mistermikev Posted May 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 29 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Not to mention having your neck mounted... A certain Dr. Victor Frankenstein comes into my mind. oh... I guess I went way into the gutter on that one.... but yes "that's fronkenstein" lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted May 17, 2022 Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 Remember to buff your backside, but don't go too coarse otherwise it'll burn. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2022 2 minutes ago, Prostheta said: Remember to buff your backside, but don't go too coarse otherwise it'll burn. u just reminded me of this (I think dana carvey actually says "wax it and buff it" in one of the variations of this skit) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 31, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 well... my wife let me focus on finishing this this weekend... so I'm very thankful. action is 1.25mm at 12th fret low e and sm on high e... zero fret buzz on any frets, and I didn't use a rocker at all so I'm going to call my new process to level/dress a success. the dimarzio area t pickups - so these were already both north up polarity... so no need to flip the neck. it's interesting to compare to the seymour vintage stacks I used for kevin. on the upside... they really have a great twangy sound... I like them as much as if not more than the vintage stack... on the downside... the parallel positions are super quiet... and not nearly as nice as the vtg stack in those positions. my photo shoot... still just a struggle. took over 60 pics. used manual focus, used auto focus... used lighting, natural lighting, used the remote button and the cam on the stand with out flash to prevent blur... tried all sorts and this is the best I could do. lots of room for improvement yet. anywho, penny for your thoughts. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted May 31, 2022 Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 4 hours ago, mistermikev said: my photo shoot... still just a struggle. took over 60 pics. used manual focus, used auto focus... used lighting, natural lighting, used the remote button and the cam on the stand with out flash to prevent blur... tried all sorts and this is the best I could do. lots of room for improvement yet. Isn't the digital camera a blessing! 60 pics would have cost some serious money for getting the film(s) developed only to find out that they weren't what you wanted. If that sounds plenty, remember that professional nature photographers may take thousands of photos for every picture they publish! A shiny object is tricky to focus on, You've managed to blur the background from what you used to, now it seems that the focus is often inside the f-hole, showing the matte black roughness! I especially like the strap button pic. You've managed to get the essentials pop up - the curves, the faux binding and the shininess. Some image editing can also help! Here's the image with 30 less brightness, 30 more contrast and 20 more saturation, done with Paint.net: And using the built-in Windows Photos App, using Filters/Improve at 100, Changes/Lighting -25, Colour saturation +50, Clarity +100 and Vignette +50: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 31, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 3 hours ago, Bizman62 said: Isn't the digital camera a blessing! 60 pics would have cost some serious money for getting the film(s) developed only to find out that they weren't what you wanted. If that sounds plenty, remember that professional nature photographers may take thousands of photos for every picture they publish! A shiny object is tricky to focus on, You've managed to blur the background from what you used to, now it seems that the focus is often inside the f-hole, showing the matte black roughness! I especially like the strap button pic. You've managed to get the essentials pop up - the curves, the faux binding and the shininess. Some image editing can also help! Here's the image with 30 less brightness, 30 more contrast and 20 more saturation, done with Paint.net: And using the built-in Windows Photos App, using Filters/Improve at 100, Changes/Lighting -25, Colour saturation +50, Clarity +100 and Vignette +50: right on, thanks biz. In some cases I do some brightness contrast editing... but for the most part I think my biggest challenge is focus. it's hard to see what it is actually focus'd on on a little lcd. I bought a cable so that I could hook to my wifes monitors (her workstation is right by where I take photos) but I didn't use it... next time I will add that to the mix. Still learning this camera too... I found that you actually can turn on/off the flash for any of the modes if you know where to do it. I also learned where there is a mode designed for night photos and think I will try that next time in low light conditions. I also could use a better flash... this one is so bright it tends to wash everything out. maybe in another 1000 photos I'll figure out what I'm doing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted May 31, 2022 Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 Hey, you've learned how to build guitars and then you've learned how to make a machine do part of the building. You'll get there! One thing I miss from my old camera is the focusing system, whatever those halves of a circle are being called. If I got a line continue from one half to the other it was perfectly focused. Agreed, it sometimes took a while but guitars don't run anywhere! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted May 31, 2022 Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 Really wonderful work. Besides the skill exhibited, it is both beautiful and elegant! Your friend will be thrilled! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 31, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 6 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Hey, you've learned how to build guitars and then you've learned how to make a machine do part of the building. You'll get there! One thing I miss from my old camera is the focusing system, whatever those halves of a circle are being called. If I got a line continue from one half to the other it was perfectly focused. Agreed, it sometimes took a while but guitars don't run anywhere! right on... honestly most of my non dslr cameras were so much easier than this one for everything from focus to flash... but with great functionality comes great responsibility!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted May 31, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 3 minutes ago, RVA said: Really wonderful work. Besides the skill exhibited, it is both beautiful and elegant! Your friend will be thrilled! well thank you for saying so RVA. my friend actually got the earlier "blue version" and this one is mine to keep... and I'm most def thrilled!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2022 put together a video demo... would love any/all feedback/comments y'all would be willing to give! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted June 4, 2022 Report Share Posted June 4, 2022 Love it mate, I thought that was old Gregory Koch himself chicken pickin' behind the scenes there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said: Love it mate, I thought that was old Gregory Koch himself chicken pickin' behind the scenes there. well that is high praise, and I appreciate it... but i know I'm no gregory kochory lol. thank you AD for taking the time!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted June 5, 2022 Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 (edited) Great playing on a great guitar! She sounds as good as she looks! Edited June 5, 2022 by RVA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 32 minutes ago, RVA said: Great playing on a great guitar! She sounds as good as she looks! thank you very much for saying so RVA!! very much appreciate it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted June 5, 2022 Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 That sound! Or should I say "those sounds"! Very twangy, on a master level. Very inspiring for the type of music one would most likely want to play with that guitar. I just can't imagine seeing her on stage with a masquarade metal band! Your playing was great too, very suitable for those sounds. And the looks... Oh boy! They say that the devil is in the details but it seems he must have had a day off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 44 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: That sound! Or should I say "those sounds"! Very twangy, on a master level. Very inspiring for the type of music one would most likely want to play with that guitar. I just can't imagine seeing her on stage with a masquarade metal band! Your playing was great too, very suitable for those sounds. And the looks... Oh boy! They say that the devil is in the details but it seems he must have had a day off. very kind of you to say biz. very much appreciate it. it's funny.... I've built 5 teles in a row and doing demos for them it has made me play more like that. have always loved country/blues but as a child of the 80s my playing background is really 80s metal. perhaps I'll get back to my roots on some future build. thank you again for taking the time to listen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 5, 2022 Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 That's just a fantastic demo. Really excellent opening playing choice to showcase this one. That mid boost is very nice to have onboard as well; it seems to retain the right level of sparkle on top of the added warm mid presence. Overall though, there's a deceptively-large palette of usable tonal options on tap. I could imagine uses for pretty much all of these, avoiding that one-trick pony issue that too many guitars fall into. Man, that parallel stacked tone around 16:27. Just great work, man. I love it. So what did you take from this build that you might apply going on towards the next? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 3 minutes ago, Prostheta said: That's just a fantastic demo. Really excellent opening playing choice to showcase this one. That mid boost is very nice to have onboard as well; it seems to retain the right level of sparkle on top of the added warm mid presence. Overall though, there's a deceptively-large palette of usable tonal options on tap. I could imagine uses for pretty much all of these, avoiding that one-trick pony issue that too many guitars fall into. Man, that parallel stacked tone around 16:27. Just great work, man. I love it. So what did you take from this build that you might apply going on towards the next? thank you @Prostheta, your kind comments mean a lot to me. I wasn't sure how the parallel modes came across... lack of confidence I guess. I like them a lot but admittedly they might be an acquired taste. Good ears - they def shine a bit more on the slightly more driven sounds. what did I take: well... the number one thing I think I'll take away is "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". These two guitars took me a very long time to build and part of the reason why is that there were little details where I got the sequence wrong. for ex, I realized only after stringing up that my area after the nut was going to contact the strings. this was after the whole neck was finished... so had to go back and shave off, then hide the area as it now stood out a bit. another thing I'll take away - the sm dye mix was used on this one and kevins. I did a color test on his wood and just figured it couldn't be that far off when I applied it to this one... but was shocking how different it was. I would not have guessed that big of a difference. drives home the idea that you really need to do a color test. in this case... I could have redone the color but I liked it so it was fine... but that could have been a real bad time soak had it not turned out so favorably. that point was driven home deeply in my brain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 5, 2022 Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 I'm not that good at hearing things objectively, so I always end up looking for things that I could key onto and that was one of them. My ears aren't that good, so I guess my imagination for how something might translate makes up for that Good point about the shelf just beyond the nut. The headstock reminds me very much of the snakehead paddle style, which is very cool of itself I think. The drop from the fingerboard to the tuners looks pretty deep; am I right in thinking that it's more than a Fender sort of half-inch drop? Sounds like you have a good mind for building on each experience. Onward! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 4 minutes ago, Prostheta said: I'm not that good at hearing things objectively, so I always end up looking for things that I could key onto and that was one of them. My ears aren't that good, so I guess my imagination for how something might translate makes up for that Good point about the shelf just beyond the nut. The headstock reminds me very much of the snakehead paddle style, which is very cool of itself I think. The drop from the fingerboard to the tuners looks pretty deep; am I right in thinking that it's more than a Fender sort of half-inch drop? Sounds like you have a good mind for building on each experience. Onward! you have some great observational skills. yes, the neck drop is quite deep. this was by design to kind of "raise the playing area" slightly off the body by preserving the depth of the wood I had and also using a slightly thicker fretboard. snakehead - well look at you - you know your tele history. yes, I guess I'm def influenced by that guitar and it's "odd" headstock. funny that in the tele community you often hear folks say "a tele with a 3x3 headstock is just not right"... but the very first tele had one. so in that sense it's more "right"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 5, 2022 Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 That and it reminds me of a Mosrite-ish headstock as well! Teles and Strats don't have that sort of "drop", at least visually speaking anyway. I like its consistency tying in with the pickup ring and f-holes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 29 minutes ago, Prostheta said: That and it reminds me of a Mosrite-ish headstock as well! Teles and Strats don't have that sort of "drop", at least visually speaking anyway. I like its consistency tying in with the pickup ring and f-holes. well in all honesty it was party an accident... as I just don't like to shave off wood just for the sake of matching some imaginary spec, but also because I wanted a little more room in the pickup cavities for that extremely tall stacked humbuckers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted June 5, 2022 Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 Yeah, without scanning back through the build I think I recall something about that. I might be wrong or thinking of something else Never tried a stacked humbucker myself, but I can imagine how things can get out of hand pretty quickly in anything that isn't Les Paul sorts of territory. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted June 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2022 51 minutes ago, Prostheta said: Yeah, without scanning back through the build I think I recall something about that. I might be wrong or thinking of something else Never tried a stacked humbucker myself, but I can imagine how things can get out of hand pretty quickly in anything that isn't Les Paul sorts of territory. accidents... in my build... never happen. just unintended features here lol! well the stacked pickups are kind of strange. there is a magnetic polepiece that is running through both coils... so you'd think that'd make them both north up or both south up depending. I've often wondered why this works. we know you need reverse polarity AND reverse winding... and the winding bit is pretty straight fwd... but how the heck can that bottom coil achieve reverse polarity when the magnets are oriented the exact same. yet, it cancels hum just fine. the only thing I can figure... is if you took two coils w rev wind/rev polarity to each other... and physically flipped one of them and put it below the other? when you do that tho you'd be orienting the magnets the sm and the winding would also flip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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