NamelessOne

staying off topic... texans eh? Here in Alberta, we're Texas squared where it's good, and Canada where Texas isn't good. We got cattle gaurds (call 'em Texas gates... credit where credit's due). We got the best beef on the continent. We got oil... more than Texas, probably. We got a premier who actually speaks his mind from time to time. We've got boomtowns. Several. We also got ski resorts. contest over.

nice invisible tuner...

I"m worried about the bottom left-most spike... that's a big area supported by a significant amount of cross-grain, and it's in a place very likely to get knocked around. repeat that thought, though a lot less so, for each of the spikes on the sides. on the other hand, it's very metal. VERY METAL. \m/ \m/

isn't 1 3/4 inch pretty standard? it looks a lot thicker than it is because of the contour. you have to look a bit closer... doesn't look to bad to me. I'd be VERY cautious if you do the scooped back. you might get white poplar showing up in the middle in weird ways, which might not look too good...

well, apparently Vancouver got hit recently... it's still +10 C and EXTREMELY windy here in Calgary. Only a bit of ice left on the groud, but it's nice and slick, it's surface polished by the sublimation.

ever seen a bongo bass? that's what popped into my head when I looked at that today... a metal bongo.

I've seen worse. Of course, I'm in calgary, so we get a chinook every couple months or so which melts everything on the ground... it's about 10 degrees C out here right now, with the ground soaked from meltwater.

heh.. you have the same first year german curriculum as I do... heh... Ich bin Conrad. Ich bin vierzehn auch. Ich spiele gern Bassguitarre. In meine freitzeit, ich spiele Bassguitarre. Ich Spiele keine Sport. while we've hijacked the thread, any other linguists here? Je parle un peu de français. Je voudrais étudier plus, mais mon professeuse de français n'est pas un bon professeuse. J'ai déja visité la France, et l'Allemange aussi. Ich parle badly...

is there supposed to be a "patent applied for" sticker on the bottom of a tele single coil? I thought that the PAFs were gibson...

well, there was another poster here recently who had the core grain perpendicular to the strings... his turned out, so it should work. However, it was a one piece core, so there was no end grain glue joint, which is what I'm worried about more. waiting for the input of someone who's actually done this before...

dude, if you want to cuss people out in germanic languages, just learn a bunch of really innocent, pointless phrases like (in german): Franzosich ist mein Lieblingsfach french is my favorate subject Gehen Sie eine Bissien weiter go a bit farther Das ist in der Schweiz that's in switzerland Bratwurst mit Brote, bitte sausage on a bun, please sorry for the spelling errors, and don't forget the gutterals and "Z"s BTW, this only works on people who don't know german. if they do, they'll just laugh. it's not about cussing people out, it's about NOT cussing people out and making them think they just got burned in german. oh yeah, and... ,, Luke, ich bin dein Vater.... HA! NICHT! ''

in the body? that's a new use... unless you're thinking about the neck, in which case, I was talking about the body (the one with the flamed claro top) the whole time.

I'm just wondering if there's any problems with doing the bookmatch with perpendicular grain. What about the center join, which would end up being an end grain joint (weak)? stability? other than that, I like them. especially the walnut ones.

well, if you built the neck, props for doing so on your first. If not, I'm not overly impressed. You've got a body cut out of softwoods. It's got a decent neck pocket (which does take some skill). it still needs pickup routs, a control cavity, and suchlike. However, I would like to stress one point. PLANNING IS HALF THE WORK. it looks like a turtle, and you find it too big. you won't be able to solo much. it'll be uncomfortable to sit with. it doesn't match the headstock. my first was in planning for several months before I made the first cut for it. now, I still like the plan, it's got amazing access to the top frets, and nice looks. probably the typical teen desire for instant gratification, but then again, who am I to talk, as I'm just 14.

As far as I can tell... We agree. We've agreed the whole time. Don't you hate it when that happens? Except, I claim that the "peak" of the fretboard, the point where the ruler lies completely touching the jar, as you put it, varies from string to string, and has nothing to do with the thickest point on the fretboard. It's the individual string's ideal path, not the center of the fretboard, that defines where it ceases becoming farther from the fretboard when you bend. This ideal path may be closer to the center, farther from the the center, or even not on the board at all. the flat bridge stuff and other cases you (rather diligently) argued against were ideas of situations where the thickest point on the fretboard actually defines where a string starts getting closer to the fretboard on a bend. My examples given were trying to illustrate my point, made above. The first bit you quoted, about the model, sort of agreeing with me. You're just using CAD-speak when I'm using geometry-speak. I lost a bit in translation, but it appears you calculated (using a rather powerful calculator) the distance between a plane (?) (finding Z-coordinate, since Z=0 is a plane) and the fretboard at various points, or is it a string and the fretboard? Have fun with your binding, the friend I'm working on my guitar with hates it... THE CONCLUSION OF THE THREAD: flat fretboards: never cause complex mathematical discussions. they should be made standard on all guitars.

okay... first paragraph... you found the distance between the edge of the fretboard and a tangent to the conter of it. repeated this for frets 1 and 24? then gave the difference between the distances, or no? the quoted text, however, refers to the second paragraph there. the raduis has no peak, but the board has a center, which I beleive is what you are referring to. what I think is the weak link in your reasoning is that you assume the bridge has no radius. If that were true, I'd agree completely with you. Or, if the bridge had a longer radius that the fingerboard. I view the fretboard and bridge as points on a cylindrical object also. it's just, you must remember that the curved face of a cylinder is the same everywhere. If you only have a segment of it, such as a fretboard, that still applies within the segment. For example, look down the fretboard of your guitar (would be easier with just a neck, or even just in your head) and tilt it a couple degrees to one side. There's now a new highest point on it, beside where the old one was. now, the same thing happens if you bend past this peak as any other possible peak on the board. the "peak", or point where a string can only be bent in a way that brings it closer to the fretboard, is defined by the path of the string, and differs between strings. I'm sorry if that's hard to follow, my brain works a LOT differently than most people's, and I explain things differently than most people would. Also, after I posted my other calculations (made by reducing the radius and string to a circle and chord, thanks to the similar triangles or something like that theorem, then using the radius-bisects-chord-at-90-degrees theorem and the pythagoream theorem), I did a worst-case scenario. I looked at my bass (string spacing about doubles between ends) and checked how far I could bend. I got my low E up to the dot inlays on the center of the board, and I'm not a good bender. So, it moved just over an inch between the point I fretted it at and the bridge. at a 7.5 inch radius, the tightest I've ever heard of used (on a bass), the string is about .02 inch closer at the middle than it would be on a perfect board. This also supports the second paragraph I wrote here, as that's a lot more than what I got for just where it was, and I hadn't bent it over the center of the board. I imagine, due to the properties of circles and sine and such, as you bend further, this effect increases much faster. also, for anyone who wants to calculate this, scale length doesn't matter, due to the whole "similar triangles" law (the same thing that makes frets work with fanned strings, and stops f*nned frets from working with fanned strings). So, simply calculate is as the fretboard being an arc of a circle, and the strings being chords on the arc.

fryovanni- you mention the "top" of the fretboard. Might I remind you that while the fretboard has a centerline, it is a cylindrical surface, and they are basically uninterrupted- no top. the "ideal" position I mentioned in my previous post is ther closest thing to a "top" you can find. In a cylindrical raduis board, the if you bend a string towards the near edge of the board, you actually will end up raising the center of the string away from the frets. Btw, I'm only a person with a decent degree of reasoning, and a gift for visualising geometry, but not a person with the knowledge of how to calculate that kind of thing numerically. I have my grade 11 math already (not bad for a 14-year old), but no real access to any way of simulating this other than pencil and paper. I'll try sometime, though. I'm sure that this makes very little difference, but this discussion should mention both the thoery, and how much it affects practice. I mean, if there's some guy who can bend across the board on a tight-radius, highly fanned-string bass, it would make a difference to him. Some people push the limits, and they need instruments that do also. Remember kids, in theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. already formulating thoughts on how to solve this... edit: alright, my calculations agree mainly with perry... I have yet to calculate how bending affects this, but for now... I got the same answer as perry, but, I didn't spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it... I got the calculator from a sibling, the ruler was given to my parents, and I'm borrowing the bass... that accounts to... FREE! therefore, I am infinity percent more cost-effective than perry.

well, the geometry of it states that if you have a cylindrical surface, such as a standard non-compound radius fretboard, strings that are not parallel to each other can never all be parallel to the board. you will end up with the board being closer to the string in the middle of the string's length, especially with the strings closer to the edges of the fretboard. the middle (D and G, or A for people like me) strings will generally be just fine, and able to get a nice low action. If there is no taper between the strings (unlike most guitars), you can get nice low action until you start bending. Enter a compound radius. An ideal compound radius follows the shape of a cone, and the strings should ideally be parallel to the cone. This means that with more string taper (different bringe and nut spacings), the cone should be more promenent. this also means that there's only one coefficeint of cone-ness (I don't know the word) that works with each string spacing, for maximum effect. However, a imperfect compound radius is usually better that a cylindrical radius. When you bend a string, the point of attachment to the cone moves off a point where it's parallel, and the string may fret out, or buzz. When it's a flat board, it's simply a plane. Nothing fancy here, just every line that is the same distance from the surface of the plane at two points is by definition parallel to it. Even if you can bend so far that the two Es touch, you'll never fret out, and it's easier to get low action without buzzes. BTW, Perry made me mad too when I was new here. But, I simply shut up, and now value his advice and experience. Hydrogeoman, stick around for a while, and you won't care anymore. Often, the people with the best advice and questions on a forum manage to get everyone else mad at the same time. I've seen people with REALLY interesting opinions and questions get banned on another forum because nobody seemed to want to hear some of his opinions. But, nobody's going to do anything of the sort to perry, because the rest of us want to hear what he has to say.

if the piece broke off cleanly, it'll fit back on perfectly. add a little glue, and you've got a joint that's a lot better of a fit than any amount of sanding will ever get you.

send me a piece, big enough for a top, and I might be able to figure it out... looks like some cross between birdseye and pomelle? figuring with a bit of slight quilt in the background (as is common with those figures)

perhaps candy or translucent red paint on the bevels, instead of opaque red?

guilty also. Don't worry Drak, you weren't an idiot. you just had unhealthy liking for some dan guy...

for the ultimate perfectionist, you could shellac the edges of the body near the bevels, dye, then scrape the body clean, before masking the bevels and spraying your body color. unmask the bevels before the clear, and you should be fine. most people spray clear over dyes anyway, so there should be no adhesion problem with the color coat. However, I am NOT an expert, and my opinion is probably no better supported than yours.

24" will give you lower tension for the same gauge strings, though it will make the high frets closer together and harder to play on. also, the low tension contributes to a "loose" string feel that some might not like. 25.5" scale gives a tighter string feel, allowing for lower action without constantly hitting the string to the fretboard while picking. Make sure that when you carve your neck, you don't go into the truss rod channel. Also, for neck shapes, think about what you like and dislike about your current guitar. work from there. If you're really concerned with the light touch thing, use huge frets or scallop your fretboard. I know scalloping is somewhat of an advanced building technique, but you gotta learn it sometime if you ever want to use it. I've played breifly on a scalloped board, and I quite like the feel, as you never touch the fingerboard, and if you don't use a light touch, you can hear it as the string bends out of tune.

Alright, but make sure that the fret is in a position where the tilting of the headstock will not change the length of the string. The only way to do that is to have to string break over a point that lies exactly on the axis of rotation of the string. I will not be able to see or reply to this thread for several days, but it's good to see others who support my opinion to carry on the argument in my absence.