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RestorationAD

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Everything posted by RestorationAD

  1. RestorationAD
    Looks like I will still need to do some leveling.
  2. RestorationAD
    Fast forward a few days and it is time to grain fill. Not my favorite thing.
  3. RestorationAD
  4. RestorationAD
    Starting with a few heavy coats of high solids sanding sealer before a grain fill followed by leveling. I like to keep the guitar level while spraying as it helps even the flow out.
  5. RestorationAD
    I always do that, otherwise I couldn't check if everything is in place before finishing... But why does it need to be? I always do the nut last. You can always make a nut to fit during any time of the process. I dont see why it would NEED to be done before. It doesn't absolutely HAVE to be. You can do it whenever... god knows I have forgotten and done it last more than once. I think that it is easier to have the nut installed early so that you don't scratch anything or slip with a file late in the build. It is easier to make a nut flush before you start sealing and painting. Also for me this is a vintage feel thing. On a Gibson style build the clear should cover the sides of the nut. If you have a bit of amber in your clear to give it a vintage feel it is easier to have the nut installed before finishing. Realistic Rules of Building: 1. Do things in the order that make them easiest. This takes a long time to figure out so write it down somewhere. 2. Don't mess up the scale. Ugly guitars that tune properly are much better than ugly guitars that don't 3. Learn to cover up "mistakes" with "features". Strange inlays in weird places, miscellaneous veneers, exotic wood caps... are "I meant to do that" not "Oh Sh*Ts" 4. Use "every build is different" to explain anything out of the ordinary that happens. 5. Wood is never consistent so don't expect your builds to be. 6. Mistakes are beautiful. Except when they are really bad... then they are firewood. Make a video of it burning so it is not a total loss.
  6. RestorationAD
    Highlander! <techie> I am writing this on my Acer C710 Chromebook that can now native boot any OS thanks to coreboot. I love my $199 dollar throw away almost as much as my new Mac Book Pro. It freaks people out seeing the chrome badge and then they look and it is full blown Fedora 20 running on it. The C710 is the last gen of chromebook you can upgrade the mem and hd in. I have 8gb of ram and a 128gb SSD in a laptop that came with 2gb/16Gb. </techie> What was the point of telling you guys that? I now have a super portable 11.6" laptop (with decent battery life and power) for under $200 I can use in the shop that I don't care about getting dusty to run CAD and CAMBAM.
  7. RestorationAD
    No spoilers. I bought a big arse gallon can of Mohawk Pre Cat Lacquer and I have the day off tomorrow. Guess what I am doing?
  8. RestorationAD
    +1 it is a more Gibson thing... It allows me to fit the nut perfect, sand the sides to match the neck and not worry about scratching the finish.
  9. RestorationAD
    Well played.
  10. RestorationAD
    Two completely different guitars with different ideas. The first one feels like a model-T compared to this one. The third one is going to be different from this one. Np! Not a bad idea... going to need a bigger control cavity though.
  11. RestorationAD
    You should fix that sooner than later.
  12. RestorationAD
    One last point on noise. Generally speaking metal in a pickup adds noise. I have several designs with very little metal in the pickup. They are always quieter than designs that have metal baseplates, poles, and/or covers. I can't explain it very well but it does. This guitar has a huge chunk of aluminum right down the center. I have no clue how it is going to affect the eddy currents or the noise yet. It should act as a shield and I doubt it will have serious affect on the eddy currents.
  13. RestorationAD
    Explain "buzzing" I guess "buzzing" was the wrong word. I mean noise. I was thinking shielding. My bass had a lot of noise until I shielded the pickup cavities with copper. Ehhh.... shielding is not always the right answer. I never shield my guitars (likes to live dangerous). I like a little AM radio bleed through (ZZtop style) it adds ambiance. Shielding will not reduce 60Hz hum only RF. I have found that the reduction in RF noise from properly shielding a control cavity on a humbucker is just not enough to warrant the work. In general if a humbucker is making noise most of the time shielding will not fix it because it is rarely RF causing the noise. Shielding has to be complete and properly grounded to really work. Any gaps in the shielding defeat the purpose. I do some shielding on vintage all single coil strats but still most of them 60 cycle and not RF. I can never really tell the difference between a nice copper plate against the pickguard where the controls are and a fully shielded cavity. The gain is usually minimal. Things I think are way more important than shielding your guitar. 1. Properly grounding the strings is a necessity. 2. Proper ground on your amp 3. Replacing old preamp/power tubes. 4. Power conditioner for all your gear 5. Quality instrument cable A lot of times when you go in and shield your cavity you end up solving a ground issue that was missed before.
  14. RestorationAD
    The pickups are for Pros 1951-5 bass builds. That might be the stupidest banjo I have ever seen.
  15. RestorationAD
    In case we missed it. I used a switchcraft 1/4" female connector as the input jack and it is mounted outside the cavity. This lets me easily replace the input jack without having to open the control cavity.
  16. RestorationAD
    Before we start to throw finish on have to install the nut.
  17. RestorationAD
    Explain "buzzing"
  18. RestorationAD
    Maybe they are for a really big banjo!
  19. RestorationAD
    Good to see this moving forward again. Looking forward to hear how the wenge works out.
  20. RestorationAD
    Pickups for Carl.
  21. RestorationAD
    So with that solved I have to get something on the back to make it sit right against the body (belly).
  22. RestorationAD
    With the wood additions it is a bit more comfortable and I think the input jack is out of the way for now.
  23. RestorationAD
    Got it now?
  24. RestorationAD
    This looks cool
  25. RestorationAD
    Covering some bits with left over wood. This looks dangerous.
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