Mr Natural

congrats on GOTM- sweet axe.

(spoiler) seeing this finished in another thread- has me wondering what a low B on a 31.5" scale is like in both sound and feel. that has to be nearing rubber band territory. nice surgery btw.

that heel looks mighty comfy. you are really cranking these out boy

@westhemann-I bought these stick strings about 6 years ago(about the time I started this thread() looks like these are made for Stick by D"Addario- see bottom of package in pic below- The package does not show the string gauges- and neither does the stick site. and my digital calipers battery is dead or I would measure and tell. maybe next time.

diggin that spalted maple bro- sweet!

great job so far- and welcome to the group

hang with it. he goes thru a myriad of effects on this one i hear ya about alot of the guys that play these not using effects. it does have a pretty sweet clean tone though- that 36" scale really has a nice bell like tone on some of the strings. this piece in particular is one of my favorites

(another project gathering dust in the workshop).. i was just going to use the pyramid wire myself. The original sticks just used jumbo wire. I had a link on my old computer to a source for stainless steel rods and square stock- cant remember who it was- but either way- to match the stuff stick enterprises uses you either have to round on edge of square stock- or put a pyramid edge on a rod if you follow the stick website has tons of info. (www.stick.com) instruments>10 string stick..... string spacing for 10 string stick SPECIFICATIONS for 10-String Stick®, all tunings: Dimensions 45 1/4" (115cm) x 3 1/4" (8.3cm) x 1 3/4" (4.5cm) Neck thickness 7/8" (2.2cm), scale length 36" (91.5cm) String spacing .320" (8.13mm), Group spacing .430" (10.92mm) Average weight Average weight 7.0 lbs (3.17kg) (weight depends on wood and pickup choice) that spacing sort of rules out single string bridges -I will be making mine out of wenge- it took me a while to figure out how to do it and make it work but I think I have it figured out in my mind- just need time which I dont always have to do it. The screw thread size I am using is listed in the thread earlier- As for the nut- remember there are really no "open" strings per se on a stick. the first fret becomes your open string- but you hammer them on. if you look at pics on the website- there is a dampening device (piece of velcro or something) to prevent open strings from vibrating. This would muffle any attempt at "strumming" an open note. I will be making mine out of a couple of pieces for wenge as well. http://www.stick.com/about/innovation/ the link above has details on alot of the different aspects of the stick. Also- look under innovations- there are links to their patents which are quite informative

being builder is def an exercise in patience. one product that recently came out that I am hoping to try in the near future is solarex for guitars. solarex if you dont know was originally formulated for surfboards- it cures by exposure to sun. You can put on a coat- flow it out- expose it and be sanding it and buffing it all in one day- however- sanding it is like sanding glass. very hard stuff- apparently the new stuff for guitars is a bit more forgiving in the sanding department formulation. fwiw

looking good man-and good luck with the back-that sucks!

re-lap steels- the user name was Quarter.

the first time I used tru oil years ago I glopped on a ton each coat- and I got a bunch of white spots in it- my assumption from what others told me was I was trapping moisture inbetween layers (it was late summer- ie swamp air here in georgia)-sort of like laquer trapping moisture- I was advised to use very very thin layers-ie- almost wiping off the layer that was just wiped on- and building it up that way. There was guy on here many moons ago that did lap steels that were awesome- and i think he said he once did something like 50+ coats but after buffing it was "barely there". i might have my source wrong but I think it was him. And of course ScottR and his spray flow like glass technique.

good to see you back! great job- so- how do they sound? i have to admit when I read skate board deck I had a flash back to the 80s (surf punks ring a bell anyone?)

looking good dude- keep it up

my last tru oil project (a clock) I did 45+ coats (mr myogi style- wipe on wipe off leaving very little behind each time). I still fugging buffed thru it. build the hell out of it. it will buffed to shine and level but to scotts point build it up first. The axe is looking good

that neck is pretty sick dude.

well done bro- and congrats on the GOTM win

honestly- that pickup housing on mine is snug with just friction. The lacquer build up ensured it. I had the pickup housing sanded to where I thought I could get a few coats on and still have it turn easily- but 3-4 coats and it was quite tight to the point the screw became unnecessary. i dont think you will have any problem without the screw- unless of course once completed you hold the guitar pickup face down and shake the hell out of it.

it was fun as all hell doing that carve wasnt it? I had a blast doing mine- not sure why but it was oddly satisfying. I noticed it looks like you didnt have the screw (for the rotating pick up housing) thru the body when you routed the back- did that move at all on you when you carved the back? I may have gone overboard screwing mine down but I was a bit nervous doing the back.

welcome back-look forward to your builds

@Skyjerk 5a quilt and Brazilian rw . good Lord. nice wood man. as usual. looks like it will be, as usual-a beaut. @mistermikev- regarding feet in photos- there is a many years long running inside joke that photos with feet are awarded bonus points around here. bathrobes on the other hand...........

i bought into the badass bridges without really knowing how "great" they were/are- I saw that Geddy Lee had one on one of his Rickys- then I saw a pic of Steve Harris with one on a P-Bass (or maybe an Ibanez Roadster(?) cant remember) and that sealed the deal. The local guitar shops always had them hanging on the wall with all the strings and such- they were basically the only replacement bridges that were (locally) available (this is way back when before the internet took off). My only gripe about them is that often it was clear they didnt QC the product before sending out- you sometimes had to file or fine sandpaper some of the edges least you rip your hand open while failing around trying to play wrathchild and such. the old ones anyway- heavy as hell but really made a difference. Lets not mention Gold in case Rad is reading this.:-) I havent seen the Kick Ass bridge yet- will have to look it up. I still havent recovered from Bad Ass not being available anymore- to the point of considering fleabay purchases.

I contacted @bokchoi77 to obtain permission to hack this thread. Hack in that I would post the measurements of the radius jig I used. I have had 3 people in the last couple months message me about the turner one model I did- and I have pointed the last couple folks in the past weeks to watch this thread as bokchoi77 was in progress of making one. I have gotten a lot of questions about this and that- the radius jig being one of them. Mine is simply an oversize fretboard radius jig of sorts- made completely out of whatever the hell I had laying around at the time (as the pictures tell- all offcuts of mdf I had laying around, I hardly bothered cleaning some of them up). All the mdf is 3/4" (1.9 cm) thick. it is glued and screwed with inch and a half screws and I pre-drilled the holes. The long sides (rails) are 3ft (91.5 cm) and the router base/one of the spacers are one foot (30.5cm) wide. The radius on the rails is 25 1/8 ". I cut/sanded both rails at the same time. The router base is centered at the 1.5 ft mark- ie- the center of the rail- the highest point in the arch. The bottom of the router base that faces the guitar body is 1/4" up from that arch-so- seeing that the mdf is 3/4" thick- that puts the base of the router at a full one inch above the radius. I would lower my router bit down so final cut the bottom of the router blade was like 1/8" or so below the rails- and it put a 25" radius on the front and back of the guitar body. - but I started with it much higher so only the outside of the guitar body were nipped first- slowly lowering it- typically 1/16" at a time (maybe 1/8"- its been so long I cant honestly remember if 1/8" was too much material to cut at once) The guitar body was mounted on the bottom side of my myka neck angle jig- which is 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood glued together- the measurement of that is 2ft (61cm) wide by 29.5 inch long (75cm). I screwed 3/4" pvc pipe along the length for the rails to ride against. A single screw (3 inch I think) held the body down- drilled in the center of the pickup hole and small pieces of wood that were screwed into the base to hold the body centered to the jig. That screw channel would later be fitted with the screw that went from the back of the guitar into the rotating pickup housing. I wont say this is the most effective/efficient way to do the radius- I have seen interviews with Rick Turner where he said he did the first few on a belt sander and winged it. (they do them now with a planer blade that has the 25" radius cut in it.) it took me a while to do this- lowering the router a little bit each pass- but this jig is hefty- and I felt very safe using it due to the weight and that I had my hands on the router thru the whole motion- and nothing was going to fling out at high rate of speed/etc. but it cleaned up in a matter of seconds with a sander and it sure was fun.

nice job- thanks for sharing all the pics. I am curious though- with the small body and longer scale- any neck dive issues? how is the balance with a strap? I like smaller bodies but have found some basses and guitars I have played to be plagued by neck dive

Pros - I missed your question here previously. I agree about the finish- get anything metal near it and the finish will come off. The TOM style fits a need for sure- but honestly- I still love my bad ass bridges, sharp edges and all. big chunk of heavy metal and they just ring.