j. pierce

Yeah - I thought I was just getting sick the first time, and then it hit me again as I was working with the cocobolo boards again - contact doesn't seem to bug me to much, but if I rub my face or get dust in my nose or throat, I get yucky flu/cold symptoms. Remembering not to touch my face, (wearing gloves so if I need to, I take the gloves off) and wearing a mask and vaccuuming my clothes after working with it took care of things. Somehow my mask got dust *inside* of it (I've been using the disposable kind) and it certainly didn't help. After I realized the cocobolo was the problem, I took precautions, and have pretty much decided to just not work with the stuff. I might give it another try at a later date with better protection and maybe a dust setup, but right now it's just not worth it. Working it with a plane instead of a router when tapering helped, shavings are a lot harder to breath than dust.

http://homepage.mac.com/sfjoshua/PhotoAlbum3.html I finished these at the end of October last year, and just now got around to taking pictures - (I don't have a camera) but I should have cleaned them up before the photos. They sound great, especially the chambered black mahogany/wenge one. I've since thrown a '59 style humbucker in the bigsby'd guitar. I'm really happy to have a guitar with a neck wide enough for me. (the walnut topped trem'd guitar has an almost classical-width fret board, great for my abnormally long fingers) There's a lot of finish-type problems with these, and at some point I'd like to strip and refinish them, but they look good from far away, so I'm letting it slide for now, as I work on a couple more projects, I'd rather move forward and learn more techniques right now, and these really aren't getting seen too much outside of a few local shows, and the non-builders out there seem to be impressed enough. Finish problems are mostly from me not sanding the System 9 epoxy grainfill enough prior to spraying the KTM-9 - the finish is mostly dead smooth ( a few bits of that wide open wenge grain showing through, but mostly under the guard) but looks a little "ripply" because the epoxy grain fill underneath isn't smooth enough. I also had some problems with my stain (I forgot to mix in a binder) lifting under the KTM-9 and blending around - I managed to scrape most of it off the binding, but it looks like I missed a bit. There's a also a few binding imperfections. Also, for passive bass-p'up fans, if you can still find the discontinued de'armond turbo jet pickups (I got them through an ebay auction from Angela's electronics for like, 15 bucks each) they sound amazing for rock and roll, and can get a great jazzy reggae tone too. (Although I like to think part of that is the mahogany set-neck and the tenon that goes all the way to the bridge) The GFS Nashville (not the "hot nashville") p'up in the chambered guitar sounds great too. Love the GFS humbucker sized P90 in the neck, (the bigsby guitar) but in the bridge, it kind of sucked, I've since replaced it with an unknown no-name 59 style humbucker and really like the sound much better. Good mix. The cocobolo fret boards on the matching set are great, I wish the stuff didn't make me ill. Maybe a better dust mask would help.

By the way, I found that Rancid songs video mentioned in an earlier post on YouTube, and I didn't see nor hear any Bigsby action … I'm tempted to post a YouTube video of my band, but uh, yeah. Ugh. It's embarrassing. But it does have at least two incidents of confirmed bigsby action. Maybe I'll record some soundclips. But I'll try and get my hands on a camera (my drummers got one, and he owes me) and take some photos this week - any in particular parts you're looking for photos of? I'll try and do a full takeapart. But yeah, it's dependent on me getting a camera and having an extra set of strings in my house. Is there a deadline for this? Wongster - As far as cheap bigsbys, I got a b50 or something like that (the "licensed" version, which is perfectly fine as far as I can tell) for like 60 bucks on ebay - they're up there rather frequently, just keep an eye out, you'll get a better deal if you don't buy from an ebay store or the "buy it now" option, but hold out an get a good price at auction. Often times theres enough up there that you can find one no one bids on and snag it low. Watch out on shipping though - there's no reason a trem in a small box should cost you 20 bucks shipping. Also ask around - I know a guy who builds tele-style guitars and runs a repair business, and has an Allparts wholesale account and get a significant discount on things like that; if you know anyone like that, it might be worth owing a favor.

Do the routing in a couple of passes, lowering the bit a little each time for extra insurance, and you should be fine. As far as showing a line, depends on the finish - I've heard of some waterbase glues showing glue-lines under waterbase finishes, but if you get a proper glue line you should be fine. If you do your grain-fill with something like System 9 epoxy, than I can't imagine you'd have a problem, but honestly, from what I know about finishing (granted, I've only done a handful of guitars, but I have done a deal of woodworking finishing) you shouldn't have a problem if you do a proper join. A helpful method I did on my last build so I wouldn't cut the control cavity too close to the bevel (not a chambering, but same problem) was to bevel the back the same as the front, and that gave me something to look at and gauge by as I cut the bevel. (I would have bevelled the front, but I made the oversized cavity before I glued the front on, then cut out the opening to the cover)

On my tune-o-matic, (a Schaller roller style) I measured the string break point of the highest saddle (one of the two middle ones) in regards to the top of the guitar - this ended up being the height of the bridge when laying on a flat surface (the thumbscrews were recessed into the bridge) plus the height of the flange of the bushings. (since I didn't recess those into the body) If your TOM is like the the standard styles I've seen, the thumbscrews should end up being recessed so the bottom of them is the same as the lowest point of the arched body of the bridge, but the flange of the bushings does add a miniscule amount to the height.

Checking with my tuner, with my bigsby guitar, I can drop the low E down to about halfway between C# and D. I can drop the high e down to around D-D#. I can raise the low E to about F#, and the high e to about F. I can get a little more drop if I put the spacer under the spring in when I'm stringing the guitar, but I don't like where the arm sits then. Looking closer at my bigsby, it also appears that it does have bearings, at least on the rear bar. The pressure bar I can't tell if it has bearings, but it seems it does. Although that bar does seem to have a teflon washer or something. Wish I had seen this an hour ago, I just had the strings off this guitar and the guts out (changing p'ups) - I would have popped off the retainers and found out more about what's going on in there. As it stands, I have a show in an hour, and I hate stringing this stupid thing . . . but next time I have the strings off, I'll can take a look (maybe take pictures too, if I can find a camera) if that helps.

As far as perfboarding pedals, are you thinking of Runoffgroove.com, or their sister site, Home-wrecker.com? R.O.G. has a lot of handy one-day projects with perfboard layouts. There's also generalguitargadgets.com , tonepad.com , and geofex.com , the other sites in my "pedal building" bookmarks folder. Pedal building is a bad hobby - I got into it before I got into guitar building, and whenever I'm itching to build guitars and it's raining (a lot here in the US northeast this year!) I've been building more pedals, and my effects board is getting ridiculous! Especially since I pretty much only use a volume pedal and a tuner when I play live. Maybe a boost and an echo. Have you built the Ruby amp? I've been thinking of throwing one together, was wondering how you liked the sound.

Being a hardtail bridge, if the guitar you're swapping into was originally a hartail bridge as well, it shouldn't be too difficult. If that hipshot bridge is anything like the other hipshot bridges of that style I've seen, it's set up for string-through stringing. (Tele-style, ferrules on the back of the guitar deal) If the guitar is not currently set up for this, you'll have to make those holes. If it is set up for this, chances are it the holes for the string through may not line up perfectly with what the hipshot bridge is expecting. You could probably carefully widen or alter the holes at the top of the guitar so that the strings can make it to the bridge, yet the holes are still covered by the plate. I have no idea what the screw pattern is like for a seven-string bridge, so you may need to re-fill and drill screw holes, but I'd imagine you can probably hide those under the new bridge, unless the old one had some monster-sized plate. Getting the bridge in the right space is just like any other bridge, use the Stew Mac calculator. But without seeing the guitar or the bridge, I couldn't say more. I would contact hipshot, they should be able to get you some of the specs on that bridge. They used to have a page with some of the measurements for their bridges (at least the bass bridges, I remember) I followed the link to it off of the FAQ page like I did last time, and it seems the measurement page is down.

I think some playing with you hand shaping tool of choice (files, scrapers, rasps, surforms, spokeshaves, sandpaper, dremel tool, whatever) and you can blend that "mistake" back in. Just change the curve or the roundover some until the obvious damage is gone. It will change the look slightly from what you may have planned, and you may have a hard time getting that continuous, even roundover like a router leaves (although on a bass like this, I think something a little more organic and flowing may be a better look.) Where exactly on the bass is that? Could the big dip from the router (I'm not sure if the bit of "shelf" preceding the dip is intentional or not) be worked into a forearm countour or tummy cut? Other options would be to play around with a contour guage or something, and see if using another follower bit could cover up the obvious damage? Perhaps using a bevelled bit instead of a roundover, or using a cove bit or something. Again, this changes the look. Another option, depending on how deep that mistake is, would be take in that rear bout by maybe a half-inch or something, then go over it again with the roundover, that would move the new roundover in enough it would take out the mistake. Again, changes the look, and how much depends on how much you have to take off to get the new pass with the roundover to take off the old mistakes.

Hey Joe - thanks! Makes sense now. I've done my share of electronics work and have little problem understanding schematics, but making the leap to figuring things out on my own always seems to elude me. Much appreciated.

I've been thinking of experimenting with series/parallel combinations, both in the humbucker in my guitar, and the two single-coil p'ups in my bass. Browsing through Myka's site the other day, I've found a couple of references to what I belive are Sires/Parallel blend controls? I'm curious how you would go about wiring up something like that. (mostly be cause I always seem to prefer knobs to switches whenever possible) Is this only possible with active pickups? I'm just not getting my head wrapped around how you'd do this. Seems like it would be either series or parallel, not both.

Yeah, I we still had one of those great mom and pop style hardware stores in my town, the one with almost anything imaginable . . . it just recently got bought out by the ACE Hardware chain. The quality of the place is slowly diminishing. The old-timers that still work there were complaining about it. I think it may be time for me to move out of town to the more rural areas around there, both for the more easy access to a workshop space, and the fact they still have nice hardware stores. (I also wish radio shack was still the wierd electronics parts haven it used to be - having to mail order everything for amp/pedal building is also a bummer.)

I was going to link to that Geofex article myself. Seems like you could almost open up a pot, scrape of the resistive film and apply some sort of conductive material to short out the last bit of rotation? Also, would a reverse-log taper work? ("C" or "G" taper pots) I know they're hard to find these days, but Small Bear carries them for the pedal-building crowd. It would give you most of your sweep in value in the first portion of the turn.

Seeing Myka's thread on a new archtop type guitar he's working on has me inspired me (as pretty much everything the fellow does inspires one) and reminded me how much I'd really like to own, if not make, an archtop-type guitar some day. I really think it's way out of my league right now - but maybe someday I'll try one. I chambered a guitar that I built quite heavily, and while it was not a huge difference from a similar-constructed non-chambered guitar, it was a difference I really liked. Anyway, can anyone recommend any books, websites, or good info to read up on the meantime? I've been working on carving tops, and bending wooden binding, both of which at least seem like they'd be slightly applicable to the learning curve in this task, and I certainly want to get more builds under my belt before I jump into something like this. But I know there's got to be lots of things to learn that I won't learn without a book or something, things I should know before I even think about sitting down and trying my hand at something like this. Edit: I guess I'm looking at getting Benedetto's book over at Stew Mac right now. Anything else I should be looking at? I see there are videos - I've never ordered a video for guitarpentry before - and now I wonder why not, it seems like it could be a good way to learn these things - can anyone comment on the videos? Since this project is far-off and more of a long-term goal than anything, I'd imagine I'd put the purchase of the videos off for now, but any comments as such are welcomed.

I've been getting my bits from Routerbits.com lately - I really like the whiteside bits they sell, and they have all the bearing template bits you could need. (They seem to be one of the few places with shorter-depth template bits [right down to an 1/8th" depth cut] which is nice too.) Of course, if you're outside the U.S., it's a bummer option, shipping is a pain. Here in the states, though, I've seen decent bearing template bits at Sears, Lowes, Ace, True Value and Home Depot, as well.

What kind of bridge are you using? What about sending the strings through a tune-o-matic style stopbar before they hit the bridge? that would line them up well.

After playing a guitar with a zero fret now for about 6 months (how long ago did I actuall *finish* building that?) I'm still at a toss up. It does make the job of nut slotting a little bit easier. But after you've done a couple, that doesn't seem to be too hard a job. But tone-wise, I'm not sure. It's not really *that* different. I mean, an open note still sounds slightly different than a fretted note, the same way that an open "a" string sounds different than a fifth-fretted "a" on the low e string. It does sort of even out the tone a bit, but it's a subtle difference that I think would be noticed more on an acoustic than maybe anything else. It just seems that the major difference between open and fretted notes was the amount of string vibrating more than what it was vibrating against. Or something. Maybe it's the fact that an open note doesn't have your meaty paws clamping down on the strings behind it. I don't have golden ears or anything, and this guitar hasn't been changed from one to the other, so I can't really compare, but there's nothing jumping out and going "wow, listen to that zero fret". Open chords are still louder than full bar chords, certain notes are tonally different than others, and if it really gets to you, you grab a compressor and fiddle with the EQ on your rig. The guitar certainly doesn't sound more "metallic" or anything. I'd like to think that when I drop an open string pedal/drone note into a lead riff, that it sounds slightly more even, but I think that's simply practice on my part, I've simply learned to alter my picking dynamic better.

What about doing a prs-style mask-before-stain "binding"? That might make things easier, although you've then got to bend your top, or paint the back to make the binding appear a consistent height across the body. I have the stew-mac dremel tool binding router attachment thing, and while I don't usually use it, this seems like an option where it could shine. If your forearm cut was a flat enough plane, I'd imagine you could just route the binding edge for most of the body in the normal way, and then do the route around forearm curve, using something like an offset router base to help keep the router perpendicular to the plane of the forearm cut. If all else fails, well scribed lines and a chisel? (I did one of my first attempts at binding with a chisel, and let me tell you, while it "worked", it's nothing I'd want to ever do again.) I think obviously the best solution is to invest in a fancy CNC machine. (edit: just found this in a google image search, looks like they bent the top on and then did the masked "faux binding" approach…)

I make that line with a marking knife or a scribe point. Gives the chisel something to "bite" into so you cut right on the line with your last cut. I'm not being a proponent of sloppy work, but the pickguard thing brings up a good point - I've never seen that type of tele bridge p'up w/o the metal bridge plate - and I'm not sure I'd want to. Also, looking at how obtuse those angles are, I'm not convinced that a standard bearing-guided router bit couldn't fit in there.

All the tele p'up routes I've seen have fairly rounded corners - I think you'd be fine as long as you didn't use an too large a diameter bit. Hog out the majority of the wood with a forstner bit and then clean up the route with the smaller router bit and you'd be fine. "Scary sharp" refers to a sharpening method, using fine-grade sandpapers to hone your chisels/planes. Works really well, especially if you aren't comfortable keeping a stone up to snuff. Chiselings really not that hard. I did the majority of my chiseling work for years with a low priced chisel from Sears that didn't really see any honing outside of being polished up on the diamond file on my leatherman. That said, a nicely honed and sharpened chisel works much better, and isn't that hard to work with. Safer too, a sharp blade requires less force and is less likely to slip as such. With a properly sharpened chisel, you probably won't even need a mallet. (Always use a mallet, or at least a soft-faced hammer [a plastic fretting hammer works well for me], not a heavy nail-driving hammer. And don't hammer on a paring chisel) With a nice chisel, it's really a slight cutting action - it's like using a knife to carve wood, you've just moved the cutting edge in relation to the handle. And as always, if you aren't comfortable, practice on scrap. I dunno, I love chisels, I'm a huge proponent of chisels and handplanes in general.

Corner chisels seem like a really good idea until you realize how much of a pain they are to sharpen. Chisel work, like most hand-tool work is lots of fun if your tools are of decent quality, and sharpened well. I use a lot of handtools because I live in a small apt. building - I have power tools, but it means hauling things down to my car and driving to my folks house and setting up there. So for a lot of things, I just do them at home with hand tools. It's fun and cathartic. I've gotten quite apt. with my various hand tools, and while I expect to spend more time when working with these tools, I've often found that many tasks I can do quicker by hand, because there's less time setting up jigs and what have you. But I ramble - is there a particular reason you want sharp cornered cavities? Most of the p'ups I've used have fit in the round-cornered ones. (Although for a neck, I agree with the sentiment below; it's easier to make a sharp-cornered pocket out of a round one than round a sharp-cornered neck just right)

I'm wondering how folks go about thinning an angled headstock with a volute. Thining an angled headstock is easy enough - (or, I suppose you could start with a thinner piece of wood prior to doing your scarf joint) but thinning the neck-blank wood to an appropriate thickness for a headstock and working around the volute, while keeping the plane of the back of the headstock parrallel with the top seems difficult to me. Although, perhaps I'm just making my volutes wrong.

In searching for different pictures of white guitars, (I'm thinking of making the guitar I'm working on now white with a white guard, and debating if I want to go with "aged" looking plastic, or creamish paint, or the slightly mis-matched guard and pickups look of older guitars) I ran across a bunch of pictures of old Duosonics and Musicmasters. Here's a couple of Musicmasters, for the idea: one two and at the top of this page is a trio of them. (I particularly like the "desert sand" colour - it looks like the "soymilk" shade my friend and I were debating the other day) But I'm really falling in love with the smooth, undisturbed look of these guitars. Binding is fun and all, but these just look so nice. Half of it is the closed-cover pickups, which I think I can find (or possibly make) covers like that - I really have to figure out my p'up choices before I go much further on this, but I think a big part of it is the flat single ply pickguard. So I'm trying to figure though - if I go with a white pickguard, that's easy enough to do. So is black, heck, I could probably even do the painted black aluminum like some of the early musicmasters on that page - but does anyone know where you can find brown pickguard-suitable plastic like the second link above? Or if I wanted to do the anodized aluminum style like in the picture of the three desert-sand finished ones - how the heck to you go about that? Do you buy anodized aluminum and fabricate from that? Or is it possible to anodize the aluminum yourself? Sorry this is so rambling. Any insight into this would be much appreciated.

Make it a Mary Kaye V. I've been thinking about making white guitars all week, I'm excited to see someone with *talent* will do one.

Did you make the cut with the jigsaw with the wood clamped up like in this photo? Just clamp where you're making the cut in the wood closer to the bench, or clamp it so the cut is running alongside the bench rathere than towards it, or clamp against some scrap and cut through that as well. You might have the move the clamp to finish cutting, but that much wood being unsupported is why it was chattering. I *have* had wood snap off trying to make an unsupported cut like that with a jigsaw. It's a bummer. But man, this thing is looking very nice!