KeithHowell

What value capacitor did you use?

Are you sure your soldering on the back of the pots is not dry? Often pots are quite difficult to get a decent solder joint. Your diagram shows the pot case as an integral part of the circuit with two solder connections on to the case.

Better to solder your pickup ground and output ground on to the pot lug and then take a single ground to the pot case. That way you are sure the ground is continuous and the pot case is not part of the circuit and only sheilding the pot at ground potential.

Keith

Can you post a schematic and a photograph of your wiring?

Keith

How about doing a tutorial? I would be really interested in doing some marquetry myself.

Keith

What is "not very expensive" in UK Pounds? A google search gave me prices of around $100 (US) with postage.

Looks like the best is to try spin one myself. Aluminium is cheap and plentiful around here. Does anybody have any specs on a cone, Aluminium gauge, quality etc as well as dimensions and profile?

I've been given a old plywood guitar which seems ideal to convert into a resonator/dobro. However it's probably only worth about $10 and I don't want to spend around $100 on a resonator just to experiment.

Has anybody got any suggestions on what I could use/modify/make for a resonator cone?

Keith

Try this when sanding:

Take a soft pencil and scribble all over the surface you are sanding. Run your sanding block over the surface once or twice and note if the pencil marks disappear uniformly else the marks on the high spots will be removed first. Keep sanding till all marks are removed then repeat, you should then have a flat board.

Keith

Well now I feel justified for calling him an id**t in a previous (now deleted) post.

Keith

QUOTE(KeithHowell @ Sep 19 2008, 05:58 AM)

Get one with a vernier, no batteries and no dial to break!

Keith

Bah ! If I were to go that stone-age with it, I'd just go one notch down and use an adjustable wrench, then see what feeler-gauges fit in the opening of the wrench's jaws.

Just say if you don't understand how to read a vernier

If there's one thing I learned at university, using a vernier and understanding how they work is most useful. For example I use a jig I made up for marking fret slots using a standard metric rule with a vernier scale I created on CAD to give me accurately the fractions of millimetres.

Keith

Get one with a vernier, no batteries and no dial to break!

Keith

Have a look here as well: MIMF Piezo/Magnetic Preamp

Keith

Pete Townsend reckons they are made from cardboard! Pete Interview

Perhaps the light construction is also a contributing factor?

Keith

quote]I also can't seem to find a tapered reamer anywhere for reaming the bridge pin holes to fit the tapered bridge pins. Is there any kind of alternative to that? or do i have to order a reamer?[

I want to use the circuits in a bass I am building for a colleague. I dont have decent software to do the layout and I dont really have layout experience or the desire to learn another software package. I do that all day at work.

After much searching I came up with Walters circuits which he has tested and pronounced OK. So I thought I would use those, why reinvent the wheel. Yes the mixer is from a Fender Bass.

Have a look at Cafe Walter for the full story.

There's a downloads section?

Yes there is. You get access if you make a donation.

Keith

Is anybody keen to do a PC Board layout for these two circuits?:Buffer and Mixer

Combine the two on a single sided board suitable for home etching.

The layout can then be added to the downloads section.

Keith

I've decided to build my own 50's strat neck. That means , of course, it'll be solid maple. But I do have one question.

As you can see, the truss rod adjustment is at the heel. How did Fender anchor the truss rod at the top?

In brief: Thread the end and put a nut on it then pean the end of the rod so the nut can't be unthreaded. It is then pulled into the head and plugged with a dowell so it can't rotate.

Have a look in Melvin Hiscock's book for the best explanation I've seen on how to do this.

Keith

"Yellow Glue" as far as I know generaly refers to what is in fact "Alphatic Resin" glue. Which I believe Titebond is. Around my part of the world we get Alcolin Professional which is an Alphatic Resin "yellow glue". According to Alcolin it is the equivalent of Titebond.

Did some software work in their factory a while back and that is what they told me at the time.

Hope that helps

Keith

There is nothing wacky about using transformers to match pickups to amplifiers. The telecommunications world used them for just that: match equipment to transmission lines when everything was still analog and electronics expensive. As solid state devices became more plentiful and cheap they were replaced by solid state. Then everything went digital and became a whole different set of issues.

Keith

and a few other things befor you get too deep.

Yes like 6 foot under. Power is dangerous and it kills if you don't know what you are doing!!!!

Keith

Yes that would be the way I would do it. However as I said: Without looking at a diagram of the GK unit it a bit difficult to state exactly what you need to do. Does the GK unit have one analog or six analog inputs?

My one brush with this type of thing, on a neighbours Casio, had a magnetic pickup with what looked like an analog line per string from the pickup.

Just bear in mind that if this is the case you would need to equalise each of the saddles with it's own pre-amp before feeding to the GK unit.

Keith

Your pre-amp only needs to interface the piezo to the INPUT of the Roland device ie where the magnetic pickup would attach on the analog side of the device. It is really just an equalisation unit to interface the different piezo output with the Roland input.

Have a look here:Piezo Buffer

Keith

Without looking at circuit diagrams for both systems it is difficult to say categorically, but is the GK system pickup also piezo based or magnetic? If it is magnetic I would say "no not easily" as the piezo preamp will be optimised for a piezo, with around 1M ohm input impedance and to equalise for the piezo signal whereas the GK would be designed for, probably, a low impedance magnetic pickup and be equalised for the magnetic signal.

Why dont you just mount the GK pickup in front of the bridge pickup? Or build your own piezo preamp! There are a lot of designs available, just do a Google search. The components will only cost a few $.

Hope that helps.

Keith

Have a look here: Saddle locating jig

I have made one and have used it successfully for a TOM as follows:

Measure roughly where the TOM will be installed and stick some masking tape down over the area.

Setup the Locating jig with suitable compensation for your scale length.

Setup the jig against the nut as explained and then use it to mark on the masking tape the line indicating the compensated position of the bridge saddles.

It is now a simple matter of locating and marking the mounting post holes relative to the saddle line. In my case I just had to extend the line either side of the guitar centre line and mark the post holes as the mounting holes were on the center line of the bridge.

Drill post holes, remove masking tape and insert post mounts.

Keith

Make a small donation to Project Guitar and help yourself in the downloads section!

Keith

Thanks Kevin! I can do that.

-Cheers

Quick Update/Stupid Question(s):

I made a donation . . . Where's the download section, and how long do I need to wait to get at them?

-Cheers

When you log in you will see a section right at the bottom of all the forums labled "Advanced Support Section" wher you will see the link "Downloads and file sharing " If you cant see it contact one of the Administrators.

KEITH

Classy...although given what I've heard about older alum necked guitars, I'm not sure I'd ever want to own one (aluminum moves a lot more with heat than wood does...)

I agree. Our Afri-Can's with Aluminium necks sounded great but could be problematic to keep in tune. Especially when the weather is cold. The neck has to be warmed up first then fine tuning done before playing. If you don't you have tuning issues until the neck is stable with the heat from your hands!

Keith

You can make one yourself. Get the size you want and weld a piece of 5mm or 6mm rod onto the cutting end. Cut off the existing shaft if necessary Drill a hole through the wood put cutter through from inside guitar, chuck into drill and cut hole to depth required.