killemall8

On 3/23/2020 at 8:08 PM, komodo said:

Holy crap! Koa attack!

Or is that insane claro that looks like koa?!

Man you gotta warn us before that.

I wish it was koa. It is indeed claro

I finished up the Warrior extreme and a couple others as well.

17 hours ago, ScottR said:

Your builds have been amazing for years.

This last 6-8 months you have gone to a whole new level.

Maybe two.

Really really nice Luis!

SR

Thanks scotty!
Ive been really trying to create a new level, especially on finish types.

Every build i feel like im still dialing in the perfect methods.

Here are some better pics of the red one, before wet sanding and buffing.

Also a walnut EXP, same thing, pre buffing

13 hours ago, mistermikev said:

as always... top notch. 

I bet the guys on the 'pointy guitars' fb group would eat this stuff up.  I posted yer pic over there - hope you don't mind.  spread the guitar porn I figure.

Thanks! I post there every now and then. Seems like that crowd is more interested in BC rich guitars.

9 hours ago, ScottR said:

Ho hum, just another amazing beauty here, nothing new.

Honestly, when I remember the finish issues you were going through a few years back, it's a pure pleasure to see how high you set the bar these days.

What is that fretboard wood....pale moon ebony?

SR

Thanks Scotty!
Yup, that is PME. Super expensive but i do like working with it.

On 2/21/2020 at 12:47 PM, Bizman62 said:

I had to look twice! At first I thought you have put lights inside it and wondered what kind of a bug that is between the two lights -  to me it looked like a water strider, the lamps being where its feet make a gap in the water! And it even looked like viewing the bug from underwater. Talking about shiny there...

 

Haha, i ca  nt not see that now that you mentioned it.

Finally got this one finished up. The buyer is going to install hardware himself.

I never would have thought of having the magnets between the wood. Genius!

Been doing mostly finish work lately. Cant wait to get back to the woodworking side of things !

Made this guitar 7 years ago. It was initially green. The buyer sent it back to me last week to be repainted purple. Great to see this one held up amazing and is in excellent condition!

I cleaned it up and sprayed it with house of kolor purple mixed with voodoo violet.

1 hour ago, mistermikev said:

terribly interesting read.  I know nothing but my first instinct (they might be stinky intincts) was that the guitar just really resonates to the freq range encompassed by the lower strings. 

what if you put tape all over the body to dampen it or clamp another piece of wood to it?  just a shot in the dark.  what type of wood is the body just out of curiosity?  is it light?  (I know you mentioned neck but didn't see body so sorry if you did mention)

perhaps you've created some tesla freq summing death ray guitar! (I'm copy-writing that name!)

worth a shot to try those things!
The body is a relatively medium weight piece of african mahogany.

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

The reason I asked was because I had a thought that for some reason the highest spot on the bridge pieces might not be at the very edge which can cause rattle.

But then I re-read your first post:

Which makes me think that the neck may be very bouncy and springy, enhancing the vibration of the strings rather than letting the action slowly die. But how to test that? Obviously tightening the truss rod won't make much difference unless you arch the neck beyond playable. Clamping a rail on the back of the neck might be an option to test if it's a springiness issue.

I guess that is a possibility, but this is a 5 piece Walnut, purpleheart and maple neck. Should be more than stiff enough to prevent that?

17 hours ago, curtisa said:

IIRC you asked a similar query a couple of years back about this issue. I don't recall if there were any good ideas that came out of that discussion.

I have built two guitars that exhibited the same issue you have noticed - the lower wound strings would buzz very easily even with excessively high action or exaggerated neck relief. The neck itself had no issues with fret levelling or warps, yet the buzz persisted. The only way to tame it was to change my playing style to deliberately use a softer picking action, which was not really an acceptable solution.

I would say, however, that in both those guitars the bass strings behind each of the saddles was kinked over quite severely as it passed over the crown of the saddle. In both cases this was unavoidable and a quirk of their design. I do wonder if the thicker wound strings vibrate differently if the amount of downward force at the saddle is extreme or the amount of stress placed on the string near the point at which they bend over the crown of the saddle is steeper.

The first guitar I found this issue was on the low F# of an 8-string (.74 over 26.5" scale length) with a standard Hipshot hardtail bridge. By necessity the intonation of the lowest saddle had to be wound back pretty much as far as it could go, which made the string pass through a right angle bend over a very short distance as it went over the crown of the saddle and through the body. The second guitar that exhibited this issue, the saddles used were the Technology For Musicians headless tuners for multiscale guitars which are quite tall units, and again the string (a low B, a .59 over 26.5" scale length on a 7-stringer) had to make a very sharp bend over the crown on its way to the tuner. There was also some neck angle built into the guitar to account for the high saddles, which would have increased the break angle on the low B string on the saddle even further.

Maybe you could experiment with the bridges a bit? If you have used a Tune-o-matic style bridge you could change the amount of downforce/break angle at the saddle by reducing the angle at which the strings pass over (either raise the stop tail higher or place some kind of spacer between the strings and the body if you're used through-body ferrules). If you've used a hardtail bridge, maybe try installing a normal D string in the low-E position, and tune and intonate it accordingly. Doing so would move the saddle closer to the nut, consequently reducing the break angle behind the saddle (not really a solution, but might go some way to proving/disproving the saddle string angle theory).

I thought about it being the break angle behind the bridge. Its a string through, tune o matic. The distance and break angle behind the bridge is identical to the ones ive made in the past 5 years. I can test it the way you mentioned though to see if for some reason that is the cause of this one.

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Just for clarification, does the problem occur on open strings only or also when fretted? And if the latter, does it go away at any point?

It happens on every fret as well.

18 hours ago, norm barrows said:

and it [a 53] was better than a 46 ?

start with the basics -   nut slot height above the fret plane, saddle height above the fret plane, scale length.  then move on to string beyond the nut and saddle.    something MUST be different. 

and of course, make sure you have a semi decent fret plane to begin with.

just go down the list, check everything, you'll find it.

and use standard tuning - worry about alternate tunings once you've found and fixed the problem.

once it works with standard tuning, it should be capable of the same alternate tunings of any typical guitar.

 

I have checked all those things multiple times. Re leveled frets, neck is straight. Tried a number of different action heights.
It was definitely a little better with the heavier gauge, but still not playable. the vibration and resonation overpowers the clarity of a fretted note.

Ive only tried it in standard tuning.

1 minute ago, Bizman62 said:

For what I've recently learned that's exactly how strings move but it's weird that you can see it. Have you by chance had an eye surgery and by accident got a bionic ultra high speed camera for an eye? Sort of a Six Million Dollar Man, eh?

 

Haha, its not hard to see when its basically flopping around

1 hour ago, norm barrows said:

i might try smaller gauge strings.   i run a 38 low E for example - a far cry from a 52.

while heavier gauge might require more tension for the same note, it does tend to flop around more.

but don't take my word for it. i went as light as i could go 40 years ago, and never looked back.

tonal effects of heavy stings (like most tonal effects) can be gotten by other means that don't reduce playability. 

I tried a  normal 46 and it was worse, which is why i tried a heavier gauge to see if more tension helped.

23 hours ago, ScottR said:

Another killer, K!

I had not considered claro walnut for a neck before. What a sweet unique look.

Carry on, we love seeing what comes out of your shop.

SR

It feels pretty good as a neck wood. Caves nicely. Feels a little soft, but held up just fine for the 7 string.

On 2/15/2020 at 6:41 AM, ADFinlayson said:

Cool, give me the link and I’ll follow your Facebook page 

https://www.facebook.com/LEFguitars/

So you all know ive built a large amount of guitars. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 250.

Ive only had this issue on maybe 2 or 3 of them ever.
But i have one that i made last  year that i still have, that has this issue to an extreme that ive never experienced.
Its a 25" scale explorer.
With the action a little higher than what i normally set, and the nut height perfectly, when i pick any string (bass string are MUCH more noticeable) There is so much circular vibration that the string is vibrating in almost 1/8" of an in circles, causing huge fret buzz, because its hitting almost every fret as it vibrates. The low E is so bad it looks like its a physical representation of an audio wave or something.
Even with 52 gauge strings it still does it.
Any ideas?

3 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

Another stunner. Where are you selling these? They're obviously extremely desirable. Do you make them to order, sell them in shops? What's your setup?

Thanks!
I sell exclusively online. Mainly through my facebook business page. I build to order as well as make stock builds and offer them for sale later. Nothing local.

Havent updated in a while.
had a rough month. Ive ruined 6/8 guitars, including one day with a rare top.
Hit a huge wall where no matter how long of a break i take, i come back and make mistakes.

Dont know why it always goes in phases like this. I make some great guitars, then out of nowhere i cant even measure a pickup cavity location correctly.
hope everybody else's builds are going better.

Your planning and methods are always so precise!

Scotty, this thing is incredible!

On 12/14/2019 at 11:15 AM, Bizman62 said:

I very much like the blue centered one! Not saying that the other two were any worse, only more traditional. The blue centered one looks like an aerial photo between two Caribbean islands, a fine example of using the natural figuration of the wood to create landscapes - dunes and depths just by emphasizing what already was present. It's like some wood sculpturers say: The shape was inside the block.

Thats exactly what i thought!

Pretty much all my work the past week and a half has been finish work. Trying to catch up on these 9 builds i have!
Here are a few updates.

A few more pics!
The Tamo ash one came our really cool. I black grainfilled it first, then sprayed glow orange kandy, a redburst, then a super thin blackburst

The blue centered one isnt my style, but its what the buyer wanted. Very skervesen/ mayones esk.

.