SwedishLuthier

quote name='George' date='Jun 14 2006, 06:19 AM' post='274041'] is there a way to fill the gap .. it looks dodgy !

I have done a thineline Tele with an all maple neck. This one I wanted to get the same look/colour all over the guitar so I dyed the maple neck, back head and fretboard with the same dye as the body before finishing. The preparations and finishing scheme are the same as a normal neck and body except for the dying part. The difference between this method and coloured/opaque finish is that when the finish wears of my neck will still have a colour that is at least similar to the body. Do you wonder if it was worth it, if it looked good and if I would do it again? Let me put it this way: It was no major success.

LMII still cary the celuloid bindings (Stew-Mac stopped because they are quite flamable) in ivoroid. They also cary black and white binding in something called Boltaron (NO ide what that is). http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts....Plastic+Binding The celuloid bindings have been used with nitro from the birth of the electric guitar, so you should not have a problem with that. I have not personaly used ABS bindings with nitro, but I have never heard that there should be a problem. I have had excellent results with ABS and waterbourne finishes. Why not sent LMII a mail and ask them about compatibility of ABS and nitro? They should be able to tell you

We’re not Gurus here. We have reached the level of Sage (where you realise that you still have more to learn and return to the level of student…nevermind). I have a little hard to understand exactly were that gap is. A picture would help. If no picture is available try to describe the situation a little more. If the guitar is laying flat on its back, is the gap under the neck or at one side of the neck? Is the gap visible when looking at the top of the guitar or from the side? Does the neck move from side to side in the pocket? If so, is it possible to tighten the screws a little more? Are some of the screws just turning in the hole without getting a good grip in the neck wood? Without more info my experience suggests that the neck is moving from side to side in the neck pocket. This can cause the tuning to go out like you describes. BTW do all of the strings go out of tune, or is it only one or two? If so the problem is more likely to find elsewhere. If the problem is the neck moving in the pocket it can be fixed. Tighten al the screws. If one ore more just turns without getting a grip you will have to drill out the wood, glue in a hardwood dowel, and redrill. There have been a few threads about this fix and you should be able to find it via a search. If this doesn’t stop the neck from moving, you might consider threaded steel inserts and steel machine screws. That is my standard way of building bolt-on necks and I have done a few retrofittings too. That process is just a little bit more complicated, but the way I do it, it requires a pillar drill. But you should be able to get a good grip in the neck wood if you drill, fill and redrill. With fresh wood the neck screw should be able to hold the neck steady. Then you have the look. If you are planning on refinishing the guitar it is OK for a quick fix to use a filler, although I would prefer to make a small wooden shim an glue that into the pocket before refinishing the guitar. I cannot think of any real issue with using filler in this case, but I always try to use wood instead of synthetic fillers because I would imagine that the wood filler would behave a little more like the surrounding wood and the risk that the repair showing up through the refinish would be lesser.

Cherry works fine too. Did a solid resolectric from a piece of old cherry table some years ago

What he does is this: Solder the starting point of the wire to a fixing point (where you later attach the wire to the controls, don’t know the name of that), wind a couple of thousands of turns to 7.4k, solder the end of the wire to the next fixing point. This is just like any normal SC. THEN he continues to wind a few more thousands of turns and solder the new end to a third fixing point. So if we call them point 1,2 and 3 the pickup gives full power when connecting point 3 to ground and point 1 to “hot” (ie vol pot or switch). This configuration gives you more of the sound of a P90. Then if you add a switch that connect point 2 to ground you will get a slightly thinner, more vintage Tele-like sound. This is called coil tapping. Remember that this is just to get you an idea of in what territory the sound is heading. You cannot get “true” P90 or Tele sound from this type of pickup. So these are not HBs that can be split or connected in parallel. They are about as noisy as any SC would be in that particular guitar. To do the coil tapping I would have to modify the way I build these puppies, but it might be a nice learning experience. I am willing to give it a try. Yes, but I think I have seen a tutorial in the main pages, or elsewere. Try to Google it Don’t know if this is the appropriate place for a real business discussion. If you would like to do business, I suggest that you send me a PM. If a moderator thinks that we are out of line here pls let me know.

Too much commuting

If the question is if that pickup on E-bay is mine, the answer is no. If you would like me to make you one I would be very happy to do that. Mind you, that price you got on that E-bay pickup is a god one. I would have to charge you 60€ ex shipping. The main difference is that I custom wound every single pickup to your specs. You can even get the top bobbin flange in your favourite pick guard material (that’s an extra). On the other hand I don’t do the coil cutting option. The first one gives you true individual intonation. The second one is an approximation (ok, like all intonation). The second one will NOT work if you use a wound G-string.

Built 2, wound a couple of Tele pickups, repaired a couple of Teles, had a dozen or so in my workshop for miscellaneous set up jobs, so I think that I can stay in this thread

A router bit with a long shank the same diameter as the cutting diameter will work. Run the smooth part of the shank against the template. Don’t use high pressure against the template and keep the bit moving all the time. Otherwise you will burn and destroy the template. Or use something like this: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Routing_...outer_Bits.html With only a saw it will be almost impossible to make a template. But it will also be impossible to do a good neck pocket freehand, so you will have to try to borrow some of the tools Ben suggests If your friend has three routers he will most likely have the necessary tools to make templates. Ask him.

Correction: The voltage that is generated by a pickup follows this formula: ems=N *dΦ*1/dt ems = the induced voltage N = how many turns of coil wire dΦ = change in field strange of the magnetic field 1/dt = the frequency of the change in the magnetic field I might be using wrong letters or names for the physical quantities. This comes from my old collage book for electromagnetic physics, and it’s not in English Ems is the output of the pickup. dΦ is caused by the string vibrating in the magnetic field and thus causing a fluctuation in it. So this gives us that the factors that affect the output of a pickup is the number of turns and the strength of the magnetic field. So if all other variables are constant and you increase the magnetic field with stronger magnets you will actually get a hotter pickup (higher voltage generated). Ceramics are used purely because they are cheep. Everybody says that ALNICO (ALuminum NIckel Cobalt) is THE musical magnet and ceramics sound hard, and edgy. That is not true. ALNICO5 is a medium strong magnet and help to generate the traditional output in a humbucker. Replace them with ceramics and you will get stronger output and more highs (frequency depending voltage generating). But the same thing is true if you use the stronger ALNICO8 magnet. It is actually stronger than ceramics and generates a tone very similar to ceramics. But ALNICO8 is much more expensive so the manufacturers use ceramics instead. The stronger magnets in high output pickups are used for two reasons: 1 Rise the output and 2 compensate for the loss of high frequencies in over wound pickups A common misunderstanding is that more windings change the spectral response of a pickup. Not so. The loss of high frequencies on hotter pickups are caused by using thinner wire to get more turns of wire on standard pickup bobbins. High frequencies travel along the outside of the wire and with thinner wire there are less outer area to travel along compared to the total cross section of the wire.

You cut the template with a jig saw or anything you have at hand. That’s the fine thing with templates. If it is uneven it’s the template that is uneven, not the guitar. And if so you can clean up the template with files or sandpaper or whatever. The neck pocket shouldn’t be mortised. The neck has the same dimensions as the fretboard and the neck pocket should mach the neck as closely as possible. That job is almost impossible without a template. Make the neck, make the template, test the template on scrap, check if the neck fit nicely in the pocket and then you (or your friend) is ready to work on expensive wood. It doesn’t hurt to be a little bit polite when asking

I second that. Two basses with EMG P/J combination and both have killer sound. A tip is to put in two batteries to boost the voltage up to 18V. Great difference in dynamic response and sound. For a guitar I have a personal favourite. P-90!!! The punchiest and fattest single coil ever made. The drawback is that some people think that they sound a little “compressed”. But what are you looking for sound wise. If you explain your ideal guitar sound, or your guitar hero or something like that it would be easier to help. If you are on a budget I would recommend wounding your own pickups. It can be done with a simple hand help power drill. Heck, there’s even a thread somewhere on PG that shows a LEGO pickup winder that apparently works fine. Material for a single coil will cost you 11 bucks, HB kits will cost you 22 and the parts (no kit available) for a P-90 will be like 27. You will have to add 25 for wire but that will add up to 58 bucks for a complete Strat set, 69 for two HBs and 71 (I know how to count. Some of the material are enough for two pickups) for a couple of P-90s. As cheap as they come.

Maple tops is done in one of two different ways. If the top is flat it is mostly a thin veneer on top of the body wood. If so you don’t have to worry about the impact on the sound. Sometimes these tops are thicker, up to ¼” and then it will affect the tone some. Some, not much. On the other hand you have the typical Les Paul carved maple top that can be up to ¾” thick or even thicker on some guitars. These were added by Mr Les Paul to increase the treble response when he constructed the solid guitar that bears his name. So a thick maple top will contribute to the sound. Having said that I would suspect that you can just drop the maple top (pun intended, drop top, geddit…sorry) and go for a solid alder body Regarding getting the same feel from a 7-string version of your bellowed 6-stringer: Forget it. I have to be that frank to you. You will have to make a lot of compromises on this. First you have to decide if you would like to rather keep the neck/fretboard width from your Rhoads and squeeze in one more string, or keep the string to string distance and make the neck/fretboard wider. None of these necks will have the same feel. When you have thought that over it is time to think about measurements. Good luck

All the time. It’s my preferred way of doing it. In Sweden the winters are very dry (and cold) so the fretboard wood shrinks some during winter and expands during summer. By undercutting the fret wire a tiny bit there are less risk for sharp fret ends. If the fretboard shrinks a tiny bit it is very easy to file the end flush if the tang isn’t protruding.

Sorry Rob, but I have to disagree. IMHO a Tele with HBs, P-90 or whatever sound quite far from a real Tele As mentioned before I make these T-90 pickups. I have a set mounted in a swamp ash bodied, maple necked Tele with a stamped steel, string-through-body bridge and 25.5” scale. It’s got all of the factors that you have mentioned except for the pickups. And it still doesn’t sound like a Tele. Pretty close but still no cigar. I’m sorry to say this, but head angle, skunk stripe, one-piece neck compared to a glued on maple fret board and stuff like that is part of the “holy grail of tone” mumbo jumbo that always has surrounded guitar building. These factors affect maybe a few percentage of the sound. Together! Maple neck yes. Body wood yes. But come on. Skunk stripe or not… It still is the combination of the Tele pickup with a short squat coil, magnetic rods and steel shielding plate in a steel bridge that makes up most of the Tele sound.

Why does Tele pickups sound like Tele pickups, and why cant P90 in a Tele bridge sound like a Tele? The original Tele pickup has a coil wound around six magnetic rods. Under the rods there were (on most “vintage” reissues still are) a copper plated shielding steel plate. This was originally meant to shield of hum (EMC disturbances) together with the steel cover that most players used as an ashtray. This steel plate actually directs the magnetic field up towards the strings. A P90 have steel screws for poles and two bar magnets under the coil. This will form an even more complex magnetic field around the strings, and this again affects the sound. The same thing goes for the steel stamped bridge. The narrow hole in the plate for the pickup filters out (shield) some of the magnetic field. The form of the magnetic field is one of the most crucial parts of how a pickup will sound. This is why a brass bridge plate will take away a lot of the Tele sound. Then add the fact that a P90 is mostly wound to around 10 Kohms compared to around 7 for a Tele and you have most of the secret of the Tele pickup. Ok, but why doesn’t a Tele pickup without a steel shielding plate sound like a Strat? The Strat pickup is tall and narrow and therefore “senses” a shorter part of the string. Compare that to a Tele and you will see that the Tele is short and squat. This makes this pickup sense a slightly longer part of the string and icing up more overtones along the string. A P90 are even broader and a HB… you get the picture. So if you want the reasons why a Tele pickup are the only pickup that will sound like a Tele the factors are (most important first): -Magnetic rod pole pieces -Steel shielding plate under the magnetic poles -Wider, shorter coil -Steel bridge plate An interesting example in how the different factors influence the sound: I make a T-90 pickup which means that it has the size of a Tele coil, steel screws for poles, two bar magnets under the coil and the same amount of windings as a P-90 Places in a steel Tele bridge is sound almost like a Tele but with a little more beef. Pass the salt please

Pickups, not kidding. Most important of all. Second scale length. Then material and construction (bolt on, string through body etc)

Post it anyway. Much easier to discuss a design if we know what you are thinking of.

OAK? Seriously, oak looks very good through a transparant finish. A figured maple top is also always very nice. If you want a more acoustic sound you can try a spruce top and some serious routings.

I only have experience from making oak necks. One for a mahogany Strat, one for a mahogany bolt-on SG found in the trash with a broken headstock and a couple of laminated maple/oak necks. Guitarguy is right on the spot about oak. Plus it dulls cutting tools very quick. My personal opinion on the sound in necks is that it is a little less bright than maple but gives a little more pronounced high mid compared to mahogany. I once had a hand built oak Tele in my shop with a one-piece maple neck. The weight was comparable to an ash bodied Tele. The sound was OK, Not one of the best Teles I have had in my hands, but definitely not one of the worst. With all of this in mind I’d say that oak is better for bodies than for solid necks. As laminates between maple it is very good to soften the sound a little and add some high mid that makes the tone cut through a little more and make is a little more “focused”. But again it is all about subjective opinions.

OMG! I had a look at talkbass. That guy gets slammed even worse there! I (and a lot of people at talkbass) think that he is selling mostly over E-bay. The main opinion over at talkbass is that he is also scamming people by making fake bids himself.

My first was a Tele. I tried to drill the connection holes from the pickup route to the control cavity and used a loooong drill bit. But I drilled some, checked to se if the drill had reached the control cavity (nope not yet), drilled a tiny bit more (no, still no visible drill bit in the cavity) drilled some more and I hade drilled through the back of the guitar!!!! (I wasn't laughing at the time) I had used the wrong angle and rushed things. Big lesson learned. Nowadays I drill those connection holes through the output jack hole and mark the drill for how long I expect the hole to be. Then I know if I have drilled longer than I need and can abort.

+1 Crappy finish (Walnut peanut), dull looking control plate (the standard), no individual string intonation or string height adjustment (all of them), non-even outer lines (X-treme Scroll model), cheap Armstrong pickups, No top string through ferules, offset strings/neck laminates (walnut peanut, Hyper 7 and hyper 5) and lack of trussrod as Doeringer pointed out, and the list goes on. I don’t think this is a pro, or even semi pro builder. This is one happy amateur (which if perfectly OK) that has built exactly 12 basses (not models, basses, every one unique) and would like to build for his/her first customer. He/she will definitely have to learn how to sand and buff a finish before I would consider placing an order there I think that this builder WISH hat he had some customers

Both methods have their virtues. If you fret first the frets themselves will protect the fretboard against dings if you are sloppy while carving (I have bad luck, I’m not sloppy). If you keep the fretboard flat (don’t even radius it) it is much easier to clamp the neck while carving it. I have tried both. My current sequence is this: - taper the fretboard - cut the fret slots - install bindings - glue the fretboard to the neck blank - use a router to trim of as much of the neck blank as possible and use the fretboard as a guide - while the neck is now tapered but uniformly thick I install the frets using the press cauls in my pillar drill - rough out the thickness of the neck on the band saw - carve a and sand the neck to final dimensions I never dress the frets until the guitar is completed. I dress them in a home made neck jig. Fretting before or after FINISH? After: It is much easier to get the fretboard good masked off, but it is possible to chip the finish when you fret. This is caused by the pressure against the finish caused by the fret Before: As above but the other way around