Andyjr1515

No - sorry...should have explained. This is going to be fully reversible. I was dubious at first this would work but am pretty sure now it's going to work just fine. The plate is flat and stable (it's been sitting loose on the headstock for the past few weeks from an unusually mild spell, to heavy rain and high humidity to (for us) very cold and snow back to mild with no problems). The tuner bushes and string tree will hold the plate securely so the double-sided tape is just to make sure the edges don't lift. They can't go anywhere even if they do... I know - madness. But this is Andyjr1515...

The headstock plate is too thin to risk adding an inlay but Mike and I thought it would be fun to have at least a little bit of the original Rascal colour showing : Once the plate has been sanded to the exact outline and had the finish applied, it will be secured at the edges with thin double-sided tape just to stop it lifting at any of the edges. The tuner bushes and string tree will do the main work.

OK - I'm going to bank on that everyone is far too busy with Christmas preparations to enter this so, being the only entry, I might win It's another go with my previous entry 'Impish Challenge' This is the 6-string electric, built for Tim (whose name tag on another forum is impmann and hence the name). Tim took ownership of it last week and he is, in his own words 'over the moon'. He loves it I am a hobby builder with my first full build around 5 years ago. More recently, I have started taking on bass and guitar commissions in addition to building for my own use and fellow band-members. After a series of bass builds, it has been nice to go back to a 6-string build. Tim's spec / my result (as usual with my builds, sometimes two different things) was: 25.5" scale, 6-string Style to have passing nod to Alembic's wonderful '80's six stringers Low weight, chambered (finished weight 6lb 12oz) Camphor Laurel top; Sapele back; Wenge demarcation veneer Maple/purpleheart/mahogany/purpleheart/maple neck; figured ebony fretboard Alegree Custom stacked P90's Schaller Hannes piezo bridge Schaller 'flagShip' piezo/magnetic mixer-preamp Magnetic control chamber and trussrod covers The build diary is here. Here are some pictures: And here are some (poorly played) sound clips: Magnetic only: mid; neck; bridge Piezo only Piezo / Magnetic mix: mid; neck; bridge Thanks for looking, folks Andy

This is almost complete. It also has given me a chance to try an A/B comparison of Tru-oil with the Osmo Polyx 3044 that some of you will remember I used for the 'white wood' Psilos bass. The 3044 version is intended for white and light woods and aims to minimise the yellowing effect of most finishes. It worked well for the Psilos: ...but how well would it work on a dark wood like walnut? Mike wanted me to try The great thing, however, is that - because I use a tru-oil slurry and buff now as a sealing and filling process before sanding it all off to then apply the intended finish coats, I could do an absolute A/B comparison of Tru-Oil vs Osmo Polyx 3044. And here it is: A/B Comparison of Tru-Oil vs Osmo Polyx 3044 In both cases, the body has has a single application of oil, slurried with 400 grit wet and dry and then immediately wiped off Tru Oil: Once fully dry. This was all sanded off, leaving the body in the same pre-oil state. Osmo Polyx 3044: Quite different - especially in the darker figuring areas where the tru-oil (and water does the same) turns the figuring grey to almost black. The Osmo, on the other hand, retains the light brown. The lighting is about the same in both shots. If it's a bright enough day tomorrow, I'll repeat the shot with the same background as the tru-oil - it actually shows the contrast even more. In real life it looks lovely. Also, once it's had a few more slurry and buff coats, the silky satin feel has to be experienced to be believed Here's the back with the Osmo - DON'T PANIC - THE DISTORTION IS THE CAMERA LENS (trust me - everything is straight and true! Honest ) The edges of the hatches still need tidying up but this is basically how they will look: The matching up of the sapele grain and the walnut grain, by the way, is total coincidence... And this is the 'fan who is getting too up close and personal' 's view: I really like this product. Super easy to apply and, well, it works!

The blade on that knife is quite something, by the way. I saw a clip of how the layers of steel are built up on these types of blade - awe inspiring stuff....

Nice work on the knife, Scott I like the plan for an unplated headstock - should look spectacular.

You can use it lengthways or transverse, or both. I'm going to drill some index pin holes at 1/4 router diameter and actually use it lengthways, rotating the rig by one notch per pass.

The ply templates have been marked out just using a ruler and flexi-curve an inch greater radius and the router bit positioned at an inch lower than the bearings line - so an 11" template is giving me a 10" radius on the fretboard. I will make a flat template so I can use the same rig to thickness the fretboard too

Couple of enhancements to add, but essentially the radius jig is done: The melamine covered shelf I've used is slippery enough to be able to not worry about bearing runners for the lengthways movement. I tried it out on a bit of spare maple - Pretty good result for a first go:

Having finished the Alembic-esque build, I'm heading back to the sister build, which will be for my own use. This is where I'd got to before I put it down to finish off Tim's : Other than the lack of the carve through arm relief forming the 'sucked lozenge' on Tim's, the woods are the same, so the overall look should be similar. This is the start of the convex/concave carve: There's a bit further to go but hopefully you get the idea. Now one thing I'm really, really bad at is spending the time to build jigs. BUT, I've come to the conclusion that life is too short for hand radiusing fretboards! So, I've cribbed a design from LedBelliBass on HomemadeTools.net and modded it a bit and here it is in progress: I'm undecided whether or not to put roller bearings on the lengthways slide or just use guide strips (the whole thing will be mounted on a flat, smooth box-plank. For indexing, I will use a simple peg and hole system. I'm hoping I can finish it tomorrow and so kick off re-commencement of this build later next week

I realise I'm a bit out of date with this. There are some very sound skills an techniques on view, @Norris I think the end product is going to be drool-some .

That's quite a design This will be a very interesting project to follow the progress. Can't wait

Well, the newborn and I have said our goodbyes, with one last photo before it goes to its new home: I'm pleased to say that Tim is delighted with it And he's a really good player. It sounded wonderful under his skilled hands... Quite a difficult build in some ways, but one of my favourite results

Excellent for so many reasons

Many congratulations on your very well deserved GOTM win @MassimoPL77. It is a superb build on so many levels

No ref the neck heel @curtisa - I won't cut that to shape and size until I've worked out the back carve. I want to taper the heel transition down to lessen the doorstop heel effect of such a thick body (necessary because of the depth of the 5-way) and haven't yet figured the best way so played safe on the basis of 'you can always take more off but you can't put it back'

So a quick up-to-present update. This shape is what we're aiming for: First job was to get the find the best orientation of walnut and cut a suitable bookmatch top. A friend, Rob, kindly did this for me on his 'proper' bandsaw: The Lyte is a much smaller body and is designed for a smaller headstock and longer scale (the Rascal is 30"). To make this reversible, meant seeing if it was possible to make a very thin walnut plate to double-side-tape fix on top of the existing headstock. After a bit of careful cutting, sanding and bending, I managed to get this: Once it's sanded, that'll do Then - how to fit the lipsticks, which are designed to be screwed onto a scratchplate? Learning from the ultra-modern Psilos bass build...put them in from the back! Spin off advantage is that it takes some weight out of the sapele back: From the top... The back also has a weight relief chamber cut into it: I'm using wenge constructional veneer (2mm) again as the demarcation. Then glued up and trimmed: Still going to be a bit of a large headstock, but I'm sticking with this being fully reversible. The walnut plate balances it out at least a touch: And then bringing right up to date as of an hour ago, the first rough carve begins:

Hi One of the smaller jobs that has been backing up for a while is a request to build a Fender Precision Lyte shaped body for Mike's rather splendid Fender Rascal. Mike likes the sound and the pickup options and the neck, but can't get on with the body shape. So the idea is to do a reversible build of a Precision Lyte to fit everything onto. Oh....and to incorporate some of this: It's timber from the last tree (an English Walnut) that his late friend, Mervyn, cut down during his youth-to-retirement career as an axeman. What's more, Mike wrote a biography of Mervyn that was published a few years ago. Fascinating stuff... So that's where this one's starting from

I watch with great interest to how this progresses I'm a fan of P-rails (they wil be going in my super-slim build if I ever finish it). I also use the triple shot rings on a couple of my guitars. They work well in my experience....

I'm a bit late on this one Anyway, a few things occur to me: Personally, I HATE the just-finished bit of any build I do. The first set up. I pretty much always think it's a disaster. I'm pretty much always ready to admit defeat, email the intended owner with profuse apologies and sorting out a bin bag big enough to dispose of it. Really. Ref the frets - I think you said that the frets where the middle is high (and there were not too many of them?) you could bottom to the fretboard with a firm push? A squeeze of titebond along the gap, clamped down with a radius block for 1/2 hr or so (or a dribble of thin CA glue along the line and simple a firm push until the wick'd glue has set) will usually sort. If it actually will ground to the fretboard at all, then it's often just that the tangs have cut a groove and don't have enough resistance to hold the fret flat against its natural tendency to return to its radiussed shape. You only have slots that need deepening if it won't bottom however hard you press or clamp it down. Ref the neck heavy, there are a few options. Change of button position; extension to the top button; wider strap; lighter tuners (this will make a BIG difference on the longer neck) The action takes, in my own experience, a bit of iteration of fret levelling, truss rod adjustment, leaving to settle and repeating. I'm doing exactly that at the moment with the Alembicesque build...and it's going to the owner in less than a week's time. I've still got a slightly higher action than I think it should end up with so I have at least one more iteration to do. Ref the fretwire - even a new bought guitar usually takes a few weeks of playing until you settle in with it. The first Gibson Les Paul I had took months for me - and the only real difference was going to a 12" radius from a 9.5"... So by all means hang this on the wall for a bit and start the next one....but do come back to it. It looks superb and I have no doubt whatsoever that it will play superbly well too once you've done a bit of normal post-build tweaking....

Any joy with the electrics? It usually, when I (frequently) have similar issues, turns out to be something to do with the earthing (grounding) or a dry joint somewhere. Do you use a multimeter to check for earth continuity. Also, follow the wiring diagram carefully. It's easy to miss a wire!

Phew! I've just snuck mine into the closing hours of November's....definitely don't want to pitch up against this beauty - I've seen it in real life!!!!!

double post

Surprising, isn't it. I'm going to drop Schaller a line because it is all fixable - and I would have thought quite important for them to fix. The one where it needs a right angle exit is the three-way. Totally unusable as supplied. The orientation of the molex (or whose-ever) connectors is actually fine, but that accumulator block is a poorer quality than a standard one that you could get in the local Maplin retail store. Almost always they have a firm fit and a simple lock tag, These have neither. So - just like the Graphtec ones on the Ghost system I've used from years ago, you push them in firmly, you close the hatch and play...and it's great. Then pick it up the guitar the following morning and one or more of the strings are completely dead! Open the hatch, squeeze the connectors against the block with your thumbnail and you have all 6 strings back again. Ease the pressure, you've lost one or more strings again. Having had the Graphtecs fail on me on three or four gigs despite warranty replacements of the accumulator block I was half expecting problems, but hoping that Graphtec (if it is their saddles - and might not be) would have fixed such a simple thing. To have the same issue from the Schaller offering is disappointing and irritating. And this is a £168 ($223) bridge we're talking about. So - there being no other way at all to fit the three way or rely on the piezo, I've had to invalidate the warranty on a £168 bridge by snipping off the connectors and simply soldering the two pairs of wires together and a £160ish pre-amp by removing the unusable rubber boot. That's £320 ($420) of liability just to get it to work. I do love Schaller....but they ARE better than this. Now they need to prove it I shall try to be some of the oil in the machinery to make that happen...

It's stretched the patience, understanding and tolerance of MrsAndyjr1515 to the limit, but I've worked like a Trojan to try to get this finished to be able to enter this month's "Guitar of the Month" . Now, having seen the quality of the competition, it was probably very misguided effort So a quick visual catch-up: The pre-wired, plug-in, very slick, very expensive, Schaller flagShip piezo/mag preamp mixer comes with components clearly well thought out by a world leading manufacturer and supplier of guitar components: That three way rotary with the sealed, stiff, boot sending the large, stiff cable vertically is clearly waiting for the introduction of the new ranges of 6" thick guitars that the worlds top guitar makers are bound to be bringing in soon.... Look, I love Schaller. I really do. But fellas...really? You are better than this... On that subject - which knob is the flagship Schaller one and which one is a cheap and cheerful Harley Benton offering? The nicely coated, knurled, solid brass, standard 6mm shaft, grubscrew fitted one, or the cheap, small. plastic, push-on, 3mm non standard one? Now....I love Schaller. But fellas? Really? Anyway, I cannibalised a dremel fitment and made myself a converter: And, having proved that these piezo accumulators as STILL not fit for purpose (the Hannes piezo bridge (again - this is a VERY expensive piece of equipment) I believe uses Graphtech piezo saddles. Having had multiple failures in the past years with their accumulators, I had hoped that they may have improved them. It failed. No....but I really do love Schaller... But fellas? This is plain shoddy.... Hang the warranty - I snipped the connectors off and soldered the reds together and the blacks together and fitted them directly into the screw connectors on the preamp unit. Note also the warranty breaking removal of the three way rotary boot. And - suddenly - it was finished! All it needs now...is your votes