Jehle

EDIT: Yep, I've just checked... In the Admin panel, go to General Admin --> Configuration and it's under "User and Forum Basic Settings" (Max number of poll options)

All hail Pr3Va1L! Dean of admin settings!

Well, I'm starting to think that there's a setting that can bump up the number of poll entries. As "Gruntled" I was able to have 20. Here using the same software, presumably, I can only have 10.

I'm hoping that one of the admin people over at Invision can point us in the right direction.

Interesting... it's different on their site.

See here in my test poll Test poll on 2.1.5

Um, you need the no vote option in all the categories, or if forces the user to pick a winner from one group - not cool!

Eeek, good point. Thanks for catching that one.

In the mean time, I've been poking in on the Invision Forum. So far, there seems to be no mention of the limitations of the 3 questions/10 answers problem.

There also appears to be a security patch released on 3/8/06. Do we have that installed yet?

I like Setch's idea...

If there are more than 10 entries in a month, split it up into sections, but include a null vote in each section so we aren't forced to vote for more than one entry.

Now, when we hit 28 entries... then you'll have to start hacking that code.

Mike

I just tried out the poll section and yes, there are a maximum of 3 questions, each with 10 answers. That's really a limitation isn't it?

I suppose for the time being I would go with the groups Setch suggested, 9 with one no-vote, another 9 with one no-vote, and a final group of 10. *Edit* Correction, the final group should have 9 and one no-vote too.

I'd go ahead and start looking for a way to increase the number of answers to a poll from 10 to another number. Bump it up to 100 as suggested before. However, I am concerned that this may be more than a user interface limitation. Since this is just the front end for a database, the database itself may be limited to the number of votes that it can track. There could be all sorts of limitations written into the code. We might have to live with the limitation. That sucks since we don't own the code.

A possible solution to that would be to find another way to do the guitar of the month poll. Perhaps there are 3rd party Java applets for polls with unlimited numbers of entries. Perhaps a simple google on this issue may provide a hack to what we already have. *Edit* Just read the post above mine... What he said.

Kudos to Jehle for building a six-stringer... I was tempted to vote for it until a couple really outstanding guitars showed up.

You know, it is March Madness. Pretty soon we'll have to start filling out brackets and stuff... how about a GOTM office pool?

I can still make 6-stringers. In fact, I made this one mostly because of the comments here about wishing that the last cigar box guitar had 6-strings.

I'm still in the process of distilling the guitar down to the bare minimum. Working with the cigar boxes has really enabled that because I get to focus on the neck building more than anything else. The bridge and electronics are really there just to make it a functional guitar.

As for the brackets, I'll put 5 bucks down for Tundra Mans V project. That looks sweeeet.

That's good and bad news Jeremy. Sounds like the move was exactly what your business needed to push it into overdrive. Congratulations on becoming a huge success!

And yes, everyone still hates the headstock.

Everyone except me.

That's right! Did you ever steal the idea for a 7-string?

Here's my cheap guitar building tips. I consider myself the dean of cheap guitars.

Tip 1:

I've had luck bottom feeding on eBay for quite a while now. I search for "guitar parts" and set a price limit of $1. Typically there's about 4 pages of stuff that comes up. Be sure to check shipping prices though.

I bid on a lot of stuff that looks like a good bargin. Most of the time I get outbid, but every once in a while I get stuff for next to nothing. I have several sets of sealed tuners, pickups and bridges that I've won this way for less than a dollar.

Tip 2:

Search for misspellings. "Gutiar" or "Gutair" are fine examples. There's a cheap accoustic that shows up today if you search for "gutiar". $3 plus $9 S&H. No one is going to see it, at least not until now.

Other favorites include "startocaster".

Tip 3:

Consider making stuff cheaply on your own. Here's a link to my $150 "Odd Boy" guitar. I don't think I could do it for any less.

Odd Boy Thread

And yes, everyone still hates the headstock.

Cheers guys.

Unfortunately the web sites are out as I don't have the internet at home

Cheers for the book suggestions too. Sadly, out here in the country there aren't too many music shops for me to sit down in and have a flick through books, so I was hoping to order one. I think what Jehle said makes sense, I'll have to have a flick through a load until I find what I need. I'll have to take a detour next time I go to a meeting

That's the only way that I can find good books at times. Amazon is great and everything, but each publisher and author have their own style of presenting information. If they don't think the same way I do, I have a really hard time learning from it.

I tend to like books that have a "learn by doing" approach. Nearly every guitar building book has to fall under that category since it involves working with your hands and building something. No problem there. Music theory is a different subject though. It's an intellectual art so there are going to be many ways to approach the subject. It'll be important to find the right book for yourself that launches into the heady subject of music theory from a perspective that you can relate too.

Let us know what you find during your search. You might find some good reading that the rest of us can use.

I just found Buckethead on there. I need to got lay down now. Good god...

Back when I was looking for a good theory book, I sat in a book store (The Tattered Cover in Colorado) and flipped through an entire shelf full of them. I eventually settled for "Improvising Jazz" because it seemed to be the right level of detail for me. I wanted to know what made scales and modes what they were.

It's available through Amazon... Improvising Jazz

It reads like stereo instructions at some points, but it does go into theory with the mind set of playing over different chord changes. The author is a clarinet player (if memory serves) so there's a non-guitar focused way of looking and thinking about music.

The only thing which is annoying is stopping to take a photo every now and then!!!

+1

It's been nice not doing that for the last few builds. Documenting and documenting well takes time. It is fun to see a build come together though.

Another ProjectGuitar success story! Glad to hear you made a good deal.

It was actually the "woth" question that made me look in the thread in the first place. I wasn't sure what it was.

Yeah, I got 'em pretty cheap. Y'all should know that I'm Mr. Cheap when it comes to building anyway (like my $15 guitar). It'll be fun to experiment with anywho.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Making necks are fun and by far the most intimidating part of the first full build. I'm not surprised to hear you say that it's not as hard as you thought it was going to be.

Do you need a truss rod? Well, yes and no.

While you could build a playable guitar without one, the neck would be prone to bend too far forward and give you much higher action than you may like. I've made a few 3-string guitars and a few 4-string guitars without truss rods and the action is okay. I wouldn't want to build a standard 6-string guitar without some sort of neck support, either a non-adjustable metal rod or a truss rod.

A friend of mine emailed this link to me last night.

http://www.monteallums.com/Stretch_Tuning_DW.html

From the looks of it, this guy found that the use of a torch tip cleaner worked great as a set of nut files. It's such a great idea that I've just ordered a few.

Another interesting idea is that he came up with a compensating nut add-on that works with the existing nut on your guitar, called the eNut. Follow the link and there's some good pictures of it. The funny thing is that I had the same idea about a week ago. I was going to experiment with the idea and, lo and behold, it's already out there on the market.

Or, shoot, here's a link to the piccy... eNut picture

I love this kind of lateral thinking.

I have to agree with marksound there. Don't worry about what the date is or if it is the real deal or not. If it plays nice and sounds good, that's what really matters.

From the sounds of it, she's in poor shape at the moment. That would greatly reduce any collector value. This is a players guitar, not a collectors guitar.

Hi Alex, welcome aboard.

Glad to hear that you'll have some help along the way. It should make things a little less intimidating along the way.

I think your design is do-able. Even with the picture you put together, it's not bad looking. You can see what you are trying to make.

Have fun!

Yeah, I'm originally from Alabama. I figured, but theyz lotsa cotton down souf.

Yep, there's a small handful of us down here. Very few in Alabama.

Charvell and Jackson are both well respected brands. For 80 bucks, I consider that a steal. Shoot, for 80 bucks I could probably take it appart and sell the parts alone for more than twice that.

*note to self... check pawn shops nearby*

First off, welcome aboard sump'.

I think you've got a great idea to cut your teeth in by working on something that's cheap and something that you don't have much invested in.

Do you already own the Charvel for $80, or is that what you are going to offer them? Either way, I think that's a good amount for the parts you've got from the deal. I presume it has all the electronics, frets, tuners and such.

Sounds like it could be a fun project.

Pi Day? Any relation to Beer Day? Doris Day?

Happy Burstday peoples.

Hey, I entered... sort of.

I declare you the winner of the 2x4 mini build contest. Hooray!

Pitty that no one else did this. :<