fookgub

I've always used nitro, too, but I'm sick of the long curing time, and it doesn't dry as hard as I would like. I'm hoping the Sherwin Williams stuff will cut my finishing time down significantly, and lend a little more durability to my finishes. Sherwin Williams stuff: Discussion in Inlays & Finishing: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...=27755&st=0 Westheman's Exploder: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=28048 Product link: http://www.sherwinwilliams.com/OEM/wood/products/haps/ Spec Sheet: http://www.sherlink.com/sher-link/ImgServ?...onvar_f24_e.pdf I'm still wondering how I should do the color coats. I recall Wes had some problems with the finish curing after he added dye. I'm thinking I might do the color coats with shellac, then use the SW stuff for clear only. hmm....

Thanks for the comments! It certainly does need some clean-up, but I'm very happy with how it's coming out. The next trick is going to be getting the translucent red like in the photoshop. I've never done a translucent finish before and I'm still researching how I want to do it. Also, I'm going to switch paint systems. In the past I've used nitro, but I want to try that Sherwin-Williams stuff that Wes used for his Exploder. As for the neck, the changes aren't as drastic as they sound. I'm planning on about 3 evenings for the woodworking stuff. The re-carving is going to be minimal... mostly just taking a little off the outsides to make a soft V. Part of the reason for swapping the fretboard is to see how much room I have around the truss rod (and I think the guitar will look killer with a flamed maple board). You're right that it wouldn't be much more work to make a new neck, but I need to start using up some of the parts I have. I have two necks and three bodies taking up space right now, and no plans to use them in the near future. Ben, I remember you doing some work in my photoshop thread. Glad you like how it's turning out!

Ok, this is my second "new" project for today. It's a superstrat-type guitar (mostly a copy of a yamaha pacifica) with Line 6 Variax electronics. I've got a ton of pictures here, so let's just get to it. First, a couple templates. I decided on the square heel, against popular opinion. What can I say? I just liked the look better. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/aanj1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/aanj2.jpg And a preview of the finish I'm going after. I've never done a burst before, or a dyed or translucent finish. It will be a learning experience. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/Clipboard10.jpg The body wood. Soft maple from Fine Lumber in Austin. Great stuff... they have tons of it, and it's cheap. Looks good, and machines well, too. I got a local guy to run the boards through his jointer for me. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-wood.jpg My router thicknessing jig in action. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-thicknessing.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-thicknessing2.jpg Cutting out the shape on the bandsaw, followed by drum sanding, and routing. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-drawing.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-bandsawed.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-shaped.jpg Doing the roundover. I used 1/4". http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-roundover.jpg Control cavity for the variax electronics. The circuit board mounts to standoffs that will go in the holes in the third picture. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-controlcavity1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-controlcavity2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-controlcavity3.jpg Scalloping the neck joint. This part still needs some work. I've had trouble getting the carve to flow smoothly. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-neckjoint1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-neckjoint2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-neckjoint3.jpg Here's what the Variax bridge looked like. I removed that flex circuit later. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-bridge.jpg String retainer. Made from 1/2" by 1/8" spring steel. I'm never going back to ferrules. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-retainer.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-retainer2.jpg Fitting the pickguard. I didn't take any pictures of making the pickguard. It went really fast, though, and I'm very happy with how it came out. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-pickguardfit.jpg Belly and forearm carves. Roughed them out with an angle grinder, then cleaned up with a rasp and sandpaper. I really like this method of carving. I did both in under two hours. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-carves1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-carves2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-carves3.jpg Controls installed in the pickguard. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-controllayout.jpg Shielding the pickguard. I'm trying to get away from copper tape because I think it's a pain. Aluminum foil was much easier. I'm going to try conductive paint when it comes time to shield the body. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-pgshielding1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-pgshielding2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-pgshielding3.jpg Installing the jack. This one had me stumped for a while. I really didn't want to rout that hole in the back, but I could figure no other way to do it with my tools. The jack for the Variax is about 3" deep. It came out fine in the end, I suppose. I used a rasp to get the cutout right. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-jack1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-jack2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-jack3.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-jack4.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-jack5.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-jack6.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-jack7.jpg Installing the electronics. Notice I removed and moved the flex circuit. I also had to lengthen almost all of the wires in the wiring harness. The circuit came out of a lefty guitar, and both the tone and volume pots worked backwards. I fixed that by flipping the modular connectors on both pots end-for-end. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-eleinstall1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-eleinstall2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-eleinstall3.jpg And here it is in it's current state. Much to my relief, the electronics work fine, and it sounds pretty good. I'm going to buy the Workbench software pretty soon so I can mess around with the models and tunings. I like it so far, though. The strats sound like strats, teles like teles, and so on. Some of the models sound a little generic, but I'm hoping I can tweak them more to my liking once I get this thing hooked up to my computer. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-testfit1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-testfit2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-testfit3.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-testfit4.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-testfit5.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-testfit6.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/vax-testfit7.jpg

Here is the first of two new projects I'll be posting today. Both are in the test-fit stage. All of the shaping and rough woodworking is done, and the guitar is strung up and playable. All that's left to do is sanding and finishing. There are a lot of pictures, so let's just go down the list. First, a photoshop preview of the finished guitar. A PG member was nice enough to 'shop this up for me. The shape is from the "Tonemaster" guitar plan offered by Guitar Plans Unlimited. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-preview.jpg The body wood. This is the last body blank I'll buy from eBay. I bought it because it was already glued, and don't have a tablesaw or a jointer. I figured that would save me some time, but the glue joint was awful. It looked like the guy just glued it up straight off a poorly set-up contractor's saw. I ended up cutting it down the glue joint on my neighbor's table saw, then finding a local guy off Craigslist to run it through his jointer. End result was good, but if I knew I was going to do all that work from the beginning, I could have just gone to the local lumber yard and saved some money. Also, the boards arrived cupped. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-wood.jpg Gluing the two-piece body blank. It's alder, by the way. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-glueup.jpg The wood was 1.75" thick, but I needed 1.5" (did I mention this is a semi-hollow with a maple top?). So I built a router thicknessing jig. My router isn't variable speed, so I stick to shallow passes and small bits. It takes a while, but the end result is a uniformly thick board with nice flat surfaces. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-thicknessing.jpg Drawing out the shape. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-drawing.jpg Skipped a couple steps here. I bandsawed out the shape, brought it close to the line with my pattern sander (basically a shop-made robo-sander), then routed it flush. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-shaped.jpg The next four pictures deal with hollowing out the inside and routing the wiring channels. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-inside1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-inside2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-inside3.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-inside4.jpg Bought a mildly figured maple top from Larry at Gallery Hardwoods. It came as two piece needing to be joined. After a few failed router attempts, and much swearing, I decided to build a jointer. I can't remember who suggested this design, but I read about it on the forum. Southpa, maybe? http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-joining1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-joining2.jpg The jointer worked great! Now I'm gluing the top. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-topglueup1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-topglueup2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-topglued.jpg Paint the inside black. My current design doesn't call for an f-hole, but who knows? I might add one later. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-paintinside.jpg Attaching the top. Getting even pressure was hard. Next time I'm going to make a full-size clamping caul. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-attachtop1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-attachtop2.jpg Top bandsawed. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-topbandsawed.jpg Skipped a few steps here. I brought the top flush with the body. No router this time... I was afraid of tearout. Routed the neck pocket and pickup cavities, and did the roundover. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-toprouted.jpg Marking the holes for the pickup screws. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-pickupinstall.jpg The pickups are installed with machine screws that go into metal standoffs. I think I used 2-56. This picture shows the standoffs epoxied into place. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-pickupstandoffs.jpg Skipped a few more steps. I drilled the neck mounting holes, installed the neck and all the hardware, then strung it up. http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-testfit1.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-testfit2.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-testfit3.jpg http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~wrobert/tm-testfit4.jpg I've actually been playing this thing for almost two weeks. I've been waiting for my other project to get the the test-fit stage so I can do a side-by-side comparison. That way I can still make changes if I want to, and it's much easier than it would be after the guitar is finished. Besides that I haven't really wanted to take it apart yet... I'm having too much fun playing it. If you're curious about the Line 6 neck, it's a left-over from my other project. I need to do some serious work to the neck. I'll probably change the fingerboard out for a figured maple one, definitely have to recarve the back, and refinish the whole thing in gloss with a matching headstock. So that's about it. I'd love to hear what you guys think so far.

Scroll to the bottom of this page. It's very simple, actually. The E-string has two extra frets behind the nut, and is actually tuned to D when it is open (unfretted). The switch frets the string on the second fret (which is the zero fret for the rest of the strings). With the switch engaged, the bass plays just like a normal 4-string in E-G tuning. Opening the switch gives you the low D and D#, but the rest of the notes on the E-string remain in the same place (ie: an A is still on the fifth fret). That's about it, really. I've never tried one, but I hear they're great basses.

I probably will do that next time the switch fails. I'm a little surprised that no one else seems to have had this problem. I wonder if I just got a defective switch?

He didn't even clamp the "wings" ... just two pieces of duct tape! He is the aussie Litch.

I've got no problem with anyone building anything and wanting to show it off. In fact, I think negative comments (bashing) on people's builds are in very poor taste, regardless of how bad the build looks. BUT, if the guy is trying to sell the thing (especially sight unseen over the internet), that's a whole 'nother ball game. FWIW, it looks very questionable to me. Also.... "scandal"

So I just finished cleaning up the switch contacts on my drill press for the third or forth time. I've been doing this every two months for a while now, and it's getting very old. My theory is that the switch arcs when I turn the drill press off, which oxidizes some of the contact area. That, in turn, increases the contact resistance, causing the contacts to heat up and eventually fuse together. When this happens I disassemble the switch, clean the contacts up, drop a bead of solder on them, then reassemble. After that it will work a month or two, then fuse together again. I'm looking into one of these as a possible solution, but I'm wondering if there is a higher quality drop-in replacement for the switch in my drill press. If you have an import drill press, sander, or other benchtop tool of the Harbor Freight/Grizzly variety, then you know what this switch looks like. It's used on many of those tools.

No, it won't be long...

We're closer than you think! I got a GT-8 a couple week ago, and it has a feature called "Auto-Riff." Basically, you play a note, and it will play a riff starting or ending on that note. You can use the stock riffs, or program your own! BTW, there is already a thread about this guitar down in the Players Corner: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=30890

This? EDIT: Watch out for annoying talking flash crap.

I like the Petrucci videos better http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKMYeXkYcgs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MefjovJJr-0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uea8k5sJ5qg

CNC or not, that is one nice looking body shape. I'll be watching this one for sure!

oohh... I think that one's mine!

True, you have to paint the steel. Brass will shine up real nice just by sanding through successively higher grits, then polishing. A little Nevr-Dull every once in a while will keep it looking great forever. Or you can let it tarnish naturally, and it still looks good. Brass is cool like that. One caution about brass, though, is that it will grab drill bits when enlarging holes. That's not a problem with a small plate like this (where you shouldn't need to enlarge holes anyway), but I ran into it when I was working on the big block pictured in my first post. A machinist at work had cautioned me about it, but it's still a very nasty surprise when a bit grabs and all the sudden your piece and your vice are spinning around at 400 rpm on the end of a tiny drill bit. Just FYI... I've mentioned this before, but I think it's worth repeating.

I made them. The brass one is a big, inch-thick block. That took a little more effort and some mill time. The other one is just a plate made from 1/8" x 1/2" spring steel. You can easily buy that stuff at virtually any hardware store. It took about 5 minutes to shape it on my belt sander.

I'm going to push for the recessed bar solution again. It looks clean, and it's easier to install (IMHO) than ferrules.

I wouldn't leave it empty. The ball ends may dig into the wood and dent it. Maybe somthing like this/this or this? Or you could use these (no. 0196).

The Variax can alter tunings, too. You need a computer to program it, though. What I meant to say was the the Variax offers you the ability create your own tuning whereas you're stuck with the factory defaults on the Fender. On the other hand, the Fender is more plug and play, and I doubt most musicians would need tunings besides what the Fender offers. Still, I like options. I'm not saying the Fender is a bad guitar or a bad deal, but in this day and age of sight-unseen internet buying, a product has to look good on paper. Based on the specs alone, the Variax appears to have the VG strat soundly beaten in the modelling dept. I have no doubt some players will love it, but it seems to me that the guitar would have broader appeal with more flexibility in the modelling features. After all, isn't flexibility the main appeal of modelling to begin with?

I'm underwhelmed by the specs. The guitar doesn't have near as many models as the Variax, nor does it seem to have any ability to edit the models and tunings. On the other hand, it's got the option to go passive, and it's packaged into a better guitar than the Line 6. Still, I think Fender missed the mark. It seems like they're trying to market it as the "no hassle" modelling guitar, but the Variax is already a model of simplicity (from a usability standpoint at least). And what's up with the lack of an AC adaptor? Fender can try to spin that as a feature all they want, but it's a big omission if you ask me.

Nah, doesn't help with sustain. It's a manufacturing decision, like you said, and I agree it's easier. In fact, I've decided I won't be using ferrules at all anymore. I just finished up a string retainer for a new guitar I've been working on (literally 5 minutes ago). It's made from 1/8" x 1/2" spring steel. Still needs to be painted, but here's a picture:

Is that one of the 'wood mill' models or a regular metal working mill? Do you have any problems with chips gumming up the ways?

Noted. I didn't check for gaps before gluing up. Next time I will. I'm hoping that I won't weaken the glue joint too much. Is was only a couple small areas that I applied a lot of force to. I didn't have to draw the wood in very far, but it took a lot of pressure to do it. I just got home from work, and the guitar is looking pretty good right now. As long as it doesn't move after I take the clamps off, I'll be a happy camper. On a side note, I really appreciate having a couple of the 'heavyweights' chime in here. Your advice is always well-considered, and the fact that you guys share your knowledge so freely is a real service to everyone on PG.

Ok, disaster averted, I think. I went home on my lunch break to check out the guitar, and the gaps were smaller than I thought. More like a 64th or less. I worked a little glue into each gap with a razor blade, then clamped the crap out of it. I may still need to fill them a little, but it's going to be very slight. Plus, the worst gap is on the bottom of the lower bout... not a very visible location. I feel much better now... That's a very good idea! I'll be keeping that in mind for my next build.