mistermikev

those both look like velvet.  stunning.

2 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I guess it's duluxe of sorts, he's having a fender wide range neck pickup. Then the bridge is going to have a seymour duncan hotrail with a pushpull coil split which will be mounted into a Babics bridge, I've never heard of them before but it looks pretty cool, shame about the logo though.

 

 

when you said true to original above I thought like you were going to make a deluxe (or something) with the pickguard pickups and all.  Sounds like a cool variation.

I have a babicz FCH on one of my parts casters... it is pretty impressive.  the cam height adjustment is really a great idea albeit a little cumbersome.

rock on.

ooh ee... walnut binding eh?  ambitious... I like it. so with that headstock are you doing tele deluxe then?  looking like a lot of cool stuff going on here - good on ya.

11 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

If you use a bridge similar to what's used in acoustic guitars, i.e. a bone bridge in a slot, a ribbon under the bone should be easy enough to be replaced if needed. After all there's a hole at the end of the slot and you'd also need to have a hole for the jack. Pushing the cord of the ribbon inside the instrument and catching it with a long hook shouldn't be too difficult.

right on... thank you for the reply. 

I see a few issues with that. 

one - I have a few acoustic guitars with undersaddle piezo.  I have had to replace the piezo on one of them as twice yearly I have to put in my summer/winter saddle... and I'm pretty gentle with it.   that's not really an issue on an acoustic as you have room to get inside there... but on a thinline electric that would be impossible unless you had some sort of access hatch on the backside... and that hatch would have to be in an area I'd prefer not to have it... right under the bridge.  

two - the under saddle types tend to be very bright. I can't help but think (esp on a bass) it'd be nice to capture more of the center of the guitar.  I know that part of the guitar is exactly what I'm after when I mic it.

three - I'd really like to be able to adjust action/intonation. 

four - just not sure the look would be right for the guitar in mind. 

it's def a good fallback point... and if my testing doesn't go well I can always revert to that... but I've done more than my share of playing with piezos for elec drums and I think there might be some potential there that is unexplored.  If that doesn't work... an electret mic in the body might be pretty cool for getting closer to that 'upright' sound from a semi-hollow-body bass.

21 minutes ago, mattharris75 said:

Speaking of... My favorite version of the song. I've seen this band twice, and they're amazing, just won a Grammy in fact.

 

 

will have to give this a listen at lunch.  I assume it's a cover of john h?   he's written so many knock outs for so many great artists. 

3 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Soooo cool Matt!

There needs to be a camp fire around somewhere whenever you bring that little beastie out to play.

What a great album.....

SR

for a guy who's put out about as many as the greatful dead... I can't think of one that isn't great!  or doesn't have LOTS of mandolin -esp on 'crossing muddy waters'

6 hours ago, mattharris75 said:

A quick sound file for those interested. It will sound a little different, a little more bass and volume, with the doubled C string and a little more pressure on the top. But this gives you a good idea of the sound.

 

sounds good.  some nice playing.  man, I love the mandolin.  actually john hiatt cry love playing in the background right now (has a prominent mando part).

so... I'm thinking ahead... perhaps dreaming.  at some point I'm going to build a fretless bass.  I'd like to do it almost fully hollow but probably only 1.5" thick.  don't really want to spend the money on ghost saddles because it is really a one trick pony for me.  something I'll probably only occasionally use. 

could do a ribbon/rope under saddle... but then you almost have to have a removable piece behind it as you are eventually going to mess with the saddle and potentially break the piezo.

mic inside the body?

I've built a few mics... the pimped alice for instance, and it is a fantastic sounding mic.  def compared well to several commercial mics I have.  Sounds fantastic on acoustic altho shock mounting in a guitar might be problematic. 

there are lots of schems on the net for electret capsules which would handle the shock mount issue.  I suspect the gain would have to be jacked way up to get any decent sound so...perhaps it'll be noisy.

obviously this would be something where I'd want to do a proof of concept... and I think at some point I'll probably build something and stuff it inside a semihollow guitar to see but was just looking for a thumbs up/down - feasible?  any experience with how it might sound? 

I know frank zappa def toyed with piezo disks in a guitar... no idea how that sounded.  what about a ribbon/rope piezo epoxied into the top of a semihollow - close to the neck so it'd get max string vibration?

thing just grabs your eye.  really looking fwd to hearing it so hope that's on the todo list. rock on.

congratulations!  couldn't happen to a nicer guy, or a better build.  earned every oz imo.

1 hour ago, komodo said:

Back of headstock veneered. The piece was probably too thick, it mostly clamped down but theres a bit of a glueline around the volute. It’ll may be subdued after oiling, or I can do some tricks to remove and fill. For now I’m moving on with fretting and getting the neck glued in. Thrilled with the grain matching.

wow, nice job matching that.

+1 lovely finish.

4 minutes ago, Dantahoua said:

Sadly it's my last piece of figured birch... Next one will be Quilted maple...  

jeez, I'd like to have your 'problems'!

wow, this is a really cool build and I think I'm in love with your birch!

9 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I might have aligned the raiser strips along the edges of the fretboard. However, after a second thought I realized that your way was the right one for keeping the fretboard uniformly above the router table.

Re banding and binding... You know why it's called "binding", don't you? For those who didn't know, they used to bind the banding using bast or leather bands.

did they bind the banding or band the binding?  I'm confused.

on this note: binding... I've seen a lot of guys do binding on the board prior to attaching to the neck stock.  I'm going to try this on my les flawes but for me it looks so much nicer to have a consistent thickness of binding all they way down the neck.  long story short... you binding looks good!

good to know.  have not tried indian but it is now on my list.  thanks for that (or curse you for that... one more thing on my 'must try' list!)

wow, that is some beauty ebony.  is it dyed or naturally that black?  if dyed... what did you use?  love it.

sounds about right to me.  I don't think danish oil will seal off well enough for faux binding - might want to use lacquer.  Maybe if you did many coats it would work, but I doubt it.  I did my first build with danish... and after 3 days I put on the shielding paint.  got some on the finish... and it sort of mixed in with it as I tried to get it off.  was very difficult to get back off... in fact never did get it completely off as it left a little dark spot.  beautiful finish tho. 

also, my experience with danish is that is take a long time to dry too.  true oil dries much faster and that's what I was used to. 

3 minutes ago, killemall8 said:

Havent updated in a while.
had a rough month. Ive ruined 6/8 guitars, including one day with a rare top.
Hit a huge wall where no matter how long of a break i take, i come back and make mistakes.

Dont know why it always goes in phases like this. I make some great guitars, then out of nowhere i cant even measure a pickup cavity location correctly.
hope everybody else's builds are going better.

I hit a similar phase recently.  when I started my recent project I cut the neck angle a little deep on a blank and it was too short of r a 25.5scale guitar.  then later, accidentally bought a 24.75 sl fretboard and realized it wasn't 25.5 once I had the inlays in.  ok, I go back to the shorter blank.  got the truss in, fretboard glued on and mounted it on the guitar to realize I forgot to cut the heel shorter.  back and forth, back and forth.  oh well.

I think sometimes you just need to step away and get yer mind right.  Here's to better days for you and me both!

ah... also I've found that for some reason... in the cold finish/wood somehow seems to get softer or is otherwise more likely to dent.  I don't know if there is any science to back that up... but I seem to recall when living in WI if I took a guitar out to my car and dinged it in the winter I was guaranteed to see damage later.

you must have a weird soft alder up there.  the alder I've seen nearby is not hard... but about the hardness of ash or a little harder.

31 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

The blanks are wide and thick enough for a two piece body if you're not too nitpicky about the thickness (1.5"). I've used them for the wings for a couple of my thru-necks with a top. On the con side, they're fast grown wood and rounded on the edges which has to be cut off before joining.

sounds like a perfect candidate for a 1/4" top!

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

They sell wood in our hardware stores as well: Pine and spruce as blanks and beams and panels for building frames, covering walls both inside and outside and making floors. Large boards made of finger jointed slats are also commonly sold for hobbyist furniture builders. In the sauna section there's aspen and lately also torrefied alder. Oak is sold as skirtings and thresholds, readily planed and often even lacquered. Even birch can be a little hard to find except for furniture grade plywood despite it growing everywhere! Most likely it goes directly to the plywood factories.

right on... well that actually sounds nice: torrefied alder - could def make a nice strat if you get a big 'nuff piece. 

at my hardware store they've actually started carrying walnut - you can get 3/4 x 7" x 2' for around $8.  I always look to see if there is any figure in there but nothing yet.  they also sell 3/4" mahog by the bdft.  there have been challenges over at tdpri to build an entire guitar out of things you find at home depot.  obviously frets and hardware would be sourced elsewhere but I admire the creativity of those guys.  There's a gent over there that built a tele bridge entirely from scrap... and it was easily one of the nicest I've seen... but man what  lot of work that would be!

nicely done.

11 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That's what I was talking about all the time as I remembered you having a router sled for thicknessing and routing neck break angles into bodies. It just takes a while for us to speak the same language!

Nice wood, btw. There's no place within 300 miles I could find anything like those.

right on.  I hear ya on the language barrier... I am really good at finding ambiguity in things people say so that is my own language barrier within my own language!

In theory it could be done with my planer but I'd have to raise the neck off the bed and it would leave 1/2" round edges... so I thought a little jig might make the whole job a lot less cumbersome. 

the wood - we are lucky in the us but I am esp lucky here in phoenix.  there are probably 10 stores I can get any kind of figured wood I want - but I try to find the deals.  every time I go to the hardware store I always take a walk thru the wood section - can't help myself.  figured oak is not that desireable for guitar, as it is super heavy... and hard as hell.  that said I just have a weak spot for it.  each board is 3/4" x 11.25" x 24".  $30 well spent.   something for a project to dream about anyway.