Mr Alex

I'll start on the pickups today, it will get fitted with a piezo later down the track, having trouble sourcing the coax. From memory the saddle is about 3" long, So if someone knows where I can get 3-1/2" of piezo coax, other than from trout cove(not shipping overseas at the moment) I'd be very grateful to know. It's strung .070"-.013" with jagwire strings(for pedal steel). These are the nicest strings I've ever laid my hands on. The double wound .070" is pure craftsmanship, someone really took their time winding that one. I'll have to see if jagwire can make me a .078" because tuning down to E is a little loose feeling. It has a zero fret, the current "nut" is just a wooden spacer, its a bit thick, and nasty looking. I'm working up a garolite one to match the bridge. I also have black garolite, so I may use that instead. Wes, when that photo was taken, the tail piece was pulling slightly crooked, and the bridge had slid slightly with only 3 strings on it, and the strings has shifted treble side. With all 7 on, the strings all pull nice and evenly. I need to adjust the tailpiece's mounting bar to conform to the guitar a little better. Myka, I was actually basing this on your dragonfly(if that isn't obvious) and made it how I thought you should do one. Except way more budget. And just incase somone wants to nit pick, yes the waist is offset, and yes it is supposed to be. It looks wasy nicer when you stand with it I think. More modern looking. I did the same thing on my 12-1/4" inch version of this shape.

Just put some strings on this today, thought some of you might like to see it. It's a semi hollow/archtop hybrid. Carved Radiata pine top - About 5/8" in the center, with a 1" overall top thickness. 3/4" Rimu back Asymmetric Rimu neck Walnut fretboard Walnut burl headstock and tailpiece veneers Walnut bridge. -Not totally done, but I was dying to hear this thing 28.5" F# 26.5" B Pickups aren't done yet, they will be larger versions of my lap steel pickups. Single coil in the neck, humbucker in the bridge. This has a thundering bass, and a sweet treble, as though I've rolled the tone off slightly, exactly how I like a guitar. It's surprisingly loud, perhaps as much as a cheap classical. http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/shapcott/body.jpg Sorry about the rubbish photos, the walnut looks really nice in person, has some nice streaks in it. Next week I should have some pics of it finished off.

The LDR's resistance will increase as you reduce the light, but you'd have a hard time getting it to zero resistance. In full sunlight all the ones I have don't even get close. LDR's are the worst toleranced part I've ever come across too.

Rimu does make a very nice neck, but you may want to look into carbon fibre rods if using on a bass. Only have one guitar at the moment with a rimu neck, and its dead flat with no tension on the truss rod, but it is a u-channel rod, so probably gets a good deal of stiffness from that. You will also want a spokeshave with rimu, I found it to be the fastest and easiest to use tool for those softer new zealand timbers. Get an old stanley off trademe for about 10 bucks(I assume you are in NZ if you have NZ rimu). Edit : That's rimu for anyone interested. Headstock is some relatively plain heartwood, The neck is sapwood.

Look at the sides of the guitar, in relation to the angle of the top, and to the flat surface the guitar is sitting on/suspended over. A router/dremel would follow the angle of the guitars sides, which appear to be at 90 degrees to the top, a "piece of piss" as we say around here.

Ok, If used like the listing says, that is just the same as a master volume in an amp(0.5w pot, around 500k probably). This will reduce the signal going to the poweramp. Reduce that signal, get less or no poweramp distortion(the good stuff). You will get lots of preamp distortion at lower levels, but I don't think it sounds as good. What you want is an attenuator for after the poweramp, and before the speakers. THD hotplate comes to mind. This will let you crank to 13 and then reduce the volume of your wicked cranked tone. You could make an attenuator, but they are much bigger(need to attenuate ALOT more power than half a watt) and much more expensive to make.

It's probably built on a turret board, if you know what you are doing, you can get some very tidy layouts on turret boards. I've also seen some real shockers too.

Joh Lang from Langcaster guitars uses some kind of paua topped strap button type thingy-ma-jig on his newer guitars. I can't see why you couldn't use an actual strap button though. I'd clean it up a bit though, otherwise it would be a real string muncher.

Do you only get that buzz when you don't fret the high e? If so, sounds to me like your nut slot angles down toward the first fret slightly, if you understand what I'm saying. you want the leading edge of the nut to be in contact with the string, if the leading edge dips down a little you can get the string vibrating INSIDE the nut. Only other reason I can think of is that the bridge is angled forward, and is acting like one of those buzz bridges, but I would THINK that would effect the other strings too. BTW I used that bridge on my last build, and apart from the crap plating, and the fact it's aluminium(not my idea of a good sounding bridge), its not too bad. Certainly didn't buzz for me.

Ok, While I've never used any Lmii products, I have used a fair bit of other water based dyes. Don't oil over them, it only looks good if you like the look of furniture that was used as a spittoon in a bar for 50 years. Not pretty is probably a good term, I tried all sorts of ways to do it, and usually it just ruined the surface of the wood when the oil was applied. Sort of drew the pigments out of the wood, and smeared them over it in some kind of speckle pattern. Reminded me of fly poo, just purple.

A little off topic: My favourite is Andrew boiled linseed oil. It stinks like hell though. So I french polished over it, that gave me the best gloss I ever got with shellac(and trust me, I can get a very nice gloss). And after only 2 sessions, I had built the kind of gloss that would usually take about 20 to get. Sure it wasn't as thick, and I doubt as durable, but that oil really makes it glow. My piece of sapele mahogany looked like shimmering gold. While it takes a while to learn the padding techniques for french polishing, shellac over oil could perhaps be a quick and cheap finish for beginners.

I tried your idea of reversing half way through. Measuring resistance and all that. It works. But I thought it sounded like rectum juice. Every humbucking p90 I've seen is stacked coils, except one, it had a small coil either side of the pole pieces(they were dummy polepieces). Hope that helps. Alex Edit : I should also point out, hum cancelling p90s don't sound "right".

Either a break in a wire, or something is shorting out. Possibly a bad solder joint, but not likely from the way you describe it. And why can't you refit the strings, I do it all the time. Hell, I might refit strings 5 or 6 times after I build a guitar before I'm happy with the electronic setup. I always put a new set on for the final setup, but there is no reason why you can't refit the strings.

You need to de wax your shellac, once you mix it, leave it to sit for a few days, it will seperate out. Decant the top layer, throw away the rest. Its this top layer that will give you a nice clear finish. Most tutorials I've seen for mixing shellac say to wait overnight, which is crap, it takes up to a week to fully seperate. If I get the time, I'll write a tutorial as I'm french polishing a guitar.

Could some kind soul please explain to me how you get a tight joint with a belt sander. I've thought hard about this, and a belt sander is the last tool I would consider for tight joinery(a claw hammer is higher up the list I've got in my head). And no offence intended to primal and prs man, but it sounds like you wouldn't know a tight joint if it bit you in the ass. I just can't comprehend how you could keep the joint flat with nice square edges. I don't own a belt sander to make a scarf joint with, but from experience using one(hand held, and pedestal mounted), it just doesn't make any sense. So if someone could explain it to me, maybe with pictures too, especially of the final joint, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks Alex

While I'm sure you know this, thought I should remind you, just incase you forgot. Take the measurements you think you need, and add several metres. You can NEVER have enough bench space. I have 2 x 1.8m benches, and a 4m one. And I only JUST manage now that I've added a 2m bench to the collection, which doubles as shelving under it. You'll always need more space, its that bloody murphy fella again.

Umm, let's see. My first overdrive cost me, aout $35US. Second one was about $80US(far more complex than anything else I've seen though) At my current buy rates(between 10 and 100 of each item at a time), I can have a boxed and labelled simple booster or overdrive(including pcb) for around $45US. Using those crumby pcb's some sites sell(only suited to one off production) you could get the cost down to about 35-40, maybe. But that's really pushing it. Your father sounds like a good guy to help. Oh and a good first project would be the OD250. I'm not big on the sound, but its quite a rewarding build. Mr A. edit : One thing I should've mentioned, is I don't skimp on anything. So using more DIY friendly methods, you might be able to cut the cost a little more.

Google is your friend, but anyway. General guitar gadgets Thats a good place to start. small bear Small bear is great, has almost everything you need too. Be warned, your first effect probably won't work. You will spend alot of time pissing around trying to make it work, and like me will have wasted a good amount of cash. That said, about a year later I got back into it, and now have a line of 5 or 6 effects I'm producing. Just don't count on getting addicted like I did. Building my own wasn't a cheap way to do it. And I now regret spending all the time and money I did. I could've got a real job, none of this guitar rubbish

I have that exact bridge, the quality of the plating is rubbish. So bad I would've sent it back if I could've been bothered, but considering I bought it for my own guitar, I don't really care about that sort of stuff. I would line the posts up perpendicular, and any further adjustment(if necessary) can be made with the tiny grub screws.

As I said before, get a #7 jointer plane, yes its heavy, but that's the whole point, thanks to momentum the plane does all the work. Mine cost the equivalent of $60US,sure it took me over 2 years to find one this good, but round here, you can get them down to about $15US, needing about 10 minutes with sandpaper to clean off some of the rust and grime. Sharpening stones are a waste of money IMHO. Just use sandpaper, and a sheet of glass as a backer, or wood if you are in a hurry. Most people I've seen don't even know how to use a wet stone properly.

As much as I like spending money on large power tools,(my accountant will agree with that one ) I see power jointers as a waste of time and money. Get a nice hand plane, preferably a number 7. It's safer, cheaper, AND quieter. And they aren't hard to use. For the cheapest jointer available here, I could buy 5-6 used stanley 7's. And these are well looked after ones too, no rust, no chips or cracks. I got mine from an old carpenter, he even sharpened it before I collected it.

While I still think having to have a seperate powersupply is really stupid(mojo or not), I agree with all the stuff about AC noise in the same shield. Turns out, I don't have a problem with noise, because my dad made some changes to my schematic when he was doing my pcb layouts. Thanks to him, I get vintage mojo, and modern convenience. I can still run DC into the rectifier as well, so it just makes more sense to me. I think I've ranted off topic for long enough now.

That will "work" with the missing parts, but the assymetric diodes are gonna be pretty important to the whole fuzz part, without them you'll have a really crumby preamp that might clip over a bit it you run it full stonk. If you have any extra leds, use those instead of the silicon diodes. Some people think they sound better than silicon diodes, but I don't agree. I don't like diode clipping circuits at all.

I think you ordered smd diodes(surface mount devices) You wont be able to use those, unless you are crazy bastard like me, who likes to repair the unrepairable, and has a tiny soldering iron tip, or smd soldering gear. According to the catalogues I have, the 10mm leds will require more current for the same output level as 3mm or 5mm leds. But you can get all sorts of current ranges in all sizes at some places like Farnell. For all I know you could have low current 10mm leds, but I wouldn't count on it. Get some 3mm or 5mm, they aren't expensive.

Lovecraft, After looking at the prices for the rectifier and all that, I guess I'll have to agree. I'm not sure I can agree about it being noisier though, I've been prototyping a new product with a rectifier and regulator setup, that's sitting unboxed on the bench, and has no noise problems, and it contains 8 fet opamps. Even the scope agrees with me. I know every manufacturer want to keep cost to a minimum(I do too), but I just think anybody making something that requires a power supply setup, different from nearly every other pedal is just stupid. Alex