Bryan316

The same way any other luthier or builder here does it. Clean-up sanding! Really, it's not that much more complex. There's no real trick. Even my smoothest, steadiest cuts on either the bandsaw or with my router, has needed some cleanup sanding. It's just a few different grades of sandpaper, and some elbow grease. There's nothing more needed. Invest in a good quality sanding block, and trust your eyes and your fingers. If you still feel irregularity or bumpiness, you need more sanding. And this goes even for your template! Think about it... even with a template, that template had to be cut out first, right? That means that template also needed some clean-up and some smoothing. And it's usually all done to the touch and by a careful eye. No fancy tools or new-fangled power tools needed, really. Just some 80-grit up taking steps up through 220 grit, and you'll have baby-butt smoothness in an afternoon or two.

Well, here's why I'm considering this project. First off, the X2 systems are completely digital, and are going to be 2009 compliant when the FCC recalls all UHF and VHF middle-frequencies for HD television broadcasts. That will make EVERY wireless system out there obsolete, unless it is a digital system like the early Sennheiser Digital Reference systems or the new X2 systems. Second, the X2 is inherently designed with the upgrade factor considered. If one guy in the band gets the X2, and the rest of his bandmates want in on the awesome, the system allows for five systems operating on five different channels. Also, multiple transmitters (aka main and backup axes) can be dedicated to one channel per person on stage. That's a LOT of flexibility. The only conflict, would be someone on the side of the stage turning on their X2 and playing along with you. Which would instill massive blunt force trauma upon their faces when they're discovered, and make me have a very bloody and very entertaining stage show that night! Third, I would MOST CERTAINLY account for easy battery replacements by using the plastic flip-pockets, account for shielding by shield-painting and copper-foiling just like my preamp and pickup cavities, and account for cabled playing cuz a friend just showed me how to parallel-wire the jack. And leaving a large-enough pocket to accept future upgrades or replacement transmitters is easy enough. It can all be planned out before I start to cut my bass' body shape, so if I need more room, just wiggle some measurements. About the signal quality. Let me emphasize my initial suspicions and doubts about the X2. And also emphasize exactly why I'm committing so much design time to this wonderful little toy. My brother and I are TERRIBLE skeptics. We're pessimists about everything when it comes to our rigs and our gear. He's been through three different wireless systems now, and is quite comfy and happy with his current rig. Mine was a $60 clearance sale Nady and I bought two systems to have two transmitters. I am fully aware of the tone-sucking of my wireless, but who cares onstage?!?! I'm beating the crap outta my bass and bangin my head like I want it to fall off! I ain't concerned with tonal inflections up there, heh heh! But we still are skeptical about new-fangled ideas. My brother learned that the guys who did the original DR1000 systems are behind the X2 design, so we started our hunt. We found a hole-in-the-wall guitar shop that had two systems in, so we went with blatantly doubtful attitudes towards it. Alexi Laiho LTD with EMG's, through a Randall RH100 head with the hot solo high gain preamp installed. First, we listened to the guitar and amp with a good cable (think it was a Planet Waves cable?) and tested every possible scenario. Clean channel plugged in, volume off, volume full-on, rolling the knob, playing, silent. High gain channel, plugged in, volume off, volume full-on, hands off the strings, hands on, playing, chunking, chords, pinch squeals, fast riffing, solo-noodling, everything. Then we set up the X2 system, and did it all over again. Clean and high-gain. Except my brother walked to the other end of the store and sat in their big fluffy leather couch in the lessons-waiting area. He was around 40-50 feet away, lots of other amps and guitars in the way, display stands, stompbox displays, shelves, metal-wire racks, all kinds of stuff that could mess with his signal. GOLDEN. Let me say that again. FREAKIN GOLDEN. His playing was unhindered, his dead-quiet silence was softer than the cable's, even when he walked back up and stood with his pickups facing the cabinet, his tone was untouched. The amp's inherent high-gain hiss was louder when he unplugged the X2 receiver from the amp's input! We had absolutely no doubts about the superiority of the X2 digital wireless system after that session. So... time for bass! We discovered that my local Guitarded Center had them in, and I was talking to one of my buddies who works there. He's a vehement hater of wireless systems and hates their reliability. Plenty of experience convinced him never to try a wireless system again. So, I felt obligated to prove him wrong! So we did the exact same thing we did at the other store. He grabbed a guitar he knew well, plugged into a Marshall combo amp with all those fancy digital effects and blah blah blahs. Cranked it. Went through the clean channel, wireless to cable back and forth. Then high-gain. Same deal. I then made him walk all the way across the store playing. He was behind the accessories desk chunking away, and the manager walks out. He then walks right by him, SQUEALS at him, continues walking. Manager was shocked, and began to pay attention. He comes back and I asked him, "Did you hear yourself over there?" Yup. "Did you hear yourself drop out?" Nope. "Did you hear the Boss pedals display and the kid wanking on it?" Yup. "Did his stuff cause you any static noise or interference?" Nope. He smiled. We then did the same thing with an Ampeg SVT-4PRO into a Fridge, and grabbed a Fender Precision and an Ibanez BTB 5-stringer. We bounced back and forth. That was the first time I tested this thing for bass. NO FREAKIN DIFFERENCE. I even detuned that B string until it was outright floppy, and we both listened to the lows to hear if it held up. Did so just peachy-keen! Sounded FAR better than my current wireless system does. It hates my low B string and really hates hot preamp electronics with strong signals. A major reason why I want to upgrade. This was Thursday. I saw him and his band play Friday night. He had an X2 that night. Heh heh heh! I forced him to run off stage and go rush his way through the crowd. He came hustling back with an ear-to-ear grin, and waaay too covered in beer. Heh heh. He told me he bought the X2 as he passed by his work on his way to the gig! "Well, I knew I could use my employee discount, and just return it Monday after the show if it sucked... but hell no! This thing is flawless!" I actually owe him an update visit, to see how he's liked it after quite a few months of constant use. See if he had any issues or reliability problems. I'ma doubt that, he'd most likely call me the moment he had problems!!! "HEY YOU BASTARD this don't work! Come fix my shtick!!!" One of the guitarists from Battlecross now has an X2 system, and is making his bandmates very VERY jealous. They always got so tangled up on stage because of how energetic and active they are, and they started taking steps to improve their rigs and simplify things like my bands have. I bet by the end of the summer, they'll all be wireless, including their singer, heh heh! You guys gotta understand. I don't believe hype. I don't buy into a lot of marketing shpiel. I don't like it when commercials use a lot of 50 cent words to describe their product. I don't like catalogs that have more fancy blabber than actual statistics. If I'm interested in something, I'ma try it out myself and give it a proper run-through. Also, I don't go around bragging about products unless I'm completely convinced. My endorsement of a product/service only comes after I abuse the hell outta it and prove it to myself beyond the shadow of a doubt. For examples, my love of SKB's new U.S. Roto-Rack cases, my love of Eden Electronics bass amplification, my love of my lead guitarist's Hughes & Kettner TriAmp MkII, and my love of this X2 digital wireless system. If a product was crap, I'd be shouting it far and wide to convince people to stay far away from it and keep from wasting precious money. This is why I no longer sell computers at Office Depot! They sold crap, and paid me to make a cold crap on a paper plate look like hot s*** on a silver platter! I don't do that! I told many, MANY customers who came in with serious knowledge and real questions, to walk on out and hit my friend's computer shack and get a machine built for them exactly to their needs, instead of all that HP and Compaq crap they love to peddle to the unwary suckers. Trust me. If you are afraid of going wireless, I will give you my personal endorsement. The X2 kicks ass seven ways to Sunday. And I will be completely converted over before the summer ends.

That is one unmercifully bludgeoned victim. That poor guitar looks like the Nick Nolte of rock n roll! But I bet it plays like buttah for that guy....

That's what Dremel tools are for! I figure, nobody's gonna make a wireless transmitter that's HUGE. If an upgrade becomes necessary, I'm sure it would fit in. If not, a little routing will be easy enough. The pocket will most likely have an extra 1/4" buffer around just in case, and I'll most likely foam-pad the circuit board inside so it's shock-mounted to a small degree. Mind you, this is all very dependant on how the actual circuit board is designed. Actual product may differ than shown on packaging.

Allright. Here's the concept. Permanently installing an X2 digital wireless transmitter into my bass. It's such an evil idea, but it's so GOOD!!! Electronics cavity on the bottom of the bass, transmitter cavity on the top of the bass. No output jack needed, no cables anywhere. All internally wired, and just a single antenna wire sticking out the body. But instead of the wire dangling, I'll route/chisel a very tiny, curved channel into the back of the body, following the contour around to the bottom strap button. Then, lay the antenna wire into the slot and epoxy over it to seal it in. Gut the X2 transmitter and scrap the plastic housing. Scrap the extra length where the battery pocket is, and just get a guitar body battery compartment. One for my preamp, and one for my wireless system. Without the excess housing size and battery area, I can get that pocket down to about 2" by 3" by only 3/4" deep. I may even test to see if the shape of my body will allow me to make one long cavity, half preamp half transmitter. Then I just drill some LED holes to the cavity cover plate, and power/channel buttons to the front of the body. I figure, if I'm gonna invest in the X2 in another couple months and am getting the right-angle cables and getting one transmitter per bass on stage, why not cut out the middle man? No need to rip the transmitter off my straps to pack away my axes. No need to unplug the jacks so they don't wear down the preamp circuit battery. I'm already looking at my CAD mockup, to see if this will all fit. I just gotta go buy the XDS95 and gut one transmitter. And I'll STILL be 2009 compliant!!! \m/ \m/

You can definitely have fun making coffee tables.... here's my viking table. http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6268/table2xm9.jpg http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3540/table3hb0.jpg

I'm currently building a bass. From my experience so far, a solid maple body has given me very very bright tone. Not too good for the kind of low, deen-ended bass tone that I want. Also very heavy. I've currently a single-piece slab of white ash that pings so nicely when I tap it with a screwdriver. It definitely resonates. So this light open-grained ash is gonna give me tons of deep low end resonance. For a 5-string bass, this wood's gonna crack building foundations with rumble. My only true concern with woods for bass is using an open-grained light wood. Hard dense woods like walnut and maple and wenge are great for guitars and their tonal range. For bass, try some lacewood, zebrawood, cocobolo, swamp ash, white ash, alder and some lighter spalted maple. Don't forget, a laminated top on a cosmetically ugly body wood can make a great combo. Who cares if that alder blank has ugly grain, slap a quilted maple plank on top and make it purdy!

Any updates? Assembled yet?

All-RIIIIIGHT! Lemme know if you ever get some Youtube clips of any of your fights. My brother and I are addicted to MMA and BJJ and Muay Thai. We've been following K1 and Pride FC and have the entire Pride DVD collection, including the Pride-K1 crossover they never released here in the States. Fortunately, we've now got caught up with DREAM so the legacy of Pride continues. We're also following the Elite XC events here in the States, cuz we can't friggin stand the UFC. Unfortunately, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do doesn't really qualify you for any serious combat competition. Heh heh. If it were a decade ago, maybe I'd get back into it all and try some actual fights. I've lost all my flexibility and the good ol' brew has packed me on some extra pounds. Heh heh. As for the neck... I wanna see that front curve of the point of your headstock sharpened down and painted silver! Like a knife edge! Even better than my idea of mounting a (fake) bayonet on my stage bass! Build an axe WITH a harpoon point to spear people! Heh heh heh. Excellent work on that neck. Looks crystal clean and definitely will catch eyes after you polish that clearcoat.

Recommendation. Go get one of those plastic drywall sanders. You know, two wingnuts on the front and back, put 1/3-sheet of sandpaper in it, start sanding? It's really very cheap and easy to get wood leveled back down without too many valleys and peaks. Start with 80 grit, work up to 220 grit, and you should get a babybutt smooth finish that's almost planer-flat and ready for woodgrain sealer. Just built a nice wood bed frame over the weekend for my brother, and this little guy was so nice to use. Got all my jigsawed edges flattened and true with just a little bit of elbow grease. I'd imagine, if you used this like a hand plane, going through maybe 4 grades of sandpaper, (80, 120, 180, 220) you'd have the front and back perfectly flat in an hour MAX.

Hey Prostheta... what kind of fighting are you involved in? Fill me in, I'm a combat and MMA junkie over here! And another idea to toss at you... Yellow binding around the body? Just tossing that out in case it sticks...

But if you made the magnet poles very small in diameter, could you build very thin pickups, like humbuckers in single-coil spaces, and still get good signal strength? Perhaps?

STORCH MAGNETICS 11827 Globe Road Livonia, MI 48150 (734) 591-2200 http://www.storchmagnetics.com Their sales guy brought me some brochures, and two little sample magnets. These guys were only 1/2" diameter and 1/2" long, and strong enough to pinch my finger and make me bleed! Holding it 2 feet away, it made my monitor flicker! These things are scary strong. It takes both hands to pull one off my filing cabinet. Go bug them about getting some magnets custom-made for your pickups.

Yup! I've learned many times, no matter how shallow a cut, no matter how thin I'm going in, I cannot push a router quickly through hard wood. Heh heh. There's been quite a few projects that have proved that little tidbit to me, so I think from now on, I'll just admit that I MUST go slow! Heh heh.

Every builder should keep an excellent example of his work, to show off to potential customers. It's like keeping a display car inside the dealership.

It is getting harder and harder to come up with truely original designs for headstocks. These days, you can find another bass design to match anyone's headstocks! Oh well... just inspires us to try being even more creative.

You're killing me. YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY KILLING ME!!! If you get a mirror-smooth buffing out of that clearcoat, I'll take back everything I said about the flat clear finish. Killing me.... *cries*

This is a PERFECT learning experience. You've already got five items learned that I maaaaybe coulda recommended or suggested. Yes, cleaning sandpaper is key. Yes, allowing lots of curing time will save your paint problems. And I'm glad to see you're treating this as it should be... just a beater guitar revival, for experience and with a little luck, a fun stage guitar. I'm sure you knew this wouldn't be a studio recording project! Heh heh. Great results so far, and seems like it was a very affordable option for a customized axe. \m/

It is not a matter of distance of nut to bridge. It's not even a matter of where the neck is mounted to the body. It has everything to do with the careful, mathematically accurate placement of the frets between the nut and the bridge. They MUST be located to-scale within the space between the anchorpoints of each string. You cannot simply relocate a neck in relation to a guitar's body. It will ruin your intonation, only your open strings will actually be in tune, none of your harmonics will align, and every fretted note will be inaccurate. Building/modifying a guitar is not just a hack-n-slash process. There's serious amounts of calculations, preparation, knowledge and skill involved in this business. Just moving a neck will not give you correct performance nor will the guitar be even slightly playable. If you're unfamiliar with HOW or WHY stringed or fretted instruments work, you'll only ruin your guitar.

Allright, as much as I LURVE this guitar, I'll have to criticize just a little bit. Not an artistic problem, a structural problem. That floating tailpiece is gonna snap on you when it's all strung up with full tension. Yes, it's ebony. But the grain runs perfectly straight up and down. And at the curve of that cutout, you've got the weakest point on that tailpiece. I foresee the strings snapping away with a chunk from the end of that cutout. Perhaps, you've already done some tests or already strung it up, and will tell me, "Bryan, you're a horse's ass and know nothing about anything!" I'll feel better at least, that this guitar won't break on you. But if I'm right, and that ebony goes kablammo during a performance, you're gonna hurl that sucka at a wall in fury and hatred. Is it too late to test/remake that tailpiece? Cuz as cool as it looks, the engineer in me is screaming bloody murder at that last picture.

Couple of questions. Do you plan to test the cab and speakers with both the open-back and a closed-back? That plastic jack plate scares me. I love steel cup jack plates. Do you have a source for them? www.partsexpress.com has been good to me for cab building/repairing. Recessed jack plate and handles? You got a router, you could make it look really clean and professional. Rhino-liner? Duratex? I've been hella-impressed by the looks AND the durability of both, far superior to Tolex wrapping or just spray-painting, makes the cab watertight which helps when loading in/out in winter and the snow's falling heavy. Grill cover? Metal grate, cloth, vintage mesh?

I also dig the inverted neck! I also find it a bit easier, for me, to tune my bottom tuners than my top tuners. Just wrist position comfiness, as I'm watching my tuner or hitting my 5th-7th harmonics.

Hmm. Is the whole box 1/2" ply? Not to criticize, but I ain't feeling too warm and fuzzy about the use of 1/2" ply for a speaker enclosure, especially a sealed cab. I worry about a lot of flexing as internal air pressure fluctuates. Cheap Marshalls have 1/2" bodies, and Bogners and Mesas and Soldanos have 3/4" bodies. And my ears tell me a TON about sonic integrity. Just something to consider.

Oh man... OOOOH MAN.... that gentle burst is just KILLING me over here! Now with the bright clean binding, this thing is just too perfect. Wow. PLEASE don't gloss finish this thing! In fact, don't even satin it. Leave it flat. Maybe a flat clearcoat, but PLEASE don't gloss this guitar! It's so rustic and ancient and looks like granpa's favorite old antique china cabinet! GAWD this looks awesome! I now hate you, because I totally wanna reconsider my current plans for my project's finish.... but I don't wanna steal it from you!!! Let's give the man a hand!

BOOOO. Don't abandon the idea, just cuz you need more equipment. There's gotta be somebody you know who had airbrushing gear that will let you borrow it?