Official Luthiers Forum!

You could sell the sitar sound as a feature... Sitar sound without effect pedals.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Hey Tai, I have been wanting to build Sitar guitars, since Sitars have an awesom sound, but are a ich to play, and sympathetic strings are not the hard part, the jawari (buzzer) is, if you want to make it so that it can be lowered to turn the buzz off, and raised just right to work as intended.

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If what you see is what you get, then Stevie Wonder ain't got nothin'!

"or the same forum some guy asked this, and actually got a few answers: "What type of bondo is best to use in refinishing a Gibson SG" "

Mohawk sells a wood colored bondo for furniture repair. They also sell a red hardener and a white hardener. The red hardener moves the color more toward the cherry or light mahogany shade, the white toward maple or ash. Additionally blendall powers (also sold by Mohawk ) can be mixed with the bondo to color it almost any hue.
If it was a mahogany bodied SG, then starting with the red hardener and adding a little Van Dyke brown might get you close.

I do not remember the poster of that thread trying to fix missing sections, and it sounded to me that he was trying to re-establish the contours like on a car after a not so good attempt at removing the old finish.

Although it is not critical to the sound on an electric, I prefer wood grafts for major repairs, because of all of the misinformed guitar snobs who would not have it any other way, and bondo for wood is normally called "Wood putty". Besides, even if you can not hide the repair completely, the putty has no grain pattern without time consuming fakery, and may not agree with the finishing product.

To not lop the wrong people into the "Guitar Snob" category: To be discerning about the tools of your trade is perfectly acceptable, more so when you are really good at it, but to freak out about a difference in materials or measurement that is so minute, that you would have to spend months of research in a NASA laboratory to detect it, is silly in my opinion. And to call someone a hack or question their expertise, without proof of the faux science you are citing, makes you the bad guy, not the other way around.

I am sure most of us have to spend much valuable time explaining things to some of our clients, because they have heard this, that, and the other unsubstantiated myth, misleading and downright false info, and the internet is jam packed with it (for all trades).

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If what you see is what you get, then Stevie Wonder ain't got nothin'!

I also prefer wood grafts for major repairs in wood products. When properly grain matched and skillfully fitted they can be hard to detect.
The bondo product is different from wood putty, it is a wood colored bondo more similar to what is used on automobiles. For transparent finishes it does require some time consuming fakery to make it look good. There is a whole trade based around trompe l'oeil finishing techniques. Many Mohawk products cater to that trade which is generally involved with furniture repair. Some of those products and techniques can be used by instrument repairers to good effect. But it is a whole 'nuther skill set to learn which some may not have time for.

With finishing, once you have it down, either something new and better comes along, or the EPA yanks it away, and you can start all over!

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If what you see is what you get, then Stevie Wonder ain't got nothin'!

Removed as it appears I was misunderstood.

Hey Mike O'Melia, I did give you my opinion as you asked, it's further back somewhere, and more of my knowledge on the subject more pages back too. But for the most part everything has been answered pages ago, so it has become a free for all. What else do you want to know, that has not been covered already? Just ask!

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If what you see is what you get, then Stevie Wonder ain't got nothin'!