Mickguard

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here's a moderne ....with a snapped off headstock!

http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...ssPageName=WDVW

still asking 1350 euros for it!

I came across this quote today-......."

The internet has created way too many 'experts'. You'll find many of them on the HC boards.

I hear ya. I just thought it was an interesting bit of mumbo-jumbo to put up here....

I mean, if there's any difference in tone, it has to be extremely small...but that's where snobs like to live, eh?

You guys are a great help! Thanks!

As for the designs...Although, yes that would be possible, I was hoping to make this MY bass

I hear you...see the picture under my user name? That's the project I'm working on right now--I'm cutting and reshaping a telecaster to make this.

The advantage of doing it this way is that I don't have to worry about the neck pocket and bridge placement...and I don't have to build my own neck.

I plan to do a few of these before I go ahead and make my own from scratch. Although I don't think I'll ever try to make my own neck.

I suggest you get ahold of bass you like well enough and build your design around the core (the line of the neck pocket ---bridge---bout). If you can draw a little bit, you can design your own shape.

most likely what has happened is the wood shrunk, and the barbs and ends are sticking out, as metal wont shrink.

Oops, I should have mentioned that this is a fretboard from a guitar I bought--it's a Chinese made guitar that came with the sharp ends. This guitar isn't too bad--I tried out a Squire Affinity in a store the other week and cut my palm!

I tried sanding the edges first (with 1000 grain), but didn't like the result, that's why I want to file the ends (really just round out the corners) before sanding them again.

Thanks,

mickey

I need to clean up the sharp edges of the frets on my Bocaster...I have here a set of hobby files ("Black Diamond" from Nicholson/Cooper Hand Tools)

Which one of these is the most appropriate --or does that matter?

There's a:

Flat

Square

Three Square (which looks darn close to a triangle to me)

Round

Half Round

Equaling file

I had a search in the forum, the discussion seems to be toward crowning. I'm just looking to smooth out the playing experience a bit...I plan on masking off the fretboard to keep it from getting scratched

Thanks for your tips!

Mickey

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Maybe a headstock something like this?

)

Oh man, that's much cooler...especially if you incorporated a REAL blade at the top there....

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Put a sickle or something really simple at 12

Yeah, not my cup o' tea either but it'll look great if you pull it off.

Only thing I dont like is the headstock --looks kind of prissy if you ask me. Why not use the sickle idea up there instead?

Maybe if the claws turned outward?

This afternoon a friend with a router (my wife's uncle...he's also the drummer in our band!) is going to help me with my Bocaster project...after that, I'll be able to move into the painting and finishing phase with that.

So I'm going to want to get started on the NEXT Bocaster! That's right, I want two...

Once again I'm going to be modifying an existing Telecaster, this one will have a maple fretboard.

This time out, I'd like to make a hollow body/thinline version. I'll want to keep the central core --with its neck pocket and pickup routings. I don't feel like messing with that yet (although I've pretty much decided to buy my own router....)

Then I'll take the wood I cut away and reshape that as a rectangular (rounded bottom) frame and then cap that with some maple sheets.

The maple (assuming I win the auction) will give me 2 bookmatched sheets of 55 X 22 cm X 4 mm (sorry, don't have my inches/centimeter ruler here) and 2 strips of 80 X 11 cm X 3 mm... it's been set up specifically for guitar making.

One question: will maple work as a cap for a (semi) hollow body guitar?

Another question: would I want to cap the ENTIRE surface, including the central core column--will that screw up the neck and bridge angles? I suppose I could route the maple accordingly

Alternatively, I could route the surface along the sides of the core so that the maple fits like wings to the central core.

Whichever way, I'll have a pickguard on there and I'll be painting it (although if the maple looks good, I'll try for something transparent)

Another alternative: keep the face of the guitar intact --that is, do the same mod I've done for my current Bocaster project-- and then route it out from the back and just cap the back...That'll give me plenty of maple left for an acoustic version of the Bocaster!

Well, what would YOU do? I've got at least a month to plan this one...

Okay, time to PLAY some guitar!

Check out Girl Brand guitars...that guy's a genius

that brings me to my question. this is my first real decent amount of modification, and well, i've never really had much practice with this kind of stuff.

Yeah, well, you can't be as lame at this as I am

I'm in the middle of my own first modification project (see the bocaster in the project section). What I did was pick up a cheapo Chinese guitar to work on ....I like the guitar, but it's not going to break my heart if (when) I screw it up.

I've already ordered a second guitar, that'll be here in few days. When the first project is done, I'll get to work on that one....by then, I'll have learned quite a bit about how to go about doing what I want. And maybe I'll end up finding a different way altogether.

So before cutting up that Jackson, I recommend you practice on a cheap guitar ---you'll have no problem finding a strat-style body to work on.

As for getting rid of the pickguard...I don't really understand why so many people do that. For me, a guitar without a pickguard just looks...unfinished. I like the contrast a pickguard gives to a nice looking wood grain.

But that's just me.

I stumbled onto this site just a couple of weeks ago. Up until a month ago, the idea of making my own guitar never occurred to me. But I've become obsessed with it and this place has given me a lot of encouragement.

For one thing, I've never really worked with wood before (I make sculptures and light fixtures from found wood, but it's not the same thing). I've never had a wood project interest me before...but making my own guitar makes so much sense. And I'm willing to learn by doing...

And I like the cross of skill levels on this site--but what especially encourages me is the willingness of people to post their MISTAKES ...I find that really impressive.

Especially since I'm at a point with my own first project where I know it's going to be impossible for me to get a decent result by myself...I don't have the right tools...and I'm too stubborn to go ask for help from people who do....the next step's going to be ugly (although it probably won't show much once it's finished)...

So yeah, let me add my own thanks to everyone here. (sniff...weep...boo hoo...

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do yourself a favor, go to home depot, look for those orangish buckets that home depot has, one of them will be labeled paint stripper, get it.

Well, not if the finish is anything like the stuff they put on my guitar (polyurethane?)...that stuff simply doesn't react to any but the harshest most dangerous strippers...

On the other hand, it really just comes right off with sandpaper and some elbow grease ...you have to wear a dust mask though, you definitely don't want to breathe that stuff.

Probably take less time (though a bit more effort) with sandpaper

Yeah, I'm trying to figure some of this out myself. Over here (France) the local hardware category killer has a product called 'Bouche Pores' --which literally means 'fill in pores' ....so I'm guessing that's sealer...

Wish I can get confirmation. The sales staff in the store ALWAYS look at me like I'm from Mars....must be my accent.

Same waist & bottom, larger round horn ends

How about something different? I mean, okay, I know bass players are boring by nature (hey I started out as a bass player!) ....why not go a bit radical...like something bassed (hic!) on the Danoelectro Longhorn...

Here's a list of folks I've found on the web who are making aluminum guitars.

You forgot my personal favorite:

http://www.girlbrand.com/

He uses an aluminum frame and various materials for the top and back...

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I don't get it. I took a few sheets of sandpaper, starting with 40 and ending with 100, and had the guitar down the primer coat in about two hours.

I came across this quote today--a guy discussing the tonal differences from the shape of a guitar...seems kind of fishy to me...since I'm cutting up a Telecaster body, it'll be interesting to see what kind of tonal change I get...What do you all think?

"My research showed that the difference between Gibson- and Fender-style guitars mainly lies in the dimensions of the guitar's "waist", the indentation between the upper and lower bouts. If a guitar is "offset" like a stratocaster, with the left side upper bout overhanging the right because the indentation is wider on that side, the guitar will have a it's primary voice in the treble. It will be "twangy", or if distortion is used, "thrashy" (an Ibanez is just a strat with a humbucker and gets its fat mids from its electronics). If the waist is symmetrical, the guitar will speak from the midrange with a vocal "aw" sound, like a Les Paul. The bass and mids resonate in the lower bout while the treble resonates in the upper, so the more freely-vibrating wood there is in the upper bout, the brighter the tone will be. Therefore, a double cutaway guitar will be brighter than a single-cutaway (assuming that more wood is added to the "horns" than if they just made it a cutaway by removing wood). This explains why Les Pauls tend to be bottom-heavy. The left-side upper bout is "complete", locking the wood in place and preventing it from vibrating as freely as it would if it were scooped out. NOTE: Any guitar can be made to have fat mids with a combination of pickups, EQ and FX. That doesn't mean the guitar's *voice* is in the midrange."

idch, any suggestable threads or posters for moding a Melody Maker single pup configuration into having two duel humbuckers?

I would want the neck pickup wires channel to stay well hidden under the surface. But how do I make the passageway? Seems like there isn't much room to do it from the front or back.

Anyone know if the Melody Maker sounds anything like an SG or not?

Thanks

I'm looking at my single-pup MM ....you could route for a humbucker below the strip that says "Melody Maker" and dig a channel for the wire that will be hidden by the pickguard.

The pickguard for a double pickup MM won't fit the single pup model --the guitar's a little bit narrower at the bout.

The stock pickups on the MMs were pretty weak (that's why everyone mods them!), though the single coil in the neck of my double pup MM kicks ass--has a really nice rich tone to it.

I don't imagine they sounded anything like an SG with the stock pups...you can probably get close to that by changing the pickups though.

It's definitely a great little guitar, and you can't beat the price for a REAL Gibson from the 60s.

. Although I definitely prefer a pair of humbuckers and 4 knobs to suit, they are genuine Gibson and they do sell for relatively less. (...Grin...) I'm thinking, get one of those and mod it for two duel humbuckers and another volume knob.

Hi,

Actually, it's hard to find a Melody Maker that HASN'T been modded with at least one humbucker...

In fact, BOTH of my Melody Makers were modded that way.

Here's some photos of one of them (I'm selling it here in France):

http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...me=STRK:MESE:IT

This one was done really well--it was routed out for the humbucker. The pickguard was cut just enough to fit the humbucker. The ring sits on top of that. So it looks quite nice that way.

My other Melody Maker is a single pup model --on that one, the pickguard was cut away and the humbucker ring was mounted directly to the wood.

You might like the finish of the Melody Makers --they're a transparent cherry, so you can really see the grain of the wood (and from the looks of things, they're made from a SINGLE piece of mahogany).

There are tons of Melody Makers for sale on ebay all the time --they usually go for around $500 or so, give or take a hundred...depends on the condition. Since most MMs were modded (the original tuners and stop bar really blew), it's easy to find one that has already been fitted with buckers.

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