Sami Ghouri

this might sound stupid, but hey what the hell it came to me anyway, is your nut fine? i mean, are the strings hanging far from the first fret? coz i can't imagine how now having an angle would lead to your problem! but lowering the strings from the nut side (if it's sufficiently high) can allow you to raise the bridge a little so this parallel thing wouldn't happen... eh, just a thought, if it sounds dumb then maybe i'm affected by working for too long =S

thanks you guys! i also thought that EMG's were dead silent! thing is i made sure i don't ground anyhting and that the circuit IS connected properly. and no i didn't mix polarities! The pickups also give out full power with or without the noise gate on. psw: the PA-2 is just a small preamp that comes with the Kerry King set (which makes the only difference between that set and the zakk wylde one). The noise gate is a digital feature in my amp and not a seperate pedal/processor. without it i can hear sometimes the part where the man hides behind the tree and the woman chases him around it and then they catch eachother but never kiss........ it's really funny when it happens but at the same time quite frustrating while recording! The battery is also a fresh energizer. HOWEVER it just came to me that my leads inside the guitar are very long (i didn't cut anything off, just in case i wanted to install the pickups on a different guitar) and that might be the problem..... however i'll also try Paul's suggestion with the shunt capacitor...... Thanks a load you guys.... i'll probably record a part where the indian movie gets to the plot and upload it somewhere

Hi there! I KNOW that small amplification ccts will pickup noise.... but my KFK set (81,85,PA-2) is SERIOUSLY picking up indian radio channels here!!!! it gets somehow rectified with the cut-off noisegate i use. but imagine playing at high volume and then hitting some string VEEERY slightly just so it would pass the gate threshold and then hearing a proper bollywood song coming out of ur amp!!! and what's pretty hilarious is that it ONLY picks up this channel! i'm guessing the frequency of that channel is what affects it the most.... any ideas? i read on the forums that shielding the pickup cavities weakens the magnetic field effect of the pickups... and i really need to have this issue fixed coz it gets rediculous while jamming and stuff.... thanks! Sami

not to hijack the thread, but since line 6 amps have already entered the discussion.... any opinions regarding the Vetta II combo?? i tried it the other day and it sounded good even for a person who's tweaking it for the first time ever... but goddamn it costs zillions here ($2200)........i'm gonna be hungry for years to get it..

the looked kinda cool but made me think it's 50Cent's new Chrome edition *insert some merchandise item here*..... goes well with his all chromed lambo =S

i don't wanna hijack the thread but i am finishing a guitar with enamel paint too and i'm thinking of polyu as well. I have sanded the paint smooth with 320 grit now and it seems very flat and ready for clear coating. Should i sand with finer grits first???? thanks and sorry for going off topic

nevermind, moderators can delete this post.... the humming came from a washing machine and a dryer being connected to the same outlet chain..... problem solved!

yep! ur circuit should have one ground. If your shield isn't part of it then it's basically not doing its job. ur assumption is right =D

thanks a lot! i do have the stewmac medium viscosity superglue.... guess i can use that if the slots turn out really oogleh! Sami

thanks a lot guys! two issues though, as dumb as it sounds, but i still have no clue what CA is! and i can't seem to find epoxy here so i guess i'll have to find something else to fill with (in case i can't make accurate splints or the barbed slots are too visible)......

Hi all! I was asked to make a yamaha bass fretless. Now i know that the general concept is to fill the gaps with lighter wood splints, but i am REALLY tight on time and I was thinking that some wood fillers get pretty hard so is it possible to fill the gaps with wood filler? (i was thinking elmer's wood filler) or is that just mindless blasphemy that i need to be punished for? is it gonna wear out easily with wood filler? if the whole idea is BS then should i go for hard woods only? coz i don't remember finding a maple piece anywhere around but i can get hold of basswood easily... any help is highly appreciated thanks! sami

Hallo! i don't know what's going wrong, i've wired many guitars before with no probs.... but this one's driving me nuts! it's an old yamaha EG112 pack guitar which has the HSH config. a friend of mine refinished it somewhere and asked me ot wire 2 Select humbuckers instead of the stock yamaha. the switch looks very cheap (and it is indeed) but my problem is that i'm STILL getting some hum after wiring..... it's getting frustrating coz i checked everything a million times!! and it all seems to follow the diagram EXCEPT for the 5 way switch which has a weird solder point plan... three on each side which i haven't seen before.... here are some pics of the guitar and the switch..... i'm thinking of keeping hte middle coil for filling the gap and wiring the single output of one (or both) of the humbuckers instead. would that work electrically???? selecting BOTH the humbucker output (white wire) along with teh single coil output (red wire) of ONE humbucker simultaneously? please help if possible, i need to return this asap! thanks a million! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/diS...NT/S5000932.jpg

thanks d00dz! phew i thought i was just an idiot being an engineer and still feeling so clueless about this simple tool! (or what looked as a simple one).... i'll google for tutorials or if i find the time i'll just go to a carpenter somewhere and have him show me how to deal with it.... regarding the pine, i think if you just type pine in the search u'll see ZILLIONS of threads and millions of mixed opinions about it.... some of the very early fenders (i believe the old esquires) were made of pine but don't quote me on that.... however what i'm sure of is that some new squiers are made of pine and that some early fenders were. don't know which ones for sure.... i thought i'd try it since my time is VERY limited (i calculate the time i need for my morning coffee... even on weekends!) and the budget is VERY limited as well.... and it's my first build so i dont wanna have nightmares if i mess up a pretty piece of wood that i'd like to keep you know!!!

Hello! I read somewhere on the forum that there's a book about this, but finding it here is not gonna be practical and shipping it from some online store will take a decade and a fortune. Can someone post a tutorial or simply tell me how to tune it/burnish it right??? i bought a cheap rolson plane that was my only option at ACE hardware. It came with a blade the looked somewhat burnished, sharp enoguh to cut skin at least! i bought another Stanley blade just in case the blade it came with turns out (and it most probably will) to be absolute bull... now my problem is just your regular noob issue.... either scratches or the plane digs and gets stuck... i tried making the blade as parallel to the surface as possible with very minimal length of cutting but it didn't help... tried burnishing it further with a dremel grinding stone and then 600 grit sandpaper which made it a bit sharper but still no luck at getting shavings (except for the edges, but that can be shaved with about anything coz it's a corner so it doesn't count!) i could do a better job with my japanese sushi knife! i was really hoping for a good help from this tool =( btw, don't shoot me, but since it's my first build, i'm working with pine.... several pieces glued together... worked out fine until i tried leveling it with my plunge router and made insane mistakes and slips..... HAAAELP! and thanks! =D

what method of shipping do you use for worldwide orders? I live in Dubai/UAE and have received shipments from stewmac through USPS and they were quite alright (a bit expensive at times and slow) but it was kinda reasonable (as opposed to shipping heavy stuff throguh DHL and UPS which will cost a fortune) Mighty Might stuff is what you get from stewmac right? i'm asking coz i wanted to have a full paddle standard neck but they only had the 6-inline half paddle one... and it was already for $120 so that'd total up to a fortune until it gets here... also, do you get your batches regularly? i'm mainly interested in necks. Sami.

thanks for the advice! the oil is almost gone now and i'm done shaping the neck. i'm guessing it'll be completely gone by the time i'm done with the basic shaping and stuff..... varnish or poly? i know the traditional violins are finished with varnish but i'm staining it blue and will try to give the figured maple the best 3d effect i can. does varnish help? or should i just stick to my Minwax gloss polyu?

Sami Ghouri (surprise surprise!) 24, B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the American University of Sharjah (we're ABET accredited!! even if the uni is in the middle of the arabian desert! hehe... www.aus.edu if you don't believe me! =D) currently working for BurtHill as a Telecom/AV/Security infrastructure engineer. i have a certificate in music theory and classical music (concentration: piano) and picked up the electric guitar around 8 years ago..... modded, refinished, upgraded, fixed many guitars (for more than a couple of years). To be clear on things i'm a beginner at doing routings mods and other wood working stuff but i'm trying. first build is currently in progress. in fact i'm more interested in building/modding/fixing guitars than actually playing them!!!!

phew!!! thanks a lot man! i was pretty worried!!! i'll get the naphtha and mineral oils today anyway.... i know i need naphtha for many other projects....

Wi-Fi is very buggy but the bandwidth is pretty sufficient. However there's a lot of electronics work going to be needed to implement a guitar that sends packets through Wi-Fi...... some posts here made it sound very simple but i'm not sure how the posters got it explained that way =S for all i know, you will need the following: AD converter (easy stuff)-> memory buffer -> software (just a ROM would do) that converts the data collected from the AD converter to IP protocol packets -> RF transmitter now, as simple as it sounds, maybe i'm still living in the stone age but, converting this data you collect from the AD converter into a well formed packet and getting a clocked circuit to send the packets properly is a bit difficult to build unless you can get ur own IC's built. As i see it, you will need the following: 1- a pretty quick processor with lots of register memory (to handle the sampling rate and the large amounts of data needed to get a high quality sound) 2- OR, if you are a software guru and can use a ROM instead of a processor (we did that in college days, but i don't remember what the method name was, it's when you set the address of the ROM as input that you know u'll already get from the previous cct, and then store the action required in that location) 3- another stage to grab the data, divide it into structured packets (a ROM should do i imagine, along with a RAM buffer for the data and VERY well written software) 4- some transmitter circuit. I can elaborate more if someone's interested, but I personally don't think it's a good idea AT ALL to use any WiFi technology to transmit something that needs no delay or signal loss...... and definitely not a protocol like UDP for example..... edit: Also, to use any IP related protocol you have to send some sync packets at the beginning, and the circuit will need to have its own address (by circuit i mean guitar) and it will all depend on your receiving station's responsiveness you know, if you have a buggy windows based OS you will take some valuable time hand shaking and connecting to your guitar... gah i can't stop thinking of WAAAAYS how this can go wrong!

i have sanded 4 guitars down in 3 months and i know the agony of a n00b trying to do this stuff.... and i believe i am much closer to developing cancer than i used to be right before i started!!! look buddy, sand paper is safe to the general shape of the body but the worst stuff you can do for your physical/mental health! i changed my religion 7 times until i was done with the second guitar! hehe.... sexy strippers (in a can) MIGHT work but it depends on the type of paint you have. I tried working with strypease, ACE stripper, and many others to strip down the Greco Device MIJ i had and i tell you it didn't do jack.... only gave me an insane headache for a week! the best stuff i found to remove paint without affecting the shape of the body is a random sander. if you buy a good one it'll strip it down nicely and leave you with some final sanding to do. the inner sides of the horns can be done with a dremel with a small sanding bit attached to it... be careful with these though coz the grit won't be finer than 80 (or at least none that i've seen around) so work VEERY lightly in order not to sand through the wood and be in a lot of trouble while refinishing. i will never do refinishing again! i swear ppl should be credited for refinishing old MIJ guitars much more than builders!!! that Greco was built to sustain a nuclear war not a couple of gigs!!!! UGH!

thanks! i guess i figured that out right after what i did! thing is i didn't have mineral spirits at the time (n didn't wanna raise the grain with water) and i thought lemon oil WOULD eventually evaporate coz i've used it before to check for scratches on a mahogany LP after sanding and it was fine afterwards. But it did dry on mahogany thoguh and didn't seem to penetrate that much!

Hails! I just received the package. I'm assembling this violin for my sister who's INSANELY hyped about it. It does look fairly simple but i made one mistake that i'm worried about..... so here it goes: In a moment of utter stupidity, i wanted to show my sister how quilted (or curly, however u call it) maple will have a 3d effect by rubbing some lemon oil on the INSIDE of the back piece (just in case it does permanently stain it it wouldn't really matter) ..... sounds normal.... did the demonstration needed... The problem is, however, that apparently the oil managed to reach THE OTHER SIDE penetrating the whole back! now i have an oily rather big spot on the visible surface of the back! *facepalm* what's worrying me is that this will prevent that area from accepting stain as the rest of the back... but reading that lemon oil is a petroleum derivative somewhere on the forum gives me hope that it'll evaporate by the time i'm done sanding and gluing. Another option i was thinking of is just rubbing the whole thing with lemon oil (the insides of course) so it'll be homogeneous all over. Any ideas? i really don't want her bummed as i've never seen her more excited about something before! =( thanks! Sami

try 120 with humidity level of 90% =D now isn't that perfect for painting guitars??? i lol at us for having to spray paint in AC'ed areas! i'm probably causing cancer to the ppl here.... doing guitar work in a 25 floor building with central conditioning..... baek to topic! =D

You hit the nail on the head. Not all guitars will use pickups that you can easily purchase on their own, but you'll get an idea. Also look into bands and artists you like the tone of and try to see what guitars and gear they use to get an idea. In the end all guitars are different and you won't know if you like them until its all said and done, see if your local guitar shop has an exchange period for pickups, they know you might not like them after you buy them, just don't butcher the wire supplied with the pickups and they might take them back. What advantage does rosin core solder have? how many watts was your $10 soldering iron? as explained, by tim, the rosin is your flux (don't shoot me but i used to use phosphoric acid to prep the areas and the solder, which OBVIUOSLY destroyed my previous iron and didn't exactly do the job right) and my iron is 30 watts and it's more than enoguh! it says pro something on it (got it from one of those uni electronics project store). any iron will do, just don't go as cheap as $2 you know!

i'm currently using AutoCad 2007 for my designs but in 2D as well, tried some basic 3D stuff but couldn't get what i needed.. that design looks great! MOAR! btw sliiiiightly off topic but does anyone have an AutoCad compatible RR template?? just the body don't care about the neck... i wasn't exactly able to copy one on CAD coz i'm kinda artistically challenged (working on that) and tracing the real thing on paper wasn't that accurate.. someone posted a website with a file that didn't work.... any ideas?? and sorry for going off topic again!