mistermikev

On 5/16/2023 at 2:35 PM, ADFinlayson said:

So I did some aging with some white vinegar, put all the parts in a big tub then put some white vinegar in a small container inside the big tub with the parts and shut the lid so the fumes from the vinegar did their thing. It took a couple of hours but came out pretty well. Not full on relic just enough to make the parts look a little bit grubby.

 

I buffed the whole guitar using the medium compound. Normally I would then go on to use some Chemical Guys fine polish on the fine mop on my buffer, but instead I just buffed with that mop dry which took out the medium scratches pretty well without making it particularly shiny and just left the odd fine scratches and swirl marks in.

Guitar is finished, here are a few pics and a demo. 

Demo

 

 

quite the all out jamboree there... I enjoyed it.  guitar looks great - nice work.

I'd say... when you are dealing with frets you are dealing with very small differences in heights.  in your pic... that gap there could easily account for that much more off the fret.   just one aholes o.  look at the fret behind it... you can just make out a little gap on the end and guess what - when you flat filed it there are flat spots on the ends.

all that said... I wouldn't redo this... just more crown work... s/b fine.

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Someone has been practicing on his camera...

hehe, just gave up on autofocus... I do it manually all the time now.  world of dif.

worked my but off today.... was at it from 9:11am to 2:47pm.  Had to iron out a number of oversights in my plan... but finally got a body completed anyway...

On 6/9/2023 at 11:18 AM, Stu. said:

Love that weight relief pattern, nice work! I spent ages drawing out weight relief vectors and then bought the lightest wood known to man

can't take too much credit there... that's std gibson... but thank you all the sm!

I guess this is why I am doing this practice run... to iron out the things I didn't anticipate...

it occurred to me that once I have a carved top I don't want to have to flip the guitar and process the back (possible, but an irregular top would complicate).  So I decided to process my backside.  anywho, starting to look like a guitar.

i've only ever used jescar... but have not found this to be the case.  it has been my experience that using a $50 straight edge and getting things perfectly flat before fretting... along with getting the right fret depth, cleaning the slots, bending my fret wire myself to a very close radius, and using a triangle file on the edges before pressing... i hardly have to take anything off to get rid of the marker on every fret.  I've also become sensitive to not making the mistake of bringing my wood inside just before fretting, or fretting in proximity to when it has rained.  seems like every little humidity change makes a big dif in that regard.  ymmv.

very nice!

so... found a cool "more local" option for .06" gold mop.  the "duke of pearl".  $20/oz... 2 oz(10 pieces) shown here... I got all huge pieces and all of them nice and figured... ordered on friday and delivered monday.  Just wanted to pass it on in case anyone looking.  

8 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

That's a funny optical illusion partially based on "knowing" what an LP top looks like. It's hard to tell whether the cavity bottoms are slanted or flat and it definitely looks like you've carved flat bottom holes into an arched top! The circles emphasize that illusion like contour lines.

now that you said that I can't unsee it lol! 

lot of extra effort (almost 2hrs) for what I imagine is very little additional weight relief... and something no one will ever see... exactly my style!

not enough time in the weekend to start the body-base... but got the backside of the top done anyway...

hard to really capture in the photos... and not the tightest grained rosewood I have worked, but there are all variety of pink, purple, orange in there... this is what was sold to me as "old growth purple indian rosewood"... think I'm going to buy some more because good lord is it pretty in person.  anywho... just a fretboard!

after half hour google search cause I deleted my emails... thought I might put this here so I'll remember when I go to buy more: https://www.vikwood.com/

i stand corrected... looking at orig schem I was seeing a std booster with a 2nd input for 'buffered bypass'... or so I thought.

34 minutes ago, nakedzen said:

I don't really understand what difference is there with a booster vs. an amplifier? Afaik a differential amp looks at the input signal voltage and the 9V supply voltage and tries to make the output a difference of those? Ie. boosting the signal.

 

But, I'm not trying to copy emg's since, why would I? They've already been made for decades with great success. I'd just buy EMG's then without all this hassle.  Just having fun with circuits mostly to see what comes out of it.

well no expert here... but I can relay what I've read, and that is that the emg version of a difference amp actually is running the two coils of a humbucker into sep inputs... then dropping voltage for anything they have in common, and amplifying anything they don't have in common.  This keeps the noise floor really low.  it requires some really underwound singles.

the schematic you linked to... that's just a garden variety booster.  anything at the input is being boosted -noise included.  Just like a pedal running after the guitar.  Nothing wrong w that... just isn't anything like what is going on in an emg pickup (not being critical here... just observation).  you could, essentially take any booster circuit and put it in a guitar.  I've done it with micro booster, linear power booster, mid boosters, sho boost... and enjoyed it quite a bit.  IMO it's a very useful and cool thing to do.

looks like that particular circuit is booster... on the sm site you can find baja's direct clone of an emg... .different animal - a differential amp.  that would use the lm4280 but more because of it's low battery drain than specific sound qualities... or so I'm told.  

afa to active or not to active... for me... I also hate batteries in a guitar... but since I play bass I have given into the dark side because active eq up front is so useful there.  

in answer to your question... sure.  you COULD factor in some mm for action... but you have already kind of done that with your 2mm of slop.  That said... if you lay out your items in a simple graphic editor like paint even... you'll find that there is a LOT more variability to it than one might first suspect.  esp if like a les paul... you put a pickup plane AND a neck plane in... you can literally make any angle (1deg to 5deg) work by just lowering or raising the neck.

getting back to what you are asking... I think giving yourself 2mm of slop is more than you need... and giving more you risk issues with the bridge sitting too high.  It's not enough imo to get it to work... you need it "not too high" and "not too low"!

EDIT: forgot to mention... you also may consider that the typical tom bridge - you are going to file down into the saddles approx 1mm for string grooves.

On 5/17/2023 at 1:23 PM, henrim said:

All blocked out. Next some trimming and then I guess I have to do some decision making. What fretboard material to use and all that.

I appreciate your dedication to "unique construction" methods.  for me, that stands out as bravery among luthiers - so many things can go wrong and end up taking so much time. 

Seems doing your own shape is the first thing we think of in terms of 'originality', and seems sometimes that originality in construction is often overlooked by many.  All this is to say: bravo.

just eager as hell to put things in the "finished" column yesterday after all I've been through this week.  this one is option A for the vintage version - granadillo... has some really nice tight grain.  have another piece of what was billed as "old growth purple indian rosewood" that i'll do next and would be option B.

so... this is just a fretboard I bought w precut slots (allenguitar?), anywho... idk if I'm even gonna use it or how it factors in but I think I just wanted to get something done that was right for a change, so I cut the inlays!  this week has been bruta for mel!

52 minutes ago, MiKro said:

I am glad it is done Mike, now you have a new skill to add as well. CNC is all about knowing your machine, the work, and the software to make everything as best you can.

MK

absolutely right as usual.  taking the z axis apart learned me a lot!  I replaced the bottom flanged bearing too and little by little I am gaining confidence afa that goes.  ultimately I'd like to re-build the y axis and use linear rails and extend it to 1000mm and while it'll be a long time before I'm ready to take that plunge... this is one more step in that direction and for that I thank you!!

so... it took me over a week to do one fretboard hehe. 

This week I learned twice how to thread a ball nut onto a ball screw!  trickier than you'd think!  finally got her on there and got a new coupler on and got everything dialed back in (thanks again @MiKro for your help!) and my z axis is better than it's ever been... nice and tight.  

anywho... this is more than just a fretboard for me.  This is what I'm calling a DOUBLE COMPOUND fretboard.  Afa I know it's something I can claim as original albiet not "LIFE CHANGING" or anything.  the idea is I have an 18" to 24" compound radius on the EAD, and a 10" to 16" radius on the GBE.  My hope is that it makes things a bit more ergonomic as the high strings drop in altitude a bit more than the low strings.  

also of note... this piece of ebony - my 3rd piece... has some cool flame to it that I hope will show up a bit more when it is polished.  all that said... I think I oriented the 1st fret inlay wrong doh!  rookie mistake but at this point I'm just overjoyed to be back making things!

do

39 minutes ago, Retrosonix said:

Cut outs - need some finessing

nicely done.

Not much to add here... but since no one mentioned this I thought ole cap'n obvious here would throw in two cents.  your fret crown can contribute to difficulty intonating.  if you don't get a razor thin center apex... then the intonation will be off one way or another.  I mention because initially it wasn't clear what your problem was... seems you've sorted it with using harmonic vs fretted method to set.    

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Well - how very strange!  I'll try a direct download.

Does that work?

 

right on, now I see them.  lovely bit of ebony there.  v cool.