mistermikev

well that's a lovely piece of maple. afa bandsaw... it is certainly a do-able proposition. lots of folks do it that way... but some sanding it going to happen. if you have some sort of disk sander or belt sander that can clean it up afterwards - would make things a lot easier. another alternative... since you no doubt have a router... is to create a jig for doing it via router. i used to do angled headstocks with such a jig. use a protractor to draw the angle on two pieces of scrap, use a straight edge piece of scrap to router off the angle. then use some straight scrap to connect the two pieces. put a big chunk of plexiglass on your router and it should allow you to place it on that angled surface and move it around. just a thought.

so was talking on the axe fx forum about wiring and had mentioned one of my fav mods for a strat... is just wiring a dummy coil up to the 2nd volume as it allows for hum cancellation against the bridge or neck as you dial up the volume. Someone had asked for a drawing so I did a quick and dirty... thought I'd share it here. In fact... we should really have a schem repository but then they are so available in this day and age, perhaps not worth it. anywho... this is that. basically you grab another single coils that is similar in spec to your bridge/neck pickup... pound out the poles with a screwdriver or nail set... and wire it up as pictured below. stick it in the extra space between your pickups or in the control cavity... doesn't really matter. so... as you turn it up it cancels hum in the 1/5 positions... You can just turn it up until the hum stops... but also dials down the pickup output a hair... making it less aggressive. also dials down the brightness just a touch... like a fine tune control.

looking good brutha.

Hello curtisa, always good to have your input. yes, I am aware of the fact that emg uses a difference amp to subtract the noise from the signal... and as such doesn't require a ground. In fact most actives use some variation of this idea. in this case I was planning on using a cool pickup that was made for me by my friend over at oat soda pickups. it's two p bass passives - one based on p bass and one based on a split jazz. so in short they are passive, and could be quite bright (have not heard them yet). the orig carl t used an emg guitar pickup... and my early drafts of this bass were using that. the downside there is that there would be no splitting/combining of differing pickups ie less variety. another downside is I'd have to re-think the preamp I was going to use... i do have a haz lab pre pcb cut... and it does have an option to optimize for actives vs passives... but has more controls than I intended(bass/mid/treb + mid freq). the upsides being that the piezo doesn't require grounded strings, so using them would indeed mean no string ground required... and it would simplify the controls a lot... hmm... I'm gonna think on that, good call on your part. I have a p/j set and a 707... would have to see how I would integrate them into my existing route/cover-design.

well I thought of doing this but A ) the ferrules have black paint... which would have to scratch off where they make electrical conn and it might be problematic to actually solder to it, B ) it would seem a bit cumbersome as if it gets disconnected after the ferrules are in... would be a pain to take out. Also... running wire from each ferrule to the other... would be hard to hide this and not have issues with the ferrules sitting flat. I had thought of running a ground wire to just one ferrule... then using a steel or brass nut to transfer ground to strings E-G... but again then with the nylon tape between the actual string and the nut I don't think there'd be a great electrical connection there and also would not be black. another idea I had was to just get some 1/16" flat brass and drill holes for the ferrules to mount in it, this would ground them together, then put a finish plate over the top of it. with the radius there... would just create a route for the new ferrule block and given the string slots are pretty long on top... should be able to make it work. again, would make a wood cover to top it and use magnets to secure. would hide the whole thing. option z is I machine my own brass block and put make the holes follow the arc. I guess it's really only drilling 6 holes... in theory my cnc can do brass... but then have to buy some bits for metal, have to get a coolant pump... not sure I want to go through all that. I guess I'll just keep thinking it over in my head until it comes time where it's the last thing I have to do and maybe then I'll know which way to go! appreciate the input biz - thanks,

thank you. well I'd kind of have some ideas how I'm going to do the bridge. I bought these locking studs... that are for les paul style tailpiece and have tops that screw on... was thinking I could do an acoustic saddle... over a piezo ribbon, and create set screws in front/back of the studs to allow for fwd/rev action on the bridge. so that rules out a ground connection via the bridge itself... but I was thinking I could buy one of these: https://graingerguitarparts.com/products/grainger-bass-string-ferrule-block-5-string-19mm-spacing and bury it in the backside and do some sort of wood overlay. then just run a ground wire too it. the ironic thing is I use nylon tapewound strings which make a ground connection thru fingers rather weak... but you never know when you want to toss some round wounds on so best to have it. having it at the ferrules at least makes connection to the string balls and not via the strings themselves so I think that will work best for my application. i do need to add working with brass to my skill set... but this bass isn't a great candidate since I don't want gold/brass. finishing it would be problematic at best. anywho, thank you gents for getting my brain flowing!

well thank you sir... I forgot too in the sense that I don't know where I was at. kevin came with the request for a tele and this just got pushed aside... and realizing now how much there is to do. turns out I made a mistake in my design in placing the stud holes too wide apart... so no worries... make lemonaid... was thinking I'll do a wood bridge w piezo. so.. the electronics are going to be uber complicted. going to have a sep preamp for piezo, sep preamp for mags, the pickup is actually two p-style pickups together... so there will be the typical mike v "lotsaoptions" wiring... it's probably going to be too complicated. have to solve some issues too like how to ground the strings if not via the bridge... think I'll just buy a brass 5 string insert... or perhaps try my hand at milling brass? or perhaps run a ground wire to one string ferrule then use a brass nut? i dunno. decided to cut my own fretboard out of pupleheart... but my machine is only 24" so will have to attempt to tile it... lots to learn there. My design for neck needs a lot of work yet... and this would be a first doing an angled headstock via cnc. bit overwhelming... but just have to put one foot in front of the other and repeat!

so actively back working on this build decided to rebuild my tablesaw jig. got it all built... and was so focused on getting the fence perpendicular to the base (it IS perp)... that I missed the fact that the fence is not quite tight to the rabbet in the middle... so both ends pull back about 1/32... which is the exact amount I won't let slide (hehe). fortunately I had the foresight to NOT glue down my handles... so those will come off easy. Room to improve anyway... my rabbet was a little too deep so I'll fix that in the design.

right on. 1deg ain't much... but I bet it'll feel kinda nice. yes, tele neck is typically 1/8" above body level + fretboard... so it sticks up 3/8" on a normal build. that said... no rules. my last it is about 1/8" higher than that... it's like walking a tightrope! kind of nice tho in it's own way. dave/action... I am exactly the sm way. i like them laying on the frets, the lower the better. that said every once in a while i pickup a guitar that higher or just the action has changed due to temp/humid... kind of nice to play it a bit higher sometimes. anywho... I'll shut up now.

first off the tops... ooh la la. very nice. should be an outstanding looking guitar. interesting idea to put an angle on a flat top bridge. I guess if you are maintaining a slope for the neck pickup that might be required? Either way I'm sure it will add comfort. 25.5 scale... the devil's scale lol. surprising how much dif a half inch can make in terms of feel. man... you crank out some guitars. I admire that - your work ethic is impressive. I think if I tried to go faster I'd just make that many more mistakes - it's a skill unto itself. take a bow.

right on. nice work on the fretboard!! yes, george benson, pat metheney, and about a hundred other jazz guitar players said a collective "are you daft"? all worked out tho! look fwd to your next steps.

oh snap... it's a bass. ok! i like what is going on with the fretboard if I'm seeing that right... is that 3 pieces joined together? bass... now you can officially tell folks "you slappa da bass mon". I learned to play bass somewhere around my jr year high school. Our band instructor... "you can't play guitar in jazz band"... mr bader was his actual name. jackwagon... but thankfully that got my moms to buy me a yamaha motion b (32" scale) and so that's how I learned the bass. guitar players are a dime a dozen... but bass players... all sorts of bands will hump your leg and try to get you to join lol! kind of nice for a change!! anywho, looking good brother!

is it really dust tho....... or man glitter? hehe, right on. nice work.

I like your low tech approach to this (dowels, rough radius + thin mdf). I have seen an interesting other take on this... you make a set of arched supports for a router to slide over w the radius you need... then you mount a circle underneath those arches attached to a lazy susan (used in kitchen counters... allows the circle to spin). the idea being that you fix the router along the arch, turn it on, then spin/turn the wood mounted to the lazy susan. then you move the router along the arch and fix it in another locale and repeat. Always thought that was a cool idea anyway. nice clean work on the ukes. bravo.

hehe, yeah, bukowski really knew how to put words together!

something I def don't do enough is a prototype/mockup. that's def something that will increase your likelihood of success dramatically. you got this.

afa order... for me... the very first thing would be making a template and getting that perfect. after that, if you are doing a scarf I suppose that has to be next. next in my mind would be flattening the face of that blank. then doing truss rod channel. then glue on fretboard, then routing the shape. then doing the profile. that said there are lots of schools of thought on that. I've read that some do the profile before the flattening/fretboard (terry mcinturf) because you potentially get rid of any tension in the wood prior to glueing on the fretboard. The prob with that is it's going to leave some very delicate edges.

well... taking on a scarf joint for your very first neck is pretty brave. that said... what one man can do - another can do. my first neck was a bolt on bass neck. as I recall the hardest part was fretwork but that is still the hardest part mostly because - no matter how good you are - it's a lot of work. I bought a slotted fretboard so that took that difficulty out of it. there's always something! getting the truss rod dead center and to the exact depth takes some precision... but I didn't really struggle with that. some do so ymmv.

looks like some nice flame. perhaps thick enough for resaw or are you doing slip matched? always nice to have more than you need... I have a local spot that would have decent flame from time to time. haven't visited them in a while because I've got so much wood I feel like I should get to building things b4 I buy any more! that said... you don't snap it up when it's available and you'll regret later. Not to mention the place is literally about 4 blocks from my work so I figure it's therapy during lunch hour.

realizing this thread was started long ago... but yer honor I object - I def would like to see some of your headless builds! crazy how much time/effort/love was put into restoring that plane. respect.

suddenly feeling better about $85 fill up this morn lol. afa time... well if it makes you feel any better... I'm limited to 10 minutes at a time... cause that's all I can stand it in my garage when it's 115 degrees out! crabbing... I'm sorry to hear that. can't be easy. there have been a lot of off-roads on my way to 27 years w my wife... but you just stay on the highway no matter what!

I have a relative that is also a truck driver. can't imagine gas prices are fun for you folks right now! Can't imagine how you have time to build guitars. i know you aren't asking but... you might consider the ruby amp over at runoff groove. it's easy to build, very small... you can get a couple of 2" speakers for less than $10 over at taydaelec... less pieces to put in the truck anyway and would be interesting to see it all fit in there. anywho, rawk on.

right on. I appreciate you answering. is an interesting idea.

have some carbon fiber in my near future for a bass build I'll be getting back to shortly... not really looking fwd to trimming it because as I understand it's nasty stuff. what made you decide to have the carbon go into the fretboard? not being critical, honestly wondering because I imagine that complicates things quite a bit. I suppose it was because allows you to use a deeper piece of carbon fiber while maintaining a thinner profile? anywho, cool beans.

bender - don't see a lot of those i imagine due to the expense of the hardware. piqued my interest... i sure hope you'll do a recording of it at the end. been wanting to try one for the longest. dog looks great.