Ripthorn

For most applications, the lengths will be short enough so that there is minimal resistance. Something like 22 gauge will have a resistance of like 50 ohms (or less) per 1000 feet. You can find tables online that give exact specs. But for a foot of cable, the performance difference between .05 and .1 ohms is not going to be huge, from what I understand.

You can use about anything you want, but i think around 22 AWG is pretty common. Others will surely correct me if I am wrong.

Erikbojerik also still has his fretboard extravaganza going on in the public section of the forum. His prices are very reasonable, from what I have seen.

A local guitar maker here told me of a cool way to do it. He marks the positions on one side of the fretboard with a knife or fine pencil. Then he uses a miter box with tin foil creating a very thin slit where the saw sits. He puts a light bulb on the outside of the miter box and lets a thin shaft of light fall perpendicularly across the fretboard and then he cuts on the light. I think he does that for positioning (because I think the light gets blocked by the saw). I just thought that was interesting and would share.

I'm always a sucker for more options. I say if you want more options, then go for it. I like coil splitting so that I can many sounds from a single guitar. There are some songs or amps that are much friendlier to a single coil than a huge humbucker.

Now I think I may have to try this on one I just re-finished. Darn this forum for giving me more ideas than I will ever be able to implement. But I like the thought of an onboard distortion machine (several distortions).

With the tru-oil, I have done two projects with it and you an do it indoors no problem. By not as durable it means that tru-oil does not protect against dings and scratches like a thick poly or nitro finish. The thing is that if you get a scratch in it, you can just apply more and fix it easy. It is capable of producing a very nice finish, though not as high gloss as nitro. It can still get a rather high gloss, however, but you will want to make sure you take your time to ensure that it comes out right. Surface prep is a major part of making tru-oil look great. Best of luck.

Do you mean put the two way between the volume and tone on the signal lead or on the ground lead? On the ground lead could possibly work, but then he could probably ditch the push/pull and instead of a two way, he would need a three way on/on/on so that he could pass regular cap/b.i./diode to the tone pot ground. That is, it might work if I understand what you are saying, kp. Edit: another way to do it would to be eliminate the push pull pot, and put in the three way on/on/on as the output of the tone knob ground lug and just have regular cap/b.i./diode all going to ground. Or he could do a kind of varitone thing (it would be awesome to have like three distortions and a couple cleans in a varitone, I think. hmmm). Lots of options.

Something else to consider: a lot of times when a body is finished a solid color, no effort is made for grain matching, etc. which can look very bad with a natural finish. You will have to inspect that after stripping the body. Tru-oil is pretty easy to do, it just takes patience and care, but I would suggest against it if the grain is ugly. If the grain is such that you need to paint it again, you can use something like an acrylic paint and put poly over it as a clear coat. LGM has a really good tutorial on painting and also one on painting with spray cans. As far as getting in over your head, I have a chronic case of it, so I know what you mean. As far as this project is concerned, I think you should be able to do it well as long as you make sure to study your stuff and ask for help when you don't know something as opposed to just trying something out. Good luck.

I second the no-go on the fretboard painting. Also, WezV, you can get the EMG HZ's which are just passive versions of the 81's and 85's (depending on model number). They sound really good, though they aren't 81's or 85's (got both HZ's and actives). They are still pretty pricey, about $125 US a set or so. They blow the selects out of the water. I guess I should let it be known that I am a huge EMG fan, though. Dizzee, having gone the route of trying too much the first time or two through, all I can say is rely on the forum members after an exhaustive search of whatever troubles you. These guys know their stuff (the majority of them know it much better than myself).

I just got one from them (1/2" pattern) and used it only once so far, but the cut was clean, the bearings were smooth and I like that the bearing retainer is smaller than the bearing itself. I would imagine that would help reduce unnecessary bearing wear or blowout, but I am not certain, just conjecture.

As for wiring the two humbuckers to one tone and one volume, stewmac and emg's websites have wiring diagrams for that. As far as using the push/pull for the overdrive, I think it would work. I think what you would do is wire up the pushed part like a normal tone with the cap to ground. Then on the pull (switch engaged) you could just have it wired like a normal tone also, but with the black ice to ground instead of the cap (like on the normal tone). I think with the two way switch, you would actually have to take the ground lug of the pull (switch engaged), run it into an on/on switch with one side going through the black ice to ground and the other through your other diode to ground. Others will probably correct me if I am wrong. I guess one question I have is why you want black ice and a different diode? I could understand maybe one of those active onboard distortions and black ice to get different sounds, but if you use schottsky diodes, my understanding is that they can be a little lacking in the quality department soundwise (especially for lower output pickups). I think what I suggest above would work, but if it doesn't, or if there's a better way, then I am sure someone will correct me. Hope it helps.

As far as led's on the fretboard, I actually saw a really great photo essay on using a single led and fiber optic cable. It uses a ton less power than individual led's on the fretboard. You can find it here. I don't completely understand your first two questions, so I am unable to comment on that.

Any advice on trimming the fretboard prior to gluing it on (seeing as it's a neck-thru)?

I have a very related question to the topic. What do you guys do when you have a neck-thru? It seems the board would have to be perfectly tapered before attaching to the neck/body, since there is no neck profile when the board is on the body and that is risky territory for saws, sandpaper, etc. I have to do this soon, so thought I would ask here as opposed to posting a new topic (since it really is the same topic).

Ahh, I get it, makes perfect sense now. Sounds like a pretty slick method. I should be putting the board on it tomorrow, so here's hoping it comes out as well as it sounds like all of yours have. Thanks for the input everyone.

So you just drill into the fret slot? It seems like most bits are going to be larger than the .023" slot for the fret, no? If such is not the case, then I will do the locating pins with brads as suggested, I just don't want to widen the slot at all so that the frets seat nicely.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think for the "locating pins" I might just use the trick that I saw one custom bass builder use, and that is putting in a staple or two and cutting off the part that joins the two points. Kind of like really tiny brads, but he just leaves them in there.

I am about to glue on a new fretboard (slotted and radiused) to an already shaped neck (fretboard replacement job) and was wondering if I need anything special. I have a ton of spring clamps at my disposal and several bar and pipe clamps, too. I know StewMac has fretboard clamps, but I don't need anything else from them at this time and was hoping to get away with just using what I have. Are there any particular techniques or tricks? I was thinking of just putting the clamps on so that the lower pad is on the center of the neck, but then this doesn't put any direct pressure on the area of the fretboard where there is neck material underneath due to the truss rod channel. Will this be a problem? Thanks for any input.

The guitar I am going to be painting is only a small step above lawn furniture, but I am attached to it somewhat, so I can't just throw it out. The thing has visible glue lines and mismatched grain and sundry other nastiness (that's what happens when you decide to wing it). I've got some scrap, so I will test, but if it seems to be okay, I will use some white with some clear over it. Always wanted a white guitar.

I know this post is a little old, but I just picked up some of this stuff. It is acrylic lacquer, but I am going to give it a shot. We'll see how it works.

I was thinking about doing something like this, but being at school and not fretting too many boards, I decided I would hold off. Great to see that the idea works, I will have to do this as soon as I get a little more permanent of a setup. Thanks for posting it.

That's some nice looking work. I like the figure on that top plate. Between the way the grain runs and the figure, it gives the impression of waves on the shore of a lake. I look forward to seeing it all finished up.

You can wipe it down with naphtha or mineral spirits I think to get that off. Of course, test on scrap.

There is an onboard preamp. Is there anything I can do to maybe reduce the hum some? I am not getting any kind of radio-style content transmission, and the pickups are well-potted, so I doubt it is any kind of RF type reception. One other kind of odd thing: one time I turned the tone down to get rid of the hum, then when I turned it back up, the hum was dramatically better, almost non-existent. This could just be a single coil being a single coil, and if that is the case then I will just let it go. If not, I want to fix it, but c'est la vie as the french say.