mpeg2 Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 (edited) Just finished a new project: Chambered Padauk/Poplar/Chestnut body Maple Neck / Ebony Fretboard Carvin C22 Humbuckers w/Active-Passive Electronics, Coil Splits and Phase switch GraphTech Ghost Piezo pickups (for acoustic sound) Amazing range of sounds available from this guitar - just a bit difficult to remember what each of the controls does. Details at: Active/Passive/Piezo and a view of the body here: Rich Edited September 26, 2004 by mpeg2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 That's an aweful lot of controls??? It just confuses me looking at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 Hey, it looks great! Congrats, I know it's a really cool feeling to strap on a new creation born from your own mind and hands. And I think most guitar builders have to get that one '747 cockpit' guitar out of the way, it's pretty natural in the progression of building I think, especially if you happen to be younger. I think actually, that the journey starts with guitars like that, and as you grow as a builder, it's more about how much you can do with how little, gradually growing more and more simpler as you go. Just my opinion, I know I seem to be going down that road. Not taking anything away from 747 cockpit guitars, they're cool too, and -quite- an extraordinary accomplishment. But it's a journey, and that's a great guitar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpeg2 Posted September 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 I'm not quite in the younger category (altho I may act that way at some times) - but I agree that this is one of the things that I had to do. I'm back to the simpler designs for the future. Most of the controls are in the category of set it for the sound that you want & leave it alone, so operation during playing isn't a big deal. In a past life, I used to do transmission electron microscopy - sitting in a pitch black room, face buried into a viewing port & "playing" the controls - about 20+ knobs & an equal number of switches. Operating that thing was quite similar to playing a musical instrument - so even this layout isn't a big deal, once I get used to it. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 Drak whats up? Let the man do his controls as he likes to instead of calling him a beginner only because he wants many controls.... First of all: I hate the Tele shape. But this guitar looks awesome. The figure of the wood and the workmanship is excellent. Put it into GOTM. I would vote for it. Congrats on that beautiful work!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpeg2 Posted September 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 Thanks for the suggestion - deadline for Oct has passed, so I entered into Nov. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 I gotta say, I really like it. I love the color and patterns on the top, and I think all the controls are layed out in a way that is really pleasing to the eye. I'm having the problem with control design on mine. I've never played a bass with all the control configurations I'm looking at adding to mine (parallel/series, coil taps, active/passive, varitone) and I don't know which ones I'll want to use, so I'm considering just adding them all! Really, really, really nice exectution on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarMaestro Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 PS, I would like to hear waaaay more about the piezo. (Please? ) The installation (lots of details) And the sound, and how you balance it, and what you like and dislike about it. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpeg2 Posted September 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 Here we go - end result first. I've only had this thing together for a day - and got the setup mostly completed earlier this afternoon, so I haven't had too much time to play around with optimizing the sounds. For the electric side, its what you might expect with humbuckers into active electronics - with coil splitters & a phasing switch. Quite a few variations in sound here. The "acoustic" side with the piezo pickups is very clean and tends to be a little bright. I added a mid-boost switch, which evens out the sound a bit (to my ears). When run into a guitar amp, you lose much of the acoustic character, since guitar amps are far from linear - most of the energy is in the midrange. Since I don't have an acoustic amp, I ran the piezo side into a bass amp (SWR with 4-10s & a tweeter). This has a much wider response than the guitar amp & lets me hear the full range of sounds. So far, I've found that using a stereo cable, with both amps (hums into a guitar amp & piezo into the bass amp) gives the best sounds. I've been setting the volumes on both amps to give roughly the same level & then using the electric & acoustic volume pots on the guitar to balance things dynamically. THere's a switch on the guitar that controls where the sound is coming from - electric/acoustic/both. One interesting combination that I've found so far is to have the electric side go into a fairly high gain configuration for the tone & sustain, with the acoustic having a bit higher level to cut through. You get a very clean, sharp attack on the note from the acoustic side, with the overtones & sustain from the electric. I haven't had enough time on this to figure out what I don't like - but, since nothing is perfect, I'm sure I will... Installation stuff in the next note, since this one is getting a bit long. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpeg2 Posted September 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 Build details: Most of this one was fairly conventional - a body from Padauk/poplar (I couldn't find wood thick enough, so had to use multiple layers) - chambered with 1/4" thick front & 1/2" on edges - the solid center was about 3+" wide. I used some 1/4" thick chestnut for the bottom. The humbuckers were mounted traditionally & I used a fixed bridge, with the strings going through the body. The electronics chamber was pretty big (had to be for all the circuitry & controls). I replaced the saddles that came with the bridge with Graphtech Ghost saddles (each saddle has a piezo pickup inside). This meant that there were 6 sets of wires that had to go into the control cavity. I routed a slot about 1/4" wide just above the bridge for the wires & routed a 1/8" wide lip around it. I then took a piece of 1/8" purpleheart that I had, cut it to fit the lip & then filed 6 slots to match where the individual wires left the bridge. I drilled a hole from the slot into the control cavity. Just inside the control cavity is a "header" that came with the piezo pickups - it mixes the 6 signals into one wire, which goes to the piezo preamp (also from Graphtech). At a future date, I can add a 2nd bit to the preamp which replaces the header - it adds the capability to run all 6 signals out to a Roland Guitar synth. The humbuckers were wired into a Carvin Active/Passive module - which gives the capability to either run the hums in passive mode (vol + tone) or active (vol, bass & treble) - as well as having switches for PU selection, coil split for each PU and phasing. I had to figure out how to connect the two sets of electronics & make sure that the battery was switched off by the input jack. I disconnected the Carvin module from the jack it was supplied with and ran the output to the piezo preamp. Graphtech supplies some pretty good schematics to figure out interconnects, which I followed. There's a power output from the piezo preamp, which can be used to power the Cavin module - so the battery switching was covered. I used a on-off-on switch - the "on" positions ground one or the other of the preamp outputs to select where the sound is coming from (grounded means no sound). The stereo jack supplied with the piezo preamp is wired so that if a mono cable is used, both preamps are routed to the output - if a stereo cable, then each comes out on a different channel. Graphtech offers options to add mid-boost or selection of electric/piezo - but these are outrageously priced ($20 for a miniswitch & a connector) - I used the schematics they gave, some switches & sip headers I had around and did the same. It took a while to get all of this figured out - but so far, the results are worth it. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krizalid Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 Eventhough the switching does make me a little bit dizzy, it's a very nice guitar nonetheless. Is there any sample sounds from the guitar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 The way you did the wires from the saddles is really nice; I didn't even notice them until I looked a lot harder. It's cool that you have the stereo output capability; that sounds handy! Every time I look at that thing, I like it more! Do you have any pics of the back? Also, what did you do for the headstock laminate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpeg2 Posted September 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 Here's a view of the back: I used 1/4" Chestnut (the only 1/4" stock I found that was at least half the width of the body - edge glued. I cut the control cavity covers out before gluing to the chambered body. For the headstock laminate, I took a piece of ebony veneer and glued it to the headstock (after taping off the truss rod). After the glue set, I trimmed off the excess & cut out for the tuners & truss rod. I had a little slipup (a sliver of the veneer came off the edge), so I beveled the edge a bit to make it uniform. Next time, I'm going to use some grain sealer before applying TruOil - the veneer really soaked up the oil. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 Very nice and mucho tone i'm sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Dangerouso Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 My only suggestion would have been to drill the baseplate of the bridge and route the graphtec saddle wires through there. They would have been totally hidden by the saddles (I did this on mine, even with a trem). Otherwise, looks sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 Nice work mpeg! Can you explain how you finished that guitar? I know you mentioned that you used tru-oil (I'm starting to really love that stuff) but I'd be interested in how you went about it, how many coats, what you did between coats, how long before buffing, what you used to buff it, ... As much as you're willing to pass along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpeg2 Posted September 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 Finishing was pretty simple - normal sanding, a coat or two of water based grain sealer (with the fine sanding inbetween) - then 4 coats of TruOil. I get pretty impatient to play it by this point, so keep things as simple as possible - wipe on Tru Oil with a piece of old cotton T-shirt, rub in a bit, wait at least 2 hours, light go-over with fine steel wool After the last coat, I wait a day & call it done. No buffing (I may not get the best possible shine - but like the way it comes out). Real simple process & gives good results. TruOil is wonderful! Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted September 27, 2004 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 (edited) 747 cockpit guitars LOL! Who came up with that term. Giegie!!!! Edited September 27, 2004 by RGGR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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