WezV

then i found this quote on a fender forum apparently this material has other names like ivorine, ivorite - stuff like that. so lets see if it works!

been having a play with getting these right recently. they only appreared fro a few years in the early 60's and pretty much all look different anyway. but there is very little available to accurately reproduce them so far i have tried: allparts - too plastic and creamy Wood fillers & dye mixes - odd feel, possibly too soft but easy to get the correct look Plastic rod - warmoth seem to use a taupe plastic rod, too plasticy Callahan - the closest available. still look quite grey. Micarta (as used by custom shop) - cant find the right colour if i could have hardened the wood filler mixes with epoxy or superglue i would have gone that way, epoxy made it rubbery, superglue just sat on the surface here are my trails with wood filler - some of the centre ones are actually pretty close to acceptable colours, but the feel was wrong

a lot of caps are stated +/- 20%, not just the cheapo ceramic discs. better ones are 10% which is still more than enough for quite a bit of tonal variation.... that's why anyone wanted to test them needs to match on values (something not done in the videos i linked to) of all the caps i tested, the ceramics where the worst offenders. our of a pack of 10 0.022uf ceramic disc caps all were below 0.018 and some were as low as 0.014 - well out of stated tolerance! none of the other types (new orange drops and various vintage caps) were out of the stated tolerance, and they tended to be either side of the stated value rather than below if anyone is after consistency its worth measuring pot values too as they can be just as bad. WD sell 10% ones at a little extra and some companies like BKP pickups also offer custom pots which are still 10% tolerance, but the stated value is 280k or 550k which means you never get one less than 252 or 500k - personally i prefer to get a batch of standard pots and grade them to match pickups/guitars or tone /volumes. no firm rules yet but i seem to be liking slightly lower than 500k for P-90 volumes

mine was much abused. refinished a few times, made fretless all before i really knew what i was doing - but when it finally left me it was back to a reasonable state of repair and looked like this at the other end of the quality scale i had a pair of teisco made Top Twentys - horribly cheap and nasty, but still sounded rather fun

i had a small collection at one point - the highlight was a 66 teisco spectrum bass this was teisco's attempt at something original and higher quality than their usual stuff

one thing i found when comparing cap types was that there was very little difference in tones available - but there was a difference in taper, and therefore feel of the tone control. this made some easier to dial in than others and i suppose could lead to a perception of sounding better i used a selection of new and vintage caps rated at 0.022, after going through and matching i ended up with a selection of caps that actually measured 0.02 and used them for tests. they were set up on the same pot with a switch to select which capacitor was used. there was absolutely no difference in tone between the full on and full off settings, but like i said before, some rolled off gently, some suddenly. so yeah, i think value makes much more difference to actual tone than the type of cap... even though i would have sworn differently last year i still dont like ceramic disc caps as a general rule, they seem to vary from the stated value a hell of a lot more than the others i tried.

yeah, he did go a bit knob crazy i have actually changed the wiring in this to more standard les paul style, but still with the master volume. the two behind bridge are not currently wired in - but will probably be a varitone and phase switch. i have absolutely no use for the stereo wiring, so its gone for now

well, i finally got this back together. - although i still need to remake the backplate i did the finish myself so its far from perfect, and you will notice it still has the dimarzio p-ups. thats because i still have not sourced any of the originals - but this sounds so good i dont really mind at all it ended up solid black as the cracks had a bit too much discolouration to be able to hide - they went back together perfectly, but were still too noticeable to have on display and i decided black would be pretty cool anyway

this guy has lots of comparison vids - he just mounts the whole lot out of the guitar on cardboard when i was comparing tone caps i used a beater guitar and i just taped the extra bits to the outside of the guitar body

if you really want to test it then doing it in the same guitar at the same time is the most effective way. you could try it in a guitar with les paul style controls, 2 volumes, 2 tones... just use one of the pickups for the test and wire a switch to decide which pair of controls is in use

frozen queen - i think i would love this without the gold hardware.. the headstock shot should have had clipped strings and a straight string tree. but it all looks very nicely done Whalehazard Sentinel - i like what you have done with the woods - just not sure it matches this shape Joe's Guitar - i really like the wood choice. not entirely sold on the shape.i think its the extra width in the upper bout, i think i would have liked a slimmer waist to make it all more curvy SATCH LOTUS - the only downside to this one for me is the back cover, i prefer plain black to unmatched wood. its a close second place for me. i love the finish Rebellion - i am a fan of open grain finishes, but i think the back looks a bit like plastic because its gloss and open grain. personally i would make it matte/satin. loving the inlay work Jazzy Java - there a few design elements that dont work for me. firstly, the size of the neck join. its smaller than i would be comfortable with. Secondly, the positioning of the shape. I really like the shape, i just think it needs rotating around slightly. i.e. leave the centre point on the rear end as it is, but move the centre point at the neck end towards the treble side by about an inch. this would make the bass side horn a bit more prominent which i think would balance better visually.. may also make it more like a tokai talbo. i think the forum really needs a tutorial on how you did the pickups... i am assuming there is something cleverer going on there than just installing them before gluing on the top (bad, bad idea!) Dragonfly - you know what, i hesitated to vote for it because its blue quilted maple. if anyone thinks i am voting for it because of that then they need to open their eyes. attention to detail and quality of work is impressive, as is the difficulty of some of those features, like snakewood binding! Plus the fact its all done so perfectly, and of course photographed well enough that we can see it. only thing i dont like is the jaunty angle of the controls due to the carve as seen in the first side on shot... but i understand why i would rather have them like that than change the carve (inside and out) on such a guitar. oh, i would actually prefer it with a spruce top and a natural or burst finish

yeah, if its really old i would be thinking of a full refret too

sounds like a different issue and should probably be a different topic to save confusion. sounds like metallions frets are popping out of the board rather than protruding at the ends again it can be a humidity issue, but its a bit more tricky to fix - if they wont stay in place you will need to use some thing to help them. i find a little drop of superglue ran under the fret (and hopefully into the slot) with a little while in the clamps is usually enough although if it was bad enough i decided it needed a full refret i would use a little woodglue or epoxy in the slots to ensure they stayed there. depends how bad it was. wood glue doesnt stick to the metal, but it can be useful for slightly swelling the wood and hardening it around the tang.. epoxy comes out if the slots are truly shot.

lets get this straight, are you asking someone to illegally upload a copy of the book?

i think that is the ideal solution, its what john birch used to do to a lot of gibsons... sometimes removing the original logo i wouldnt consider just using your logo on the face of the headstock, because i always save that honour for stuff i have done from scratch. Its relatively unimportant now whilst my guitars have little second hand value, but if i ever got to the stage were my guitars were fetching large sums secondhand, and a guitar i had modified was being sold as one i had built from scratch then a buyer might be miffed to find out it was a WV modded guitar rather than a WV made guitar i know its only hypothetical, but i find its more straight forward to be upfront from the start i do however sometimes put logos in other places if requested, usually with a note in a cavity to state when the work was carried out

depends how much skill you have/how much you want to spend it wont affect playability so you have the option to do nothing a good fix would be to splice in a new piece of wood, redo the binding and then touch up the finish. a bad one would involve wood filler and marker pens

click on them

the simplest solution i can offer is to decide you are not bothered if the finish is perfect and carry on if thats not what you want then you are just going to have to wait. an infared heater can help, but only if its been sprayed properly in the first place and if the lamp is used with care... i.e - gently, from a distance and not rushed. its about keeping it a little warm rather than heating it up, and i wouldn't recommend it on necks. if the paint was applied too thickly and quickly rushing it may cure the surface first before the underneath layers with obvious results

works different on wood though

does this count as a plain guitar :? i like the black, its tasteful and more subtle than a primary colour which really pops the figure.

the real issue is whether or not the adhesive is conductive - like the stew-mac copper shielding. iirc the allparts copper uses conductive adhesive too - usually the sticky side is black and its usually what you will find if its sold as shielding tape I have not used the chrome tape in a while, cant be totally sure if it uses conductive adhesive or not but i dont think it was last time i had some from allparts and you could not solder it easily either. i think i saved it for the back of scratchplates & cavity covers rather than use it inside cavities or places needing joins but alternatives people suggest like slug repellent tape will not have conductive adhesive and will definitely need to be joined some other way. since they are copper they solder easy enough

we did have this thread recently http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=45299 i never bothered repairing when i did it (4th build, just as i was getting confident enough not to measure constantly). it was on a through neck so i chopped it off and made a new neck to glue in

yeah, that or allparts or various ebay sellers

lets have a pic, some people spend ages trying to get the perfect crazed finish

brilliant - right up to the point it says "cannot play this guitar"