toneblind

Does the material used for pickup mounting rings matter? At my work, we are installing a huge waterjet machine and I'm thinking I could design a set of unique pickup mouting rings to be cut from from aluminum.

Thanks for the feedback. I just ordered the "Slate Black" patina solution from Sculpt Nouveau. According to the nice woman I spoke to, this is the only patina solution that will darken aluminum. My goal is not to have a relic'd guitar, just something with unique aesthetics that I'll enjoy learning to play.

All the hardware on and for my guitar is gold plated. I didn’t set out to have a gold equipped guitar; just that I got lucky as heck and found a new (not awful quality) set neck hollow-body guitar (w/ case), a Schaller roller bridge and a left handed Gretsch/Bigsby B6G all for less than $200 (got to love Craigslist). Now, the problem is, I don’t like gold plating…at all… I’m not a big fan of chrome either. My plan is to media blast the hardware bits with glass bead to remove the plating. Depending on what the bead blasted parts look like, I may stop there and just shoot a clear coat on it all. This whole guitar ‘relic’ing thing has caught my eye so I’m also looking into a liquid solution from a company called Sculpt Nouveau (http://www.sculptnouveau.com/). According to their website, they have a solution that will put a similar tone black patina on both aluminum and steel. After the parts are patina’d, I’ll shoot them with a matte clear. My questions are: Is this a stupid idea? Am I just going to destroy perfectly good (albeit cheap) guitar parts? Obviously I’ll mask off the important surfaces and openings to prevent blasting media from getting in places it shouldn’t. Are there any known problems using guitar hardware that has been clear coated?

Thanks for the advice. Since I wasn't able to find any videos on the technique, I made one:

Any advice on removing the stop bar threaded inserts? I’m installing a Bigsby B6G on my current project (ES 335 Copy) and the threaded inserts for the original stop bar will be left behind and unused. I’ll be refinishing the guitar (with a painted top), so I’d like to pull these out and plug the holes. Is there some experienced Luther’s trick for pulling inserts without damaging the top?

I'm in the process of converting a Cielo Sadona (ES-335 copy) from right handed to left handed. When it's done, I want to paint the whole thing one opaque color. It's currently sunburst w/ white binding (I think it's supposed to be ivory binding, but it's really bright white. Ironically, the binding on the neck and F holes is definitely ivory. My question is, are there any special preparations for painting over binding? Should I prime just the binding 1st with a plastic friendly paint?

I'm the same way with 11's. It's the perfect amount of tension for me, and anything else messes me up. Thanks for the input. I'll be starting him off on a set of 10's.

Does anyone out there have a CAD file (*.dwg or *.dxf) for a Gibson Flying V? I've already got a basic AutoCAD drawing of a '59, but I'd like to find a CAD file of a newer model to be able to compare the body geometry. Thanks, Mike

I just finished assembling a solid body guitar for my son. He designed the body, I made it from Poplar and we used a bolt on neck from a basket case Washburn Mavrick series. (I know, Poplar was not the best wood but this is my first ever instrument build, it was available, it's a painted project and the guitar will most likely spend eternity simply hanging on a bedroom wall). My son also wanted to incorporate a tremolo so I found a version of a Floyd Rose style tremolo. I need to re-string the guitar and adjust the tremolo...what gauge strings should I look into? I put a Bigsby on a hollow-body not to long ago and was advised to get heavy (.013-.056) strings. Do I need to go that heavy on a Floyd Rose equipped guitar? BTW, this is the initial CAD drawing of my son's vision. Once I get it tuned and prettied up, I'll post a few pics. Here's the body after paint, but with no cler coat. We were experimenting with vinyl pinstrip tape...

Good job on the bench. It looks sturdy. For the top, what about making a loose overlay made from particle board. Make it oversized such that you can attach strips of wood to the underside to keep it centered on your benchtop. That way you can have a nice level and smooth surface when needed and when you need to pound on something or possible make a mess, lift off the overlay and let the dimensional lumber top take a beating. If you did that, you might want to think about incorporating the router table insert into the overlay. The reason I suggest that is that if you need to rout a part that is longer than the insert, the ends of the part could “catch” on the transition from the insert to the dimension lumber and leave a tell-tale on the work. Here’s a few renderings of the bench I use (I don’t have any pictures of the finished project.) I built a riser to bring the work surface up higher, and built in 7 drawers into the riser. There is also a router table insert at one end. I can pop out the router and place in a flush plate. On one long side, I have a full length pull out drawer for my bar clamps and on the other side I had put in a full length shelf. (I’ve since taken out the shelf). There is also a pocket for installing a woodworker’s vise. This is a welding table I made a while ago. It has a ½” thick steel top and is on an aluminum base. I drilled a bunch of holes through the steel plate to provide places to install clamps. As described above, I’ve since built a loose overlay out of particle board that I can lay on top of this welding table for when I need more woodworking workbench area and don’t want my work resting on a steel surface. Welder Carts

Thanks for the compliments. Sound? Right now it sounds dusty, that is due to that there is simply no time to mess around with it. Since mid February, I've been putting in 15 hour days in the office. When I finally do get some time to play (or attept to play in my case), it does sound good (to my ear). One thing thing I've noticed though, since installing the Bigsby, there seems to be no noticible effect on string bends. For example, I been trying to learn the intro to Joe Walsh's "Funk 49", which starts of with a couple of heavy bends on the G string. Before installing the Bigsby, I could bend the string and it sounded correctfor what I was trying, but since the install, no matter how hard I press, there doesn't seem to be any change in note. I should add that I now have heavier strings and the G string is a wound string versus it being a solid one before.

Did you build that surface sander? If so, it's a beyond awesome job!!!!! I've had an 80% complete design for building one on my CAD station for years and have most of the parts necessary, but until seeing that finished product, didn't have the motivation to actually build it. Now I must build one. Using the drive from a table saw is a great idea. A bunch of questions if you don't mind... What HP motor are you using? Is the sanding drum made up with layered up disks of plywood? What is the diameter? Is the spiraled sand paper held on with velcro or adhesive? If adhesive, any problem with heat build up? Do you know the final drive RPM's of the drum? Did you use any type of pressure rollers before and after the sanding drum? Any problems with the work being pushed back? Thanks, Mike

Check out: http://www.floydrose.com/instructions.html

I'll pre-qualify this by adding that I have almost no experience in guitar work...but this is an idea for getting around a loose bolt-on neck pocket. This past weekend, my son and I made a "rough draft" of a guitar body he designed. We used a 1.75" thick slab of glued up particle board. The neck for his design is a bolt on neck from a Washburn BT-2. The idea is to do any experimental carving and shaping on the cheap particle board version, developing the near-net shape, before cutting into the costly body blank. I routed the neck pocket freehand using a 3/4" mortising bit. As you might expect, the fit between the neck and pocket was a bit loose. (but, it was actually tighter than the fit on the stock Washburn body.) I cut strips of paper, (plain copier paper), and used them as shims to take up the gap. With only 2 strips of paper inserted on each side, the fit between the neck and body was tight enough to keep the neck straight. If necessary, I could have used shorter pieces of paper at various locations in the pocket to "steer" the neck into being straight on the body. I've used shims made from paper in the past to make fine adjustments on wooden drawer guides. The material is much thinner than anything I could cut out of wood, it's not as compresable as most woods and it absorbs glue well.

Outstanding work!! Very inspiring!! Did you have to do anything special to prevent the dye from soaking into the binding?