Andyjr1515

Superb

6 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

Another question: what size should I drill the string holes on the bridge? and what do you use to ream them? I'm conscious that a stewmac reamer £80 and that feels like silly money, any cheaper alternatives? 

I use this one...and it's pretty much the only thing that they sell that isn't a bit eyewatering  :

https://tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/english/bridge-pin-tapered-reamer.html

It is, in fact, a standard 3-12mm Silverline 'Repairman's Taper Reamer'...but the infuriating thing about buying reamers is that they all seem to tell you the ream-diameter range...but not the length - so it is impossible to confirm that the actual taper is correct.

Anyway, I reckon that the Tonetech price is pretty decent and so for peace of mind, I'd go for that from them 

13 hours ago, ScottR said:

Oh @Andyjr1515, Ash is calling you!

The slumbering bow-legged dwarf  muscle-rippling giant opens his eyes and blinks at the bright summer light.  "Hmmm...I'm sure it was winter when I went for that nap..." 

Looking at the progress, I'm not sure that Ash needs any help from me

Couple or so of tips, though, spring to mind @ADFinlayson:

- It's quite important that the neck heel has the correct neck angle as well as the straightness.  Your method is pretty sound to check it, although be aware that the full tension of all 6 strings will tend to pull the top up a touch, and that also affects the action.  I think it would be worth adding the other two strings and pitching everything up a semitone or so above standard pitch and see if you are going to have enough saddle height to get the action where you want it.  If it's looking a touch high, then it's the same sandpaper flossing method, but this time both sides and pulling down to increase the angle while maintaining the straightness.

A decent double check is to lay a straight edge along the frets to the bridge.  The 'rule of thumb' is that the edge should just meet the top of the bridge.  It is again, however, just a rule of thumb because that can also be affected if you have a particularly flexible top that bows more under tension than 'the thumb's' average guitar 

- Handy tip ref carving the bottom of the bridge to the curve - use the 'engineer's blue' technique, but using school chalk.  Pop a wide strip of masking tape on the top, chalk it, then place the bridge and shuffle it up and down/side to side a few mm and then look at the chalk marks on the back.  Scrape/sand wherever there is chalk (ie the high spots) and repeat.  Keep repeating until the bottom is fully chalk covered.

But feel free to ignore all the above, as you seem to be making excellent progress under your own steam.  

Gosh...is that the time?  Must be time for a cocoa and another nap...    

Very cool project! 

Lovely

Many congrats, @Nicco  Well deserved - superb build

That looks pretty special, @ADFinlayson  Interesting detail on the colour process too.

48 minutes ago, nakedzen said:

Only waiting for the chrome switch tip and it's 100% done.

And, with or without the switch tip, looking absolutely splendid! 

4 hours ago, Crusader said:

Its occurred to me that even accoustic guitars have a preamp and a battery

Well, yes, they do but the difference is that on an acoustic it is more about balance and EQ, while the electronics in the Acousti-phonic actually creates the emulated sound of an acoustic guitar.

I'm in a slightly different place, @ADFinlayson & @Bizman62

I do agree that the weight difference is not likely to be the make-or-break for balance.  With the leverage, then relatively small weight differences at the headstock can indeed make that kind of difference, but that impact fast diminishes if the weight is distributed along the whole neck.

However - the need for a trussrod to counter temperature and humidity changes is a bit of a myth if the neck is rigid enough.  Take Vigier and others that have no truss rod.

So I can accept that the wide D section in carbon might make the neck sufficiently rigid.  Also, because the neck then isn't going to flex, the glue area for the fretboard would be quite sufficient.

But it will sound different to an equivalent instrument with a conventional truss-rodded neck.  Not saying it will sound better or worse, just that it will be different.

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Guess the overhang in your builds doesn't touch the top?

It's there or thereabouts because the angle created by the neck angle is counteracted to a certain extent by the radius of the top...but if I have a choice of a teeny gap or the fretboard pressing down on the top then I go for the teeny gap...

It's weird because it's an issue that is almost never referred to in building an acoustic...and yet every builder will come across the conundrum    It's not something that violin builders have to worry about (but which serves as a good illustration of what I'm talking about) 

As long as there are no lumps that will lift the fretboard at the body end and prevent the neck from fully seating in the heel block, then personally I wouldn't even worry about filling it. 

On my own acoustic builds, I don't glue the overhang.  Acoustically it is not a critical area and on most acoustics, the neck angle means that the overhang is rarely flat against the body for the whole length.  On an acoustic, the fit of the neck into the neck block is critical - and especially for a dovetail joint. My logic is that if the overhang is hard against the body, then it is likely it is affecting the position and tightness of the neck to body joint, which would not be a good thing.  

Ref your questions about the ghost acousti-phonic 'pre-amp', it is designed to allow a number of things to  be done:

- first, as @mistermikev says, it is designed to make it possible to use one jack for both your magnetic pickups and your piezo pickups, either separately or together.  The type of output from a piezo is very different to the type of output from a magnetic pickup.  The acousti-phonic converts the two signals so that they are compatible with one another

- it is also possible to split the two signals to feed into two amplifiers with a stereo-jack-plug-to-two-mono-jack-sockets splitter cable

- a piezo bridge on what is essentially a solid electric guitar will not sound like an acoustic guitar.  It can sound fine, but it will not sound like an acoustic guitar, even if played through an acoustic guitar amplifier and even if the body of the guitar is significantly chambered.  So the next thing the acousti-phonic does is make it sound like an acoustic guitar (in the same way that the Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator pedal does).

- For the piezo signal, the Acousti-phonic also provides some options of the volume and a on-off tone change of the acoustic simulated sound

And yes, you are right that if you have two separate jack outputs, one for the magnetic pickups and one for the piezos, then, technically, you don't need a preamp - you can feed a piezo output directly into an amplifier.  However, all the adjustments of volume and tone will need to be done at the amplifier - which might be fine.

Hope this helps

7 hours ago, mattharris75 said:

. I think it's going to look nice when it's all said and done

So do I

There's some fascinating stuff going on here

Summing boards -  Hmmm... I think your solution is indeed better.  The Graphtech one is an absolute disaster - almost designed to fail.  I just solder them nowadays.  Schaller used the same one on their top-price Hannes bridge/Flagship preamp system,  Failed (of course).

That is indeed a cool shape

2 hours ago, Dave Higham said:

Perhaps I didn't explain earlier.

Ah...yes you did!

2 hours ago, Dave Higham said:

Does any of that make sense?

And yes it does

Excellent 

1 minute ago, nakedzen said:

It needs that large hole for EMG quick connectors to fit through.

Ah - of course.

Respect, mate 

16 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Getting there, bit by bit.

I agree - it's coming together nicely @nakedzen

That's a mighty large bore through hole for the cables.  What kind of drill did you use and how did you keep the alignment of that sort of length?

I remain in awe with this build.

Just a point that I might have missed in the posts - have you predetermined and built in the neck angle?

That makes for a really nice feature @mattharris75 

The whole build is coming along very nicely indeed.

1 hour ago, mattharris75 said:

Yes, I think this is going to do the trick nicely...

Wow!  Gorgeous.

40 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I'd vote for black or none.

Me too

Love the colour - coming up a treat  

14 hours ago, mattharris75 said:

Yeah, as a builder if you're not giving the wood proper consideration then what are you even doing?!?! 

After fretting over it for a bit this is the position I'm leaning toward:

It's worth doing paper templates of the bridge, pickups and fretboard and position those too.  It is amazing how many times those cover features that, uncovered, makes the figuring sing

Well deserved win   Well done, great job.