Dave Higham Posted November 21, 2021 Report Share Posted November 21, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, mistermikev said: as I understand, this camera has a feature where you can take a picture of a white wall and use that to automagically adjust settings I only have a Panasonic Lumix about 12 years old and only found that feature after I'd had it for a few years. You know what they say, RTFM! I use it for every photo, especially in the workshop where I have 'warm white' bulbs in Anglepoise-type lamps, fluorescents overhead and daylight coming through the window. You don't need a white wall, you get the camera set up on the subject, then set the colour correction by putting a sheet of white paper in front of the lens. I also use Photoshop elements to correct framing, brightness and contrast. That's all I did to convert the first photo into the second one. Edited November 21, 2021 by Dave Higham 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Dave Higham said: I only have a Panasonic Lumix about 12 years old and only found that feature after I'd had it for a few years. You know what they say, RTFM! I use it for every photo, especially in the workshop where I have 'warm white' bulbs in Anglepoise-type lamps, fluorescents overhead and daylight coming through the window. You don't need a white wall, you get the camera set up on the subject, then set the colour correction by putting a sheet of white paper in front of the lens. I also use Photoshop elements to correct framing, brightness and contrast. That's all I did to convert the first photo into the second one. right on. Will have to figure that out. I've actually replaced all my bulbs in my house... a few with smart bulbs so I can control them w my phone... a few with recommended photo bulbs but I guess I just need all the help I can get! I do use photoshop to adjust brightness/contrast but that's about it as I want to be sure it's a realistic depiction of the guitar - for better or worse. thank you for the reply! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 21, 2021 Report Share Posted November 21, 2021 I grew up in the 80s as a programmer and hacker, so things like smart bulbs seem like an excellent attack surface to me. Do you know if they're WiFi or Bluetooth? Ohwait, not the subject.... LED bulbs can be difficult to photograph with. Use the camera on your phone to observe them, and quite possibly you'll see them flickering. A lot of LED bulbs illuminate for half the phase of your power, or illuminate half of the elements either half of the phase. The upshot of this is inconsistent lighting. I made a HUGE 10000lm LED panel back when I was pouring time and money into trying to put a small video studio together, and that was somewhat better as it was DC rather than AC. The power supply exploding is another story.... If you are buying bulbs, go somewhere where they have them running in a demo board and do the camera flicker check. Some are terrible, but you can find some bulbs that are surprisingly constant. I've got two LED panels in this workshop room now, and they're not bad. Turning the phone camera on them, you can discern some flicker, but not as much as some cheap LED bulbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2021 6 minutes ago, Prostheta said: I grew up in the 80s as a programmer and hacker, so things like smart bulbs seem like an excellent attack surface to me. Do you know if they're WiFi or Bluetooth? Ohwait, not the subject.... LED bulbs can be difficult to photograph with. Use the camera on your phone to observe them, and quite possibly you'll see them flickering. A lot of LED bulbs illuminate for half the phase of your power, or illuminate half of the elements either half of the phase. The upshot of this is inconsistent lighting. I made a HUGE 10000lm LED panel back when I was pouring time and money into trying to put a small video studio together, and that was somewhat better as it was DC rather than AC. The power supply exploding is another story.... If you are buying bulbs, go somewhere where they have them running in a demo board and do the camera flicker check. Some are terrible, but you can find some bulbs that are surprisingly constant. I've got two LED panels in this workshop room now, and they're not bad. Turning the phone camera on them, you can discern some flicker, but not as much as some cheap LED bulbs. hehe as always diversion is encouraged. they are wifi. unfortunately no pc software yet but they do have an app so... via phone. sure, now you tell me (led flicker) hehe. I haven't noticed that but either way am pretty sure that is the LEAST of MY problems lol. jeez... power supply explosures - danger will robinson! you know another diversion you just sent me on - need to use my led panels in the workshot - never even thought of that. would really help with sanding (duh, sitting here complaining about lack of light out there!) well all my videos so far have been under led lights... and all my pictures using led lighs in addition to some sunlight. afa i can tell... my videos aren't flickering... unless I forget to wear my hat.... then bright white flashes of light ever so often hehe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 not saying my work is anything to write home about... but if it ever IS... it would only be so without knowing how much time I spent on a rediculously feeble amount of accomplishment! Literally spent a good part of the day just cutting this one inlay... and still it's not right because a critical piece (see above the g there) got sucked up w the vaccuum. (thinks to himself "perhaps it didn't get sucked up and it fell off in the little plastic thingy with all the other bits... I'mma go check") Victory... (see way below) abliet a super pathetic one. def the center of the g, n, e and r were lost. I think I'll just try to cut some little shards and toss em in there and fill in with black ca glue. what do you think? well, have to keep in mind I learned some things like - this font is way too small... even using a .0177 bit. Next time you need to expand that ribbon n/s a bit more and get a bigger font in there. some 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 29, 2021 Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 It happens a lot when you've got a build with many moving parts that perhaps you've not practiced many times before. I get this a lot, mostly because I never like to re-do old stuff. I always need to take something new onboard, to learn and to gain new knowledge. The price of this is that there always has to be a high failure rate if you're not guided or otherwise instructed "over the shoulder". This is just the way it is, and increases the price of our game, that's all. The real probem is not learning from a mistake made; not being able to take onboard what was done less than correctly and improve oneself. I suppose in that respect I should consider dialling back my own need to push forwards, and perhaps make something that is familiar and known. There seems to be less joy in that though, and that likely says more about me than anything else. Shards are likely a quick fix, but you're risking not getting nice face alignment of the Abalone laminae. Still, it's a minor detail that can easily be overlooked by anybody not looking for it specifically. Is it a major ballache to try and recut a couple of small pieces? Hopefully your CA isn't the sort that is thin enough to wick colour into the Maple and contaminate it....I am presuming that it isn't if that's what you used to attach the big inlay pieces? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 2 hours ago, Prostheta said: It happens a lot when you've got a build with many moving parts that perhaps you've not practiced many times before. I get this a lot, mostly because I never like to re-do old stuff. I always need to take something new onboard, to learn and to gain new knowledge. The price of this is that there always has to be a high failure rate if you're not guided or otherwise instructed "over the shoulder". This is just the way it is, and increases the price of our game, that's all. The real probem is not learning from a mistake made; not being able to take onboard what was done less than correctly and improve oneself. I suppose in that respect I should consider dialling back my own need to push forwards, and perhaps make something that is familiar and known. There seems to be less joy in that though, and that likely says more about me than anything else. Shards are likely a quick fix, but you're risking not getting nice face alignment of the Abalone laminae. Still, it's a minor detail that can easily be overlooked by anybody not looking for it specifically. Is it a major ballache to try and recut a couple of small pieces? Hopefully your CA isn't the sort that is thin enough to wick colour into the Maple and contaminate it....I am presuming that it isn't if that's what you used to attach the big inlay pieces? spot on - I too am not really all that interested in doing the sm thing twice and was half thinking about doing a 7.25-12 radius instead of 9.5-12 for this but decided to keep that the sm to minimize the change. you are absolutely right about "less joy"... and high failure rate! the inlay here isn't actually glued down yet. I could recut a new piece... but I'm not sure at this small that I won't have similar issues... those little areas are so small... not much to hold the piece down. I could probably try to build a file to cut just G,E and R centers... might be worth a shot. the glue - well my plan was to tape off near the inlay and just hope for no bleed through. I've got the stew mac black ca glue - have not used it anywhere yet. bringing my thoughts to bleed through probably just saved me there. perhaps some strategic ebony dust and just use clear ca instead of black ca. afa face align... well these pieces are all from different pieces of abalone - there is a join there at the n in twang and the edge pieces are all from different chunks. was trying to give definition to the scroll design by varying the grain. was thinking I'd rough cut a piece and lay it flat. I do have some abalone side dots so perhaps that can save me. as usual... the feedback here will result in better work from me so thanks for that!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 29, 2021 Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 A lot of manufacturing guitar makers would fill those areas out with black CA or epoxy, so it's an option. I personally feel that it's less "seamless" than using the same material as the inlay. That's purely since they're in the manufacturing game, so you've got your options. Give it a shot, because working such small pieces is a good experience. How about cutting the inlay material from the back (show face down) and leaving say, half a mm of the front face remaining? It makes the pieces easier to handle, and when inlaying then don't drop into pockets that are too deep. In cross section the inlays look like a "T" with a lip of waste material. Does that make sense? Clear CA can contaminate Maple very easily as well, which is a bummer. I've shot my acoustics with flying junk in the shop more than once and repaired it with CA. No bueno. I'd go the epoxy route. At the very least it gives you the excuse to buy some epoxy, then some paper shot glasses, wooden cocktail sticks and a set of <100g precision scales. And some gloves plus some denatured alcohol for cleanup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 7 minutes ago, Prostheta said: A lot of manufacturing guitar makers would fill those areas out with black CA or epoxy, so it's an option. I personally feel that it's less "seamless" than using the same material as the inlay. That's purely since they're in the manufacturing game, so you've got your options. Give it a shot, because working such small pieces is a good experience. How about cutting the inlay material from the back (show face down) and leaving say, half a mm of the front face remaining? It makes the pieces easier to handle, and when inlaying then don't drop into pockets that are too deep. In cross section the inlays look like a "T" with a lip of waste material. Does that make sense? Clear CA can contaminate Maple very easily as well, which is a bummer. I've shot my acoustics with flying junk in the shop more than once and repaired it with CA. No bueno. I'd go the epoxy route. At the very least it gives you the excuse to buy some epoxy, then some paper shot glasses, wooden cocktail sticks and a set of <100g precision scales. And some gloves plus some denatured alcohol for cleanup. jeebus that is a good idea (cutting from the back in reverse and not all the way thru). the one downside would be it'd be hard to see to get the fit and to see if there are any issues before glueing in and sanding back... but that is a great idea all the sm. I think I'm going to see if I can use side dots and perhaps chop a few pieces off of my remnants to fill in first... see how it looks with the option to do just that as a fallback. def if I ever do this inlay or one this small again I will do exactly that... cut in reverse. good call. I like the idea of epoxy but in my mind it has it's own issues. sands back so differently from the wood around it that it would be easy to end up malforming the fretboard and using a heavier grit means more work to get to a finished surface. Perhaps all that is avoidable but I've had issues in the past. Add to that, that the thin ca has a nice property of flowing/filling in under the inlay should there be a gap. I guess with cnc I can be fairly sure there aren't gaps... but in the past, by hand, and using thick ca... had an inlay crack from pressure and that is the worst! I know ca glue can cause a little darkening in maple, but with those little applicator tips it's pretty easy to stay inside the lines and I have not seen too much issue from bleed through. esp if you use tru oil after - can't even see it or at least I couldn't on the blue twang master. I wonder if sealing the fretboard a bit with tru oil in advance would help with that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 oh man... should have done the dimarzio guitar first... would have saved some time... they have a lovely doc on the area T that answers many of my former questions! "Parallel Wiring - Because of the way these models are constructed, parallel (dual sound) wiring is not a useful option and is not recommended." - explains a lot of what I found with the seymour vintage stack. in mixed parallel mode they sounded really good... but stacked parallel sounded 'funky' and a bit 'weak'. really sounds like 'out of phase" but they aren't. well, that confirms it... feature not a bug. further they had this little jem: no word in there of whether the two top coils are rwrp to each other... but just checked and they are BOTH north up... so no need to flip polarity or phase. this means that when you split a set of dimarzio area T... will not hum cancel in middle position on a regular wiring... but works perfectly for my use!! as much posting this here for my future reference as for anyone else who adventures to play with dimarzio stacked coils (or seymour for that matter) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted November 29, 2021 Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 I think you've rattled out most of the possibilities right there. Time to make it happen! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted November 29, 2021 Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 1 hour ago, Prostheta said: How about cutting the inlay material from the back (show face down) and leaving say, half a mm of the front face remaining? I wonder if masking tape would work there. I mean, cut almost through the abalone and stop at the glue. Or some thick solid double sided tape? Would that keep the tiny pieces in place even when cut from the front face down to the tape? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 1 hour ago, Prostheta said: I think you've rattled out most of the possibilities right there. Time to make it happen! very much appreciate the advice - couldn't have gotten there without your input - can't thank you enough!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 39 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: I wonder if masking tape would work there. I mean, cut almost through the abalone and stop at the glue. Or some thick solid double sided tape? Would that keep the tiny pieces in place even when cut from the front face down to the tape? good advice, was actually thinking about this on the way to work. I was thinking to glue on some veneer backer and try to cut almost all the way through. the trick is... getting the depth cut just right. tape is so thin it'd be really hard - in fact that is basically what i did on this one - used tape to glue it down... but A) cut through the tape in places and B ) didn't use enough ca glue. you need to ensure you get all the way through the abalone, but not through whatever is at the bottom holding it together... tape is pretty thin. I have used veneer in the past, and I guess this is a lesson i'm learning twice. veneer has a bit more thickness to prevent the cut through and if you then soak it in acetone... comes right off. good advice for next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted November 29, 2021 Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 1 hour ago, mistermikev said: veneer has a bit more thickness to prevent the cut through Veneer sounds even better than the thick double sided tape I was thinking of as it doesn't give in. And you can even sand it off if you do like <forgot the name> i.e. CNC the cavity first and the inlay mirrored as one block and then just put glue into the cavity and push the entire block of inlay in, then sanding the base off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 29, 2021 Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 If you are filling the gaps with epoxy and sanding dust or something similar, you really don't have to sand the base off at all. Just treat it like a deep engraving. Glue it in the cavity and fill the gaps from the top. Sand them level and they will look just like they were cut all the way through. SR 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 5 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Veneer sounds even better than the thick double sided tape I was thinking of as it doesn't give in. And you can even sand it off if you do like <forgot the name> i.e. CNC the cavity first and the inlay mirrored as one block and then just put glue into the cavity and push the entire block of inlay in, then sanding the base off. well... full admission I was talking about doing it right side up... and then just removing the backer... I 'spose it would work reverse and cutting from the back... the main thing is removing this before glueing down would still allow me to see - and sometimes fitting really requires that for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 1 minute ago, ScottR said: If you are filling the gaps with epoxy and sanding dust or something similar, you really don't have to sand the base off at all. Just treat it like a deep engraving. Glue it in the cavity and fill the gaps from the top. Sand them level and they will look just like they were cut all the way through. SR well, I smell what yer stepping in... would just require cutting the slots a hair deeper to leave the backing on. the trick here being that we're talking about leaving the backer 'between' the letters so they will stay together and (hopefully) not get sucked up by the vaccuum or otherwise hurled into space by my router! I lost my center piece for the G, E, and R that way. I 'spose I could just use a razor to cut between the parts to separate them... and leave the backer on... but as long as it's abalone - no worry of acetone ruining it... so really pretty easy to drop it in a shotglass with some acetone in it and just wait for the bits to collect at the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 29, 2021 Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 In a perfect world, you would not have to cut the centers of the letters all the way through the inlay material at all. Don't razor though it, just glue it in and fill the gaps from the front. Your abalone may not be thick enough for that to work. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2021 59 minutes ago, ScottR said: In a perfect world, you would not have to cut the centers of the letters all the way through the inlay material at all. Don't razor though it, just glue it in and fill the gaps from the front. Your abalone may not be thick enough for that to work. SR ah, gotcha... make the pocket for them bigger and just leave the area between for filler. good point. In this case the center letters poke through... but I suppose I could have cut letters out too. Is nice to have another option in the trick bag so thank you for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted December 6, 2021 Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 Back to the original subject: Congrats for the GOTM! The competitor was good and most likely fulfills the wishes of the owner but yours took the idea of "Built by Me in my Shed" to another level. The devil is in the details which you had plenty and then some more but apparently you're sort of an exorcist and managed to evict all evil mishaps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gogzs Posted December 6, 2021 Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 (edited) Yeah, congrats for GOTM. So many details on that thing, from the knobs, pickup selector ring etc... superb build, well deserved victory Edited December 6, 2021 by Gogzs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted December 6, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 1 hour ago, Bizman62 said: Back to the original subject: Congrats for the GOTM! The competitor was good and most likely fulfills the wishes of the owner but yours took the idea of "Built by Me in my Shed" to another level. The devil is in the details which you had plenty and then some more but apparently you're sort of an exorcist and managed to evict all evil mishaps. hehe, thank you Biz, means the world to me!! I'm proud to have won against a very worthy build in @nakedzen's Green Anaconda. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted December 6, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 36 minutes ago, Gogzs said: Yeah, congrats for GOTM. So many details on that thing, from the knobs, pickup selector ring etc... superb build, well deserved victory thank you, very much appreciate the kind words. Thanks again to all - I really do appreciate how this community has contributed to making me a better builder. Couldn't have done it without your encouragement and continued advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted December 6, 2021 Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 Congrats on the win Mike! This thing is loaded with sweet details. I hope the cop appreciates all the time and effort you put into it. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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