mistermikev

so... have you assembled a partscaster before at all? do you have any experience with a router? these kinds of things can all give you a leg up on the common issues for a first build. Some folks just jump right in and do fine... up to you to decide if you are that type. Something you might consider: assemble a partscaster from guitar fetish to get your feet wet. You can get bodies for $30 sometimes and necks for just as cheap. Not great stuff... but great stuff to learn on. If yer diving in to building from scratch: study some videos and even build threads around here like that mentioned above. afa wood... one thing I'd suggest - as a beginner you might want to snag something big enough to get the whole guitar out of so you can minimise the learning curve (joining wood can be done, just a bit more involved). guitarwoodexperts has some pre glued up bodies for $40ish. you can find them on evilbay from time to time too. look fwd to seeing your progression.

right on. so... how is the piezo held in place? I'm just curious as I've got a build in the wings where I've got some ideas of putting a rope piezo near the neck joint. I was planning on building a decorative piece to hide it there. what are you using for preamp? I've got a couple layouts I've done but anticipate using a clone from the ashbory bass (proj is for a bass).

well if it makes you feel any better... I'm fighting with nitro a bit myself right now. seems it doesn't like two things: the grain fill I used, and the ca glue and dust I used. got it on the run now, but every time I would sand it up to a perfect level surface... spray nitro and all of the sudden I'd get little spots where the finish would 'sink in'. I guess that's just the down side of nitro... I still love it!! guitar has a lot of potential to look killer so... just keep chasing it. btw... is that slot what I think it is? piezo?

good tip. I haven't done anything thin on it yet, and the in/out feed are so clean that they seem pretty slippery, but I'll keep that in mind. things actually used to get 'stuck' a lot more with the crappy blades... that problem has completely gone away now but I also used acetone to clean up my in/out tables so... might have been that more than the new blades. (also before I was taking super small cuts... which causes the rollers to be under less tension). the other hand... my sawhorse on the outfeed could use this. keeps wanting to tip over because when you send a board thru that is long it bends down... so i need to put a bevel on it and wax it.

I like the 2nd one. something about a 90deg angle on a lower horn... never see a guitar with that I don't like. No idea why that really appeals to me, but it does. when I ask for feedback I am always looking for more than "It looks good" so I'll try to give you that here. I love the lines of the guitar, esp that spot at the tail where the top 'red part' ends. I'm left feeling like it'd be really nice if there was an equal point like that on the headstock. I like the headstock as is, and you kind of almost have that point right now where the red meets black at the front... but if the black was less pointy there and sort of matched that delicate rounded part from the back. just one aholes o.

I'm guessing with a panner... you are going to have issues with the center not being a full vol mix of either pickup... but if that still works for ya... then yeah.

thanks sir. wish I'd have done it sooner!

I would look into diy optical wah simply because it would be more difficult to work out w a mechanical pot, let alone the physical limitations. In theory if you can setup an optical wah, you can setup an optical vol... and from there it would seem like setting up two leds/ldrs would be pretty doable. Have no experience doing this other than various circuits that use led/ldr. Have seen some threads with an led/ldr seperated by a thin piece of metal that tapers... as the pedal is lifted the obstruction between the led/ldr is lifted and resistance is altered. Other than that... I don't know much about it... but just thought perhaps a keyword would push you in the right direction.

so a while back I bought a craftsman 13" planer from craigslist. It ran very loud and in fact terrifying, so had considered just replacing it instead of pouring money into new blades... as it doesn't have a chip port anyway... but the other day I decided I'd take a $50 risk and ordered some HSS V2 blades from globaltooling. Had to do some work to break the screws free (wd40 and sit for 20mins then one or two broke free so repeated several times and finally got all 12 out). Cleaned the machine up really good and oiled the raise/lower mechanism. Got the new blades in and ran some flamed maple thru it - was like a revelation. Very quite and smooth to the point it startled me that I wasn't hearing a lot. wetted down my flamed maple and made a few light passes and they came out the other end with zero tear-out and zero snipe despite being 5' long. Just wanted to share my experience on the off chance that someone else is in the same place afa thinking about buying new or contemplating replacing blades. World of difference.

cool build!

pretty sure all the stuff from china uses 5140 steel... that's how they keep the price down (hehe). if the inserts are replaceable that's def a step in the right direction (In my friends case they weren't, but this was a while ago)... but at that point you start questioning the threads that hold that nut in. if that insert starts to wobble... your guitar will explode at high speeds! further the threads on the posts/studs, the threads on the screws holding the string blocks, etc. my exerpience w china is that they are anything but precision afa threads are concerned. their metal in general isn't great ime, but I have had some positive experiences too so... ymmv.

I'd steer you towards gotoh. I'm told that suhr prefers them to new floyds. I have an orig floyd (1980ish) and it's solid as a rock, but I'm told the new ones tend to have burrs altho once massaged are good. schaller anything is always a safe bet. the chinese floyds... I'd avoid. You can find all sorts of horror stories for them online. the biggest problem with inexpensive 2 point floaters is the metal where the studs meet the baseplate. that needs to remain sharp or it will stop returning to pitch correctly. had a friend with that issue, but have never owned one myself. just 2 cents.

so mojotone then? right on. have oft considered getting into one of their kits or similar... but I'm an airhead so keeping one hand in my pocket seems unlikely. well... 80's... we must be about the sm age. yup... def scooped mids on that one, def something to envy if yer stuck using a crate solid state w dod thrash master for all your tones (good times). I agree... the chorus on those is really delightful. takes me back!

must be a lead mosfet 100 then? I really kind of like those. miles ahead of the valvestate imo. have built a pedal based on that amp and it really screams... going into a tube amp that is! haha! well... the princeton chorus does do two things pretty good: clean chorus, and a sort of oversat lead chorus. not very versatile... but those two things would be worth the price of admission. that said... long live the tube!

nice clean builds. like the dark wood choice. I really like that you did an s1 w 4 way - cudos for getting interesting w the wiring. am gonna have to ding you a point for having what appears to be a valvestate (hehe). look fwd to seeing more of your work. cheers

thank you for that!

true dat. I suspect that doing this with a relay would probably more akin to a bulldozer... but true dat.

wow, yer fret work is really nice. do tell your process when able. neck looks amazing but from you I kind of just assumed it would be.

not sure if you misunderstood... but you'd have a flip flop and a single line going out to a stomp switch... stepping on the stomp outside the guitar would flip the pickups inside the guitar. 2 trannies, 8 resistors and 4 caps. not exactly brain surgery but sure, more complicated than mechanical.

well, follow your heart but yeah... if you aren't replacing the wiring I'd just tuck it inside. You will want to seal it to prevent dust and such from getting in there, and if you wet sand def don't want water getting on it... but if you put it in a zip lock (as much as possible) and tape up the open end... s/b fine. looks like you did what you needed to do so... right on.

yeah, what he said

It can sure be done... but you may or may not introduce noise depending on the cable you use (you are effectively doubling the signal you are passing outside the guitar). folks do it. you'd simply wire it up inside a box like it was inside the guitar - two spst stomp switches would allow you to turn on one or the other or both. You could also consider passing the signal on a stereo cable... might be less cumbersome. an alternative would be a flip flop circuit inside the guitar. this would require the sm number of wires but would not pass more than 1 signal outside the guitar. there are lots of schematics on the web for the boss flip flop that they use to turn on/off an effect. sm idea. it just uses a momentary to send a signal back to trigger the path. downside being it requires a battery.

shouldn't need to cut the jack wires as if you unscrew it it will pull right thru the hole. If you aren't replacing all the wire I'd just put the pots and such in a bag and tape up. less work later... but follow your own path on this.

not sure I've seen such an elaborate truss rod cover. I assume pushing down on the front is how you pop it off?

the blue wire splits into ground and white. the red wire splits into ground and white. you want to cut where the white meets a connection on the three way, and where the ground meets the back of the pot. do this for red, then do this for blue. does that make sense?