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aidlook

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Posts posted by aidlook

  1. Thanks, I was surprised to see the width of the thing when it arrived. It should be said however, that this is a fairly small body size.

    The plan for one of these bodies is to cover it with a spruce top (for aesthetic purposes mainly), I'm thinking something like this:

    Screen_Shot_2015-10-19_at_7.19.29_pm.thu

    Body: Spruce top, mahogany back
    Neck: Maple, headstock design TBD.
    Bridge: Wilkinson trem
    Pickups: Some form of soapbar/humbucker combination

  2. So, it's been a while...

    Having not built a guitar for some time, I was quite surprised to come back here and see how long it actually was since I last put a guitar together. Searching for my last build thread it turns out I haven't been active for 7 years:

    I did change the plans for that build to a body milled from billet aluminium, I even managed to finish one half of the body on a CNC before graduating from university. Having lost easy access to a workshop, and spending a number of years living on three different continents, I had to put most guitar-building activities aside for a while. However, I always liked the body shape and I think it's about time I do something useful with it. Screen_Shot_2015-10-18_at_12.31.11_pm.th

    So I've settled into an apartment, and have managed to turn one of the rooms into a small work space. Trying to keep dust and noise to a minimum, I've sworn off power tools and have presented myself with the challenge of building a guitar using (mostly) hand tools. 

    Anyway, here it is, my first progress pics in 7 years, and also my first attempt to plane a piece of wood using only hand planes.

    Progress-1w.thumb.jpg.a632a692ec941d07e4First passes

    Progress-2w.thumb.jpg.b6bc7ffd25caf46e2dManageable 'dust' levels

    Progress-4w.thumb.jpg.ba99ea8ac68cc41199

    Result after smoothing.Progress-3w.thumb.jpg.7fb4b4f72e91be5ff9

    One big piece of quarter sawn mahogany -hoping to get two bodies out of this.

    • Like 1
  3. As an Australian, I have to defend our aussie dollar...it has to be worth more than 20 cents surely?! :D

    Both the aussie dollar and 20c coins are about the same thickness and serrated...the less you can buy with money they replace the notes with coins that get ever thicker and smaller...the $2 coin is tiny but twice as thick...I can only imagine if someone comes out with a $5 coin it will be a very small cube or something.

    An Aussie 10c would probably be more Brian May approved...although, he might not like our wash and wear holographic plastic money...the queens head washes right out!!!

    I think metal pick success really depends on your technique, how tight you hold it and the angle you strike the strings...I have never got a good sound out of them...still, a lot of banjo players use those razor like thumb and finger picks on very light strings without a problem...so as always...each to their own!

    Tried most australian coins but liked the 20c the best...maybe it's the platypus-appeal.

    But yeah, the 10c would probably be closest to what Brian May uses though.

    Those notes suck though...I've never encountered more ripped notes than in Australia

  4. i too would like to know why the area under the bridge looks like that. also, why the heck would anyone use a metal pick? that would shorten your string life by about 75 percent! i cant imagine wanting to do that.

    Does your strings usually break around your picking area? ...mine don't

    PSW: I used to use those jazz picks for a long time, really liked them but now I'm playing with the transparent dunlop's for some reason. Also tried some different coins and found that the 20c aussie dollar worked surprisingly well for me.

  5. Same reason they don't like the MG...bad quality control..alot of what they send out doesn't work as advertised

    But the mg is just as bad....they are both bottom of the line products(spider series and mg)...the only thing that makes the spider better is that it sounds better..but like marshall,line 6 does have a top of the line(flextone and the big 300 watt metal head)

    If you buy one,try all of the effects before you keep it...do not leave the store with a new one in the box....as long as everything works at the store,you should be good for the long haul....

    Same as any bottom of the line amp...when you demand low prices,you get low quality...especially from indonesia,korea,etc...

    But still,it's better than when I was your age...back then nothing was cheap...

    I get what you're saying about low prices usually equals low quality....but especially from indonesia, korea etc? If it was the same price and made in the US (or most of western Europe) the quality would probably be even worse....

  6. I am personally not much of a believer in neck relief, and prefer a straight neck. The relief does have an effect on the top frets since it moves the entire nut relative to the bridge. I don't see how neck relief will help you if you're after low action on the middle of the fretboard, since what you're doing is effectively increasing the action here. with a dead-flat board, wich is properly leveled, you should be able to get a lower action than with neck relief.

    damn...2 replies as I was writing...

    Anyway I think I'm gonna have a look at this mathematically...But keep in mind for now that the amplitude of the vibrating string decreases as you move up the fretboard...

  7. Raising the bridge will increase the action over the entire board, BUT it won't increase the action equally over the entire fretboard. When raising the bridge what you're really doing is increasing the string angle (lets call it A) at the nut. If you think of the string and the tops of the frets as a right angle triangle, where the string is the hypothenuse. The approximate action at any given spot on the fretboard will be the distance from the nut multiplied by sin(A). the further the distance from the nut, the greater the action. What you want to accomplish seems to be greater action on the top frets, wich is already achieved by the geometry of the fretboard, wich is what I think wes was getting at. This is why it makes more sense to just make shure the neck is as straight as possible, and level it properly. Fall of seems to me like a lazy way of getting low action, without having a properly leveled neck, and also it won't accomplish universal low action over the entire fretboard.Have you checked your necks bow?

  8. Assuming your frets are cut right and your bridge is positioned correctly, you should only need fine tuning in the intonation. I beleive a quick way to check your intonation is to fret the 12th fret, and then play the 12th fret harmonic, and they should be the same. I dont think anyone really checks every single note on every string to make sure they are all in tune. From my understanding, if your 12th fret is in tune, and your open is in tune, then you should be in good shape as long as your frets are good. Someone please correct me if i am wrong.. im quite a novice :D

    You've got most of your info straight, although the original question was about the tuner you would use to check tuning while intonating.

  9. I'm not a fan. There is a ton of scratches in the chrome which makes me think its not triple plated. It's small but the switch tip is not chrome and the mounting bolts are not chrome. I understand the story but it just seems a bit off to me. There is a reason wny very few guitars are complete chrome. I saw the Satch model in a store and it looked like chrome on wood not chromed metal.

    it's not even single plated...it's aluminium. I have come across quite a few aluminium-bodied guitars lately when looking around, and I've become pretty tempted to build one. Don't know if I'm gonna go for body + neck or only the body. I quite like the look of the Noah guitars telecasters.

  10. maybe if you had a more serious and thought-out proposition serious people might want to work with you. But imo you're not really ready to start any type of guitar company judging by your other posts. I couldn't find any where you've actually designed something, and in you last post you ask if painting a headstock with a sharpie is a good idea... If your designs are really that great (come on...it's REALLY hard to come up with something remotely unique and good looking when it comes to solidbodies) maybe you should try selling your designs. At the moment I haven't really found anything you've designed, and you seem to be lacking general experience as well when it comes to building. So what's your business proposition really, royalties for your designs while someone else produces them? I think if you're really serious about starting a business...a oneliner on a forum with no further info might not be the best way to get things going....good luck though

  11. I bought a saga kit and found it unsatisfying due to the fact that all you do is really assembling, it's still sitting in the corner unfinished with my fourth scratch-build almost completed. If you want to assemble a guitar I'd go for the warmoth directly...there's really nothing during assembly that could really screw up the instrument. All you really have to learn is setup, wich will be more gratifying if you're working on a quality instrument.

  12. Oh...I have no doubt that you can use the 6 piezos to get six independent signals...that is how things like the variax and some synth hex pickups work...but to make a sustainer that drives 6 drivers you will need 6 amps. Now...that is also possible, and small enough with SMD's...but then you need a lot more power, but then that is supplied via the pedalor so it would seem.

    Some of the claims are a little odd...that they suppress string vibration...I suspect what happens is that the piezo sense which strings are giving out a signal and drives only them, so to that extent it is possible too.

    pete

    Sounds to me in the clip that strings are actually muted in the more banjo-like sounds. Seems like this could be achieved by working the sustainers out of phase with the string vibration.

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