KeithHowell

Have a look at:Roller Bridge plan It seems to have all dimensions.

Keith

Have a look at this link to build your own side bender and how to use: SideBender

Keith

I have just finished building an acoustic. The side bending is nowhere near as difficult as everyone thinks. Read Irving Sloans books as well. I started with his steel string guitar construction book back in 1978. He shows you how to build the speciallity tools you will require for building a flat top.

All you need to bend sides is a hot aluminium pipe with a radius a bit smaller than the smallest radius on your sides. Heat the pipe with a blow torch. It is hot enough when a bead of water "dances" on the pipe. Soak the wood for a few minutes and keep bucket of water and sponge at hand.

Place the side onto the pipe and rock it slowly side to side while pressing down. You will feel the wood start to soften and bend. Keep it wet with the sponge so that it doesn't get scorch marks on it. Have a template that you can check against contantly.

Good luck

Keith

The formulae for calculating series and parallel impedances/resistances and capacitances are as follows:

Impedance and resistance: Series R = R1 + R2 + ..... Rn

Parallel : 1/R = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + ..... 1/Rn

For capacitance it is just the opposite: Parallel caps add and series you sum the inverse

Parallel: C = C1 + C2 + ..... Cn

Series: 1/C = 1/C1 + 1/C2 + ..... 1/Cn

Keith

Tommy

Are you saying preform the sides, back and top using the vacuum bags before gluing to the sustain block? If so I miss understood you. I thought you meant using the bags to clamp the top and bottom plates to the block/side assembly when final gluing, hence my concern that the sides could distort!

I was going to follow Martin Kochs method of first shaping the sustain block, gluing sides to it and then gluing the back and top down to the sides/block so that the block shapes the plates.

Keith

As far as I know all Fender basses use the same size neck pocket. The same as on the P-Bass which is 5/8" (16mm) deep and 3 5/8 (94 mm) long.

I have just sent a plan for a P-bass to Brian which he will post soon. You can get the dimensions off of that.

Keith

You would need to use a matching transformer to do it properly. If it is a tube amp you might find there are taps on the output transformer to select 4, 8 , 16 ohm anyway.

Keith

I've sent the plans to Brian for posting.

They are in DXF format and are at 1:1 scale. Make sure your CAD is set up with metric units (25.4mm = 1inch)

As regards glueing tops using vacuum bags: I am worried that a vacuum bag would distort the sides as you can't prop them internally while gluing. You can't get the props out the F-holes are to small and a Les Paul or Lucille doesn't even have F-holes. Once the sides are glued to the back and top the body becomes extremley rigid and light but to achieve this only vertical clamping is done with no shear on the sides.

What comments?

Keith

My brother and I built our first guitar in over Christmas in 1969/1970. I was 13 at the time. I still have the guitar it is part of my wifes decor (Her hobby is interior decorating).

Keith

There seems to be some link between people with an interest in guitars and aircraft. Ovation guitars are a prime case. Perhaps we just like to build things!

WOW!

What power plant are you going to put in that thing? Ducted fan or gas turbine? I fly radio gliders myself I don't like all the noise and mess of the engines and fuel.

Seems like some connection between aircraft and guitars. Perhaps we should have a poll to see how many of us have interest in both.

Keith

Brian:

I will e-mail you my plans as soon as our new ISP brings our e-mail up after our previous ISP got hacked and then cut our account off.

Perfect Tommy:

I have not yet built the ES335. Just finished an acoustic and a P-bass. Still have to finish another P-bass before I can get onto my 335.

My intention is not to carve the plates but use good quality ply or laminated veneer.

The sides and the sustain block then give the back and top the shape. (See Martin Kochs book for a very good explanation)

Keith

An ES335 has a sustain block which is first shaped, the sides glued to it and then the back and sides attached and glued to the block and around the edges. A sort of hybrid between solid body and acoustic.

I have drawn plans for a ES335 and some other guitars (Strat,Les Paul, P-Bass) Brian would you like to post them?

Keith

The Stanley dovetail saw has the correct kerf for fretting.

Keith

Make sure you are using rosin core NOT acid core solder!

How much do you need to open the hole? Using a twist drill (in a drill press) and running it backwards will stop the drill biting into the wood and messing up the finish. Once you are through the finish you can drill normally and finish the hole.

The best I've found is not to try to enlarge the hole to its final size in one pass. Use the next drill size up from the holes current size, then change to the next biggest etc until you have the right size.

I have both books. Both are great. If I had to get only one I would get Martin Koch's book. He has more detail covering pickups and hardware. You can also buy it as an E-book on the web and print it like I did which is far more convenient than waiting for a bookseller to order it or get it by post.

Keith

The Stanley Dove tail saw also has a 0.024" kerf and works perfectly I just bought one for R79 (about $10).

I added a piece of clear plastic like the Stew-Mac saw for getting the depth right.

Keith

a planer is one of the safest tools cause the blades are fairly out of sight and covered,

Maybe so but it can still do an amazing amount of damage, very quickly to your fingers. Ask my father. About three months ago he nicked his pinky on the planer. It took the tip off just above bone and blood everywhere. I had to rush through from work and take him to the hospital. $1000 worth of plastic surgery on his finger was the final result of a seconds inattention and he had the guard over the blades.

Thank goodness it was on one of his projects he was working and not doing some work for one my guitar projects or I would never have heard the end of it.

Keith

Bill

Are you sure the calibration on your meter is OK? A silicon diode should have a forward voltage drop of around 0.7v and a germanium around 0.3v

Keith

Just pull the knob off the shaft and spray it down into the pot

What type of pots are you refering to Brian?

You need to spray it into the small gap near where the wires are soldered on. Be careful of contact cleaner though some types tend to leave a residue which attracts all the much you just got rid of and after a few weeks you have a worse problem than before!

Keith

As I wrote before: Antex irons are the only other worth while choice!

Keith

The best to use is the soldering stations made by Weller among others. They are specially designed for doing work around sensitive electronics and have accurately controlled temperature. The iron itself is driven from a transformer which is properly sheilded so as not to radiate interference. (The older ones radiated like mad and caused huge errors on transmission networks I was working on at the time). They can be quite expensive though but you will never have to buy another one!

Keith

My father is a blacksmith by trade and he does everything himself because he says it he can and does. I guess I picked it up from him. I always say I've done a 46 year apprenticeship with him which is still going on. Some of the hardware which I couldn't get in Cape Town back in the early seventies he made for me.

Keith

Stew-Mac have the wiring for a double ganged blend pot under FreeInfo in the electronics section on the site.

Keith