Introducing The: Wafer-caster

[darren wilson]

Another idea would be to build volume and tone pots into a little box that could be clipped to your strap. If you decide you want or need to use them, just plug that little box in between your guitar and your amp cable.

Hard-wire your pickup to the output jack, then run a 6" cable from the output jack to your little control box. Then simply plug your amp cable into the little box. If you decide that you don't need the controls after all (for example, if you opt to use a volume pedal instead) you just leave the box out of the circuit and remove it from your strap, essentially plugging your pickup directly into the amp.

Another advantage is that you could do some wild experimentation with preamps, filters, kill switches and other curcuits in the little external box without having to carve up your guitar any further or alter its clean appearance. Having only one pickup is definitely an advantage in this case!

[chunkielad]

You could also use the trimpots still but have them on a rear panel (sort of control cavity on the rear) and adjust through a hole as needed.

It may also be possible to mount it behind the jack plug plate so you can access through a hole there!

[darren wilson]

http://www.islproducts.com/prod/pots/ThinMicroSeries.htm

http://www.islproducts.com/prod/pots/SlimSeries_a.htm

You could do some really cool edge-mounted controls with either of those.

[ByronBlack]

http://www.islproducts.com/prod/pots/ThinMicroSeries.htm

http://www.islproducts.com/prod/pots/SlimSeries_a.htm

You could do some really cool edge-mounted controls with either of those.

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wow, you guy's are loving the electical part of this project! Your fogetting 1 important factor, I barely know how to use a soldering iron let alone wire up all these exotic components, I do however love those thinline thumb-wheel type pots, not sure how I would mount them though.

I also like the idea of the external box - however would this still make the pickup 'too' bright by hardwiring it to the jack plug?

[jmrentis]

Are those just knots or worm holes in your wood? Also is it dried properly? I was just curious, I like the look of that wood, it just seems a bit knotty for a guitar, I haven't seem much of that kind of wood so I don't know much about it, that might be just how it always is or it might be perfectly fine as is, I'm knot sure. I hope it works out well for you and keep us updated. Good luck. Jason

[ByronBlack]

Are those just knots or worm holes in your wood? Also is it dried properly?  I was just curious, I like the look of that wood, it just seems a bit knotty for a guitar, I haven't seem much of that kind of wood so I don't know much about it, that might be just how it always is or it might be perfectly fine as is, I'm knot    sure.  I hope it works out well for you and keep us updated. Good luck. Jason

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The wood has knots and various 'undesirable' artifacts, but thats what I like about it, the wood is dried (10%) at last count from the supplier. I know it's dog-rough but I love working with wood thats as natural as possible, it may sound awful, but i'll never know until I build with it ;-)

[jmrentis]

Thats cool man. I was just curious as I don't know much about that wood, again I like the look of it and sounds dry enough, some say as low as 6% is about right but I often see 6-10% for instrument wood, and by the time you cut and sand it to shape it will probably dry a bit more, not that it needs it really. Well good luck man and update us as you go. Jason

[ByronBlack]

Thats cool man.  I was just curious as I don't know much about that wood, again I like the look of it and sounds dry enough, some say as low as 6% is about right but I often see 6-10% for instrument wood, and by the time you cut and sand it to shape it will probably dry a bit more, not that it needs it really.  Well good luck man and update us as you go.  Jason

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Will do my good man, i'm hoping to cut the body shape tomorrow, the neck is already part-way completed (did a few in a batch). Over the weekend i'll be making a router table to trim up the neck taper to the fingerboard and i'm going to construct myka's excellent neck-pocket jig, this way I can complete the neck join for both this and my explorer build.

Looks like i'm going to have a productive weekend!

I've also received some nice ash which is going to be used to build a voodo LP with a difference!

[jmrentis]

Sounds good man! Myka's jigs are great, I only have the neck pocket one part way built, I need some more materials like some 1/2"x1/2" aluminum square rails, or some thick acrylic to slide the router on, I'm sure I could use some stiff hardwood, but I'd rather go one of the other two ways. Mine is going to be a cheap one and when I have some more $$ I will build another one. Here is a pic of the beginning of the build

Not really much to look at but it's not much more to do, again mine won't be anything special, if and when I start building a lot more I will make a nice one and actually now after thinking about it I might do one sooner rather than later because if it's built really well you can use it to get flat surfaces and thickness some woods. That would take the place of a few tools I need still, of course I would get them but in the mean time since I have the router might as well.

Well I can't wait to see the ash lp and this project get done, sounds like it's coming along pretty quickly, keep us updated. Good luck man, later. Jason

[darren wilson]

wow, you guy's are loving the electical part of this project! Your fogetting 1 important factor, I barely know how to use a soldering iron let alone wire up all these exotic components, I do however love those thinline thumb-wheel type pots, not sure how I would mount them though.

I also like the idea of the external box - however would this still make the pickup 'too' bright by hardwiring it to the jack plug?

Well, if you don't know how to solder stuff, my suggestion would be to start simple.

My external box idea just takes what would normally be inside the guitar and puts it on the outside. You'll just have a couple of extra jacks and a short piece of cable in between. It shouldn't sound any different than if the guts were all inside the guitar's body. You should only get the "bright" effect from the direct-wired pickup if you bypass the external control box and plug your amp right into the pickup. But even that can be controlled with the right capacitors.

[ZoSo_Spencer]

soldering is so0o easy, honestly just have a go on some scrap wires and metal

like get a bit of metal then drill some holes thru it to make it seem as if it was fork that youd be soldering some wires to onto the pots, just keep having goes at it until you can make the solder job look clean and try and used as little as possible but use enough solder to make the bond strong enough to hold.

good luck with the electronics - these ideas that everyone is dishing out sound awesome

[ByronBlack]

soldering is so0o easy, honestly just have a go on some scrap wires and metal

like get a bit of metal then drill some holes thru it to make it seem as if it was fork that youd be soldering some wires to onto the pots, just keep having goes at it until you can make the solder job look clean and try and used as little as possible but use enough solder to make the bond strong enough to hold.

good luck with the electronics - these ideas that everyone is dishing out sound awesome 

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Thanks for the advice Zoso, I think i'll spend a little time over the weekend doing as you suggested, its not only the soldering thats a worry to me it's the actual circuit and drawing a diagram, I really don't know how to approach this.

However, I do have Hiscocks book and that has a section on the electrics, I'll read through that and see if I can work it out, if I do a diagram and post it here could some of you chaps look over it and see if it's correct?

[chunkielad]

I won't mind - electrics is the one thing I can do well on a guitar!

It's all relatively simple if you don't add any on boards effects or anything - just volume(s), tone(s) and a jack is easy enough.

[ByronBlack]

I won't mind - electrics is the one thing I can do well on a guitar!

It's all relatively simple if you don't add any on boards effects or anything - just volume(s), tone(s) and a jack is easy enough.

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Cheers chunkielad, i'll probably sit down on the weekend and draw up a diagram - i'm going through the hiscock book and trying to work it all out!

[ByronBlack]

Ok, i've made some more progress tonight on the final design and a template.

Free-hand Sketch on actual body-piece:

Image 1

Accurate drawing of shape on paper:

Image 2

Paper template cut out:

Image 3

Bandsawing shape out of a piece of pine to use a template:

Image 4

Bandsawn Template:

Image 5

Drum-sanding the template:

Image 6

And the almost finished template:

Tomorrow i'll be cutting out the body shape and creating the neck. I'm having second thoughts about the final-finish, at first I really liked the knotty look of the yew, but I do have some curly maple which I think might be better, i'll have to think on this further.

[thegarehanman]

I'd say go w/ a cap or something. I mean, your body blank has more knots than your template.

[ByronBlack]

I'd say go w/ a cap or something. I mean, your body blank has more knots than your template.

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I agree, I've got some nice 5mm curly maple - I think i'll use that, spray the sides and back black with a burst on the front - or no burst but use a binding...but what colour to put on the maple? I'm thinking of a black stain like Myka's although slightly more sanded back to allow the figure to show more.

[Daniel Sorbera]

I'm thinking a red burst would look sweet on that body.

[ByronBlack]

I'm thinking a red burst would look sweet on that body.

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Now that is a nice idea - I think your right, red would look cool, well compliment the mahogany neck nicely.

Cheers Godin!

[ByronBlack]

Time for a quick update.

I've not had much time to really get stuck in, also i'm still waiting on some wood for the fingerboard and the hardware - also i've been reading up on electrics. I think I will add a volume pot after-all.

So, here's the body during the template profilling stage:

I've also cut-out, tapered, routed and sanded the guitar neck ready for receiving the new fingerboard. I changed the design of the headstock slightly to match more closely the one I did for my explorer build.

Neck Detail:

Bandsawn + Sanded Neck

I've also updated the photo-set of various 'in-progress' shots, i'll be adding some more photo's over the weekend as I create the routes in the body for the neck and pickup. I'm currently building a Myka inspired neck-pocket jig, but with attachments for 'ski's' that will allow a router to slide across and up and down to turn the jig into a platform to use the router as a planer. This will be used to bring the wafer-caster down to thickness now that I added the maple cap.

Updated Set

[Curtis P]

thats a pretty thin headstock, but its cool none the less

Curtis

[ByronBlack]

thats a pretty thin headstock, but its cool none the less

Curtis

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When you say 'thin' do you mean 'narrow' as it's 16mm thick, which is about right - well from what i've read anyway ;-)

[ByronBlack]

Ok

I've now completed my Myka inspired 'neck-pocket' Jig:

However, i've made a slight modification, you can see the router is sitting on a pair of parellel 'ski's this also allows me to use the router as a thicknesser/planner.

You can also see i've created a moveable clamping system that allow any shape to be used:

Wafercaster Template In Jig

This link shows you more pics of the jig:

Jig Link

I have named this Jig, the 'Plouter' Jig as it will be used to turn the router into a planner as well as for routing out neck-pockets etc.

[thegarehanman]

Have you mocked up your headstock w/ the dimensions of the tuners? I'm worried about your tuner casings hitting each other on the back of the headstock. I ran into that problem on my first build. My tuner holes were about 1/16" too close together. The only parts that hit eachother were the ears for the mounting screws. I took 1/32" off each ear with a bench grinder and butted the two ears against one another. It looks intentional now.

[Curtis P]

thats a pretty thin headstock, but its cool none the less

Curtis

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When you say 'thin' do you mean 'narrow' as it's 16mm thick, which is about right - well from what i've read anyway ;-)

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Yes, i mean narrow, i would mock up with tuners like suggested, you might have to cut, joint, and give that headstock some fatness to it!!

Good progress though, really neat project

Curtis