scorpionscar

Hi folks, I`m restoring a double neck guitar. In the control cavity there is a yellow cable (red, white and bare). Red and white are connected to the switch and bare to ground. In the other compartiment, the yellow wire with the red and white, the white goes to the center lug of the pot volume but the red one (which I'm holding in my fingers in the pic) is not connected to anywhere.

The black wire (with red and white too) follows the same pattern and both white and red are connected togueter in the switch and in the pot lug. My question is where do I solder the red wire I'm holding in my fingers. Thanks in advance.

Scorpionscar

Hi guys, I've just finished a new project and I'm having issues with an annoying rattling sound. At first I thought it was in the bridge pick up (both wear cover), but changed for other pups and the problem persists. It has an ABM 2 point bridge. Any ideas about what is causing the problem?

Scorpionscar

Hi guys, I'm working on a Strat style project with the neck glued to the body. I want a natural transparente finish. I sprayed a washcoat of sanding sealer and after that filled the grain with aquacoat and another coat of sanding sealer. The problem here is that I ended up with white dots at the boton of the guitar and the rest of the pores were supposed to be transparent, but the effect is more lile white. On the other hand there is a little cloudines in some areas that turn the finish in an opaque thing.

On the other hand, In the inner zones of the horns are areas which don`t allow to see the natural pattern of the grain (this problem is no due to the grain fill, however I notice it happens in those areas where the grain of the wood go in various directions. I don`t know the name of this problem, but is maybe caused by a non correct sanding tech in this area? When I'm in sandin process seems to be not visible, but when applying the finish appears. How can sand this difficult area correctly?

I decided to strip the finish and re-do again because the result was horrible. What should I do in order to fill the pores? I've tested all types of pore fills and have no enconter one that works for me. Too much sanding work and risk of sanding throughs, appar from some grain fillers tend to tint the wood a bit.

The body is Honduran mahogany and has a lot of grain and I want a mirror effect finish. Which method do you use for grain fill? Do you think is best seal the wood and then pore fill, or pore fill directly to the bare wood? Tell me about your experiences, I need a perfect finish. Thanks in advance!!!

Scorpionscar

Hi guys, this is my last built, my first seven string guitar which I finished a week ago. Her name is "LUCIFER" and the specs are as follows:

Very interesting!!! 

No one has experiences with walnut guitars, tone, weight, feeling....

Scorpionscar

When Leveling frets, starting from a perfect radiused and uniform fingerboard, and the fretwire is uniform, I notice that sometimes is needed to remove too much material. In my last leveling, the process was too quick, only some passes with 400 grit leveling bar. I know that the first step is to put the neck as stright as possible, however I notice when I use the notched ruler that there is a slight concave gap in the center of the neck, this relieve is difficult for me to straighten, sometimes I have to appeal to visual inspection (as If I were to shoot a gun like in the second pic).

I use an arbor press and the frets enter perfect, there is not much choice that some of them sit lower becouse the ebony is too hard....

The ideal thing would be that the leveling process were fast and easy, however most times is tedious. What are your thoughts about this?

Scorpionscar

I have a blade strato style guitar with Levinson pups. They have a grid (ground, in the picture=black cause was too short and I had to solder a black one), white and red wires. Does anyone tell me the color code? I think the red=hot and white goes soldered toguether with the grid to ground but not sure. Any ideas or how to identify them with the multimeter (Not very experienced using the multimeter for this purpose..)

Scorpionscar

All of you are right, I've solved the design with an angle, The anatomy of this style of guitar requiere it, and the khaler, although is not taller in excess, can be adjusted a lot, so I decided to angle the neck. As you say Prostheta, I have the option of recess the bridge, or raise the neck, this is one of the advantages of this type of construction (set neck). About the nut, not very clear what to do...

I`m going for a laminated neck for stability, with a double action truss rod. Do you think is necessary reinforcements of carbon fiber? What profile measuremts should I use in the first and 12th fret?

Scorpionscar

Hi, I'm designing this guitar inspired in the ESP Eclipse. It is going to wear a Khaler stud mounted bridge 7 string, but never have dealed with this before! 

- Does anyone know if the ESP Eclipse has a neck angle? I know it depends on the bridge but is an importand information in order to solve the body-neck joint. I point out that is a set through building, no long tenon in the style of Les Paul, cause I want to combine different types of woods in the heel zone. How would you solve the joint? neck angle, no angle, how many degrees?...

- On the other hand, do you think is necessary a locking nut or it would be posible to use a normal bone nut with the khaler? (The tuning machines will be Sperzel with lock system.

Thanks in advance!!! I'll describe the entire process of the building here in the forum.

Scorpionscar

• Do you think is possible? and the customer wants to install a Tune O'matic type bridge, What would you do, Make a shim to elevate the neck height at neck pocket or recess the body so as to allow the bridge decrease height? I don't want to alter too much the structure of the guitar in case the owner of the guitar don't like the final result and want to go the previous point....

• On the other hand never deal with this model of bridge and don't know how to fix the spring and allow it to be in place. I put a photo of the stock...

This weekend I've been working on an idea to improve a cheap drill press in order to get the distance between the center of the chuck and the column. Habitually this distance is about 110 mm, is not enough for drilling string body through holes or the holes for the studs of Floyd Rose or Tune O'matic. I'm going to use an old drill press that had stored into my workshop. The task is to dismount the column and screw a platen of 50 mm x 10. Due to the reduced space betwenn the chassis of the drill press and the engine, It was necessary to countersink the drills of the platen, I made screw threads on the holes in the chassis of the drill press.

The best of all, I spent less than 20 €. Some photos:

The new distance now is 156 mm, more than we really need.

Now it's time for preparing the base for the drill. It consists in a platen with three holes for attaching the base at the workbench, another vertical platen 50mm X 10 and a cartouche in order to reinforce all the structure. I drilled both platens each 30 mm in case it's necessary to move up.

I painted all satine black and mounted all toguether.

For the three lever I used M8 threaded rod in which I filed a recess for tighten with the wrench. for the extremes I made three pieces in the lathe out of beech wood. Then I painted red for a more realistic achievement.

And now the finish product:

It works perfectly and is no need to purchase a bigger/more expensive one in order to what I mentioned above. I hope you find this topic useful. Happy start of week.

Scorpionscar

6 hours ago, Drak said:

I don't have an immediate answer to your problem but I use a lot of EMG hardware in my builds.

I would call EMG directly if you don't get an answer here.

Their usual protocol is you leave a message with your question and they'll call you back.

I've called them several times over the years, they always return the call (I think) same day.

Be as clear and specific with your message as you can be.

Thanks Drak, I'll do it. Thank you so much

4 hours ago, curtisa said:

Based on your description it seems you're needing to wire it up as per the SPC installation instructions shown here:

https://www.emgpickups.com/pub/media/Mageants/s/p/spc_rpc_0230-0106rb.pdf

Have a look at page 4, titled '3 Pickup Guitars using a selection switch'. It shows a master volume, tone and SPC connection diagram.

Thank you Curtisa. I'm going to try it!!!

Scorpionscar

16 hours ago, mistermikev said:

I've seen the same or similar posted on facebook and didn't want to bother with my humble opiion... but to me it looks and awful lot like an illusion.  On the right there... that's a flamed maple top below another top... that is not a complete top.  They first glue down the flame maple top... then they place the partial top on top.  then they flood it with epoxy.  now it "looks" like the flame maple stops where the burl begins... but it doesn't.  This is just a guess, or rather how I would do it.  I have no idea what they really do.

I agree. I think the same, two tops and fill with epoxy cause in the zone of the carving in the horns, the spalted maple is deep inside. There are interesting ideas that come to my mind...

Scorpionscar

Hi guys, does anyone know hot to do this out-standing look guitar. the first one seems to be a combination of dying and natural, but the second one is like the spalted maple were inlayed into the flame maple. Any ideas??

Scorpionscar

Thank you so much ADF, a really useful and instructive vídeo.

Scorpionscar

Hi, I'm working on a Les Paul style guitar and want to make a faux binding taking advantage of the maple. The task here is how to achieve a perfect line, expecially in the upper surface, about 1.6 mm thick. I want to tint amber and them a cherry red burst. Any ideas will be wellcome.

Other doubts are:

- Do I need to to do the finish after or before glueing the neck to the body

_ What do you think is best, leveling/crowning after or before glueing neck-body?

Thanks in advance.

Scorpionscar

Today I glued the fingerboard to the neck. Due to the issue with the fingerboard, I pointed out that I wouldn't be easy to attach it to the neck, so I glued first four pieces of maple to the neck in order to help to put in place the fingerboard properly with no error. After applying the glue to both surfaces, I placed the fingerboard and counter the bow with two clamps, them I used tape for fixing the fingerboard firmly to the neck, removed the two clamps and put a radioused block that covers the whole fingerboard and applied strenght. I think I could save the fingerboard and the project, but always with the heart in the throat.

Scorpionscar

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Several years ago I saw a Crimson video where Ben Crowe talked about a similar issue. According to him the fretboard was usable.

Fretting before gluing might sit tighter than those hammered on the neck. The logic behind that is that when you're pressing the frets into tight slots the barbs carve upright grooves which theoretically might work as return paths. That can be avoided by bending the frets into a tighter radius than the fretboard, then hammering the ends and the final pressing should then make the barbs move sideways inside the slot. On fretboard only the thin bottom of the slot works as a swivel, allowing the tang and barbs "just" drop in. Extra pressure is then needed to make the barbs to indent into the sides of the slots. Lots of slots and dozens of barbs all at the same time require much more power than hammering/pressing one at a time. Thus fretting after gluing might be a better choice especially with very dense woods like ebony.

Thank you so much for your explanation. Very useful in future projects. By now, I'll try to save this one and the worst of all, How I'll take in place in order to glue it to the neck. When te project is finished, I'll post the whole process.

Scorpionscar

5 hours ago, ScottR said:

That happens with ebony boards sometimes. The fret tangs and barbs normally compress the wood on either side of the slot and that friction is what holds the fret in place. Ebony is so hard that sometimes it doesn't compress. Instead the slots spread slightly, the fret is acting like a tiny wedge. The cumulative effect of many frets give you that bent board.

SRR

Thank you so much for your answer ScottR, is important hearing this from you as an experienced guitar builder that you are. I almost always use ebony for my fingerboards, but it's true that normally I glue it to the neck first, this prevent this effect, however is more difficult to place the frets in the slots with the arbor press due to the neck angle, the heel etc... What do you think is better, fretting the fingerboard before or after attaching it to the neck? Thanks in advance.

P.D Can I glue the fingerboard to the neck or should I throw it away?

Scorpionscar

This is a pic of the effect. Really don't understand what happened. I've done this a lot of times with no problems. Filed the barbs, caus was impossible to fit the tang into the slot, instead, the tang entered too fit and due to this, the fingerboard bent.

Scorpionscar

11 hours ago, mistermikev said:

19 I've had similar issues before.  if it's just at the ends it's likely from the glue (as mentioned) from the binding bonding with dust.  stew mac sells a ilttle fret slot cleaner

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/saws/japanese-fret-slot-cleaning-saw.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=2020-10-gp&gclid=CjwKCAjwrKr8BRB_EiwA7eFaprrc3yzG39vBL40mmfm9-9yNpdVytvWCtdi4VLt8xvdzWXefmLHQuxoCpzkQAvD_BwE

might do it for you.  haven't seen you in a while around here scorpion - nice to see you again.  cheers

Thanks for your answer! I know this tool, but don`t have in my shop, I have to order in USA (I'm from Spain) and with the COVID-19 maybe it will take a long time to receive it...I'll try to file the barbs...

During this last mounths I've been disconnected from the world in general and have no enter the forum. Thank you for your words mistermikev!!!

Scorpionscar

16 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I normally do bound boards though I've always glued the board on prior to fretting, and always get the odd one that doesn't go. Have you checked the slots are deep enough and clean of dust and glue from the binding? have you taken the very edge of the slot off with a file? have you got your fret radius the same or tighter than the radius of the board? I'm usually guilty of forgetting at least one of the above

 

Everything is right, deep, no dust or rests of binding titebond...The problem is that the fret tang does not fit the slot. I'm doing exactly like other times and nothing odd, this time is a real nightmare...

Scorpionscar