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bluesy

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Everything posted by bluesy

  1. bluesy
    I have just been there. I started with pine for the same reasons. I ended up with a playable guitar though, and it doesn't look too bad. Don't worry, you will gain confidence. I am into a second guitar now, using much better wood.
  2. bluesy
    Just jam a toothpick or two down the outside. You won't need any glue to hold them once it's seated.
  3. bluesy
    Thanks, and no, I haven't carved it yet. I want to make the neck pocket and pickup cavities first while the surface is still all flat. You can see the 1.5mm ledge on the side from the route for the bindings on the top edge, and how it's way more than the 6mm binding width from the top. I am going to carve the top down and just leave the required 6mm.
  4. bluesy
    Maybe it wouldn't vibrate more, but it would certainly vibrate differently. The pickup mounting rings, springs and screws would transmit the vibrations differently to wood, screws, and foam, and even add their own resonances.
  5. bluesy
    You've got me thinking. How about this - the wood vibrates from the energy imparted by the vibrating strings. Since the pickup is solidly mounted, it too must vibrate. So as well as the strings vibrating above the pickup in the magnetic field, the pickup itself is also vibrating, i.e. moving relative to the strings - hence the wood/pickup vibration produces additional signal, and the amount and type of harmonics etc will be very much effected by the wood type and shape and resonances. I do, and I am getting better at it each time As long as I don't slip...
  6. bluesy
    I like simplicity too. SS looks good! I see you have mounted the humbuckers without mounting rings. Is this a common thing? As well as keeping the look simple, does it alter the sound having them more rigidly mounted to the wood instead of hanging on screws and springs? (of course, I could only do that if my routing of the cavity was neat enough )
  7. bluesy
    Funny how the things you worry about, turn out to easy than you imagine sometimes. Making the f-holes wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. I bought a good quality clean-cut jigsaw blade and it allowed me to use a electric jigsaw to cut all the lines on the sides of the f-holes with ease. The top round hole of the 'f' was easy using a 10mm brad point drill, and next time I'll get a bigger one for the bottom round hole, but I enlarged them by hand for this one. I am quite happy with the look of this guitar so far - and even the sound, as I discovered that holding it up and tapping it produces a nice acoustic note, even now, with no back plate on yet.
  8. bluesy
    Thanks, and yes, good tip about "masking" off the top around the f-hole shape!
  9. bluesy
    Progress this weekend already. I have chambered the body from the back, and also routed for the top binding strip. The reason for this last bit is that I want to do all the top routing, while it's still flat, before I start carving it. I routed deep enough for the binding+carve depth - and the plan is to now carve down until there's only 6mm of the route depth left for the binding - in fact, I may put the binding on first, so I can easily see my target depth at the edge. I need to route the pickup and neck pockets and cut the f-holes also, before I start carving. I am still nervous about the f-holes. I think I'll do them slowly "by-hand" using dremel and files. Here's a picture from the back showing the chambering.
  10. bluesy
    OK, speaking only about values here, there's not a lot of point in having different cap values. The formula for what a tone control (which is really a low pass filter) does is F = 1/(2*pi*R*C) If you double the cap size, that's EXACTLY the same as halving the resistance. So just use one cap, and multiple resistors (or trimpots at different settings) and you'll hear exactly the same thing (and save the cost of all the other caps). If you are using a trimpot as well as a normal tone control, the R in that equation is the total resistance.
  11. bluesy
    I would never use sandpaper on contacts. You will remove the plating then big problems will start. All you should ever need is contact cleaner. Make sure you get the non-residue type.
  12. bluesy
    Good tip. I have a case that a cheap set of router bits came in, but it probably won't last. I will make a wooden stand for them as you suggest. Also, I read somewhere that WD40 actually will clean bits. Haven't tried it yet, but I have a 1/2" bit that is gummed up from routing pine that I will try it on.
  13. bluesy
    I just checked MCLS and they have some on sale for about $8 !! The trouble is, they charge $17 to send it to me, meaning it will end up costing $25. It will be worth doing if I have a few to buy, so thanks for the tip.
  14. bluesy
    CMT are good? I thought they would be, as a specialist woodworking store here sells them as their premium brand. They are about $30 for the 6mm size.
  15. bluesy
    I hope you mean MILLIMETERS. A few CENTIMETERS is an INCH! Your cuts should be no more than 1/8 inch deep at a time for a 1/4 inch bit. Yes my cuts are shallow (I am trying to keep it at 2 mm each pass). Thanks for verifyin that that is about the correct amount. When I mentioned centimetres, I was only referring to the amount I would move the neck sideways on the table before backing off on the pressure.
  16. bluesy
    Ah yes. Since I first posted, I have been down to the store and purchased the $30 bit. Immediately, I noticed that it was shorter. Obviously the toolmakers have decided that there is a limit to how long a thin router bit like this should be. Being shorter, it's bound to be less easy to break. Also, it's much better made. The cheap ones were only machined on the shaft and the cutting faces, with the rest painted, but still rough. This $30 one is machined all over, and the cutters on the end have a different angle. A much better device. ...and, I finished my truss rod channel without it breaking. I was very careful, of course, but I was being careful with the cheap ones too. Looks like the money is well spent. Hopefully it'll do many truss rods for me!
  17. bluesy
    Feeling a bit frustrated right now. I am trying to cut a channel for a truss rod, and it needs to be 6.4mm wide and about 9.6mm deep. I am trying to take it slowly, and only a few mm each cut, but no matter how gentle I try to be, the little flat cut router bits snap off where the cutters meet the shank. I have made a simple router table and I am sliding the neck blank slowly along a fence, just a few centimetres at a time then backing off and going again, just using fingertip pressure, because I was wondering if I was just overheating the bit. But still I just broke another one. That's three so far. Luckily they are only $10 bits, but is that maybe the problem? I thought cheap bits would just wear out (get blunt) faster, but are they also weaker? Would a $30 router bit break as easily, or would it be much stronger as well as stay sharp longer.
  18. bluesy
    Naw, takin' my time and enjoying it. Actually I've been setting up a router table...
  19. bluesy
    Let me throw this in. On very simple setups - like one pickup (tried both single coil and humbucker) wired direct to the output socket no control), or also, one pickup through a volume pot to the output socket, I have found it is always necessary to touch the ground somewhere to make the hum go silent. The hum is not loud, but it completely goes away when you touch the ground wire. Connecting the ground to the strings via the bridge, or tailpiece, does nothing of itself, but it means that while you are playing, because you are touching the strings (which are grounded), the guitar does not hum.
  20. bluesy
    I used simple white glue because it's supposed to be easy to remove with a little bit of heat.
  21. bluesy
    Yep, I'll have to experiment with the offcuts.
  22. bluesy
    It's not a real rosewood apparently. Just named that way because of the colour. Doesn't seem too oily, but I haven't cut into it yet.
  23. bluesy
    My New Guinea rosewood has arrived. The grain is very nice, and with an interesting open pattern. I was wondering if I should fill it, as planned, or perhaps let it show through as a 'feature'. It is possible to have a glossy surface but still have grain ripple showing, and would it look any good? Or am I just being silly?
  24. bluesy
    My New Guinea Rosewood has arrived !!! ...and it's beautiful.
  25. bluesy
    Yeah... trimpots would be good to adjust each capacitor's tone to how you like it. Then when you switch to a cap, it would be at a good sounding preset tone instead of adjusting the tone with your tone potentiometer for each cap when you switch to it. I've never tried this but, can you have different caps wired at the same time? does it change the sound..... possitively? Because then you can have just a bunch of on/off buttons or switches and combine tone caps. But I dont really know all that much about using capacitors for tonal use. I'll take a look at the electronic section of my Melvyn book. Parallel filters will steepen the slope of the curve. If they are not quite at the same frequency, the curve will be flat up to the first, slope down to the second frequency, the double it's slope from there on up. Could be an interesting experiment.
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