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Knightro Guitars 2016


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It's a conversation worth having, definitely. I have to say that I get sick and tired of the same old chestnuts doing the rounds on micro-attention span sites like Facebook when it comes to glues and glueups. Things like the differences between Titebond 1-2-3, basic PVAc, protein glues, and polyurethanes, etc. There's no discussion needed on that side of things because it's all very clean cut and factual.

What gets my goat more than anything is people seeing problems where none exist, or worse yet taking an imperceptible but real difference and blowing it up out of all reasonable and practical proportion. The Titebond 1-2-3 thing being the usual circular lack of logic bullshit....

I suspect that underneath all of this usual flurry of bollocks, people are well-meaning enough. They want to do what they do better and to the best of available resources and knowledge. That's all cool and I can get behind that, however it all falls down when defensiveness flares up and "nobody is allowed to be right if I'm not!". Yeah, and I thought YouTube comments were a minefield full of cowchips.

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Yeah, V stuff!

I'm doing this as a batch of two. The woods are identical (same boards and all), but the bodies will have different grain orientations: one is standard vertical/along the centerline for the grain, the other has the grain following the outer angle of the 'wings' to make a V pattern along the center. I'm also doing different pickups for each...one vintage-flavored set, one modern. 

I had to summon some knowledge from high school geometry and make some clamping fixtures to deal with these odd-shaped blanks. 

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Got one of the necks scarfed (scarved?) up. 

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Blank two- vertical
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This hasn't been routed yet, just shaped on the bandsaw and edge sander. 

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Yeah, pickguard! The other one will be black. 

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Next episode: the V vs a big honkin' router bit. 
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Nicely done article! My internal spelling debate may or may not have been preceded by a fairly gnarly imperial IPA (or two...)

It feels good to be making a mess in my own space! As I work, I'm already figuring out a few improvements to be made... namely, storage and more bench space. Everything is sort of piled on my workbench, as we're still doing renovation work on the internal areas. 

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Haha the V's are gonna be regular sixes, nothing too outlandish (admittedly, I am drawing up 7 and 8 string variants). I totally dig your style too, I think we have a similar appreciation for retro-futuristic design. 

I'm trying to go full-time, we'll see how it goes. I'm also a full-time student, so there's a few days of the week that I can't be in the shop. More than anything, I just needed a space to call my own after years of borrowing workshop or garage corners. 

 

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That's a damn nice bit of design, Andrew. I think something simple and understated would be perfect for this one; wood porn just distracts from the lean modern design. Something like Pao Ferro? Lighter than EIR or other Rosewoods and flatter/more consistent in contrast if you get the right piece. I love that stuff, personally.

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Thanks Carl! I agree, this isn't the place for something too showy. The coco I have is a good color with pretty bland grain, but it's gone and warped like nobody's business so I have to sort that out before use.

Pao Ferro is on my short list as well and I have a nice billet of the stuff, I just don't know if I want to cut into it yet.

Actually! One of my local lumberyards had a piece that might be perfect. I hope it's still there, I'm going to go get it tomorrow.

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So I'm taking this one in a bit of a new direction; I was struck by inspiration and have to roll with it. I don't want to show anything yet, but I think it's going to turn out pretty damn cool. 

Today was a chill day. I slotted a QS wenge board and took care of a few little renovation-related tasks at Knightro HQ.

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Carl, that G&W miter box is pretty great. Thanks for putting it out there, I'm more than happy with it. Now I just need to replace my decrepit old $tewMac saw....

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I got a box! Mojotone Hot Classics with A4 mags and chrome covers. Their packaging is some of the most entertaining I've gotten.

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I also trimmed up a wenge heel lam that was cut from the same board as the fretboard, it'll be a nice little detail in the heel carve.

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Just waiting on the truss rod so I can get on with some more substantial work. 

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I have one of their strat pickups in a parts guitar I assembled several years ago, I think it sounds very nice. I haven't tried their humbuckers yet, but every sound clip/video (I know, you can only judge so much from those) sounds like exactly what I'm shooting for here. I'll definitely let you guys know what I think when we get to that point.

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I think that any decently-constructed pickup made with consideration will sound good. I'm going to roadtest some Irongears and run them against those of "the other Aria Pro II SB-1000 guy" here in Finland (Veijo Rautia of Rautia Guitars). Irongears have the advantage of being shit cheap, however Veijo knows his beans. I just completed a top-to-bottom restoration of a gutted SB-1000, and fitted an MB-1E pickup made by Veijo. The tone is phenomenal....it nails that middy-80s sound perfectly, and my new PCB-based active/passive loom helped.

So anyway. My point being that at a certain point of capability, most makers can nail 80% of the "target" tone. Irongears might have the organ recipe, but not the monkey grinders. Mojotone seem on the right rails from what I can tell.

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