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charisjapan

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  1. charisjapan
    Yes indeedy! I am what I am and that's all that I am. Toot! Yes, I found some very high quality 4 X 6 mm carbon rods here, quite a bit stronger than the hobby stuff. At least that is their claim. Thanks for the encouragement ... and Popeye memory!
  2. charisjapan
    Spent a bit of time resawing the cherry planks into fretboard blanks ... a bandsaw job that takes 10 minutes ... if I only had a bandsaw! Found my table saw under all the stuff on my shop table (of all places! ), and made slices on each side of the raw planks. Then the fun begins ... handsawing with the grain of pretty hard wood is NOT fun. I will definitely feel this tomorrow! Got 4 blanks, two will be all white sapwood, and two will be red/white heartwood/sapwood. One white will be for the Chinaberry Two, and the other three to add to my stock. The fun continues as I take these down to about 6-8 mm (from the present 12-14 mm) while making sure there is no twist or bend. I will do that in two steps, first flattening to 10 mm, letting them settle, cutting to approximate size. letting them settle again, the final flattening before slotting and radiusing. All this would be a LOT easier with a power planer or sanding thicknesser ... $$ and space won't allow either, so back to hand tools! It's all good. Cheers!
  3. charisjapan
    Curtisa beat me to it ... I went to get a cup of coffee.
  4. charisjapan
    Hey Retuos, As has been said, there are no exact rules for pickup position, "warm tone in the neck" generally comes from being as close to the 12th fret as possible. With a 24 fret humbucker guitar, butted right up against the fretboard is the best you're gonna get. I have a 24 fret SG, and that's where the neck pickup is. You would do well to have a warm pickup, too. What concerns me about your bridge is the outline of a Gotoh hardtail bridge with the saddle line about in the center ... that doesn't seem right. The bridges I have seen usually have the A saddle at about 2/3rds toward the neck. I don't think you can screw those saddles that far back, and the E would usually be even a little farther back than that. Before you decide bridge location, make double-sure where your saddles are at the middle of their travel, and use the A saddle as your point of reference. My SG has the bridge humbucker a bit closer to the bridge, but that is again a personal choice. The closer it gets to the bridge, the more "nasal" the tone, but also less volume, so usually want a higher gain pickup. It's all a toss up in the end, any custom guitar will have its own character. But check that saddle, Correct scale is more important than pickup location! Cheers!
  5. charisjapan
    So cut up the board that has a lot of white sapwood hoping to find enough to make a decent fretboard (or two!). Even with shallow cuts my circular was blackening the wood, but eventually got a few promising pieces. For this build, I want all white if at all possible, and it looks like I found one. Got out the Made in England #4 Stanley Bailey plane and cleaned it up, making a nice pile of red and white shavings. The schoolkids came out (I run a homeschool co-op ) and were amazed. Japanese city kids don't get much opportunity to see woodwork. I let them touch the rough side, then planed a bit and showed how smooth it gets. I was impressed just a few years ago when I first used a nice plane, and it delighted these 6-12 year old kids. Made my day. Two of the kids have a hamster, so saw that this was the same kind of thing that you buy at a store in a bag, lol. I wasn't sure if cherry was good for pets, so pulled out a piece of SPF and made a couple handfuls of long thin shavings for them to take home ... spoiled hamster! I don't have a bandsaw, so will have to resaw this by hand, so will probably make a cut on each side with my jerry-rigged table saw (a circular saw screwed into the bottom of my workbench) and use a Japanese pull-saw to resaw. I forsee muscle pain. Cheers!
  6. charisjapan
    Hey curtisa, won't disregard as what you said is still valid ... and all new to me! I've been searching all over for nut and bridge spacing theory (sounds like SF ), and found so many different takes. Like I said, I settled on a hybrid at the nut, but this bridge has an adjustment feature, so will fiddle around until I find what I like. Cheers, Mate!
  7. charisjapan
    Took the neck blank down another millimeter to 27 mm, still quite flat. Made a neck template so I could get a handle on bridge and pickup locations. Also, drove myself crazy trying to decide nut slots. Even string-to-string, even spaces between strings, or hybrid? I looked at a few bass guitars, and most seem to be either even spaces or hybrid, My Hipshot Type A bridge can adjust side-to-side a bit, so should be able to do any method ... but leaning on hybrid, as that's what my Musicman is. Also got a package from the Netherlands today!! Q-tuner Q2.0 Jazz pickups with optional Locust Wood covers. Looks like it will match the Chinaberry, Yay! Neck design stage, leaning toward a soft-V profile. Plenty of space for truss rod and two 4 X 6 mm carbon reinforcing rods. Cheers!
  8. charisjapan
    Chinaberry Two neck blank news. Last week made a router sled and used a 30 mm "D" bit to take it from a somewhat warped and uneven +/- 31 mm piece of wood to a proper 28 mm neck blank. Zero movement, but it's only been a week. I'll leave it sit a bit longer, then go ahead and rout truss rod slot and two more slots for carbon fiber reinforcement. Would making three slots in it will create another "opportunity" for movement? I guess I'll find out. Cheers!
  9. charisjapan
    After meeting with a2k and seeing his headstock, I got to thinking how I will make the Mt. Fuji work with the cherry blank I have. To angle, or NOT to angle ,,, THAT is the question. Angle will require a scarf joint, but will add a little bit to the stability. A flat headstock is a bit easier , and will probably show off the Mt. Fuji shape to better effect. Not decided yet, but used MSPaint to give me an idea of what the break angle will be, and truss rod situation. Cheers!
  10. charisjapan
    Was honored to meet up with a2k today at "his" workshop! Got to play a bit with his 5-string, and brought Chinaberry One. The shop was empty, but we didn't get any woodwork done ... too busy talking. I've only met one other builder here in Japan, and few people "get it" about crafting an instrument. Thanks for the invite!! a2k me Cheers!
  11. charisjapan
    Yes, those little holes are tremendous tonesuckers! Just like sound-absorption baffles, all those little holes and bit-depth irregularities will cause uneven reverberations between the flat top and your cavity floor. You could either smooth the bottom, or make an exact reverse image on the inside of the top. ... Seriously, I really doubt there is much tonal effect, but I couldn't live with myself knowing what it looked like in the cavity. I guess it really depends on the thickness of the back. I have heard it said that too thin will give you too much "air" ... but in all reality, 1/4" or more will sound fine. Cheers!
  12. charisjapan
    AFAIK, the three pieces I got were quite old, and not correctly stickered. I've had them for six months, and they don't seem to have moved at all ... until I cut the sides off ... and even then, minimal. I'm going to cut the last piece, which is about 60% white sapwood, later today, and hope to get this bass fretboard and maybe two guitar boards. I will cut these oversized to allow for further movement. Like I said, this is my first neck, but I have been lurking on a few sites for about a year, trying to get a feel for little sticks (necks) and thick, wide, truncated planks (body blanks) ... I'm a lot more used to studs, rafters, beams, TIG plywood, and lots and lots of pneumatically-driven, cement-coated fasteners, lol. Never used a router sled before, but it sounds like fun! I will build a body-sized box, a neck-sized rail, and a radius jig, as they take up a lot less space than any of the tools I wish I had, but will probably never get. After I plane this neck blank, I should know in a week or two if it's going to move more, but even then, I won't make the final plane until it is in basic neck dimension and the truss rod slot is routed. Either way, the pickups are still 4-6 weeks away from Japan. Does this sound like a plan? Oh, forgot to say that the reasons I am so hung up on this cherry, is that 1) it and the Chinaberry are from Japan, 2) the red and white natural colors connect with my Mt. Fuji headstock scheme, and 3) I'm O.C.D. Thanks, ScottR, and looking forward to Prostheta's thoughts.
  13. charisjapan
    Hey all, This is my first neck. I'm prepping for the Chinaberry Two neck, but not sure how to proceed. I was assuming that this plank of Japanese Mountain Cherry (yama-zakura) would be unstable, but when I cut it into a largish neck-blank-sized piece today, it kept shape ... which was a bit twisted. I cut another piece that was from the same tree (I think) into 30 mm X 30 mm sticks, and they moved around a bit, but not that much, so hoping this piece is not under a lot of internal stress. What do you think, will this piece will be stable enough with a thick-ish (7 mm) fretboard? Maybe add a pair of carbon fiber rods alongside the double-action trussrod? If not, I'll cut this into three pieces and laminate, but if possible, would like to preserve the grain. I don't have access to a planer or thickness sander, so will use a router sled to flatten this ... expecting 25 mm, then will let it sit a week to make sure it's stable. One final question, can I carve against the rings like in the picture below? Present dimensions of this wood are 900 mm X 130 mm X 30 mm (36" X 5" X 1-3/16"). My neck specifications are a 30" scale length, 42 mm nut, .750" bridge spacing (but the Hipshot A allows adjustment), 24 frets, and looking at a medium-C profile. Appreciate any thoughts ... Cheers!
  14. charisjapan
    Just WoW! This is where a jaw-drop emoticon would be handy. Or a drooling mess. Or a green-with-envy. But this'll do ... (but we need a right and a left!) Well done.
  15. charisjapan
    Speaking of Chinaberry Two, these just arrived! I wasn't expecting them for another couple of weeks, but ... Hipshot Type A Aluminum .750 bridge Hipshot Y-key Ultralite 3/8" tuners Hipshot 2-string retainer Hipshot O-Ring knobs Gotoh black chrome strap pins Bourns 24 mm split-shaft pots, B500K volumes and A500K tone Montreux jack D'Addario short-scale strings I have everything else except the pickups, which are on order ... Q2.0 Jazz set with optional Locust hardwood covers. 4-6 weeks. Sigh. After my daughter's family goes home, I will start making the laminate neck blank and fingerboard. The cherry wood might need some time to settle, so probably the pickups will arrive before I actually start building.
  16. charisjapan
    I thought it a good idea to append this after using in an actual gig environment. Indeed the Volume knob works like a charm ... in fact, this is the smoothest taper throughout the sweep that I've ever experienced, active or passive, bass or 6-string. I am definitely going to explore using a cap/resistor bleed in my Les Paul R8, which has the absolute worst taper ... 90% volume drop between 8 and 10 (which seems pretty normal). And the Tone knob lives!! In a gig situation, switching from pick to finger, the taper and range worked perfectly. I could clearly hear the difference, and could dial in just what I wanted ... which I did not expect from a passive circuit. With the active MusicMan, I could dial in just about anything with humbucker/piezo and TMB onboard preamp, but it's too sensitive, and a hassle to find "that" tone. This is dead-easy, no messing with the amp, just get the exact volume then a quick tweak of the Tone knob. I will also say that the Bourns pots I used are excellent ... I used CTS exclusively until now, but these 24 mm split-shaft are just the right combination of smooth and fast. I am pleased to pronounce this repurpose a success. The bad news is the finish. It looks great now, but the urethane top coat is a bit wimpy. I've already got a few scratches that I don't think are normal for a guitar finish. Perhaps I need more coats? I will use it for a while, and see how it fares ... but I have to make a decision before I finish the sister-build, Chinaberry Two. I'm not devastated, this IS a beater guitar, and repurposed, and will be used by others perhaps not as careful as I am, so ... we'll see. Appropriate companion to express the bark/growl/bite of my new axe ... this is Beaujolais the Border Collie.
  17. charisjapan
    Absolutely no modesty at all ... I really am that bad. I started playing 30 years too late, but still happy to just noodle around on the 6-string and play simple bass.
  18. charisjapan
    Haha! Yeah, I have noticed that trend. I'm immune, as I can't even manage 6 strings ... But I certainly understand giving the people what they want ... 8, 9, whatever. I have a luthier buddy in nearby Tokyo whose goal is to build a theorbo ... apparently he played one professionally as a young man. Now THAT is a "stringed instrument!"
  19. charisjapan
    Love the recessed TOM and ring-less pickups But you seem to have an extra string ...
  20. charisjapan
    Hey 2.5ITIM, Those are some nice looking guitars you have in the works! And I really envy you a local shop that carries that kind of wood ... nice score. Looking forward to progress reports. Oh, and I might be (ahem) borrowing your compact radius jig ... space is really at a premium here, so anything that saves a few inches is helpful.
  21. charisjapan
    ... a few sunlight pics ...
  22. charisjapan
    It lives!! I was able to use it for band practice this morning, and will debut tomorrow morning. Required very minimal setup, as neck and bridge are repurposed. The Bartolini humbucker with a minimalist passive setup sounds a LOT better than the previous precision/jazz pickups ever did. The volume has a very smooth taper all the way down to zero ... I credit the Emerson treble bleed mod, my first time to use it. The tone pot, however, is very subtle ... which is fine, as I rarely mess with it. Maybe the treble bleed affects the treble cut? Whatever, I am looking forward to worship tomorrow ... practicing in an empty room is different from playing along with 40 or 50 voices. Ergonomics are even better than I expected ... completely different from the broomstick! It was a nice practice bass sitting down, but awkward standing. Now, compared with the MusicMan, it feels like a feather ... and was concerned it might sound like one. Fortunately, not the case. My wrist rests on the bevel nicely for playing over the pickup, and the balance on the strap is perfect for me. Final weight: 3.342 Kg, / 7 lb.6oz.. And everyone likes the Chinaberry grain/flame!!
  23. charisjapan
    Man, that is one superb transition! I was going to try something like that with Chinaberry Two, which be my first scratch-build. What kind of glue did you use, Titebond Original?
  24. charisjapan
    As expected, this was scary to wire up in the tight cavity. I can't believe I go through it without burn marks! You can see the 5 mm neodymium magnet sitting on top of the sunken screw in that pillar in the center. I was in a rush to make this maple cover, and it shows. I will probably give it another try later, but tomorrow is first gig, so ... The maple cover is just super-glued to the magnet inside, and I needed a way to hold it in place ... thus another magnet while the wood super glue hardens. This was nearly a disaster, as the second magnet immediately jumped from my hand and attached itself to the super glue! After separating the (no mean feat!), I tried again, keeping the second magnet on the top of the guitar, and it was another chore to grab it ... it's so tiny, and kept jumping to another metal part. First attracted to the humbucker (naturally), to the bridge, then to the screw of the strap pin ... Gaahh!
  25. charisjapan
    Thanks, Knightro! A compliment from you means a lot, as I've seen your work! The clamps are off, it's wired up, and just had band practice ... tomorrow debut.
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