djhollowman

Hi all, Not far off finishing a new maple neck which also has a maple fingerboard, and I'm thinking about how to finish it. I'm assuming it will require to be sealed?? I like the idea of an oil finish, however my past experiences with Tru-Oil have shown me that it considerably darkens the wood. This is not at all desirable - I want to keep the colour as light as possible. Surely there must be alternatives to Tru-Oil which give as nice a finish, but do not have the darkening effect? As for the fingerboard, normally I use Dunlop 65 lemon oil on my 'boards but I read on the bottle that it's not suitable for maple, any suggestions? Appreciate your thoughts fellas! Thanks, DJ

"choppiong" if that's not a word it should be

Hmm, I've seen someone selling offcuts on eBay but it's not what I want, and I'm not paying a tenner for postage!! I just want a small black bit, suitable for making a nut for an 8 string. I emailed several companies asking to buy small samples, but not one of them even replied! I don't see corian choppiong boards on amazon either... DJ

I'm having minor trouble getting some corian samples in UK - any pointers? Ta DJ

I looked up the pic you posted, prostheta, just out of curiosity, to see what it's for - it's "A 4-bit, 2 register, six assembly language instruction computer made entirely of 74-series chips." So now I know. DJ

Sorry....well spotted! So it's a conversion to ringless pickups? Is that a new top, or has it just been sanded? DJ

...ahem....yeah, I kinda wondered that too...... DJ

Hmm, interesting! I have the same here on my Aria 7-string. Same rings, same source! (Ignore the fact that they're HZs in the photo - I've since replaced them with a 81/7 in the bridge and a 707 in the neck!) My pup rings are also just for looks, and are only there at all because I didn't want to refinish the guitar to fix the screw holes that removing pup rings altogether would leave! I really wanted that clean ring-less ESP kinda look, but wussed out of a re-fin! Wish I had now. I still prefer the look of it. Never mind, the sound is fantastic on this guitar, which I always put down to the fact that it sports active EMGs, rather than being anything to do with how they're connected to the body. Food for thought I guess! I think it has an alder body. The neck is maple with rosewood 'board. DJ

Thanks for your replies fellas! Wow, this has really set you thinking Donovan! I really like the idea of a master brightness control pot, or even a tiny trim pot which could be kept inside the control cavity. Perhaps for this project I'll stick to something fairly simple - I like the idea of only the 12th fret inlay and side dots being illuminated. By that I mean I probably won't have front inlays other than the 12th fret one. I also feel that many of the LED-equipped guitars I've seen on the 'net so far are waaaay too bright, and look garish as a result! I'm all about subtlety! Besides, I'm having trouble enough getting my head around a simple LED array! However, I'm waiting on delivery of some LEDs which it may be possible to use as front and side markers! We'll have to see. In fact, I'm waiting on several items to be delivered (everything has to be mail-order where I live! The internet is a lifeline) which will enable me to start experimenting with arrays and such. I'm sure it's gonna be fun! Yeah, I've also toyed with the idea of those bi-colour LEDs...hmm. A possibility, certainly. Thanks for your input guys! DJ

It's a seven-string Wes, but I take your point! As I say, I have other guitars with EMGs already, and it's nice to have some variety! Also, my R7t has a mahogany body and ebony fingerboard (neck is maple with bubinga stripe) I'm assuming a dense, heavy body like that (and it is heavy!) would darken the tone anyway? Bridge-wise it's a tun-o-matic style with thru-body stringing. I get brilliant sustain! I even moved the pickpus a little nearer the strings to improve things. It doesn't really matter and I'm kinda hijacking this thread, but I'd never really considered pickup mounting to have that big a bearing on tone, esp. a really distorted tone. Hmm....we never stop learning eh? DJ

Sadly, I already did that.....on both occasions. Thanks anyway Wez. Never mind, I have a couple of other axes with EMGs for metal sounds. I like the "sterile" "hi-fi" EMG sound. Distorted or clean. DJ

Ah, that might explain why I'm just not getting the chunky sound I wanted from my Capricorn R7t! I made it have direct-mount pups. I originally put it down to cheapo pickups, but I've since replaced those with DiMarzio Blaze ones, and the sound is not really any better. I'm finding exactly what you said - the cleans are good, but any attempt at a decent metal tone just seems to lack high end bite. "Decreases articulation at high gain" is an excellent desciption of it. Interesting! Or, more accurately...dammit! Does that mean I'll end up having to sacrifice the look for the benefit of the tone???? Also, you get those little metal inserts that screw into the body, and then you can use short machine screws instead of (self-tapping) wood screws. That would be another way to mount directly. (BTW-I know the ones in that link above are for plastic, it's just to make the point!) DJ

I think it is better to use as many in series as you can, because you waste less power in the resistors, less overall current. If you want 10 overall, and say they drop 1.5V each, you might find 5 in series with one resistor works with 9V, then have two such series in parallel to make 10. Thanks. Hmm, that's interesting. When I put in some values into this wizard, that is exactly what it suggests doing: 2 strips in series linked in parallel to make an array of ten. Like so: Right, enough pontification, I've ordered some LEDs and some resisitors and I'm just gonna physically try it a few ways and see what works best! DJ

Bump! Just out of interest: where did you get the fingerboard? Was it an off-the-shelf blank? What width is it where the neck ends? (I have a fingerboard blank I'm considering using for an 8 string, but I don't know if it's wide enough at that end!! I can't seem to find out the string spacing of a Hipshot 8-string bridge, or I would draw up a mockup to work out the necessary 'board width.) Thanks, DJ

Yeah, I'm really thinking that parallel is the way to go with this anyway now. Thanks, DJ