll try frets in first again next time. I tend to press frets and then check fret-to-fret levels before running a little thin ca down the fret slot. I love your attention to detail. I agree if you can minimise errors at each step, they don't build up so much. Looking forward to the next video. Cheers.

That makes so much sense to press the frets while the neck is still flat and uncarved. I also suspect a lot of builders do not check the frets with a rocker when they're putting them in.

If anyone happens to have a nice miter gauge , you dont need any jig to cut the scarf .. i have an incra miter 1000hd and it has registration points for every degree and i tried it for scarfs and you just set the degree and it worked perfectly. You dont need a fancy one like the incra , even if you have a cheap one it will work if you add a longer sacrificial fence ... Cheers 😊

Very useful, thanks!

awesome work Paul! that's a beautiful guitar my friend, keep it up, cheers!

Hi Paul, now that I came across this video, I have the binding on my Ibanez, which is originally white, now turned yellowish. How can I fix it and make it white again?

If you are making your guitar for yourself the super easy way to make your fretboard is to just make it flat. Hell with all this radius BS.

I have two Flatmasters, two Little Rippers and two Round Rippers. Love everything from Stockroom supply....

Great videos, very educational.

Hi Paul, did you dye this green body then clear coat? On the back you painted it black,do you level sand the black paint before spraying the clear coat then level sand again?

What type of finish are you using? How long do you leave it cure before you level sand it?

Hey Paul just got my 24” flatmaster kit, going to start building the box this week, just wondering what you used for your top when you made your 18” box and top, did you use a laminate on the top? Also wondering when using stainless steel frets should I radius them to the exact radius of the fretboard? I alway make my fretboards a 12” radius and put a 10” radius on nickel silver frets and they sit real nice. Should I radius they S/S frets to 12”?

Hi Paul what lenght of truss rod did you use when building Nono’s neck?

Hey Paul, just wondering what neck angles your headstock is on Nono’s guitar. I am building a guitar with a Schaller roller bridge and will be using a Duesenberg Les Trem 2 as the stop tailpiece, what angle would you make the headstock at? Watching the whole build on this, very nice.

Do you know a alternative to the stewmac blade now that LMI is closed?

Honestly, try wrapping the left side of the drum with 60 and the right side with 100. I just may order this kit for myself.

get a microphone, the audio is terrible

By the way another great video.

Hi Paul,this looks like a great tool, it looks to me that it acts as a wide jointer as well. Once I flatten out my two body pieces on my jointer and square the ends I glue it up but never seem to be able to get the joint perfectly flat, I then have to go to a local shop that has a 16” helical jointer and pay about 30.00 to flatten my two piece body blank so I can then run it through my drum sander to get the thickness right. Very expensive. I think this could replace the 8” jointer I have and possibly do more things than the jointer can do. What do you think? Regards Maurice

They sell the drum sander as a kit. That's how I bought it. You get either a 18" or 24" drum, bearings, pulleys and a link belt. You can buy a top or make one. You'll need to make a box for it and there are instructions on how to do that. They sell motors or you could buy one locally. Hope this helps.

Master!!!!

Thank you.

Nicely dialed in tooling, very practical setup. All the right choices and time taken to get it all smooth. Solid riffs and content!

Amazing. I couldn’t imagine having to put that up every time I needed to finish, I’m in the middle of adding onto my shop bc paint booth needs too. This is Incredible work.

Can you please tell me what model your DeWalt trim router is? Looking to purchase the DeWalt model DWP611 but yours looks a tad bit smaller and the perfect size for that binding channel application. Great video! Thank you!

I had a friend who was a senior master builder at Fender. He could grab a neck and radius the fretboard by hand on a belt sander. Even compound radius. He would just grab the thing and dig in on the sander. A few measurements here and there and it was done. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it. Same thing with shaping the back of the neck profile.

Thank you for the great video and advise you suggested to me from another video of yours that led me here and yes you are ansolutely right. After finding eagle abrasives/Kovax who and why would anyone ever wet sand again. Their product is great. It is absolutely superior quality and works amazing. And it really is not that expensive if you factor in the amount you get per box. If you were to purhase and other p rated paper it would be relatively the same. Plus they make starter kits that come with the sandpaper, flat thin pad and the foam sanding block for cheaper than if you bought it all separately. Thank you again. If it was not for your video I do not know if I would have found them. So glad I did. Definitly a changer.

Look for Dupli Carver . X Y & Z action

If you do not mind me asking. When you said you use wax on any holes in the guitar. Do you fill the entire hole or line the rim or edge of the hole or do you just get it to cover the top of the opening of the whole? A demonstration video on how you do that would be great. No one covers that. It is always mentioned but not shown. Thank you.

Impressive work, beautiful instrument!