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Dadovfor

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Everything posted by Dadovfor

  1. Let me attempt to re-phrase it ... jumping down their throat is going to make them feel like an idiot; and do nothing to address their need. I've answered (and asked) a few questions where the answer was pretty obvious ... and upon seeing the answers the penny can drop for some people and they realise it was right in front of them the whole time. C'est la vie. But I see "research" as a continuum Mickguard, and interrogating the more experienced practitioner is arguably just as valid as literature (and internet) review. Like you ... I do see some very lazy questions (IMHO) and I just don't respond. [Mostly I don't respond 'cos I'm a noob myself and I know others will do a better job of responding] . I won't go on ... just my 2c worth (which is only about a quarter of an American penny at the moment!!!!!).
  2. I’m glad CrazyManAndy asked that question. I guessed that catastrophic failure was highly unlikely … but it’s worthwhile to get that feedback. So there’s a couple of lessons there for compressor noobs like me … condensation does occur during compressor use and the moisture needs to be vented after each use [i knew that much] . But don’t assume that the drainage plug is at the lowest point of your compressor .
  3. Yep ... the clear coat is also standard nitro. I was aiming for a couple of weeks in between. After a couple of weeks the black seemed to be dry and wasn't giving off any thinner scent. I sanded a couple of small sections off the black with no dramas ... but I did go fairly gently. So .... I think I'll be spraying clear coat again this weekend ... and I'll re-assess in a few weeks as to whether I get to do the final sand and buff before Christmas or whether I display a little patience and make it a new year project. Cheers
  4. I always let the air out first. The drainage plug is rounded and I need a set of multi-grips to get it off anyway. With a bit of pressure behind it the plug would absolutely shoot out ... which could be handy if my neighbour's cat was nearby ... but not so great if my kids were too close. I think I'd better stick to rocking it
  5. Good point anderekel, thanks. I guess there's a lesson there for young (and not so young ) players. I leave it unplugged between uses, but I'll be rockin' it round a lot more to get it as moisture free as I can. Thanks.
  6. I've sprayed my latest build with black nitro and on the weekend I went over that with clear coat. I sprayed outside on a sunny, Sydney weekend and I put a coat on every 30 minutes or so over the 2 days ... I'm guessing I ended up with 15 or so passes / coats. I would have used maybe a litre of 50/50 paint / thinners. The headstock looks like it has a good build up on it and it should sand and buff well. The body should have something close to the same build up on it, but it's not quite as glossy at this stage. My question is ... is there such a thing as too much clear coat? On a previous build using auto paint I think I under-did it slightly with the clear coat. So I'm tempted (weather permitting) to lay a few more coats on it this weeked. But I want to finish this build before Christmas which would mean spraying this weekend; and then leaving it a fortnight to harden before sanding, buffing, and assembling on the weekend before Christmas. So ... do I lay down some more clear coat? Or do I stop obsessing over nothing, leave the clear coat as it is, and just sand and buff the weekend after next?
  7. I've had my 2.5hp compressor maybe a year and each time I've used it (not that often) I always remove the drainage plug and park the compressor in the corner of the garage. However, I realised on the weekend that the drainage hole is obviously not at the lowest point of the compressor and I need to rock it around a bit to ensure all the moisture is removed. With a bit of rocking, I'm guessing a quarter of a cup of murky, rusty water came out. From here on in I'll make sure I tip the thing about a bit when I've finished with it ... but is there anything I should do now? Should I tip a bunch of WD40 or fish oil or rust inhibitor in the bottom of the compressor and swirl it about to try and halt any rust that's commenced? Or is the barrell thick enough that I just need to get it right from now on?? As always ... I'd appreciate your thoughts.
  8. On my last build I used a water slide decal with a design that I put together in Paint Shop Pro. If you want to do something that looks similar to a Fender logo there are several fonts out there. Bannf is very close, Brush Script isn't bad, and I have one called ... Fender Font. If you only want black type or an outline, you could use one of those fonts in any word processing package and print them on water slide decal paper. But as I recently discovered, clear decal paper isn't an option on a black headstock
  9. If you measure roughly where the centre of your current pick up cavities are before you glue your top on, it would simply be a matter of drilling a wide enough hole through the new top at that spot and using a router with a bearing on it to follow the exact line of the existing cavities. A very neat finish if you're happy with the current placement of the pups. I wouldn't see a need to shim the pickup cavities as the pickups will be 'riding' on the pickup rings which are screwed to your top wood. There'll be a little extra space under the pup but I don't see that as an issue.
  10. Thanks guys ... it looks like a professionally cut, vinyl decal will be the way to go. And that's a nice looking headstock there DGW ... it gives me a sense of the level of detail that I might be able to go to with mine. Cheers
  11. On my current build I've sprayed the body and headstock with black nitro. Yesterday I put stripes on the front of the body using adhesive yellow vinyl and I'm pleased with the way that worked. But I also had some yellow on clear water slide decals for the headstock and rear of the body that simply disappeared into the black. I printed the decals on a colour laser printer and they looked strong and opaque on the decal paper, but they obviously have some degree of transparency (translucency). So I'm thinking I have two options: Get white decal paper (instead of clear) which the yellow should sit on top of and block out the black underneath. But that creates some issues around cutting out the logo and having a white edge, etc. Or, get the logos cut out of the same vinyl I used for the stripes, which will require more build up when I get to the clear coat. Out of interest ... both logos are just words ... a Children of Bodom Hate Crew logo on the rear of the body and my son's name in the COBHC font for the headstock. If I go the vinyl route I'll need to get them professionally cut ... there's a bit of detail and I know my son won't accept my shaky, old-man attempts. So I'm interested in your thoughts on the above ... or other alternatives. What have you done?
  12. SNAP!! We have a large room with a piano and guitars and stuff where the kids do their music lessons ... and practice There's a few framed pieces along one wall that I'll eventually take down and put in a 'gun rack'. As a non-player with no guitar history, my guitars are tending to be playable functional guitars, but with some quirky design touches. So I can envisage a wall full of interesting looking guitars that will be a decorative feature and talking point ... but hopefully continue to inspire the kids to grab one and play. There's also a couple of amps sitting there ready to go. Part of that vague plan involves guitars with different set-ups and tunings and stuff ... whatever all that means I'm sure there will come a day when my wifes says, "NO MORE!!!" ... but until that day, I'll keep building, learning (and hopefully) improving.
  13. I've completed 2 (both posted on this forum) ... I'm working on another 1 at the moment ... I have another body that I started but set aside because of a design error (I'll eventually come back to it) ... and I have another couple of lumps of wood tucked away under the bench with vague ideas floating around in the recesses of my mind for them. So I think that's pi - 1.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510 ... but I finished school 30 years ago so I can't be too sure of the math. However ... I haven't built a neck from scratch ... I've modified or finished bought necks. So you might need to subtract a little more from pi. But for those of you who have built many guitars, I'm interested in what you do with them? This is purely a hobby for me, and I have 4 kids, so at the moment I have logical recipients for my guitars. But my kids already had a couple of electrics and a couple of acoustics before I began so my wife is beginning to look at me with those strange eyes every time I tell her I've bought more wood ... or tools ... or pickups ... or paint ... or, or or. I'm sure she's on the verge of cutting off important parts of my anatomy with a rusty razor blade. So ... where do your guitars and basses go?
  14. I sorta figured (and hoped) you might say that. I've really gotta check them out. Again ... very nice work!
  15. Very nice work black_labb Did you get the timber anywhere around here?
  16. That's got a deeeeeep bevel ... I doubt you'll get a router bit wide and shallow enough to do it. I'd suggest you start practising your rasp skills
  17. I recently used killemall's method on a V and it worked fine. But I had to start the project again .. turns out the template I made was based on a RR type V, and not the Alexi V my son wants to emulate So second time around I used a large chamfer bit just for the experience. I used double-sided tape to attach a straight edge / guide to the face of the guitar and ran the router along that. The guide was set so that it would be a deeper cut at the tips, and fading away to just a couple of milimetres at the neck. Both methods worked fine ... but the chamfer bit provided a slightly cleaner, more professional line. A word of warning though, if you're going to put a jack in the side of the guitar as opposed to the face you'll need to carefully map out whether you'll have enough space between the top and bottom chamfers ... if you do both faces as I did.
  18. Have you considered water slide decals? You can buy A4 sheets through hobbyists that can be printed in colour via ink-jet or laser printers. The principles are essentially the same as the tutorial on this site but the clear coat build up that you'll need for water slide decals will be less than for mylar film or vinyl decals (IMHO) . This is one that I recently did on a maple neck which gives you some sense of the possibilities. Obviously though there'd be some different design considerations if you're putting a logo on a black background ... primarily because colour printers (most commonly) do not print white ... that is left clear for the white paper to show through. Separately, I've done a logo for a black background which I've printed with a gold font and it looks as though it will be a strong logo ... but I'm yet to actually apply it so I can't show pics .
  19. The people have spoken Fridge … go for it with the auto paint . It’s looking good so far … but that must have been some huge cutting board!?! I like the headstock. It’s similar to my first build.
  20. G'day Fridge ... both of my builds so far have used auto paint ... take a look at my recently completed Heartocaster build in this section (link below). It's auto-primer, paint and then clear coat. My first build, the Batocaster, was the same but with a very fine metal flake. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=37690 I've found that painting / finishing is probably one of the hardest areas to get definitive answers on. There's a wealth of great information on this forum if you search ... but you'll also find some confusing and contradictory information, some of which probably stems from personal preferences and some of it from the part of the world that you're in and the quality of products that are available. I decided to use auto paint in spray cans 'cos it's easy to get and to 'understand'. I was happy with the finish on my first build, I'm rapt in the finish on my second build, and I know I can do better still . My eventual intention though is to buy a spray set-up (it's Fathers Day soon in Australia so I'm dropping big hints) and try some other painting media ... I really want to give nitro cellulose lacquer a go. My advice ... go for it with the auto paint ... but take your time with the preparation. An excellent finish requires an excellent preparation ... I learnt that from experience!! You'll also get valuable advice from forum members about ideal spraying conditions ... temperature, humidity, etc ... but I'll leave that for people who know more than me . Good luck ... and post some pictures!!!!
  21. Thanks Xanthus ... I got it from Gilet Guitars in Sydney ... they bought up a whole bunch of agathis blanks ... I'm told, from a business in Indonesia or the Philipines that went under. They're all glued up from 3 to 5 pieces with just enough room for the body and upper horn. Here is the piece that this build started from. I bought a few agathis blanks (as well as an over-sized piece of mahogany). I cut up and glued another of the blanks and we've pretty well finished the body on an Alexi Laiho style Rhoads for son #2. We were actually half way through shaping a Rhoads when I realised I'd made a template from a picture of the older Jackson RR1 Rhoads . So I put that aside ... started again ... and I'll turn the mistake into something else one day. I found the agathis easy enough to work with and the result with the Heartocaster is a light, comfortable guitar with a nice sound .
  22. Don't ask me how ... but I lost a tuner. I was going to replace it with a chrome one but the little black sheep seemed like an interesting idea and I think it works. And yeah ... Bridge Climb is one of those things you've got to tick off the list when you're in Sydney. My office overlooks Sydney Harbour, and we Sydney-siders tend to take it for granted ... but the twilight climb which starts in daylight and ends at night with the lights of the City is spectacular. Pru did that one a couple of months back with her big brothers and had a ball. I was going for clean lines and simplicity, and so I toyed with a chrome pick up ring or spraying the ring the same blue as the body. But the tie in with the maple neck worked well so I left it. If I'd described all the elements up front (blue body, cream pickup ring, black dot markers, contrasting graphic, black sheep tuner) it would have sounded way too busy. But I'm pleased with the way it balances out ... it evolved quite nicely. And the sound is good too (to my untrained, unplaying ear) although I might muck around with the set up / intonation this arvo if time permits. Thanks for the positive words!!
  23. Thanks -martin- ... the graphics are water slide decals. I did the design in Paint Shop Pro and then printed them on a colour laser printer. And thanks too pete ... Pru recently turned 11, so clean lines, simplicity, a little whimsy, and some graphics with a bit of a grunge feel seemed like the right mix.
  24. After the evil, pointy guitar that son #3 and I did for our first build (see my profile pic at left) this build with my daughter was aiming for a more traditional build but with some "Rock Chick" elements. We went with Pru's favourite colour, and then aded some interesting additions to it ... the logos that we designed in the same style that she likes to write her name, the heart shaped monkey grip and volume knob, etc. I think we've achieved something that she loves now, but that she'll be proud of for some years yet. The specs: Agathis string through body Maple neck and fretboard 25.5" scale Single Wilkinson 9k bridge humbucker Tune-o-matic bridge Wilkinson 6 in line tuners ... 5 chrome / 1 black DiMarzio 500k volume pot with heart shaped control (carved from Agathis) Heart shaped monkey grip The headstock with heart influence and Pru's logo Front shot Appreciate your feedback.
  25. Do a search on Google ... you'll find lots of sites out there, and one of them will be laid out in a way that makes sense to you. I like the Seymour Duncan site referred to in the previous post ... and this is another one that I like. It has lots of wiring diagrams, but there's also a stack of easily understandable wiring and related information for people like me who aren't Electronic Engineers! http://www.guitarelectronics.com/c=eGLeVtv...iringresources/ Cheers
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