pan_kara

Wow, axminster quoted me around 100 EUR for shipping.. Looks like for bigger machinery I need to find something more local (France or Switzerland)

Nice, looking forward to seeing this progress! How thick is the poplar top?

Thanks Shelvock They have the floor standing one even cheaper now, but I don't think I have a place to put it in my workshop which is moving between my ktichen, living room and balcony I'm currently using my drill with wobbly chuck for sanding by putting the bottom part of the robosander (the threaded part that's sticking out) in a ball bearing that I fix to the base. This is working pretty well as a temporary solution, and I intend to do something along the same lines with my next setup (i.e. the drill press).

I think I nearly decided that I will need to get a drill press for the next round of builds - I managed to loosen the bearings on my cheapo Bosch drill that I was using in a drill stand through too much robosanding - still works, but I need something quieter and more reliable. Initially I was thinking of getting a good quality drill but I figured for the same amount of money I could just get a decent drill press and keep using the old one for the handheld jobs. Looking around whats available in the EU I'm leaning towards this one: http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-axminster-wd16b-pillar-drill-prod725428/ I'm planning to use this mainly for: - the usual drilling jobs: tuner holes, string through (I need to check the throat depth vs my body shape template to make sure its enough), etc - forstner bit action (cavities, neck pocket etc) - robosanding body edges and thicknessing fingerboards/necks any suggestions on this? Is this overkill? Or maybe not good enough? Other options? Thanks!

Hey man, welcome back! Good luck with the fan-fret

Yea, I was more afraid that the frets might put the neck into some backbow if I make it completely flat so I put some relief into the fretboard before fretting. But wow - a 5 string bass with no truss-rod? Thats brave Must be cool with an ebony neck.

I brought the fret ends level with the fingerboard and put a small bevel - at this point I decided I'd check how the fretwork came out by putting the outer strings on (before dressing the ends etc): Seems acurate enough, 13th fret is a bit high, maybe one or two more also - I'll do a detailed check later and try to fix them one-by-one. Apart from that, the fret slots appear to have been cut in the correct places (at least to my ears), and everything that should be aligned is aligned. So I'm happy. Looks like the guitar is turning out great. So now I have fretwork -> neck carve -> electronics cavity cover ledge -> full test assembly and electronics check -> sanding and finishing. Oh, and strap button installation somewhere there in between.

Fretted! Hammering the frets in was a pain, don't know why. I had to hit the frets really hard to get them to sit. But in the end they're nice and level, and so far no change in neck geometry. I'll dress them without attempting to do leveling, looks like I might need none. Also, I'm not sure how I'd attempt that with a neck that has some relief bulit in but has no truss rod. I guess I'd need to somehow force it to straighten up by clamping - then level - then unclamp.. I'll see if I can avoid that.

Well better safe than sorry. I still have to see how it will respond to fretting. I chamfered the slots after taking that photo and glued in the side dots yesterday so I'm basically ready to start with the frets when I get some time to work on this.

I second that. An MDF headstock template that you can drill the tuner holes in and do a mock-up with the tuners themselves is a good idea.

Waiting for the neck to settle I started on the cavity covers, just slapped a piece of wenge veneer onto thin HDF, now need to sand down to shape and rout the ledge in the body. After 4 or 5 days I decided the neck has had its time to get familiar with its new shape. In fact it basically didnt move at all. I levelled the fingerboard once more and then sanded by hand down to about 0,3mm deep concave shape. Then went through all the grits up to P600 and put on a good coat of danish old. Which left me with this: I'm in love.

And then you take a twin-blade mini humbucker and it does sound pretty much like a single coil. I haven't (as Scott) done direct comparisons but I've put a dimarzio cruzer into a strat I'm putting together (basically following the Andy Timmons pickup config), I played around with it and did some recording and it does sound much like a single. I tried coil-tapping it and there is very little chance (apart from the lower output).

This could be an interesting discussion. I know little about the inner workings of pickups. I remember reading that the bright sound of single coils comes from the higher resonant peak (caused by lower DC resistance). What exactly is the interplay between this and the magnetic field configuration I don't really know. What I used to think is that the wider humbucker pickup area makes it possible for the high frequency overtones to be muted due to destructive interference - if the wavelength starts being comparable to the pickup area. Or aperture as it apparently is being called. ok, so I i just went googled around and found this: http://till.com/articles/index.html wow! there are two articles on this, dealing with the pickup aperture effect on tone and pickup combinations. And there is a cool Java applet that lets you choose pickup size etc and move it around. You can even add more pickups in/out of phase and play with that. Why haven't I seen this earlier?? Awesome! Indeed looks like a singlecoil (1 inch aperture) has an EQ dip around 6 kHz and as you make the pickup bigger this dip moves to lower frequencies linearly. So for a 2 inch aperture we're cutting out 3 kHz. That would fit, no?

Sorry to hear about the dog. I still remember when I had to do that with my dad and brothers some years ago. It was poisoning, she must have found and eaten something in the forest. Nowadays when I'm feeling down I work on my guitars. Helps a lot.

Sorry for that, man. I still remember when I had to do that with my dad and brothers some years ago. It was poisoning, she must have found and eaten something in the forest. Nowadays when I'm feeling down I work on my guitars. Helps a lot.

The current status of the project is: waiting for the neck to settle down before I do the final fretboard leveling and install frets.

Hah, I'm just about a week or two away from having to finish a bubinga neck. Since its just the outside two out of 5 laminated strips I'll be trying to put a finish on it, but still this thread came just in time I'll report here if I learn something interesting.

Wow, thanks! It was a bit more than that (especially the robosander - without it I wouldnt be able to shape the body, thickness the neck and fb etc) but I like the way its turning out. I hope it will also sound good, that's more tricky I guess

LOL my (basically nonexistent) experience shows the same. Damn, I have a bubinga drop top for some unspecified future build.. that'll be fun. I just hope it is stable now, the neck blank twisted a lot in the few months it was laying and waiting to be used. I got an ovangkol blank at the same time - still nice and perfectly flat and waiting to become a neck.

BTW That lacewood JEM blew me away!

I think the veneer refinish option is a fun way to start. That's what I did Right now I'm in the middle of my second refinish take with flamed maple veneer. In both cases I had bubbles in the armrest area - I didnt use the sandbad method but flat surfaces and clamps. I'm still perfecting the technique. Here's the first one: You can see the place near the armrest where the veneer bubbled after I sprayed clearcoat - and then I stupidly polished down to bare wood when I was rubbing it out. And? I had a lot of fun, I play gigs with the instrument - this was just a learning experience. Now I'm doing an Ibanez RG for a friend, so far no sand-through Completely flat tops are a lot easier. I'm building test build with a poplar body with poplar burl veneer - its coming out nicely (there's a picture in my nylon string thread), though I do have yellow areas which are caused by too much glue I guess... I never thought I should watch the amount of glue in fact. Is there a rule for that? I already have some insane maple burl veneer that I'm dying to use on a project and a bunch of other cool ideas. So I'd say - give it a try!

As planned, I started on the neck carve. I really need to get a decent spokeshave, the one I'm using is utter crap. It was fun on a pine neck I build as a test half a year ago, but the bubinga is killing it. Anyway, this is where I'm at: I got the thickness down to between 2,4 and 2,7mm (together with the fingerboard), so now with most of the wood off I can fire up my robosander thicknessing jig and get an even 2,4 (maybe gently thinning out towards the nut). Once I do that I'll probably let it rest for a couple days and then do the frets - and I'll fine tune the shape after that. On the body side, I drilled the hole for the jack and the plate - so now I can plug the guitar in The body is getting close to having the woodwork finished - I just need to do the hole for the volume pot, the cavity cover and the ledge around the cavity for it to sit in. And then its sanding time. A friend of mine CNC'ed a pair of matching templates on a small machine they use for electronics so now I just have to improvise a guided router bit for the dremel. Probably will tape half of a small bit off and ride that along the template to do the ledge. The cover - I don't have sheets of wood with the right thickness (and width) and gluing together 5+ pieces of veneer is a waste (and PITA) to me. And plastic sucks. (And I have none ) I'm thinking of using thin HDF, with a layer of veneer on the outer side (matching or contrasting the body wood). Then I'd paint the inside and the sides with shielding paint (no HDF surface exposed). Finally, I'd finish it all with lacquer or Rustins Plastic Coat, or something like that. Probably RPC, would be a good chance to test applying that stuff before I use it on a guitar. Sounds reasonable?

Thanks Wes, I'll try tape then. Or cling foil. I have a corridor with a bunch of closets along the wall, that corridor doesn't have heating in itself (though it is connecting heated rooms obviously), I was thinking that might be a good place for the wood. Given what you're saying this might indeed be the best way to go. I'll try moving the wood there.

Thanks Scott my alternative to keeping wood in my apartament (which goes along your "store wood where it is going to live for some time prior to working to get it climatized" as this is where I do all the work too) would be.. my balcony I guess. So the wood would be exposed to negative temperatures and snowfall Do I understand correctly that this is still better than a centrally-heated indoor room? I run a humidifier at nights there now that I'm home since this is my bedroom, so maybe its not that bad. I can get a humidity meter also. Whats the humidity range I should be going for? Is there anything else I could to to stop the meranti from cracking further?

French/Swiss border currently. Geneva more or less. Middle of winter here, snow and stuff