sam_c

a ridiculous suggestion, but maybe it would look cool if you neaten up the gouge marks and replicate them on the lower horn slightly off-set? then possibly make 2 long thin sound holes in the same shape, instead of the traditional F hole designs?

You could try APEM Military / Avionics spec toggle switches?

http://www.apem.co.uk/toggles.html

they probably wont sell in small quants but you may be able to blag a free sample of a 2pole and 3pole switch in matt black

How about adding a tiny onboard amp and putting a small speaker under the top near the f hole? You have the perfect cavity for fitting one now anyway

nice looking build again dude. I'll be watching this one.

regarding your 3 position options for the pickup selection, I like the idea of using something like a touch sensitive circuit for selection. Only drawback I can think of is that as a player I like to be able to see and/or feel what posiiton the selector is in without having to play something to find out. Maybe you could incorporate some kind of small led indicator but it probably wouldnt be practical.

If its the 'blade' switch kind of look you are going for, maybe you could mod a minature graphic eq slider to function as a selector/blend pot? most of them are indented in the centre of the slider travel and they would take up virtually no space in the cavity. Im sure 30mm sliders are easily avaialble.

I was also thnking of a system where you could mount the volume pot on a small sliding switch rail and actually move the position of the pot to select the pickups. Not really figured out a concept of how to do it yet but, as you like the minimalist approach, I figured it would appeal to you as it still uses just a single vol knob like you would with your push/pull arrangement.

Here is a link to Stephen Davies' site, the neck joint appears on most of his guitars...and the patent has expired on this now afaik. I know washburn were trying to protect it not too long ago, not sure how successful they were. I think they wanted to ditch the term Stephens Extended Cutaway and go with 'shark-fin' neck joint or something like that.

http://www.seanet.com/~jsd/

Hi, yeah I own a few N4's. The radius of the extended cutaway is 4" I built a little pivoting circle cutting jig for my router to make some templates.

I have also drawn up a rough layout of an N4 in CAD. It is a simple neck joint really. The 'shelf' for the neck fillet to sit on is 1" wide I think, the depth depends on the model.

You do need a wide neck blank to make a 1pc neck for that joint, but I have seen people join a wider peice at that location before with no problems. And if you cut 2 blanks end to end it would be less wasteful.

here is a thread on some N4's I put together using old factory parts. they show the body routing and the jig I built quite well.

http://simnettguitars.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1562.15

and here is my walnut/wenge N4, Im only posting a picture cos its my favourite guitar...ever

By the way, if you are using ACAD and drawing bodies using splines....you can convert them to 2d polylines using the 'flatten' command. I know splines look great and are easy to tweak for curves etc, but the ability to offset and stuff is also important.

ACAD for me, just because I am sat on it for hours everyday at work.

good stuff! Im not sure what mags I prefer as ive never really thought about it. The insides of a pickup make sense to me in as much as how they work...but the tonal differences of the components is something I have no idea about.

On a very basic level, i guess I prefer the alnico stuff based on the pickups I have tried and liked.

good thread as always, Ive always liked the less is more approach when it comes to guitars and your builds do that in a very smart way.

What is the wiring scheme on this one? are you gonna add a 3w toggle or use the push/pull pot to switch between neck/bridge?

also, is that the finished nut? as the thinnest treble string slot looks wide in the pics...cant tell if its a trick of the camera though.

Got to say I agree on the looks of the top for this one, the walnut looks great.

I love reverse headstocks. 6 inline tuners on top is more awkward I find, its a very un-natural hand position for tuning. Reverse strat variant headstock is more ergonomic I think.

Washburn N series guitars look great with them IMO.

I say go with a pickgaurd, but maybe just a single white ply?

Glad you are building again, I enjoy reading your threads!

go with the bookmatched set IMO.

I will post my sketch tomorrow when Im at work. You can check my measurements against your design to see if I have used the correct ones. I dont know why, but 4 degrees seems steep to me.

ive sketched it out quickly in CAD, but Im not 100% sure Ive got your required measurements in the right place. Plus, Ive assumed fret wire height to be 1.4mm and used a metric scale length of 623.875mm. so this is based on a 16mm high bridge (in its lowest adjusted setting, with strings touching the top of the frets)

edit: Im coming up with an angle of approx 1.865 degs.

I am not being ironic. My point was that, although this formula may be correct and very helpful, at some point the dimensions that are calculated need to be transferred to the materials being cut. So the idea that maths is more accurate than a pencil line becomes irrelevant.

Personally, I like to draw things out in CAD. I know other people do things different ways and people find ways of working that suit them individually.

I do not know if your formula works, I would never use it even if it did, but that is just my opinion and my preference for the way I work. I would rather 'see' how parts fit together than figure out numbers that, theoretically, make it all work

I am not being critical of you posting ideas and calculations, it would be a sad day if people stop doing that

wow, if you are that worried about holding a pencil, I dread to think how much you worry about holding a router!

I dont get it, surely you guys are drawing onto the wood before you are cutting it? or at least drawing onto templates? So why all the fuss about inaccuracy when drawing a scale plan?

If you imagine a book, opened out in the middle on a desk. The grain of the wood at the edge of your timber boards is like the pages of that book. If you run your finger down the stack of pages, they will not lift up. If you run your finger up the stack of pages, they will lift up. This is the same thing that is happening when you run the router across the grain at the edge of your timber.

mac. ebony or cocbolo. With a green body, I think it would help to have something with some reddish brown streaks in there

yeah i wasnt having a knock at you at all. When building on YOUR kind of scale, Im sure you create alot of scraps and offcuts that are just not worth keeping. Im not a builder, so any little pieces of ebony or pearl etc. that I acquire or have left over will be kept in a draw for me to sit and stare at from time to time like a kid collecting bottle caps.

Im all for a good bonfire, but a nice piece of ebony would be the LAST thing I would ever burn. Id rather give it away if someone might have a use for it.

Im sure you get through more material than I do though! I tend to hoard anything i think i could ever use again at some point.

rock/fender style/floating trem/ 1/8" both sides

But when I got it I was looking for more specific details, such as how deep to route for humbuckers

Depends on the type of humbucker and how you plan on mounting it.

...neck pockets

Depends on what bridge you use

...how much to angle a headstock

Depends on which type of nut you use.

Im pretty certain those points are in the book, but even if they are not, it is a great starting point that is relativelty low-cost and you will use it time and time again.

My advice is get the book AND use the search function here. It would be crazy to ignore any available reference material as there are lots of ways to do things and some work better for certain people rather than others.

Sam, you've seen that N4 before on the Washburn forum. I had some correspondence with you about cutting a good radius on the neck heel and you were very helpful. I also recently inquired about your double neck progress.

Ahhh, you must be Greg? Yeah I thought id seen it before. IIRC, the back of that neck is very nice indeed. Flame maple with CF reinforcement?

You should do a walnut Body, Im very pleased with the one washburn have made.

Ive not been doing much this last year really. Got 3 builds on at the minute with very slow progress.

You know one of those Stephens extended cutaway 5-bolt neck joint would work on a really thin body... hmmm.

if you need a cad drawing or dims let me know. Oh, and I think the truss cover sits well now its assembled. Maybe still a bit too large for my liking, but it looks cool.

Nice N4 dude. Looks like an ESA body? Ive had a few of those factory blem bodies, built out 3 so far. I also got myself a walnut/wenge N4 from a US dealer this year. Really nice LP jr aswell.