henrim

Control cavity design. I took a similar approach to what I did with my Black SC. It was done with EMG Lego bricks while this is done with regular components. Components are mounted to an aluminum base plate that acts as a common ground. I’m not entirely sure if this is the best method for grounding. The more I read about grounding in electronics the more sure I’m I know nothing about it. It’s not as simple as it seems. Anyway I have no means for any scientific approach. I try it out, if it sounds fine it works fine. If it doesn’t then I’ll try to fix it. The thing is, this approach eliminates the need to solder wires to the back of the pots. A custom that I hate. Not the actual soldering but the concept of attaching wires to somewhere that is not prepared to take them. Just feels wrong. That and the fact that I have seen many badly executed bonds to the pots even in commercial products. The down side with the way I’m doing this is that the ground connection goes bad if a potentiometer comes loose. And they do. But so do solders break. Tightening a pot is not a big deal. Lock Tite helps too. As long as it’s put in the right place, obviously. Also less wires. This one has the most basic humbucker wiring. Neck/Both/Bridge. Shared volume and tone. No bells, no whistles. I might make a PCB for the next build as it’s going to have more pickup combinations. I designed and built the most of this guitar a decade ago. I probably didn’t ever draw the control cavity nor did I find the routing template I used. So it took a bit of trial and error to make the plate fit properly in to the cavity and get the components placed. Not easy to take measurements of the already shaped body and make sure a hole drilled from the top of the body comes out from the correct place on the back. That is a good lesson for the next build. Draw everything and when you change something upon building, update the damn plans, Henri! Other than that l didn’t ever decide whether or not spray some clear over the shellac top. It is pretty vulnerable as it is but somehow I’m unsure if it is a good idea. What I did though, I polished one final layer the other night. Don’t know why. Anyway that is apparently not going to cure. Shellac probably gone bad. Have to clean it up, mix some new shellac and polish again.

Ok, now I'm confident enough to click. Btw. is there any way to change a topic title? I have one thread I'm going update in the not-so-distant-future but the title is bit off and I would like to change it. Or do I just abandon it and start a new one? Yes, and the video. Looking good! Please post your future progress in this same thread. Easier to keep track that way. And if there is a way to edit a topic title you may as well consider changing yours to something a bit more descriptive.

Care telling a bit what is in progress? Ain’t gonna click that suspicious looking link.

Another reminder to protect any threads before painting. In many cases I don’t bother. I just tap the the threads open afterwards. These are M7x0,5 though and I don’t have many fine thread taps. Luckily I got the threads clean with acetone and cotton swaps. That was 1k primer. 2k top coat wouldn’t be that easy without a tap. I tried that earlier this year when I painted my old Italian motorcycle frame and started to tap open the passenger foot peg mounts. To my surprise they were not M10 as I would have guessed. Neither were they M12. Literature revealed they are 7/16”x20. Two imperial threads on an otherwise metric Italian bike! I couldn’t get them clean without so I bought a tap that I will most likely never use again in my life. Anyhow I will spray the new top coat on this soon. I just need to finish one other paint job before.

Looks like you have a good protective layer there. For future reference if you want to French polish a mirror gloss finish on a porous wood like podouk, powdered pumice is good grain filler to use with shellac.

Scratch that. There’s no space for the 5-position switch and the body is already painted. Not going chisel it anymore. The first alternative from the previous post it is then.

Never thought about how to wire this thing. The body had four holes for pots and one for switch. So that is a given. I think I would like to have individual volumes and then a master tone. The most straightforward way would be to have the middle pickup always on and have just a toggle for the neck and bridge pickup’s. Middle pup could be turned down with the volume pot. Or then I could have a 4-pole 5 position rotary switch and wire some combinations (I have those switches and I would rather use something I already have). Rotary switches with more than 3 positions are awkward to use but then again may not be a big thing with this guitar. I was thinking something like in the attached sketch. For clarity I have omitted grounding to the back of the pots.

Don't worry. Personally I love powertools. Maybe I love handtools more, but there is time place for them both. I know I can do pretty much everything with handtools so powertools are there just for speed. A part from milling machine, lathe and column drill press. Those I use for accuracy and precission Oh, and I would also love to have a CNC machine or two. Unfortunately every time I think about getting one I realize I can't afford one that would meet my specs.

I only now looked your thread from the beginning. It appears you have a book matched padouk veneer on top of the body blank. They both have a glue seam where it cracked. Well I guess you should be able fix that pretty easily. Just hope the other joints hold better. Although they are not as vulnerable as the padouk is solid on top of the other joints.

Did it break along a glue joint? Titebond is no magic solution then. Any PVA glue should hold if the faces are jointed straight and pieces clamped properly.

To each his own. No contact cement for me in any guitar building or any other woodwork for that matter. That gummy goo is everywhere if you have to sand a glue seam. Nasty stuff to get rid off. It’s handy substance with many other materials when you need an instant bond and you know you don’t need to sand it.

If it was someone else I would feel sorry for the poor bastard. I had a nice glossy black finish on this one ready to be buffed. I matted the surface and only then I realized this should not be glossy at all! Had a semi-successful hand painted burst on the top but it has to go now. Or actually it’s primed already. Just need to order some 2k matte black. I don’t really like black burst’s but here was the idea that the beautiful mahogany would be somehow visisible. Anyway I know it’s there and who else would care. I think 15 year old me would agree.

I bet it takes some time. But if if you like it, why not One tool I really like for some carving is this tool that combines a scraper to a spokeshave type handle. It may have a name I don’t know. Maybe spokescraper. It can be relatively aggressive if sharpen to have a large burr. On the other hand it can be tamed to a quite delicate tool.

I too prefer planes in general but I don’t think there is that much to shave that I could imagine me carving a neck with just a rasp. That said, I use both rasps and a spokes shave for necks. But sometimes you just have to get a new tool I know.

I started to draw a new guitar so I guess it’s time to put this one together before I start building anything new. I had forgotten fretboard side markers. It would have been a good idea to put them in before fretting but obviously that didn’t happen. So I sawed 45 degree (or so) slots with a fret saw and glued in some 0.5mm aluminum sheet pieces. Then cut the extra and filed the pieces flush. I only made them this way because I was lazy. Anyway they look better than I thought they would.

Decided to cover the cab with Tolex. I had a leftover piece of nylon grill cloth that was folded but I got it reasonably straight. Cabinet is currently open back but I'm going to close it. Also did some staining on one of my guitar projects yesterday. It will probably get a few coats of lacquer this weekend so guitar builds will slowly start to progress again. Although now I'm thinking about making a cover for the amp. Which is a Madamp J5mk1 I built years ago. Just never got to box it. It's a nice little 5 watt tube amp but I never used it much because it's lacking a FX loop. Can't put a passive loop into it because the signal voltage is already so high on the places where you would install the loop. Some sort of active loop is a possibility but haven't really looked in to it.

I have been doing quite a bit non guitar related building lately. Hopefully I get back to guitars soon. Anyway, the closest thing to guitars is a cab frame I did this week. I gave my 1x12 cab (with a 12" Warehouse Reaper) to my son in bundle with a Marshall DSL 1H. I have wanted to have a cab with round corners for a long time but didn't ever make one since I had a perfectly functioning cab. Now, by giving the cab to my son I finally got an excuse to make a new one! The plan was to cover the cab with Tolex or some other cloth but the rough unfinished look is quite appealing too. So maybe I just finish the inside corners, put rubber feet under it and let it be like that. We'll see. The speaker is a Celestion G12H.

My first iteration was set in a tube. I spun a recess inside the tube in lathe though. The final ones for that guitar are machined from solid stock. In the end I used ebony instead of padouk. Or at least they are ebony now We'll see when I get to finish that guitar. Which I assume will be some time coming fall.

Fabricating new fenders to my Ducati 350cc mk3 Desmo 1979. I’m rebuilding this bike I have had since 1992. It’s not a full restoration since some undoable changes were made before my time. Anyway trying to keep it somewhat true to the time period it was made. This is keeping me busy for some time now. Hope I get to ride it this summer

Paint it black. Also there is a reason why I may not be so active with guitar building for some time. I’m painting some motorcycle parts at the same time. They are from my Ducati 350cc mark 3 Desmo -69 that I have had since -92. Eight years ago I was driving it and the front felt bad. I took the fork off, disassembled it, and found the cause. While I waited for new parts I found some other things to fix. Eventually the whole bike was disassembled in to pieces. I had not really thought about it but it happened just before my daughter was born. So here I am 8 years later putting it back together. The same story as with my two guitar builds.

I get your point. I was just thinking about practicing the bending process and construction with less material. Doesn’t actually need to be a playable instrument. Could be a hat box too Anyway ukes are fun instruments.

That’s really nice thing to do. And at the same time an opportunity to learn. I’ve been thinking about building an acoustic guitar but I should probably start with an uke too. So following this thread with interest.

Prime time

As the Red/White build is nearly finished I thought about building yet an other one. I'm calling this one "The Verdict". Because this is my third single cut with the same shape. I'm combining what I think were succesfull features from the two previous builds to this one. From the Red One I'm using a drop-top. From the Black One I will use back mounted pickups (with some changes in the design). And a bolt-on neck. Although the neck will be bolted it will extend almost through the body. So that the bridge will be bolted through the neck. If that makes any sense. I like the modularity with a bolt-on. Separate neck is easier to work on, fix or replace. I'm making an unique piece here but being an industrial designer I can't help myself from thinking production in larger scale. I also like oiled necks. Combining that with a body that has different finnish is not straight forward. In the Red One I finished the whole back side with oil. This time I want a lackquer finish on the body. Not willing to experiment with blending the two together. Could be interesting but not worth it for me right now. Controls will be a combination design that take something from the both previous ones. Here I'm still in planning phase but the aim is to make the design without any cavity covers on the back of the guitar Hardware. I have an extra satin chrome Schaller 455 wraparound bridge that the Red One uses. So that is the most likely candidate. Stock studs will be replaced with a through body bolts. I also have a set of Schaller locking tuners with a matching satin chrome finish. Pickups. I will likely start with a Dimarzio Super distortion and a 36th anniversary PAF since I have an extra pair. Back mounted with custom covers. Birch neck. I already cut a blank which is flat sawn, but from the center of the timber so the grain is going upwards. May be I should split the blank, flip the pieces and laminate together. Dont' know. I have some linden (basswood) blanks for the body but I still may go with swamp ash as I have a nice piece of that too. Depends on how I want to finish this guitar. Quilted maple drop top. I'm not sure I'd want a quilted maple top but I found a bookmatched pair from my storage and sure looks nice. I can't recall when, where or why I got it but since I have it I'm going to try. Fingerboard I want to be black. So propably some sort of ebony or stained rosewood but I'm investigating other options too. Blackwood Tek from Madinter looks interesting. I should get a piece and see if that is an option. Any experiences with that? This one will likely be finished in less time than the previous ones. But who knows. Not me.

Ouch. If you have some leftover pieces of that quilted maple I think it would be worth trying to find a piece that matches the pattern. With that strong irregular quilted figure I guess it could be possible to make a pretty indistinguishable patch. If that doesn't work you still have the option to go on with the stripes.