John Abbett

There are tools to get broken screws out. There are two different types. They are sold via the web.

Look up screw extractor on google. Plenty if info.

We use them in boat building. The screws we use are soft and break easy.

The tool is basically a metal tube that is split, it has teeth on the business end. You put it over the broken end of the screw and with your drill in reverse, it threads over the screw. The tube is smooth, so once you have about half the depth, you turn the thing to forward and the screw comes right out. It leaves a larger hole, but it's a clean hole. You fill or use a bigger screw.

-John

They both work. There are only two wires. I'm thinking I'll have to take them apart (Covers Off) and check the two coils separately.

When I got these I tested them, and I thought they were both in the 7-9K range. Which doesn't make any sense at all. You can't increase the resistance by shorting it.

-John

Back off the strings, tighten the truss rod. It dosen't take much. I do it finger tight and then about another turn for a start. Use your straight-edge and tighten until it's straight. If you tighten up your strings and it moves, tighten a little more.

Small adjustments go a long way once it's doing it's thing.

-j

Thanks. I'll go check out the suggestions. The strings are new, and good quality. The bridge is good. I'm thinking it has to be something at the nut.

-John

Didn't think of that.

Maybe my nut is rounded over a little, and when I fret I'm hitting the nut at a different spot then when it's open.

Hmm..

-John

All,

I did the final setup on my latest build. I cut the nut, and the bridge, and set the intonation. The intonation set perfectly for 5 strings, but the "D" string, I adjusted all the way forward and it is still way off. There must be something else wrong. It's fully 1/4 of an inch from the "A" string and even further from the "G" string. I've got stair steps, and then the "D" is pegged. Any idea what could be going on here?

This doesn't make sense. Logic says, if the ends are right, then the intonation should be somewhere in between the adjacent strings, this is off the scale.

-John

Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer is good stuff. If you can get it it, you will be happy with it.

It doesn't blush as much as some of the others. Goes on very clear, and levels very very nicely.

I put it on with two dixie cups of Nitro, to one dixie cup thinner per coat for a large hollowbody, front back, neck, headstock.

-John

For a truss rod, I used some threaded rod from the hardware store. Cost a couple of bucks. Works like a champ.

I put three nuts on the one end, and torc'd them against each other to lock them in place. Then 5 minuted epoxy'd them in the channel. The other end has a washer and nut.

Carbon fiber will cetainly give you rigidity, but you could add a truss rod fo two or three bucks just to be on the safe side.

Oh, I just ran it into the pickup cavity. You have to remove the neck pickup to adjust it. Take a minute or two but I can get a wrench on it.

I did the truss rod because the neck is pretty thin. I wanted to be able to pull it back if the strings put too much force on it. I don't know if the shoter neck means you need more or less tension to put the strings at standard pitch, but I didn't want to take any chances.

-John

I just finished a 19.10 scale guitar. I made the neck and had the fretboard slotted so I didn't have to worry about getting it right. I used standard width parts. My daughter can't fret the base strings, but she can reach the other four. She will grow into the other two.

-John

That's what I was thinking. Interesting.

Thanks.

-j

I think maybe one is shorted. What doesn't make sense to me is that I thought the orginal values were 7.8 and 9.0. Now I have 7.8 and 14. something. I'm guessing the 14. something one is shorted. What I don't understand, is if it was 9.0 and shorts, shouldn't it have less resistance, not more? Less wire means less resistance right?

I did get the pickup hot. I dribbled a very small amount of solder on the joint of the pickup cover and the bottom of the pickup because it was loose and wouldn't stay put. I didn't heat up the pickup, just dribbled. I must have screwed it up. I just don't understand the physics here.

I learn all the lessons. Sometimes twice.

-John

Hi,

I have two Gibson USA pickups.

One Reads 7.8 the other 14.1. I'm surprised in the difference, I thought they were from the same guitar.

They look the same. Shouldn't they be closer in value? One slightly hotter then the other?

-John

Right.

What I did was connect the three shields together at the switch, and run a jumper over to the swich body. At that point they are not in any circuit. The common hot off the switch runs over to the tip side of the jack, it's shield I connected to the ground side of the jack. That makes all the shields connected togeter, not part of the electrical ground until the jack, which at that point is headed off to the amp. I figure that way it's not participating in anything that's going to create noise.

I snipped off the ends that don't connect to anything. I like the heat shrink tubing idea - next time.

Get a rubber mallet to line up your boards. Lots cheaper. Glue up your blanks, clamp them snug but not tight, run your figer perpendicular to the joint, if you feel a ledge, tap it with the mallet. A tap here and there and you have the problem solved.

If you have a joint that is slipping, you can rub the boards together a few times, it makes the glue tacky and less slippery.

You can also put a couple of grains of sand in the glue joint, when you clamp the boards together it will keep them from moving.

-John

Thanks. I'll check if it's Meguiars.

-John

Thanks. It's nice to be able to get a sanity check every once in a while.

-John

Hi.

I have a basic two pickup two volume and two tone circuit. The circuit is electrically correct and tests fine.

I used shielded wire to go from my POTs to the three way switch. So I have a separate shielded wire to the left right, and common. I connected all the shields together at the switch and ran a jumper around and included the chassis ground on the switch (The back side that is not in the electrical circut).

The pots are part of the electrical ground, they are connected together and run out to the jack electrical ground.

I was thinking I should run the shield over to the ground on the jack, and connect them together. And only connect the shield to the pots.

So, I have shields which are all connected togeter at the switch to make a common connection, and at one other point, is connected to my electrical ground at the jack.

Does that sound right?

I assume that I need to include the shields in a circuit to make them effective, not just have them covering the wire and floating.

Should I not be thinking in terms of electrical ground and shields? In my case the shields don't have any signal.

-John

So far, i've read about and watched a few ways to do it:

Spokeshav, which is my personal favorite

Router template, which to me looks like a circus ride

Belt Sander, which looks like it'll do a good job, but seems time consuming and doesn't really get into all those little areas

Orbital Sander, which seems to work okay

Chizel, which worked for me, but i think its kinda iffy, as much more wood can come off due to grain shape, inner faults, etc.

and

Microplane, which is the newest one i learned about just surfing around in this forum.

I'm sure there's lots of other ways, but which way do you like the most?

All of the above. Depends on mood and if my daugter is asleep or not. You forgot hand plane. I use a low angle block plane for thos areas where you have a consistant slope, where your arm would rest on the face. I've also used a power jointer, hand held. Takes it right off. Little noisy, but quick.

Whatever works. It's all demolition. Doesn't have to be fancy until you get close to where you want to be.

-John

There's a good description of it here:

SIngleCoil Site

That's great, does anyone have the values needed for HB with 500K pot?

-John

1. Flatten and polish the back of the blade at least the edge.

2. Use a sharpening guide to put an edge on the blade with a stone.

3. Occasionaly take the burr off the edge by stoning the back edge.

4. Once you have a nice back and edge, adjust your guide a degree or two, to put a micro bevel on the blade. This is so you can touch up the blade without having to resharpen the entire edge.

Once in a while, put the blade back in the guide at the angle of the micro bevel and touch it up. Two or three passes of the stone.

You only have to prep the blade once, then just hit the micro bevel occasionally. I ususally touch it up if I'm going to do a lot of work with it. I think the last time I touched it up was a few months ago.

Oh, my stone is a water stone, very very fine. 8000 grit if I remember, I use that for the micro bevel, 1200 for the edge.

Taking off the burr will allow you to get the blade sharper. I take the burr off, then one final pass on sharpening as the last step. Otherwise you are continually rolling a burr and not really getting a fine edge.

Look at the edge with a magnifying glass. You can tell a sharp edge by the fact that it's stright across and not very jagged. A big burr leaves a jagged edge when it breaks of.

Oh, for a very quick hone, you can always take the iron and polish the back of the blade on your fine stone, it will touch up the amost sharp iron withouth guides. It's just touching up from the other side. It won't take off enough to thin your blade if you stone is fine enough to polish instead of cut.

There are a lot of ways to do it, some use fancy sharpening set ups, they probaby work great for initial sharpining. I've found a good stone and 5 minutes per blade will get it sharp enough to take thin shavings off of oak without effort.

-J

All,

Does anyone know if scratch and swirl remover is formulated for a particular type of finish? I'm using Nitro, do I need something that is compatible with it? I have some that I bought from the auto parts store, and now I'm wondering if it is formulated for two part auto finishes and might somehow screw up the Nitro.

I've spent a lot of time getting the finish to where it is, I'd hate to mess it up at this stage.

-John

Wow, revived almost exactly a year later. Since I started this thread, I bought a better random orbit sander and an OSS. The OSS has become one of my favorite tools, and is absolutely indispensable to me now. I've also gotten a little bit wiser about sanding techniques in general, so I'm spending a little less time sanding than before. One of my friends just got a Performax 22/44, and that thing is just awesome. I ran a body though it a couple weeks ago after I accidentally sanded a 1/16" low spot into it, and the drum sander flattened it right out.

I also have a set of cabinet scrapers now, but, as Dugg mentions, I have not been able to sharpen them properly. I think part of the problem is that I haven't invested in a decent burnisher yet, but I'm going to try to get that figured out before I shape my next neck.

A burnisher is nice, but not critical. I used an old router bit shank 1/2" that I chipped the bit on. The shank it hardened steel, and every bit as strong as the burnisher you buy. The trick I've found it to get the edge of your scraper perfectly square before you try to put the edge on. If you have an edge that is not 90 degree's, or worse is not the same angle, you are going to get bad results. You want an edge that is very clean, before you put the burr on it. If you have a rough edge then put a burr on it, you will end up with a rough burr. I use a sharpening stone to polish the face, back and end of the blade. Once it's polished and square I put a burr on it. It doesn't take a large burr if it's done right.

It takes a little longer the first time, but they last a long time as long as you don't set them on anything metal. Lay them on your table saw and the edge is probably shot. It's delicate.

-J

I actually followed the set of plans I got. The plans call for the 2/3 length center block, I extended it a bit.

Here is the link to the plans showing the construction.

http://www.guitarplansunlimited.com./ES335.htm

Nice plans, all the views matched perfectly.

The construction method I used was to bend solid wood strips around a hot pipe, and fit them to a form. I think you can see the form in the picture, it's on the wall behind the guitar. Anyway, then I cut the center block and fitted it to the top of the mold. I fitted a tailblock next. Then installed kerfing. Once I had the outside the way it's supposed to look, I carved the shape into the center block, the edges of the center block are at the same height as the sides, once shaped. The middle of the center block is 3/8 higher, so there is a 3/8 rise in the middle on the front and sligtly less on the back. I resawed some curly maple into 1/4 inch boards, joined and sanded to 3/16 or so. Then I glued and clamped the center of the board to the center block. Using a strange system of bar clamps and wedges to put pressure on the middle. I actually clamped the whole thing down to the workbench, put a couple of bar clamps over it, and put wedges under the bar clamps to bend the top to conform to the center block angle. It worked surprisingly well.

Oh, when I carved the center block, I was sure to make the top where the neck joins the same angle as I wanted the neck to be. I think it was 4 degree's. That way when I routed the neck pocket, I just followed the angle of the top.

Once I had the body together, cavities routed (I routed F-Holes before I installed the top) I installed cream binding.

I had to make a jig to keep my dremal tool vertical while it routed, the top is not a good bearing surface. I just threw something together using a drawer rail (Full Extension Slider). I just mounted it vertically to a hunk of wood, put another hunk on it to hold the dremal and it kept it vertical. I put a little guide on it at the height I wanted to cut, and the guide rode on the top of the guitar 1/16 outside of the bit. Worked well.

Once I had the binding in, I scraped and sanded everything to 320.

I used water to raise the grain, and resanded to 320. Did this twice.

While it was still damp, I applied my first layer of Water Based Blue dye. I mixed it strong. I put two coats of the lighter blue, which is what you see in the center. I mixed up a second batch of dye, this time the strong blue with a small amount of black. This gave me very dark blue. I applied it to the sides, abour 4 coats. Gave me a dark purple/almost black. I then put a band of the dark around the edges. I feathered it in to blend the edges and the middle with the rag I used for the lighter blue. The darker blue/black rag just puts more dark on. The lighter blue fades out the blue/black.

One problem I found, is that you get one side or the bottom looking the way you want it, then you have to do the other side to match, then if you get too much on the other side, you have to go back to the first side. If you are not carful you can end up putting on more then you want. I would have left more of the lighter blue in the middle had I been happy with the edges earlier. My grandma used to like to "Even Up' the brownies when she baked, so they would be even. Of course she would invariable dig into the nice row at the end and have to even them up again. It was all in fun, but same concept.

I put the dark blue on the neck, which is quarter sawn maple. The headstock is the light blue/dark blue burst. The Neck, being quarter sawn soaked up the stain where it has more end grain near the heel and where the headstock is. Next time I'll have to figure out how to make it more even.

I let this dry for a few days and applied two coats of nitro sanding sealer from a rattle can. Didn't have to be perfect, it's was going to get smoothed out. I let that dry a day and smoothed it out with steel wool. I blew the heck out of it with compressed air afterwards. I then applied several coats of nitro lacquer. I have some rough areas where the nitro spit some, but I have enough depth to sand it back.

I'm letting it cure for a few days, then I'll sand it smooth with 320, shoot a couple of nice final coats and wait for the final cure. A couple of weeks at least. I'm hoping that if I sand it smooth, then apply a couple of coats, the final finish work will be easier. I'll have a couple of coats that are almost smooth and final leveling and poslishing won't be as big a chore.

That's basically it. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. I'm not an expert by any means. I'm going by what I've read and what people have shared on this forum. This is my 4th guitar.

-John

All,

Here is a prgress report on my latest build. It's a 335 like guitar with blue water based powder dye fading to dark blue. It's all curly maple, solid wood resawn thin. The center block is 3/4 length.

It will have 57 classic pickups and gibson style bridge and stop tail (Maybe trapese tail)

The frets are gold and all the hardware will be gold.

Scroll down a few pictures, past my wife's jewlry.

It's been sprayed with several coats of Ntro. I'll spray a couple more coats then sand buff and polish.

http://abbett2.blogspot.com/

There are lots of ways to do it. For one board it might be tough. Part of the drying process causes the boards to warp. The kilns stack the boards in piles with stickers between the layers to let air flow. They put weight on top. It keeps everything flat. Be cautious, you might end up with warping or checking.

Dry air will do it, or heat and good air air flow.

I am building a 10x20 ft solar kiln out of a greenhouse. It will get plenty hot, even in the winter it will be warm.

Do some google searches, plenty of info out there.

-John