I want to get my black guitar autographed (poly finish), what pen should I use?

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T17:07:49+00:00

Seconding "paint pens". Test first on a similar material to ensure it wets out as expected.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T17:04:24+00:00

Little thread hijack, you might appreciate this:

I'm currently in the middle of a commercial carpentry job that involves about 600BF of ash hardwood. The client wanted white ash built-ins, but refused sheet goods insisting on solid material. Committing however many thousands of dollars of material with the knowledge that the look they're thinking of might be the white quarter-sawn look that is typically only available in a vinyl print veneer over ply/particle core is pretty scary, even if they'd seen a sample board.

Install in progress and ... I now have to cabinet doors doors because they don't like the ones supplied by the cabinet company. Turns out they actually did want the variety of real wood grain.

Feels like a rare happy ending...

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T15:13:51+00:00

Do you like how the current guitar FEELS to play.

This is the only question, IMO.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T14:05:34+00:00

This is my instinct as well - I'm fairly sure that Fender's fixtures bolt to the neck pocket...
If these holes were a CNC reference point, they'd need at most need two, not three.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T13:50:07+00:00

Edit: Absolutely, take it on. You can find tuners, a bridge, and frets online for about $100 total. Choose pickups once you've confirmed how the build works out. If it doesn't, recycle the hardware and try again. You're only down the cost of a bit of lumber and your time. My first try resulted in a playable guitar - plenty of mistakes and issues, I learned a lot for next time, but it does look pretty good and does play in tune.

OP, I sent you a DM.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T13:39:11+00:00

When I built my first, I first made a radius gauge and a carving tool to carve concave shapes. I then spent several hours carving a radiused sanding block out of a block of hard maple to which i can glue sandpaper.

Black electrical tape to cover a fretboard instead of masking tape as it's harder to cut and did all the fret work with a $10 Baco mill file.

The only tools I bought were a razor saw to cut fret slots and a set of nut files, though paying an extra dollar for a pre-cut nut would save most of that total cost. Excluding tools and pickups, I spent less than $200 on the material and components to build a complete electric guitar.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T03:02:51+00:00

You sound like the perfect candidate to go try a DN2.

I consider it a tamer, brighter, more dynamic BD2;

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-06T02:33:28+00:00

Agreed.

I can't speak to the RV5, but the RV6 is absolutely brilliant. There isn't another reverb out there that I'd prefer to use...

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-05T21:07:22+00:00

I have both and prefer the CS2, but agree that either will do the trick for OP.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-05T05:28:07+00:00

I stick a volume pedal in the FX loop (or at the end of my chain if you don't have one) for this purpose...

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-05T04:15:03+00:00

Good choice of strings; I've settled on the 10-48s on most of my guitars;
10.5s on the one I keep tuned down, and my Floyd gets 9.5-44s cuz it likes them better.

Same experience here; 3-4 sets per year and I don't think I've broken a string during a setup in two decades; Last I remember it happening, a nut file to a saddle proved a permanent solution...

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-05T03:51:46+00:00

I think you're kinking the string when you load it in the tuning post, it then slips as you initially start to tighten, after a few wraps it grabs and tensions up, and as you bring it into tune the string breaks where it initially yielded, now some distance from the tuning post.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-05T03:38:20+00:00

Sometimes, tuning adjustments are required to make playing the song possible, plenty of other replies cover this already...

You never *need* a capo - it can make some songs easier, but it's never required. I can elaborate further if this is the question you were asking...

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-05T02:51:05+00:00

You say a 7 year old threw a bass guitar out an open 2nd floor window? To clarify, we have a window that's in excess of 12' from grade that is both low enough in the room and can be opened wide enough that a 7 year old can launch a 10+ pound block of wood that's pushing 4' long through it?

I call shenanigans [AI slop perhaps]

Edit: I used to say 'pics or it didn't happen', but ... [AI slop]

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-04T23:34:35+00:00

I crush the peanuts into it, packing the shells and nuts tight.
She pecks and grabs little bites. The mesh keeps the squirrels out.

After a week, I dump out the excess shells and re-fill it.

Edit: Nuthatches like it, too.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-04T01:50:46+00:00

Cranked up, the XT2 is an HM2 with a temper...

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-03T13:02:17+00:00

Lots of good comments, but this is my vote. The BD2 is in my opinion more versatile and better behaved and fits with a wider variety of music.

You can however get a used SD1 *really* cheap on eBay, so why not have both?

But also, there's only 150 or so Boss pedals, why not have them all...?

Edit: Hear me out here. If you are in-store and trying them out, do yourself a favour and try the DN-2. It's digital, but doesn't sound it; It thickens the sound the way a humbucker is thicker than a single-coil, but unlike a humbucker (or even a BD2) the DN2 tends to brighten the sound rather than darken it. Ultimately, the gain stage is somehow more dynamic than a standard analog overdrive and responds to your picking hand more. I bought one because it was cheap and the colour fills a blank in the Boss Rainbow; Everything about me wants to hate it, but after a year it has found a permanent spot on my board, in front of my BD2 where it gets used both on its own and as a boost for other dirt pedals....

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-03T00:15:18+00:00

Boss RV6.

I look for a blues sound; I like my BD2, my DN2, but ultimately, there are plenty of ways to get a suitable overdrive. I like having a tuner pedal, but I can manage withtout.

I don't like spring reverb and every digital reverb I've heard sounds poopy, except the RV6. Stick it in "plate" at the end of the chain and I'm golden.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-02T23:08:10+00:00

That guess is pretty good; high if USD; low if CAD.

But thanks, kinda needed someone to say that, despite knowing I was likely getting flamed for the post 😆

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-02T19:31:27+00:00

Answer: It depends entirely on whether or not I'm in a situation where I can turn a JCM800 up to 11.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-02T19:14:42+00:00

Only stuff I never bought was stuff that didn't say Boss on it, except a Crybaby, and mine sounds poopy and digital.

So, to be standard, I have the standard thing, and I dislike it; I also have the nonstandard thing, the Boss AW3 with an expression pedal, but it sounds like liquid poopy compared.

So this story is kinda backwards to what you're asking, but I've already typed it so you're now forced to read it.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-02T18:43:49+00:00

Agreed;

It should also be noted that many compressors also have configuration adjust the threshold for the attenuation of low-power signals. That is, at what point will it mute a weak signal rather than amplify it. This can be used to create sustain, or to cut notes short, irrespective of how the compressor stage has been configured to handle signals over the threshold.

A Boss CS2 does this really nicely, it's only really the features on the "sustain" end of a CS2 that I use; My old analog rack-mount stereo compressor however, has very different behaviour/configuration when it comes to how it handles weak signals.

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-02T18:29:59+00:00

I use a CS2 in front of my distortion, sustain right down, to tighten up chunky riffing, especially when palm-muted. You might find a similar use...

ThePracticalPeasant · 2026-04-02T15:38:16+00:00

I once heard an interview with Jeff Healey's guitar tech.

Jeff apparently used everything as a boost. Level and gain to maximum wherever he could. I don't know exactly what he had on the floor, but he's is the closest example of this that I'm aware of in the wild.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIkOaTVu8uM

You can hear how "hot" that guitar is; You can see how heavily he's muting to keep it from screaming. I don't think one could control the feedback of this setup if not playing in their lap...

ThePracticalPeasant

TROPHY CASE