avengers63

I finally have it all sorted out. mostly 

The tone cap @henrim pointed out may or may not have been a factor. I adjusted it before doing anything else, but it wasn't the real problem. I think I had the hot & ground to the output backwards.

The unwound strings still have more output than the wound, but only on certain pickup settings. It's really odd.

The coil selection switches finally work exactly as they should. There isn't enough tonal variation to make it worth the effort in the future. A simple coil tap would do just as well.

In fact, the HB setting in the neck came loose after I had it all put back together It still works perfectly as a single. As I'm currently tired of it fighting me, it's just gonna stay exactly like it is for a while.

The middle & neck pickups are REALLY bright. It might be because I used 500K pots. A little roll off of the tone knob sorts it all out just right. Other than that, the neck & middle are fantastic! There's so much spank and twang you wouldn't believe it. 

The bridge is...... just a powerful bridge HB. It isn't bad, but it's nothing special either. It does split nicely, so there's that. As a whole, the pickups were a worthy experiment that don't disappoint, but the experiment isn't worth repeating.

In the assembly, I ran into a little snafu. With the little bevel I put around the tongue, the neck plate was just a bit oversized. I don't have any black ferrules on hand, so I had to use a narrow chrome plate I had in the drawer. I also misplaced the screws, so the neck screws are mismatched. As it fought me the whole way, I'm not even a little surprised.

So it's finally all done. For all the headaches, it didn't turn out too bad. It'll never be a go-to for me, but it likely won't get ignored either, just because the singles are so snappy.

In the end, there are two clear positives to take away.  1) I dig this headless hardware. A setup goes for about $60 on Amazon, so I'll probably return to it someday. 2) I worked out a p/g shape I can use as a starting point should I want to put a p/g on my double-cut shape in the future.

I loves me some mother of toilet seat

The markers went in easy enough. After doing the stupid-hard grape vine inlay, these fins are a breeze. With the markers being full width and the f/b already radiused, I improvised some runners so that the dremel would have a relatively flat surface with which to make a relatively flat bottomed cavity. Pre-radiusing the f/b before it's glued on is a real labor saver, but it inevitably creates other issues you need to be aware of and potentially compensate for.

As the cherry fretboard darkens over time, these fins will really pop.

5 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

On the photo they look abaloney (abalone-ish?) enough to fool me. With strings on (the guitar, not you) I guess it's hard to tell the difference to shell material.

Fake MOP. But you hit on the entire point I use in my head. Once they're flush and polished up, it's hard to tell the difference unless you know what to look for. At even 5 feet away, they're indistinguishable. So if it's a choice between a plastic set for $12 or a shell set for $75, it's a pretty easy decision. If I use real shell, it's either a really good deal or something special, like this......

The body has a vertical wall of blue tape around the edge as a dam and is getting a LOT of lacquer. Many much coats brushed on. I always sand through on the edge, and i REALLY don't wanna do that again. In the meantime, I got the cheap, plastic, Chinese sharkfins in today. Tomorrow is inlay day. Just under $11 for the set shipped.

Just a roughed-in test to see if I like it. I think I do.

Also, I did an ounce of research to make sure I was using the correct spelling. Aelita was a Russian movie from 1924. From Wiki: "Aelita, also known as Aelita: Queen of Mars, is a 1924 Soviet silent science fiction film. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's 1923 novel of the same name."

http://pics.imcdb.org/0is204/aelita3ab8.5352.jpg

The weird continues to increase! Now I want to see the (presumably) train wreck of a 100 y/o movie that will absolutely NOT hold up.

I got these two necks done and ready for finish. The StraTele neck is definitely going to get amber shellac for that vintage look. The Aelita (top) might get linseed oil, might get shellac. I haven't decided yet. 

But I had an idea that might or might not have merit. The Aelita is a weird Russian thing from the 70's. The whole thing is oddball. that's one reason I went with oak/hickory for the neck and the oversized dots. Lean into the weird, right? So I thought.... why not do the name on the headstock in the Cyrillic alphabet that they use in Russia?

SO.......

I decided to dismantle ALL of the wiring and put it back together piece by piece. That's the only way I know to completely eliminate the insane buzz. Remembering how this has been fighting me every step of the way, it went exactly as we should have anticipated.

I took all of the pickups and switches out of the picture, then started re-assembling, middle pickup only. One hot, one ground, that's it. Straight into the volume pot, tone hanging odd of the volume as normal, insane buss still there. Not your normal s/c buzz - we all know what that sounds like. No, this is intense. 

I'm guessing there's an issue with one of the two pots. 

Were I working and had the spare income, I'd give it to the local experts and pay them to screw with it.

Like henrim said - there are two ways of doing it, and neither are wrong. 

MY PERSONAL VOODOO: I'd only do it the way you did if I were going to put a headplate on it. This would hide the joint. In my mind, it seems like it would also strengthen the joint. I have -zero- proof, but it still feels right.  

Doing it the other way gives you the opportunity to bling up the joint. A 1/8" accent piece highlighting the joint really makes a visual difference. EG: This is a pic of the glue-up of the neck for my high end build. The main part of the shaft is a 7-piece sandwich of chechen and white limba. I put in a white limba scarf accent. As the headstock is all chechen, no stripes, the scarf accent serves not only as decoration, but as a visual barrier for the end of the striped part.

Also, as I mentioned before, I didn't give one thought to having the headstock piece all angled and perfect. After it came out of the clamps, but before the ears were glued on, I took it to the bandsaw to remove the majority of the excess, then ran it through the jointer to level it out. 

This next one is after the truss rod channel was routed and the ears were being glued on. As you can see, jointing it afterwards is a hellofalot easier and cleaner.

The final thing, after the headpiece was both on and inlaid. I honestly don't remember, but I probably hit it in the jointer after the headpiece was on. Also, I screwed up. The headstock piece was about 1" thick. I completely forgot to thin it down before doing the headpiece & ears. This significantly moved the placement of the scarf on the shaft. I'm not happy with this, but it's what it is and there's no going back now.

54 minutes ago, Asdrael said:

Unclamping everything, I was left a bit disappointed. It's not as tight as I wanted it, but going in, I knew the very edges were not 100% flush and that the way I clamped it didn't allow for corrections on that. Still not bad.

This is the exact reason I don't even try and make it "perfect" before glue-up. In MY experience, it's always gonna be off a little. I'll leave the blank just a little thick - maybe 1/16"-1/8". After the neck scarf, I run the face of the blank through the jointer a few times. The joint is cleaned up and the blank is ready to receive the fretboard.

3 hours ago, Crusader said:

Man those inlays, how tf do you do those things? Trace around with pencil and go free-hand with a Dremel?

That's EXACTLY what I do. 1) Use a mechanical pencil. This will give a consistently sized line. 2) Dremel on a router base. You can spend too much on a Stew-Mac base, but I can testify that the Dremel base works fine. 3) Talk to your dentist. Their burrs & bits are the same size shank as a Dremel bit. Tooth enamel is harder than wood, so their bits wear out quickly. But they're still PLENTY sharp enough for inlay work. As they're going to be thrown away, my dentist gave me about 20 1/16" bits. 4) If it's a complicated, multi-piece inlay like each one of these, separate them into smaller pieces. This usually happens on it's own when you soak them off of the backing board. Smaller pieces makes for an easier, tighter fit.

I did the inlay on the truss rod cover today. I snipped off the end of the fretboard, taped it to a piece of scrap walnut, and flattened it out with the disk/belt sander. Brom there, it's just rout the inlay.

The gaps aren't all filled in, it isn't cleaned up thoroughly, and it's just wet with water. But DAMN is this looking good!

Working on the inlays today. 

Don't feel like you're alone. I have 4 in various stages of incompletion, and a few others that have been abandoned.

I got it all together. As I've heard the Brits say on a car resto show - this headless unit is a fiddly bit of kit.

There's a greater than normal amount of wiring issues. 1) There is a MASSIVE grounding issue. Huge amount of static that actually gets worse when I touch the bridge, but is a lot lower when I touch the metal sheath of the cord. 2) This is a new one on me. The pickups are set more-or-less even. The volume increases as the strings get thicker. Thicker strings generate a stronger signal, but not so much that the volume between the two E strings would be so different. The high E is about half the volume of the low.

So long story short, the construction is done, but it's essentially unplayable until I can get the wiring al sorted out.

It just keeps on fighting me......

Let's rough out three neck profiles...

Since I put the fretboards on first, I need to stabilize it in the clamps. The f/b is already radiused, so clamping it off to the side wants to twist the headstock to that side. Obviously, this will monkey up everything in the router jig. A simple 1/4" riser, fretboard cutoff, takes care of that!

Top to bottom: maple StraTeleCaster, QSWO Aelita, Spanish cedar Kelly. There's not a name brand company anywhere that would accept a maple neck with a dark mineral streak like this. Me? I think it gives the wood character. My old art teacher drilled it into my head: variety creates interest.

On 5/31/2023 at 9:56 AM, henrim said:

I was going to wind my own pickup but don’t feel like experimenting, so DAX it is.

I upgraded an entry level Jackson recently. I put a X2N in the bridge and DAX in the neck. That neck chugs like a monster! It's my new favorite pup for metal rhythm. I expect your DAX bridge to do just as well for lead.

I swear this whole thing is cursed.

I needed to do a little work on the neck. The headpiece sat too high - the strings weren't even touching the zero-fret. The end angle of the neck also didn't match with the angle of the headpiece. IDH why the end of the bracket has an angle at all, but so be it.

While trying to get the end angle right on the disk sander, I got too aggressive. I might die of not surprise.

So there's nothing for it but to put an extension on it and re0shape the end.

It's an end-to-straight grain joint, but the headpiece screws will extend through the fix, so I'm not concerned about it at all.

55 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Damn, you've been busy this month!

SR

Well, I went into the hospital on 4/18. When I was ready to go back to work on 4/25, I was fired for being in the hospital. I wasn't there long enough for FMLA protection. So I've been keeping myself pretty busy. Fortunately, I have just about everything needed for these builds on-hand.

The abalone purfling is going in a LOT easier than I thought it would.

I decided against using the zip-line stuff. I bought some really inexpensive strips on Amazon. It's about 15" of pieces that are maybe 1/4" / 5mm long, all attached to a flexible paper backing. I've discovered that if I cut it into manageable lengths, I can wedge them into place, drip some thin C/A over it, and we're all good. There is ample space for the C/A to leech in to. I have enough to do both the front AND back in b/w/b/abalone/b/w/b/chechen. 

As I was already binding the Kelly body, today was as good a time as any to start binding this thing also. First step is to flood/seal the shelf with water thin C/A.

Watching the AEW PPV from this past Sunday while I'm working.

I can only do so much before my fingers are too gummed up with dried C/A to continue. This will take several days to do right.

Binding day. I'd rather have gone with cream binding, but the rest of the plastic I have is black, so I'm stuck.

Pickups used as advertised and what's on the multimeter

NECK

MIDDLE

BRIDGE

Wiring schematics used. The DPDT on the left gives you the north coil, both is series, and south coil. With the bridge being a hot-rail/single combo, this is particularly useful.

And say what you will about my wiring. It's ugly and kinda haphazard, but it works.

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Ahh, of course! Remembering your OCD that just didn't look like something you'd accept.

Simple. It isn't screwed down yet. The wires are shoved into the cavity, but that edge is still lifted up a little bit by unruly wires.