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KeithHowell

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Posts posted by KeithHowell

  1. Another option is to slice of a few millimetres on each edge of the board, cut the fret slots then glue the edge strips back and install the undercut frets. Thereby making a non-bound bound fretboard if you get what I mean.

    I have on occasion bound the fretboard with contrasting veneer as well.

  2. In my experience I have found that it is the soundboard at the bridge, bulging up, is what causes most of the problem. Shaving the bridge weakens it causing it to bulge more.

    I have repaired 2 guitars recently by using the Stew-Mac method of removing the bridge and heating the sound board and bridge plate with a heated aluminium caul and clamping everything down to take the bulge out and letting the guitar stand for a few weeks. Cleaning up the bridge and soundboard then reattaching the bridge.

    I made my own cauls from aluminium for a few dollars and they work great.

    The one guitar, an Ibanez Gibson lawsuit copy, lowered the action so much I had to raise the saddle.

    The other was a Yamaha 12-string which a previous repair attempt had had the bridge cut between the pins and the saddle to give enough break angle for the strings over the excessively lowered saddle thereby ruining the bridge. When I got it off it was so weak I could bend it with light finger pressure. I had to make a new bridge.

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  3. I would be interested to know how the template is laid out.

    In doing a multi scale the template, say for a 25.5" scale on the low E and using an 25.5" template the notches need to be on the line drawn of the string and similarly for the high e. If the template is outside the line of the strings the scale length will be shorter on the final cut board unless each template is compensated for by how far outside the line on the strings it is installed.

  4. The scale length we used on the original Afri-Can guitars was 25" which worked out perfectly with the 22 fret in line with the edge of the can and the strings anchored at the other edge. The break angle over the bridge was just right.

    A later iteration was extended to 24 frets with the 24th fret level with the edge of the can and the strings still anchored at other edge. This made the break angle on the bridge too shallow and we never pursued it further.

    How are you going the fix the can to the neck? Ours were a neck through with the end bolted against the end of the can below string anchor point. The can in itself, at least the ones we used to get around here,  is not strong enough to resist the string pull without some sort of bracing.

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  5. Cant see that working either! Unless it is attached to a random orbital sander which will keep the block relatively stationary with respect to the fretboard. 

    Scrubbing back and forward is going to always round the board to the lowest radius in contact over the area it is in contact with

  6. If the OPB3 is specifying a 50k pot for volume that's what you should use. Without a circuit diagram of the OPB3 preamp its not possible to say if a 250k will make a difference or not BUT the 50k is probably an integral part of the preamp circuit and will most likely give you all sorts of unknowns if you change it to a 5 times higher impedance.

  7. Quote

    I suppose that glueing the top up to the blank prior to resawing is impractical? I just dove in here and have done zero thought on what is being aimed for....let me re-read.

    I don't think that is a bad idea at all. Sandwich the maple between two pieces of stable mahogany then resaw down the middle of the maple.

  8. The wire is either a centre tap for the secondary of the transformer or a voltage tap for a different voltage output. Very difficult to say without a circuit diagram. If its a centre tap it would be connected to ground.

    However if you don't understand mains wiring take it to someone who does. Messing with mains side of amplifiers can KILL you if you don't know what you are doing!!!!!!!

  9. I had my own blade made up to fit my radial arm saw.

    I went to my tool sharpeners who took a thin blade they had lying around about to be thrown out and ground it to the kerf width of the stewmac blade.

    It cost me about $10! It helps having a long standing relationship with them I suppose (and my father before me).

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  10. It is most likely a mistake in your wiring.

    Without knowing the specifications of the switch you are using it is very difficult to know if the diagram and the switch illustrated correspond.

    Having said that these pictorial diagrams, I find, are almost impossible to trouble shoot with. Far better is a proper schematic of the circuit.

  11. Don't solder on to the back of potentiometers! It is asking for trouble! Chances are you will overheat and damage the pot or get a cold dry joint or both!

    Some pots have a solder tag connected to the case for this purpose. If you cant find these buy some solder tags which fit over the shaft of the pot and bolt up against the body of the pot.

    I don't know where this solder on the back of the pot came from. It is BAD practice. If we had of done this in our electronics training practicals we would have been failed outright! It probably came from some notorious penny pincher trying to save a few cents!

  12. I've never done a whole fret board but I have filled a few slots where in a moment of inattention a slot got cut in the wrong place. 

    I found that using rosewood veneer and cutting slices with the grain vertical NOT across the board (ie cut your strips off the end of the veneer) ,gluing in with CA then sanding while the glue was still liquid and working the dust into the cracks made a close to invisible repair.

    Running the veneer with the grain running across the board shows discontinuity in the grain of the fret board. However in your case I presume you are going to re cut with the identical scale length so most of the veneer will be cut out again and the fret itself will cover the cut so you could use any wood really but matching the wood species would probably be better.

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