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Thistle

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Everything posted by Thistle

  1. Ok thanks again guys. There is an auction coming up soon here with several mid size to larger machines. I'm going to hold off on the xcarve till ive been to that. I've been told there are a few that would be up my street so to speak, but in all honesty If there isn't anything that just straight fits the bill in my budget im just going for the xcarve. My intentions of 1-2 guitars a month is probably too high I know Chris. But my thinking was I could build 4-5 of the same model at a time, over 3-4 months using the cnc. Maybe I'm being unrealistic but I do have lots of free time. Obviously I will have a long period of learning and I don't expect to start banging them out straight away, but using the cnc in one repeated operation a few times making necks for a week or two at a time say, has got to be more economic on the overall build time. Guess I'll find out soon enough. I only have two guitar places in my area and both are itching for me to supply them with some to sell after seeing my work. This just seemed to be the way forward. End of the day even if I just use it for the inlays templates and all, its still gonna be an awesome tool that will give my guitar making endless new possibilities. Ive already collected some 1/4" round/straight and engraving bits. Ordered the reducer collet and a set of small cnc cutters aswell. All tungsten tipped. Spent a small fortune on those to honest so I can't back out now lol. I'll keep you guys posted.
  2. Well all this throws some spanners in the works, but I don't have intentions of making hundreds of guitars each year. My hope was that I could build 1-2 a month so it wouldn't be too overly taxed. I'm a bedroom builder so it's only going to be operating weekends and some nights for now. Xcarve give a couple options on software so I could upgrade that at a cost and still within my budget. The whole belt drive thing is a concern tho. Brings my thoughts back to buying a more expensive machine but secondhand again possibly. This isn't going to be as easy as I thought lol. End of the day, the xcarve IS an entry level cnc within my budget, from a company I can talk to, and get support from. If I can't find something more suitable I may just order it despite its flaws. I have a lot of learning to do and for my first machine, it's maybe enough. No reason I can't upgrade in the future and buy the smaller rails for the xcarve, make it an inlay only machine or whatever. again thanks for all this amazing information. I'd have been months getting to even this stage if it wasn't for you guys.
  3. Thanks Chris. Didn't notice that till you mentioned it. The x-carve however in its large configuration with 1000mm legs gives an 800x800mm work area, and that's big enough for anything I can think of guitar wise other than a through neck piece I guess. At $1399 plus shipping looks like the one. I've just watched a few vids on YouTube of guys using it to do several guitar processes including cutting a body out of a solid timber blank and carving a neck profile (kinda) and inlays. Think It comes with its own software by the looks of it, and the "want it big" 1400 buck kit seems to include most of the goodies like upgraded stepper motors, tool kits and waste boards etc also. Seems to get decent enough reviews so its in the lead for now. Still got a load of research to do before I order one, but I'm feeling much more comfortable with what im looking at now. Next thing to start looking at is cutters. Through my day job I have local suppliers who can get me pretty much whatever I want in bits/cutters type stuff, so I'll pick these up bit by bit in the next few weeks. It's a standard dewalt router that fits in most of the machines I see inc the xcarve so I can start collecting those now. I already have several individuals and sets that I've used with the hand router but I'd like to buy new good quality fresh ones for this. What's the most common used types and sizes I will need?
  4. Hello again Curtisa. Those articles are brilliant mate. I'll have a good study on them tonight when I get home. And shameless self promotion isnt a bad thing when your as skilled as yourself man My intentions were never to try and get a "make me a guitar" machine, being able to rout bodies or neck carves from a blank would be cool but I didn't consider the dust extraction side of things, and it's a good point since I do my building in my spare bedroom at home. Now I've had a much better look I'm realising my main goals with this should be more to help with most of those processes you show in the articles, much like you mentioned yourself I never really wanted to take too much of the "handcrafted" out of it, but the possibilities are endless and I'm only just begining to realise the potential of these. Fret slot cutting and inlays being two things that I didn't consider at first, and would be tremendous for saving lots of my time not to mention the accuracy! Also the templates etc, amazing! I'm definitely doing this. Been a long time (about 15 years) now but I already have some experience with 2D cad. Autocad in particular but I have used several other similar type programs, so it shouldn't take me too long to get up to speed again on that side of things. I also have PCs capable of running it all, so it's really just the actual CNC side of things I will need to study and learn from scratch. The shapeoko looks really good actually, and at the moment is now at the top of the list, but with the quality of work your doing on the China ebay type it's definitely put those back into the equation for me too. I'll do much more research before I order anything, however you've put me on the rite path now, thank you very much again mate, really appreciate you taking the time to reply in such depth. Keep you posted on what I end up with, Brian.
  5. I've been seriously thinking about buying a cnc to make my guitars with. i don't have a huge budget (around £2500 gbp max) so I have been looking at the secondhand market for the past few days. My problem is that I don't know enough yet about my actual requirements. There are a number of cheaper machines on eBay that state they are engraving/milling etc but I'm guessing these are useless, so an older, used but good quality one is what I'm looking for, unless you guys know of a decent one in my price range it'll be a used machine I buy. Is my budget too small? Or can I setup a rig that will produce bodies and necks with that number in mind? Any suggestions or tips on buying or makes to avoid would be greatly appreciated guys, what do You use? thanks in advance, Brian.
  6. Well I ended up buying the Orange ppc410-4x10 can for the tiny terror. The two amps are vastly different. In my opinion the Orange clean tones are way superior to the blackstar. However the blackstar dirty channel is much nicer. More British overdrive if you know what I mean. The TT dirt sounds pretty good too don't get me wrong but personally I prefer the ht5, drop tunings work fine on both too, not that I play in them much, open c6 is probly as low as I go with an occassional dadgad play around lol. Choosing one over the other wouldn't be easy for me tbh and Id give them both five stars in any review. The blackstar does have lots of extras like the ISF knob which does a great job of emulating a fender to marshalesque tone change. Add in the emulated headphone output and 2 footswitchable channels the HT-5 is a better allrounder. If I had to choose only one to gig with, it'd probly be the tiny terror and a pedal board tho. Again it's a hard choice, and personal preference really. Both have plenty volume. i guess it all depends what you want out of it. Personally I like to use both at the same time and do a bit tone stacking to get my tone. As a home practice amp, go for the blackstar. again only my opinion. Hope this helps.
  7. Ofcourse... Splitting an 8 makes 2 16s. I should've known that C thanks. I do like the blend of both tho, and I found one cab per amp is actually more than enough for what I need for now. I guess a desk of somekind would allow me to do what I want to but I'm not all that fussed about it. Tbh I'm actually thinking about buying that 4x10 anyway, would solve all problems making it two seperate rigs and I'm pretty sure I can squeeze it in the passenger seat of the car... You guys know what it's like, sell one buy two lol. Interesting looking at the tonebone site tho, looks like it's proper good quality stuff. I'll be investing in a twin city soon to replace the fender aby which has a little hum/buzz. Not much but the tonebone equivalent looks like noise elimination its sole purpose other than the switch itself, so that's maybe a common problem with that type switch. Thanks again for all the advice. Even when I was asking for something that doesn't exist yet haha.
  8. Never tried vegamite though. Sounds particularily nasty to be honest haha.
  9. Yeah the tonebone has the same one output problem as the rest of the switches I see around. These are all for two amps into one cab, what I was attempting doesn't seem to be possible with the equipment I have. My idea to use two ABYs won't work either because to run a 2 speaker setup the connections need to be in the 2x16ohm or 1x8 channels. Being that my cabs are 16s when I split the signal the amp going to 8 would probably do damage. I've ordered one of these.. will just put it between the board and the amps with one cab powered by one amp. Thought about buying another cab for the Orange, for example theres an orange 4x10 for sale close to me but that starts taking me back to needing vans and stuff to do a gig. My car ain't huge and all this fits in the boot/trunk. SR., yeah the two amps sound pretty good in a bluesy kinda mood. If you have one slightly cleaner than the other and get a good balance it sounds quite amazing. Bonamassa uses this all the time apparently so who am I to argue lol. Thought I was being original too haha.
  10. Pic for you. Only a small rig but I get a nicer tone than I ever had from my big twin. I'd like to have the switchability to go orange to both, blackstar to both or one each? 2 ABYs work? Won't blow up an amp or nothing?
  11. Hi again Curtisa, long time bro haha. Seems like your the only one who can be bothered to answer my dumb questions. Yep it's one guitar into two amps. I actually upgraded from the micro terror to the tiny terror last night and think that it sounds slightly better and louder despite being 5w down on power??. I have a fender AorB-Y a+b-y switch coming, which will allow me to switch the guitar input between or select both for a blend, but it was the speaker cab connections I was really asking about. I wanted to conect both cabs to both amps rather than just one each or two cabs connected to one amp at a time. I thought there might be a bit gear availible that would switch over the speaker cable too since I was told that they can't be connected together in parallel. Couldn't find anything so I thought about buying an additional 2 aBY pedals and using them to switch the connections over but would that work with speaker connections? Ive ended up just settling for one 1x12 per amp for now, I'll see at the weekend if its got enough balls to play a small room. Any other suggestions would be great tho man.
  12. Hi guys. I have a question for you gearheads. I am only starting to do little gigs after a long time away from it. Playing solo with a loop pedal and no noisy drummer boy I don't need loads of volume now, so I've been using 2 small valve amps making my rig quite portable. First is the blackstar ht5 mini stack. 5w head 2 1x12s. And a little orange micro terror 20w which I find amazing for certain stuff. Just now I plug the Orange into one of the cabs during a break then have a terror bit in the set. Id like to be able to put the Orange on my pedal board and run both heads to both cabs, and have an AB footswitch to go back and forth between the heads, is this possible? Would the little micro even power both 12s? Maybe some gandalf designed voodoo magic piece of kit?
  13. I can see how that will work now Curtisa, I'm definitely due you a few beers, thank you very much for your help with this.
  14. Hey again Curtisa, Yeah I knew about the earths, it's the switch that's making me pull my hair out. I've redrawn as per your instructions so far lol. I can see the neck pu is now on pos 123. The humbucker wiring tho I'm still not grasping. I can see the red will be on pos 2+4 but I want the full bucker on pos 3 too. Also Where do I put the White and green that it creates the coil split on position2? This is confusing the hell outta me haha. Got the marker dots in this morning so I'm just waiting on the ca glue drying and I'll be starting the wiring tonight hopefully. Went for the relic look and the notched square inlays. Here's a progress pic.. Notice the reverse angle on the pickup, wonder what it will sound like.
  15. Yeah looking at it again that won't be rite.
  16. Ok so my humbuckers is a four wire and I'm still not finding what I want. I think I have it sussed but not sure... here's what I've come up with myself. will this work?
  17. Thank you Curtisa. I'll post a pic when it's finished. Thanks again.
  18. Hi again everyone. I've been playing around with one of my own guitars over the last few weeks. It's a little steinberger spirit gt that I use for traveling with. They are very compact and great for anyone who is regularly traveling, however It's problem has always been that it sounded, and played pretty poorly. I decided to give it a bit of an upgrade in the form of a pickup and configuration change, upgraded wiring, pots cap etc, nicer fret markers and a veneer flame top (I know it's not worth it but it's my own so who cares lol). This pic was taken after the first of the sealer went on but before I did the black burst around the edge (I'll pop up a pic when it's finished but this gives you an idea... so it will be a bare knuckle "Sinner" single coil in the neck and a bare knuckle "warpig" in the bridge. Two very powerful pickups. BKP have built the pickups as a matching pair for me and they supplied the cts pots, switch and their own Russian military grade capacitor. 1 humbucker 1 single coil. 1 vol, 1 tone and 4way lever switch. I'd to use the pos2 on the 4way switch as a coil tap on the H then the standard other three positions. I need to find a wiring diagram for this guys? Anyone have, or even know where I can find one? The usual sources don't seem to have this type of config. Thanks, Thistle.
  19. Pretend double neck guitar eh? Will look ok as long as the scale length (string length from bridge to nut) is close and your frets are in the correct positions. There are various feet calculators online for free use. Stew Mac is one. Will you be using real strings and pickups etc or is it just a pure non functioning prop? And what do yo mean by slot width?
  20. Thanks for the tip P. I'm working with Purple Heart just now which is the same apparently and my extraction isn't great, so Ive just been wearing a good mask. I'll treat the beech with the same caution . Tops eh! That's good. Will make some beautiful tops, one piece and bookmatched. There's still loads to cut up but id like to do a build entirely of of the woods from these trees. This will be for my friend who owns the ground we are clearing. As for a neck material would sycamore work? There is Oak, Yew, Sycamore and Beech so far. I think that's what all of it is apart from one unidentified tree. Assuming that's not maple or something you see as a neck material would it be possible to do a whole build using only those woods? Sycamore neck? Would it need to be laminated with one of the others?, oak is pretty hard so... fret board? Yew back with a Beech top for the body maybe? I'll cross my fingers and hope this other stuff is maple lol.
  21. Been boarding out more large trunks today. Starting to find some really nice stuff. This is the copper beach. [/url [url=http://s734.photobucket.com/user/mechanix14/media/BC3A3BD1-79FA-42C4-840F-181C676F3A4B_zpszahcakya.jpg.html] Please tell me I can use this for something??
  22. +1. Would really like to know who does your templates. Takes me hours so it'd be worth it.
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