Popular Post henrim Posted November 6, 2023 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 6, 2023 A week ago I ordered a Railhammer pickup for my headless guitar in the making. But as I have an attention span of a squirrel I changed the design while waiting for the pickup to be delivered. Now this special looking pickup doesn’t really fit in to the new plans any more. So, I took the original drawing for the headless and thought I make regular guitar with that design. So here we go. Called Soapy because the shape is kinda like a well used soap bar. Will be slim basswood body. Likely painted, but you never know. 6 string, 24,750”, 12” and so on. As always. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted November 7, 2023 Report Share Posted November 7, 2023 10 hours ago, henrim said: 6 string, 24,750”, 12” and so on. As always. KISS The best principle ever. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 7, 2023 Report Share Posted November 7, 2023 Yup. Could be a winner! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 7, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2023 I run some basswood through the jointer and clamped pieces together. There are some knots in these pieces but if I got it right I should be able to avoid them ending in to the body shape. Although it may not matter if they do as the plan is to paint the body. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asdrael Posted November 7, 2023 Report Share Posted November 7, 2023 Interesting! Have you tried the Railhammer yet in another guitar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2023 9 hours ago, Asdrael said: Interesting! Have you tried the Railhammer yet in another guitar? I haven’t. I just wish there was universal connector on the pickups. Soldering them in and out just for testing is a pita. In that sense I really like the EMG style system-approach. Apparently new dimarzio’s have a PCB base and a connector too. Of course there is no guarantee that the wiring is the same between brands. Some time ago I made some notes to myself about a guitar with revolver type top plate for pickup testing. I researched a bit about slip ring connectors, but I guess I forgot about the whole thing. Could be fun rig though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted November 8, 2023 Report Share Posted November 8, 2023 4 minutes ago, henrim said: Some time ago I made some notes to myself about a guitar with revolver type top plate for pickup testing. Such a guitar already exists! https://www.gyrockguitars.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2023 11 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Such a guitar already exists! https://www.gyrockguitars.com/ No, not like that. That product is an attempt to please those who can't decide what pickups to use. I was thinking about a test bench to find out what you like. So that you could have two pairs of pickups (maybe three pairs for a proper six shooter). You could rotate the thing for a to b testing. And you could swap the pickups on the fly. Because there are no universal connectors, some kind of screw terminals would be needed for wiring. A test bench rather than an instrument. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted November 8, 2023 Report Share Posted November 8, 2023 For testing purposes that looks solid enough. For fast swapping, Relish Guitars have invented a swappable pickup system allowing at least any humbucker sized to be swapped even while playing: https://www.relishguitars.ch/article/focusing-on-material-innovation-and-functionality They also sell the pickup mounting hardware separately, here's how they're installed: https://youtu.be/416t56R-V5c?feature=shared Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2023 Right, there are many designs like that for fast swapping. I did mine fifteen years ago (one that I finished just couple of years ago). It’s easy enough to swap active EMG’s on that one. But in the end there are only so many EMG’s that I would like to swap. Swapping to another brand is not straightforward. I have tendency to think modular. And there are places where you need it or want it. But what comes to guitars I don’t find modular systems like that interesting at all (anymore). To me there’s value in testing pickups back to back, choose the right one, bolt it in and play. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 13, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2023 Taking my new spindle sander for a test drive. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 13, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2023 If I were to decide it would be router – the machine to rage against. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asdrael Posted November 14, 2023 Report Share Posted November 14, 2023 16 hours ago, henrim said: Taking my new spindle sander for a test drive. How do you like it? Bought the "same" one (another color same device) and I'm still waiting for it to arrive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 14, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2023 3 hours ago, Asdrael said: How do you like it? Bought the "same" one (another color same device) and I'm still waiting for it to arrive... It’s yet to be seen but after trying it out it seems to be doing what I expected. It is a light weight machine so may not be good for every day use but for occasional use I expect it to deliver. I don’t like the use of different size washers for mounting different size spindles. They will get lost in no time. There’s is good selection of different size spindles. Time will they how fast the sleeves wear out. Machine has a vacuum cleaner sized port but it came with a 100 mm adapter so it was plug and play to connect it to my dust extractor system. Dust collection works pretty good. I would have preferred a box for all the accessories. There are slots and plugs for them all around the machine but that is a sketchy way to store them. Or maybe it isn’t, I don’t know. I put them in a box of my own anyway. Machine is relatively silent. Or at least it is not as loud as some woodworking machines are. Cast iron table looks like straight but I haven’t really measured it. I checked the edges with a ruler and they seem to have a slight slope. Anyway the table is big enough to hold a guitar body flat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asdrael Posted November 14, 2023 Report Share Posted November 14, 2023 Sounds good, thanks a lot! And rock on with your build! Now I want to see the revolver pickup guitar tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 15, 2023 Report Share Posted November 15, 2023 On 11/8/2023 at 1:17 AM, henrim said: No, not like that. That product is an attempt to please those who can't decide what pickups to use. I was thinking about a test bench to find out what you like. So that you could have two pairs of pickups (maybe three pairs for a proper six shooter). You could rotate the thing for a to b testing. And you could swap the pickups on the fly. Because there are no universal connectors, some kind of screw terminals would be needed for wiring. A test bench rather than an instrument. is an interesting topic for sure. my issue with the "wheel" is it would seem like it's way too complicated to be functional long term afa wiring. I suppose you could have contacts around the edges that align at certain spots... but then you are connecting/disconnecting wires and have to handle potential voltage build up and "pops"... or the alternative is wires potentially getting stressed as you spin the "pickup-lazy-susan". Have oft thought about this in general and I know there are a couple of folks who have implemented something similar... but I've always thought just a removable pickguard would make sense... to me anyway. that said... no matter what you do you are doing some wiring. you can wire up 4 pickups but that doesn't give you the opportunity to plop in something new when it comes along. seems to me just having a guitar wired up with pin headers for pickup leads... and just wire the opposite female/male to the new pickup you want to try... might work ok. I've changed pickups enough in my own guitars to know that it's pretty rare (50/50 shot) for me to be satisfied with my first guess at what might sound "good" in any guitar. Also fairly rare to get the wiring right right off the bat. for that reason I just do a simple piece of stripboard with the pickups connecting in to it. If I need to swap them... at least I don't make my wiring look all "hacked" (not that it didn't already). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2023 7 minutes ago, mistermikev said: my issue with the "wheel" is it would seem like it's way too complicated to be functional long term afa wiring. I mentioned the slip ring connector I was going to use. Should work fine. But that is, If I ever build anything like this. Probably not. Just something I have thought would be interesting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_ring 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted November 15, 2023 Report Share Posted November 15, 2023 13 minutes ago, henrim said: I mentioned the slip ring connector I was going to use. Should work fine. But that is, If I ever build anything like this. Probably not. Just something I have thought would be interesting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_ring ah, was not aware of such a thing... i suppose that tackles the issue of twisted wire... but doesn't seem like it would handle the issue of voltage buildup/pop. still neato. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2023 10 minutes ago, mistermikev said: ah, was not aware of such a thing... i suppose that tackles the issue of twisted wire... but doesn't seem like it would handle the issue of voltage buildup/pop. still neato. Yes, there’s a possible issue with popping. Which again is not really an issue for the purpose I was thinking using a setup like this. Comparing pickups and pickup pairs. I’m not thinking it as an instrument to go to stage with. Of course pops can be annoying and if they can be avoided they should be avoided. In any case if I ever end up building something like that I’ll start a new thread for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 17, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2023 There was Covid or some other disease slowing things down a bit but I got the bridge planned. And today I sliced some wood for the neck. Looks like it’s going to be Khaya and maple with walnut veneer between them. I think I can carve the neck from that laminate without doing scarf joint. But I’ll see how it is after planing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 18, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2023 I’m not a big fan of all these striped necks but I think this came out fine. Or does it look like a bad glue line in the end? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted November 18, 2023 Report Share Posted November 18, 2023 Looks pretty splendid to me... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2023 Ended up doing a scarf joint. Without it there would have been about 7 degree break angle, which I guess would probably have been ok, but now there is a scarf joint anyway. With a 13 degree angle, give or take. Also installed a truss rod and now gluing some pieces to widen the headstock a bit. Now I need to decide on the fretboard. I got some zebrano, padouk and maple to choose from. Or maybe order some black stuff. I’m thinking white body and white headstock plate. Blackish hardware. And oiled neck with those skunk stripes. Whatever the fretboard color is will be then used as an accent color elsewhere. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 30, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2023 Back in 2011 when I first joined this site I made a fretboard radiusing fixture for router. I used it on the two guitars I was building then. It worked ok. Couple of years ago, when I started building again, I couldn’t find the jig anywhere. I wasn’t sure if I was going to ever build another guitar, so I didn’t bother making a new fixture. Same happened with the next two necks. Still not sure if I’m going to build more than the two I have in the making right now, but I decided to make a new jig anyhow. This time for a table top router. This is for 300 mm radius but it would be easy to make one with adjustable/changeable radius. Or I guess even a compound radius jig could be made with the same principle. And it could also be used with a handheld router or a plane if turned upside down and there was a board to support the tool. Worked ok with the table top router but actually now that I wrote “plane” above, I think I would prefer that. I really think I should modify this fixture to use with a hand plane. Sheesh, why didn’t I think that before. I guess there’s a reason to write all this nonsense here! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrim Posted November 30, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2023 Oh, and the board is kept flat and in place with double sided tape. Fretboard ends are wrapped with harness tape to prevent the board flying away in case the double sided stuff fails. I really should have a better way to attach the board. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.