Pyroiguana

Thanks for the tips, I'll see if i can find any luthiers. In the meanwhile - a theory in the string. I can see that it was purposely put there, in the post, there's a little hole where it goes through and ties to the post. After researching how the poles are put in, I guess it might be a way to remove the post afterwards, for replacement? Or perhaps it was used in place of your standard post tool. The string is tied in a way that it has two ends, which can be put through both F-holes. They may have pulled these strings to position the sound post. In any case, i'll just leave it in there. It doesn't have any effect on how the intrusment performs or looks, i should think. Oh, and in my research I noticed that the sound post must be perfectly vertical in order to maximize performance. I checked, and mine is DEFINITELY not vertical. I'd say it's about 20 degrees tilted, the bottom of the post actually rests on the bass side of the guitar. Erk.

Yeah, it's like goodwill. Thrift store. My mom makes tons of money buying stuff from there and reselling it on eBay, on average, she buys things for a couple dollars and sells em for something like $50-100. It's crazy. OKay, so no refinishing. I'll do some more research on fixing the crack. Thanks for the tip, though. Oh yeah, and another thing. There's this string that I think is tied around the post inside the violin and I have no idea what it's doing in there. Any ideas?

Yeah, that's what I thought too ; ) Couple points of wisdom imparted from my dad: - He says refinishing it would be a bad idea, that the old finish gives the instrument a unique sound that would be taken away from it, and pointed out that it would be very difficult to get it to look nice and vintage again, that I wouldn't be too happy with the whole "new" look of it. I think he may be right on that... - He thinks the violin is well worth the trouble refurbishing. Oh, and also, the neck's finish is completely rubbed off. Just as another detail.

Ok. Well, lately I've always wanted to learn to play violin, so i've been (lazily) on the lookout for a nice but cheap one to learn on. Well, my mom found this one at a Savers for only $1.99! Here's some pics. Its not that beat up. The ONLY structural damage is a crack on the top running from the left F-hole to the rear. (you can sorta make it out as the white line from the top circle of the left F-hole, to the chin rest. Otherwise it's fine. There's alot of areas where the finish is a little worn and scuffed. It's missing one tuner peg. Back is nicely flamed. I'm not that good with identifying woods, so I'll leave that to you guys. The question is, does this look like it'd be worth fixing up? It's pretty small (and i dont know anything about violin sizes), but even if it is not my size at all then I'd still do it. For the money from selling it, and the experience fixing it up. So give me your opinions on what it's worth ; ) Oh, and another thing. How would I go about fixing that crack? I can't think of a way.

Thanks guys. Tried doing the nut yesterday... And failed. Rather than buy a ton of equipment to do it, I used a set of.. uh, fold-out sized metal plates that measure gaps. Don't know what they're called. Basically, they go down to very small sizes and they have a rounded edge, so I filed notches in the ones that match the string width, so now I've got some homemade nut files. They work perfect, just the right size. Problem is, I miscalculated a depth and ended up going too low down... So I went out and bought a couple more nut blanks to work with. I think I'll be able to get it right next time though.

Thanks soo much for those corrections! I soldered it all up and it works perfectly! There is one odd thing though, when it's in parallel and either both or the bridge pickup is selected, then something weird happens on one of the tone knobs. Picture the tone knob in increments of ten - the 8 highest are the normal tone knob, but the low two act as a full volume knob. It's nothing that I would have any problems with though. Again, thanks alot! Here's how the control cavity ended up. It's a very haphazardly made cavity... Aluminum sheilding tape, duct tape, and screw to shield it, and a really tiny space to stuff all those wires in. It ended up perfect, though... Absolutely no noise coming through, and no crossed wires ending with electrical screw-ups. I seem to be pretty damn lucky.

Yay!!! I finally finished it. Well, except for the nut. Thats all thats left before i can string 'er up. The electronics were a bit time-consuming... Around 40 solders coupled with a crappy soldering iron and a tiny tiny control cavity tend to make the whole deal a little troublesome. And, of course, the shielding was a little difficult too considering the weird shape I did, but with a combination of aluminum shielding tape, a huge screw, and duct tape, it was successfully shielded. (No noise at all!) I was so surprised, there wasn't a single crossed wire, electrical error or anything the first time round! I'm gonna get the nut done this weekend. (That string may seem a little misplaced to some. Used it for testing the electronics : P) Control Cavity Back

It looks like your diagram does the same thing as the guitar electronics diagram I was working with ; ) I appreciate the help alot though! Especially the comment about pickups in series/parallel. I think I got what I want. I took the diagram from guitar electronics here, and modified it. First I took the tone out of the circuit affecting both pickups and put the two tone on either sides of the toggle switch to affect each pickup seperately. Then I took the bridge pickup hot output and hooked it up the new bare push/pull and adjusted it so one way it goes (like normally) straight to the toggle switch, and the other way it goes to the south start of the neck pickup. If it's going straight to the toggle, then the south start of the neck pickup is grounded like normal. So (Im pretty sure) this means I have the ability to with coil tap and select what coil to tap with both of the pickups, and then I have the ability to run the two whole humbuckers in series, or in parallel. I never really realized that you could actually do this, I always tried to series/parallel coils, not humbuckers... Thanks, Joe Please tell me this works! I feel so smart right now : P

Sorry I was unclear... I'm using three push pulls, one with coil tapping, one with tap mode selection, and the other I'm trying to figure out what to do with. If there really isnt any options using that setup, then I'd just go for only two push/pulls and leave the other knob normal.

Alright, thanks alot. I kept getting confused cause I was reading them as SS/NF and NS/SF, thinking it was labeled as each ends of the coil rather than the overall polarity of the coil. Which I thought was weird, but all the explainations I've found seemed to support that O_o Alright, I have a question. Is it at all possible to wire a coil tap and tap mode push pull for both pickups, then add in a series/parallel for a single pickup? I was trying to do this but for the tapping I need the SF and NS wires seperate from the NF. And that doesn't really work.

Oh wait... So in the diagrams, for a normal series wiring it goes Ground - SS/SF - NF/NS - Output?

Well, it agrees with me, so it still doesn't explain the weird series/parallel diagram. Still in a closed loop. Anyone?

Ok, well I spent a whole day looking through diagrams and having my dad explain to me all the connections, so I have a idea of what to do. But I was wiring it up as I said before, cept with series/parallel instead of reverse, and realized that that's not even possible, right? And I am EXTREMELY confused as to one thing in the Guitar Electronics diagrams. Which pickups are what wires? Does the setup go Ground - SS/NF - SF/NS - Output in a normal series wiring? I was trying to figure out the series/parallel diagram in this sheet, but with that setup, one of the pickups is in a closed loop when the switch is up, and the other goes out. When down though, it's obviously in series. Is this actually a messed up diagram or am I just not getting something here?

Lesse... I pretty much know nothing at all about guitar electronics. So, I need help with a diagram. My dad's leaving tomorrow for a while, and todays the last day he can help me with it. I've tried to look at all the tutorials and explainations for all the switches & wires and ways to configure different options, but my goal is a little complex for a first timer like me to set up myself. This is what I want: Two humbuckers, JB and '59, through a push pull volume pot & two push pull tone pots with coil tapping, reverse phase and a tap mode selector, with a three way switch for neck/both/bridge. Could anyone help me, maybe draw up a diagram? If you do, do you think you could explain some of the basics of how it works? I don't want to just copy someone's work and not learn anything about it for next time.

Thanks alot Vinny!! and I'm 15, actually. I really enjoyed doing this project. I'm actually thinking of starting another one soon, planning a neck through semihollow bass. Which makes sense, cause I play bass in my band : P Well, can't finish today, my parents are having a bunch of people over. So this weekend. Saturday? I'm really anxious to get this done... When I do my next guitar, I'm gonna try not to drag it out this long. And I'll get a chance to try out building a neck and carving. I keep thinking to myself, if I can get good enough, maybe I could start selling them in a while... So I don't have to work at McDonalds for the next 5 or so. We'll see. Just a thought.

Alright, well I finally got some time to finish it... Right now, it's coated it danish oil and buffed. I was thinking about urethane, and ended up deciding I'd see how it goes with the oil finish before moving onto that. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get time to work on the soldering... And I gotta hunt down a new neck screw cause one of mine mysteriously dissapeared... : /

I can't believe all these basses! I love EVERY single one so far! Your too good, man.

Awesome job! I love practically everything about this guitar so far. I really like the look of zebrawood, I'd love to make somethin like yours.

Ya mean acrylic pickguard, right : P Hmm... I think it might just be better off without a pickguard at all, even thought I like the shape. It all depends on what you like though. That, and how nice the wood you get for the top is.

I would kill for that guitar! Like, murderous rampage kinda kill! That wood is absolutely fantastic. I can't wait till this one's done. And the colors...

There's actually guite a few here. I'm 15, in fact. No reason why teenagers can't build guitars : P Love the guitar, specially the pickguard shape. Didnt really like the blue much, im glad your gonna refinish it. IMO, painted bodies look a little too "manufactured" for my tastes, unless you have a really interesting/unique theme or design. A real nice peice of wood can really make the guitar. I'd go with that approach. What's the top on it at the moment?

Black Heart Sassafrass, I think he said. And by the way, that one is my absolute favorite. I was just thinkin, your logo looks like a spider when it's upright

Well, I've been pretty lazy. I probably coulda got this done months ago : P Well, anyways, I'm gonna finish it now. After seeing just how dark cherry can get aged, I've decided to just do a simple natural finish. Here's some pics after (almost) final sanding and such (and a older one of it put together) However, I decided I might round all the edges a little more. School starts for me next week, so I'm gonna try and get as much done as possible in the next 5 days. Back Control Cavity With Hardware* *Yeah it's insanely messy in there! I've cleaned it up since, don't worry.

Cool! Very modern and clean. Though I've never liked the headless aspect. Otherwise, awesome work!

Haha, it's ok, can't count the number of times i've done something like that