SawDust_Junkie

I started a thread on this subject awhile back. Here is a link to the thread. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...c=11856&hl=deer

Iwill be addressing this on my project too. I have been mulling it over and had the same concerns about the route being too deep in the control cavity and weakening the wood. My project is a LP DC. I have already drilled the holes through the body for the pots and and the three way selector switch. The problem I saw was, while the pots are 500K ohm long shaft pots, the three way selector switch is the better mechanical type of switch ( it is the 90 degree offset switch so it fits in a shallower cavity). The three way switch only allows room for about 3/16 of inch of wood thickness. Maybe 1/4" if I only want a thread or two in the retaining ring on the top of the body. The only switches I have found that have a deeper shaft, closer to the same as the long shaft pots, are the cheap little enclosed circuit board type of switch. I don't like these switches as good as the Gibson type "mechanical" switches. Anybody know any good solutions for this ? Or will this wood thicknes be strong enough ? I think these are the same type switches that Gibson uses on the LPs and the SGs so they must route out the control cavity to the same depth as I think I will have to.

mailman, you lost me. What "site are you talking about ? I actually got the CAD drawing from a member here at PG, and I am not pointing fingers at anyone. No where did the drawing make the claim that it was accurate to scale. I should have checked before making the assumption. Like I said, one view of the drawing was correct, it was the second profile view that was off. I am disappointed that I will have to do the whole necjk again, but I am glad the first one will usable later. So, Ce La Vie !

Thanks unclej ! But I wouldn't be too sure about not making the same mistake again. Apparently the limits to my stupidity are seemingly boundless !

I am so pissed off at myself today ! I made the mistake of assuming that the CAD drawing I am using for my LP DC project was all accurate and to scale. I have come to find out that the portion of the drawing that shows the full frontal view of the guitar including the neck and headstock is correct and to scale, but, the portion of the drawing that shows the profile side view of the body and neck is not drawn accurately to scale. Unfortunately, I used this part of the CAD to do my measurements for the neck I built for this project. So, now ifnd that the neck I have built will not work with this body because it will cause the bridge to have be moved 1 3/4" further back on the body and not allow me to get all 22 frets on the fretboard before the position of the first pickup is supposed to be. Aaarrrgghhhhh !!!!!!! Oh well, back to the workshop. I am trying to look at this like Drak would recommend, as a learning opportunity. I have discovered though that the neck I have already built will work on a full LP body design, just not on the double cut away design. So, it is not a total loss. I will just save this neck for another project and build a new one. I guess the upside is that I have learned from the mistakes I made while making this neck, and my new one should be even better. I am disappointed though, because this was my first attempt at a set neck with a scarf joint and a 3 x 3 headstock, and I thought it had really turned out nicely. So, as the old adage goes, "Measure twice, (or more) cut once".

I think you'll find the consensus here to be to that you want to do your inlay before mounting the fretboard to the neck. It is much easier to do the neccessary routing or drilling (if your inlay is simple dots).

My two cents would be to use the jigsaw you have for now also. If it is a good quality saw as you say, you would have no problem cutting out your body . Just cut a little ouside of your lines 1/8" or a little more to allow for vertical blade drift and then finish the profile of your body with a template and a router. Just remember to make several shallow passes with the router and don't try to take too much off each pass. I bought a used Grizzly three wheel 12" band saw, and while it is better than what I had ( all I had was a cheap Craftsman jigsaw) it is not much in the way of a bandsaw. But, it has allowed me to begin a couple of projects using the template and router method I mentioned. As a matter of fact, after using this method, I don't believe I would ever attempt to cut a body blank right down to my lines even with a quality bandsaw. I don't see how you could ever get the clean, precise profile like you can routing it using a template. What I woud like to have a quality bandsaw for is re-sawing to make bookmatched blanks for tops. That will have to wait unfortunately. Right now I am saving for a quality router myself.

Hey Jay ! Yeah, they did it at Woodcraft over off of Glenwood Ave. Can't remember what the guys name was that did it, but he is one of the younger guys that works there. He told me that the store doesn't generally do cutting jobs, but since it was just one piece and a small one at that, he just used the tools they have setup in the shop they use for teaching classes and it took about 10 minutes to re-saw the blank and then run it through the belt sander a couple of times. ( I think he actualy wanted to try out the new portable belt sander they got in and so he was playing with a new toy !) Anyway, I just gave him $5.00 and he pocketed that and I payed for the wood at the regular price. So, the way I see it, win/win for everybody.

Thanks for the reply 68 ! I did a search and found this thread: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...l=wooden+inlays So it looks like a few people here have thought about, but not tried it yet, except for Clavin. There were some good bits of information that I had not thought of, in that thread. I would be interested if ayone has done anything like this since the earlier thread was started, and what was their experience with it. By the way, I went by my local WoodCraft store at lunch today. I picked up a piece of Bolivian Rosewood that was 24" x 3" x 1/2". The guy at the store even re-sawed and drum sanded the pieces for me. I now have two blanks that are 24" x 3" x 3/16". All of this for $15.00. That's a deal compared to roughly $20.00 for a pre-slotted fretboard from StewMac. And, I now have two blanks to completely screw up ! Oh, well, its all in the quest for knowledge, eh ?

I am working on a practice project to develop several different aspects of my guitar building. The body is made of several pieces of some old White Oak firewood I had in the backyard, laminated together with some Mahogany strips. This made a type of "cutting board" looking body blank. I used this for the top of the body, with a two piece White Oak back. I can get Rosewood blanks from a local Woodcraft shop that are perfect for fret boards. They are 3" x 24" x 1/4". These sell for about $8.00 apiece. I thought at that price I could pratice slotting and radiusing my fret board at little cost in case of mishaps. As another cost saving measure and to also practice doing inlays, I was thinking about doing wooden inlays on a Rosewood fret board. I was thinking about using some scraps of the White Oak I have left to keep the overall "wood theme" of the guitar. The neck is also a White Oak/Mahogany laminate like the body. The questions I have are : Has anyone here ever done wooden inlays on a fretboard ? If, so, what do you see as the pros or cons of it ? Also, I know Rosewood does not need a finish perse, other than a light coating of linseed oil or lemon oil or tung oil. But, what about the Oak ? Keep in mind that these pieces of Oak would be small like any inlay. Do you guys think there would be an issue with the Oak as far as grain filling or needing to use some type of finish on it ? I know this kind of unusual, but I just want to play around and experiment and learn from this project. So I thought this would be a kind of neat inlay method and the wood shouldn't be too hard to work with to cut out the inlays and sand the fretboard radius and such. What do you guys think ?

I'll tell ya after I get the piece I want jay ! No, really, I'm serious ! (can't have everybody running around stealin my wood !) Yeah, I'm still here, just been lurking and reading , and like I said, my projects been on hold for most of the summer. Been busy gettin my oldest ready to move into the dorms at UNCW too. Thats kinda taken up alot of time this summer. Even though the one I'm working on now is a practice piece, I still want to take my time and try to do the best job I can. You know what they say "Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect !"

Your right fryovanni, I thought the same thing about the Bird's Eye. That is a great price. As for the Bubinga, I didn't really have any particular design in mind, I just saw those blanks they had in their scrap bin and they were nice looking pieces of Bubinga for a pretty good price also. I liked that they were wide enough to build a true one piece body, so I was just trying to kick around some ideas of a design that would fit the blanks. Since I can get these locally and wouldn't have to pay any shipping costs, I think 45.00 is a good price on the Bubinga too. These blanks had a nice grain to them also, and I was thinking of doing a Bubinga back with a flamed Maple top. I have seen some builds here that I think used that combo and they looked really nice. And Godin, thanks for the PM. I will try blowing that up and see what it looks like at full scale. You're right, I haven't been posting for awhile, although I am always lurking. I'm just in a slump right now. The project I am working on has been on hold for a couple of months because I pretty much wore out the cheap router I had bought from HF. I didn't want to take any chances using a router that I don't trust aymore and I don't want to spend money on a cheap tool again, so I am saving my money and waiting until I can afford Porter Cable fixed/plunge router kit. I have been doing some work though. Making MDF templates for the mortise and tenon on the neck and making a control cavity cover, drilling the holes for the pots and switch and so forth. Next I am going to start making MDF templates for doing the body carve. This is the project I am working on: http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/Project/IMAG0183.JPG http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/Project/IMAG0184.JPG http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/Project/IMAG0186.JPG This was my practice project for doing my first set neck, so I took some White Oak firewood that has been setting under a tarp in my back yard for several years and started milling to see what I could get out of it. I ended up with some strips that I laminated together with some Mahogany to make a sort of cutting board body blank. This blank was not thick enough for a carve though, so I used it as a top with a White Oak back to keep the theme of the woods. The neck is made out of the same wood combination, White Oak/Mahogany, with a 13 degree headstock angle. It is going to be a 3x3 tuner setup with my own peg head design, similar to a Gibson. I will try to get a couple of pics posted of the neck. I am pleased with the way neck has come out so far, for my first scarf joint and all. I just wish I had used a volute, but hey, like I said, this is my practice project. This thing is heavy though so the pics in the last link show where I chambered the top to cut some of the weight down. The bottom portion you see with no chambering is were the control cavity will be. I am hoping that after doing the carve, rotuing the mortise for the neck, routing the pickup cavities and the control cavity, the weight will be alot better.

I found three Bubinga blanks at a local woodworking shop that are almost perfect. They are what you would probably call 6/4 (although I think they are probably closer to 8/4). They want about $45.00 each for them. The only problem is they are only 16" long. They are plenty wide enough though (about the same width as length). I can fit a LP Jr. DC design on them (barely), but not a LP. I know a Strat won't fit. Anybody got any other design ideas that would fit these blanks ? They also have three nice pieces of Bird'sEye Maple 36" x 4" by 4" that they want about $35.00 each for.

That looks great RamaN, especially for your first guitar. Or I think that's what you were saying. I couldn't tell if you meant your first scratch build guitar, or your first neck-through, or your first Mockingbird. I like the headstock, very original. Great job on the body carving and the heel too. Very clean. Oh, and by the way, I love Weihenstaphaner ! Does that coaster mean it is your regular beer of choice ? I love Heffe Weisbeers. I also like one that a local grocery store used to carry,that I thought was even better. It was called Meisel Weis. An import from Germany too. Very good beer ! (Oh, by the way RaMaN, you need to cut all of these pics except one and just post a link to the rest. You how it is, those forum rules and all, one pic per post. Just wanted to remind you before the mods got here and did it !)

I did check the new switch when I installed it and it worked fine. All the positions did what I expected of them. No, this bass does not have active pickups. Like I said it seems to be working fine now, I'm just confused as to why I had to do what I did to make it work.

It seems to work correctly. The volume pot controls the volume no matter what position the switch is in, as does the tone pot. The only thing that seems strange to me is that moving the switch from one position to another does seem to change which pickup is active or whether both are active, but there does not seem to be as much difference in the sound/tone between the three possible settings as there used. Of course this could be just in my head too. I am like you, the wiring is exactly the way it was before I did anything, except that after replacing the switch, I could not get it to work until I add that strap between the first and second poles on the volume pot. I don't get it.

Ok, WT, I sat down last night and drew out the schematic for the bass. What I don't understand is, when I replaced the 3way switch, all I did was move the leads on the old switch, to the exact same positions on the new switch. I did not make any other changes. But after I was done, I could not get it to work, until I added the strap between the first and second posts on the volume pot. That strap was not there in the original wiring, as soon as I added that strap, everything began to work. Anyway, here is the schematic:

Hey WT It is an XB125. According to the Washburn archive page, it has two Washburn stock soapbar pickups like you said. The neck position is a Washburn 951 and the bridge is a Washburn 953. I did not think that these soapbar pickups were double coil. Are they ? Anyway, I recently had to replace the 3 way switch and now its not working correctly. I must have made some mistake, but I can't think what it is. So, I wanted to know if anyone had a schematic for the standard factory wiring of this pickup/control pot/switch configuration. Like I said, it has the two soapbars, a 3 way toggle, one volume and one tone pot. The way it used to work was the first position on the switch was for the neck pickup, the middle was for both, and the last was for the bridge pickup. the volume and tone pots controlled both, depending on what the switch was set for. Any ideas ?

To start off with guys, I did look through the electronics tutorials on the main page and did a search, but I couldn't come up the info I am looking for. If anybody can help, I would appreciate it. I need a wiring schematic for a Washburn batam bass. The guitar has two single coil pickups, with one volume and one tone control, and one three way toggle switch. I want to wire it up so that the switch selects each pickup individually, or both pickups in the middle position, and the volume and tone controls both pickups. Can anyone help me with this ?

In similar situations I have used my belt sander to do this. I am talking about a benchtop belt sander, not a hand held belt sander. As a fret board is usually about 18"-20" you can run the blank back and forth on the belt, keeping it as flat and level as possible. This method is not as accurate as using a planer, but hey, we make do with what we have sometimes. I have found that since the surface area on my belt sander is about 14", I can thickness something like a fretboard pretty well without much risk getting it out of a true "flat". As always, your results may vary.

Here is a link to a website with plans for building a scarf joint jig. This is how I made my jig and it works well. Just be sure to be very accurate with all of your cuts and make sure the little triangular supports are square. If you do that and clamp your neck blank to the jig, it will give you a very clean joint that is easy to glue together. http://pweb.jps.net/~kmatsu/htmlpages/scarfjig.html

Yeah you guys are right. I went back and looked at the SD web site and that's exactly what they are lovekraft. They are Korean made Invader copies. Its always the same, "Never be afraid to buy the very best, you'll always be happy with it". Oh well, just trying to save some moolah on my project, but what's the point ? We are all trying to build better guitars than what we can buy off the shelf for the most part anyway aren't we !

Anybody have any experience with these pickups ? The local Guitar Center is running a sale (Yeah right !, they mark up the price and then show a sale price, which is actually their regular price, from what I have seen) Anyway, they have the Seymour Duncan Detonators for $29.00 apiece. That is the same price as Musician's Friend, but I wouldn't have to pay for shipping this way. I am building a LP DC copy and need to get a couple of humbuckers to go in it, but I am not familiar with these particular Seymour Duncans. The SD website states that they are OEM ( meaning, I think, that they are designed by SD and licensed to be built by a third party vendor) and usually used in upper low-end guitars, perhaps like Epiphone LPs and so forth. I am wondering if these have different designs for a bridge and neck position or do you just use two of the same thing, one in each position ?

How much for the fb3201 and fb49A basses ? And what is "Solidwood". The description of the bodies say "Solidwood" is that supposed to mean the wood type or the construction type ?

I know most people here use Titebond original, but can it be steamed to loosen it if the fretboard had to be removed ? I would think the Titebond III I have been using cannot. On my current project, I laminated strips of Oak and Mahogany to make my body blank ( I had some scraps of Mahogany laying around, and I cut up some 4-5 year old White Oak firewood too. I didn't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on Mahogany and figured maple, and ruin it on my first attempt at a carve top guitar) , and then glued a back cap of Oak onto that to get my required thickness. I would think in that application, the Titebond III, which is waterproof, would be ideal to insure any moisture would not weaken the bonds on those joints.