Frankenstrat. I couldn't not.

[Prostheta]

I doubt that my raw linseed and graphite slickness was part of the deal originally, but it makes for a nice neck!

[Bizman62]

That sounds like it's built both for comfort and speed! Does the linseed keep the graphite from smearing your hand?

[Prostheta]

We'll see. This will be a guitar that likes to return the shmoo as much as I've lain upon it. The front feels a little overcooked - to wrench a word from Drak - however I plan on adding black gaffer tape around the top horn and maybe a patch here and there. Currently it feels a little un-Commandoed.

[Drak]

41 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Currently it feels a little un-Commandoed.

Well it Looks like it has fought and won many a battle.

[Prostheta]

Certainly! It absolutely needs to be a hot player as well. The fret levelling and dressing seem on point so let's get her wired up.

[Prostheta]

Well, we're almost finished here other than the electronics, setup and finessing. So whilst I'm waiting for a few small parts to arrive, lets look at applying copper shielding tape....
 

My approach is based on the way that this body was made, which - being CNC - was without templates. I could feasibly have cut a positive template of the cavity, much the same way as I would if I'd have had laser-cut acrylic master templates made, keeping the "waste". So in some ways this is how to get a perfect lining of copper in the electronics cavity with zero assisting parts.

 

Cut a piece of copper foil larger than the base of the cavity. Tape or hold it in place, then use your fingernail to rub around the cavity lip. This is more difficult to do with recessed cavities where a cover is situated. This will still work with a little patience.

 

 

Instead of attempting to cut around the shape, cut about 5-10mm out from that line and make a series of snips from the edge up to your line. Fold these up 90 degrees, making additional snips in and around curves, trying to be as perpendicular to the curvature as possible.

 

Before removing the paper, push the foil into the cavity and loosely work it into place, flattening the bottom and lightly folding into the edges.

 

Carefully remove the foil and the backing paper before placing back into the cavity. Tweezers help (couldn't find any of mine), as do a dowel rod of soft wood or the back end of a pencil. Work the foil in slowly so you have a good end-to-end location. Any small movement side to side can be worked out at a later stage.

 

Burnish the copper from the middle out towards the edges. Once the bottom is flat, use your dowel/pencil to work the copper into the corners around the perimeter, working around a few times before flattening the remaining copper up the sides. Errors and tears aren't the end of the world. Just pick the copper back up, unfold and flatten it. It's forgiving stuff.

 

I measured a strip of foil a few mm larger than the cavity depth, and I admit, I worked out the perimeter/length from my CAD plan! Re-roll the strip copper in so that you can roll the copper around the interior edges down to the corner like this.

 

It gets pretty tight in some corners, so by all means remove the tape and back it off if the foil tries to take shortcuts around the concave sections. Work a section at a time. I had a few small gaps which I repaired. Can you find all four? Copper foil burnishes into itself very neatly. Allowing a little excess over the cavity depth allows you to burnish the foil over the edges and under the pickguard should you want to do that. It's usually a pretty good idea to do this.

 

Optionally, you can add a few solder joints between the base and edge strips. I find that unnecessary in most cases, however it's always an option as I'll explain and show. You'd use a little Scotchbrite/Abralon to clean the copper and add some liquid flux to make the soldering neater. If you're using star grounding, this is where you'd add the solder tag or threaded stud and solder that to the shielding. These electronics are simple, so I'll be grounding from the shielding straight through to the tremolo claw, and from the jack earth to the pot case to the shielding. Not soldering the string ground/trem claw wire to the pot case makes the electronics easier to handle.

[Prostheta]

My copper shielding took less than five minutes of time to complete. It's not the neatest by a long shot, however it's 100% functional to its intended purpose and that's what matters most.

[Prostheta]

One bead of solder along the lower edge and a "safety" joint between the side and tape contacting the pickguard shield.

 

String/trem claw ground wire to the lower edge bead....

 

....and through to the trem claw. The joint looks shady, but it really isn't. The area was cleaned with an acid flux, tinned with solder and then re-melted with flux core electronics solder as the wire was held in place. I need to clean that flux off, however given the nature of the instrument I am not so certain that cleaning anything is in keeping.

 

For good measure, I added additional tabs of copper tape to areas that will see the most pressure between the pickguard and the body; the screw locations. Additionally, I lightly countersunk each screw hole so that the pickguard can sit more flat to the body. Even with pilot holes, insert a screw to a new hole will raise the wood immediately around the hole. This easily prevents the pickguard from laying flat.

[Prostheta]

As a side note: if you are having templates laser cut by any service, ensure that you ask for the waste. You should be charged by the area your job used, so the interior waste should be included free when requested. That means you get templates perfect for scribing cavity foil or even cutting thin copper/brass/aluminimum plate.

[Muzz]

That is a nice Faraday cage that you have constructed, 999 times out of 1000 you don't need to do the solder joins between the foil sheets, but you and I would never be able to not do the solder thing because we are both

The shielded control cavity does make a huge difference to noise,. It's great pulling up to a complete stop on a high gain amp and hearing the sound of silence. 

[Prostheta]

3 minutes ago, Muzz said:

That is a nice Faraday cage that you have constructed, 999 times out of 1000 you don't need to do the solder joins between the foil sheets, but you and I would never be able to not do the solder thing because we are both

The shielded control cavity does make a huge difference to noise,. It's great pulling up to a complete stop on a high gain amp and hearing the sound of silence. 

 

I've got more pressing noise issues, such as there being no true ground in our home electrics. More like a neutral phase bonded earth. I'm wondering whether wireless is my solution here....

[Prostheta]

Back to normal programming.

 

I'm working on aging two tone knobs. I think I need more grey-black finger gunk in the embossing. Brown isn't "it". Everything is done with garnet shellac, so it's easy to modify or clean off entirely, plus will wear with actual wear. Not sure if I want to tea stain them, but it's worth a shot to get a feel for that method. Not sure how it will interact with the shellac treatment....

 

Gaffer tape over the top horn. Because you absolutely have to.

 

I mistakenly ordered 6x10mm brass bar instead of 6x3 or 10x3 (yeah, very me) so I am repurposing an unused brass fret press insert that happens to be 3mm. It was the (Fender) 7,25" radius caul, and hey, who uses these silly sizes these days anyway right? 

[Prostheta]

I'm trying to acquire some HCl (muriatic/hydrochloric acid) to fume my metal parts, however this is proving difficult. The normal sources - drain unblocker and pool PH down adjuster - seem to be made from NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and some other acid respectively. At least here in Finland, anyway.

Any other suggestions on what could be use to fume or corrode parts (ferric chloride is on the list)? I've still got some plating wear to carry out on the jack and trem baseplate, and wondering whether to swap out the saddles for brass Mighty Mite equivalents (not sure if they're sourceable outside of genuine 70s parts) and perhaps even the trem block for brass. The Fender trem wasn't on the original Frankie for very long and I don't recall any information on whether that was upgraded to a brass block, of if this was purely the Floyd. We're nearing the finish line, especially once I get this nut filed out and slotted. The paintwork needs some light scuffing and scratching here and there since it's currently mostly impact marks and chips. The areas near the strap loops would be very worn, what with the dog clips used to attach/detach straps.

[Prostheta]

59 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

I mistakenly ordered 6x10mm brass bar instead of 6x3 or 10x3 (yeah, very me) so I am repurposing an unused brass fret press insert that happens to be 3mm. It was the (Fender) 7,25" radius caul, and hey, who uses these silly sizes these days anyway right? 

 

Hold up. Maybe I need to make some brass saddles....

[Bizman62]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

Any other suggestions on what could be use to fume or corrode parts

Ammonia. For once a short Crimson video:

 

 

[Prostheta]

That guy annoys the shit out of me. Especially the tattoos that look like they were designed by a 3yr old! I'll look into ammonia. I think I can get 25% ammonia from Tampere. Ultrapiss!

[Bizman62]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

That guy annoys the shit out of me.

I know! That's why I chose a short video instead of a couple of others where he digresses for an hour...

 

[Drak]

I want to see more pics, from all angles, from close up and far away. Yes I do.

[Prostheta]

To be honest Drak, I've spent the last couple of weeks setting up and playing the guitar. The fretwork is right on point, and I've managed to get action across the neck that is lower than most guitars. Not ultra-low. It doesn't fret out or buzz when playing hard, but enough that it doesn't need more than a light touch. The brass nut has been cut for good distance under the first fret, so everything is cool. Surprisingly so. I haven't played a strat-Strat in years, so the extra flex of the strings and general girth of the neck isn't 100% familiar to me but it plays ridiculously well.

The '59 has some nice sensitivity to it even if it isn't exactly representative of EVH's tones from one recording to the next. The main thing is that it responds to the attack of left-hand muting for rhythm playing, and harmonics are bright and pop out in a lot of places. The Ash is likely a bit contributor to that. I've set the tremolo up with four springs to rack it down to the body strongly as I'm not really a trem player....which is weird for an EVH tribute, right? It's something that can be decided upon at a later date of course....

It's heavy. Heavier than I would feel comfortable with playing stood up for any period of time. Not a high priority here, however I would choose a selected piece of swamp Ash if I were to do this again. Tuning stability is good once the strings have been fully stretched in from the tuning posts. Typical Strat issues. If I were to become a heavier trem user then a Floyd would be a much better option over a vintage Fender unit. Locking tuners would improve matters, but I feel that the spirit of this would be a completely different timeline idea to the one I've chosen for the guitar.

You'll get photos, Drak. Same time as everybody else.  The hardware needs aging first as it looks somewhat out of place....even the "roadworn" Fender parts and "relic" Gotoh bridge.

[Drak]

17 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

I've set the tremolo up with four springs to rack it down to the body strongly as I'm not really a trem player....which is weird for an EVH tribute, right?

No, if you're not a constant trem user, that makes perfect sense and I'd do the same thing.

I mean, you haven't glued it in place, but made it more stable, I get that.

What I don't get...is pics, I want the pics.

[Prostheta]

Not until I can get the hardware aged! Hydrochloric acid/muriatic acid/HCl seems impossible to buy here. I need to get some from elsewhere in Europe as I don't have any friendly chemists available right now. Either that or distill some puke.

[Drak]

Your bit about 'humans always seek out (or replay) patterns'...There's a post on another forum where a guy just bought a Variac...and said he was expecting 'the Eddie magic' to happen...after forty years...And was severely disappointed in the outcome.

Now, back in the '80's where information was not nearly as lubricated and flowing as it is now, and we were in our impressionable 20's...I could understand buying into that hype and mystique. But with the available information and tech (pedals, amps, etc.) today...I couldn't believe someone still actually held onto that 'mystical potato worship' for so long.

From a psychological perspective, I found it fascinating that someone could hold onto a (fantasy) dream for forty years.

As a funny aside, I used to work in a modem repair facility back in the 80's, and I actually had a real Variac on my bench to power up power supplies. Used the stupid thing all the time, I never saw anything 'mystical' in it, it sat on my bench as a piece of test equipment along with everything else. And I saw VH on their first tour ('78 I think?) and I never took the Variac home to try 'that'. Just found it funny, so far down the track, dreams do die hard.

I saw dozens of these things every day..the 3451 was the 'hot lick' at the time, and they were still making acoustic-coupled models too, where you inserted the telephone handset into a foam-covered acoustic receiver. Am I old? Some would say yes...

 

[Prostheta]

My entry into the world of computing came just on the cusp of the acoustic coupler/dialup days when Hayes upturned things. Back then at school and college I was more interested in exploiting holes in the educational networks to do things that I wasn't allowed to. We stole tutor's passwords with things like a fake login screen that posted the entered password where we could recover it, then had it hard reboot the machine to cover its tracks. I wrote a personal network messenger in a BBC BASIC emulator called "intercom" that predated things like ICQ and the like....then made a version using the Winword macro language. All to abuse software's elevated privileges that we didn't get as a user.

But mostly to play Syndicate.

Good times, and there's nothing that challenges you more than going somewhere that you're not allowed.