bluesy

In another thread, there was some talk about how a guitar can't be perfectly in tune everywhere across the neck. This seemed to refer to problems, something more than just intonation as set by the bridge saddles. So, say we have set the bridge up so that the octave is perfect, and the frets are all where they should be and properly crowned. I'd like to understand more about how the tuning of a guitar is a compromise.

It's bloody cold here I can tell you that. As the tone is going flat then it would suggest that the guitar has shrunk rather than stretched, so I haven't got a clue

Yeah, I think, rather than being due to shrinkage or expansion directly, it's more likely to be due to the neck shifting/changing.

Are they hung on internal or external walls? External walls are much colder.

My acoustic is on a constant trip around the front room at the minute, it normally rests in the corner against the front door but it's way too cold and draughty at the minute.

An external wall, but it never gets cold here, not really. Still, I take your point, any changing conditions can cause problems I suppose.

By changing the length of each string at the nut, i.e. moving the break point closer or further away, as seen with Earvana nuts.

Pure pitch is impossible on a guitar though, without having a separate set of frets for each string or something crazy like that. Guitars are eternally out of tune, but not enough to really bother anyone.

It's lucky that most people don't require pitch to be absolutely perfect - otherwise a lot of (most?) singers would be out of business

On a guitar, depending on how you hold your hand when pressing down the strings, there's always a little bit of stretch to one side or another. No point in getting frets and nuts perfect, because the player isn't perfect anyway. Besides, many stringed instruments don't have frets, and the close pitch adjustment is set by ear. I do the same on a guitar. Try it, set a string out of tune - flatten it by a small amount, the play some scales and riffs across the neck. When you get to the detuned string, your fingers will want to bend the string to make it sound right.

That's a great looking Tele too. Love the black and white contrast in has going on.

Saw this in the GOTM thread and had to pull up the build thread again for me info. I sure do love me a white tele, and this is a nice one. What's up with what appears to be brass below the normal bridge? And why the surround on the neck pickup?

For all the fancy guitars in the world. sometimes a stripped down classic in a solid colour is just ace. Nice work.

Thanks. I am really happy with it too.

The brass and surround on the neck pickup all relate to the fact that I made a routing template from a cheap Tele copy. When I purchased the parts, I noticed that the pickguard and bridge were slightly different sizes from the hardware on the copy that I copied.

The ashtray bridge was a couple of millimetres narrower than the one on the tele that I took the template from, and it allowed the very edge of the routing beneath it to show. I decided to turn a problem into a feature by making a couple of cover strips for the sides of the bridge, and making them out of polished brass. This gave me the gold/silver theme which I extended by putting gold knobs and brass screws on the chrome control plate. I have always like gold and silver together on watches, and I find I like it on guitars now too.

The pickguard was tight between the end of the neck and the neck pickup. The easy fix was to widen the hole in the pickguard - just a millimetre or so, but that left the chrome neck pickup looking a little off-centre. So I made a white bezel from some old white/black/white laminated pickguard material. I liked the look, and so left it at that.

Hmm, I'm at 5.2 kilos before any shaping or thickness sanding. It'll be at...4.3 kilos after thickness sanding it, assuming it's the same density throughout.

Even Warmoth's heaviest LP is only 2.5kg. How in the hell did you make a 7kg guitar? Did you build it out of MDF?

Easy, I'm an idiot. It was 7 lbs, not 7 kg. Can't remember which site I looked at, but looking around again today, they heaviest I found was 3.1 kg for a Strat - i.e. about 6.8 lbs - and the guitar I made was a 335 copy - i.e. bigger than a strat, and I needed to chamber it as well. It ways just under 5 kg now, fully built with all hardware on it.

I have a neck for my project, which has no inlays, and i was thinkng of having some done.

However, my neck is already fretted, is it worth getting it un-fretted, and having them put back in. Or to get a different neck.

Ive not actually decided what i want inlayed yet, but would this be possible, if my inlay designs were small anyway.

thanks for any advice

I was thinking about this the other day. I reasoned that the frets are nice and level with each other, and smoothly curved, so it should be possible to sit a small router base on the fret tops, and lower the router bit to take the required depth of cut, and so, small individual inlays between frets should be easy enough. A large inlay that covers more than one fret would be difficult however.

Just missed last month's comp, but the final knobs have now arrived, so here it is.

I call it a "PearlCaster" because of the mother of pearl and white colour. I am completely impressed with the sound. I am attributing it to the Gotoh Classic pickups, and the wood used, but for whatever reason, it has a super bright sparkle to the highs, and clean punchy bass. The bridge pickup really bites and the neck pickup, when tamed with the tone control (which works very nicely) can be nice and jazzy.

Details:-

- NG Rosewood body

- Queensland Maple neck

- Indian Rosewood fingerboard

- Polar White

- Black binding

- MOP scratch plate

- MOP dot markers

- Gotoh Classic pickups

- Gotoh tuners

- ash-tray bridge

- mix of gold/brass and chrome fittings

EDIT: What kind of weight should I be looking for, so that I know whether to chamber it or not?

I was worried about weight with mine, and I found a site with weights of all their bodies. The heaviest seemed to be about 7 kg. That's the bare body only, and that's what mine weighed even after chambering. I have stood and played that guitar for 2.5 hours straight, and it felt comfortable. Heavy, yes, but it didn't hurt my back

I hang mine on the wall to keep the straps out of my feet, and to keep them out of the dogs path of destruction. But when we get the quick big humidty changes my tuning goes out of whack and depending on how much of a swing the relief jumps up a few thousandths.

Yes, I am seeing something similar. I wonder if more seasoned wood behaves better? Anyway, obviously just something to live with...

Bluesy, I remember somebody saying something like that about a new jigsaw recently. That was you, huh?

yeah and to be honest, I didn't have to spend much money to get something that works great. They are quite cheap.

8/4 = 2" thick

In that case, it'll eat it up compared to the old type.

I recently recovered an old jigsaw I'd bought sometime in the nineties. It's a cheap Black & Decker model. After putting in a new blade I tried to saw some 8/4 walnut with it the other day. It burned the wood. Lots. No problem for the project, as I was just cutting wood to length so I can make a body blank. But cutting across a 6" wide board was so tough that I really don't want to repeat the process on the rough cut of the body if the saw is the problem.

With Christmas coming up, I bet I could talk my wife into buying me a new jigsaw. (A bandsaw is kind of out of the question, due to space constrictions.) I'm just curious as to the difference between a good jigsaw and a poor jigsaw. Is it just that the cheap one will break, or will a good one actually cut better? If so, how much better? Will it make cutting 8/4 walnut easy?

Thanks,

Dave

My experience of buying a new jigsaw to replace my old B&D would make me think you should do do also The new jigsaws have an adjustable pendulum action, not just up and down. This makes them slice through thick wood like butter compared to straight up and down.

What is 8/4? The thickest hardwood I have cut was 2" thick NG Rosewood. But it is so much easier than the old B&D, or even the new one when you turn off the pendulum action.

A LOT better.

I'd love to actually justify airconditioning the music/media room permanently - but can't see "the boss" agreeing to that

Looking really nice. The binding on the neck looks nice and thick. Is it the same binding that is used on bodies, or something with different dimensions?

I have just finished making a Tele style guitar, and was a little worried to find the tuning seemed to shift overnight. All strings were approx. 1/2 a tone flat.

However, I discovered that 3 more of my guitars (2 of them commercially built) had also shifted tuning to varying degrees. Now a few things have changed. I have recently put some brackets up on the wall and hung my guitars up on them. They previously resided in individual guitar cases. Also, we are have had some unusually hot weather, and lot's of storms and humidity.

So, is the tuning change the result of the guitars being out of their cases and thus more exposed to the humidity? Is it perhaps because they are now being hung by the neck rather than sitting on their base or lying down in a case? What do you do with your guitars, do you hang them off brackets?

when the volume pot is turned down halfway(I can feel an indent or something in the pot when I get there, the sound cuts out, and I get noise.

Sounds like a bad pot. Pots do funny things when they break.

I agree. Normal pots do not have an 'indent'. It's probably a defect.

How flush do I want them with the neck? Should I leave them slightly proud and sand back. That was my first thought.

I always leave side dots and inlays proud, then sand back level. Haven't used ivory, but can't see why it would be different.

ottovola - HOTSTUFF

Very striking guitar. I'm glad the pickup covers come off though.

andyt - Goldy

Rich looking. I'd prefer if the pickups matched. Nice swirl though.

Lil Petrucci - the RobEllis Aslan

Tele and Strat sound? Should be nice and versatile.

SwedishLuthier - The MorningStar SC Classico

Loved the contrasting red and white. Lovely finish, and all that chrome from the bigsby and pickups looks great. A top contender. I wish there was more of a curve or angle to the body shape where it returns to the top of the neck.

low end fuzz - Grant's Spalted Guitar

Like the wooden tail piece, but I think there's too many different wood grains all mixed in - makes it look too busy. Love to see that fingerboard on a plainer guitar.

kpcrash - The UGLY STICK

Sorry mate - but yeh, it's as you say - ugly Still if it feels good to play - great.

rdiquattro - AB1

Nice finish and shape. I'm not sure how well the f-holes go with the modern shape for me.

Hydrogeoman - Erebus model "T"

I was going to say I'd have like double binding on it, but the shot of the back as it is, looks stunning. I love tele's. The upper part of the front (where your elbow goes when playing) looks a touch bare. Maybe a logo or a strip might break up the wood grain? Anyway, one of the nice ones this month for me.

Kenny - the Kaye Sol

Lovely black and blonde combo between the hardware and the maple on the front colouring. Not sure about the rear control cover. Did you try plain black? Anyway, another top contender this time.

Boggs - alves/Cuban mahogany chambered RockBeach Cicada

Very unique. I liked the positioning of the output jack.

jer7440 - His second

Liked the headstock. Thought it was a bit orangey for me - maybe darken the pickup rings and volume knob?

In the end, I gave it to Swedishluthier's because of the colour contrast, finish, and chrome.

Well, it's finished. I have been enjoying playing it for a day now. Very happy with the sound. The Gotoh classic pickups have heaps of range. Nice bass, and very crisp highs. The tone control (standard 250k/0.047 cap) gives nice smooth control of those highs as well

I have ordered some gold control knobs, but for now I have fitted a couple of chicken-head knobs - and I think I really like they way they look.

note to self: Drill jack hole after routing binding from now on so bearing doesn't fall in hole and take a big chunk out of top...

Oh, and I wanted to remind everyone else of this too.

Yeah, I try to do a "dry run" to see exactly what will happen when I start a route. It's easy for there to be pitfalls and obstacles that will cause troubles.

Hope it's fixable...

Love white tele's, looks good so far. Binding's a nice touch.

Thanks. Yes, I like binding on a guitar. Black binding on a white guitar turned out to be very revealing of any mistakes. I have had to be very neat. Worth it though.

I am going to work in some gold colour with the silver/chrome hardware - maybe some gold washers on the bridge mounting screws and gold knobs on the controls, etc. I plan to do a little more work on it tomorrow. Will post pics if I do.

Capacitor = a holding tank with 2 in/out pipes

I prefer to think of it as a big bucket with a hole in the bottom. When you pull the plug you get a rush followed by a trickle.

Except a cap is symmetrical - you can 'fill' it from either end. (analogies always fall down at some point )

Was going to suggest what ToneMonkey did. The analogy of water through hoses will help you understand electronic components if you haven't much experience with them. For instance: a resistor is like pinching the hose a certain amount.

The analogy does work to some some extent. Taking it further...

Voltage = water pressure

Current = flow rate

Capacitor = a holding tank with 2 in/out pipes

Resistor = (as noted already) a restriction causing a pressure drop

Potentiometer = an adjustable valve