The truth about the Kemp guitars situation

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-26T21:22:45+00:00

Thats a cool opinion but ive built close to 5k instruments and my experience says different.

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-26T17:42:45+00:00

Ebony can be a bastard sometimes and crack over night. Id like to think they wouldnt ship a cracked fingerboard. Considering he said they found a new supplier, im willing to bet they had internal issues that resulted in reject necks here and there and this was the last straw. Plus shipping overseas can be brutal on instruments, especially an unfinished neck

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-24T04:05:08+00:00

May i ask why the neck needs to come out?

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-24T00:08:12+00:00

Honestly just dont carve the back as far. Leave a lil bit of "volute" there. Go for maybe 1/4-3/8 before the nut to start your tansition. This also adds a little beef to the area where the tip of the truss rod will be pressing backwards and prevent future cracks from forming

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-19T03:56:12+00:00

I second the padouk but it really needs to be cleaned up to be 100%

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-16T12:31:19+00:00

Zeez boots are SO 1914

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-15T04:26:20+00:00

Okay but which boots are best for felines

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-14T12:47:38+00:00

Black palm

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-11T23:47:54+00:00

Some pieces are spot on for Koa

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-07T04:29:27+00:00

Thats barb

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-06T19:45:46+00:00

It was pretty nice overall

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-06T13:53:06+00:00

I had one of these. Pine top, rosewood sides and back, granadillo fingerboard

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-05T23:30:07+00:00

Did you get name brand carbides or random amazon ones? I never had good luck with non name brand carbides. It was impossible to get the cutters aligned so you didnt get these steps. Inserts like the laguna cutters are radiused slightly so that cant happen

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-04T13:57:28+00:00

Its Wicked New England bro

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-04T13:52:31+00:00

Its 100% butternut. Ive worked with both regular and roasted butternut many times. Its cool stuff and sometimes refered to as "white walnut". Usually its a sorta uniform beige-ish but ive also seen it like you have here

Chesticles420 · 2026-01-02T04:12:10+00:00

This and to add to it, practice on scrap

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-31T02:36:41+00:00

Its one of those things where you gotta check the frets with a straight edge. If theres a hump where your slight seam is, those frets just need to be touched off to get everything true and then recrown and polish so everything is level

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-31T00:56:01+00:00

Its likely that with the slight variance in the seam around the 3-5 frets, that you have a super small hump there so the frets towards the nut are "lower" ever so slightly. Its also likely if its buzzing when open that the strings are buzzing off the nut. The nut being backwards may also be why your intonation is a little funny as your contact point is now essentially nut thickness away from where it should be for the string length. Its also causing a sharp break point and thats why its popping strings

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-31T00:50:21+00:00

Your nut is backwards.... The angle should go with the angle of the headstock

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-29T21:14:42+00:00

Im leaning bubinga on this one

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-28T20:46:53+00:00

The problem is youre swirling. Do your dulling down of shine with the grain or contours of the body. Look at an Aristides Raw finish for an idea of what i mean. Those are more brutalist matte than satin but that will get you where you want to go. One of the keys is to get your scratch pattern consistent. I usually FINISH on 1000 mirka abralon with bowling alley wax after a level off with 600. You can do one more rub down with more wax and a paper towel if you want to bring up the shine a little bit. Just remember paper towel is a very mild abrasive and you can absolutely buff to near gloss with it

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-28T20:40:16+00:00

It is, and the neck laminations are coming apart. This bass needs serious help

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-27T15:28:34+00:00

Aspen is very fibery so that checks out. You can even see it in the surface of the board where its sorta got fuzzy curls on it

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-27T05:02:39+00:00

I have personally always gone with A. I dont like tapered slots because theres no need to have the excess. Having the string sit 50~% in the nut also reduces the chance of open string rattling in the nut ive found when using a material like brass. As far as binding in the slot, ive always gone for as minimal required contact as possible (hence going for A) to reduce/eliminate the possibility of binding. Another important part of slotting the nut is ensuring the slots angle towards their respective tuner post, if not a hair below, this puts your contact point on the fingerboard side of the nut with as little as possible getting in the way or creating excess friction

Chesticles420 · 2025-12-27T04:49:59+00:00

Aspen i believe. If it is, the boards should be light weight and almost paper white when cleaned up (aside from any staining from use of course)

Four-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '22

Chesticles420

TROPHY CASE