Mender

Bump

You didn't finish the last sentence in your first post, so we don't have a clue what you're asking

I remember several years ago, a bass guitarist I knew changed the tops on his bass guitar tuners to some key tops similar to this

Great stuff. I have loads of oak scrap under my bench, and now I have a use for it. Thanks for sharing

I bought some of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

and some of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/M5-x-40-Socket-Butto...Nails_Fixing_MJ

and finally, some of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

They work extremely well, just as good as the expensive kits around. I recess the washers deep enough so the bolt heads don't protrude above the surface of the body. When a neck is fitted using that lot, it isn't going to move no matter how hard you treat the guitar

If anyone in the UK has been thinking of making a fret bender like this, and hasn't found suitable pulley wheels for the job, try these http://www.meccanospares.com/shop/article_...%26aid%3D22a%26

1 inch diameter solid brass. The pulley groove is a "V" shape so suitable for any fret size. I've just made a fret bender using two of these, and it works very well indeed

I'm most interested in the P model but I'm not sure if the Evolutions fit the "outside coils of the pickups must have opposite magnetic polarity". The E model is a close second, I think.

Any experience with either? And/or either with Evolutions?

Simple way to find out. Put the two pickups side by side, oriented the same way they would be on the guitar, so the leads are both towards you. Pick one of them up and turn it over from side to side so one is face down, but the lead is still towards you. Now place this pickup on top of the other one carefully so the poles line up. If they attract, the outside coils are magnetically opposite. Then there is no problem.

If, however, they push away from each other, then the outside coils have the same polarity. If this is the case, rotate one of the pickups 180 degrees so the wire comes out of the "wrong side" and fit them into the guitar that way. You will then have the outside coils with opposite magnetic polarity.

Excellent job Muzz, and plenty of detail in the thread. I must use Rustins on my next build. I've had some here for a while now, but keep putting off using it because I havn't decide whether to spray it or brush it.

That guitar has plenty of vibe. I quite like the idea of using an old rusty hinge as the tailpiece

Oh how can I attach the pics right?

You could upload them to Imageshack or similar

Here are the direct links for those who can't see them on here

http://s3.directupload.net/images/100731/obmuqqt3.jpg

http://s10.directupload.net/images/100731/ibnuqljv.jpg

http://s7.directupload.net/images/100731/j4phdmmw.jpg

http://s1.directupload.net/images/100731/dztcgx6w.jpg

http://s10.directupload.net/images/100731/g6hyyf8o.jpg

http://s7.directupload.net/images/100731/kp2cfnhp.jpg

http://s5.directupload.net/images/100731/fjx6i6p5.jpg

http://s10.directupload.net/images/100730/5u9hq8oe.jpg

As I said, I can see them fine.

read what you quoted from me - the bit where i say 'its on there'....

Oops! I missed that. Not fully awake yet

The pics don't work

They are working fine here. Beautiful finish

So when finishing the one with the maple fretboard (Haven't decided... Lacquer... shelac... both... neither) I mask the fret wires themselves only and then on the maple neck/ebony fingerboard I will mask the whole fingerboard. Right?

I've come this far and don't want to mess it up now!

Thanks for the help.

I find that it is quicker and easier to finish maple fretboards without masking off the frets, then clean the frets when the finish has cured.

I have used oak on a couple of my guitar builds. I bought an oak table top some time ago, 1 3/4 inches thick, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long. I only paid £3 for it.

It is actually made with oak planks 6 inches wide glued together, and the grain is nice and straight. I've used pieces of this as laminating strips in necks and bodies. I've also made fretboards out of it.

I've never built a complete neck or body out of it, although, as I have so much of it, I may build a complete oak guitar one day just to check out the weight and tone

It is great stuff for making sanding blocks, radius blocks, wedges, and other useful things like that

i know a lot of professional builders who ship out work with no public mention of it. Some have bodies and necks made by other people and dont mention it, its not uncommon. Some people are happy with this arrangement, if you are not then i suggest you dont deal with him again.

I do part builds occasionally and still refer to them as my builds when done, although i am usually open about where the parts came from - most are not

look at someone like Nash

http://www.nashguitars.com/

see if you can find any mention on his website that you are buying an allparts/warmoth/other parts build... its on there, but not made clear in the descriptions of instruments

Actually, Nash does admit that he assembles the guitars from ready made parts. I think he has to put it on his website to avoid any possible legal complications.

Nash is not a luthier and these guitars are just assembled from parts.

By far my favorite subject that people get all upset about. The above statement is 100% true. I could no more cut down a tree and make a guitar out of it than I could dance ballet (though my wife likes when I try). I would not want to anyway as it does not interest me. I have a great respect and admiration for those who can, but it is not what I want to do.

In my opinion, unless you are making guitars with set necks, and actually making the bulk of the parts you use, then you are assembling guitars from parts. Now, the big difference between me and many of my colleagues, competitors and the like, is that I actually admit to not making my necks and bodies. Very few manufactures make their own wood parts unless they are in the top two tiers of guitar makers. It is not my goal to "out" anyone so I will not be specific, but you may be quite surprised at who makes what for who. Read on....

...Where do the bodies and necks come from?

I use several OEM suppliers that do not do much business with the public. They are in the USA, however I will not name them. This I do for a couple reasons. I once had a supplier stop selling to me once they were named. Their biggest customer for raw parts is FMIC and they felt some pressure to make a decision about selling me or FMIC. Though I was doing some respectable numbers with them, certainly I will never come close to spending what FMIC does, so I totally understood. But I learned a valuable lesson there and it has nothing to do with not wanting the public to know. The other reason is that they generally do not want to deal with retail sales (like selling one neck at a time to a private individual) so in most cases, these companies would prefer to not be mentioned.

I will certainly use some of the obvious retail neck and body makers to fill in a piece here and there, but not more than a couple bodies or necks a year - it does not fit our business model. We build about 100 guitars a month so these OEM suppliers ship standing orders to us every 4-8 weeks, depending on the product - certainly not a service that any of the retail parts companies is set up to do. This allows both the supplier and the builder to anticipate and control work loads, product flow and man hours. In the past as we were building the business and the numbers were not so steady, we did use more obvious retail makers often, so there will be Nashguitars out there with necks and bodies with those markings.

He refuses to name the companies he buys from, but doesn't deny he only assembles them. http://www.nashguitars.com/IMHO.htm

Thanks for the compliments, folks I can hardly wait for Christmas to see Sian's face when she sees it. I told her I'd make her one, but she has no idea what it looks like. I think (hope!) she'll be thrilled

Unfortunately, for various reasons, including losing my digital camera, I didn't chart the progress of this build, but I will for the next one.

As you can see, it is heart shaped. 22 inch scale length, and built mainly from bits and pieces I had laying around what I laughingly call my workshop

The body is made from four pieces of poplar glued together. The top is a 1/4 thick slice of African mahogany, not wide enough, so I put it on in two pieces - spot the join

The neck is a poplar and mahogany laminate which was slightly too short, so I scarfed a bit of mahogany on the headstock end and made it into a feature. The square fretboard dots are abalone, the AB (my initials) on the fretboard and my granddaughter's name SIAN on the body are MOP.

The fretboard is padauk and has a 12 inch radius. Standard gauge fretwire was used. A single action box type truss rod is fitted. This came off an old broken Strat copy I picked up for £1 at a car boot sale. I had to shorten it a little to fit, but it does the job. The pickup also came off the same guitar. I dyed the top, sprayed the back with a metallic black rattle can I had in my cupboard, and sprayed the whole thing with about 10 coats of acrylic clear car lacquer from another two rattle cans.

Although the pickup is a cheapie Chinese thing, it sound surprisingly good, not tinny at all, but I think perhaps the position I fitted it may have helped the tone.

I haven't bothered fitting a tone control as my granddaughter is only just seven years old, and I don't think she would use one.

All in all, I'm very pleased with this scrap wood musical heart

How expensive is the Gotoh FR trem in the US? Thats my fave floating bridge and it costs around half what an OFR does in the UK.

From the prices I've seen on the internet, UK prices are around £140 - £150 whereas US prices seem to be around $140 - $150, so about 30% cheaper than the UK. Bear in mind that our 17.5% VAT is included in the UK price (soon to be 20% ). If you buy one from the US, you would be liable for import duty, VAT, and a handling fee, so it would be at least the same cost, perhaps even slightly more expensive, than buying on in the UK.

Just realized after posting that I had not introduced myself to the forum. I want to build guitars. I have even designed four(3+1bass) on a computer, though I will not actually be building till sometime next year. Joined the forum to get tips and advice and to try not to be too much of a smart as*. The builds on this site are mind-blowingly amazing(90% of them anyway. Not too keen on strat and teles. But I respect them)

Welcome to the coolest guitar building site on the internet

The way you have the strings across that body will make it awfully difficult to play

In the UK, we can buy it in two metre rolls of 12 inch wide from Poundland for just £1, around $1.55 US.

is the jack wired backwards ?

are the pickups wired backwards ?

one of these things must be it, if backwards the shielded casing on the pickups will be hot which can make this noise.

Thanks for the answer

Well, there is a point right there. Because the hot and the ground cables from the pickups are the same color!! the only difference is the gauge...

First, I used the thinest cables to the volume pot ground, but no sound came out. Then I inverted the cables and used the thickest ones, and then, started the sound, but with this problem...

Maybe the cables should be at the first position and the sound problem is another ... I should post a photo of them ...

Wich of the cables should be the hot? the thinest or the thickest?

The first thing to check is the thick wire. Are you sure this isn't two wires in a single sleeve, maybe a "hot" wire and a screen? I believe the Wilkinson pickups in you picture may have two wires from the pickup coils and a ground wire from the cover. If this is the case, you need to strip the sleeve of the thick wire back a bit so you can separate the two wires.

Those mats! The ones that you put on your work bench.. the ones that hold your work piece, so you dont have to clamp it, or so the workpiece doesnt slide around. what the heck are those called???

I've always heard them called simply non slip or anti slip mats. All the shops around this area that sell them have them shown as just that.

Nice build. I'm surprised 9 string guitars didn't take off when they were manufactured in the early 1970s.

I owned two 9 string guitar back in the 70s. One was an acoustic made by either Hohner or Hofner, can't remember which. It was strung with normal EAD, and GBE were doubled, but not octaved like a 12 string.

The second was a solid body made by Framus, and was strung in a rather novel manner.

E = single string

A = single string

D = normal D plus one octave higher

G = normal G plus one octave higher

B = normal B plus one octave higher

E = single string

I just found this photo on the 'net, looks just the same as mine was.

There is an adhesive called "EZ Peel", which is designed to temporarily hold stuff together that you want to unstick later. Use some of that, because no matter how hard you try, the darnned stuff just won't let go

I wish I had just half of that artistic talent