Dugz Ink

Ah, that citrus-smell of an un-gooed guitar.

Please... your making me sick with envy. Quit rubbing it in! Don't you just love those? Yeah, okay, it has a tiny knot... but that's where you can cut it out, so it doesn't matter for that project. BUT... it's a "second" so it has to be discounted. OH YEAH! And then there are the knots that have such a magnificent affect on the grain that you absolutely do NOT want to cut it out. I guess I'm just a wood-freak. D~s

No, I'm in Nashville... where there's a guitar player on every street. I love it! But Gary is a Memphis boy, and he's awesome to hang out with. He and the guy he's sharing ahouse with hold a pot-luck-dinner-and-guitar-pull on the third Sunday of every month... from 3pm until Gary and Doak decide they need to go to bed. It's fantastic! You're sitting in a room full of acoustic guitars and players, and somebody says "Here's a song I just finished writing yesterday." Then they start playing... and within 8 bars, Gary is playing along with them... augmenting the style of that song perfectly. Of course, when somebody plays something that has a good Memphis Blues sound to it, Gary really helps to make it ROCK! Sorry to get even farther off topic, but Gary is very cool. That's why I recommend him. D~s

I spent years trying to play certain chords "the right way"... and I could never do it. It frustrated me so much that I basically gave up. But I recently became friends with this killer guitar player, Gary Talley. He showed me how to play chords differently, and it has really helped my playing and my confidence. Maybe you just need to take a few sessions with somebody like him. D~s

I like that! And I can use some of the rifle cartridges that are too worn out to reload. Hmmm... what if I just used the heads of the casings for fret-dots? And dropped ebony dots in where the primers were? Oh man... now you've got my brain churning. D~s

I'm more of a writer than a player. But when I'm angry, I can't write or play. So I go out to the shop. If I just start filing and sanding on a woodworking project, I get into the wood... paying very close attention to how the wood behaves. Before long, I've forgotten about my anger, and a tune pops into my head. I keep woking on the wood until words start forming with the music. Then I can go back in the house and write a song. Sometimes you just have to put down what you want to do, and do something different. D~s

The human body is a lot bigger than the electronics on your guitar, and you are also adding 6 parallel strings to the RF-mix. Ergo, a bridge-ground can introduce RFI... or eliminate it... depending on numerous factors. And just because you and your guitar pick up the RF, that doesn't mean that the rest of the equipment will. The old CRT computer video monitor that I just replaced is a great example. My DI box, mic-pre, and other gear was not affected by it, but everytime I got within 10 feet of it while playing my LP Jr (dual humbuckers), the guitar output would buzz from the RF. Touching the strings quieted the buzz a little, but it never went away. D~s

I always thought that a ground would always remove RFI... until I worked in Radio. I soon found out that shields can also work as antennas... not only to attract RFI, but also to broadcast it. Put an RFI source too close to your shield you can actually saturate all of the "grounds" on all of your equipment. Overload the ground, and the RFI will try to dissipate through your shield... like a broacast antenna. And since most of us play guitar without holding onto a ground-rod, WE are not grounded... which means that our bodies become nothing more than RFI traps... which will immediately transfer said RFI as soon as we touch anything that will conduct the RFI. Granted, I won't be playing my guitar near an old tube-driven AM transmitter, but... D~s

Well, I thought I should be shielding this guitar, but I read that the human body can introduce RFI into the guitar if the bridge is grounded... and that is technically correct... so I thought I would before I assemble everything. As for the brass-instrument discussion, my wife says my lips already work great. D~s

My first guitar body is coming together, and I'm thinking about the shielding and grounding. I've read numerous artciles, but I wanted a few opinions. I don't play out... at least not with an electric guitar. I use my Washburn AB-20 fretless bass... which you can see in my avatar. My electrics are only used for recording song-demos, so we can eliminate the concerns of playing a guitar (that has a grounded bridge) in a run-down bar that has faulty wiring. Since recording booths tend to be relatively free of RFI, do I need to go through the process of shielding all of the cavities, plus linking the grounds for shielding, pots, pickups, and bridge? After all, the body can add RFI... so should I isolate the wiring from my body? Am I overthinking this? Should I give up guitars and learn to play the tuba? These and other answers questioned later in this show. D~s

I love tung oil, but for something like that, I would be tempted to use shellac. That type of finish just looks right on that type of guitar. D~s

I'm just learning to build guitars, but I finished all of my custom-built gunstocks with tung oil. I don't do anything to maintain the finish, and I have never had any problems with "greasy hands" because of the finish... unless #2 is talking about immediately after applying the tung oil. Here's my take: if you want a killer clearcoat that will withstand some abuse, use nitro. However, if you want a truly natural finish that brings out the figure of your wood, use tung oil. But applying tung oil isn't like wiping a couple coats of linseed oil on the cutting board that you have in your kitchen. Tung oil requires just as much work as nitro, if you want a killer finish. I have a stock hanging in my shop right now that is litterally as smooth as glass... but I spent several weeks applying tung oil, sanding it, and applying more tung oil, and sanding it again, and so on. D~s

The mineral spirits help with the oily woods because they also cut the wood's natural oil... which are mixing with the tung oil as you apply it. By cutting the oil (with mineral spirits) you can eleviate some of these problems. However, if you build up the tung oil until it works like a grain sealer (sanding and finishing over and over) then try to put a coat of the thinned tung oil on top, runs can be a major problem. But it's not the same problem that you have with paint running; when tung oil is applied over tung oil, the previous coat can become VERY soft, so wiping off a run (after it has been there for 5 minutes) can lead to a horrible smear of the previous coat(s). That's why I prefer to use thick tung oil; I can lay on a fairly heavy coat and have fewer problems with runs. But, as you can see, everybody has there personal preference. I'm only telling you about my preferences and experience so you can decide which technique will work for you and your project. D~s

Check the software that you want to purchase. Some don't like Linux. Buy 1Gb of RAM... good stuff like Kingston. And keep everything properly cooled; it will run better and last longer. I haven't read much about it yet, but from what I can tell your software will either make use of the 64-bit architecture or it will just run like a 32-bit chip. Personally, my 2.7gHz Athlon is fast enough that I don't plan on replacing it for at least another year...probably two years. By then, there will be a lot of 64-bit stuff on the market, and the prices on the chips will be much lower. Don't give into the hype; buy what you need. D~s

I can do that. The body is being made out of 3 pieces; a 3/4" face, an 1/8" core, and a 3/4" back. The neck pocket will be cut out of the first and second pieces, and the neck will bolt onto the third piece. So I could cut an angle off of the fretboard (on this pre-fab neck) but not cut too deep into the neck. Then inlet the neck pocket to match. Yeah... I can do that. Thanks for that idea! D~s

Yep... that's why I'm asking before I do any cutting. I don't know anything about that kind of thing. Educate me. D~s

Here's a quick example of my design: EDIT: I hope I'm not in trouble for breaking the "1 pic per post" rule.

Okay, for my first project guitar, I bought a "Fender style" bolt-on guitar neck. The top of the body has a cool angle, and I'm thinking about mimicking that angle on the base of the fretboard/neck. The big question is this: How much can be cut off before I don't have enough to bolt the neck on securely? The lower side (high E string) would have about 3" of contact area, but the other side (low E string) would only have 2" of contact area. Will this give me enough width and length to adequately secure the neck against the pull of six guitar strings? All opinons are welcome, and experienced advice is extremely appreciated. D~s

First, there are two types of Tru Oil; the small expensive bottles, or the larger expensive spray cans. I've used both, and I had to go back and re-do the finish on the things that I coated with the spray cans. It could have been the way I was putting it on, but I personally can't recommend the spray cans. Since then, I have gone to using Gillespie's Tung Oil. This stuff is thick and beautiful. I have built and finished several gun stocks with this stuff, and everybody loves the finish. And it does a great job of bringing out the figure in various species of wood. (Lowes used to carry it, but now they just have the Fornbeys stuff, which is too thin, in my opinion.) The first time I tried to put tung oil on Purpleheart, it was a disaster; it never solidified. After 48 hours, it was just a sticky scum, and it took a lot of Mineral Spirits and elbow grease to clean it up. I eventually used enough Mineral Spirits to dry some of the oil out of the Purpleheart, and got a good coat of tung oil to stick to it. 5 years later, the Purpleheart has turned a very dark purple... almost darker than the Black Walnut that it is mounted on. There are sealants that work better on Purpleheart, and they will keep it from turning dark... but I can't recall at this moment what I read. I have another stock that has Paduak accents; the tung oil went on without a problem, and the Paduak turned a beautiful sunset-red. So, no, I would not compare the two woods. Comparitively speaking, it was a lot easier to get adhesives and tung oil to stick to Paduak than Purpleheart. Also, the adhesives did better with Paduak than Zebrawood, and the tung oil did better on Paduak than Cocobola... but that could just be the pieces of wood that I have. I hope that helps. D~s

Yep. Traktion, n-Tracks, Magix, Home Studio, Sonar, Cubase, Logic, Audition...

The computer specs that you mentioned are basically what I have, and I am very happy with my computer. Yes, there have been 2 times when I could use a little more horsepower, but I have overloaded every computer that I have used... which has been 25 years now. As for Windows XP, it is the first Windows OS that I have actually trusted 100%. I use it at work. However, I have Win 2000 at home on my DAW, and it is very stable. (I didn't buy XP because you have to call Microsoft to authorize your software whenever you load XP... even if you just reformatted your hard-drive.) I haven't used Linux on a my DAW, but there are some people who swear by it. D~s

I was thinking about using aluminum mostly because it's non-magnetic, which allows it to be a good RFI shield. And also because I have some gun-metal blueing that gives aluminum an black-oxidized finish. But you've made some interesting points. Thanks. D~s

Yes they are. So would I just use one end of the magnet to polarize the poles? (Yes... I'm a newbie, so I ask questions that may seem to have obvious answers.) D~s

I was thinking about using the cover as the mutual ground for everything, since the pots will be securely mounted to it. It seemed like a good idea, but I didn't know if I was overloooking something... like the metal being too thin to mount the pots. Thanks for the feedback that I've received so far. D~s

I've been reading about building pickups... mostly because I want to know more about what makes them different so I can start buying better pickups. Then this little voice in my head said "Why don't you build your own pickups?" This is the same voice that urged me to plaster radio station bumper stickers inside of a competing station after hours when I was a young DJ... a stunt that caused me to be arrested... so I try to ignore this voice. But I digress. So I was thinking about the magnets that are used to polarize and charge the poles that go in certain types of pickups, and I remembered that I have some rare-earth magnets that I pulled out of an old SCSI hard-drive. These little monsters are so tough that you literally cannot pull them off of a piece of steel; you have to slide them off the edge of the steel. So... finally... the question: Could I use these for charging poles? I would imagine that they are way to strong to use UNDER the pickups, because I honestly believe they would would pull the strings down towards the pickups. But I could be mistaken. I've had a few bad ideas in the past (ie: the bumper stickers) so I thought I would check with somebody who might know. If you have any ideas, or sites I haven't read yet, I would appreciate it. D~s