mistermikev

Idk how you get there from here... but I am a huge fan. when I was in high school I did some melting clock drawings... I should see if I still have them. the binding... "I don't want to talk about it"... it's too painfull! yes that was hard and only 1 piece so had to be really patient... but not too patient!

I love it when folks do build challenges. someday I'd like to see what I can do based on a budget... the tdpri build challenges where so inspiring. too bad they had to end them. looking fwd to seeing some creative solutions!

penny for your thoughts? might be a bit over stated... but too late now!

i have a jem 77fp... and a gaki sr890. those are both a bit later - late 80's early 90s. it's my humble o that it'd be impossible to build anything 'better' than either in terms of playing. they have their quirks as the 890 is pencil thin and freq needs adjustment... the jem isn't them most 'beefy' of tones imo... but afa a fantastic playing instrument... hard to top either. jem neck is also pencil thin and I've adjusted it 1 time in the 20 years I've had it. have owned a few lawsuit les pauls that were late 70's and def a fantastic instrument. Idk if I'd say better than any gibson made... but certainly as good as if not better than the gibsons from that period. I've also owned a gibson sg90... when gibson was trying to compete with ibanez/jackson... and that guitar for me was the absolute pinnacle of quality. personally think any brand is capable of greatness and certainly fender and gibson have had their moments... but they are equally and possibly more capable of expensive crap. I know of some cheap ibanez crap... but I don't know of any expensive ibanez crap.

now that you mention it... I think that was used on one of my fav vintage ibanez. I love ibanez. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/30117891243239959/ https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/studio-still-life-of-a-1978-ibanez-musician-mc500-guitar-news-photo/102624338

well... you might want to use shielded wire wherever you can... and wouldn't want to have to troubleshoot it... but you'll be fine.

some lovely clean wiring there. I like that you even indicated neg/pos on your caps. never know when you'll want to slip a tantalum in there!

right on. good eye. I saw that but honestly did not recognize it.

love the headstock design

right on. some interesting drawings. here's a few observations. you have one humbucker and one single coil... no mention of splitting... which means when they are both on you will get some hum... perhaps you've considered that and it doesn't bother you. second observation is: while the switches are organized by what makes sense to you visually from the top of the guitar... there is going to be a lot of extra wire going back and forth across the guitar to accomplish. again, perhaps this doesn't bother you. lots of options... I like that in a guitar... but lots of switches... ime can become hard to remember what combination of switches is the tone you like, but if you organize it well... it'll be fine. rock on.

it's not nearly as impressive if you do that on accident huh? asking for a friend. seriously tho... that took some doin'.

hehe, tru dat! joking in my threads is always encouraged. also... tru dat. metal detector if ever any possibility of hitting metal.

thank you sir. believe it or not I got that as 8/4 soft maple from a lumber yard. the figure was well covered up... but thought for the price I couldn't go wrong... boy was that lucky!

so took some time off and had 4 consecutive days off this weekend and pretty much squandered it on video games and movies but... also did this (below). so my current planing jig is great, but it's not long enough to do a neck thru. I know I could build a platform for my auto planer but I get so much use out of this jig and wanted to improve on it. so, got two 1" x 1" x 4' steel square tubes @ 1/8" thick steel. I had a little bend in my old one so thought I was over-building this... but as it turns out... over 4'... with light pressure you can get it to bend 1/16" and with max pressure 1/4"... so had to add to t-nuts in the middle where I'll level using t-nuts/and 5/16 bolts. all in all pretty happy as the oak router plane is rigid as all get out. below is/was my plan. still have to build a few pivot clamps but got all the t nuts glued in and in between the 3/4" mdf substrate and 3/4" pine frame. Pretty light overall considering. the design: the finished jig (almost finished - still have to make clamps and a cutout for headstock) and started work on templates for some basses... gonna b a neck thru 4 string 33" scale and a 5 string 35" scale fretless. lots of challenges here including a compound radius top/back on the 4 string (and perhaps the 5) and a two piezo ribbon pickups... one of wich I plan to hide in the heel of the neck of the 5. the purpleheart in behind everything is for the 5... and a 4 piece lam seperated by brazillian rosewood lam in front of that... and my wings for the neck thru in the very front. will start a build thread on them when I get more going on...

i immediately notice something missing. the orig varitone has a choke. it is common knowledge that the choke is where all the "tone suck" in a varitone comes from... (not really but yes) and as such they were freq snipped out of the circuit on many original 339s. (and just reading curtisa pointing this out too). not sure that even if you could find a matching original choke, you are likely going to find that it drops the output and makes the pickups sound 'weak'. just 2 cents.

ahh, rest easy. for once I am not the one posting silly stuff. I opened this thread, started scrolling up and saw 'smoked pork butt' and wondered how in the world the conversation could have led to that... so in conclusion: smoking pork butt IS the ultimate symbol of 'doing well'. i concur.

"i love it when a plan comes together" that upper horn is really thin so you should be proud to have pulled it off. a real nail biter I bet. congrats.

prob right... but it would look so kewl. I 'spose it's a lot like leaving something satin... almost impossible!

I always love the way your builds look right before the final smoothing. that also look killer all smoothed out. as always.

that is certainly another frightening possibility. a router thru reg wood is adventurous enough for me!

welcome and nice looking start!

right on brother. I don't really use others' diagrams much as I tend to just draw something new for each project but I am guessing others will find this very useful, so a nice contribution to the community. Your drawings a fairly neat, so not a criticism at all... but you might consider going and getting diy layout creator. on the one hand it's never backwards compat so you have to make sure you save a version in pdf... on the other it is a great tool for organizing your diagrams because it gives you a chance to re-organize your wires after you've laid them out. just a thought. rock on.

this is a great tip. always seems to turn on me before I finish it. will have to snag some smaller bottles to divide it. thanks for that.

looking good!

i'm floored by how washed out that looks. tsk tsk. note to self... if you use bright colors like that... might want to go poly + uv resist.