frank falbo

Can't remember if it was here or some other forum, but we determined the video clip was faked. The vibrato was applied with a pitch shifting device, and the performance was a Milli Vanilli. The more you extend the arm, the farther you have to travel for the same pitch fluctuation. Also the warble would greatly increase as you extend the arm. Finally, the extenders have to be hollow, so I imagine it was easily destroyed.

I've never lost my chuck. If I had, I probably would've quit using it as a router pronto. Although I need to replace it because it cross-threaded at some point, so there's a small area around 1/4" (which happens to be router bit shaft size) where it threads a little roughly.

Michael Jackson

I can't believe that I still have dialup, but I do. SBC still doesn't have DSL in this area, and I'm in what's considered a suburb of Chicago. 5 miles east of me they have DSL. I have the satelite dish so I can't go through the cable company either. I'm burning daylight here!!

I use a file toward the end of final shaping. Then I'm guaranteed that the eyes are level with the rest. It's just like fretboard leveling with inlays. Even sandpaper on a hard block sometimes leaves those eyes "up" a little. Watch when you're sanding that you don't drive a bunch of Purpleheart dust into the birdseyes, too. Work with compressed air, or keep a vacuum going all the time. Last time I used Birdseye it was with two ebony stripes in the neck. It's such a pain in the butt keeping that ebony dust from going everywhere.

Sweet Daisy Dukes, Lt. Dangle.

If it is when you're not touching the strings (same as bridge, tuners, etc. they're all connected) it is completely normal. Almost all guitars are noisier when you the player are not grounded. Shielding, as lovekraft suggests, would be an "upgrade" and not a reason to send it back within your grace period. It's all about stray noise. In some environments it will be far less noticable than others, because there is less noise in the air for the guitar to pick up.

I like it under the nut, but I also like to start it "as soon as possible". That means if you shape all your open chords, including a 1st fret bar chord you shouldn't really feel it with your thumb. But anything beyond that point should be getting thicker rapidly, and maxing out at the nut. Then it's up to you how much you want to spread out the taper on the headstock side. Again, I'll make that as long as possible, often flattening right before the tuner flange. If you're putting a volute on a straight headstock BTW, it should be back further IMO, in the general area where the head thins down from the top.

Radius dittos! I'm at 1 3/16" with a one-piece Quilted Maple 7-string. It should be done this summer. It just needs to be buffed. I've had it playing before and it's fantastic. It's a bolt on with an AANJ, and 5 recessed neck ferrules. If it wasn't Maple I probably wouldn't have gone that thin. It also has a custom T-o-M and string through the body. You can't use a trem. BTW Wes I recessed a Saber backplate by slicing grooves into the trem block, so the springs lay flush with the bottom of the block. I recessed the electronics plate too, by hand. It barely touched the 5-way. If you're trying to tighten the lows while still producing good vibration, a thinner body is useful. Carl Thompson basses are thinned down. If you go thin you have to have rigidity, either from harder woods like Walnut or Maple, or with the help of laminates. (or both) The electronics all fit but I couldn't do a 5-way. I have to do 3 mini toggles. I can't fit a push/pull either so I might have to add another mini toggle or two for the "fun stuff."

Copy Fender. Either go to a shop and measure the Fender or Fender copy, or create a formula where you can extract the measurement from ratios using a good photograph.

The bridge is the highlight for me. The strap buttons look great and will be fine provided they use the locks IMO. It looks like a regular straplock with a koa sleeve. With a traditional strap, the thinnest part of the Koa could crack or split. But if it's CA soaked, it's basically high density plastic now. I don't understand the open Sperzels. It seems you're asking for dust and debris to get in there. I've never seen those before, maybe I'm missing something. Sperzels, with their big metal disc on the inside are prone to getting gritty over time anyway. The standard ones need to be taken apart and cleaned sometimes. That's why I'm confused by the open top. The guitar is gorgeous. Like some of you, I've never liked turquoise. I don't like it in jewelry, silverware, sculpure, or guitar inlay. That's my personal handicap. It doesn't detract from the guitar at all. I can see the guitar for what it is, even though I wouldn't have designed it. As for the comparisons, I think some of LGM's airbrushed flames represent the same amount of planning and attention to detail as some of this guitar's inlay, they're just different activities. Craig's inlays are equally exhausting. Now that Wes knows there's some CNC involved, I think he agrees with the rest of us that although this guitar is among the finest designed and implemented, it doesn't represent a particular breakthrough in human faculty. I do agree with Wes from the standpoint of design impotence. Guitars like these should make all of us take a look at that slab "tinker toy" guitar we're working on and try to figure out if we're shortcutting certain ornaments because we're just following the path layed down for us by assembly line mass merchants. Guitars like these should be a shock to the system. You guys have to get weaned off the Tele teat! I'm as "vintage" as the next guy, but it's a new millenium now, baby! Maybe this guitar can help wake some of you up! I'm going to start calling you guys the "Rumplestiltskins" Oh, wait....I forgot, this guitar is still the same basic LP junior shape from the 50's. Oh well, at least it's got turquoise!

I'm not afraid, you moderators can kiss my butt you all suck. - Ahh, if I say "just kidding" it makes it all go away.

Don't know how to answer that other than I just "do" it. I hold the piece with my left hand. Then turn the press on, and with a single motion, my right hand/arm lowers the bit and twists the lock. I think I might use my right wrist to lower the bit, I'd have to go do it. Then I give the lock a final tightening. Also I set the table really high, so the arbor is only coming down 1" or so. That eases sideways stress a little by keeping the arbor in mostly in its sleeve. Come to think of it, sometimes I hold the piece with both my elbows/forearms, lower the bit with my left hand, and tighten with my right hand. Its dangerous stuff, and I don't recommend it to anyone. But it works for me in small doses.

Do you have your bridge grounded? Is it possible that we're now just talking about the totally normal increase in hum when your body is not grounded from touching the strings? Virtually every guitar makes more noise when the user is not grounded him/herself.

That's kind of what I was talking about. You can't really dislike the sound of Bartolinis because he makes almost every sound. But I understand that you probably have disliked all the Bartolinis you have heard in your time. Perhaps you also dislike how some other bass players sound, and you know they use Bartolinis. Anyway, I'm totally not picking on you, and for those guys that love the EMG's there's really no reason to switch to Bartolinis. When I hear someone say "I don't like the way Duncans or Dimarzios sound, etc. there's some validity to it, because a lot of other manufacturers have a sonic "footprint". They may have many models, but they're designed from a point of view. Bill Bartolini isn't like that. Or of he is, the point of view is note clarity, but not a certain "tone". But sometimes people get a certain idea that there's a Bartolini sound because they hear a bunch of jazz players using them, or whatever, and what they're really hearing is the sound of the genre. Like I've heard guys playing Bartolinis and I couldn't stand their sound. And to boot, I knew a lot of it was the pickups and how they had their system designed. But that's what's so cool about Bill. He doesn't care what you want to sound like, he'll make it. Even if the rest of us know it sucks

If you play all styles of music that includes jazz, then I would recommend the Bartolini system HR-3.4 with a Bartolini 9J or 9K pair, depending on your bass. If you have an Alder/Basswood bass then try the 9K's and if it's Ash try the 9J's. You could use the system HR-3.3 but for a wider variety of music the midrange control of the 3.4 is necessary.

I've done it several times, but I have a larger press with variable speeds. Still, the fastest isn't even close to a router, but for small passes, cutting in neck angles, deepening trem routes, and light modifications to pickup routes, it works fine. The danger is that with the slower RPMs you will grab the wood and throw it. So it's a physical workout for me if I do it, even with shallow depths. You have to hold the piece with equal strength from all angles. If you're going to use a pattern bit with MDF it'll be absolutely fine, provided you have the RPM's. You might try roughing it in with a rasp style bit, and then convert to a pattern cutting router bit for the cleanup. Either way, bandsaw the perimiter as tight as you can.

A friend of mine got one. The free wire stripper it came with is great! That alone was almost worth it. His tip broke too. It seems that's the real scam, making money on tips. It only "replaces" a real iron if you're in a pinch. I'd re-do any temporary cold heat joint once I got back to the shop. But for an "in the field" emergency repair its a great tool to add to the survival kit. BTW the reason it doesn't get hot in the commercial is because they are on and off quickly. If you stay on a surface long enough, the heat from the surface flows back and heats the tip. So you can't always go around touching the tip haphazardly.

How could the switch chassis be hot? You need to remedy that. Then you can ground the switch chassis. No offense, but if you wired the wrong terminals on the 3 pin jack, you just might be responsible for the switch chassis being connected to hot.

You should cup your hand and put it in your palm first so you can more accurately drop it into place. You know, like some people do with salt. Or better yet, smooth it over with your fingers right after it drips in there so you have less levelling to do. I can't imagine the solder staying put for very long. You'd have to follow it up with superglue around it. The tutorial says the soldering iron shouldn't damage the wood. Mine will burn wood. The reason it doesn't burn the wood when its on the frets is because they are a heat sink. They never reach the full temperature of the iron. For side dots I'd say it's much easier to use silver or steel rod than solder.

Bartolini uses the pickup chassis simply as a housing. So you can get a soapbar housed pickup that's a P-bass pickup inside it. And you can get P and J bass housings with totally modern Hi-Fi coils inside. With Bartolini you really should read all you can on their website www.bartolini.net and if the preamps seem to complicated for a custom wire job, you can get their prewired harnesses. Then it's just a matter of soldering the pups and jack in place. For bass I vote Bartolini all the way, with everything else a distant 2nd place. But that's because I understand them so well that I can make a Bartolini system that "outperforms" others once I know what I'm trying to do. Like if you want that flat EMG sound but you went with a really deep, warm Bartolini instead, you'd be dissatisfied. You'd think the EMG was "better". But if I knew that's what you wanted, I'd make a system that went after that sound. Bartolini's pickups are so diverse, there's not really a "Bartolini sound" so sometimes it's a bit overwhelming. Whereas generally there is an "EMG" sound. If there's anything that couold be thought of as a Bartolini sound it would be in the clarity. It's hard to match their fundamental note clarity.

You always have the option of angling the bottom of the neck heel, like on a belt sander for example. But then that neck is permanently angled. There're a lot of thread here if you do a search on neck angle. You can check out the many ways people have done them and then decide if it's too much for you to handle. You could also start with a shim, and later as your skills develop, go back and cut an angle into the pocket and toss your shim in the trash where it belongs.

Really? I didn't find I needed one, but our machine was kind of heavy, on purpose, so it would absorb the inertia. It's like it was easy to push around for the user, but not for the router bit to yank it around unnecessarily. Or do you mean the brake is useful for making parallel passes across a top? Because I found that after you cleaned most of the material away, making several random passes did more to ensure a uniform surface after sanding. I also wanted multidirectional movement so I could follow the shape of the guitar on carves.

What's that clear plastic that "carries" light? I don't mean fiber optic cable, but like when there's a light somewhere, on the side of the plastic but it makes the whole piece glow. Maybe it is in the fiber optic family. Anyway I'm thinking that you could use green tinted clear plastic and light it from the side. Children's toys have this stuff. I just can't remember where to point you for an example. Maybe it's a slim LED up against clear plastic. I don't know. Anyway, another cool thing I just thought of would be to have an elevated logo (or your shape) with the LED's underneath, so they lit up the outline like ground effects on a car. As for the wires, If you're doing bindind, perhaps under hidden in the binding channel would be easier. Maybe then you could do glowing side dots like Dave. Don't be afraid to use "tape" instead of wire. If you run wire down the truss rod channel, you can use a rounded truss rod with a square bit. People do that all the time anyway, only now you'd have two wires along the bottom in the empty space on either side of the rod. That would probably be better than routing under the rod, especially if you were going to have a thinner neck. Routing channels into the underside of the fretboard is also pretty safe structurally. I would recommend going to "terminals" when you get to the headstock. In other words, don't have the wire running down the neck be the same wire you use to solder your parts to. Instead, have a piece of brass rod or something under the truss rod cover, and solder to that. That way you can change it or repair it easier later. Same goes for the neck end. Run terminals at the butt end and solder to that. Great idea by the way. You could also route a larger channel, and simply "backlight" it with white/clear LEDs. Then you could even have four corner screws holding it down, so you could change the plate out for a new design whenever you wanted. Get green tinted plastic, sticker your design on it from the back, then spray it with black satin paint. Remove your sticker, and you have your plate. If the tint is too strong you might have to paint the black from the top. Or go clear and use green LED's but I think you'd be ble to detect a more definite light source. The key for that symbol is to have uniform light.

Well, rosewood is already oily. So if you start putting tung or linseed on there, it can sometimes be too much. Then on a hot or sweaty gig it can get gummy. I'm not saying it's guaranteed to turn out badly, I just feel something light like a good lemon oil is all you need. But if you're trying to coax a darker, more played in look to the rosewood, then you can sparingly "finish" it with oil. Usually I'll only do it if I've had to really clean an old board down, like with flax soap or multiple naptha passes. Like if I've de-greased it so much that the oil needs replacing. But even then, playing it will draw oils up and put finger oils in, so again a light conditioning is usually all that's needed. On inlay repairs, or partial refrets (which I hardly do) sometimes I'll use linseed oil to get a build, and a little bit of gloss to match the old section of the board better. Otherwise it's obvious what's old and what's been scraped or sanded clean.