Dugz Ink

E-MU is pretty good. Their about the same as M-Audio. Relatively low latency and noise-level, and relatively inexpensive. D~s

I think I would find a cheap piece of wood and practice for a while. THEN build a project that will be worthy of your new finishing skill. D~s

I appreciate everybody's opinions and ideas. I would like to try an extremely hard wood... or maybe even brass... but I'lll hold off for now. This is my very first project guitar. If it works, then I'll spend more money on future projects. By the way, The Balck Walnut was free. I have about 40 pounds of nice "scrap wood" that I got from a friend who used to work at the Benjamin Sheridan stock factory. All the more reason to just use the Black Walnut for now. D~s

That's not a problem here; it's a Fender-style bolt-on neck. But I really appreciate the heads-up! D~s

First, let me apologize; I am a geek. Not a pocket-protector nerd... more like a high-tech headbanger. Therefore, I over-think everything. And I ask a lot of questions. So I aplogize for constantly bugging you guys. With that said, I have another query. But first, the situation. I ordered a bridge, thinking it was a top-loader. OOOPS! It's a string-thru. That's a cool mistake, but I didn't plan for it. So now I'm planning... and I have an idea to run past you guys. Instead of putting the ferrules into the Poplar back, I was thinking about something like this: By setting the ferrules into Black Walnut heartwood, they would be less likely to pull deeper into the wood. By angling the side-joints, I strengthen the joint two ways 1) more surface area to dissipate the force, 2) a wedge design to compress the Walnut against the adjoining Poplar. Now the big questions: A) Will the Walnut be a better "tone wood" for the attachment point, or would the Poplar be better? Does an increase in surface/joint area increase the transfer of sonic energy, or decrease it? (I told you... I'm a geek!) Any opinons, advice, or couselling is appreciated. D~s

I can do that... no problem at all. Thanks for your answers! D~s

My Washburn AB-20 has a fretless neck that has a Rosewood fingerboard. It's 12 years old, and it still looks pretty good. Not perfect, but it's a long way from needing replacement. You just have to take care of it, and don't use round-wound strings. D~s

Somebody in one of the posts mentioned putting their neck pickups "right against the neck." I don't know if they were talking about the pup's ring being right against the neck, or the pup. Here's what I would like to do with mine: (Yes, I'm making the rings for this guitar.) Is it too tight? This is being mounted on a Poplar body, so I don't see where I would get any real strength from leaving 1/4" of wood between the pup and the neck (the Poplar would just split and crack under heavy compression)... but will it make a big difference in tone? Your opinions are welcome. D~s

Yeah, Bob Gollihur has some good info. Definitely worth bookmarking... if you like acoustic bass or double-bass. D~s

I found a wallet to go with your guitar... what y'all would call a matching ensemble. I never thought that duct tape would be vogue. But then again, I didn't understand Disco, either... so maybe I'm not a good judge of what is/isn't cool. D~s

1) I didn't vote for Anastasia because of the satanic stuff... but that's a personal thing. 2) I don't give a ________ who made the neck. 3) I was torn between several of the guitars that were built by guys who have helped me... and that did influence me. I want to cheer for the people who have been cheering for me. And I think that others probably feel as if somebody (Anastasia) has walked into thier "rec-room" and flopped down on the sofa. PG is their second-home, and this is where they hang out with thier friends. And when it came time to hold "their" contest, a stranger appeared with a serious contender. Wes: You can't blame humans for these types of reactions. It's to be expected. Anastasia: Welcome to PG. I hope you'll stick around and share your knowledge. Bassman: I don't care what you meant. I just like your bass. All of you: I expect to have my first project ready for the December contest. If the bolt-on neck doesn't fold over as soon as I put tension on the strings, you're in for some serious competition. You have been warned. D~s

When I was living in Portugal, I toured a 15th Century church that looked like it had marble everywhere... but they had been too poor to build it with marble, so everything was painted to look like marble. And it was very convincing, even after several centuries of pigment degredation. Thier technique involved painting swirl and grains patterns, then dabbing them with damp sea-sponges before the paint dried. After it dried, they did some sanding, then coated everything with varnish. (I wish I could give more details, but they used certain words that I didn't understand, so they had to simplify the explanation.) Just at a glance, the same type of techniques could have been used on that guitar... but with better paints, better sand paper, and a killer clear coat. However, I could be wrong. D~s

For me, it's a battle between the basses... and I would gladly play either one. Let's see... fretless or headless... they're both cool... this is a tough decision. BTW: Who posted that Anastasia? It looks like the only post they ever made at PG. D~s

The link doesn't work. But I'll check this thread later. D~s

There are covers that are designed to go over Fender-style hardtails; you could jewel that. Or how about just jeweling the bridge? The plate that goes on the back to support bolt-on necks, or a front-mounted control cover, or... Look at the first picture again; you are not leaving behind a circular pattern. You are overlapping the patterns, so you never see a complete circle... just 1/3 of each circle. Also, if you could walk around that gas tank, you would see the pattern shifting... which is something that a still-camera cannot capture. D~s

Adobe's Audition and Steinberg's Wavelab can be used for recording, mixing, processing, and mastering audio... and they can set up and burn audio CDs to industry standards. Both programs have tons of toys that you can use... if you know how. A lot of radio stations use Audition (or it's predecessor, Cool Edit) for producing commercials; I used Cool Edit when I was in Radio. I liked it so much that I bought it, and now I have upgraded to Audition. It can do multitrack recording and mixing, and offers some of the same mixing tools as Sonar and Cubase. However, it doesn't handle the "real time" plug-ins as well as Sonar or Cubase. With some effects, you have to apply the effect to the audio, then listen to it, and if you don't like it you have to hit "Undo" and try again. With Sonar and Cubase, you can hear how the plug-in will sound when you press Play plus you can tweak the plug-in's setting while the tracks are playing. I expect Adobe to remedy this in their next upgrade, but that might not happen for 6-12 months. I don't know much about the various versions of Cubase because I rarely get to use Cubase. You might want to ask other people about the Steinberg products. I can tell you that the big difference between Sonar PE and Sonar SE is that SE doesn't have all of the new Surround Sound mixing/editing tools... but I don't really need Surround Sound so I'm not upgrading to PE. And I'm willing to bet you don't know enough to jump straight into mixing music in Dolby Digital 5.1 format... so you could probably stick to SE, as well. Again, if you want a less expensive way to get started, buy Cakewalk's Home Studio for $149. Then you can upgrade to Sonar 4 SE for $199 later. (Do the math; that's $348, and retail for SE is $479.) And you can sometimes buy Home Studio for $130 at Guitar Center. For more details, go to Cakewalk's "Products" page and look around for a little while. (If you click on "Buy It" you can look at the prices, including the current upgrade specials.) Remember, this is just my opinion. Results may vary. See dealer for details. D~s

I guess I'm a sick puppy, but I love the buzz of a guitar amp. As for the rest of the recording, you'll want to roll off some of the lows before you try to mix it. Right now, your guitar has so much bottom end that it will bury the bass and kick and turn it into a muddy sounding mess. Here's how I would EQ this guitar before mixing it: Below 80Hz: pull the faders all the way down 80-250Hz: leave EQ faders flat 500-1000Hz: drop the EQ -3db 2000-4000Hz: boost the EQ 3db 8000-12500: leave EQ faders flat 16000+: pull the faders all the way down (Everything in between the listed groups gradually goes up or down to the next group) But that's just for the section that I got to hear; I have no idea how high your "solo" goes, so I don't know if the high frequency settings will have a negative affect on the solo. Also, this is just a starting point. All of the settings between 80Hz and 16000Hz could be tweaked a little, depending on what instruments are in the mix, how you EQ and compress the other instruments, and so on. If you want to judge my work, to see if my advice is any good, CLICK HERE. (It's a very lightly produced song demo, which was intentionally kept clean so that publishers could hear the lyrics... which are important when you're pitching songs as a writer.) D~s

Dumb question time: Why not grind/file the frets level with the fretbaord? Here's why I'm asking: The biggest problem I've seen with fretless boards is that people put the wrong strings on them and chew up the wood. (I saw a fretless bass at Guitar Center that had round-wound strings on it, and the fretboard already had very noticeable impressions.) So, if you leave some brass in the neck, would it help to eleviate wood erosion? That may sound stupid, but I'm just trying to learn. D~s

If you are serious about getting into the recording industry, forget about the cheap stuff like Tracktion, n-Tracks, and Magix. Buy software that resembles Pro Tools and Nuendo; this is an investment in your future. I recommend Cakewalk products (like Home Studio and Sonar) because they have excellent upgrade-pricing. You can buy Home Studio, just to get started, then eventually upgrade to Sonar for less than half of the retail price. For instance, I'm about to upgrade from Sonar 1 to Sonar 4 Studio Edition for $119... and retail is $479. (Upgrading from Home Studio would cost $199) But that's just my opinon, and somebody is sure to tell you that Cubase, Logic, Nuendo, or Pro Tolls are THE ONLY way to go. I thinks that's nonsense. If you want a job in a recording studio, having experience with Pro Tools might be helpful, but knowing how to record and mix properly (with hardware and software) is far more important. D~s

I found this on a clunky looking "wood" forum. I agree with his use of files (instead of coarse sandpaper); been there, done that. But I didn't know about this finish at Stew-Mac.

The project came to a halt for a short time; I was learning so much new stuff that I just set down the project. I've learned all sorts of things here at Project Guitar, along with some web sites that I've tripped over. I also found a great book: "The Electric Guitar" by Nick Freeth and Charles Alexander... which confirmed some ideas I had for future projects. I also did a finish-test of the wood that I'm using. Gillespie's Tung Oil (which I have used for years) turns this piece of Poplar a beautiful golden color that is a near-perfect match for the amber "Speed Knobs" that I ordered from Stew-Mac... so I'm very happy. Im' so happy with the project that I'm not going to route out the body for the pickups until I test my dimensions on some other wood. Yeah... I only paid $14 for this Poplar, but it looks so good that I decided to spend $6 for some Pine that was the same size. I'll cut up (and probably screw up) the Pine before I do anything else to the Poplar. And I'm having a great time. I sat out in the shop last night drawing various designs on wood for hand-made pickup rings. Yeah... I'm going to make the pickup rings. I even found the "perfect" piece of wood to go with the body... for less than $3. (It's big enough that I can cut the rings out of the dark wood, without using any of the lighter wood.) Check it out. So I'll spend the weekend cutting an identical body out of cheap Pine, and test out my measurements. Then I'll probably start planing and shaping this wood to the right size for pickup rings. Boy, this started out as just a test project. Now it looks like it could be a nice guitar... if I just take my time. D~s

Hmm... that kind of helps me to understand what I'm using... but this Gillespie's stuff can darken up the wood... darker than the "polimerized" tung oil pix... but not as much as the "pure" tung oil or the boiled linseed oil... but I guess they could be mixing the two together. (I also have a can of boiled linseed oil; now I wonder if that's "pure".) Thanks, though; it is a very good refernce. D~s

Well... sort of. Some states divide their electoral votes up to match districts, and then the electoral vote goes with the majority of the votes in that district... which means that you could win the most votes in one of those states but end up with the fewest electoral votes. For details on the federal electoral process (not the processes used by the states) CLICK HERE. D~s

The effects in the Behringer mixers are decent, but not as good as the digital effects that come with most mixing software... but those effects aren't as good as the expensive software effects packages that you can buy... and there are some really expensive rack-mount effect units that sound even better... so YOU have to decide what quality you can afford. Personally, I just record everything "clean" then use the digital effects that came with Sonar. That way, if I don't like the effect, I still have a clean copy of the guitar/piano/vocal/etc. If you have a mixer, you don't really need the Delta 66... but you could definitely hook it up without a problem... and it really is a nice interface. An alternative is that Audiophile 2496 PCI card, which has analog Ins/Outs, plus S/PDIF (digital format) Ins/Outs. There are other cards, so it's impossible to say "what's best"... just don't buy any of the stuff you see at Comp USA or any of the other consumer-oriented stores; things like the Audigy sound cards are built for video game players. D~s

If you drill the recesses too deep, you can always make the holes the same size as the knobs, then mount a metal plate UNDER the wood, and mount your pots to/through the metal. In that case, I would finish the metal with paint that matched the finished wood. Either way, I would do what they said: drill, then radius by hand. D~s