foil1more

That finish is amazing. What color hardware are you going to use?

A Korg CA-30 is what I use for my cello, guitar, and bass. It's accurate, and it has a LCD screen that tells you how far off you are and what note you're playing. It's only about $20 American. It also seems to be the most popular tuner for players in any orchestra I've been in.

Thanks for the links. To psw: I'm looking for the sound of the lead guitarist of "The Strokes". Nick Valensi pretty much always plays a hollow body epiphone riviera with P-94 pickups. I believe they are the size if a humbucker but they are single coil. I also think they are a little hotter than the P-90 because they are bigger. I'm not against using a drill, I just wanted to know if there was anything else or if the lathe might work. And, being a physics nerd, I figured out a way to measure impedance by weight like this: Use a multi-meter (or complicated equation) to figure out the impedance of a length of wire; then find the mass of that wire; zero a scale and as I wind, mass the pickup until I get to the desired mass/impedance. With those parts not being too expensive, I might try it on my next guitar. That of course comes after the electric cello. Hmm... Maybe I should make some custom ones for that. A mini- single coil for each string would be nice for set up. Food for thought and I shall chew on it till I get more money.

If your slot is cut wrong that will change the length of the open string therefore making it out of tune when you fret. If it is sharp or flat at every fret when the open string is in tune, you probably have your nut wrong. I went through similar trouble with an acoustic kit. The fretboard was two long so all the measurements were off. I ended up cutting a new slot in the bridge for the saddle (closer to the string holes) and shaving a little off the fretboard and moving the nut closer. Plays perfect now.

Hmm... Yeah. I think you're right about the cost. I looked at that guitarfetish.com and they have some pretty cheap pickups. And cheap everything else. I think I'll buy my hardware and pickups from there next time.

Progress has been made but I haven't had a chance to upload pictures. I will soon

First the question Anybody know where I can get parts to make a P-90 and a P-94 (humbucker sized hot P-90. Used in the Epiphone Riviera.)? And the idea I was thinking of attaching a dimmer switch to a lathe and using it to control the speed and making a jig of some kind to safely hold the pickup. Has anybody tried that or have any other ways to take normal shop tools and make them into pickup winders (besides using an electric drill)

http://www.mosesgraphite.com/products.html They have graphite fingerboards for a lot of instruments. I've never used any of them though. And anybody know why there aren't more laminated fingerboards used? I saw one on a bass project on the forum and it looked awesome.

Does that style of trem raise and lower pitch like a bigsby? I've seen these before but I've never used one.

Very nice. I like the tele, jaguar, mustang, and jagstang bodies more than the strat.

So I'm going to guess that walnut and cherry are a good mix. That's good because I'm thinking of a baritone guitar with a flamed cherry top and neck and a walnut back. The walnut will come from a board that's at least 200 years old. My dad said I could have some (happy dance).

It'll work. Just make sure you go thin.

wipe on poly should be okay as long as you put it on very thin. The only hassle with shellac is mixing it. The first guitar I ever built was French polished. THIN poly thin be okay.

I don't recommend using lacquer on a violin. It may deaden the sound too much. You should go for a hard, thin finish like shellac or varnish. You could do the burst with the dye (laying down the purple on the top then using a small sprayer to do the black around the edges) then finish with a brush on shellac or varnish. If you do use nitrocellulose, apply it very thin. Violins rely on the wood being able to vibrate freely. Oh, and just a cautionary note. Before you take the strings off, look inside. The little post under one side of the bridge is the sound post. It's not (or it shouldn't be) glued in. If it falls down while you're working on it, take the violin to a violin repair man to get it put back up. Don't try to put the strings back on without the sound post because it may damage the top. Just saying this because I've heard stories about people throwing sound posts away because they didn't know what it was. (edit with advice) I'm going to assume that the violin has a finish on it First, you'll have to strip the finish off. That can be done many ways. Look for tutorials. I've only ever stripped one instrument and that was lacquer (because I was a noob and still am with lacquer and lacquer can be hard to work with). I used a Formsby's chemical stripper. That stuff is nasty but it worked well. I've heard good things about a product I think is called citristrip but haven't used it. 2. For the stain, buy/find some scrap maple and spruce (maple back and sides and spruce top). Use these to test your dye and practice bursting. You should be able to buy a small aerosol sprayer at a hobby store or some hardware stores (or online). Dye the top purple first. Wiped on would probably be best so you don't get much in the f holes. Then use the hobby sprayer to burst around the edges. I would recommend spraying towards the outside edge. Then wipe on the black on the back and sides. 3. Finish. I would personally recommend buying denatured alcohol and blond shellac flakes and mixing it yourself. Look up information about mixing shellac. It's pretty easy. You can pretty much apply it in any way. I would recommend brushing for a violin because of the top and back overhanging the sides. It's a hard and thin finish that's fairly easy to repair and if you screw up (which is also somewhat hard to do with shellac) it can be stripped pretty easily. I would recommend tung or tru-oil for the neck. Just remember if you hear wood rattling in the body, it's probably the sound post. If anything structurally seems weird, get in touch with a violin repair man. Violins are more complicated than guitars. Besides that, buy some good quality strings (violin strings are more expensive that guitar strings) and have a violin tech look over it and you should turn out a nice looking and sounding instrument. Good luck

I used a liquid inlay for my bass headstock. It's pretty much a colored epoxy. http://www.grizzlyindustrial.com/products/...=liquid%20inlay

yeah, the bass did have just a veneer and I saw the others in a grizzly showroom and they do too. The acoustics don't have veneers but the sides are ply. The steel string as I said does sound good. The pickups on the bass don't have any names on them. I guess they're okay but I'll probably get new ones sometime. The hardware is good on the bass but the acoustic has pretty cheap tuners and plastic nuts and saddles.

I built the steelstring kit and the bass kit. I'm gonna say that the bass is a really expensive kit but it's okay. the acoustic is actually very good. it has a really warm and full sound and a very ringy high end. I did use the french polish method though and that might have helped. The bass is alder (with a quilted maple veneer if you get the high end kit) with a maple neck. The acoustic has basswood ply sides and i think a solid spruce top. I'm not sure what the neck is but it might be poplar. They are a great way to get into guitar making. With the acoustic, beware. The fretboard was a little long between the first fret and the nut. And it may take a bit of work to get it setup to a good string height.

Anybody ever use ebony? Its supposed to be hard to work with but also almost indestructible. I've heard of it being used before. I'm thinking of buying some ebony (when I have the money, gaboon is expensive) and making a nut and saddle for my acoustic. Anyone ever do this?

Go with varnish if you want it to sound good. That or French polish. Poly will dampen it way too much. Finish is extremely important on violins. Chemists and luthiers have been trying to make varnishes as hard and thin as possible for hundreds of years. The idea is to let the wood resonate as mush as possible. Besides, if you by a good case and be careful, you shouldn't need the protection of poly.

One of my friends has recording equipment in his basement. Now we have sony acid pro and a multi-port plug in thingy (firewire or something that can record on multiple tracks) for his drum mics and our guitars. We turn the stuff on every time we jam so if we do something cool we don't miss it. The best thing we've ever recorded though was recorded with a single condenser mic wrapped in a towel and hung from the ceiling (everything was recorded on one track). It took some checks to balance amp volumes to the drums but you don't need much to get a decent recording. The song that was the best was written out (in his head, he now forgets it) by our lead, who taught the rhythm to the other guitarist. I (on bass) just improved like normal. But I guess we really haven't gotten to use the new stuff too much. We always record right onto a computer and save it as soon as the song is over so we don't loose it.

My name is Rob Brenner. I'm 18. I started building when I was 16 but due to lack of money, I've only built an acoustic and a bass, both from kits from Grizzly industrial. I'm currently working on an electric guitar from scratch. If I hadn't had to fix my car, I would be done with it by now. I've always been interested in music. I've played cello for 9 years now. I plan to have my own repair/custom shop one day. Here's my first acoustic which I finally made playable. It is french polished The fretboard was a little longer than the instructions specified so I ended up moving the nut about 1/8 of an inch towards the bridge and moving the saddle (involved cutting a new chanel and filling the old) almost 1/4" (that's what the light stripe is in front of the saddle). Took many hours and an impressive hand injury but it's good now. My bass. Built with no instructions. Refinished 3 times: 1. Tried thinning lacquer and brushing it on. Sealer went on fine but the lacquer went nuts. 2. stripped off the lacquer, redyed and used tung oil and waxed it with beeswax. Used too much beeswax. Scraped it off, cleaned it with alcohol and redyed. 3. used brush on poly.

I have been once. I saw a bass kit in a summer flyer. Then it was taken off the site so I called and they found one and sent it to me. The reason it was taken off was because the instructions were written so poorly that they were worthless. So I built it without instructions. But that's the only time I've been disappointed (I did learn a lot though)

Nice, a lot like the guitar I'm doing. Don't forget to have a block under the bridge and leave some wood around the neck pocket so it doesn't wobble

Ah, I see you have a set of the golden age humbuckers. Have you used them before? How do they sound?

I'm looking into getting a new bass amp to replace my crappy Fender 15. I plan on spending between $300-$400. I'm looking for a smooth but but defined and powerful sound. It has to have enough volume for small gigs. I play pretty much anything but prefer rock over blues. Any suggestions (preferably one I could buy at a guitar center so I don't have to worry about shipping)