Learning how to build an electric guitar
The garage is now sufficiently equipped to be used as a workshop. Today, I built some shelves into the back of the workbench.
I've been gathering supplies and tools. I got 2 - 5 foot poplar boards cut 1.75" thick. I will be able to make 3 guitars from them.
The boards are very well cut to start, but if I'm going to join them, they have to be perfect.
I had to plane and sand the two edges so that they were both totally flat. I got it close with a hand plane, but couldn't make the thin line of light between them disappear. So I employed a trick I learned watching the guy from Crimson Guitars.
I have an 18" leveling beam that I bought to level frets.
It came with 3 fine strips of sandpaper. I needed to use a coarse grit, so I cut my 80 grit paper into two 3/4" strips. I put masking tape on the back. Another piece of masking tape on the leveling beam. Now, super glue on one side and accelerator on the other.
I put the two pieces together and hold them for 30 seconds. Now the paper sticks to the beam and is very resistant to lateral movement. It pops right off of you pull up on it, but to hold something down while you apply side to side force, it holds fast. Here's the beam with the 80 grit attached :
This might be hard to see, but I've drawn a squiggly line with a pencil on the edge of the board. When I sand I'll be able to see low spots.
After a bit of sanding, I can see where those spots are
I need to keep sanding until they start to come off.
Once they're gone on both boards, it should fit together.
You see the seam? Me neither.
I need better clamps. There will be a short wait while I buy them.
To be continued....
Here's the super glue trick demonstrated in great detail. Skip to about 5 minutes if you're short on time.
[youtube]ub6PsY4cgwg[/youtube]
That's a most excellent lesson. :thumb::thumb:
I set this up to hold work flat against the bench top.
Drilled 2 holes and inserted threaded inserts.
This little weird looking guy bolts in when I need it and goes away when I don't.
It locks down wood up to about 5/8" deep.
I've called those things dogs, but damn if I know what they're supposed to be called.
Could be. Dogs are usually pegs that you drop into holes to secure things against lateral force, so, maybe that's how the name came about. They do resemble Odie.
http://goo.gl/images/bZaHg9Toggle Clamp, but Odie works for me. :lol:
Hey. Good clamps are pretty expensive.
This is $140 worth in 4 clamps. And I got them at Lowe's.... Irwin makes decent stuff in my experience. But not crazy expensive.
I'm going to have to make a handful of guitars so I can cost average these investments in tools. Otherwise, at the end of this little project, I'm going to have a $2500 guitar that plays like a $25 guitar.
I should go back and make a ledger of all guitar related expenses. Yeah, I'll do that. Anyway, this is a very exciting picture of clamped wood :
I actually really like the big ones. They have those chunky block ends which are perfect for this application. They even have stops at the end of the bars that double as feet when laid out like I have them.
I've got a bit of a low corner, which may be a huge problem, or may not make any difference at all. Seems to me that the latter is more probable.
Just one corner? Seems you'd have two low corners if the joint wasn't square with the face. Is that piece not flat as in warped?
I think they're pretty flat. Might be just a bit of detritus under the piece on the right. When I lay the straight edge across the far end, there's no gap. No gap in the middle. Just a bit of fall away in the front left quadrant. I'll be sanding and possibly carving the top anyway, so I think it won't matter.
I have this lace wood for the neck... I think I said sepele earlier, but it's lace wood. I have 2 boards like this.
I may glue the remaining 10" under it so I can have the head stock angle better than this:
The red
Hmm, no. That would be weak. The lesser angle from one board would be smarter.
Those are nice looking clamps.
This is a fun thread.
Are your balls getting bigger yet?
I've got one large ball, but it doesn't have a flat spot, so no good as a paper weight. Thinking of making a work top that tilts in any direction.
Like this
Daler-Rowney Artsphere Wooden Easel with Detachable Drawing Board, 16.5 x 11.8 inch Work Surface (802000023),Brown
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049UZ7YG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_s2f9BbGY86P5ZThis is dumb. Just buy a guitar.
If I was building my own guitar...
...my balls done be swoll.
I'd have a shirt:
"Building M'own Guitar.
Nutz Swoll."
You have my permission to use that phrase as the name of your guitar company: Swoll Nutz Guitarz
Thinking of making a work top that tilts in any direction.
Like this
Daler-Rowney Artsphere Wooden Easel with Detachable Drawing Board, 16.5 x 11.8 inch Work Surface (802000023),Brown https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049UZ7YG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_s2f9BbGY86P5Z
The idea is good but it would have to be stronger that Daler-Rowney, because you're not drawing/writing.painting on it, you'd be doing more forceful work.
Plus you don't want it to fall over when you lay on it after 36 straight hours in the [strike]garage[/strike] studio. :haha:
This is dumb. Just buy a guitar.
I did. That's what put my feet on this path.
wyunchoo zip it, neckbeard
The idea is good but it would have to be stronger that Daler-Rowney, because you're not drawing/writing.painting on it, you'd be doing more forceful work.
Plus you don't want it to fall over when you lay on it after 36 straight hours in the [strike]garage[/strike] studio. :haha:
Zackly. that's why I didn't just buy that one. I have a 3" wooden ball and some threaded clamp knobs.... Just have to grok the design and what not. I could mount the 2 medium bawls to boards, and use a clamping post like above, or maybe encapsulate the balls so they can spin and rotate a few degrees, then join them ....I dunno.. this is the part where my brain gets mushy about it....
Locking a ball in a way strong enough so you can put any pressure on the top two feet from center is difficult. It really doesn't need have to be infinitely adjustable, just a set-up with two double acting hinges so it can tip toward both sides and both ends. That way you can get most any combination you need. The trick is figuring out how to lock it.
If I can figure out a way to carve spoon shapes into the ends of these vertical pieces, I think this might work:
[ATTACH]65610[/ATTACH]
Maybe I'll buy some cheap wooden spoons and drill holes and cut grooves into the verticals.... Then glue them up.... Or even make it height adjustable. I'll have to smoke some pot and give it a good think.
They stuck together
I clamped it down and started sanding. Immediately the clamp is in the way.
Duh. Super glue and masking tape trick again.
First, I went over it all with the orbital sander and 80 grit.
And then the breaker popped. Darkness. So, I felt around for the battery powered light that's magnetically attached to my tool box, grabbed my head lamp, and made off to brave the basement. Gulp. It's scary down there. I have to crouch to traverse the entire floor, as the panel is in the opposite corner from the stairs.
As I flipped the 20A breaker, I thought.... 'did I turn that sander off before I set it down??'
Nope.
Can you make out that white oval? No harm done, a bit of butchers wax will set that right. Anyway, I sanded. It's not exciting. Kind of zen.
It's flat. Joint is tight.
This is the widest gap:
That's pretty close up.
I'm excited.
I guess the next thing is drilling out the cavities with a forstner bit and a router.
Scary part dead ahead.
We'll do that tomorrow. It's 2. Best done sober and alert. And routers are especially loud. Maybe I'll do a little video of that part so you can hear it. I'm off tomorrow and Thanksgiving day. I'll be out at mom's most of Thursday, but apart from one early morning errand, I'm the boss of me tomorrow.
I see you've got the heater on, must be a mite chilly out there. Of course it's a lot less noticeable when you're having fun.
The glue up looks great. Another way to keep clamps out of the way it use the Irwin laying on it's side to hold the block up against a temporary dog.
Practice run with the router. First step, trace out the cavity. Then drill as much material as you can away with a forstner bit.
Set the depth of the router blade. I went about 2/3 as deep as I need the pocket. This is pine, though, so when I do the real thing, I'll probably do it in quarters. 20 mm is appx the final depth I'll want.
Here's the little vid I promised :
[youtube]yLqWND-W3tM[/youtube]
Then I drilled one spot to the 20mm, set the router depth accordingly, and started there. Taking it slowly, I got it to this :
I'll finish the edges with a chisel or gouge on the real thing.
Your router has a built in light?
The router light is a godsend. That an interesting Forstner bit, haven't seen one like that.
Might just be the angle of the photo. It's a normal one, just small. Looks like it has paddle blades in the pic, but it's a cylinder
I only got a couple hours in the garage over the holiday weekend, what with going up to mom's twice and being pretty busy at work Friday and Saturday. I neglected to take pics of the beginning of the neck creation, but you didn't miss much. This is a 1.5" thick lace wood board that I've had for over a year. I sanded both sides. One so I could glue the board down, one so I could trace the template and get clean lines.
Then I cut out the head stock shape, leaving a 16th or so for sanding. Then I superglue masking taped it down to the bench. I'm just going to say glued from now on when I use that technique. Assume I did it that way unless I specify else wise.
I also used my new electric hand plane to take the headstock down to about 5/8" at the end, on an angle from the neck. Then I went across with the plane to lower the neck side a bit further.
I did that between weds morning and this morning. Tonight I cleaned it up a bit.
This is a spoke shave. It's set up like a plane, but it's for carving, not flattening.
I did some more video for you, so you could see what I did.
[youtube]tpfn_t_AcyA[/youtube]
[youtube]-V65kklnFJ4[/youtube]
Carver planer thinger = spoke shave... The name escaped me as I spoke
[youtube]2cPbr8Qb7dY[/youtube]
Turn your speakers down for this last one:
[youtube]m8oZrUpbPTw[/youtube]
Looks nice.
I think the next step is the truss rod trench.
I know what a truss rod does. It arches the neck against bends that come from changes in weather or humidity. But I never really understood how. Now that I have a couple, and can play with them, I see. There are actually 2 rods. One end of both rods are welded together or inserted into a static block. The other ends is where the adjustment happens. The rod with the collar is threaded through another block. When you tighten it, the rod arches one way, and when you loosen, it goes the other way. See here:
Flat, no adjustment :
Tightened :
The other way :
I'll cut a groove into the neck, and lay this down inside. I'll drill an access hole into that slope I created above so I can get to the adjustment nut.
Then I'll glue the fret board onto the neck. That's a whole bother can of worms. I've befriended that luthier that is fixing my strat neck, and I'll most likely enlist his help for cutting the fret slots.
Looks like you've got the right tools, and know where you're going, so it's just a matter of time.
Your great-grandchildren will be able to click on utube and shown their friends great-grandpa building the guitar they're playing. :thumb:
Truss rod. Weird. Do all guitars have those?
My cheap-ass Applause acoustic has an adjustable neck.
So, probably.
ETA:
Truss rods are required for instruments with steel (high tension) strings. Without a truss rod, the guitar's wooden neck would gradually warp (i.e. bend) beyond repair due to applied high tension. Such devices are not normally needed on instruments with lower tension strings, such as the classical guitar, which uses nylon (previously catgut) strings.
~Wiki article
Truss Rod
Not all truss rods are adjustable.
most do. some older ones don't, and Classical Guitars usually don't. You can make a guitar that plays without it, but if the neck bends, you're not going to like playing it.
He's such a poser, that's probably his nail polish
Maybe I'll buy some cheap wooden spoons and drill holes and cut grooves into the verticals.... Then glue them up.... Or even make it height adjustable. I'll have to smoke some pot and give it a good think.
I know everyone is busy (especially lumberjim! Great thread!), but this post reminded me of something . . .
If you need a
great time waster, check out this thread from a board I briefly posted at a few years ago (we need our own thread like this!). You may (or may not) have to log in to see it . . . sorry!):
It Broke!
It looks as if the little yellow plastic tag has fallen off. Since this is an integral part, holding as it does the battery clip that powers the blue light and stuff, I think I will have to throw it away.
That's the third one I've had and it's gone the same way as the others. I might get a green one next with a red light on it. The only thing is that the green one has that annoying wobbly bit as an extra, I'm not keen on that. Oh well.
Have you ever had one? Did it break? Any recommendations for a better one? Perhaps one not built in Albania?
Reg (Confused and missing the reassuring sound of it working) of London (ish)
I show up briefly as Steam Heat (starting with post 1112). Enjoy! :crazy:
Asked for a log in.
Didn't.
Re: Dave Grohl's guitar...
I've bled from the fingers of my fretting hand, but, f you're bleeding from the fingers of your picking hand...might be doing it wrong.
IMHO, Grohl does everything wrong.
you play guitar, Digr? How did I not know that?
:lol2:, Oh, no. No. Nooooo.
I used to play AT the guitar.
Back to Dave Grohl for a sec...
He did one of the more awesome covers I've ever heard.
It was some kind of White House performance in praise of Paul McCartney. Barry and Michelle were there, front row center, with Macca. Grohl comes out, and with the [strike]house[/strike] event band, does Band On the Run, like, ten feet in front Sir Paul his own self.
And rocked it.
That's the second gayest song ever. Built this city, being number one.
How does one rock that song? I shudder to think.
:lol2:
Neither of those is nearly as gay as Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, btw.
I do believe that Band On The Run belongs in that thread of songs with non-sense lyrics you started, though.
Nonsense, Band on the Run is a great song, even John Lennon loved it.
I love it. We did it in Shabbey Road when we had a lady singer who could reach Paul's range.
If you do any traveling here's a Pro Tip...
Paraphrasing, during a concert:
I borrowed this guitar. I had to borrow one because my guitar don't fly.
~Ray Wylie Hubbard
I cut the truss rod groove today. I had to slow down and think it through, and then I needed to go procure a few things to make a jig I can reuse. Took me 3 days of ruminating and 2 1/2 hours of grubbing around Lowe's to get to where I felt ready.
Thing was, I had the neck traced out on the blank, and went ahead and cut out the head stock cuz I wanted to do that last stuff I did ^^, but I didn't think to align the center line. I could have used the edge of the blank as a guide for the router. It wasn't far off, so I think I could have faked it if I had decided to re draw it parallel to the edge, but I figured that if I made a jig, I could probably use it for future projects.
So I made a jig. I got 2 of these :
https://www.lowes.com/pd/BORA-2-25-in-Clamp/50092628
And a bunch of hardware I didn't use... For this job at least...
The rail clamps onto a board, and then there are tracks that accept a bolt. This is a 1/4" #20 x 2.5"
I bought a board made of some kind of light plastic because I wanted it to be slippery and straight. $22 for a 5/4 x 4x8. Cut that into 2 3' rails and attached these brackets. I set it on the neck because I knew that was flat and taped them. Cut out the screw holes and mounted them.
Now I have a fence that I can adjust side to side, as long as it's a straight line I want to cut. Did this twice, so I can run the router between them and be sure it won't jump or bounce out of the path I want. I had initially set it up on 2x4s, but with the router riding the aluminum clamp, and the 2x4 being higher than the neck, the bit wouldn't have reached deep enough. So I cut two pieces of 3/4" ply wood that I had left over from building the bench. Once I did that, i had a different issue. The knob on the router was bumping the rear fence. So I ripped an inch off the top of that.....
on 2x4s:
I checked the level-ness of the neck, and the 2 rails using the bubble level app on my phone, so I know it's extra precise.
I glued the plywood down to the bench along side the neck so that it was all flat, tight and immobile.
so, now that I have the router aligned, and the rails mounted on the 3/4" plywood I just need it to stop at the right place so I don't cut through the end of the neck.
the router base is a 6" diameter. the bit is a 1/4" bit. so, the edge of the bit is 2 7/8" from the edge of the router
the end of the groove is 7/16" from the end of the neck,
so math, and I set the router where I want it stopped. Then I put 2 bolts in the other groove on the clamp tracks:
same thing on the other end, and now I have stops that keep the length of the groove exact.
ready to rout!
i trimmed this, but the first thing I did was set the bit to just barely touching the wood, and dragged it back and forth to confirm that it scribed a line right on my drawn line. It did. so then, a couple light passes and check again.
[YOUTUBE]L5CfLN37ETo[/YOUTUBE]
don't make fun of my get up. it's safety first... actually I should start wearing the dust mask more...
the router leaves a rounded end, so I went back in with a razor chisel and a scraper to square the ends
so, now the channel ends are square
the business end of the truss rod is 1/16th wider and deeper, so I nudged the fence on that end a bit, and moved the stops to that 2" section, and finished that cut very carefully. I had to spend a bit more time with a chisel and exacto to get it perfect
.... but perfect it is.
[ATTACH]65722[/ATTACH]
So that's done. Next thing is gluing on the fret board. Which means the next thing is planing that down to 1/4" and sanding or planing a radius onto the surface.
a radius is how curved the face of the fret board is. If your fretboard is totally flat, you have a hell of a time playing chords. Most Fender Stratocasters have a relatively tight radius. 9-10". what they mean by radius is this:
If you imagine a big circle...20" diameter would be a 10" radius.... and imagine the 2 1/4 inch guitar neck's surface fitting perfectly inside one section, crosswise. you can visualize the curve on that surface.
so this is the neck seen from one end:
[ATTACH]65723[/ATTACH]
Some necks have a compound radius. That is, the radius at the top, near the nut might be 10 and the radius at the 12th fret is a 16... so vaguely cone shaped.... the flatter lower part makes shredding easier. I may or may not attempt that. probably not on this build. So, I'll be doing some more cogitating.
The pictures on a couple posts don't load on my phone. They show on my desk top, though. I got linked them from Google photos, so I'm thinking you guys can't see them? Here's a few pics of what I think you can't see.... I'm too late to edit the posts.
2x4 too tall
Fences on plywood
Knob in the way
7/16ths
Stop bolts
Yeah, I can't see pictures in posts 56 and 57. I can see the video in 58, 1 picture in 59, and the sketch in 60.
Looks like you're doing it right, thinking it through, being cautious.
I've found a denim bib apron is great for the shop, saves clothes and has a couple pockets to keep the shit you need constantly like a pencil.
It's always where it's easy to reach and you know where it is without looking.
I've got my tractor supply flannel shirt for that. I look goofy enough, thank you very much.
I am being more careful with this than anything I can remember doing. And planning to repeat the process, so this thread is like a notebook. I'm having fun. A lot of fun doing this.
I can see the focus from here. Good work Jim.
Small huge step today.
To access the truss rod, you need to drill a hole in the arc that leads from the neck down to the head stock.
The rim of the collar of the truss rod is 1/16th thick. The collar sits 1/32" lower than the surface of the neck, so that far down tells me how far away from the edge of the drop the top of the hole needs to be. Read that last sentence again slowly.
I forgot to take pics during, but here's the result. I munged the top a little bit with a careless twitch of the dremel router bit I used to carve the notch for the drill bit. It will be covered by the finger board anyway, so...
Oh, I went to a cool place today...
Exotic wood company in Sicklerville.
They sell cool wood. And guitar specific wood. Like pre-slotted finger boards.
I think I'll use one of these on this guitar. One less thing to worry about, and I do want it to be playable, so I bought 2 Indian rosewood pre-slotted boards.. About $25 each. And saves me an unknown, but most likely large chunk of time.
Anyway, it worked out ok.
Here is the rod bowed back :
And forward :
I also bought 2 flamed maple neck blanks and 2 coco bolo finger board blanks. I'll post pics when I go back in the house. The maple is mesmerizing.
Oh, and I got 2 books from them too.
Paid 90% of list price for those. The wood was a bit dear though.
The schematics are something I needed to research
The Foley book, I've heard referred to by more than one youtube luthier, so I grabbed that too.
I think I'm going to need a bigger heater
Or maybe just move it closer
Exotic Woods is a cool place, I'd forgotten about them. I got Coco Bolo from them to build a couple of picture frames.
$25 for pre cut fret boards will save you more than that in ulcer meds.
You're doing great, especially hard to think straight with your teeth chattering.
I think I'm going to need a bigger heater
Or maybe just move it closer
Work harder.:p: I never minded working in the winter, even trimming/cutting trees, as long as it wasn't bitterly cold. You can work harder and get warmer. It's heat that gets me. No matter how hard ya work at it, ya ain't getting any cooler.:headshake
$25 for pre cut fret boards will save you more than that in ulcer meds.
That sounds
very not unreasonable.
Right? I haven't checked them yet, but hopefully they're cut well and don't chip when I install the fret wire. I may wait until after Christmas to do some things because I've asked Santa for some tools I need.
I may rout the body cavities soon, though. That should be exciting.
Rutting the body cavities? Don't forget no means no. :haha:
I've rutted a body cavity or two in my time.
But, baby, it's cold outside.
The pictures on a couple posts don't load on my phone. They show on my desk top, though. I got linked them from Google photos, so I'm thinking you guys can't see them? Here's a few pics of what I think you can't see.... I'm too late to edit the posts.
2x4 too tall
Fences on plywood
Knob in the way
7/16ths
Stop bolts
Good work
Re unseeable pics and uneditable posts
In Google photos, add the pics you want to share to a new album, mark that album public, they should then be visible.
Not sure about in that post though
I don't have the link handy, but a custom drum maker made a snare out of MDF(!) --a material prized for being UN-resonant. And apparently people thought it sounded great, and guessed all kinds of premium "tone woods" they thought it was. Some even thought it was metal (brass, steel, etc.)
There's two schools of thought on drums, #1 that the wood and the head resonate together to create a tone, and #2 that the shell just creates an inert air volume that resonates with the head.
I guess building a snare out of MDF was their way of saying the shell material doesn't matter.
Or that people are full of shit
That's cuz ppl are full of shit.
LJ
Regarding the neck and fretboard
What is the profile of the underside of the fretboard?
You spent a lot of time talking about radiusing the neck, which I understood. But aren't you going to cap the neck with the fretboard? Won't both those surfaces be flat when you do that?
Or will you shape the neck then bend the fretboard around the the non flat neck?
I doubt the underside of the fretboard is concave.
Just wondering.
Did I say radiusing the neck? If I did, I meant the fret board. The neck is flat. The fret board bottom is flat and gets the radius on top.
I'm working bell to bell all this week, so no day off. And busy as hell at work, so I can't even plot and scheme. I'm tired when I get home. Might get out there Sunday if I have time, but we have to do the tree and decorate.
And I kind of want to wait to see what tools santa brings.
I was thinking you mighta been working on the back of the neck. I've noticed that some electrics have a flatter/rounder backside to the neck, whereas flattops have a rounder neck, generally.
I'm following, but, I haven't been paying close attn.
I read back. I started the post talking about radiusing the fret board, and gluing it on. Once I had gone there mentality, I referred to the neck radius... Meaning the neck with the fret board already glued on.
The back of the neck will get carved. There are several shapes that folks have preferences about. C shaped, V shaped, D, etc. In going to attempt a non symmetrical shape called Wolfgang. It's fatter on the bass side so it fits snug in your grip, but thinner on the treble side, so you can wrap around and reach the thinner strings for leads.
I'll find a link.
HERE
AND HEREis the Wolfgang profile named after Eddie van Halen's son?
is the Wolfgang profile named after Eddie van Halen's son?
YES
Wolfgang
[LIST]
[*]
Similar to: Peavey® Wolfgang®
[*]
Thickness at 1st Fret: .815"
[*]
Thickness at 12th Fret: .940"
[/LIST]
The Wolfgang is based on an asymmetric shape popularized by Eddie Van Halen. It is rounder on the thumb side and slimmer on the finger side - a very comfortable shape that feels both quick and substantial. Compared to the SRV it is thinner and more off-center.
yeah, thought I half-remembered that.
I geek out on the tech of instruments I don't even play, sometimes
I'm going to do the neck slowly with an alligator rasp. I've seen a couple methods using facets and ratios. Might just wing it though.
Well, if ya were to screw it up, ya could always go for one of the other profiles with the same neck.
Til ya run outta neck anyway.:)
That's true. I hope not to screw it up though. It'll be really cool to play a guitar that I've built from scratch. I hope it comes out well and plays better than my strat.
do you think you'll come out of this being one of those guys who knows how to fix the action or the intonation on a guitar? or is that a different skill set?
Definitely have to do that after putting the strings on, so then it's just reps, and ooh, ah... depends how picky you are, but there are some
damn expensive bench tuners out there to help get that intonation done. If she wants to buy you something for Xmas
Gonna need a good, precision tuner anyhoo
does that come in "baroque" ?
O wait it says "Concert A 350-550Hz" so they are saying you can set Concert A to be pretty much whatever. Where were the damn standards boards back in the day?
Yah, what ute said. I'll have to learn that part. I've watched it done, and Pete is there if I need help, but I haven't tried it yet.
Nowadays you can also send your guitar out to be "plek'd" which means they scan the neck and dress the frets and cut the nut by automation, so that it's all accurate and low action and perfect like a human can't do...
https://www.sweetwater.com/shop/guitars/plek/index.php
.... but I knew a dude in the area with 50 guitars, who played with a bunch of people in the area; and I asked whether he had any of them plek'd, and he said yeah but he didn't see a huge difference.
But aren't those imperfections what gives a custom built it's character?
A lot of the classic records we have loved were made with guitars with kind of poor intonation. And we heard the chord a certain way, and maybe that gave the song what it needed.
If it was me, I'd want the perfect one! I want the chords to sound pretty at every fret, and I'll make the imperfections by playing it wrong :)
...and I'll make the imperfections by playing it wrong :)
:yesnod:
Definitely have to do that after putting the strings on, so then it's just reps, and ooh, ah... depends how picky you are, but there are some damn expensive bench tuners out there to help get that intonation done. If she wants to buy you something for Xmas
Gonna need a good, precision tuner anyhoo
I use Da Tuner and it seems pretty good
I've read that those super expensive and accurate jobs are not really necessary. We can't hear that precisely
I ain't as fancy as some of yas.
I have an ancient 9-volt tuner that has to hear the note. It has to be fairly quiet in the room to tune.:lol2:
This isn't the one I have but, it's basically identical.
[ATTACH]65849[/ATTACH]
I have it that clamps on to the head stock and uses the vibration to indicate the pitch. I hate it.
A buddy has the stick-on tuner on the top bout on the front of his flattop. He changes from standard to drop D to wtfever like rfn.
Santa was good to me this year. I got a band saw
, a drill press
and a router table.
Today was the first time since Christmas that I've had free.
I cut the neck out with the band saw
[youtube]JbotpF0o5zg[/youtube]
The router grabbed the curl of the headstock and ripped it off. My bad. I should practice more before I do the next thing with that rig.
It will just have a pointy head stock I guess.
I made a lot of sawdust shaping the neck.
This might be boring.. But then it might be one of those gratifying things to watch... So I'll just drop the links.
http://youtu.be/pLn2U1Tvv1k
I'm using a Japanese alligator rasp here. It's amazing.
https://youtu.be/fZIsY13rMAo
Vacuuming the sawdust in between clips
https://youtu.be/wZkcep5OLwM
Then after some sanding :
https://youtu.be/Vf_0VQoX0bY
Is this creepy?
https://youtu.be/KcF0wMEICQkSanta be berry berry good to you. :yesnod:
The router grabbed the curl of the headstock and ripped it off. My bad. I should practice more before I do the next thing with that rig.
Part of the learning curve. It's just a hunk of wood and not your hand, so you're cool. :thumb2:
It will just have a pointy head stock I guess.
That is way better than the standard roundy Fender headstock, which (I believe) was just meant to suggest this shape:
(This is one of those things you cannot unsee.)
I can't see that picture.
And the head stock looks like a KKK hood now.
I'll have to put googly eyes on it
Ya might could go Hamer-esque with the damaged headstock...
[ATTACH]65998[/ATTACH]
Or Kramer-esque...(Eddie, not Kosmo)
[ATTACH]65999[/ATTACH]
A little curvature of the sides, rounding of the top, an undercut and a peg then you'll have it!
[ATTACH]66004[/ATTACH]
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.
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[ATTACH]66005[/ATTACH]
I've decided to just turn the whole thing into a bong
Prolly for the best...:lol2:
I glued the finger board on tonight.
Inserted the truss rod, masked it carefully
I forgot to take a pic of the glue. Clamps went on. It did try to slide around, but I think I have it centered enough. I'm going to cut close with the band saw and then either rout the edge again, or sand it.
Not really happy with the glue on the edges
I took the edges of the finger board off with the band saw within about 1/16" free hand, then put it on the router table to get it flush.
To fill the little gaps, I sanded and packed the saw dust into the gaps. Then I ran a bead of super glue along the seam. Hit it with accelerator and sanded again. It's acceptable.
I also reshaped the head stock a bit.
Kinda liking the 'beak' on the headstock. Ya gotta put a bead/rhinestone/googly eye on there.
Yah, we'll see. That wide part of the finger board will come off tonight, I think. I'll do that by hand with a razor saw. I have to leave enough for the nut to rest on, and I haven't ordered nuts yet. I may have to take the finger board off from the bottom of the groove if it hangs over, and let the nut sit on the neck wood. It's close.
Looks like a
B.C.Rich headstock. (gallery at link)
Yes.
Now I need to think about what hardware I'm going to use. Do I go cheap because this is my first attempt, or spend a couple hundred for good stuff because I'll probably be keeping this first one.
Leaning toward the latter.
I need a bridge, pickups, controls and tuners.
Get good hardware. You want your first build to sound good, so you're encouraged and feel that it was worth the effort. I think hardware is the difference between "cheap" and "decent" instruments-- mainly I think this because entry-level drums can be converted to mid-level drums by replacing the hardware (and maybe re-cutting the bearing edges).
I did mostly
920D Fender Strat Wiring Harness Hendrix 60's 3 Way w/Blender Treble Bleed
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GP0NS0M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-WbmCbT71BWS2
Fender American Series Stratocaster Tremolo Bridge Assembly - Chrome
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002KZE8G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_FXbmCbRE5CC5H
Gotoh Magnum Lock-Trad 6-In-Line Guitar Tuners, Chrome
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077K6PD8H/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6XbmCb8E3845V
The pick ups I went kind of cheap.
Set of Wilkinson HOT Single Coil Pickups for Strat[emoji2400] Guitar White MWVS
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015Y1TOO2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_TYbmCbQ9JJA7M
I can upgrade them easily enough later if need be
I second the good stuff, you know you'll never let this one go except maybe to your son. Wouldn't you want your son to have the best? :D
I can't wait to see/hear the finished product. Super cool build project man.
thanks, It's fun and a little scary. I guess that's part of the fun.
I was re-watching a crimson guitars build to prepare for routing out the neck pocket and body cavities, and found something I did wrong on the finger board glue up. I should have used a clamping caul to disperse the pressure to the edges of the neck.
[ATTACH]66042[/ATTACH]
He used a 2x4 that he had carved a radius and hollowed center. If I had done that, I think I wouldn't have had the gaps at the edges where the glue sucked up inside. Hopefully the bond holds as is, but next time.... I'll remember to do that.
he also used locating pins to prevent the fingerboard sliding around. He went through the fret slots to put them in, but I was too scared to mung mine up, so I was just super slow and careful to make sure mine didn't move.
[ATTACH]66043[/ATTACH]
here's the gluing up that I didn't photograph:
[YOUTUBE]NZow43nle5c?t=953[/YOUTUBE]
I did a bit more neck shaping this morning. Also cut the end of the fret board off.
There were similar gaps at the end to what I had on the side, so I did the same sawdust and super glue cure.
The shaping I did was mostly to make the heel of the neck level and flat. That led to taking the whole neck down about 1/8".
It fits the template very snugly
[youtube]aHYkMxK3Pvc[/youtube]
I'll use the template and Router to clean up the edges and bottom, but I took most of the material out with a forstner bit on the drill press. I want it 21mm deep so the the surface of the body comes up under the over hang of the fret board. To get close, I set the depth stop to 15mm from contact.
Result
Then went back with a smaller forstner bit and took another 4 mm or so, got closer to the corners.
There is playoff football to watch, left over dinner to eat and a nap to take. I'll try to get the routing done after the Eagles beat the Bears.
I'm getting excited.
...after the Eagles beat the Bears.
Whoa, easy there. I'm a Bears man, and I'm delicate.:lol2:
I'm expecting the same thing, really, but, I ain't gotta like it!
Not to get off track, but holy shit what a game!
Really though!
My Bears lost, but damn that was a great game.
Double Doink!
After that great win, I went back out to the shop.
I glued the template to the body and set the router up with a 1/2" bit.
I couldn't reach about half of the pockets with the drill press, so I had to go slow on those.
This is the first pass with the short bit.
[youtube]lVTmv9wP0Cc[/youtube]
I progressed to 3/4 and 1" bits until I had 35mm depth including the 14mm template.
Took forever. Like 45 minutes.
But I am rewarded at the end of the day with this sight :
It took a bit of filing in the neck pocket corner and the heel of the neck, but it's snug as a bug
It's a milestone, looking like a guitar now. :thumb:
Heh, he said body cavities.
Dang it is a guitar, we had our doubts. :)
i should have held off on that bridge pocket. Just realized. I went with the template, so it's probably ok, but I should have measured to see if the nut is 25.5" from the front edge. The variable is where I glued the fret board to the neck. The saddles adjust back and forth, and hopefully that is enough to correct the distance if I was high or low with that when I glued it on.....
I did some shaping of the body today. I cut to within 1/16 to1/4" around the perimeter of the body with the band saw. Then I set the drill press up as an oscillating spindle sander. That's the feature that made that the one I asked Santa for.
[youtube]lf3zlAUlxFU[/youtube]
At 44 seconds, I show you a sand paper de-clogger. It's just a huge eraser, but it works a treat.
Next job was routing out the back cavity. That's where I'll mount a claw that gets hooked to 3 springs. The springs attach to the bottom of the tremolo block. This provides tension on the strings, as the strings go up through the block and over the bridge via the saddles then on to the tuning pegs. The idea is to balance the tension to where the back of the bridge plate floats 1/8" or so above the face of the guitar, so you can pull on the tremolo bar and bend the note upwards.
I've been resisting drilling holes in my template and guitar body, preferring the super glue trick. So to get the back lined up to match the front, I had to shape the body first so the template was easier to mount.
This pocket is 3/4" deep. The ones I did on the front are too. That's 1 1/2". The body is 1 3/4" thick, and they overlap, so you can't go too deep.
The right side has that elongated section. That's where I have to cut all the way through the body so the bridge can fit through.
To be able to rout a straight line on the left, I need to make a little jig. I used a piece of the left over plywood I made my bench out of because it's 3/4" thick. First I need a template to transfer the shape.
I cut the paper out with an exacto. Then tape that and trace on the plywood. Cut that out with the band saw.
Took me 2 tries. But with that in the large area and taped down, I routed the remaining 1/4" through to the front.
And we're through!
The bridge arrived
I'm about 3/8" long on the scale. This may be a problem.
I'm going to do a bit more research. I can probably come another 1/8-1/4" into the body with the neck, and shorten the heel the rest....
I will adapt and overcome. Or I'll do another neck and use this one for the next guitar. We shall see.
That drum sander attachment is pretty cool, I've never seen one.
I like it.
I talked to a couple guitar people and watched a couple more videos on bridge placement in my down time today, and I do need to fix that distance issue. There are a couple ways to correct it.
I could get longer screws for the saddles so they reach out farther. I could cut further into the body where the neck fits in. I could shorten the neck under the finger board.
The latter is what I'm planning to do. I looked at a few pics of guitars, and the fret board over hang is longer than what I have by a good 1/4", so it shouldn't even look weird. The high E needs to be 25.5" from nut to the break over point on the saddle with that saddle 1/8" from locked down in order to give the best intonation. I may have to be a bit further out with the saddle, but it should serve. Friday evening when I return from visiting Spencer, I'll get to it.
Then I think I need to poke holes in the head stock for the tuners. I need them installed in order to center the bridge before I drill holes in the body to mount the posts. Next Sunday, I'm going to visit Pete and get a fret install lesson.
Weeeeeee!
You mean you're putting visiting your boy ahead of keeping us entertained? Good for you, you've got your priorities straight. :notworthy
WTF?
It's like you people have lives, or something.:eyebrow:
I think I fixed it.
I routed another 1/8" from the pocket
Then sanded an 1/8" from the heel with the drum sander set to let the finger board under while I reduced the heel.
The line is the end of the truss rod inside, so I wanted to make sure I didn't tear through.
The 3rd 1/8" I'll account for by extending the saddle screws.
Did some body sculpting this morning
I love this rasp
This is called the belly cut :
It's to keep the edge from digging into your belly.
Contour lines drawn on the face
[youtube]sGz265NqGgI[/youtube]
After the shitty football games, I went back out and did the fret board inlay. It's as easy as it looks. Provided you have the right tools. I used a brad point bit and the drill press to get precise, flat bottomed holes.
.
Dots go at 3,5,7,9 (2x12),15,17,19,21. 10 dots. Just draw an X from corner to corner, making sure they intersect at the center line.
For the 2 at the 12th, the Xes go from center line to corner
I laid out all the dots to choose which and where.
They are turquoise flavored. Some are pretty cool looking
I see a face
I have water thin and thick viscosity super glue. I used thin for the wicking element
They come with a few wisp tips for detailed application.
I chipped the first one, so I had to widen the holes with a bigger bit by hand.
Just drop the dot in and touch a drop of glue in on the edge, and it wicks into the hole.
When I sprayed the accelerator, a couple had too much glue, I guess. They erupted with what looks like salt, but was the texture of spray foam insulation.
Cleaned that, and the glue ring on each dot with a Scraper and the radiused sanding block with 150 paper glued to it.
Fuckers put the made in China right on the business surface.
Scrapers are a thing. Seems like cheating for some reason. They work really well if you have good ones.
[youtube]0njV2ENlDhI[/youtube]
Anyway, it's all done.
Dead sexy!
Right? I think Leo knew what he was doing when he designed the Stratocaster. It's a woman's side, waist and hip. I'm tempted to carve an ass crack on the back. Maybe glue some buttocks on there too.
I completely forgot about doing the side dots. Guess I'll do that tonight.
This is coming together nicely. It's beautiful.
I completely forgot about doing the side dots. Guess I'll do that tonight.
The little tiny ones on the topside of the neck?
Right. They're even easier. They come in little plastic sticks like a wire with no wire inside. Black or white. I'll go white with the dark fingerboard.
I was thinking of using them on the surface and doing them like pips on dice, but then... 12 and up would be pretty busy.
Measure half, drop line. X9.
Half way horizontal. Also X9.
Depth stop and....
Fan to blow away the dust.
Awl shucks.
Drill dem holes
The inlay sticks
Fill dem holes
I found that once I had the stick crammed in as far as it would go, if I just gently bent it one way, and laid the razor knife on the other side, very slight pressure sliced it off pretty close to the surface.
Bit of work with the mini Scraper.
I tells ya. Inlay and scrapers go together like peas and carrots.
Art shot
Scrapers aren't cheating. They're plane blades you hold in your hands. If you've filed them flat and sharp and burnished a cutting burr onto the edge, you can just coax the filmiest curl from the surface. They're lovely, when they're used for the right purpose.
The guitar looks really beautiful, what a great project.
Scrapers aren't cheating. They're plane blades you hold in your hands. If you've filed them flat and sharp and burnished a cutting burr onto the edge, you can just coax the filmiest curl from the surface. They're lovely, when they're used for the right purpose.
The guitar looks really beautiful, what a great project.
I like them more and more. I say cheating because you're shaping, carving, sanding and polishing at once if you're getting it right. I got the groove going on the neck, and scraped what felt like a soft film off the entire side of the neck. It actually occurred to me as I did, that it felt like a scratch off lottery ticket...Now it feels like it's got a sealer on it. I know I'll need to oil the wood to protect it, but I like the way the scraper leaves that matte finish.
If ya still feel like you're cheating w/the scrapers, use a piece of broken glass. Same outcome, only w/more effort.:)
This vise is the tits.
I've got those threaded inserts in the bench top. They screw right in slicker n shit. You don't even have to tighten them down. The base of the vise is threaded the same, so once the bolt grabs thread, they're joined tight. I put three holes in, but only need two.
That is a cool vise.
The only complaint I have is that there is a bit of wiggle that comes from the rods that go through the aluminum housing in the center not being terribly tight. They have to be loose enough for the thing to slide along the rods.
The cure for that is a huge rubber band that I had from some work out jinx had me doing 8 years ago. When I need it super stable, I strap it to itself with one of those. I even put some foam from a window unit AC down on the base of the clamp part to protect the work from getting dinged if it should slip down.
Oh, and when I say it's 'the tits' , I mean it's round and fun to play with.
I made mine 3 parts
Comes apart, goes together for storage
Gives me 6 height options and other uses I'll discover, no doubt. And I'll have this going forward. Saved $25 too.
I used contact cement, stuck the felt on and trimmed the edge with a new xacto blade. Took about 30 minutes. I love having a band saw right here all the time.
I just ordered a jointer, a planer a burn in oven and a Swedish vise.
Check this thing out:
[youtube]1MOG8fkQeeE[/youtube]
I've been waiting for this little chrome back plate.
I'm going to carve that corner down at an angle so I can reach farther across the high end of the finger board.
I laid a straight edge against a square to make sure I had exactly where the neck fits.
Check length
It goes right here. Exactly right here.
The screws need to go in perfectly in the center of those holes, and perfectly perpendicularly.
Say that 5 times.
This is a way to get that right.
Then..
The cross hairs are key. Find the right size circle template, line it up and strike a +
Very pointy scratch awl to make a little hole big enough to fit the brad on my smallest Brad point bit.
Now I need the depth.
Looks good.
To be double sure, I'm taping a stop line on the drill bit, and setting the depth stop on the drill press. Also awesome to have one of these handy... (shhh.... I have 3 more cool machines en route.(i got an unexpectedly large bonus this month))
Measure, measure, cut. errr... Drill
Zip zip zip zip. Just as easy as you please.
The neck posed a slight complication. It's not flat when it's laying on its face as it needs to be in order to drill the pilot holes.
I stepped away to consider. And pee. And eat something. Amanda's flight got delayed 45 minutes, so I had the time to finish before I had to go pick her up from PHL.
Saw some skewers while I was in the kitchen.
Improvised a kind of sled. Just taped them to the edges trying to keep the thing flat and stable for drilling.
I'll hang on to them. That worked well.
All holes drilled, let's do this. Because I'm a gentleman, I use lubrication for the first time I penetrate its body.
And because I don't want to fight it and strip chrome screws.
Stated them with my trusty genuine Snap On #2 Phillips carbide tipped driver. Ran the middle down with the Dewalt and took them home by hand, gently and lovingly.
It's apart now because I have to account for the 1/4" I lost fixing my scale length.
I'm going to have to shave that from the neck heel edge of the pick guard.
I think I have to be careful with that. 3 layers. I think I'll mark it and take it to Pete's. He has a laminator and binding machine.
When I disassembled it, I color coded the screws so I know which hole to return them to.
I'm going to paint the control cavities now.
You use conductive paint or copper foil to line the interior of the body cavities. Because of feed back or some science stuff. I'll probably need to understand that at some point, but for now, it's monkey see.
To be double sure, I'm taping a stop line on the drill bit, and setting the depth stop on the drill press. Also awesome to have one of these handy... (shhh.... I have 3 more cool machines en route.(i got an unexpectedly large bonus this month))
When the cat's away the mice will blow their bonus. :haha: Good move, there's no better investment than capability.
And because I don't want to fight it and strip chrome screws.
Good move, those chromed countersunk ovals tear up easily, then you have burrs that will rip your hand just as the stage manager at the Royal Albert Hall say 2 minutes Jim. :smack:
Guh. I picked up the new blue guitar for the first time since we decorated for Christmas today. Calluses totally gone again.
I actually need to poke some more holes before I put this paint in. There are wires that go from chamber to chamber so you can wire the pickups and outlet jack to the pots. Gotta do that research and drill them first so I can paint the inside surface of them with a cotton ball on a string. Sounds messy.
And this paint is purportedly noxious and stinky.
Maybe 6" Q-tips would help.
I need to go from the big pool to the oval with the output jack, and from the big pool back to the pocket on the rear to ground the bridge and claw.
The pots:
I had to Un solder the output jack so I can run the wires through the holes I just drilled.
I made sure to mark the black wire post with a sharpie
And then put it back on the board it came on until it gets installed. I can't remember if I ordered a jack face plate.
...perfectly perpendicularly.
Say that 5 times.
Straight. Straight. Straight. Straight. Straight.:p:
Do ya have a ballpark idea of time invested so far?
Nope! Nor money spent. I said I would do that, but I was lying.
Shame. I'd be mildly interested to know.
Actually, most of the equipment is going to serve for years to come, so adding up what's actually going to be part of the guitar isn't going to be all that much.
If I had to guess on time spent hands on I'd say 30-40 hours. But waaay more than that spent watching videos and reading forums in preparation. I wonder, if I had everything I need in parts, and not counting time for glue and paint/stain to dry, if I could do one in a week.
Speaking of paint....I'm going to paint it at some point. The wood isn't pretty enough to stain it.
I've been thinking turquoise the whole time, but haven't bought the paint yet.
See, if you assign the cost of all that equipment to the guitar, it will be a very expensive guitar. But then all that equipment is a windfall. It's like it's free or something.
And I probably wouldn't have bought the tools and machines if I weren't building a guitar. So, I should sell the guitar for the cost of its actual parts, and claim the cost of the equipment as a loss on my taxes. Genius!
Sorry, unless you incorporate,
last year's tax reform took that option away.
Not that you could have claimed more than what you sold the guitar for, as long as it was over 2% of your AGI, under the old rules.
Thanks, Captain Obvious. I'll just cancel the meeting I had scheduled with my accountant.
Heh, your post reminded me that TurboTax always asked about "hobby income", and I got curious what it entailed. I was a bit surprised to learn that the deduction had been eliminated recently. I wonder if TurboTax is going to remove that question...
The second sentence started more flippant, but got super-lawyery through several edits, as I realized several times that I had misinterpretd the link...
Well, my fret install lesson got canceled today. I had a feeling. He's having some relationship issues and is too upset to think straight, hasn't slept etc. I know what that's like, so I'm bummed, but I feel for him. We'll try for Weds.
So I've got some free time. Remember how I forgot to use a clamping caul on the fret board? I had an idea for how to make one.
It needs to be roughly neck length and width. That's easy. What's tricky is getting the inverted radius on one surface. I was using the table saw to rip and cut the 2x4 to size, and thought.... What if I put the blade way down to where only 1/8"or so is cutting, and ran the board across sideways? I do enjoy misusing tools, and if I can hold it in a straight line as I work it across....
So, I have those rail clamps from routing the truss rod slot.
Lining it up was tricky
I used a very thin slice of 2x4 from a previous cut to find where the blade stopped cutting, and to protect the clamp.
I ran it through, spun it around and ran it through again. Came out better than I thought it would.
And happens to be just about 7.25" radius
Wood burning kit to label it
And tried n true oil to seal it.
I could sell these.
Oh, and last night I made a thing to hold the frets while I work
Very good thinking. :thumb:
Also a reminder the blade doesn't discriminate against body parts coming at it from any angle.
Measure twice, cut once, think of three ways you could cut your finger off before you start.
Never jack off a chainsaw.
So I'm here at Pete's right now. Got here about noon. As soon as he saw my neck, the plan for today changed.
"looks like a wood shop neck"
Huh.
"ok, grab that vise and change it to that one. Now put your neck in right there by the heel. Don't go past that line. Take the neck at the 1st fret down to. 98" and like 1.1" at the 12th."
Check!
And Check!
" ok, now take that rasp and cut it down flat in between"
Also check!
"draw the center line again and scribble with a pencil all over the area between it and half way to the fret board"
Ok
Now what?
"Round it over"
Did that.
[youtube]c3CvRJ94Em8[/youtube]
And more fine shaping after that. I keep getting interrupted by his other customers coming and going, but having a lot of fun.
On to fretting finally now...
I cut off lengths of fret for the odd number frets and set them in the porcupine I made.
Then use these pliers to over radius them.
So they are curved just a bit more than the fret board.
We had some killer BBQ for lunch
That's so cool that you can do that there.
It is So cool. And I'm welcome back anytime.!
The best way of inserting the frets into the slots is with a press. I have a bit that fits into my drill press and holds these little brass cauls that have radiuses. Radii? Pete has a machine that does just that.
Oh, here's Pete:
My neck is pretty chunky though, so I struggled with that.
I finished them the old fashioned way. Hammer time.
Then trim the ends. Which is why we did every other. So you can get the clippers in there.
Voila
No, no voila, how are you going to finish the ends of the frets so they don't shred your hand, and not cut into the wood?
What did you have?
Chicken platter. It was proper.
I could live in that town.
No, no voila, how are you going to finish the ends of the frets so they don't shred your hand, and not cut into the wood?
I'm going to file them by hand, and then I'm going to spend hours leveling and polishing them.
I'll show you
I dinged my fret board it seems.
Far edge near the fret on the left.
I know some magic though. And I have that new burn in kit.
It's a little oven that you heat knives up in. I ordered 2 knives, but one was back ordered. Really? Cuz you heat one while you work with one.
[youtube]mTcPfeff5SQ[/youtube]
Wet the area around the dent, and let the water soak in a bit. Apply heat directly to the spot. I've seen guys use a soldering iron to do this, but you have to keep a wet cloth over the work with them. The knife is clean, and cooler so you don't have to worry about burning the wood unless you try to.
The knife :
After the heat gun, I touched it up with super fine sanding sticks.
Pretty frigging gone. You can see a slight discoloration if you know where to look, but no dent at all.
Steam is a powerful force.
Kinda/sorta similar to the way ya take a ding out of a cue stick.
Do a lot of bends right there, and you'll have the rest scraped away in no time.
Good job.
Yeah, I put a few more in this moring while inserting the rest of the frets. I had to stop with 3 to go cuz I needed a nap before work today. Plus, I'm having a hard time keeping it still. I've ordered a sand bag for this job, but that's not coming until Monday. I'll improvise something tonight to finish.
The sand bag deadens the hammer blow so the board doesn't bounce back. I think I have sand somewhere....
Tonight, I fixed 2 issues. First, the pick guard. Because of the problem I had with the neck length, the pick guard was too far up in relation to the neck pocket. So I had to trim that back.
That was then
This is now. Looks weird.
But!
Once the neck is on, I don't think it looks so weird.
Why skipping every other fret?
So that when you trim the ends of the frets, the nippers fit in there. Thinking ahead. That's key. Benefiting from Pete's experience here.
You just need a tightrope walker. ;)
Oh. The other problem was that the control cavity was too shallow for the 3 Way pickup switch. This guitar is 1 3/4" thick. The switch is 1 3/8" tall.
The ferris wheel looking thing in back.
I had stopped at 7/8" deep for the cavities. So I got to try out my new plunge router.
It has cool depth stop features, but no light.
I needed another half inch under where the switch goes. The pickups and knob pots should be ok. We'll see. But I only routed the area where the switch goes for now.
Fits in there nice now.
These controls are by a company called 920D. They recreate iconic sounds by artists. This one is the Jimi Hendrix 60's set up. His original sound as wired by so and so. They have a pencil drawing of the design, presumably drawn by the guy who set his guitars up back then.
I can hear Jimi
If you redesigned that wheel to mount horizontal so the guitar could be made thinner, you could become a legend in yet another field.
I'm thinking maybe I'll chisel a slope off of the now high part of the control cavity instead of having that ledge there. I'm going to be lining that cavity with copper to insulate the cavity and that ledge would be tricky to do. Or maybe use the router with an angled cone type bit to get that nice and clean.....
If you redesigned that wheel to mount horizontal so the guitar could be made thinner, you could become a legend in yet another field.
I could edge mount it in a separate cavity....
I could edge mount it in a separate cavity....
things that sound dirty but aren't
If you redesigned that wheel to mount horizontal so the guitar could be made thinner, you could become a legend in yet another field.
This has my wheels turning...
If I tipped it on its side, bent the post, and cut a semi circle slot in a pick guard, I could put that up by my thumb in a place that makes it easier to switch it. If I was careful, I could even put it on the back of the neck up above the nut. I wonder if longer wires would create more feedback...
Sand bags came and I finished the frets.
Finished installing them that is. I need to dress the fret ends then level and shape them. I just got this tape caddie and 3 rolls of stew Mac orange tape in 3 sizes. The blue is just regular painting tape. So I have 1/4" - 1" for taping the fret board between the frets. About 1/4 of the way through taping, I remembered a trick I saw. You run a strip of tape along the length of the neck so that the protective tape lies over it on the end. This aids in removal afterwards.
You can see about 6 frets up the tape ends are above the horizontal piece.
All taped up:
This is a fret dressing file
You can see that the edges are smooth if you look close
I'm not sure I did things in the right order here. What I'm doing is rounding over the ends of each fret so they aren't sharp on the ends where your fingers wrap around. Next time I think I'll go at the edges with a flat file to bring them flush with the edge of the neck before taping. It felt smooth when I was done but then when the tape came off, it's still a bit scratchy. I'm going to have to revisit that. Do it right, or do it twice.
Here's why the edges of the file are smooth:
[youtube]Ahj2Bi-z9XQ[/youtube]
Here we are
Now, hammering the frets in leaves some texture in the frets themselves. I guess this is why using the press is the preferred method. To shape the tops of the frets, I have this file:
On this one, the flats are smooth but the edges have 2 different shaped files for contouring the fret tops.
One flatter and wider.
You run this over the frets to cut down to the lowest point left by the hammer blows. The steam trick won't work here, lol.
This took a while
Tape comes off
Looks good...
Until you hold it just right under a light
See how the reflection dips in places?
That tells me I have work to do. About 2/3 of the way up especially
Tape holder, files, sandbags... you're gonna need a bigger boat. :haha:
Yeah, I'm already mentally eyeing the Harley side of the garage. Also thinking about a propane heater. My hands were numb last night.
Cold hands are bad, they make mistakes, and worse they get hurt. :(
This morning I got back after the fret ends. Filed each end of the 22 frets very carefully with the file, then sanded along the side of the neck using the 80 grit then 120 affixed to my leveling bar.
That's the blue thing in the background
Looks and feels much much better
Then I recrowned the ends. That little arrow shape is what I'm after.
Next I need to make sure the neck is flat.
This little LED light helps. These things are awesome. $10 for a six pack. They stick in anywhere. I've got 2 mounted under the head of the drill press, and keep one handy fit things like this.
Not flat :
Twist the truss rod nut :
Now it's flat
Next part is fun
Gotta shelter yer Putt.
Beginning to see some of why they get $325 and up for fret replacement.
Gotta shelter yer Putt.
...the hell?
He's refering to my Harley. It's covered in saw dust.
Next thing was leveling frets.
Take a sharpie and color each fret. The metal thing is just me being careful.
Now the leveling beam comes out. This is its intended use. It's one of the first tools I bought for this hobby, and I've misused it several times before now. To good results each.
First couple passes are just to identify low frets.
I had 3 particularly low frets.
These 3. #'s 8, 11 and 12.
These two were borderline replacement low. In hindsight, it would have saved me a lot of time if I had just pulled them and replaced them.
But I did eventually reach them. Left me with some wide flat frets in other places.
After the beam, I went with 220 grit on a 12" radius block, then 320 on a 16.
The 12th was, at the end, left a C hair low.
But they're 99.4% level.
That light line test went better.
Not perfect, but there's more to do yet.
Similar technique to the leveling job here. Red marker on the fret... You can see how flat it got.
I used the same files to shave the sides of the frets back and round them back to make the red line thin and in the middle.
Just to give you an idea of how long that took, here's one of the 22.
[youtube]n-Js1_lknk4[/youtube]
It's a fret rocker, not a thread rocker
[youtube]G5-tKNn-caY[/youtube]
There were 3 left.
Then I polished them
These are fret rubbers.
Basically erasers with grit. 200 to 8000
After sanding lightly with 320 and 400 paper, I went through each with half a dozen or so strokes.
My belly will explain
[youtube]yQYyiMEvffY[/youtube]
After they are nice and shiny, I applied a very modest amount of this stuff :
Immediate improvement in appearance
And the light test?
Laser straight
I admire the precision man.
It's really looking sweet.
Very nice. I'd comment more, but I know absolutely nothing about guitars, except the big part is usually at the bottom.
When you show it to people just accept the hosannas and accolades, don't try to explain the coulda, shoulda, wouldas, unless they've built one. :yesnod:
It makes me think of all the shortcuts the manufacturers are taking. I could see automating some of this but certainly not all of it.
Thanks! I need to poke the tuner peg holes in that and figure out the nut, then it's done!
Weds I'm going to get more into the body and hardware installation. Then figure out finish. This full time job shit is getting inconvenient.
Very inconvenient. :lol2:
So laudo becomes Loudo, damn whippersnappers got no respect for Latin. :lol:
Sounds to me like Brown has his head on straight, I hope he does well.
Thanks for that link, an interesting read. :thumb:
He's a good dude, and smart. Reminds me of how Flint is. Maybe on the spectrum a bit, but not far. You just have to be smart yourself to keep up with the big steps his mind takes.
Especially if you do any pottery with him. We talked about playing chess and being steps ahead of your opponent. The analogy kept coming up with planning a guitar build. 'Think 3 steps ahead!' ~ I will once I know all the steps! ~
He might need some help with sales and marketing.
I will once I know all the steps!
That.
He's a good dude, and smart. Reminds me of how Flint is.
What? Somebody reads my posts? I thought you all had me on Ignore.
I wish I could finish big projects like Jim. I've done a few half-assed things recently like learning how to build/install car stereos, but generally I just don't have what it takes to make it to the "execution" phase.
To be honest, I wake up feeling like a lump of clay, and it takes a Ritalin and a Red Bull just to get me to work by 9:30-ish.
Set up to drill the tuner peg holes. I've been dreading this task for some reason. I guess because if I fuck this up, all that work....
Stay tuned to find out if I fucked it up!
The piece of wood under the head stock is to prevent tear out when the bit goes through. The piece on top is just to keep the clamp from denting it.
The holes are 7/8" apart on center. I guess this isn't really super crucial after all... What happens beyond the nut won't affect how it sounds. How it tunes and stays tuned, though, matter a bit.
I poked the crosshairs with the awl, drilled 1/4" in with a 1/8" bit to seat the brad of the Brad point bit.
I set my smallest engineers square on the wood next to the hole as a reference to keep the bit perpendicular.
Note to self: use a contrast colored wood as a back plate so you can tell when you're through the head stock.
I did have some tear out on the front, unfortunately.
You know how to fix that right?
Super glue and saw dust. It's the wrong color, but it is being painted.... Soon!... And there's a chrome ring that will cover most of it anyway.
Fine sanding the body...
I went around looking fur things like this in the body :
I went to the soldering Iron and wet cloth method of streaming out the dents. I haven't gotten my other knife yet and the iron stays hot better.
And then sanding. Lots of hand sanding. Really fun though. 100, 150, 320, and 400 grit.
When I felt like it was good to go, I attached the neck and took it to Amanda to look over.
She found a few spots that need attention, so I'll fix them and then sand with 1200 grit... I wet the wood to raise the grain after the first 400 pass. I'll probably do that again after the 1200, then do another 400 and 1200 to take off the fur.
Here's a close up of the heel joining the body
I went with the curved back plate so I could bevel the part where you grip the neck for higher notes.
My strat has a square edge there, so my hand comes up against that corner, making reaching the top frets difficult.
I like how the lines intersect
Wouldn't the hole spacing for the pegs govern the distance between the strings?
not really, the strings go from the tuning peg to a slot in the nut at the top of the neck. from there the strings go straight down the neck.
Nut? Gitouttahere. :headshake
Point being, the sound wave is created by the length of the string. The nut is the longest or lowest point the string ends. What goes on beyond it is purely esthetic.
What I'm seeing is the string coming off the peg into a slot in the top most fret, then down to the business end where the electronics are. Not seeing any nuts except my own. :confused:
I need to decide on a finish. Thinking about this acrylic lacquer
It's thick. This is one coat. You mix equal parts of acrylic resin and hardener, mix in a pigment, and pour it on. I have a bunch of mica pigment samples. This blue is groovy, and I have a good turquoise. Not sure if I'll be able to keep drips under control while it cures though.
The other options are spray paint with lacquer over it, or staining it and oiling it.
[youtube]oxi0YT7-rJE[/youtube]
What I'm seeing is the string coming off the peg into a slot in the top most fret, then down to the business end where the electronics are. Not seeing any nuts except my own. :confused:
The nut is the little bar the strings go over at the very end of the fret board. Mine isn't on yet.
What? These are nuts.
[ATTACH]66253[/ATTACH]
Whoever decided this is a nut must be the third kind of nut above.
[ATTACH]66254[/ATTACH]
:facepalm:
The nut is the little bar the strings go over at the very end of the fret board. Mine isn't on yet.
Thanks man.
You know how to fix that right?
Best fix is to prevent it. Finish the hole from the other side.
Thanks man.
I should have known you were parts of this travesty. :eyebrow:
Best fix is to prevent it. Finish the hole from the other side.
What do you mean exactly? That's the front that chipped, not the back. It's the one hole that I went all the way through the backing plate. I think the chuck nicked it.
Well that explains that, I thought it chipped on the back side. I might have even assumed.
As you were.
Update of sorts.... The original stratocaster that I bought in 1988, the one I took to get repaired... That started this whole interest for me....
Is fucked.
The neck is not fixable. Not by any means Pete is willing to attempt, anyway. I may someday revisit it. I'm keeping the neck, but we've decided to make a new neck for it.
I've got that beautiful piece of flamed Maple I showed you in this thread. Last night I went over to Pete's and he designed it with a 3D design program. We've tweaked a couple things. Like the nut width and one of the curves on the head stock.
The cool thing is... We're going to cut this neck on his C&C machine, truss rod slot and all. So I can give him designs for the inlay on the head stock, and the C&C will cut it out precisely. All I'll have to do is fill it with dust and glue and sand it flat.
I'm going to use Bubinga for the fret board, and he can slot and radius that to spec as well.
Should be interesting
Bubinga - sounds dirty but isn't
~ just want to take a moment to mention what an excellent thread this is ~ It is so interesting watching you go, and all the details.
I've been playing for 34 years, and I do my own setups, and have even replaced bridges and modified my electronics and such. But there's so much to it all, I'm learning a ton here.
Thanks for that. I have to constantly remind myself to stop and take pics. Then at night, I go through my gallery and write the post based on the pics I took or video. I'm glad you're enjoying this thread.
Sunday, I'm going to lay out the hardware and drill the holes for the bridge and claw. Then I'm going to paint it. I'll do the tiny holes for the pick guard and tuner pegs after paint dries. The time between coats and curing, I'll use to work on the 88 strat neck... And vacation....
Might have a finished guitar by end of Feb, early March. Then I'll do a second guitar!
Yeah, thanks for taking the time to lay all this out for us. I appreciate it anyway.
I keep looking forward to the next installment.
Update of sorts.... The original stratocaster that I bought in 1988, the one I took to get repaired... That started this whole interest for me....
Is fucked.
The neck is not fixable. Not by any means Pete is willing to attempt, anyway. I may someday revisit it. I'm keeping the neck, but we've decided to make a new neck for it.
I've got that beautiful piece of flamed Maple I showed you in this thread. Last night I went over to Pete's and he designed it with a 3D design program. We've tweaked a couple things. Like the nut width and one of the curves on the head stock.
The cool thing is... We're going to cut this neck on his C&C machine, truss rod slot and all. So I can give him designs for the inlay on the head stock, and the C&C will cut it out precisely. All I'll have to do is fill it with dust and glue and sand it flat.
I'm going to use Bubinga for the fret board, and he can slot and radius that to spec as well.
Should be interesting
Making lemonade, good plan.
I also love this thread man, too cool for words. The precision required to do this right is mind-blowing.
That's beautiful maple.
I'm really enjoying this thread too. Making an electric guitar is much more involved than I realized and this one is really coming together.
I'll second or third or ____ because I'd stand in line to praise the amount of work you've put into making this great thread.
Technical enough to learn shit but fun enough to eagerly await what happens next.:notworthy
The flamed Maple is beautiful but I don't think the people will see it when you're up on that stage of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Oh, and now I am getting Stew Mac ads in my social media feeds. I must have followed a link in this thread, or looked something up that you referenced. :)
Doh! Sorry, but Dan Erlewine is the man. He's stew mac's guru. He has all the cool tools. I was close to ordering a pin reamer for the next job, but it was $164 for a hand tool that I'd use once per guitar. I used a step bit in my countersink driver and a rat tail file that I already had instead. Good boy, Jim.
Here's why :
The tuner pegs are slightly tapered. The top facing part of the shaft is 3/8"
But they widen to 25/64" at the bottom.
My step bits have a 3/8
But then go 13/32 then 7/16 or 14/32.... 25/64 is 12.5/32nds. So I needed to go about half way there with the former. I didn't do any math to figure that out, I just reamed the first hole a bit, tried the tuner, repeat until it sank to the right depth.
Then I made the pencil mark on the bit and brought the rest slowly down.
And cleaned up the edge with this file.
The tuner with no reaming of the hole :
After :
Once the holes (and I only did the first and last hole at first) were opened up enough to seat the tuners, I can see that my first peg is too short.
Which means the head stock is too thick up there. It's 0.6025" there and 0.5905" at the end. I'll need to sand that to 0.500 I guess. But I had what I needed to do the job I was trying to do.
What I'm doing is lining up the location of the bridge.
I attached the first and sixth peg to the head
Made sure to align the hole in the peg perpendicularly to the neck
And got out this spool of conductive thread I had from when I was making my gloves touch screen capable...
Only because it was the only thread I could find that was thick and strong enough to do what I wanted it to do. Some guys will use guitar strings for this next part.
I suppose you could use a straight edge and math, but it seemed to me that this way is easier and more accurate. Back up. First I want to show Bruce my nut:
You can see that it is pre grooved.
So that gives me the lateral location of the strings as they enter the fret board. I'll file into them to set the height of each string when I get into set up at the end of this.
But for now, I need it mounted where it will be sitting when it's done.
Here's its home :
The nut is radiused to 10". My board is 12". So I'll compensate with a very expensive nut slotting file later.
I started getting all clever and trying to put pieces of wood up the edges and clamping it from the side to make sure it was flush on both sides and didn't move around.... You can see the clamp on the desk... But then I realized... Just use tape, dip shit.
Now the bridge :
The two u shaped parts at the top edge are where the bridge will pivot against the posts. The location of those posts is crucial. Vital even.
The bridge has holes through it where the strings go around to the back of the guitar.
They come up over the saddles.
The saddles are the grey metal blocks that have that slot and the 2 adjustment screws {one in each half. ) There are 6. One for each string
I ran the thread through the 6th peg and locked it down with the locking mechanism. That's a post inside the peg that's tightened with the big flat wheel at the bottom of the tuning machine.
There is a post inside the tuner post that rises when you tighten the nurled wheel, which pins the string going through it against the inside top of the post. That keeps them from slipping and losing tune.
So anyway.... Through the 6th peg, into the 6th hole in the bridge, under and back out the first hole and up to the first peg.
Now I've simulated where the strings will be. I can line it up laterally by eye, compensating for the thicker bottom (closer to the top as you hold the guitar) strings.
I want the strings running as parallel as possible and centered. The dark line running up the guitar is center as it happens. That's from gluing 2 pieces for the body, and being careful to center every thing I do to the top and the neck.
Not just eyeball here, I checked to confirm
The 12th fret is the middle of the string length, so if my distance from center line is the same there and at the first fret and the 22nd, it's straight.
And it is straight. If my neck pocket wasn't square, or if my neck wasn't attached properly, I'd have work to do fixing that. But I was extra careful, so this worked out well.
Now, I mark the hole location by tracing the bridge and finding the center of the post.
The posts are 2 1/4" apart at center
I stopped there because it was getting late and I wanted time for things I forgot to bubble up to the surface of my brain.
Which of course I had done. I never checked the length when I had it together. It's probably right.... I haven't changed anything since I corrected that 25.5" issue I had, but I want to check it again before drilling. And I want to make a jig that I can set on top and make 100% sure my bit can't walk when I start the holes.
I'd like that to be adjustable, so I can use it for future guitars, so I've got my subconscious working on that while I review this.
But here's the best thing! It made its first sound!
Oscar Meyer has a way with B O L O G N A.
[youtube]_XEhXgh5ncg[/youtube]
Now it's out to the garage and set up the planer and the jointer to work on the flamed Maple board for the new neck. Weeee!
Oh, and now I am getting Stew Mac ads in my social media feeds. I must have followed a link in this thread, or looked something up that you referenced. :)
You'll never walk alone...
[ATTACH]66292[/ATTACH]
Thanks, Jim.
But here's the best thing! It made its first sound!
Congratulations, it's a guitar!:cheerldr:
Have ya given any thought to what you're gonna call it?
Lucille? What about serial number? LJ001, JH001?
Thought about serial numbers... Hadn't thought of naming it....
The Lumbercaster?
Hmmmmm
The length is fine
The orange dot is just about where the string will come off the saddle
So, pretty close. The saddle will adjust forward enough to make it just right.
I made the jig, but just a one off, as my subconscious hasn't gotten back to me yet.
Take the distance...
And then
This is that Aztek material I used for the router sled.
Here's another of those stick on LED lights.
I love them
One on each side of the drill press.
I need to see
Missed the mark on the first attempt. Looked good while I was drilling it, but when I double checked it, it was off a Lil bit.
Second try got it.
I clamped the jig to the body and said fuck it.
I lie. I didn't do that at all. I checked depth.
Managed to fuck that up though, so I might as well have said fuck it. We'll get to that in a bit. The holes actually came out perfect with regards to placement. They were a bit skinny, though. I had the idea that I should drill an 11/16 hole, as the 3/8" collar could be pounded home snugly.
In reality, when I saw that in person, I chickened out. Afraid I'd split the wood. So I decided to go a 16th wider.
I used the step bit by hand like the tuner pegs to get that started, but then I had to switch to a real 3/8" bit to get to the bottom. That's where I had a little faux pas. The bit grabbed and shot through the bottom on the lower hole.
Don't know that that will matter in the end. The hole will be full of pivot post and brass collar.
They went in easily enough.
I hammered through a piece of scrap from the neck.
So I can lay the bridge in, and install the claw.
The Claw!
Mark the holes
Then use a really long bit when I drill them to minimize the angle.
The Claw hooks to the tremolo with springs. The strings will provide counter force to make the back of the trem 'float'.
I could string this and play it right now. I just need to glue the nut down.
Brb
I glued the nut down.
And put the tuners on.
But I didn't string it. I'm gonna wait.
I had to file the face of the head stock down some to make that 6th post sit right, and will most likely need to go back and flatten out the entire headstock with the sander.
I can't really do anything else until I paint it.
[YOUTUBE]UExTN3_UOIY[/YOUTUBE]
Can't help you with that one.
Paint is going to take a week if I get real lucky with weather. Probably longer because vacation. I'll try to get the sanding sealer on tonight and let that cure until weds. Then paint throughout the day on weds... Then whenever I can sneak out and throw a coat of lacquer on until Saturday night... Put it inside to cure while we're away and sand the lacquer when we get home. I'll probably do some kind of sparkly mica in the top few coats of lacquer to add depth.
After paint is dry, I'll drill the little holes for the pick guard, tuner pegs and string trees. Strap buttons....
And then I've got to line the cavities with copper and or conductive paint, install the electronics, touch up the frets, string it and set it up.
Should be done by the end of the month.
Faraday cages.
I've got this shit:
And this shit:
I did the front first. Taped it all up so I didn't drip...
Oh.... I changed the neck:
It's that 2X4 that I used to practice routing back a hundred years ago when I started this thread. Ever read, 'The Giving Tree? '
This 2X4 has starred in roles such as:
Router Practice
First trip through the planer
First trip across the jointer
And now....
The role of a lifetime....
Stick I use to hold the body while I paint it
:cheers:
I used the same template I used to make the actual neck, but skipped the whole router table business. I just used that alligator rasp to fit it into the pocket. I'm finding more and more that for 'approximate' jobs, grabbing a hand tool is more expedient than setting up a machine. Save the machines for precision or volume jobs.
I just used the extant holes and went through the front of the handle jig with the same color matched screws.
So anyway, Faraday Cage...the idea is to surround the guitar's innards with a conductive net or shield. This reduces feed back and that 60 htz him that you get from electronic interference that comes form lights, tv's, amplifiers, etc... So I bought paint and tape because I didn't know which would work better. A combo should also work.
I ran out of the conductive paint before I got it all covered. The underside of the pick guard haa a foil liner. I need conductivity across the front, so I painted up over the top in a section in the center.
I'll probably go back in with some copper tape to make sure I have contact. I lined the back cover myself
I covered the back cavity with copper...
Made sure I had 1/8" rolling up over the edge to contact the back plate interior.
So when that cover is attached, the back pocket will be shielded. Probably over kill... But fuck off. I'm not cutting any corners.
I've got a little touch up to do there still, but it's bed time. Night y'all.
Between 40 and 60 this week, but rain. Not great for paint drying.
I think Griff's rocket was response to my suggesting Launch Pad 1 for a name.
Oh, ok. I thought it might be like, countdown to launch... Like the end was near...
If you'd like to clean this thread to use for serious reference, or to show nice people, you're welcome to delete my crap.
Wouldn't dream of it. Your crap is part of the fabric of the cellar. I appreciate that you reply. Just to know that there is someone paying attention gives me motivation to work on it when I am feeling lazy. Seriously, thanks.
By the way, my dad reads this thread. He's real excited that I've taken this hobby up. Anything that gets me more interested in guitars is good from his pov.
He's the best guitarist I know, and as soon as I feel like I know what I'm doing, I'm going to make one for him. And when I give it to him, I'm going to take a video of the two of us jamming on our Lumbercasters and put it up in this here thread. That's a promise.
I stated at the second-to-last picture for way too long trying to figure out why there was a naked man standing in the background...
I stated at the second-to-last picture for way too long trying to figure out why there was a naked man standing in the background...
Oh
My
God
My hand has a cute ass
JIM'S HAND'S GOT ASS!!!!!
How about a little lumber porn this morning?
[youtube]TbpQw_5VJcY[/youtube]
Look at how the light shifts and the flames roll right at the beginning... Love that.
I remedied the head stock thickness issue
I flattened that hump down, but still had a bit of a tilt to the washer for the 6th peg.
So I relieved some wood from the nut side. Just traced the washer and went around it with my 2nd tiniest chisel (2mm dog leg chisel(the one I used to clean up the nut slot)) and now the washer sets in a bit leaving it 95% perfectly flat.
There is I tiny gap under it, but I think paint will fill that in and it'll disappear.
I also invented a sanding jig
Just a slit cut half way through a bit of scrap from the coasters I made, and a couple screws. I've got 2 strips back to back. 1000 grit on one face, 2000 on the opposite.
What's that I'm sanding, I imagine you saying?
When I showed Amanda how much I liked the band saw she and Santa gave me, I randomly cut out a spoon shape to demonstrate how tight you could turn it during a cut.
I quipped that I'd make her a spoon and set it aside.
One night I did make it spoonish, but it was too thick and pretty useless, so I took it back out to finish later. Last night I finished it.
Branded it with a non scarlet A and oiled it with tried and true food safe oil. Still pretty useless, but much more spoonish.
How about a little lumber porn this morning?
You mean
morning wood?
[ATTACH]66340[/ATTACH]
What's that I'm sanding, I imagine you saying?
Ya don't hafta imagine it.
I thought it was a pipe.
It might not be a pipe, but it looks about the right size for snuff.
Nice spoon! My dad likes carving spoons.
Sorry, forgot the banana. It's about 1.25" diameter.
After the morning wood, I got excited and handled my tool.
...
Well, I added a handle to a tool anyway
This is a StewMac Fret end dressing file.
I got 2. I could just imagine my hand cramping up using it, so....
I added a short handle I made with that maple board in the video above
Depth
It's pretty
I'm also trying one last thing on the original warped strat neck
I got a book by a Japanese luthier who heats them until the glue melts, clamps them and let's them cool
I'll see how that goes
Seems like that might have worked. I now have a noticeable back bow with the truss rod disengaged.
Touching at the 10-12tb frets
About 1/16th at the first?
1/32 at 22 I'd say
So the strings will pull out back some, and the truss rod should hopefully take it the rest of the way to flat...
It might be a little early to celebrate though. I'm going to let this rest for a couple days and check again.
I feel like it should stay. Cmon, stay. Good boy.
Put a really tall nut on that bastidge and play slide!
Clever, you can tighten or loosen the sandpaper curve to conform closer to the radius you want to finish.
The plan for paint begins tonight. First thing is a wash coat of 50% nitro cellulose lacquer and 50% lacquer thinner.
I had 1oz and 2oz portion cups, so I mixed up 4oz. The body drank 2oz.
I put screws into the body to stand it off the bench. One in the pocket and one where the pick guard will cover the hole that will remain after I paint.
The third I put into the neck stick.
I'll let that cure until Friday. Then I'll get a few coats of sanding sealer on it and let that cure for a week.
Then color, then the lacquer. This thread will show down now....
At least for this guitar
Slow down dammit. Fargin auto correct
♪ ♫He cried to the southern wind♪ ♫
♪ ♫About a project that was soon to end♪ ♫
♪ ♫Every string in his heart was gone♪ ♫
♪ ♫Headed for a Slowdown♪ ♫
~Slowdown, by The Electric Light Slowrchestra
very poetic of you...
I dropped the old strat neck back off to Pete this morning on my way to work. He seemed dubious when I called and told him that the heating trick had worked, but he couldn't argue once it was in his hand. We had discussed heating it, but he didn't think that would work, and could ruin the neck. I only tried it because I had nothing to lose after he gave up once the larger frets didn't fix it.
He's cool though.... no resentment like you might expect from some people when they are proven wrong. Just interest
" how'd you hang it again? what kind of heater? How long?"
--so maybe I taught HIM a trick? nyuck nyuck.
Anyway, he's going to finish replacing the frets with stainless steel frets, replace the saddles on the guitar, and set it up for me. So, my old strat should be back in action much sooner.
I'll still make the new neck with him, now I just need to come up with a new body to go with it. Maybe I'll do a pretty one and use stain instead of paint on that.
You know what Jim? I'm starting to think you are pretty smart. Cool thread although how I thought guitars were made have been dashed on the rocks. So glad you mentioned your father, call him often. I wish I could talk to mine. Reading the other comments was informative too. I can't wait for the video.[emoji481]
Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk
--so maybe I taught HIM a trick? nyuck nyuck.
When I read his story I got the impression he's like a sponge, always looking for new information from anyone. That's why he's so good.
I knew a guitar builder/wrangler from Lancaster that was so cool he looked down on everyone when it came to guitars. He's a damn fool because he'll never know everything he could.
I'm up to about 6 coats of sanding sealer now. I've got it hanging to dry between coats.
I'll try to get 2 or 3 more on tonight then move it inside for the next few days to cure real good before I start sanding it for paint. I'll have Friday through Sunday to paint and lacquer then I'll start LC0002.
Completely forgot to spray the head stock while I was building layers on the body. And the end grain where the fret board drops to the peg head is v thirsty.....
{I still miss her)
I got a couple coats on when I realized I'd forgotten, and I'll do one more before bed. I don't think it's the end of the world, just inconvenient. I think that little part would be ok with not much finish sanding, being that it's mostly flat to start out. I wish the seam down the middle of the body would fuck off already...
Fill it with paint, sand it down, it'll be fine when everything else is painted.
You're nearing the end, maybe you're starting to second guess stuff.
I'm hoping that when I sand it back, it will fill in, and then paint will cover. Plus I'll be doing a bajillion coats of lacquer
But for now... And the immediate future....
Keep the Conch coming
This is you
This is us
And here's a rooster
guitar nerds: the drummer from Mastodon has a Randy Rhodes drum kit
That's really interesting. Or something
It would do double duty with a bass skin of Buddy Guy, too.
[ATTACH]66443[/ATTACH]
some people wondering the same thing as me-- did he get his guitar idea from Buddy Guy?
Here we go!
Back yard paint booth... Kinda
Hanging the body and neck
I'm just painting the face of the head stock.
Test spray to check the color and spray pattern.
It's round, which isn't ideal, but this is pretty ghetto anyway, so...
Edges first, holding the body by the stick, then I'll hang it and give the body a light coat.
First, a little liquid courage
Just a little. Lite.
Eta: I sanded the pieces with 220, wiped it down then 320, wiped with a damp sponge to get as much dust off as I could, let that dry 30 min and then wiped with a tack cloth right before painting it.
It's so blue
Or is it green?
That little seam is absorbing the paint, but I think it will fill it in as I proceed through coats
45 minutes later, the second coat
Time for a quick nap. (the best part of vacation is naps at will)
[youtube]8xHp8bIITwo[/youtube]
I'm seeing a lot more imperfections now that the paint is on. I'll be doing some sanding, so I think I'll try to get 5 coats of paint on today. 2 down.
pitter patter (let's get at er)
Not sure if that's little bubbles or dust, but it's pissing me off
Hmm. In theory, a warm piece of wood taken into the cold would tend to suck air (or paint) into its pores instead of off gassing and creating bubbles. I think. It must be dust. Right?
Nothing a little sanding can't fix.
Looking good.
I think sanding will fix it. I hope so anyway. Then it's getting a half gallon of lacquer.
Check this out
[youtube]AWognv_ojbk[/youtube]
what manner of ƒuckery is that ?
Just the light I guess. It's a yellow heat lamp about 3 feet away. Much more pronounced through the camera lens
5 coats in a can it seems.
That guitar is going to be the next white dress/blue dress controversy...
♫ I had everything I needed
Bark and Leaves it’s true
♫ You meant the wood to me
But now my life is so blue
♫ And even though the sun is shining
I spend my day drying over you
♫ Hanging from a wire in the backyard
I spend my day drying just for you
♫ I, oh I feel just like the sky
I'm so blue
That guitar is going to be the next white dress/blue dress controversy...
This
You can as many colors as you want...
Today I'm sanding and putting the first 2 coats of lacquer on. It's been about 40 hours since the last coat of paint.
To be able to get lacquer on both sides and then leave it to rest, I needed a way of holding it off the bench, so I installed the bottom strap button.
Cut a notch in a block...
And got the Sjoberg bench vise out.
One end on the vise, one end up in the block
Works
Then.... Disaster struck
As soon as I hit it with the lacquer...
Fuuuuuuck
Dunno what I'm gonna do now.
I guess sand it back and try again
You got a stipple finish without even trying. You could get some stipple finish paint to even out the afflicted edging. The contrasting texture might be nice and give it some grip when you stand it up on the floor and lean it against something. You could also apply wood grain stripping to the edge and go for the old station wagon look.
If you redo it, do a test block of wood with paint and lacquer to verify drying times and compatible chemistries.
Test block? You're looking at it.
Trial and error is a technique best left to those with sandblasters.
Shame about the time wasted, but what else can ya do? Sand, srcape, reshape. Silver lining... I got to do some more sculpting in places I didn't see until I had paint on it. Subtle things I couldn't really photograph, but it feels better than it did before I painted it, so there's that.
I guess I'll just leave the pockets blue. No one will see that with the pick guard on.
Yup.
Gotta do the finish right. I'm reconsidering paint at this point. I've started to become fond of the grain, such as it is. I like the way it feels better bare naked than I did with paint on it. Maybe I'll go the oil route.
I've got a bunch of stuff to try. Danish oil, linseed, teak oil, true oil.... And some keda dye, and mica dust....
I'm gonna have a think on it, and let a couple days go by.
Take it to a tattoo parlor and have it inked.
Think of that paint as bondo filling in the tiny voids to be sanded in preparation for the immaculate finish.
Did you ask your mentor about the lacquer over paint issue?
I've now learned that the lacquer reacts with enamel paint, which is what I used. I should have used clear shellac to seal it. I guess I'll buy new paint, and pay attention to what kind this time. derp.
Finishes are a mystery to me. I bet there is a finishing bible out there...
Interesting! I'd never heard of that.
Finishes are a mystery to me. I bet there is a finishing bible out there...
I don't know about a bible, but there was a finishing God.
His name was Homer Formby.
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I don't know about a bible, but there was a finishing God.
His name was Homer Formby.
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I made the twin to that chessboard in ninth grade.
I still have it.
Little known fact: shellac is secreted by the back end of the female lac beetle
Little known gross fact: it's why Junior Mints are shiny
tasty lac beetle secretion
Soo...
Lacquer is secreted by gay male lac beetles?
Lacquer? I barely even know her!
what shellacs in looks she makes up for in secretions
Finishes are a mystery to me. I bet there is a finishing bible out there...
I clearly need to seek help. I got some good pointers from a big guitar forum called Tdpri.
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=http://www.tdpri.com/threads/sanding-sealer-for-spray-enamel.295108/#post-8919200&share_tid=295108&share_pid=8919200&share_fid=78013&share_type=t
If I were you I would get that paint out of the control cavity as well. Pick your paint solvent and use a small wire brush to get in it out.<br /><br />You have a couple of ways to do this:<br /><br />Wash the body thoroughly with mineral spirits and let dry for 3 days.<br />Get a can of vinyl sanding sealer. Some are great others not so much. DO NOT USE DEFT BRAND! Its never dries.<br />The best would be Behlen's sanding sealer for guitar:<br /><br />
<br /><br />Next. let the sealer dry a day at least and sand to 320 grit.<br /><br />Now you have choice you can paint your color coat directly onto the sealer. Like Gibson does or prime the body Like Fender used to do.<br /><br />If I were you I would prime the body using white sandable primer. I use Dupli-color. It plays well with just about any acrylic lacquer paint.<br /><br />Both Fender and Gibson used acrylic Lacquer under their nitro clear coat which is more acrylic than nitro these days. :twisted:<br /><br />It can be found in just about any auto store. One can is all you need. It relatively cheap about $7.00 YMMV.<br /><br />
<br /><br />Let your primer dry a day at the least but longer is better and sand smooth to 320 grit. A couple of light passes with the sand paper is all you need to do. Any sand throughs cover again with left over primer.<br /><br />Now here is the most complicated part, sourcing your color coat:<br /><br />Most rattle can manufactures, (Duplicolor Perfect Match product line is what I have used) use acrylic lacquer for their touch up sprays.<br />The problem is most companies make paint for the most recent car colors used in the last 5 years and by and large lately they are mostly metallics. It looks like you are using a non metallic color paint. Very close to what Fender called "surf green".<br /><br />So your easiest choices are: 1) Change to a metallic and find something in the same shade or 2) Order a can of Surf Green from Reranch. I did a Sonic Blue Strat some years back and one can is all I needed.<br /><br />A more complicated way but will get you exactly what you want is to take a 3"x 3" color sample of your current spray and taking into an autobody paint supply, they will scan it and their computer will mix out a pint or whatever size you want. At some locations they will even load some of it into rattle cans for you but comparatively this is expensive and you will have much more material than you need for one body.<br /><br />Whatever choice you make the application of your color coat will be the same; 3 overlapping passes = 1 coat is the general rule depending on your technique. Let is gas out over a couple of days between each coat to be on the safe side.<br /><br />After your 2nd and, if needed, 3rd coat has dried completely you can now apply your clear coat.<br /><br />I strongly recommend you get Behlen's String Instrument Lacquer if you want nitro! It has more durable resins in it.<br /><br />One can maybe two cans should do it. They run about $13.00-$14.00 a can plus shipping.<br />Woodcrafters sells the sanding sealer and lacquer so order them together and save on the shipping charges.<br />I think Behlen's is also the retail line name for Mohawk finishes so you might want to check the Googles to source the product from Mohawk to save a few bucks.<br /><br />
<br /><br />Follow the rule of 3s for applying you clear coat. Maybe sand lightly your between your second and third coat of clear with 400 grit if you have some orange peel. Make sure to wipe all the dust from the body before applying the next coat.<br /><br />Time is your friend in all this !!! The more time you have between for all your coat applications to gas out the better chance you have for avoiding problems.
Very close to what Fender called "surf green"
I've always heard it called "seafoam green".
Ouch, I knew that, just didn't catch you were using enamel. My bad. :facepalm:
I should have done better research on this part. I'm very impatient to assemble what I've created and this looks like a month long process minimum. I'm tempted to put it together as is and play it, then take it apart to paint it in the spring when conditions are more favorable for painting.
Stain it, then paint over it in the spring.
I feel your pain, bro. School of hard knocks.
But when God closes one door he opens another--
[YOUTUBE]CBcALc8yWq4[/YOUTUBE]
I have that stuff. Or something like it. Thing about that stuff is the edges. You need to keep it all from sliding off somehow. You could do very thin coats and build it up, or I was thinking of carving 1/2" deep reliefs in the areas where there are no cavities and filling them with epoxy resin. Heavy though. I might do like Digr said. Still mulling it over.
Engraving, filled with epoxy, don't think I've ever seen that. Yeah, heavy though.
I've got plans for the next guitar floating around in my head. The head stock as a flame to go with the flamed Maple neck:
And a body like this, but done better:
I once repaired a nut on a bass that was actually pulled out of alignment by an offset headstock design. The pressure exerted by bass strings is way more than guitar strings, but still, I'd worry about how much responsibility is on the nut to handle that bend.
Maybe a locking nut... they don't do that on basses AFAIK...
Your headstock design looks like a painter's palette.
Likey.
Made a new short handle stick to use, and a taller rotisserie type mount so I can spin the body 360 while I apply finish.
I decided to go with boiled linseed oil thinned with lacquer thinner, and some lacquer based pigment. I'll cover it with polyurethane gloss finish as a top coat. I tried a bunch of combinations of oil and lacquer and dye.
The linseed has a slight yellow cast, which helps with the color I want. About 7 parts white, 2 parts green and 1 part blue comes up pretty close.
I like it.
Looking good, it's got character.
Here's that epoxy resin
Very tricky to get it smooth with coat thin enough to use on a guitar. Maybe a telecaster because their tops are flat.
I decided to go with boiled linseed oil thinned with lacquer thinner, and some lacquer based pigment.
Be careful.
Rags soaked with linseed oil stored in a pile are considered a fire hazard because they provide a large surface area for oxidation of the oil, which oxidises quickly. The oxidation of linseed oil is an exothermic reaction, which accelerates as the temperature of the rags increases. When heat accumulation exceeds the rate of heat dissipation into the environment, the temperature increases and may eventually become hot enough to make the rags spontaneously combust.
In 1991, One Meridian Plaza, a high rise in Philadelphia, was severely damaged and three firefighters perished in a fire thought to be caused by linseed oil-soaked rags.
~
Wiki
101, I know, but it bears repeating.
It's ok, I've got them wadded up nice and tight and tucked under my box of sawdust next to the gas can.
You're not just another pretty face. :headshake
Cover it in fertilizer!!!
Done work in half an hour, then to the shop! I'm going to run down the body with 0000 steel wool, then give it another coat of goo. The feedback I'm getting from the guitar finishing people leads me to thinking I might just quit with 3 coats of oil and skip the poly. Or just do one light coat and rub it in. The poly won't bond with the oil, they say. Why bother if you're Ok with satin finish, etc.
So we'll see how these next 2 coats go.
Oh, and for now, I'm thinking of leaving the head stock painted with no clear, just sanded fine line this:
The color is close enough, I think, and the lace wood will look completely different if I do the oil and dye.
The color with faint wood grain showing through looks like kitchen cabinets I've seen in the last few years.
We used to do a lot of pickled frost in the late 80s when I refinished furniture. In going to do the next coat straight up white. And only a dash of thinner. Instead of the boiled linseed oil, I'm going with polymerized linseed and beeswax. It's called tried & true oil. Its a food safe oil meant for butchers blocks and cutting boards, but I did the fret holder and those neck rests with it and I love the feel of it. It's bleeding less tint when I touch it than last time, but the color is too dark.
I'm hoping that if I use white, let it sit for 45 minutes and then rub it back, I'll get my color. Then 2 more coats of straight oil in the following 2 days... And then I can convert my shop back to woodwork and start LC0002
Hey. I refinished furniture in the 80's too. Kitchen cabinets as well.
I like how the color is coming out, and am very curious to see it after you add some white.
We used to do a lot of pickled frost in the...
Can someone show us a pic of something finished in this technique? I'm having trouble finding anything to look at, lots of words, but no pics of pickle-frosted anything, though.
Search for pickled wood. Then look for examples of the frost color.
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Thank you, sir, ma'am.[/hattip]
I knew the pickled wood would interest you.
:lol2:
ETA: It was the see-through bit that hooked me.
It is a nice effect.
Testing with the white. I tried at first with very little thinner, but the white pretty much wiped off completely. 20%or so gave better results. The white gets down in and brightens the non grain wood.
I put a little on where the pick guard will cover
And I liked it. So...
It's very white. I'm a little scared
Tee hee...
I'll write the date I finish it after the 1
Be sure to copyright that color because The Chinese and con men will be trying to hussle counterfeit LC001s to the huge demand.
It's difficult to photograph the color I'm seeing, actually. It's more blue than I can capture. Maybe video in the morning light.
[youtube]tY6BtyT_698[/youtube]
The purple in the knot is pleasing
And I love the way the white stuck to the tiny light grains.
It brightens the overall color, but there's some depth from the contrast.
It looks pretty home made when I get up close, but I think after a couple more coats of straight oil, it will even out some of the blotchy areas and look better. I just hope I don't lose any of the current color when I do that. It's pretty perfect vs what I had in my head color wise.
What color pickguard ya got in mind?
FWIW, I'm a fan of that color gradient. Here's pics of my favorite piece of pottery at home to help visualize how some other colors may go with it. One pic on the shelf and another set down on the carpet for an interior view:
[ATTACH]66564[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]66565[/ATTACH]
Interesting, I wonder how a cranberry pick-guard would look?
I'm thinking white, or off-white.
Cranberry would pop, though.
I have a white one that I've already modified to accept the deeper intrusion of the neck from the mistake I made with the scale length. I was looking at it last night, and I think I want to cut the lower horn off so it doesn't cover that pretty wood.
Maybe like this
There are clear pickguards.
Yah, but then you'd see inside the cavities. Next guitar may have back routed pick up cavities and controls so I can go without one.
There are clear pickguards.
Paint the underside of the clear pick guard black or cranberry or whatever where it covers the cavities. You can extend the design to incorporate any image you like, anything that complements the grain and color on the body that needs protection but you don't want obscured.
Mask off and frost (sandblast) the underside where it covers those areas, put window decals on (H-D?); or, even affix family photos there. Stay away from tacky stuff like hundred dollar bills.
Or how about this?
I like the creativity though. I've never seen a clear pick guard with the naughty bits occluded. That might look cool. This one has always been light turquoise with a white pick guard, though.
Pick guards are pretty cheap. If the electronics didn't attach to them, it might be cool to have a few choices like phone cases. That could even be a selling point. Just have to design the guitar to mount electronics to the body independent of the pick guard... And maybe come up with a way to change it easily with the strings on.
When I tested straight oil on the test spots, it made the blue darker, so I did this penultimate coat with oil and white dye only. No thinner. Let it sit for a good hour, then rubbed back. It gets greasy feeling and is hard to wipe. It softens and gets easier as you work at it. The pic in the last post was the dyed oil sitting on it. This is the result:
It's just a little richer
One final coat tomorrow night, then rest for few days, and then I can assemble the fucking thing already.
The neck! Forgot all about oiling that up.
First coat!
Wow. The lace wood really pops
Why is it so red in the last picture?
The trimmed pickguard is better proportioned and the design makes the overall look better balanced.
This thread made me suddenly notice this guy for the first time in the Late Show band...
That's the color pretty much. I don't like the tortious shell though. Copper might be cool.
Bruce, just the angle and that blue is the complimentary color to orange, so it makes it look more orange when it's next to it.
Planning stages of the next guitar. I joined 2 more pieces of the poplar I used for LC001, but when I planed them flat, I was left with a pretty thin body blank. 1.56" or so. I need 1.75 finished to fit the cavities and controls for the S type body. So i ordered a top to glue on to the poplar. It's Birdseye Maple.
[ATTACH]66571[/ATTACH]
I'm not going to fuck with the flame shaped head on this one... probably. I have Birdseye maple fingerboards to go with this top, so it might look cool. Thinking of doing a Strat type body, but with Telecaster pickups..... I'm not quite sure yet.
OooOOOooohhh... I gotta tell you, I have very little appreciation for all the technicalities of construction going on in here--but Bird's Eye Maple is gorgeous.
Wood porn: anyone wanna guess how much this is listed for? It's 1 3/4" thick by 16x22"
Ima guess . . . your left nut.
close. $475!
and the prices are relatively reasonable on that site. I got this for $110:
[ATTACH]66573[/ATTACH]
granted, this is only 7/16" thick and it's 2 pieces...but still....
Yep always look for a good deal.
Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk
close. $475!
and the prices are relatively reasonable on that site. I got this for $110:
[ATTACH]66573[/ATTACH]
granted, this is only 7/16" thick and it's 2 pieces...but still....
Damn! Crazy expensive, but
soooo beautiful. :)
this is roasted hard maple. I love it. I'm gonna get 2 necks out of this board if I can. If i can't I'm going to make something else cool.
[ATTACH]66593[/ATTACH]
it's 1-3/16"x6-3/4"x38"
[ATTACH]66594[/ATTACH]
This is a wood porn site if ever there was one. scroll up top and browse the different woods he has. OMG... I'm going to have to show some restraint.
I may actually get my strat back today.
My heating the neck caused a couple other small issues, but we're correcting those. The finger board was lifted near the 12th fret bass side. Super glue and clamps for a while, then hopefully I can take it home.
I did take it home, and I gotta say, it plays better than it ever did. Ever. The action is wicked low and light, intonation is on point (he uses the 1st & 13th to set that, btw. I asked why and he said that occasionally you've got a nut in the wrong spot, but the octave is more reliably perfect from one fret to any other 12 steps away.)
So in all it cost me $400 total. I've got to let it adjust to having strings on again for 2 weeks and then take it back for a 'little kiss' on the 13th fret.
Happy
Pretty cheap for the pleasure you get. :thumb:
Less than buying a new neck and having it set up. And a new neck would halve the value of the guitar.
Now, consider the money I've spent on my new hobby as a result of this repair kindling my interest.... It's gonna take some time to get in front of that.
If I can sell a couple some day... Maybe
If I ever needed to buy one, I'd buy it from you.
Ditto
Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk
Great news !!! Maybe a couple post-op pics of the patient?
PhatPix, you sound like an unindicted co-conspirator in this guitar business. :lol:
I did take it home, and I gotta say, it plays better than it ever did. Ever. The action is wicked low and light, intonation is on point (he uses the 1st & 13th to set that, btw. I asked why and he said that occasionally you've got a nut in the wrong spot, but the octave is more reliably perfect from one fret to any other 12 steps away.)
So in all it cost me $400 total. I've got to let it adjust to having strings on again for 2 weeks and then take it back for a 'little kiss' on the 13th fret.
Happy
This made me happy today!
Great news !!! Maybe a couple post-op pics of the patient?
There's I little blister in the lacquer on back
I want to let that alone for a bit and see what it does before I file it down.
Stainless frets
They're like butter
I'm keeping it in the case with a humidity pack while it settles
The last piece of wood I ordered (the orangish long one ^) turned up first. The guy was super nice and quick responding to my initial inquiry. He threw this into the box :
This is very similar to the flamed Maple neck blank I have.
Installing the tuners. I finally figured out why 3 of them had green dot stickers. They're just a bit shorter than the others. I'll use them for the thinner strings because they're very....
streamlined...
You can see the extra 3/32 of post between the two in focus here
And the thick strings might pop off the top. Good thing they're locking tuners.
There is a post inside the post that's threaded. On the left the post is up, middle is halfway etc.. It's got a dome top and it rises on its thread as you dial the knob on the back.
Faraday Cage
The pick guard has aluminum under it.
The copper is one piece that will contact the aluminum and surround the pickups.
I did the back too, but it probably has no effect. Who knows.
I laid out the pick guard and jack plate, then taped them in place.
Did you notice that I added a hole to the pick guard where I cut the horn off?
I had picked up an old style drill recently because the Crimson guitars videos convinced me I'd need it. Turns out I did.
[youtube]5-d3DwogFoo[/youtube]
I forgot to acknowledge Digr when I had words coming out of my mouth in meat space.
I was busy posting you may get a copyright crackdown from YouTube when you noted it yourself!
Maybe they'll leave it alone because I credited the band?
lol. nope
Hi lumberjim,
A copyright owner using Content ID claimed some material in your video.
This is not a copyright strike. This claim does not affect your account status.
There are either ads running on your video, with the revenue going to the copyright owner, or the copyright owner is receiving stats about your video’s views.
[LIST]
[*] Video title: Drilling pick guard holes. Getting close!
[*] Copyrighted content: Tennessee Jed (Remastered Version)
[*] Claimed by: WMG
[/LIST]
Forgot about the song that followed Iron Horse.
They monitor for incidental background music?!?
Damn.
ETA: It's probably best to not acknowledge any association w/me to the general public.:p:
Have you seen the Steve Vai collection, pictures of 400 guitars.
https://www.vai.com/steves-guitars/
I was surprised how many don't have pick guards.
I mounted the controls to the pick guard.
Pretty straight forward. The pickups have springs that allow adjustment of height once it's strung.
I have not yet noticed the upside down pickup in this picture.
Time to solder shit.
The red white and black wires were soldered on according to the diagram the control rig came with. 1960s Jimi Hendrix schematic.
[youtube]xbC-IrVnY1M[/youtube]
What's wrong with this picture?
Derp. I always do something like that when I build things. Always. I was trying to put the pick guard on and it wouldn't go. That bridge pickup wasn't lining up with the cavity... And I couldn't really see what was touching. Once I removed and rotated the bridge pick up 180° I was able to fit the fucking thing on flat. But another faux pas was revealed.
I should not have drilled the holes for the pick guard without the junk hanging from it. The switch kept me out of alignment with the pre drilled holes. Next time I'll wait. Not a big deal, as the holes were tiny and they were far enough off without being visible that I simply re-drilled all but 3 of them.
After correction:
I hung the bridge and springs and stepped back to admire it.
I'm going to have to take the neck back off before I string it. I need to drill the hole for the upper strap button and the neck is in the way... Maybe I can get that hand drill in there though...
Knobs
Tomorrow is going to be a big day
Christ. Look how clean my bench was
What's left to do...
1. Button
1a. Date on the heel.
2. Nut slot filing
3. String it
4. String trees
5. Drill holes for back cover
6. Set up the saddle height and radius.
7. Set intonation
8. Tune it
9. Think of what song I'm going to play first (try to talk me out of doing Whole Lotta Love)
10. Post triumphant youtube video
Yay! I can't wait.
ROCK N ROLL!!!
9. Think of what song I'm going to play first (try to talk me out of doing Whole Lotta Love)
I always thought he was exclusively a Les Paul guy but forums say the first album was recorded with a Telecaster. Game on
You were in the enviable position of being able to acquire any tools, hardware, and material you needed/wanted, without waiting more than a few days.
That shortens the time line, but makes the learning curve steeper where you may have to make two or three decisions before learning the result of the first one.
Neither does it allow you to bypass the blood, sweat, and tears, or the slivers, cuts, cold, and frustration, nor the hours of research.
Certainly some of the accolades for your stunning success goes to your patient and supportive roommate. A winning team. :notworthy
Hmm. Maybe I should do purple haze instead. It is a Jimi wiring schema.
Star Spangled Banner's opening notes.
In the front yard, through a full stack.
At 6 a.m.
Whut? That's how Jimi woulda done it.
:devil:
In the rain?
She is so hot, you do need an epic launch.
Star Spangled Banner's opening notes.
In the front yard, through a full stack.
At 6 a.m.
Whut? That's how Jimi woulda done it.
[emoji317]
This. Except the 6am part. Glad I asked for ideas. Thanks Digr.
Can Amanda make the video?
This. Except the 6am part. Glad I asked for ideas. Thanks Digr.
:shred:
Can Amanda make the video?
I'm sure she'd be willing. Not as sure she'd want to appear in it. She's in Tony's neighborhood having a day out with the girls today. One of them is knocked up, after a lot of science and vitamins. So she'll be gone all day. I'm going to have to re learn that riff. Hopefully I have time to finish it enough to play it and film it tonight. I'm thinking about asking Pete to teach me his technique for setting up a guitar. The strat is so butter that I want this one the same way. He gets $80 for a set up, so I was thinking of offering him $150 to teach it.
I've got the ground wire put through and soldered to the claw,
the button mounted on the top horn...
And I'm breaking for lunch.
I hate to say it, but my nut might be too short...
I'm reserving judgment for now. I think it's ok.
Holy shit. I built a guitar.
~~~ *applause* ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Goddamn, man. You built a fucking guitar!
Très chic and very sleek.
I played it! No specific song, just some purple haze groove. It still needs to be set up. I'm going to spend Wednesday over at Pete's. He's doing set ups that day. He's going to diagnose whatever issues I have. Then I'm going to watch and help do set ups and whatever else he's doing. Then we'll do mine. Then I'll make the video. I've got to learn the song in the meanwhile.
Yeah. It's "ok."
LOL
Can't wait to hear you play it.
Full stop, did you build a guitar?
He did indeed, and it's a beautiful thing... except the strap doesn't do it justice.
it was out in the garage when I went to test it. It's since been changed to a black one. Amanda wasn't having a pink strap.
It all came together pretty quickly at the end there. I'm mildly surprised that I didn't fuck it up in any major way. I might be wrong about that though, lol. We'll see once a pro has a look over it. I might need to replace the nut with a slightly taller one, is the only thing I see.
Awesome! Congrats! It looks great!
:devil:
Now ya gotta get one of those lighted hang 'em on the wall display cases to showcase LC0001.
To show ppl where it all began.:cool:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hvo3yXvPnTx1QduD9
That's just a bunch of pics of the build. Probably a few I didn't put in here.
It's all taken apart again now. We have to take a sliver off of the control cavity so I can move the pick guard over 1/16" and maybe shave. 001" from the heel. The string height at the nut is about as low as it can go, but when you 'fret' (hold down the string) the first fret, the strings sit too high above the fret board. That's typically due to an incorrect neck angle. That can be caused by a difference in thickness of the heel from front to back, or the pocket being not flat. In my case, the pick guard was interfering with the bridge lying flat on the body. That was caused by the 3 way switch being up against that side of the cavity. So the cavity needs to be nudged back a bit to allow me to re set the guard location.
Nervous work, free hand routing the body after its finished, but I want this to be perfect, so I'll do what I need to do.
Can you just use a sharp chisel if you only have to take off a little bit?
Ok, the cavity is 1/8" wider. Now to slap it back together and test it. I had to cut the jack and ground wires in order to remove the guts, so I'll need to re solder those. Then I'll employ what I've learned about setting up the string height and radius, and then he'll show me how to set intonation properly. That's to do with the length of each string. Object being to get the middle of the string directly over the front edge of the 12th fret, so it's exactly one octave higher than the open string.
Can you just use a sharp chisel if you only have to take off a little bit?
I could have, but it would have taken longer and looked lumpy. Not that you see it, but hey. I did get the chisel out to make the transition between the lower and regular areas of the pocket.
Whatever works. And it looks like you got it done just fine.
You need a workbench worthy of your craftsmanship.
After adjusting the cavity to make room for the switch and Tone knob that were in the way, we put it back together, and it was still too high. So, We cut out and added a shim. I traced the heel of the neck on a thin piece of walnut he had set aside for this kind of thing. Then we tested the fit with a folded business card. 2 layers got it where we wanted it, so then drill through the shim where the neck bolts will go, and sand or plane the shim to the .0025" at the heel end, and disappearing on the neck end. that creates the correct angle so we can get the strings to be nice and low but parallel with the neck.
I didn't take any pics of the shim, but I did get Pete using the veneer slicer to reduce the thickness of the shim.
[YOUTUBE]Yy_KPIKmlOU[/YOUTUBE]
oh, he finally tried the super glue and masking tape trick. i had told him about it and he kind of blew it off saying he'd been using spray adhesive for 20 years, and etc.... but he tried it one day for a little template that wasn't critical... and was amazed at how strong it held and how easy it was to do. 'changed my life' I think is what he said. lol.. I did teach him a trick.... and he also said he'd probably try the neck heating trick if he ever comes across a neck as bad as mine was. Given the proper disclosure and if all other methods fail as mine did.
So yeah. a good long productive day at the luthier's shop. I was there until after 10pm. And I have one more adjustment to make....
This stems from that same frigging 3/8" error I made gluing the fret board onto the neck. I trimmed 1/8" off the neck, 1/8" out of the neck pocket...and figured I'd just extend the saddles to make up the last 1/8". well, the tremolo block under the bridge is butt up against the inside of that pocket, which becomes the fulcrum instead of the 2 posts like it should be.
I need to rout that 1/8" out of the upper edge of the trem pocket to let it forward enough to contact the posts properly. Then I'll need to nibble the pick guard down right there to match.
And THEN I can intonate the strings and call it done. (yeah...we'll see about that)
look how low the strings are:
Here's the shim. I had to remove the neck to rout this bridge cavity.
This line is where I need to rout to.
So I set up a fence 2 1/4" away and routed a groove deep enough to get the collar bushing to keep the edge, then finished the rout using that edge as a guide. I had to flip it over and finish the back by hand with a dremel.
The new cavity
From the back
And then I reassembled it.
You can see that I nicked the one side. It just shows under the edge of the bridge. I cut a little plug and glued it on the edge.
I set up the string height, grooved the nut and set the intonation.
It is finished.
Let's Hear some ROCK N ROLL!!! Please.
Kudos for following through to make everything right, and not saying good enough, or next time it'll be right. :thumb:
In the end you've been true to the thread title, "LEARNING HOW to build an electric guitar". :notworthy
Let's Hear some ROCK N ROLL!!! Please.
I will. Maybe Wednesday
I knew you fer a fuckin' nut-groover when I first laid eyes on ya.
[size=1]Fuckin' nut-groovers, man...[/size]
On a side note.... I bought another guitar
And promptly took it apart
Get this :
I paid $106 for this guitar. Shipped, taxed and inside a pretty decent gig bag. They used cheap components, to be sure, but the finish is perfect, the neck is flat and attractive...they even dressed the frets nicely. Crazy. No idea how there could be any profit in this.
It played fine, but had a pretty bad hum. So I figured I'd try adding some copper shielding tape and see if they really work.
Did the back cover and one loop to surround the ground wire. And then the inside of the pick guard.
The pots are tiny, and the switch is odd looking. I'm planning on re-wiring the whole thing and using it as a kind of practice piece.
I'm thinking the guy I bought that blue one from buys these, upgrades the hardware and markets them as used. I paid $449 for that one.
When this red one is back together, I'm going to take that one apart and see what the inside looks like. You see how the center is all routed out above... Not like mine where each pickup has its own pocket.
Oh. No you don't see that cuz I didn't post a pic of the front opened up.
There
Ooh, she's a dirty girl...:whip:
bro you're living in 3019 now
you'll never see guitars the same way
That's the downside of being a Ob-Gyn. :cool:
That's the downside of being a Ob-Gyn. :cool:
Ob-Gyn...Wuzzat, some kinda Jedi name or something?
Smell you get to, but eat not.
I think Bruce was saying that OB-GYN doctors look at vaginas all day, and it takes all the fun out of them for normal use.
And flint is right. When I was in key west and we were watching bands play, I was looking at the guitars first and hearing the music second.
I can't wait.
Ok fargon. I've got a new amp and guitars all over the room. I'm fixing to make you that video of some Jimi in a bit. Gotta do a little pottery first.
I've got the anthem mostly, but not perfect. It still sounds cool. Check back in a little while. Any last second requests?
Led Zep-Thank You. Listened to Chris Cornell's acoustic take on this today, nicccccce.
I think I might know a little Zeppelin....
Oh. Turns out I still suck at it. And at guitar in general right now. I cut the video off before I totally lost my way in the melody. And I skipped a whole section... Because I'm enough of a dork without video evidence on the internet tube. And I don't want to disrespect the anthem with a botched rendition. But mostly vanity.
Sorry, G. No zep today. The pottery you see. I wasn't feeling it right tonight. I think I had P. E.
Anyway, here it is. The guitar I mean. It works.
[youtube]0GIWyY9Komw[/youtube]
God damn, son! I think ya built a guitar!!!
:devil:
[SIZE="5"][COLOR="Purple"][FONT="Impact"]Freebird !![/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE] :lol2: Somebody had to.:o
Wait! Did you just build a damn guitar? Rock on brother, Jimmy forgives all.
Amp needs grounding is what all that noise is, I think
Wait! Did you just build a damn guitar? Rock on brother, Jimmy forgives all.
Yes he did, but it took him 17 weeks of Wednesdays and Sundays, (minus the Christmas & New Years turmoil), to build the shop, acquire tools, learn how, locate materials, experiment with paints, consult with professionals, assure Amanda he hadn't moved to the garage, and probably a couple hours sleep.
Whew! :shred:
Bruce, that is pretty damn near exactly what it was.
I've got to get moving on the next two before I lose momentum and Amanda gets used to me loafing on my days off. She's been working extra hours lately with tax season in full swing, so I need to fill my time.
Ute,
That is a new amp and I set it on top of my other one. What do you mean by grounding? I thought it was the guitar humming. The shielding I did didn't work as well after the last 2 surgeries, so I assumed I missed some section inside.
Also, I don't know what P.E. was supposed to be. I meant Performance Anxiety. That would be P. A. . P.E. is premature ejaculation. I didn't have that.
:shrug:
I'll try again another day and give you more of what the guitar sounds like with different settings on the amp..... maybe.
Does the amp hum when you don't have anything plugged into the input?
I don't think so. and the hum subsides when I turn and face a certain way. It gets worse when I'm near the chandelier in the dining room, too. I'm pretty sure I've got an antenna inside that's un-shielded.
The first night I played it, it hardly hummed, but since then, I've been all up inside it twice. I'll go back in one day and see if i can improve the faraday cage.
Pete was telling me that if you have a circle in your ground wires, you'll get a lot of hum. I kind of just squooshed wires in there last time, so maybe something is contacting something.....
I've been kicking around getting a couple quick connect clips to go into a central ground that would make yanking the pick guard an easy thing. They way they're designed, you have to disconnect the ground to the claw in the back, and the 2 wires leading to the jack in order to fully remove the pick guard. Seems like that should have been improved.
I may have inadvertently
created a ground loop with the shielding. I might go back in there and re-wire the whole thing more cleanly. I need more practice soldering anyway....
does the amp hum when you stick your dick in it ?
You know my dad reads this thread right?
Dad, flint is one of those retard geniuses
Some kind of ass burger or something
does the amp hum when you stick your dick in it ?
[COLOR="LightBlue"]I suspect he only buttfucks it in the mouth....[/COLOR]
And back the the OT.... I'm Very Impressed, LJ. To the point of envy. I can't even keep on track with a ceramic project that takes more than a week or two. And it fucking works! :D Nice one.
Thanks monster! I almost said it was the longest project I've done, but then the Harley took this long, and so did that deck I built. I guess I need some kind of mental simulation when work gets monotonous. I'm studying up on the electronics inside guitars lately. I don't know enough about it.
If you build a ukulele though, we are through....
Oh, I forgot a week in Key West out of your project, so even more impressed. :thumb:
I approve of every part of this. You done good.
If you build a ukulele though, we are through....
What if I build it out of the skulls of my enemies?
To be fair, Eddie Vedder, who I adore, released a ukulele album. I won't listen to it. Unless you are a 400 pound Hawaiian put that shit down.
But but but, Tiny Tim. :lol2:
I swear to God, if you build a ukelele, I will come up there and pick up your Man Card myself.
You got another hole punched for building your own guitar, but a ukelele? That aggression will not stand.
Hey, it wasn't my idea. I don't even play a ukelele. Not even sure I can spell it.
If I ever tackle acoustic, it will be 6 stringed, I promise.
To be fair, Eddie Vedder, who I adore, released a ukulele album. I won't listen to it. Unless you are a 400 pound Hawaiian put that shit down.
I'm working on it
... But I think Israel was in the 500+ club
Woo. Just looked that up. He was 757lbs at one point. That's big. Died at age 38.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Kamakawiwo%CA%BBoleThat's a big ol' bunch o' somebody.
~DigrBuddy, upon seeing an at least 600 pound man driving a Chevy Chevette. It was just the one guy in the car, and that car was
full.
I'm sorry, lumberjim's dad. Your son is a really good guy, so, nice job.
here's pretty good video(s) about the concept of how electricity moves through the electronics in a guitar.
[youtube]K7tcVVt3OrM[/youtube]
[youtubewide]K7tcVVt3OrM[/youtubewide]
and more about pots and the order you line them up.
[YOUTUBE]jPykTUrFVZs[/YOUTUBE]
Maybe I'll offer cup sizes for my custom guitar line
A really deep upper cut-away.
Called the DD.
Why not. Some guitars have F holes
Jim's lift & separate line.
Fret board radiusing jig. It's for putting the rounded surface on the fret board. With LC001, I cheated and bought a pre radiused and slotted fret board. I have one like it still, but I want to be able to do it myself. I saw this jig on a luthier bookface group. There are other ways to skin this cat, but I liked this one because it's logical, and it can be used to make a compound radius. I made a couple improvements, too.
There are (will soon be) holes at 9.5", 10", 12", 14", 16" and 18" from the red line. That red line represents where the tip of the router bit needs to be aligned. At top center, it should just touch a 1/4" thick fret board. As the board rocks side to side, the bit will cut into the board, creating that curve.
The rocker board has aluminum strips on the sides with corresponding holes (allowing for the 1/4" thickness of the fret board). If I want a compound radius, I just put the pin in different holes. Like 9.5" at the nut and 16" at the heel. That will cause the arc to flatten out as the router works its way down. I'll attach the fret board with superglue and masking tape.
With the exception of the plywood rocker board, I used that slippery white plastic Azec 'wood' to build this. I like working with that stuff. It's straight and even and you can shape it.... makes good jigs because it won't warp in weather or rot.
You can see how I mounted the router. I centered it, then traced around it on the sled. then I cut two blocks and traced the same arc on them, cut them with the band saw and mounted them to the sled to keep the router in the right place. the pin keeps it from lifting up. This arrangement makes it super quick mounting the router to the sled. The sled has wheels on both sides to keep it moving along the rails evenly.
i also installed leveling feet so I know the work will be flat. I've got a couple little plastic levels that I'll mount once I get to using it and can identify a place where they won't be in the way.
[youtube]Y7VS-pI-qwU[/youtube]
Improvements :
Handles on the rocker board
The aluminum edges make the holes more precise
Leveling feet
Looks like you are tooling up for a big production run.
I guess you've given up on your jackknife and a steady hand.
So you move the router less than the diameter of the cutter then rock the board, or rock the board a little and move the router the length of the neck?
Kind of like rubbing your belly while you pat your head. :haha:
You're counting on the weight of the router/assembly, plus light cuts, to keep it from lifting up?
Looks like a good setup for reliable repetition.
I guess you've given up on your jackknife and a steady hand.
So you move the router less than the diameter of the cutter then rock the board, or rock the board a little and move the router the length of the neck?
Kind of like rubbing your belly while you pat your head. :haha:
You're counting on the weight of the router/assembly, plus light cuts, to keep it from lifting up?
Looks like a good setup for reliable repetition.
the first thing you said.
here's where I got the idea.
[youtube]BNm5G84ht5A#start=30[/youtube]
You start at one end, advance the router 1/4" (less than half of the router bit) and zip...nudge it forward, zap, nudge, zip, nudge zap.
back and forth down the board. Guy says it takes 2-3 minutes to do a board.
You could do the same thing with a CNC mill....
... for half a million bucks. :lol:
Bery cleber dees Amelicuns.
I think they've come down a bit. Pete has a couple. He's offered to do stuff like this and neck profiles for me, and I may take him up some day, but I want to be able to do all the things. And do them well.
There is a divide between luthiers, and the cnc machine is the most common symbol of that dichotomy. The cnc represents the impersonal but perfect result, and the chisel represents the imperfect, but unique result.
I suppose I lean toward the latter. But I'm not staunch by any means. I think you can find artistic expression using a cnc, and I think you can achieve a perfect result with hand tools and time.
For industry, or even businesses, a CNC will turn out usable parts quickly with minimum waste, however it's far from hand crafting.
Only the guy who programs the machine has a clue, and only the designer understands the whys.
The title is "Learning how to build an electric guitar" and that's what you've done and continue doing.
You're also learning how to do it faster, and how to more quickly get exactly what you want from the different materials.
So unless you cut a deal supplying a new guitar with each new Nissan, you're doing great the way you're going.
Rock on! :thumb:
I think you found the right camp Jim.
It would be cool to have a cnc and to know the magic. There are a few things I would be able to make for myself instead of buying. Like pick guards, or inlay dots, or knobs.... But I'm not intending to mass produce guitars.
I do need to get my ass moving on the next two though. I've been dicking around with this and that while I think about them, and it's past time to make some sawdust.
Stand back folks, please don't crowd for your own safety, he's got the fever. :jig:
Count your fingers before and after the tour.
Bruce, you asked about how the router is kept from lifting, and I wanted to get a picture to answer that. So here's how :
That door hinge pin a snugs into that horizontal hole in the router base. That's for attaching a fence, but it offered a solution to that concern, so I drilled a matching hole in the sled collar to allow the pin to slide in and hold it down. I can lift the sled holding onto the router only and it doesn't shift or wiggle.
I got the label printer out and made some labels.
I may do the rocker board over using pvc plywood. The holes in the edge are not as centered as I'd like, and it would look better.
The level helps keep it square on my non level bench.
I really should level the bench with shims or elevator bolts
In the video he mentioned doing a graduated fret board by putting the pin in a different pivot hole than the opposite end on the rocker. It doesn't look like there is enough room between the rocker and the frame to have it sit crooked. I guess you would never have more than one hole difference though.
It works. I tried it with the nut side on 10.5 and the heel at 18. Keep in mind that the top of the rocker board always sits exactly 1/4" below the red line. That's cuz the pin moves up and down the side board. The pivot point changes, but the board sits straight. I haven't run the router over it yet, but when I rock the board, it tilts a bit wonky, but the lateral angle is minimal. The longer radius side describes a longer arc, so that side goes farther, but the top edge is the same height the whole time. It's pretty cool.
I'll do a little video clip illustrating that tonight if I get home early enough to get out there.
might help to visualize this:
[ATTACH]66925[/ATTACH]
If you noticed that brown plug in the one pic, that's the result of a fuck up. I was drilling the 10" hole in the one side board, and I let the guide block slip and didn't notice, so the hole fell 1/8" off the center line. I tried inserting a dowel, gluing it in, and re-drilling that hole, but the soft white board, and the hard plug made the fucking bit shift over again. So i just lowered it a half inch.... which meant I had to re-drill the holes in the side of the rocker board and aluminum edge strips, too.
You could do the same thing with a CNC mill....
... for half a million bucks. :lol:
Bery cleber dees Amelicuns.
I didn't realize
HOW cheap they've become
a couple grand? Not sure if this one would be large enough to do a body....
OK, I got it. The pivot point can be different on each end, but it's the same in the rocker as it is in the frame for each end. That way the edge of the rocker and frame stay almost parallel.
[ATTACH]66931[/ATTACH] That's not a CNC machine
This... [ATTACH]66932[/ATTACH] is a CNC machine. :lol:
Even if that CNC router was big enough to do the body, how far to you want to move away from hand crafted toward automated production? Wouldn't that make it work instead of fun?
You go out to the [strike]garage[/strike] shop with the intention of doing something and it doesn't come out exactly how you intended, but each time it gets closer and you're getting better, you're developing skills which is very satisfying. It's a hobby not a job.
[ATTACH]66933[/ATTACH]
I have no intention of buying a cnc machine. If I need one, I'll have Pete set me up. He's a genius with his.
I'm going to buy a bigger band saw from him soon.
Yup. And heavier duty. The one I have is super handy, but the blade is thin like a jig saw blade.
Deeper throat?
you know, his dad reads this thread
He probably had to supress a couple double entendre rejoineders.
I almost said, 'yes, plus it swallows'
Yes, a wider blade, half inch or more, is much more stable and less likely to wander.
Uh huh.
And it's cool looking.
Or glatt could make you one!
If he played guitar, we could maybe work out a trade...
Come at him with a handful of binder clips, he'll do whatever ya want.
The Radiusing jig works.
I set it to 18" at the heel and 12" at the nut, and tested it with a piece of pine that I planed down to 1/4", cut to 19.5" long.
The end is about 17.5
The nut end is 12 ish an inch in.
It needs a strip of teeth and a gear with a handle so I can wind it along the track smoothly while I rock the board back and forth.
Or a small cable, like picture frame hanging wire, wrapped around a drum on a crank handle.
Hmmm. Yeah... If I could figure a way of incorporating the rocking of the rocker board, and just stand there and crank a handle on a wheel while it does it's thing, I'd have a marketable product.
Ok, nerds. Let's figure this out. Winning design gets a slice of the profits and a say in naming it.
Oh, and... Remember that red guitar I bought for $106? I've had it disassembled and kind of in my way for 3 weeks or so. I've been brushing up on the wiring inside guitars and what all that stuff does....
I had procured a bunch of pots and a few switches and associated bits of hardware in anticipation of wiring the next 2 guitars. One of the switches I bought is a Freeway super switch. It has the traditional in-line 5 positions, but it also has a second row of 5 that is accessed by tilting the switch lever. It could potentially be wired for 10 unique combinations of pickups. They have an archive of wiring diagrams for this switch as it controls various pick up arrangements. SSS and HSS (single coil X 3 and single, single, humbucker) for strat type guitars, and a few for other 2 pickup guitars. Here's the one I used to wire the red guitar :
The switch is the rectangle with the BH OP BG etc... And 'note terminal A is not used '
See all those tiny little tabs you have to solder wires to? Look closer:
I've been trying to get my nerve up to do it for the 3 weeks the guitar has been apart. I had pre tinned all the lugs on the pots and put the puddles of solder on the backs of the pots to hold the ground wires, on previous occasions, before chickening out and doing more research before tackling that birds nest of wiring... Well today, I nutted up and dove in. It took me about 4 hours to do it... But I did it. And it's really cool. I used 2 different flavors of capacitors(the orange things ^) on the tone knobs. Capacitors bleed off Treble. Turning the knob up takes less, and down takes more. The value of the capacitor represents how wide that range can be.
Common values are. 022 and. 047. People have a lot of opinions about which should be used with which pots and pickups. In general, you use a 47 for humbuckers and 500k pots, and 22s for single /250k. The way this set up works, the tone knobs have a potent effect on the sound. It's like another layer of variation you can get from the different pickup combinations. All in all, it makes the guitar incredibly versatile. The switch was $37, the pots came to $3.47 ea X 3. The wire and solder I already had, but maybe $1.25 in value... So now it's about a $150 investment. I could sell it to a friend for $250 and feel like I was doing them a favor.
So a G string is only a G string if the choice of electronic components allow it, or it's always a G but with different tones?
Always a G with different tones.
This allows for the three pickups to "hear" the string a little differently. It lets any combination of pickups to be in the circuit, and whether they are wired in series with each other, or parallel. So you can whine with it, or scream, or cry. Or just play rhythm!
Oh, and true to my pattern, I installed the switch upside down. So when I have the switch all the way to the right, as I look down at it, the neck pick up is live. Logically, it should be the bridge pickup live at that setting.
Derp. I know this about me, and yet.... I still do it. Next time I change strings, I'll see if I can just flip it around without having to re do the wiring.
Turn the guitar around before ya start soldering next time.
I had the pots and switch mounted to the plexiglass that the rig I put in LC001 came mounted to. That was handy because the pots are held the correct distant and orientation from each other, so wire length is easy to figure. I had it held in one of my helping hands thingers.
It's helpful and handy
Oh, and true to my pattern, I installed the switch upside down. So when I have the switch all the way to the right, as I look down at it, the neck pick up is live. Logically, it should be the bridge pickup live at that setting.
Just paint an 11 next to it and say it's new and improved. :blunt:
Ok, I learned a lot.
I jointed and glued a 2 piece body
I routed the cavities and neck pocket using template
I learned the super glue and masking tape trick
I made several jigs starting with the truss rod trench set up
I routed that
I learned to pay attention when I glue the fret board onto the neck and to use a caul. Which I learned to make with the table saw.
I learned how to install frets
And to level them and dress them
I learned a lot about different finishing techniques
I got much better at soldering
I carved the body and the neck
I learned that I don't want so much drop on the head stock, so start with a thinner blank
I learned how to wire it
I learned how to set action and intonation
And a thousand other little things along the way.
I am starting the next phase now. I had previously glued the body boards for one of the next two. It's chilling under my bench waiting for me to glue the top on.
Well first I had to joint that top and glue it.
Didn't take much. Just a few passes with a hand plane on each piece.
Pretty frigging tight
I clamped it all up dry so I knew what clamps I'd want and have them laid by near to hand. You only have so much time before the glue sets.
The bright blue thing is my super straight straight edge. It's good to go. Tite bond 3 went on, and I quickly replaced the clamps.
Straight edge at an angle says it's flat as your mom's chest
I just hope it stays that way when the clamps come off
This will get glued on to the top of the body blank. They'll be 2.04"thick together plus whatever the glue adds. That will give me some wood to work with for the contours.
I was going to do mash ups using the fender routing and scale length, but I've decided that's adding complexity that will introduce too many new opportunities for error. I'm going to order the templates for these two Gibson bodies
My dad chose the SG
Which I love. Jerry played one, and it's wicked cool looking
Pat (brother in law) has always loved the Rd Artist
And he wants that silver burst finish, so that'll be new knowledge I'll learn.
The SG is 24.75" scale, the Rd is 25.5" like the Stratocaster. The one departure will be the head stocks. I'm not doing tilt back. They break. I'll do a drop and trees to give the strings tension across the nut.
Doing 2 at once will save time setting up the shop for the steps I take.
This is the other top I have. Birds eye maple
Not sure I want to use that on either of these.... Maybe the SG. I can't see a burst over that figuring. I guess I could over the curly maple that's gluing up tonight.... The birds eye pieces are going to need a lot more work jointing then. I can't decide how to configure them, and the way I've got them above leaves huge gaps that will have to be corrected.
Got people lining up already :D
If you would like to put a bass unit into the queue, I would fund that... scale length 34"... :D
You're on. What else do you have in mind? I'd like to have a bass myself. After these, I could make a pair. You got any design elements in mind? I figure you'd know what you like and don't like in a bass. I could make myself a second copy of your design.
....Unless your design is ugly ;).
The Geddy Lee Jazz bass is my jam, and has what I like a bass to have:
Relatively light
A thin maple neck
Painted (!) block inlays
Fender custom shop 65' pickups
Passive (I don't believe in depending on having a 9v in the instrument)
High mass bridge
NOT string-thru (basses use these really thick unbendy strings)
Things it doesn't have that I would want:
satin finish neck
zero fret
built-in Schaller strap locks, i guess
The thing is, the Geddy neck often needs adjusting + truss rod access is at the heel of the neck. You have to remove the neck to adjust it! I'm against that.
In bass, there is a problem with "neck dive" where the neck is too heavy for the body, because the tuners and strings weigh a lot. The Ged doesn't suffer that, but just in case, I think lightweight tuners are a good idea.
In fact I love a headless neck where the tuners are at your right hand.
And then there are the electric uprights...
But all that said, right now, I am actually in need of a bass with a single P-bass pickup to get the 60s Precision bass sound.
That looks like a whole bunch of new tasty knowledge.
I've got a carbon fiber rod... Well... Strip? That could get sunk into the neck along side the truss rod to enhance the rigidity of the neck.
This will be fun
Unfortunately headless gear is $$$$$$$$$$
Allparts has a headless bridge and headstock connector... for $490!!
Ned Steinberger has the best and sexiest headless designs (he's the guy that makes the electric upright too, and the dude who makes
the original "thin" Steinberger basses and guitars that were popular in the 80s.)
I had a Hohner copy of the Steinberger thin bass for a while... then I figured if I was gonna be fat, I could not play a thin bass, because that wasn't a good look.
If you go headless, you have to put the stings in backwards, and all your notes will be upside down.
They have
double ball strings for that :D ! But no left-handed strings.
I'm not a fan of how they look, actually. I like those huge
paddle tuners like the Fender Jazz bass. but if that's what you want, we'll figure it out. Check on reverb, you might find used gear you like for cheaper than $500
For the price, the paddle tuners are fine.
Hipshot makes an "ultralight" tuner...
These tuners weigh 1.8 oz. each, compared to approx 2.3 oz. for a sealed Gotoh tuner and 3.5 oz. for a Schaller-style tuner.
Leo Fender was just copying the big tuners on string basses, I think
there ya go. we could relieve some weight from the headstock in other ways as well. as long as it's designed strong enough, we could cut away sections inside, or I could fuck up and take a huge chunk out of it with the routing table, and make a skinny one out of what's left.
What shape body do you like? Traditional or one of those Les Claypool wild ones?
And are we just doing 4 strings? Ever played on 5 or 6?
Claypool's basses have that nice big sexy curvy top horn. This is his latest, and I dig it, but I would be totally happy with something more trad.
I think with the ultralights, and a thin neck, the balance wouldn't be a problem. But look how small the body is on that Claypool.
I play only 4s. I have played 5s but I don't like them. I just tune down to D on the spot if I need an extra note.
I wonder if Claypool needs the longer horn for balance purposes.
Also, check it out, fuckin' guy has a TREMELO system on his BASS. That is outrageous. And I love it.
The long [strike]neck[/strike] horn gives him a place to attach the strap out of the way of his left hand.
See the split pickup there on Claypool's bass, that is a Precision-style pickup, the original Fender design with two poles per string.
It keeps things simple, electrical-wise, because there are only two controls: volume and tone.
It seems like basses are more likely to be oddball shapes. The longer neck lends to larger bodies. You should see some of the ones on the Facebook groups.
Not all bass players are nerds. Griff
Know how to save a drowning bass player?
Throw him his amp.
I love that joke. I've told it here several times.
Fret slotting jig arrived today
I practiced on a piece of hard wood flooring that I planed down. I've decided not to use it though. It's just too fucking hard. It's Ipe. Brazilian walnut. So dense it doesn't float. I calculated 74lbs per ft cu. After I wore my shoulder out sawing the slots, I found out it doesn't glue for shit. Good practice though.
The jig is cool
I got 24.75 and 25.5 scale side panels. Now I can say I've done the thing I didn't do on the first one.
How do you control the depth?
The saw that came with the jig has a split rail which holds the changeable blade. It has depth adjustment, so the two sides bottom out on the fret board. Has appx 2mm of range.
https://www.guitarbuilding.solutions/product-page/fretboard-slotting-jig
All in, with 2 sets of guides, and shipped from England in like 4 days... I think I paid $189
I'm pleased
Know how to save a drowning bass player?
Throw him his amp.
I love that joke. I've told it here several times.
Ok, I thought about this overnight. I still don't get it. Why is it funny? Ferreal. Not even kidding. I really don't.
Is it just that you actually want him to drown? Or is there some pun I'm missing?
It's a slam on bass players, that's all. Bass amps are heavy, did you know?:D That joke works for the same reason this one does:
How can ya tell when the drum stage is level?
The drummer drools out of both sides of his mouth.
It's just a slam.
Don't analyze my jokes, you'll think too hard and go right by the humor. My jokes are like me. Simple.
DISCLAIMER:
Throwing a bass amp to a drowning bass player, generally speaking, will not save him/her.
:)
That thinner strip is only for scoring the line precisely. You set it up initially so the blade goes through the thin slot on the outer strip, score the board using 'with the teeth' direction (away) only. Then you loosen the screws, drop the strip down, re tighten the screws, and saw the slots. The saw itself is the depth stop.
Yes, the picture I put up from your link shows the blade will never hit the bottom of the slot so the blade won't dull. And the depth is controlled by the blade holder's shoulders.
It's one of those pictures that's worth a thousand words. :thumb:
Seems there are two quality bass tremolo systems out there
The
Kahler system, $389, is apparently what Claypool uses
The
Hipshot, $266, apparently requires the routing out of more wood
The Kahler seems to have more fans and has great pro endorsements on its Artists page. Which in this case I'm a sucker for, because it's not like it's just strings or something... it's a custom tremelo bridge.
Well don't let a little routing dissuade you from the hip shot. They seem more focused on it staying in tune, while the first one featured adjustability.
I did the rear pocket rout on the strat, I'm sure it's similar with this bridge. They even mention fender. The first one sounded like it needed some routing in the front. Thing is, if you know what hardware you're going to use from the beginning, we'll just plan the thing accordingly, and it becomes a non issue. If this was a done bass and we were upgrading an existing bridge, I could see that being touchy.
The Kahler does look sexier... Might just be because the hip shot photo was crap, but the former has a tidy and precise look to it.
Fret slotting jig arrived today
I practiced on a piece of hard wood flooring that I planed down. I've decided not to use it though. It's just too fucking hard. It's Ipe. Brazilian walnut. So dense it doesn't float. I calculated 74lbs per ft cu. After I wore my shoulder out sawing the slots, I found out it doesn't glue for shit. Good practice though.
I put a visible dent in my jointer blades when I wasn't thinking and ran some Ipe across the jointer. Now my 6" jointer is a 5-1/4" jointer until I get my blades resharpened.
You can glue Ipe, you need to wipe it down with acetone really well and then glue as soon as the acetone evaporates.
Ipe, Lignum Vitae, Natalie, Cocobolo, Coralwood, Ebony, Eucalyptus Mahogany (New South Wales), Gaboon, Greenheart (British Guiana), Grenadilla (Mpingo), Ironwood (black), Satinwood (Ceylon), and Water gum are all woods that don't float.
I fucken love that.
Gawd.
'cept... Shoodadid Gold inlay dots! And that back cover could be gold too.
I ruined one of my Birdseye maple fret boards yesterday. I spent probably 2 hours Tuesday night slotting it, then when I radiused it, using my newly made and tested jig... I must have set the router bit too low... And the nut end must have been an 1/8" higher than the heel.... The nut end was less than 1/8" thick at the edge.
Might have been salvageable at that point, but I tried to trim it and cut it parallel using the width at the nut. Not a large loss of money, the board was like $15....but again... Time.
So I remade the rocker board part of the jig with newly acquired 3/4" pvc 'plywood'. The holes are now perfectly aligned and centered. (no aluminum edge strips this time... The bit walked a little even with the drill press, when I made those)
This time I used a drill guide that I made to center the bit and keep it perpendicular to the edge, so the drill went in just right. Didn't test it yet, but I did verify that the top of the rocker is exactly 1/4" below the bit alignment line on both ends. So, as long as I set that depth properly. It should give perfect results. I'll try it on a test piece tonight.
I've been following this guy on instagram. He makes stuff out of old wood pallets and junk, but recently has been getting into electric guitar building out of recycled materials. He's got a cnc router, so I think he just pushes a button after figuring out the design. This is acrylic or plexiglass or something.
[ATTACH]67275[/ATTACH]
There is some art involved. The cnc is just a tool. You can purchase plans, but you still have to make all the decisions about what you want the cnc to do, and set it up. You basically, map a path for the bit to follow, set your start point and hit go, but dialing in a path that is efficient and ordered properly come into play. I've helped Pete set up a batch of truss rod plugs. I used the super glue trick to place the boards exactly where they needed to be for it to work right.
[youtube]RHlu05aTC5Q[/youtube]
You can hear a baseball game on the background if you're wondering who's voice that is.
Phil's won 3-2
The new rocker board:
With these radii on both sides :
The finger boards I have prepped:
Left to right, that's cocobola, bocote, Birdseye maple(ruined) and bubinga. The bocote is crazy. It's got a group of phantoms on it :
I went with the bubinga this time because if this one fails....
But it didn't.
I did 10.5 to 14" compound radius. It is slightly thinner at the nut end, but if I'm careful I think it will work. Took a good bit of planing, scraping and sanding to clean up the router lines
I saved a bit of the sawdust for use filling in inlay and such
With a little more love and some oil, it's gorgeous
There's one of the most awesome benefits of building your own... true beauty, the cheapo mfrs are not interested in that kind of detail
Amanda really liked it too...
She's gonna kill me
I just... It was ninjas! They came in.... Like 7 of them.... They took my phone..... Then there was this cloud of white smoke.... And when I woke up, they had posted that pic.
There is something very likeable about this gal.
We were in our cups late last night, and she was photo bombing while I was trying to take the picture above.... That'll learn her
So it looks like the 10.5 to 14 is about as much difference as you can go without making it thicker.
She's gonna kill me
Look at the bright side, she won't object to you spending lots of time in the garage... lots and lots and lots. :haha:
Maybe you could make an electric version of this double.
[YOUTUBE]T_s5M48JHFE[/YOUTUBE]
That's retarded. That guy needs to go back to his job at Chipotle.
If you were ambidextrous and could play both right and left, you could do an electric and flip it back and forth to demonstrate your skills, but unless you have 3 or more arms, you can't do anything but clang open strings to augment what you're doing with the other guitar. It's more art than instrument.
They'll need another final pass, but the slots are mostly done on this one.
I'm waiting for the templates to arrive, so I might as well do a few of these fret boards while I've got the jig out and my skills are improving.
That's 4 necks and 4 finger boards. 2 more finger boards and one neck out in the shop. I need body blanks. I've only got 2
I just toured the Martin guitar factory this afternoon. Pretty thorough tour.
Gluing up the front and back panels by hand. They use this press that clamps multiple panels at once.
Stacking them as them come out of the clamps.
Candling the panels to check for knots before they lay out the front and back for the cnc machine.
Cnc machine cutting out the fronts and backs.
The neck is roughed out by cnc and finished up by hand.
I took a ton of pictures, but not of every step.
Here's a laser ingraving machine for the name and serial number.
When they cut out the front and back, they leave these tabs on them to help index all the other work they do each step of the way.
The index holes come in handy when gluing in the braces and clamping them to dry
Sorry to hijack the thread but thought this would be a good spot for these pics. It was a very cool tour, and I recommend it.
And they are hiring. They mentioned that several times.
Good one! I'm pretty sure I can't afford that tour
There's a hard sell at the end and we dropped almost $100 on just t-shirts.
They give you a piece of a Martin as a souvenir of the tour. They do a very fast print laser engraving of the sound hole cutout to each person who takes the tour.
I'm thinking my entry fee would be around $1200 :D
Wow. That is damn cool. Hiring you say...
So cool. And thanks for dropping it here.
Did having seen what I did help you get a sense of what they were doing at all? I can't believe I've never gone there. But then I've never toured the Harley plant either.
Good stuff
Yeah. Absolutely.
The fret board is done by cnc. For the wires and little dots.
Working there would be decent as a summer job, but each task was too specialized to hold my interest for any real time. This one lady was sanding by hand the bracing that is attached to the face panel. There are a dozen or so surfaces to sand on each guitar, and she said she does about 150 guitars a day. That would get old after a month or so.
Carpal tunnel lives here
They build wonderful instruments, and I love my Martin, but yeah, that's not luthiery. I don't know if I'll ever attempt an acoustic, but if I do... Much like I copied the Stratocaster....I'd be copying a D28 for the first one. So familiar and right feeling, it would be stupid to do anything else.
I'll get to that factory this summer
That would get old after a month or so.
There's a legend in the UAW about production line Charlie who's job it was to put the wheels on the left side of the cars coming down the line. When they started compact cars with 4 lugs instead of 5, after a couple months he ran screaming into the night, never to be seen again.
I would love to have a D-45. Pick me up one o' those would ya?
Ya can pick out a D-45 from across a room full of guitars being played, just by the sound/tone.
Nothing sounds like a D-45. Nothing much costs like one, either.
Jim, I put this here so you'd be sure to see it.
Might want to blast a little extra Tool today...
Maynard turns 55 today.
I'll be crankin up later, after urrbody wakes up.
ETA: Man, if you ain't read his wiki page, read it. Very interesting. For instance, did you know MJK declined an appointment to West Point, and was almost the singer for Rage Against The Machine?
Yep, I read that years ago. He's a weird dude. And I didn't know it was his birthday, and I will be cranking my tool..... Um.... Playing it loudly that is.
Thanks bud!
Guitar experts, please give me some advice on buying a bass guitar.
Details in thread:
Should I get a Bass Guitar?*trick question*
it's actually a 6-string bass tuned EADGBE, one octave lower
I'm actually in the market for an electric guitar and associated paraphernalia to give to my boy for his birthday at the end of next month. I'm torn though because I don't want him to stop playing the nice Martin D-18 that belonged to his grandfather. But that's just me being selfish. I know he would love an electric.
I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I also don't want something he can't play. What was the source of that cheap guitar you purchased, LJ? And is it something you would recommend? If it has an annoying hum, are there fairly straightforward fixes for a handy lad and his dad? I saw your link to grounding the electricals to avoid hum. I'd guess I am in the sub $150 range and ideally around $100.
The red guitar came from monoprice. com
They have cheap amps too.
Saw these posts late. Will revisit tomorrow, time permitting.
Glatt, I wish you lived closer. I'd say you should order one like the red one, have it sent to me, and I'll dress it up for him for free. You can buy parts if you want me to upgrade it. Take a ride up to NJ and visit the lumbershop.
It was literally $106 shipped and taxed. I'll sell you the red one for what I have in it, alternatively.
I think I posted that amount if you read back
But it was entirely sufficient out of the box if you just want to order one and keep cost down.
Do you remember if it had a brand name?
I'm seeing tons of these package deals on eBay and Amazon. Not seeing a package deal on monoprice right now.
Buck up and get him this one
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=610402
They upgrade the hardware and set up. It's prob worth the extra hundred. You'd spend that getting the base model up to snuff.
Oh, and... Remember that red guitar I bought for $106? I've had it disassembled and kind of in my way for 3 weeks or so. I've been brushing up on the wiring inside guitars and what all that stuff does....
I had procured a bunch of pots and a few switches and associated bits of hardware in anticipation of wiring the next 2 guitars. One of the switches I bought is a Freeway super switch. It has the traditional in-line 5 positions, but it also has a second row of 5 that is accessed by tilting the switch lever. It could potentially be wired for 10 unique combinations of pickups. They have an archive of wiring diagrams for this switch as it controls various pick up arrangements. SSS and HSS (single coil X 3 and single, single, humbucker) for strat type guitars, and a few for other 2 pickup guitars. Here's the one I used to wire the red guitar :
The switch is the rectangle with the BH OP BG etc... And 'note terminal A is not used '
See all those tiny little tabs you have to solder wires to? Look closer:
I've been trying to get my nerve up to do it for the 3 weeks the guitar has been apart. I had pre tinned all the lugs on the pots and put the puddles of solder on the backs of the pots to hold the ground wires, on previous occasions, before chickening out and doing more research before tackling that birds nest of wiring... Well today, I nutted up and dove in. It took me about 4 hours to do it... But I did it. And it's really cool. I used 2 different flavors of capacitors(the orange things ^) on the tone knobs. Capacitors bleed off Treble. Turning the knob up takes less, and down takes more. The value of the capacitor represents how wide that range can be.
Common values are. 022 and. 047. People have a lot of opinions about which should be used with which pots and pickups. In general, you use a 47 for humbuckers and 500k pots, and 22s for single /250k. The way this set up works, the tone knobs have a potent effect on the sound. It's like another layer of variation you can get from the different pickup combinations. All in all, it makes the guitar incredibly versatile. The switch was $37, the pots came to $3.47 ea X 3. The wire and solder I already had, but maybe $1.25 in value... So now it's about a $150 investment. I could sell it to a friend for $250 and feel like I was doing them a favor.
Here's that post. I'm in it for $150
I did the radius for the cocobola finger board today.
10.5" to 14" compound radius
And the final product on the bubinga.
I even chiseled out the nut slot
Beautiful, well done.
I made a couple of cocobolo picture frames and had a hell of a time with it.
I had a pair of cocobolo nunchaku.
They broke.:lol2:
On who's head?
This wood is very waxy. Just a scraper brings up a gloss. I used the orbital sander with 60 grit to clean up the router marks, then right to my scraper, and it's smooth as I need it. The bubinga was a bit harder. They both feel really good to touch.
I'll get to that factory this summer
Actually, I've got an extra day off this week, and weather looks great tomorrow, so I'm planning a ride up to Nazareth to take the tour.
Gotta get there before 1pm, so I'll take a nice morning ride and get the Harley lumbered up for the season. Excited.
Glad you know you need to be there by 1 pm.
They have a 50% off deal on strings in the gift shop, so be prepared with knowing what you might need and what a reasonable price is.
Maybe when ya get bored with plain ol' geetars, ya might try to lumber up one o' these:
[YOUTUBE]Z6_HlOqy2C0[/YOUTUBE]
Wow. Strong fingers. I guess he tuned that center neck to fit this song... I'm pretty sure I'll never build one of those. I'm not a fan of double neck guitars, and 3 is bananas.
I'm confused, I thought the way a guitar works is you use one hand to make the string vibrate and the other to in effect shorten the string to change the sound coming from that string. But his left hand was changing the string length while his right hand was playing in the yard next door?
If you press the fretboard really hard, the string will vibrate a little, especially as it hits the fret. So you can "hammer on" or "tap" the notes and get them to play. This is only really possible with pickups, because the actual acoustic sound it makes is rather soft.
This guy is known for it in his solos
[youtube]z_lwocmL9dQ[/youtube]
OK, thanks, that's why the strong fingers remark.
I just made it in time for the last tour
The guide went way too fast for my liking
The people working there seemed like a big family.
There was a meeting out on the side of the building, and as it broke up, they all walked by, and the tone of the conversations going by was positive.
These three... I think the two guys are teaching the guy on the right an advanced technique. They were in the custom shop section.
The guide was Ben. He had great natural looking hair. Did you have him, glatt?
Oh, I got my souvenir, too
My tour guide was the lady in post 634. She was showing off the candling technique to us, so I bet she had worked on the floor previously, and maybe still did as needed. She walked through slow enough for me. We stopped in interesting locations for a minute or three, and walked past dormant areas quickly.
I also got the vibe that everyone liked working there. But I couldn't help thinking about how it would be tedious to sand the bracing on 150 guitars a day by hand.
I saw some things in your pictures that they didn't show us. The lady said it took a few months for a guitar to get made from start to finish, so I bet they focus on certain parts of the build at certain times instead of having a true assembly line where a board goes down the line and comes out as a guitar a day or two later after you allow for glue and finish drying.
Maybe I'll do it again another time. Between that old fucker asking stupid questions and the guide being in a hurry, it could have been more enlightening.
The old fucker :
He's in blue. Kept interrupting Ben and asking things like, what's this one do that that one won't do? Pointing at a ukele next to a 6 string.
Or, asking him what the guy just told us. Annoying
I was fine while it was going on, it's just in retrospect that it seemed rushed. Last one of the day, I guess.
I would have liked to watch this guy put the frets in for a while
Or this lady installing the rosettes
What I'd really like is to spend a day hanging around the repair department
One of the guys on my tour struck up a conversion with one of the workers rasping a neck into shape and lingered behind for a minute or so. It was a fairly relaxed tour. We were the 2:00 or 2:30 tour I think. Everyone was talking with our guide as she led us through. She was clearly well liked and enjoyed chatting with them too, calling them all by name. Even pointing out the new person who had only been there a month but was doing a great job.
Clearly some jobs are better than others. The repair department requires broad skills and a good head. Each day is going to be a little different.
that is some drop dead gorgeous wood
Yeah, very dramatic grain. I've got the Rd in mind for this piece. Pat wants a silver burst finish.
This shape is the Gibson RD Artist. This is also the body color he wants.
Most Gibsons are 24.75" scale, but the Rd is the same 25.5 as Fender's two big models, the Stratocaster and the Telecaster. Dad has gone back to the SG body after considerable internal debate between that and a Les Paul body.
SG:
Les Paul:
So as it stands, dad gets either the bubinga or the cocobola, as they are both 24.75"
The templates for all 3 bodies will arrive tomorrow, so this 2 guitar build will finally get rolling here soon.
Yah, dad wants an opaque painted finish. In that red on the Les Paul. So I'll have to get that figured out. I failed on the first try, but I think I've learned how to do it by now.
Seems a shame to do opaque finish on fine figured wood.
The part I'm going to paint is poplar. Not very pretty. The fret boards I've been showing you recently will be unfinished. They are hard and close grained enough to endure without a finish.
I got a box full of templates today...
The SG
And the Rd Artist
And the Les Paul came with 2 necks. I'll have to look into that...
I like the trend of thank you notes from builders/suppliers. Little human connections.
That seems to be on the increase. It started with a thank you and initials on the packing slips and expanded or evolved to separate hand written notes on plain paper with no company printing on them. I recently got one from a ceramics Lady in Alaska, a vaping fluid outfit in Texas, and a website about dogs with a decal order.
[ATTACH]67622[/ATTACH]
Now back to your regularly scheduled guitar building lesson. :blush:
[youtube]WTI679AnyFU[/youtube]
Nice stuff. :thumb2:
What always surprised me is that stuff isn't that hard to get. I mean Home Depot won't have it, and it's a little spendy but it's available. When I first got into woodworking I thought those patterns came from diseased, or traumatized trees. Took awhile to grasp there are trees that will do that pretty reliably, especially if it's quarter-sawn.
What always surprised me is that stuff isn't that hard to get.
Like your mother?
Oh, I should have known, you're just being an asshole.
Nice stuff. :thumb2:
What always surprised me is that stuff isn't that hard to get. I mean Home Depot won't have it, and it's a little spendy but it's available. When I first got into woodworking I thought those patterns came from diseased, or traumatized trees. Took awhile to grasp there are trees that will do that pretty reliably, especially if it's quarter-sawn.
There is a demand for
'spalted' wood. If you recall, the blue one I bought has a spalted Maple top. The spalting is a result of bacteria corroding the wood. Some guys go as far as submerging logs or burying them to
create it. It's those black jagged lines. You have to kill the bacteria before you work with it. It's Ok but I like quilting and flame better.
Spalting looks like a map to me.
Yes, Maples with a big canker on the trunk are usually spalted, often all the way to the roots. Pretty, so is the Oak, but both can be weak.
I glued the finger board on tonight.
Inserted the truss rod, masked it carefully
I forgot to take a pic of the glue. Clamps went on. It did try to slide around, but I think I have it centered enough. I'm going to cut close with the band saw and then either rout the edge again, or sand it.
Reviewing this section to make sure I don't repeat mistakes. First, I think I'll glue the finger board on before I do any shaping of the neck. I'll use the clamping caul to keep pressure on the edges.
Tomorrow I'm going to cut the truss rod trench, cut the neck shape, and trim it, then glue the fret board on, making sure the nut and 12th fret line up with the marks on the template, so my scale length is right when I attach the neck to the body.
I'll probably do the inlay before I shape the neck too... May have a think about inserting frets before shaping too... Try to get the facing surface as done as can be before I lose the nice flat bottom...
Oh, I should have known, you're just being an asshole.
Following
your lead.
The SG.
What if it were just a little hornier?
While you're mulling it over, it's gonna need a neck.
Remember this part? Truss rod trench.
Rough cut the neck on the band saw, and glue the template on.... Then the dreaded router table.
Came away with no damage this time. W00t
I stayed clear of scary areas, and finished the corners with a file and rasp.
I'm using Potvin templates for these guitars. He includes a fret board template, so I gave the fret board the same treatment as the neck, and again, did not ruin the piece.
I'll leave the carving of the shape to much later in the process this time. I need to discuss inlay with Dad soon.
So, with both cut to shape, all that's left is to glue the sonsabitches together and call it a day.
Truss rod fits perfectly. I used a diamond grinder tip on the dremel to clean up the corners of the trench.
Let's get these two together.
Then tape over it to keep the glue off of it. I also put 2 tiny rolls of the orange tape in there to prevent rattling. The stew Mac tape dispenser I got has the perfect width tape for this job.
How many clamps should I use?
Maybe a couple more...
Oh, there's two more.... They'll fit.
I used the caul I made, too. I feel like I got some shit done today.
You guys done?
Yes, ma'am.
Following your lead.
No, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, my lead?
so, what about the horns? I'm digging the longer ones. I saw a guitar like it, and was impressed by that subtle change. cha think, pop?
No, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, my lead?
Lumberjim doesn't permit thread drift in his threads. We should get a room.
Lumberjim doesn't permit thread drift in his threads. We should get a room.
Since when? And that's not thread drift. It's a spat. It's across a few threads apparently. Why you wanna be a dick to ME now?
Talkin bout I don't permit .... Get the fuccowda hea.
Well, since you're the only vote, and I agree, let that be an end to it.
Neck came out of the clamps looking proper.
But on closer inspection, there's glue in the fret slots! I guess it seeped in there while I was clamping and wiping excess away.
Zoom in, you can see along the top edge.
I guess a thin strip of tape will go on the edges of the next one. About 15 minutes with the saw, and it's fine.
I have the whole day off tomorrow.... Time to get busily.
Since when? And that's not thread drift. It's a spat. It's across a few threads apparently. Why you wanna be a dick to ME now?
Talkin bout I don't permit .... Get the fuccowda hea.
I'm trying to get it out of your thread.
I'm not being a dick to you, I'm being a dick
back to Bruce.
And like I said,
trying to get it out of your thread.
Get it out of my head
Get it out of my thread
Get it on in a bed
Get your old buddy Fred
Get a grave and you're dead
Get it out of my head
That's what she said
He sounded like an old nag in the Horse thread.
:lol2:
Yeah, well I would actually prefer if you guys would take it outside.
Glatt, if you're bored, would you exercise your mod powers and clean up the last couple days of this spill over in this thread?
hahahahah
boo hoo, hoist on your own petard.
glatt, if you are bored or not, please don't rewrite history
Yeah you're right. Fuck it.
I'll still be able to see my shit. Leave it be.
[youtube]gvUm0KbeO-E[/youtube]
Plek. Dunno what it stands for, or if it's just a made up word. It's a CNC based scanner that optimizes the neck of a guitar. This is a pretty interesting look at that process. The steadiest hands and most powerful eyes.
One data point, I knew a session guy with 50 guitars, and I asked him if he ever had any of them PLEKd. He said yeah, one, but it was a decent guitar to begin with and he didn't feel like it made enough of a difference to get it done to more of 'em.
I couldn't find that Plek stands for anything. May just be a bastardization of 'plectrum'.
I'm sorry to have shat in the thread.
It happens.
The company that invented it is called Plektron.
I looked it up too
PLEK machines are built and sold by A+D Gitarrentechnologie of Berlin, Germany. The machines were developed by musician and guitar instructor Gerd Anke with his partner Michael Dubach, who called their company PLEKTRON when it was founded in 1990. The goal of the PLEK process they created is to guarantee the best possible string action for each instrument. Simply put, a guitar with optimized playability sounds better. The strings do not strike the frets during playing and any intonation problems that may occur due to too-low string action are eliminated. Similarly, action that’s too high is also a thing of the past with PLEKing.
The SG guitar has a set neck. That means it gets glued into the body, not bolted on like the Strat. That means, I'd better get it right on the first try.
I needed a shim in the pocket of the strat, if you'll recall. I won't have that option on this guitar, so I'm following a build plan I found that shows a 2° grade in the neck pocket. Meaning, the neck end of the pocket is 2° lower than the bridge end. That will tilt the neck back just a bit. At 18.75", the end of a line will be 0.655" lower then the start. This will keep the strings aligned with the neck and body once they're laid over the bridge.
To get the angle in the pocket, we made a couple wedges to affix to the underside of the template, so when I rout the pocket, the angle will transfer. We used the cnc machine to cut a piece of 3/4 MDF (fancy particle board).
First a rough cut to take away material.
[youtube]tokPALDbO68[/youtube]
Then another path to cut the shape with a fine tip bit. This piece came out finish smooth.
[youtube]3Jxc54eI7aY[/youtube]
I then ripped the 4" wedge into 1.5" and 2.5" slices. One for either side of the pocket.
I sealed them using a super glue wash. Like lacquer, but instant. They're hard like stone now. I'll be able to reuse them on future builds that require a 2° drop.
The next video that came up after your first one on roughing, was "How Car Dealerships Rip You Off". :rolleyes:
Do the wedges extend all the way to the end of the templet?
They started at 18.75, same as the template, but I cut them down to 18.5 on the back edge, and then trimmed the front where it became paper thin. I'll attach the back edge of the wedges 1/4" in from the edge of the template.
Oh, and to do the super glue finish: I sanded lightly to get the fur off the mdf, then dusted them.
{safety glasses and rubber gloves on!}
Then I poured some extra thin super glue in a spot, wiped it around with a little sponge dabber brush until the surface was wet with it, and let it set for 30 seconds, then sprayed accelerator on it. Sanded that back a bit and voila. Like a rock. It will make peeling masking tape off much cleaner, and they'll last for future builds.
Aw yisss....
This is a blend of the SG and Les Paul. The bottom of the SG always looked weird to me. Like it had put on weight in the form of saddle bags. So at the waist, I transitioned over to the Les Paul template and traced that bottom. Also incorporated the circle switch from the LP and modified the pick guard to accommodate that.
This. This is what I'm going to do. And I might do channel binding on the neck.
You see how the fret board is sunk into the neck, and there's that thin strip of maple?
Sexy as fuck.
Now I'm excited. I'm going to start over on the neck. Make the nut wider. And dad wants no inlay, which is awesome. I'll either use the bubinga piece I've already slotted and radiused, or cut a new one from my remaining cocobola, or get some ebony. I think a black channel bound finger board with no inlay would look sick. Especially with the gold Evo fret wire he wants.
You don't want shoe(base plate) of the router to bump the flat before the bit gets to the end of the pocket.
I ran across this guys instructions for building his ukulele. Wouldn't be very different from an acoustic guitar.
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-I-Made-My-Ukelele/To do the channel binding, you have to start by using the cnc to cut the fret board area 1/4" deep into the neck blank, cut the truss rod trench, then install the truss rod and a slotted fret board. All before Radiusing the surface. I think. Then cut and shape the neck, install frets.
What I'd really like is to do the entire neck over at Pete's with the cnc. That way i can get the exact radius and neck profile I want. The close ups of the neck above are from the guitar that got stolen and recovered. The Imperium, shown in that article I linked a while back. I've played it, and the neck is great.
He just made some kind of breakthrough on the wiring for his upcoming line of guitars. 10 position switch, 5 single coil, 5 buckers... zero hum. I stopped over there yesterday to hear it. Really impressive. I wonder if I could coax a wiring rig out of him for this one. It's just hard to get and hold his attention for more than 10 minutes in a row. As with many genius types, he's a walking pile of ADD.
Have you tried taking him lunch and chatting while he eats? :haha:
Yes, I have a great wiring diagram written on a receipt over a blt sandwich.
At least he's a cheap date.
I love that shape. Gonna be a pretty thing.
I think it's going to end up being mostly Les Paul. To do the pickups and pick guard of the Les Paul, the neck has to join like that one. I'm struggling a bit with the toggle switch location. Don't want it in the way of the strumming hand, and with the horns, the place that looks right... Where I've drawn the circle, it might be.
I might just have to go to a smaller circle and move it further up the horn.
This has been done before
Taking a cue from that one..
The other thing is the nut width. We want it wider than the standard Gibson nut. The standard template I have for the Les Paul is 1.71".
We want it at least 1.75". Seems like a small difference, but you'd be surprised at how you can feel it. I don't think I can count on help with this from Pete. He's not bored. So I tinkered with the idea of making my own, slightly wider template with a minutely wider nut. Then I thought, maybe I'll just widen the one I have.
I want the nut wider, but the heel still needs to fit inside the neck pocket. The template is 1/2" thick. I have 1/2" masking tape for doing frets. If I layer that tape in decreasing lengths, I'll get a taper.
I layed a piece 1" short of the heel, then 3" short. Then 6" short, then 10" short, then 15" short, and then 1 cover layer over the length.
So, at the nut, I have 6 layers on both sides and 2 in the pocket. 12 layers of the tape makes it 1.75" wide.
I added a couple more to get it to 1.785. I may have to shave the heel end a bit to fit into the pocket, but that's fine. I'd rather have excess than a loose joint.
And back to the neck angle... Laying it out on the body, the 2° wedges will have the neck line 11mm off the top at the line where the bridge will go. (12 3/8" from the 12th fret) The strings will be 5 or 6 mm above that. The bridge I want to use is 12mm tall. I've been advised that I should really use a 3° wedge here. Otherwise, I'll have limited adjustability. So I shimmed my shims.
This is what I'll use to rout the neck pocket.
It is 14mm at the bridge line, which... If my viewing angle and shitty 48yr old eyes are right, is a 3.5° drop.
Ready and waiting for Michelangelo...
That's the Tele he used for the first 2 albums. Fender is selling a special edition. It's got mirrors glued to it. Like 2" circles.
[youtube]urYBQnje6FE[/youtube]
Ready and waiting for Michelangelo...
interesting... who's he giving the guitar to I wonder??
Making a big fat neck. Template.
It starts with wanting a wider nut so there's more space between the strings for those of us with ham fists
Which means it must also be wider at the heel.
The finger board will protrude above the body. I wanted to keep the neck pocket the normal size in case this neck sucks to play, and I want to switch it out to a normal one.
I kind of indented the neck where it fits into the pocket at the body joint. I will have to bolt the neck on instead of gluing it like actual Les Pauls.
This morning, I routed the neck pocket on the Les G. Aka LC002.
First I drew the layout full scale. The bridge is 14mm tall. I want 3 or 4 mm of adjustability, and the frets are 1 or 2 mm tall, so I used 18mm. Drew a line from the point where the saddles will be to the place the neck meets the body. Confirmed 3.5°
So, 13 mm deep at the bridge side of the pocket and 3/4" at the other end. Not trying to confuse you by intermingling inches and mm, just they were the closest marks on my little ruler that matched up.
13mm
This looks off, but the 3/4 was the depth a little farther to the left before I cut the end off the pocket.
Its a nice snug fit. Tighter than the strat was.
Opposite side, upside down and a little blurry
I also rough cut the body shape, and trimmed the neck edges.
Finally starting to look guitar-ish
Good day in the shop. Still have all my fingers and didn't ruin the project as far as I know.
Oh, and I still need to take a sixteenth
off the depth of the neck at the heel
0.75 in = 19.05 mm so it's pretty close.
I shaved the heel of the neck down using the stew Mac safety plane drill bit thing.
[youtube]N5UOAnyPl0I[/youtube]
Also set the oscillating spindle sander up and started the free hand part of the exterior perimeter.
The neck looks better seated now
Tight
I'm still working on guitars, just haven't been taking many pics.
I do have one of the new neck for dad's.
Well, 3... That's ebony
Cutting slots free hand in this one
Because I like the danger
Gold Evo fret wire will look nasty
Good nasty
In order to become the largest manufacturer of American made guitars, he's going to need skilled help, guys who know how to build them, guys who have learned from him and built guitars in their garage, guys with a passion and not afraid to get dirty.
Hmm... they will be rare as hens teeth and crucial to the goal. Where oh where would he find such talent? :hide:
I'll just park this here...
I was looking at a Freedom Fry video and noticed the guy was doing the right hand stuff right over the what I assume is the pickups. Is that normal?
Yes, there's no issue with doing that, the pickups don't actually even know your hand is there, they are only seeing the strings as they vibrate through the magnetic fields.
I've seen guys move the right hand motions up onto the neck on occasion, but normally down on the body somewhere. Of course watching to right hand isn't usually the center of attention, even with the pickers.
I'm using Potvin templates for these guitars. He includes a fret board template, so I gave the fret board the same treatment as the neck, and again, did not ruin the piece.
You friended that dude Potvin on Facebook, and so did my friend old Brad, I've mentioned before, who is a
custom builder in FL building mostly basses.
It's funny when FB gives friend suggestions and you look at your mutual friends and there are friends from different universes
Brad has a booth at Summer NAMM (Nat'l Ass'n of Music Merchants) in Nashville in two weeks. So he's like pretty serious going at it, at this point
