tirapop

A bunch of random observations: I've got one of those cheap Chinese Bigsby clones. It has plastic bushings. That's where I'd start. If you want to do rolling element bearings, use needle bearings. In ball bearings, the diameter of the balls are typically much larger than the diameter of the pins/rods/needles in needle bearings. That make the bearing outside diameter, and the housing that holds it larger, and the inside diameter, the tube holding the strings, smaller. The other knock against ball bearings is that contact area on the inside and outside races are points. Needle bearing have a line contact, spreading the load out over a larger area. Think about how this bearing is going to be loaded. Most of the time, the tremolo isn't moving. All the string tension is acting on the same couple of balls, pushing down on the same location of the races. When you use the trem, the balls move, but, go back to the same spot. You can wear spots into the races. On bicycle headsets, they call that index steering. When you turn the handlebars, you can feel little detents in the steering, when the balls drop into the next worn spot in the races. High end bicycle head sets use ball bearings at the top, and tapered roller bearings at the bottom, to avoid that. In highly loaded, small excursion joints, they make special precessing bearings that move freely in one direction and then skate a little in the other direction, to distribute the work over more balls/rollers, and work different parts of the races. Naturally, precessing bearings are much more expensive. In your pic, the pivot supports are separate. They're going to be screwed into wood and then support the tube and react string and trem loads. The wood isn't super rigid (especially through a screw) and it expands and contracts with heat and humidity. You might end up with more movement on either end of the tube than you'd like. The loads you apply on those pivot supports are going to be different. When you press down on the trem arm, it's pushing down on the spring and trying to pry that nearest pivot off the guitar. The other pivot is going to be reacting string tension through the tube, pulling it forward. Bigsby's design, where both pivots are part of the same casting, reduces relative motion between the two pivots and it react the trem arm load over more fastener. None of the things I mentioned are fatal design flaws. You just need to pay attention to them and beef up your design where it's needed.

Galen, that sounds worke-able. But, there are already adjustable saddles for intonating a 3 barrel bridge. Stewmac sells one from Wilkinson.

Yeah, I've seen those Shimabukuro vids. He's incredible. I think the Roy Smeck stuff is interesting because of it's age. Today, the bar on technique has been raised really high and there are a fair number of really proficient players. It's easier to forget about guys like Smeck, Django, Les Paul, and Chet Atkins ripping it up, back in the day.

Checked it out from the library. Great concert! Times have changed. It looked like he played the whole show with the same guitar, an SG with P90s. He didn't appear to have much in the way of effects. At the end of one song, he looked pissed and grabbed a pedal like he was going to hurl it. Other than that, I didn't see anything. He did all his twiddling with tone and volume.

On a uke.

Growing up, the Strat was what came to mind when I thought "electric guitar". I discovered the Tele later. Being used to the long pointy horns and that huge sail of the CBS headstock, the Tele's restraint was refreshing. It's elemental, basic. The was nothing about it's shape to shock June Cleaver. You had to do it all with your playing. You'd see them in old B&W photos of bluesmen, country players, early rockers. I think Springsteen and Chrissy Hyndes gravitated to Teles because they were iconic. There was a subliminal statement, picking a Tele, that you were reaching back in time, pre-Strat psychedelia, pre-arena rock, pre-concept album, pre-20 minute drum solo, and all the crap that followed. (Personally, I liked a lot of the crap that followed.) On the record, the Tele is my favorite produciton headstock.

Maybe a variation of your existing name and a Milk Dud inspired candy reference..... Godin Plenty

Pibrocher, welcome back! I've been dying to see what's become of the Seuss-ocaster (P-Seuss?). Looks great, keep on going.

+ pickguard The pickguard isn't hiding grain, it's adding visual interest. Sort of what Sally Rand did with ostrich feathers.

Inkjets, laserprinters, and photocopiers aren't dead accurate. There's a fair bit of distortion in the paper feed direction. You can verify it for yourself. Scan a pair of perpendicular rulers(scales) or make a grid in a drawing program and print them out. Compare measurements across the page and in the feed direction. Scaleable engineering drawings typically have to be made on plotters. Necessary precision is a relative. To layout the shape of a guitar, prints are probably fine. Laying out frets... not accurate enough.

Dan, Really like your LP, but, I had to go with Setch. I hope you're proud of yourself... you and Godin are going to start a run on Wenge and lead to massive deforestation. I wouldn't want that on MY conscience.

Good name choice

I don't find anything uncivil about that. It's measured and shows a lot of restraint. As it stands, Tremol-No and FREELOK have valid patents. We're all aware of that, now. We aren't going to knowingly make any false statements which might make us subject to a lawsuit. If the "brass device" on Kevan's comparison refers to the FREELOK, then it's inaccurate and should be corrected. This thread ought to get back to "when can I buy it and where?"

Some inflammatory things were said in this thread. Bill came in, presented his side of the story, and introduced facts that we weren't aware of. I don't see what he did as starting a "pissing match".

Pagelli Linda Manzer Not a luthier site, but, inspiration from strange old guitars: Fetish Guitars

I can't remember the thread (archtop maybe), but, the topic off molding a curved surface came up. I saw this over at the Makezine blog, the Roarockit system. It's set up for forming skateboard decks. Layers of veneer, an insulating foam mold, a vinyl bag, and a hand vacuum pump (like the vacuvin I have for sucking air out of wine bottles) can mold the veneer into interesting curves.

That there's a gap between the neck extension and tail block reinforces my feeling those trapezoidal blocks are part of the neck/tail-block joint. I wasn't thinking about putting those blocks between the neck and the back. Gluing those blocks between the tail block and the back, you can form a slot to slide the neck extension into and glue to.

When you dry fit the neck to the body, is there any gap between the neck and the body, or between the neck extension and the tail block, inside the body? I would guess that you use those two block on the sides of the neck extension, where it meets the tail block, to make up for any gap. If the width of the tail block is at least as wide as the combined widths of the neck extension and those two blocks, then that seems like a possiblity. Is the body plywood? Who makes this kit?

How thick is this glass?

The publishers of Fine Woodworking Magazine have books made from collections of magazine articles. There are plane builds in Bench Tools and Planes and Chisels.

For the glued body, have you rolled the edges of the top/back to form a flange? Are you gluing the pieces of metal together without one piece overlapping the other? Are you using some intermediate piece between the top/back and side?

Sandwich construction. Ever been on a commercial airplane? Most floor panels are sandwich panels. Typical construction uses fiberglass face sheets and honeycomb core. The honeycomb core is mostly air, with sheets of aluminum foil or aramid "paper" folded and glued to form a honeycomb. The honeycomb does the same thing the balsa would do in a Corvette floor, carry shear loads and keeps the bending loads in the face sheets. All by itself, you could crush the honeycomb between your fingers. You might have noticed, the last time you flew, that very few people (if any) broke the floor and fell into the cargo hold. This includes very large heavy passengers or women in high heels that put their entire weight on an area the size of a pool cue tip.

SWEET! Very nice job. How well does that EZ-Bender work?

A 3-year-old with an amplifier? I got a lot of practice wiring in resistors or putting cardboard disks over speakers to get the volume on my kids' toys down to a tolerable level. My kids like everything LOUD. At 5 and 8, they'll actually listen to me when I ask them to turn things down to a sub-tinitis level. If I gave them an amp "that goes to eleven" before they could count to 11, we'd all be deaf now. Your son sounds pretty sharp. Fretting didn't really click with my girls. They've gravitated towards keyboards.

GG, I think you're right. First, with bolt-on necks, one of the important details is getting a tight fit between the neck and the neck pocket. I don't know if that's just tone mojo, but, a tight joint is something people strive for. Some people even shim the gap if there is one. Second, the wood at the end of the pocket can be under a lot of stress. There's a website somewhere that shows pics of Jems that all have cracks where that sliver of wood tapers out at the neck pocket. Epoxy filler isn't a great structural or acoustic material. It's a cosmetic fix that probably isn't very durable either.