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Done some staining with Angelus dyes. First stained it Rose, then sanded back with a mirka pad. If I'd have left it like this my daughter would have been very happy. Then mixed light blue with netrual (diluted) 1 part blue to 2 parts neutral, and added a tiny dash of yellow and went over the top. Not the scratch below the blade switch, annoyed I didn't see that earlier, it's causing me no end of problems. Also note that weird light spot near the seam. Dunno what that is, thought at first it might be glue squeeze out that I didn't get, but there are several other smaller areas that w

I made a hologram. You can't see it in the pictures, but the ridges look 3/8" tall under 1/8" of glass and they move as you move. That was fun, but back to practical stuff. I sliced off a piece of ebony and flattened it, and cut fret slots in it. Interestingly it has the same deep navy, deep green deep brown and black that the test on scrap has. That was not a conscious decision, but maybe my subconscious took control. SR

My opinion is that one has to have one's own mind control very well-in-hand these days. If you don't run your life, and make your decisions, and your policies that suit your life the best for you... There is just too much information out there now that will sweep in and fill up all the open gaps for you and make your life a living hell. I remembered getting several shots in school as a kid, so I had no problem with it, I came out fine, that's the logic I used. So yes, I'm vaccinated, never felt a thing. AAMOF, I had open heart surgery (quadruple bypass) about 1.

I just went back through the poll entries to June 2019 - I see maximum entries of 6 and a minimum of 2, so even my estimate of 4-6 is a bit high. Yes, the obvious way to alleviate the situation is not to have more entries, but to have more members add their votes to the entries we already get. Don't get too hung up on the details and stats though. GOTM is just a bit of fun every month.

If you chose to vote in GOTM I believe you also get the ability to click on the results after your vote is cast and see which members voted for which entry. 6-8 entries on average is probably a little optimistic. If you go back through the last couple of years it's closer to 4-6. Voting for your own entry shouldn't be considered a bad thing. If you were a member of a council or participating as a candidate in a local government, state or federal election of course you'd vote for yourself. But as @Bizman62 has indicated that's not always the case here, and members will vote for whiche

See through metallic blue ! And a little teaser.

OK kiddos, both the Dead Machine and Angkor Wat are hardwared, wired, working, glossed, and finished. Except I'm waiting on an order of strings so I can mount and adjust the necks and do the setup and birth these things for real. So, here's the Dead Machine, done, waiting on strings. Here are the specs: Core Wood: 1-Piece Mahogany Top Wood: 1/2" Bookmatched Spruce Accent Wood: Pickup cover, rear Control cover, Headstock veneer, Truss Rod cover. Figured Koa Hardware: Sperzel brushed gold locking tuners, Gotoh fine-tuning tailpiece, Harmonica bridge, gold dome

A few steps forward and we’re nearly there. The binding changed colour and the pickguard shrank a little. I’m toying between the knobs shown here and doing some home made ebony ones with bone dots…

Biscuits have gravy. Cookies have chocolate.

Which makes that recipe you found all the more fascinating. SR

You guys correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe what is called a biscuit in Britain and Australia is what we'd call a cookie in America. SR

This commercial just started popping up in my area. I have to bust out laughing every time I see it. Not many commercials can actually make me laugh anymore... Condoms...Did You Bring the Condoms?

Buttie buns with Vegemite, chocolate biscuits and ice-cream with the occasional walk around the park!

I've been at the beach for the last week or so. Prior to that I'd been playing with headstock inlay design ideas. Even cut out a few failures. So I decided I'd spend some vacation time working out the design. Plenty of bad ideas on the page, but a few I liked. One of these ended up the winner, and in a week or two I should be able to show off the results...

This video might be of use to you. Looks like the BBS20 is one of those three-wheel variants, which are notorious for being able to set up to work reliably. They're also harder on blades as the small wheels and multiple turns the blade has to make as it goes around cause the blade to flex more than on a large two-wheel bandsaw, which can lead to premature stretching and breaking of the blade. Wobbling blade and unable to make straight cuts suggests your primary problem is insufficient blade tension. It also doesn't look like the cutting capacity is very tall, so you might struggle to

What? Doesn't everybody plan their finish before starting their build? I surely do. Now truth be told, I still need to finalize the body shape...... And thanks! SR

And it's done! Love the final result. Both tuning systems works very well.

So the Dead Machine and Angkor Wat are running neck and neck to the finish line. Both have had the finish finished and are all super glossed now. Both are completely done and wrapped, all I have to do is mount the necks and put strings on them. But...P-90's are funny animals. There's really not a lot of pickup height adjustment available, which I'm used to having loads of adjustment via regular pickup mounting screws. So I put the neck in place and ran a 4' rule down the beam with the bridge in place to check available heights and see if I was even within range of normal. The ne

I was in a local music store in the late 80's when the first wave of Quilted finishes were really hitting the market. By that time I already had several Gibsons, a '73 LPC, a 347, and a '57 ES225TDC. So I asked the guy behind the counter how they 'got' that kind of finish and he said he didn't have a clue. To try looking it up on a forum or maybe on a builder's site. I remember he said that guys who 'do that' were on 'forums' and liked to 'talk about it' (we're talking probably the late 80's, haha) That's what started it, seeing the first Quilted Maple finishes hit the

Saturday I awoke with tooth pain. By Sunday it was really severe. First thing this morning I called and made an emergency appointment and went to the dentist for the first time in 25 years. I was expecting to have the tooth pulled, but it was just a cavity and he drilled and filled it in about 15 minutes. The guy is a great dentist, but my tooth is still pretty sore. At least it's merely super painful instead of agonizing. I'm not used to having tooth problems. Not a fan.

I decided to read through the whole thread. Unless I missed it (did I?), I didn't see any mention of pickups or electronics. Yet, I see what looks pretty clearly like a battery housing in the back. I started out building active systems, all my first builds all have front-end passive pickups from my favorite winders with back-end EMG active electronics. So just curious about that end of things. Also, I've sprayed many Tele bridges in the past, usually black, but I've sprayed all kinds of hardware all kinds of colors over the years. So on some of my builds where you

so a week w/o the wife has come to an end tonight and I look around at what I accomplished and yup... it was not at all what I figured. Thought because she would be gone I would get a lot of work done but then when you figure in how much more often I had to clean and feed the cats and clean after the cats and feed myself... just really appreciating her right now! anywho... @scottr - sanded this up to 2k as you advised and indeed... w/o any finish I can def see figure a lot better. it will be interesting to see if there is any difference putting tru oil on after sanding up that high. re

Currently in the pipeline: stainless steel frets vs nickle silver string distance behind the nut, long vs short. Back soon...

The 'strumming space' under Option #4 can be set up such that it would be no different to a typical Strat or Tele. If you're familiar with those kinds of guitars (and their many subsets and variants) you'd just need to decide if that was acceptable to you given your hardware and playing preferences. For a first build and for simplicity I'd be steering towards Option #3. Ease yourself into the building process by setting yourself a target that can be attained on first attempt and crank up the level of difficulty later on once you have some more experience behind you. The Schaller bridge yo

Option #2 would give you the most space for strumming. On a neck through the neck break angle is pretty straightforward to cut. You can draw it directly on the side of the neck blank! Like so: you draw your string line which is about 2 mm above the fretboard. You'll have to imagine that as it's in the air... you sum the thickness of the frets, the fretboard and the clearance between the strings and frets and draw another line which will be along the blank you measure the height of your bridge you draw a line from the neck break to the bottom of the bridge

So many ways just to draw an H! No wonder your guitars look more visionary than mine!

yeah that's a good assumption, I often find taking pics with the iphone changes the colour significantly, I need to use something with a manual white balance. It makes filming really easy though. I've made some progress on the clear, I've got 3 coats on now mixed to around 60/40. Started to get a good gloss on the front sides and neck but the back seems to be really sucking it up, weird because I've spread a heavy coat of sealer on it this morning. I've got some orange peel, but it's much smaller nibs than what I have got when spraying previous builds. I expect this is mostly down to

I dunno, the finishing process is fairly stressful Yeah I do like the pink a lot actually, I'm tempted to do something that colour, maybe with a trans black burst around the edge so I can get my burst feet wet. no I put an even coat of the blue all round the body after the pink sand back, possible the sand back was uneven, but the pink photo above is how it was when I stained it and it seemed pretty even at the time. I'm about to fire a 3rd coat of lacquer over it, I'll inspect afterwards and report back.

Another approach to clamping the scarf if you have plenty of excess to play with (as you appear to have in this case) is to use the wedge-shaped offcut from the end of the neck blank and using that as a clamping caul underneath the neck. The two angled surfaces end up cancelling themselves out and you end up with two parallel surfaces to secure the clamps against without them slipping apart so easily.

Planning your finish before you've even started the build. You're making the rest of us look bad. Looking forward to this one, that stain job looks awesome

I always have a plan going in, on average I usually hit it ~80%. And then there's always the 'surprise factor' of ~20% that happens unexpectedly along the way. And I love that part of it, I love watching that unexpected 20% unfold along the way that I couldn't have planned out if I tried. So, yes, always a plan in advance, and always allow the forces of existential whateverism to have their 20% say in the matter.

Yes, exactly this. I have run across the same thing using an old bottle for repairs. The old oil never got completely hard. You need to take it off and start over with a fresh bottle. And like Mike says, it does take a lot of thin coats....although I have never waited twenty four hours between coats, more like one hour and maybe three or four coats a day. Also, I have successfully sprayed it and that goes much quicker. SR

tru oil takes about 9 thousand coats to get to gloss depending on the wood. i suspect some areas have enough, while others don't. you can just keep doing tru oil on the top. idk what sheen and conditioner will leave behind so you might make sure you get rid of that first.

Oh I agree 100% Drak, I am the same way. I know from my past history that I will most likely have a problem and the last thing I want is some dumb ass out in a parking lot making a decision as far as what to do. No thank you, I want a professional to be immediently available to hopefully save my old ass. MK

Planning your finish before you've even started the build. You're making the rest of us look bad. Looking forward to this one, that stain job looks awesome

A bit more specificity would help me help you. I don't know what you're referring to when you use the word 'emulsion'. Can you use another word to say the same thing? And any finish that is too thick to spray usually just needs to be thinned. All sprayable finishes have a thinning agent available, you would need to find out what the proper thinning agent is for your finish type. If I knew what 'emulsion' stood for, I might be able to discern what thinner you need. Sometimes it will be listed in the directions or on the label somewhere. Why are you asking this question? I

Sugar is natural energy for moving people! as the slogan of our local sugar company used to say. And there's sugar everywhere! Not necessarily in it's purified form but still. Chew some grains directly from the ears. After a while they start to taste sweet as the enzymes in your saliva turn the starch into sugar. Fortunately the process can be sort or reversed: Cook the grain, add some yeast and let it eat the sugar! If you're worried about germs, you can distillate the result...

The only transformer is the output transformer. The amp runs straight off of the 12v battery, plates, heaters, everything. These tubes were designed to be battery powered for car radios back in the day. That being said the plates will handle up to 30v, a CWVM might work to bump the plate voltage and maybe squeeze out a little more headroom. I'm going to build a right handed version of what I already have designed next, but I already have plans to try something like this on the next prototype

Yeah, I've been fully aware of that for a long time, and I build all my own pedalboards too and an occasional rack rig. I dig the fact that you can bypass your circuit, but I learned my own tricks to get around that issue when I needed to, but I get it.

thanks for the reply drak! awe snap... you are gonna get me started! I like to roll my own. There are really two builds that are going to come out of this and one is going to get a "switchBLADE" preamp based on a schem from a popular german preamp from the 90s, the other - I'm not sure yet but probably another pictured below. I built the pcb to mount on a push pull so I can truly bypass the active electronics - not just switch to a buffer like the emg and other popular preamps do. the prob with the buffer vs true bypass... if you use a fuzz/wah... it prevents the interaction between t

welp... there's def something to be said for turning a 3/4 into a 4/5. I think you learn more finishing tops with some minor flaws... every one I've done has had something to work around.

Another glam shot and the next video instalment

it indeed does. I'm coining the common term to sell uber high priced "rainbow ebony"! I'll be the first customer please!!

well no expert either... I see a few dark one's there that look similar. the majority i see there are lighter and appear to be fleck. i imagine there are many who avoid that sort of thing in a top but for me it just adds to it. lets you know it's not a photo-quilt!

If I could remember the name of the stuff, I'd link a few YT's of it. It works great under lacquer, they used lacquer as the topcoat in the YT. I mean, I'm not throwing my Timbermate away, I have it in several colors. This product was a clear pore filler, tho I'm sure you could add your own colors to it if needed.

Anybody who calls themselves an influencer or accepts being one should be shot around the back of the chemical sheds. These people are the detritus of the modern world. The scum at the bottom of the barrel who insist that they're at the top. Fatuous irresponsible delusional entitled windbag snobs with zero regard for the deleterious effect they have on the easily-influenced. About as inspirational as a dose of diarreoh and only one percent as welcome.

Serious Bowie worship there. Hats off to you.

Depends which fret slots are off and by how much. In the lower registers an error in fret slot placement will result in less pitch error than it would in the upper registers given the same error in absolute distance, due to the exponential reduction of the spacing between the frets as you work your way up the fretboard. For example, an error of 1mm on the first fret will be less audible than an error of 1mm at the 17th. How wide is the notch you're using as your reference? If it's just a black etched mark as you'd find on a normal steel ruler I'd say that a fret slot falling on

This brief article is intended to help you better understand the implications of working with or around common 2K paints or other products containing Isocyanates. In the workplace most countries have quite extensive legislature surrounding exposure to Isocyanates which this article is not meant to supplant - it is in your interest to use the information as a brief overview and refer to your local health and safety executive's information. The relative ease of access to these products compared to the need for control/implementation of appropriate safety precautions and best working practice mea

I was always very intrigued with music and in High School a friend of mine was a big fan of Slade. Dave Hill the lead guitarist had a thing called "The Super Yob" I would draw body designs in boring classes like English and Social Studies and finally made it in 1994. It was originally headless as you can see the tuning pegs used to be at the bas of the guitar (didn't work very well) I just used the fretboard and truss rod off a broken neck I got from somewhere. Made of Jarrah out off the firewood heap