two piece body glue-up

[arc]

Hi all,
Having trouble getting nice seemless joints in my maple/walnut body.  I'm sure this is due partly to my inexperience with jointing and partly my cheap 6 1/8" Jointer from Home Depot. When constructing a solid body guitar from two pieces to be glued right up the middle, my seams appear and feel totally flat, but when I hold two pieces up to light before gluing, I can see light coming through, and after gluing it is evident that the guitar body is two glued pieces.  With previous projects I have had a furniture maker joint and glue for me, and I could never see light coming through, and the seam disappeared into the grain.  I'd like to learn to tackle this myself.  How can I achieve that perfect joint?

Thanks!
Andrew

 

[Cagey]

There's a very well-done tutorial done by Ron Kirn on building a Strat. On the first page, he goes through the steps involved with making a blank. You might want to check it out to see if there's anything new there you can use.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

If it's the jointer, then obviously you're not starting with 2 straightedges to glue together.  If it's not the jointer, I would guess the wood is too wet and shrinking when drying and thus drawing apart.  If that's not the case, I would guess it's uneven clamping or not enough time allowed for the glue to dry before unclamping.

 

[big bob]

try taping sandpaper to the bed of the joiner and hand sanding the two edges until no light comes through.