Something rough and utilitarian

[nakedzen]

As in it's a tool, not an instrument. I wanted to make something that makes swapping pickups a breeze so I can test my new winds. Happened to have some pine blanks that the fatherinlaw gave me, and a roughed out maple neck and fretboard. It'll have some kind of a simple system to change the pickup position on the pickguard. Rails or something, we'll see.

[nakedzen]

I'll call this one "Made with a spoon, in jail"

[avengers63]

BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE..........

Make another body. Cut a hole clean through the body for the pickups & control cavity. Mount the controls on the face, but rig up a way to hold the pups in place. You won't even need a backplate as this is JUST to test the pups. Doing it all from the back will make the swaps a hellofalot easier. You won't have to remove the strings or pickguard. Easier access is one of the keys to what you're trying to accomplish here.

[nakedzen]

We'll see, I think that will be for the V2.0. The sliding pickups rails wouldn't be possible for a back cavity I think?

The idea right now is something simple like this, slots on the pickguard for the pickup screws that I can slide around:

 

[nakedzen]

Got the neck shaped and frets installed.

[Bizman62]

5 hours ago, nakedzen said:

The sliding pickups rails wouldn't be possible for a back cavity I think?

Why not?

My cheap greenhouse is made out of aluminium profile with square C grooves. You can slide either a bolt or a nut into the groove through a larger opening, the groove is snug enough to prevent it from rotating during tightening. Something like this:'

[nakedzen]

Well that would work. But would go against the "quick and dirty, only parts what I already have" for this build. I won't make a whole new body for that!

In other news, the back of the headstock will have a flamed birch veneer. And not at all because I made the headstock 0.5mm too thin for the tuners. 

[Bizman62]

2 hours ago, nakedzen said:

"quick and dirty, only parts what I already have"

In that case, a hole through the entire body and the slider slots through the pickguard like you described. That should allow for changing pickups without removing strings.

[nakedzen]

I'm kind of leaning more towards wraparound bridge. Front loading gives the advantage that I can have the guitar laying on a table without having to turn it around.

[nakedzen]

It gives a chuckle how ugly this thing is. 

 

[nakedzen]

Found this guy, prolly will use something similar. Much better than my original idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1faDlCaUCFs

[mistermikev]

reminds me a bit of this:

with just a little modification it could be a replica.  that said... yours has nicer curves.  steve's def has an air of "jigsaw" to it that is not present on yours.

sliding pickup... interesting.

[nakedzen]

My caveman solution, since using the ball bearings didn't work out on this model of slider.

It's just a piece of binding and some candle wax on the rail.

Automated screw drive version coming up in 2030.

 

[Akula]

Cool idea! It'd be fun to analyse the clean output from the pickup, plot graphs and draw trends... As my scientific mind gets carried away, you could even add a stepper motor, replace pickups quickly using John's idea, and build a fantastically hi-res database of many different pickups response to positioning, and sell the data back to the manufacturers! 

 

T-Track.

 

 - Jam

[nakedzen]

I was thinking that too, but all motorized linear rails I could find were way too tall, 38mm I think was the lowest.

I did find a 10mm tall 150mm long linear guide rail without motor though for $10 off aliexpress.

[nakedzen]

This will become a copper top. Always wanted to try how it would look. So why not on this one since it doesn't matter how it looks.

 

[nakedzen]

More shenanigans ensue.

Pretty happy how it looks like for hardware store rattle can job.

 

[nakedzen]

So here's this ugly thing.