Ripthorn

I don't have pictures, as the bumps aren't really visible, the only way to tell they are there is to feel them. I have tried to look in several different lighting situations and can't see them. They only annoy me when I run my hands back and forth over the surface. WezV, are you saying that this is common and after a good cure it won't be a problem to get rid of it? I hope so. I think I might give that a go.

I am in the process of applying the tru-oil finish to my bass and it is achieving a really nice shine. The only thing is that after each coat dries, the surface has some very slight bumps, like maybe due to dust or something like that. I have been trying to knock it down with 0000 wool between coats, but I am getting close to what I would think would be the end, but I am still getting these little imperfections. I was wondering what others have done. I read on the LMI website that one could use micro mesh or 0000 steel wool on it, but I wanted to get others input before I do anything. Any input from anyone who has used this before would be greatly appreciated.

With the voltage divider, you should also take into account the load resistance. As soon as a voltage divider has a load, the simple equation for dividing the voltage changes a little. I designed a power conversion circuit and trying a simple resistor based circuit didn't work. You could use a voltage regulator, it is a chip that takes an input voltage and gives a certain output voltage. They are pretty cheap (usually less than a dollar for your run of the mill kind) and available at mouser, digikey and maybe even radioshack, though I am not positive on that.

I already figured I might need to give up a fret or two based on pickup position. I guess my real question is what method of cutting should I use? I have thought about a miter box with a piece of wood cut to a set angle to get my desired headstock angle (~10 degrees or so). Also, I don't have a jointer available currently, so that could limit my options for actually cutting the thing.

Hey guys, I have a solid maple neck-thru that I built when I was in high school that I am in the process of fixing up so that it bears some resemblance to a playable guitar. When I built the thing, I was too enthusiastic about getting it done to do my research, so I ended up making it a 26.5" scale length to fit the length of the neck. The problem is that I have smaller hands and really don't like the longer scale length, so I want to bring it down to a 25" (I originally built this guitar to mimic a PRS). My issue is that I scarf jointed on the headstock and would like to do the same with the new headstock, but now with the body all attached and the neck shaped, I can't just put the thing on a table saw or anything like that. I am wondering how you guys would go about making the scarf cut on the neck to shorten it. Any advice or past experiences would be really helpful. Thanks.

As far as general transparency, scotch makes a type of tape that I think is called crystal tape or something like that. The stuff is probably the clearest stuff I have seen (better than packing tape). As far as easy-to-bury-in-clear-ness and invisible-edge-ness, I am not sure. No previous experience there.

One thing that you could do is change the piezo buffer you are using. If you haven't already bought one, you could look into the cafe walter pzp-1 which is designed to match a piezo's impedance to that of a magnetic pickup, so you could use just one tone knob if you want. Of course, if you have already purchased your preamp, then you might want to wait and see what suggestions the actual gurus have.

If you are looking for alder, you can look at woodworkerssource.com. They are phoenix based and have no minimum order. Shipping is also very reasonable, so you could get enough for a single guitar for pretty cheap. That is where I got my alder for this current build. Great looking stuff. That way you aren't buying 18 bd ft of whichever you go for.

I would suggest either bloodwood, paduak or pau ferro. I think they would go well with the crimson color scheme. I know paduak can be a little hard to come by and can darken over time, but it is a great wood and I love working with it. Another fun option is koa. I used that on a fretboard and absolutely loved it. The oils in it really make it look great.

If you really don't care about the wood, you could just take a reciprocating saw along the joint (careful not to knick the truss rods). You'd be done in all of 30 seconds.

I'm sure pete will tell you to check out the sustainer thread and see for yourself. It is his baby. He's a freakin' genius, by the way.

Tru-oil is a brand name finish from Birchwood Casey and I am pretty sure it is a polymerized oil with additives. Also, stains don't work too well under tru-oil, dyes such as aniline dyes work best from what I understand. The walnut would be darker, it's true. My question is why you would want to put a cherry stain on a wood like walnut? As for the walnut discoloration, I have never had discolorations, but I don't really expose any of my walnut stuff to enough sunlight to know.

True, there is nothing that says you can't. I've used 'em on two builds, the only thing is that you are creating a little cavity and filling it with essentially dust and glue instead of having solid wood. All in all though, you can do it just fine. I actually started building with only regular woodworking knowledge and so I thought you had to use biscuits. Anyway.

Another issue is that you wouldn't be able to completely isolate the strings, since the pickup for the A string, for example, would most likely pick up some of the signal from the E and D strings, depending on how your pickups are wound and how big the magnetic field is that you are creating for each string.

Typically you want the hole just a little smaller so that the bushing "grabs" and stays in well. If you are really in doubt, you could drill a hole and insert the bushing only enough to get an idea of the fit and leave enough sticking out so that you could pull it out safely.

I would definitely try to bring the fingerboard down. it doesn't have to on top of the body, but the bottom of it should not be raised more than a few millimeters off the body (usually). Of course it depends on what you want. I would maybe at least a little bit of depth out of the neck pocket, but if you are talking 1 or 2 cm, I would not suggest taking anywhere near that much out. Of course, I am not the most experienced person here and better qualified people will probably be by in a bit to correct me if I am wrong.

This is my first in progress post, so hopefully I don't bore you all with the details. I did a couple guitars 7 years ago or so and am having to relearn some things, but this build is a four string with the body of alder, walnut and flame maple. The maple is a cap over the alder as can be seen. The body is not the most exciting shape, but is much better than the body that this will be replacing. The neck is from a cheap bolt on and I put some ears and a face plate and backstrap on the headstock so that the headstock doesn't looke like the lame pointy thing it was. Well, enough of my yapping, here are some pictures. and the new headstock Go ahead and let me know what you think. I figured that since I have gotten a lot of good info from this place, I may as well show what I am doing. I haven't routed the pickup or control cavities yet (kind of slow going using an offsite shop). I am waiting to route the pickup cavities until I get the pickups and I can't get the pickups until I get the money. Anyway, it's coming along. Thanks in advance for any input.

On my current build, I am using the neck from an existing bass (saves time and money) but wanted to put some ears on the headstock so that I wasnt stuck with a lame pointy design. The only problem is that apparently I am retarded and didn't take into account just how much wood I needed to add on to each side. The original headstock is maple but the wings are alder. The backstrap is alder and walnut and the top plate is flame maple and walnut. Here is a close up of my mistake. So my question is what would you guys do to fix this? The picture shows the side all sanded flat. Should I just stain the maple or what? I could leave it as is, but I would like to more closely match the color of the light spot. I know it is a nasty mistake, but what is done is done and now I just have to figure out how to fix it. Thanks.

Thanks for all the responses. I guess my next logical question is this: should I recarve the neck before or after the new fretboard is on? From the sound of things, it seems like I should wait till I have a fretboard on it so that I can get the carve just right for my hand. Is this correct? Thanks again for all the help.

Thanks for the replies so far. As for your question on thickness, j., I measured 1.09" at the 6th fret. My fretboard was like .3 or so and the neck itself was over 0.7. I would think that would be a little thick for anyone. I was originally intending it to be a little thick since the thumb on my fretting hand is double jointed and gets tired quick on some necks, but I can't stand this neck hardly at all. The curve is all wrong too. There is very little shape to it. As I said, I had no idea what I was doing and so now I am paying the price. But that's okay, you live and you learn.

Okay, so here is the situation, back in high school I built a neck through guitar and wasn't aware of online places where I could find all this great information. So now I have a guitar with a bad fretboard and a neck that is too thick. I already pulled the fretboard and will be replacing it, but my problem now lies with the neck itself. I have a hotrod in there, but I have slightly more than a quarter inch of wood behind it. The neck always felt way too thick, so I want to take down around an eighth inch from the back to thin the neck out. It seems to me that this is a little too much for just sanding to handle (except maybe a belt sander), so I guess my question is what is the best way to get rid of this material? I am contemplating a planer or possibly the belt sander. Anyone have any other ideas? I have never done something like this before and just want other people's input. Thanks for all the help.

I have a question on this same sort of topic. In the tutorial is says to use modge podge to coat the gold ink because lacquer will cause problems. What about tru-oil? Do I still have to modge podge the decal or will it be okay without it? Thanks.

Don't know why I didn't see that, it does appear to be paint with a nice coat of nitro over it. Any ideas on removing the nitro besides just sanding or is that my only option? This is definitely not an Ibanez, it is a cheap generic bass (the headstock just comes to a pretty ugly point). Thanks for your help guys.

Hi everyone, on my current build I am taking the neck from a past bass. I am going to ultimately add ears and a front veneer and backstrap. In order to do so, I need to remove this ugly veneer/overlay stuff. I was thinking of using either a hairdryer or an iron on low with a cloth over it to loosen any kind of glue and then using a thin metal blade or something to peel it up. Anyone done this before? It's thin stuff, but I don't want to try to sand it or anything. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply and thoughts Pete. I guess I will just stick to a one pickup configuration (this guitar is going to be a dedicated sustainer, really, seeing as how I have several other "normal" guitars). It sounds like a regular toggle switch will work best for selecting the sustainer on/off, is that correct or is the switch for toggling between harmonic and normal mode? I guess I should state that this is a guitar that I built and thus the cavities are not like a typical strat. The control cavity is rear routed and larger than even a standard electric guitars control cavity (it was my first attempt and things the first go got a little ugly...). Finally, let me make sure that what I want to do will work in terms of controls: one volume and one tone for the bridge pickup and one volume for the sustainer and a switch to turn the sustainer either on/off or harmonic/normal. Should I try two switches or just let the sustainer on/off be controlled by the sustainer volume knob? i.e. if I want the sustainer off, just turn the volume knob all the way down. Thanks again.