Sparky

Well, unlike most things in the audio realm, this actually has some merit. Check out this link about string vibrations on a guitar: http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/harmonics.html Ever notice that plucking an open string at the 12th fret sounds different than when plucking between the pickups? Welcome to the wonderful land of harmonics. Just think about how a string vibrates and the rest is easy. If you pluck the string in the middle (12th fret on an open string), you eliminate all even ordered harmonics. Scroll down to the last image on the page for a perfect example. Well, how does this relate to the pickup placement? If you pluck the strings toward the bridge end of the guitar like most people, you are letting the string vibrate with many even and odd harmonics. Most of which (through superposition) has many nodes. A node is an area of the string that does not vibrate - for that particular harmonic frequency. Don't get me wrong, Im not saying there is some magic spot on the string that stands still (as long as the fundamental is still present, the entire string will always move), but there are areas that don't vibrate as much as others. Remember those high school physics experiements with a strobe light and a vibrating string? Same deal. The strobe light allows you to see the way the string vibrates. Now we recall that a pickup works by moving a conductor (the string) through a magnetic field (pickup magnets) to induce a current in the pickup coil that can then be amplified by your amp. Since we know certain parts of the string will have more/different harmonics, it makes sense that the pickup position along the string will affect the sound. Imagine putting your pickup right on a node - you essentially eliminate that harmonic. Now, knowing WHERE to put a pickup to sound best is completley different (and a matter of personal taste) than knowing a pickup will sound different in different locations. We generally put a pickup at the 2nd harmonic (24th fret) or close to it, to pick up the even order harmonics. I am not positive, but I would bet the bridge pickup is located very close to a 3rd harmonic. This would give the most "extemes" (short of having a pickup mounted in the neck at the 12th fret ). Keep in mind that as the harmonics increase, their magnitude decreases significantly from the fundamental (no, you aren't hearing that 27th harmonic). I'll leave it as an exercies to figure out what happens when you "play a harmonic" at the 12th fret.

www.fiberlay.com I believe the surfboard resin is crystal clear (take a wild guess what it is used for). I've never had a problem with the resin (keep in mind polyester resin is easier to work with and cheaper than epoxy, but not as strong or resistant to shrinkage). I have had a nice rash when I accedentally squirted some MEKP hardener on my bare arm...THAT stuff is much more dangerous than the resin. I think using a nice woven mat is a good idea for getting a nice "look" to a guitar, but would be much more trouble than it is worth if you are trying to add strength to an undersized neck.

This is how I do it. It gives me 2 degree angle. Araz Same here. Stewmac has a very nice calculator that does the same...I think it is part of their fretboard calculator. Pick your scale length and number of frets and it will tell you how/where to place the bridge - depending on what bridge you have (a TOM will have different placement than say a schaller roller bridge on the same guitar).

Yeah that guy was talking out of his ass. A bunch of lutheirs working in a factory? Going to a factory to gain work experience? Buy wood from the Amish? Oh of course! Because their Amish they will naturally just happen to have alder, maple, and ash to sell in low quantities for half the going rate. You know, because they dont use computers and stuff. Well if they could build a barn surley they can widdle one of them logs down to a guitar....

try looking at mcmaster-carr, they wont rip you off on shipping and if anybody is going to have the right sized screw, its probably them...you might have to buy them in a pack of 50 though....

Yup, looks like you've hit bare wood. You could re-seal, but it will still be noticeable (unless you are painting the whole thing a solid color)...other than that your other option is to sand the entire body down to bare wood and re-seal the whole thing.

There are all kinds of special blades for cutting plastics. Get one for drilling the holes and one for the cutting. They will cut a much cleaner edge. check out mcmaster-carr.

Looks like we are on the same page. We just seem to have differing opinions on how this will effect what we hear. Do you have any sample sound clips of the tele with and without the steel plate? Are these inserts going to be touching the bottom of the pickup? I was under the impression they were not.... Some even ordered harmonics will be altered when the magnetic field strength changes...just interesting enough that it has me curious To me, it seems fairly silly to be so worried about changing the sound of a pickup when we slap on tone controls to every guitar. BTW - Unless your steel inserts are really high strength steel, you can easily find a brass out there that has the close to the same ultimate & yield strength of steel...in which case all of this would be a moot point...plus it would be easier to machine. Just a thought.

I second this. Did anyone else even read that article on magnetic shielding? Yes, the magnetic field BELOW the pickup will be altered and will tend to go through the steel. But think about how pickups are designed and where your strings are vibrating. As a not so scientific test you could always just pluck a string and wave a chunk of steel around under the pickup and see what happens...I'll take a wild guess and say "nothing."

But it'll definitely require a proofreader ← Haha...ouch...well at least the 'b' and 'g' are close together.

I think its a good idea... Some basic questions I recall seeing a few times: What tools do I need to do ____? What are some good books on guitar building? Where can I guy ____? It doesn't have to be all encopmassing, just have the question stated and if it has been answered in a tutorial or one of the main links on the site, just throw a link to that page. IMO the main page is kinda clunky and hard to find exactly what you want at times....

It's just for intonnation correction. A tenth of an inch is not that big...check out their numbers for a schaller roller bridge. All I know is I put my roller bridge about on center (doh!) and whattya know, all of my rollers are as far back as they will go. I get fine intonnation out of all but one loser string. I would trust thier numbers.

I agree, if it were an inch or two wider it would sell for double the price. But, given the slim dimensions of the piece already, it is very annoying that they wouldn't have mentioned the fact that the back looks like this, let alone just taken a picture of it...Especially if my hunch is correct, and they did sell this piece a few months ago only to have it returned...but I certainly can't prove that. I have not left feedback yet. They do seem willing to talk and their response has been very quick so far.

Thought of that already, unfortunatley the back side has some nasty knots and dark streaks. looks much worse than the top. i agree about the inside edges as well, they are pretty rough. I think I would rather take my chances with the side bark than hoping the knots and streaks will sand away. The strange thing is that I have been watching his auctions for the past few months and I am pretty sure I saw this piece (almost got it but someone used buy it now and beat me) and then a few weeks later its back...wonder why. I just recieved a reply from them in response to my complaint and of course they claim they were not trying to mislead me...fine. Maybe someone just didn't notice the huge strip of bark on the side or forgot to mention it...They are offering 20% off my next purchase...haha, like I will be buying anything from them again. I always wondered why they never had pictures of both sides of their wood, guess I know why. Hmmmm decisions decisions....

I finally purchased the top wood for my second guitar. I purchased from the ebay seller "buzzaw-international". I thought I got a good deal on a 7/8" thick piece of quilted maple. It isn't wide enough for a strat and is just barley big enough for a les paul, but my guitar is just smaller than a les paul so I thought I would be fine. Turns out there is a big strip of bark on the back edge of one side. The auction made no mention of the fact and had no picture of the back. I dont care if there is a knot or something on the back, but this severly impacts the usability of the wood. Anyway, I am asking for a bit of advice. I feel I got a good deal assuming there was no bark (payed about $120 shipped) and the top looks great, but should I cut some corners and cross my fingers in the hope that it works? Here is a link to the auction description: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1 Here are pictures of the wood (that I took) complete with an outline of my guitar..there are several fairly large pictures, it may take a few seconds to load: http://students.washington.edu/naf/wood/wood.html As you can see there is still one or two small pockets on the left edge that would include some of this bad wood. However, I think my binding will cover this up if I put it on the bottom edge of the top. This will be a carve top. I didn't want a 7/8" carve in the first place (0.5-0.75" is what I was shooting for). This also throws the centerline of the guitar about 1/8" off center of the wood's centerline. Do you think this will be noticable? Should I just try to return the wood and buy elsewhere? I have sent the seller an email noting my dissatisfaction and that I believe the auction description deliberatley left out comments about the back side of the wood. Any help would be appreciated.

how am i being a jerk? he asked about rotating it 45 degrees and i pointed out how that would make the top spike stab him in the ribs (which it would!) ← I have to agree, unless you want to commit ritual suicide with this thing, a rotation wont help. If you made the body VERY small, it seems like it might actually be playable.

A good book to get is Melvin Hiscock's "Build Your own Electric Guitar" Buy it, read it, read it again. Then plan on what kind of build you are after. Depending on how confident you are at wood-working, you could build it all from scratch. Or go the easier route (I would recomend this) and buy a bolt on neck or through-body neck and then just make the body and put everything together. FYI, it will NOT be cheaper to make your own guitar vs. buying a new one and it will take a while. But it is pretty fun.

Hmmm, sounds like you want some rather non-standard specs out of a standard neck. I think the single most important part of a guitar build is the fretboard and fretting. Mess that up and you WILL do it again until it is right or "good enough" The neck carve sounds hard at first, but using a spokeshave is pretty easy. It goes slow enough that you will have to really space out to make a project-ending mistake and it goes fast enough that it doesn't take you a year to get the thing to look right. If it is the first build, I would go the easy route and just buy the carvin neck, then after you get a good feel, make a guitar with all the specs you really want. Take it from someone who's first guitar was a set neck maple carve top (neck from scratch). Since my neck was a fairly standard design, I came to the conclusion that it is far easier to just buy a pre-made neck and use it rather than spend half of the build creating a neck that, at best, will be equal to the neck I could have purchased. My next guitar is using the same Carvin neck-through you are considering. Should cut the build time waaaay down and I will pretty much have to do the routing with a blindfold to ruin the guitar.

It would be very simple to do it. You could even use a gel coat and get a finish like a surfboard. But as others have said, there isn't much of a point. If you are trying to add strength and save weight, you wouldn't want to use a wood core, you would want a foam core, but I can't imagine that sounding anything close to good. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth...though fiberglass repairs a lot easier than wood. You could get tricky and shape it so it has a huge carved look to it, that might be something where fiberglass would be easier than cutting down a very large piece of wood. Who knows.

It's already glued up? What shape? Im a little confused as to how you could make a neck with the CF already laminated. Unless of course it is in the shape of a neck to begin with.... Check out www.fiberlay.com for all the materials you would need if you want to do a "ground-up" build. Graphite cloth is expensive, but it shouldn't cost you $300 for the amount of material you would need for a neck. If you have experience using CF, you could make a pretty slick looking neck. Might need a type-R sticker on it though. Don't worry about the glue joint, a good epoxy will work wonders. Tight bond will not be an option.

A paint must be designed for UV curing in order for a UV light to do anything. They have specific photoinitiators that respond to specific wavelengths of light and polymerize (become hard and cure). The UV paints are generally thermally stable and increased heat has little effect on cure time. If you want a crappy UV lamp, take the glass filter out from your halogen work lamps...just dont blame me if you get a sunburn or skin cancer. As said before, the best thing for curing would be a hot and DRY environment. I like the idea of infrared lamps and a small fan to increase circulation, but I think some nice work lamps would work fine as well. Definatley do a test run on some scrap wood before you try this thing out.

I too was a little surprised by the comments about the turquoise inlay given the fairly obvious southwestern theme of the guitar...maybe the body should have been made of red clay to really drive the point home. This is one of the most impressive pieces of work I have seen. Sure, there are tiny details that Im not too thrilled with, but who cares? It's not my guitar. I agree with Wes, some here are thinking way too much as the builder (not that I can blame you though) and not as the customer who will take this guitar home.

This has some truth to it. You are talking about sympathetic vibration. The example given earlier to play the guitar and then play again with the neck touching a table is the same concept. With the neck touching the table, the table will vibrate as well, although it is not vibrating as much as the guitar, it has a large, flat surface (this is known as a large "radiating area"). An easier way to examine this is by using a tuning fork. Hit the tuning fork in air, then hit it and put the end on a table. It will change sound different because the wood will introduce new/different harmonics, though the frequency of vibration will not change. The same principle is exactly why an acoustic guitar sounds louder than an electric (unplugged of course). The acoustic has a very large and light radiating area. The acoustic is more complicated due to the large volume of air and the sound hole, but that gets the basic concept across. Technically, the shape and the material will alter the sound of a guitar. Can it be measured? Oh yes. Does this mean you can hear the difference between an alder body and a poplar body of the same guitar? Probably not. For an electric, I believe the pickups do a very large portion of the work. It would be interesting to see the results of double blind testing (a true scientific test, not someone just doing an A/B comparison) of guitars with different woods.

I agree, there is a reason nobody has posted a tutorial on this. It takes much more time to learn than a simple tutorial could cover. Im sure you can get someone to make something for you on a CNC at your university, but I would be impressed if you could get them to make something for personal use, let alone for free. No offense, but if you are asking these questions, you wont have the skills to make the part yourself. First, you would create your drawing of the part. My favorite program is solidworks, just because I know it pretty well. Don't bother trying to buy this yourself unless you have a few grand sitting around. Don't forget you would need to learn how to use it as well. Assuming you have made your solid model, then, a seperate CAD/CAM program will convert your solid model to a code that the machine can understand (g-code, as already mentioned). The real skill involves the ability to look at the g-code (for some reason every CNC machine uses its own perverted version of the stuff) and know what is being done and if it will cause any problems. The CAD/CAM programs are good, they can pick suitable bit speeds based on the material and all, but the bottom line is you do need a fair amount of experience before you can really dig in and make stuff using CAD/CAM programs on CNC mills/routers/lathes. Here is what I think would be best: If you already have a good grasp of solid modelling programs such as solidworks/pro engineer, create your guitar model, then find a small company that does CNC routing and send them the model and get a quote. If the price is right for you, send them some materials and let them do it. It will save you many aches and pains and will probably be done right, the first time. If you do not have a good grasp of solid modelling programs, I would just stick to doing stuff by hand. Tackling CNC stuff with no experience will be near impossible. If there is a CAD/CAM class at your university, take it! Then you'll be fine.

Looks like you have it figured out. I just finished making my neck jig...I have a habit of overbuilding some things and this is no exception. Instead of a 2x4, its a 2"x4" piece of square tubing (aluminum) and I had some spare 3/8" threaded rod instead of 1/4-20. Most of it was free, so I can't complain.. I could level the frets on a redwood with this thing. I'll try to post pictures later, it looks rediculous.