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Custom Guitar Build - First time build


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@Gogzs Pretty sure my wife will beat the #%*^ out of me if I talk of building another guitar. It’s not entirely unfair though, considering I spent the last month building it on one half of our dining table  ... 😂 

So no ideas for a second build is my official position at this time ... you guys will be the first to know if this changes ... 😀

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Update:

1. When waxing the top of the body, the wax filled up some pores in the wood. These are visible as the walnut is dark and the wax is white. Don’t like how it looks, so I’m planning to sand the top down and refinish it. 

2. Trying out a different truss rod cover with my signature. Here’s the work-in-progress:

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6 hours ago, Armaan said:

When waxing the top of the body, the wax filled up some pores in the wood. These are visible as the walnut is dark and the wax is white. Don’t like how it looks, so I’m planning to sand the top down and refinish it. 

No need to! Just take a soft brush (clothes or shoe brush) and polish the pores.

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5 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

How did you produce your signatures? Those are super cool.

Thanks! I drew it on paper with a sketch pen. Used on online application to convert the jpeg image to autocad. The conversion software worked but is not foolproof - so I had to work on the autocad drawing for a bit to make it workable.

Made the width of the line approx. 0.5mm, as it was the minimum thickness needed for laser cutting. Got a local laser cutting vendor to make a pocket in a piece of walnut and cut the brass to size. 

As the design is very intricate, it did not sit in the pocket perfectly after the laser cutting (you can see it raised in the picture). I used a carving knife and thin file to fix the pocket and now the brass fits nicely. 

Just applied a coat of Danish and poly mix and will epoxy the brass in tomorrow. Will send a picture across once it’s done. 

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1 minute ago, Prostheta said:

Ah, it's laser cut. I see. Yeah, that's super fragile.

Yeah. I had an alternative in mind. I used a dentist drill (my parents are dentists) to make a groove into an offcut and filled it with ebony powder. Turned out quite nice, but the ebony and walnut did not have enough contrast. So I chose brass instead. I thought laser cutting the brass would give a nicer and more even finish than brass powder. 

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That much outsourcing is perfectly fine especially since you did all the designing. Why buy a cow if you only need a cup of yoghurt for your lassi.

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16 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That much outsourcing is perfectly fine especially since you did all the designing. Why buy a cow if you only need a cup of yoghurt for your lassi.

Hahaha I can’t believe you’ve woven in lassi into this thread. Makes the point though, and lassi is great - so kudos.

Have you tried some btw? It’s perfect for hot weather and to balance spicy food, and pairs beautifully with spicy non vegetarian curries. 

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11 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Lasers on such a small width is difficult work. The heat quickly causes bellmouthing and distortion in the shape. I'm surprised just how well yours worked out! Very cool.

Yeah, I had to work with the engineer to increase the size to a point where he felt comfortable to try it. He did say that it was 50/50 chance of success, even after the resizing. Worked out though. 

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16 minutes ago, Armaan said:

Have you tried some btw?

A couple of times in the Indian Restaurant and a couple of times from Lidl. It's nice indeed.

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Hey - so I tested the guitar and found that the signal cuts out intermittently while playing. I think it’s an issue with the output jack - I removed the jack and it played fine while it was hanging loose. I think the problem is that a part of the jack may be touching the copper shielding. Any thoughts on this?

I think removing the shielding from the jack cavity might help, but I’m shooting in the dark here. 

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1 hour ago, Armaan said:

I think removing the shielding from the jack cavity might help, but I’m shooting in the dark here

Exactly that. There's many protruding spots in the jack that can touch the walls of the jack cavity and sticking the plug in can spread them even more. So if any part of the tip (hot) connector - solder, bare wire, lug - hits the copper shielding it's immediately grounded causing the signal to vanish.

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No need to remove any of the shielding. Just need to make sure that the tip connection of the jack (and also the tip of the plug once it's inserted) cannot come into contact with the shielding that's already there.

Reinstall the jack and insert a lead. See if/where the jack is contacting the shielding and treat it accordingly.

Edit: @Bizman62 beat me to it.

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5 hours ago, curtisa said:

Edit: ... beat me to it.

For this once. Usually I type so slowly that there's three answers before mine.

A simple solution is to wrap some insulating tape around the jack to sort of a lose hose so it can't touch the cavity. The thread protruding the body is already grounded so that needs no addressing.

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@curtisa I had tried the way you suggested, but because the hole is very tight it’s difficult to see if something is touching the shielding. 

@Bizman62 Let me try the insulation tape - it had crossed my mind, but I wasn’t sure it would work. If this doesn’t work, I’ll remove the shielding from the problem areas and maybe widen the hole a bit.

Thanks both! Cheers

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17 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Just for better understanding why, here's a half cut sketch looking from the cavity:

Yep yep, that’s what I tried to do (by bending the lugs inwards toward the inside of the jack). It didn’t completely work, as there is very little space between the lug and the cavity wall. So either the insulation or widening the walls is the way to go I think.

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