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black_labb

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Everything posted by black_labb

  1. very nice. love the body. find the neck a bit busy, but that opinion could easily change once its on the instrument.
  2. have you thought of a strat style jack (the boat shaped ones) but mounted on the side of the guitar, so the lead comes out at an angle? could work well on the flat bottom piece. where are your knobs and the rest of the control cavity going to be? i've made a jack that was in the control cavity, and a hole in the body where the plug was pushed in. if your cavity will be close to the edge, that could be a consideration. keep in mind that it will limit you to leads that fit into the hole (angled leads ususally wont, and some have larger than usual heads)
  3. very nice work. good to see this project finally coming together.
  4. thanks erik. homemade pups are quick to make and alot cheaper than reasonable bought ones. they're also quite easy to get set up for making. turn a small drill press on its side, or a hand drill. it isnt completely necessary to even count the turns if you just fill up the bobbin and check the resistance. humbuckers dont need to be perfect (often people purposely have coils mismatched a bit).
  5. looks good. like the control plate, suits the body shape well and is still simple
  6. i agree, pickups arent hard to make. its not hard to get them to sound good either. nailing specific tones can be an issue sometimes, but thats where things get interesting and challenging. another thing i don't think there is enough of is simple switches to get different sounds. strats and tele's could really benefit from series/paralell switches. they can really add a lot to the sound, getting them similar to a humbucker. all it takes is a simple dpdt switch (or a push pull pot)
  7. took some straight on photos. flash made some things look a bit wierd (reflections in pup covers, really dull looking fingerboard) but it shows the shape better, without it looking so wide
  8. i was looking at that after posting the pics up, thought maybe i had made a mistake resizing it in paint before i realised. the body isnt that wide, its just the angle i took the photos from. i'll take some more photos to get a better perspective thanks. wasnt really the plan to go so far, but i got going with the spokeshave and scraper until it seemed perfect. i'm really happy with the look and feel of the carve.
  9. thanks they're zebrano tops, ng rosewood bases, but stained red like the fret markers. the zebrano figure didnt come through as well through the stain as it did on the fretboard, so it just looks red really.
  10. havent been around project guitar much recently. found that i got into a habit of spending too much time reading things and not enough doing things (i would check way too frequently really). i'll see if i can come back and check things more moderately this time. here is the bass that i've just finished (actually i need to put a finish on the truss rod cover, but otherwise its all ready) have been using the bass for band without a finish and a single bridge pup. had a couple weeks off band as the drummer had more work duties temporarily, so i finished it (its my only bass, so i wasnt able to use another while finishing it). i made the pups and truss rods myself. was originally going to have a simple preamp, but changed my mind and went with passive electronics, and rewound the pups to suit. some details 33" scale, 22 frets neck is a 1pc, but 5 piece laminate (new guinea rosewood, wenge, zebrano, wenge, ng rosewood). fillet strip is american walnut body wings are also ng rosewood. jumbo frets danish oiled (aside from the pup covers, which are laquered) instrument is wired like a jazz bass (vol neck, vol bridge tone) but with a series/paralell and a phase switch. used 500k vol pots, and a 1M tone pot with a 47pf cap. i use 1M tone pots almost exclusively, as they are more versatile than lower values (they act a variable resistors, so they can be turned down a bit to get the equivalent effect of a 500 or 250k pot on full. the instrument sounds great. the bridge gives a great middy sound, the neck gives a nice clean and warm sound and blending them can get quite a few great tones. the series position gives a very fat, full and somewhat loose sound (like a p bass, but maybe fuller). the use of the bridge pup makes it not muddy, but still sounds very fat with lots of low mids. used that all of band practice, and everyone loved the sound(use a pick for band, as we are a trio where the guitar uses a slide almost exclusively, and the bass fills out more of the mids that a guitar usually would). im sure i'll use the other settings more when i am playing fingerstyle. i thought i really liked the sound before i rewound the pups and wired up the bass, but now i am absolutely stunned with how well it sounds. after shielding it it is silent, with a tiny bit of hum when on a single pup (they are set up to cancel hum when they are equal, like a humbucker) the instrument plays very well. it has a small headstock and long upper horn, making the balance perfect. makes my friends squier p feel like a neck diver. the neck is thick and round. has the same width as a p neck, but is rounder. i prefer a rounder neck, and after playing this it makes my friends squier p feel too thin and uncomfortable due to the thinness. i love a fat neck. action is fairly high. just the way i like it (i know im somewhat of a rare breed with my like for really thick necks and high action, but this one is for me). some pics http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/bla...basstopside.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/bla...sbottomside.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/bla...ssneckfront.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/bla...sbackofneck.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/bla...bb/basspups.jpg
  11. its just the baffle (and rear) that is 1/2 " i assume the rest is 3/4" pine (?). 1/2" ply for the baffle seems a bit thin to me for a 4x10, unless you have some bracing down the middle of the baffle. if you dont have the bracing it wont be a problem, just wont have quite the same punch that a sealed 4x10 would normally have, but im sure it has plenty considering it has 10" speakers in a sealed cab what speakers are in there? hows it sound? i've started making a 2x10 that is very rough (i expect the thing to get thrashed over time) made it entirely from 19mm pine and its an open backed design. works well for me.
  12. ill be interested in your findings, seems like an in interesting timber to use.
  13. like the look of it, nice timbers too. im interested in the black bean, how have you found it so far? did you hear about it being used, or just wanted to give it a try? keep us updated
  14. really like that. i want to make a p bass with a 1pc wenge neck. really like the way it all fits together. how did you find the tone with an ebony fretboard and wenge neck? probably pretty different to say without having the same pickup in another p bass though.
  15. i think its best to ignore node placements and just realise that closer to the centre of the vibrating section of the string you will get the more fundamental and fewer harmonics, so a "warmer" sound. i say the centre of the string, not the 12th fret as the centre of the vibrating section moves as you fret, and sometimes the neck can be brighter on the highest frets. so if you think the neck pickup could do with some more clarity then move it closer to the bridge. if you think it could be more bassy move it towards the neck. same goes for the bridge. as you get closer to the bridge you will get less output as the strings wont have as much amplitude, which is why bridge pickups are usually matched with a neck pickup.
  16. the 5 string was going to be for me. shes started playing guitar more than bass, and ive stepped into the bassist role a bit. i guess singing and playing guitar works better than bass, which makes sense to me. im making the 5, but im not particularly motivated towards it. i have other builds at the same time so they can come first. one is a hollowbody for her to play.
  17. firstly i'll say that i voted for decadent john's build. i just loved the simplicity of the build. the great black/dark brown contrast with the blonde swamp ash body. its not the most difficult build or the most flashy, but its deffinately a build that had me pausing to look at for more than a few seconds per pic. probably doesnt sound like a tele at all with the rosewood/ebony neck and p90's though. probably sounds great anyway. i was so close to voting for scottyd's build. i really like it. the only things that stopped me was a bit of wood choice. i absolutely love the look of each piece of wood on the build, but there were places where i would have liked to see some contrast. i absolutely loved the top of the body. it looks excellent with the great walnut top and those nice covers on the pickups and the knobs. the blonde parts in the walnut looked excellent. i think a fretbord that contrasted more with the brown in the build would have looked a bit better. possibly an ebony or rosewood one, which would bring the black theme from the hardware into the build. a birdseye maple fretboard with some black block inlays would also look escellent imo. another thing that didnt work well with me was the laminates in the neck. i find neck lminates look best when there is some contrast. these timbers look very similar. they also clashed a very tiny bit with the less redy browns in the body. i think its that their close, but not close enough to be the same. the poplar in the body looks great, but it doesnt work too well with the neck wood (more directly the reddy timber glued at the neck join). i think that if the neck laminates were purpleheart/wenge and maple or something that doesnt add the bit of redness to the look then i would have voted for you, and deffinately if there was a more contrasting fretboard on the build. i know that was alot of criticism for a build that i say i nearly voted for. i was really nitpicking there as i really like it, but it just barely misses the mark for me, and i want to justify not voting for it. i love the shape, love the body timbers (neck timbers look great too, but i dont feel they match the body timbers perfectly, its a bit of a case where it looks better to contrast than nearly match). the only thing that made me change my mind was the conflicting colours on the back. i absolutely love the build, but the simplicity of decadent john's tele won me over. do you have any details on you pickups? or even a link to the build thread if the details are in there (if build thread exists) im not a fan of the superstrat shape, which ruled some of the builds out for me (even though they were all very good builds that i cant flaw in any way). the orion had a very nice looking neck laminate, but didnt do much for me otherwise. kenny's kaye custom was a great looking guitar. loved the look of the back of it. m sherman's second 8 string was nice as well, but wasnt my cup of tea. jelle's cigar box guitars were a nice change. boobs and the one after it (black and gold one) seemed very nice. some nice touches on them. rsguitars revelation is a nice build, but the shape didnt do it for me. that neck on a different guitar would be an excellent start. the shape was the only real downside to me. bath's bass was a nice build. i dont know about the upper horn like someone else mentioned. it seems like a very usable design. their seems to be plenty of upper fret access, and the pickups seem like they would give a very versatile sound (ive always thought having the bridge pup angle like that would be a good idea for a bass along with a neck pickup to add most of the bottom. jyrki's 335 looks excellent and flawless. just doesnt have the originality of the other builds. would have been alot of work being a hollow body which i respect greatly. wez v's build is a really nice build. has a nice shape and seems flawless. the finish is incredibly glossy and perfect. i cant put my finger on it but it just doesnt do it for me. i dont know why. it hs everything to it that i would normally like. even the quirky green lizard is something i like, but it just doesnt give me that wow feeling that the individual parts of the build do. its not that theres anything that i feel chashes either. daniel sorbera's acoustic is an excellent build, but an acoustic doesnt do much for me. i'd love to make one oneday, but im not motivated enough to take up the challenge yet. acoustics are nice, but i dont get excited over them. lowriders carvetop is well done, but isnt my style. did like the way the headstock went with the build, looked good in an unconventional way. avenger 63's build looks nice, but its a bit busy as someone else said. having a bigsby on a tele seems like a good idea though.
  18. great looking build. love the look of the timbers together, makes me want to make another walnut build.
  19. im pretty sure he meant that if you measure the length of the string (saddle to nut) you can get an idea where the saddle will be. things like action and string gauge will change it a bit, but this will give an idea.
  20. nice build. ive always wanted to do a 1pc neck with zebrano. looks great on this build
  21. that looks great. good job making sure the colours didnt clash.
  22. the cancellation of the higher harmonics on a humbucker cancel out the higher haronics on a certain string, and those higher harmonics would be replicated on the other octave string, so i dont see how the humbucker would be bad for that. it wouldnt act any differently as a single coil. imagine the string pair are the notes in a power chord the E (well use the open chord for this example) and the e that is an octave higher (the second fret on the A string. humbuckers dont sound bad to me playing power chords. many people who play mainly power chords alot prefer humbuckers. im not sure about how much of an effect the 2 different strings would have on the sound, but i think a normal pickup would be fine. if you use a humbucker i'd be tempted to angle it so that one coil has its poles under the octave string and one under the root string.
  23. soft maple will be fine for a neck, so i wouldnt worry too much.
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