toneblind

Does the material used for pickup mounting rings matter? At my work, we are installing a huge waterjet machine and I'm thinking I could design a set of unique pickup mouting rings to be cut from from aluminum.

Thanks for the feedback. I just ordered the "Slate Black" patina solution from Sculpt Nouveau. According to the nice woman I spoke to, this is the only patina solution that will darken aluminum. My goal is not to have a relic'd guitar, just something with unique aesthetics that I'll enjoy learning to play.

All the hardware on and for my guitar is gold plated. I didn’t set out to have a gold equipped guitar; just that I got lucky as heck and found a new (not awful quality) set neck hollow-body guitar (w/ case), a Schaller roller bridge and a left handed Gretsch/Bigsby B6G all for less than $200 (got to love Craigslist). Now, the problem is, I don’t like gold plating…at all… I’m not a big fan of chrome either. My plan is to media blast the hardware bits with glass bead to remove the plating. Depending on what the bead blasted parts look like, I may stop there and just shoot a clear coat on it all. This whole guitar ‘relic’ing thing has caught my eye so I’m also looking into a liquid solution from a company called Sculpt Nouveau (http://www.sculptnouveau.com/). According to their website, they have a solution that will put a similar tone black patina on both aluminum and steel. After the parts are patina’d, I’ll shoot them with a matte clear. My questions are: Is this a stupid idea? Am I just going to destroy perfectly good (albeit cheap) guitar parts? Obviously I’ll mask off the important surfaces and openings to prevent blasting media from getting in places it shouldn’t. Are there any known problems using guitar hardware that has been clear coated?

Thanks for the advice. Since I wasn't able to find any videos on the technique, I made one:

Any advice on removing the stop bar threaded inserts? I’m installing a Bigsby B6G on my current project (ES 335 Copy) and the threaded inserts for the original stop bar will be left behind and unused. I’ll be refinishing the guitar (with a painted top), so I’d like to pull these out and plug the holes. Is there some experienced Luther’s trick for pulling inserts without damaging the top?

I'm in the process of converting a Cielo Sadona (ES-335 copy) from right handed to left handed. When it's done, I want to paint the whole thing one opaque color. It's currently sunburst w/ white binding (I think it's supposed to be ivory binding, but it's really bright white. Ironically, the binding on the neck and F holes is definitely ivory. My question is, are there any special preparations for painting over binding? Should I prime just the binding 1st with a plastic friendly paint?

I'm the same way with 11's. It's the perfect amount of tension for me, and anything else messes me up. Thanks for the input. I'll be starting him off on a set of 10's.

Does anyone out there have a CAD file (*.dwg or *.dxf) for a Gibson Flying V? I've already got a basic AutoCAD drawing of a '59, but I'd like to find a CAD file of a newer model to be able to compare the body geometry. Thanks, Mike

I just finished assembling a solid body guitar for my son. He designed the body, I made it from Poplar and we used a bolt on neck from a basket case Washburn Mavrick series. (I know, Poplar was not the best wood but this is my first ever instrument build, it was available, it's a painted project and the guitar will most likely spend eternity simply hanging on a bedroom wall). My son also wanted to incorporate a tremolo so I found a version of a Floyd Rose style tremolo. I need to re-string the guitar and adjust the tremolo...what gauge strings should I look into? I put a Bigsby on a hollow-body not to long ago and was advised to get heavy (.013-.056) strings. Do I need to go that heavy on a Floyd Rose equipped guitar? BTW, this is the initial CAD drawing of my son's vision. Once I get it tuned and prettied up, I'll post a few pics. Here's the body after paint, but with no cler coat. We were experimenting with vinyl pinstrip tape...

Good job on the bench. It looks sturdy. For the top, what about making a loose overlay made from particle board. Make it oversized such that you can attach strips of wood to the underside to keep it centered on your benchtop. That way you can have a nice level and smooth surface when needed and when you need to pound on something or possible make a mess, lift off the overlay and let the dimensional lumber top take a beating. If you did that, you might want to think about incorporating the router table insert into the overlay. The reason I suggest that is that if you need to rout a part that is longer than the insert, the ends of the part could “catch” on the transition from the insert to the dimension lumber and leave a tell-tale on the work. Here’s a few renderings of the bench I use (I don’t have any pictures of the finished project.) I built a riser to bring the work surface up higher, and built in 7 drawers into the riser. There is also a router table insert at one end. I can pop out the router and place in a flush plate. On one long side, I have a full length pull out drawer for my bar clamps and on the other side I had put in a full length shelf. (I’ve since taken out the shelf). There is also a pocket for installing a woodworker’s vise. This is a welding table I made a while ago. It has a ½” thick steel top and is on an aluminum base. I drilled a bunch of holes through the steel plate to provide places to install clamps. As described above, I’ve since built a loose overlay out of particle board that I can lay on top of this welding table for when I need more woodworking workbench area and don’t want my work resting on a steel surface. Welder Carts

Thanks for the compliments. Sound? Right now it sounds dusty, that is due to that there is simply no time to mess around with it. Since mid February, I've been putting in 15 hour days in the office. When I finally do get some time to play (or attept to play in my case), it does sound good (to my ear). One thing thing I've noticed though, since installing the Bigsby, there seems to be no noticible effect on string bends. For example, I been trying to learn the intro to Joe Walsh's "Funk 49", which starts of with a couple of heavy bends on the G string. Before installing the Bigsby, I could bend the string and it sounded correctfor what I was trying, but since the install, no matter how hard I press, there doesn't seem to be any change in note. I should add that I now have heavier strings and the G string is a wound string versus it being a solid one before.

Did you build that surface sander? If so, it's a beyond awesome job!!!!! I've had an 80% complete design for building one on my CAD station for years and have most of the parts necessary, but until seeing that finished product, didn't have the motivation to actually build it. Now I must build one. Using the drive from a table saw is a great idea. A bunch of questions if you don't mind... What HP motor are you using? Is the sanding drum made up with layered up disks of plywood? What is the diameter? Is the spiraled sand paper held on with velcro or adhesive? If adhesive, any problem with heat build up? Do you know the final drive RPM's of the drum? Did you use any type of pressure rollers before and after the sanding drum? Any problems with the work being pushed back? Thanks, Mike

Check out: http://www.floydrose.com/instructions.html

I'll pre-qualify this by adding that I have almost no experience in guitar work...but this is an idea for getting around a loose bolt-on neck pocket. This past weekend, my son and I made a "rough draft" of a guitar body he designed. We used a 1.75" thick slab of glued up particle board. The neck for his design is a bolt on neck from a Washburn BT-2. The idea is to do any experimental carving and shaping on the cheap particle board version, developing the near-net shape, before cutting into the costly body blank. I routed the neck pocket freehand using a 3/4" mortising bit. As you might expect, the fit between the neck and pocket was a bit loose. (but, it was actually tighter than the fit on the stock Washburn body.) I cut strips of paper, (plain copier paper), and used them as shims to take up the gap. With only 2 strips of paper inserted on each side, the fit between the neck and body was tight enough to keep the neck straight. If necessary, I could have used shorter pieces of paper at various locations in the pocket to "steer" the neck into being straight on the body. I've used shims made from paper in the past to make fine adjustments on wooden drawer guides. The material is much thinner than anything I could cut out of wood, it's not as compresable as most woods and it absorbs glue well.

Outstanding work!! Very inspiring!! Did you have to do anything special to prevent the dye from soaking into the binding?

http://www.guitarbuild.com/modules/mydownloads/ http://www.projectguitar.com/ref/adv/dwg.htm I'm a CAD professional too. The above links will give you something to look at, but the information is very basic. As far as learning how to use AutoCAD. Back in the dark ages, (AutoCAD Release 11), I had to learn it well enough over a weekend to be able to draft retail store plans by the following Monday morning. For me, I learned by drawing the stuff on my desk first. A coffee cup, an eraser, a calculator, a book...simple basic things that I could measure and recreate in 2d on CAD. Having a purpose for learning made it come easier. Do you have any manual drafting experience? It will help. Added: Also, import a bitmap of a guitar design into AutoCAD and put it on a locked, but visible layer. On a different layer, draw lines tracing the outline of the image on the bitmap. Don't worry about overall size, in CAD you can scale it up or down as needed later. After you have your outside perimeter drawn in straight line segments, you can snap in a bunch of 3 point circles, tangent to the perimeter, to create the smooth contours.

Thanks DJ, that picture shows the exact information I needed to see. As far as altering the design, it's my son's project, I'm just along for the ride (and to see that he doesn't cut off any fingers). Each time he shows me a different iteration of his design and we update the CAD drawings, I go back and nudge the lines just a hair to open up that area as well as expand the overall height. His first concept: had the body at about 10" overall height and almost no access to the upper frets. I'm certain once he handles the particleboard mockup with the neck installed, he'll want to open it up some more.

I told my son, "you design it, we'll build it". I've promised to keep my design opinions to myself. They way it's shown is twice as accessible as my son's original design. We'll be making a particle board mockup this weekend and installing the neck. I'm betting he'll see the need to open up that area too.

I'd rather plan for the worst trem abuse imaginable and build it as durable as possible. It will no doubt get pounded on.

From the mind of a 13 year old. My son has challenged me to build a guitar body of his design… (Sort of a BC Rich Virgo, mirrored vertically) We’re going to use the neck and electronics from a $20 beat up Washburn BT-2. The new body will be poplar. (We’ll be making a quick mock-up of the body in particle board to see if any design tweaks are necessary.) As part of the design, my son also wants me to add a tremolo. My original idea was to find a cheap strat style tremolo, but I’ve been told by more than a few persons to go the few extra bucks and pursue a Floyd Rose locking type trem for better tuning stability. Further research has indicated that having a locking nut will provide more benefit than the locking the strings at the bridge. So for the moment, I am going to try and find a reasonably priced Floyd Rose Licensed Single locking version. My questions: Seeing as there are about 10 zillion or so Strat style tremolos currently in use, is it really worth the extra $$ for a Floyd Rose Style (or Kahler, or Wilkinson)? Can I get away with installing the locking nut on the tuner side of the existing nut? (I realize I may have to mill out some material to make it fit and may also have to file new string grooves in the locking base plate to correct the string angle to the tuners). Would it be better to remove the existing nut and machine the neck to fit only the locking nut?

After waiting way too long for the new Bigsby B50 to arrive (if you buy anything on Ebay from ‘gigmaker’, be prepared to wait), I finally got an opportunity to get into the workshop to make a mounting plate. The 1/8” plate is 5052-H34 alloy. It’s plenty stiff, but it’s a bit grainy and won’t easily polish to a mirror shine like 6000 series billet. Next time I have to change the strings, I’ll take the plate off, wet sand it up to 3600 grit, buff it out again and then have it bright dipped anodized. I had to apply a lot of heat to be able to make the end tab bend without cracking the metal. While I had it apart, I swapped the pickups with a used set from an Epiphone ES-335 and added machined chrome covers for some bling. I also ran a ground wire to one of the stop bar bosses (not an easy thing on a semi-hollow body). For strings, I went with 10 gauge D’Addario. With the new pickups, metal covers, heavier strings and the different harmonics introduced by the aluminum parts, it sounds like a completely different guitar. I think I got lucky because it’s a lot closer to the ‘Rock-A-Billy’ sound I’m shooting for.

Stumbled across this while surfing Craigslist at lunch... http://mansfield.craigslist.org/msg/1020418861.html Seems like a deal at first glance.

The story on the '59 in the glass case, it was originally ordered by Les Paul himself as a test guitar, there's a note included, supposedly hand written by Les Paul himself to the Gibson tech, explaining the capacitor & winding configuration he wanted. The owner said he bought it while in college in Louisville, MO in 1970 at an estate auction for $175.00. The auctioneer told the crowd it was "a complete guitar, but would need work because it was so far out of tune". No one had taken the time to look in the case pocket, where the paperwork was. In the late 80's, he took it back to Gibson to have it verified. After that, and realizing just what it was worth, he had the display vault built (it can hold 4-5 guitars) and got it insured. He said that he'll take it to auction in about 6 years when he's ready to retire.

The guy I bought my Oscar Schmidt from had a '59 Gibson Les Paul burst and a '56 Gold Top on display in humidity controlled, vault glass cabinets. He claimed the '59, with the original Gibson documentation, receipt & case, was worth over a half million. He didn't have any original documentation for the '56, but was expecting to get at least $86,000 at an upcoming auction in London. Both guitars were 100% original, except for the strings. He was a big shot with National City Bank and was forced out when they folded. Despite his 5000sf Mc-Mansion and the 3 matching Lexus SUV's in the driveway, he was selling off some of his collection to pay the bills. Also to go on the auction block was an old red Gretsch signed by, and authenticated to have been owned by Chet Atkins and a black acoustic authenticated to have been owned by Elvis.

I am planning to replace the stock pickups on my Oscar Schmidt OE-30. Since there are no access covers on the backside, I have to do all the work from the front. (I can't begin to imagine the life altering frustration of having to rewire this guitar through the 'f' holes.) The stock pickups (cheap non adjustable Chinese) and the replacements (Epiphone DOTs') are both one wire type (one hot lead and a braided ground). I’m planning to simply cut the old wires, push back the braided ground and solder the new hot leads to the ends of the existing leads. In connecting the grounds, my question is should I try and mate up the ends of the braided and solder them together, or can I solder a jumper wire from the new to the old, leaving a small section of the hot leads not fully encased in the braided. Will that allow for unwanted EM interference?