mistermikev

On 10/5/2021 at 1:37 AM, Dave Higham said:

Yes, that’s basically the way I do it, but I block two hex nuts against each other with an insert that I’ve modified by filing two grooves into it, turning it into a rudimentary tap. I put this in the drill press, clamp the neck in place, bring the chuck down and turn it by hand until the insert is fully engaged. Doing it in the drill press means it goes in straight.

 

Then I unblock the nuts, release the chuck and raise it, and unscrew the threaded rod. I then take the insert/tap out using a screw driver and replace it with one without the filed grooves.

 

I always do a trial run on a piece of scrap the same as the neck wood.

 

If it’s a hard wood , like maple, I do some trials with slightly larger drills.

 

Also, if it starts to become difficult to turn, I back off a bit, turn a bit more, back off again, turn a bit more, etc. (The approved method when tapping threaded holes in metal.)

 

wow, that is a fantastic idea (using drill press to ensure you don't crossthread or crapthread inserts.  you are full of good ideas.  putting that in the trick bag for if/ever I do inserts.  thank you for sharing.

38 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I bought mine from the automotive paint store, the picture was grabbed from Amazon by a Google Image Search for "hook and loop sanding block"

noice... just found it and snagged it.  thanks for the tip. 

Just now, Bizman62 said:

Is it a secret or did you use gauze? Or perhaps braces?

no, just changed the semi hollow route and moved supports a little closer to edges.  also... moved the underside cut of the relief at the edges of the f hole a little closer to the edge.  basically there is only 3/16" of 1/8+-" thick top right there and it fans back out to full 1/4" thickness.

28 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I'd really like to see them in real life, there's a nagging in the back of my head saying that your photos don't do justice to the colours!

The size of the f-holes seems to be just right to me, apparently you've got the proportions right. Agreed. they're long and visible but they don't look like they'd risk the structural integrity.

thanks for the encouragement biz.  if yer ever near az... def shoot me a pm.  would love to get some in person feedback on any of my builds - would be a real thrill for me. 

it's funny... on this one -in person the color really matches that inlay very well... but then in pictures, even without flash, it doesn't match quite as well altho you can see the sm color here or there in some of the flames.  

hehe, I'm very comfortable with the size of my f holes!  actually, the first version of this build (one where I cracked the top bending it) there wasn't quite enough support around the f hole.  It wasn't like you could break the wood with your finger... but you could flex it.  On this version I added some strategic supports to stiffen right under the f hole.  Pretty well supported now.

noice, that seems to confirm hook/loop is just fine. 

that's actually a nice block.  I just use chunks of wood but might have to snag one.  where did you get?

6 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Super cool. Those are some large in-your-face f-holes as well! Some of the largest I think I've ever seen.

wel... eh hem... it's not the size of your f hole... hehe

thank you, the encouragement means a lot to me.

i actually use the trizact and it is really great stuff... had no idea they made it in disk form.  I don't have an air sander so wonder how well that'd work on a std orbital.  might burn pretty easily.

5 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I knew that you knew most of that...

Another product that I've been using is the 3M Hookit 270J: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40071174/. It's available both as solid square pads and perforated rounds.

And finally I've used the https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40071641/  in 3000 and 6000, usually wet.

Both of those can hold quite a lot of water compared to paper to keep cool.

right on, had not seen that.  also, that mirka stuff looks interesting.  I had looked a while back for 800 grit disks and came up bumpkiss.  it is a great idea as I imagine all the gum you might get is easily cleaned.  was looking at their sanding pad - do you know if those will mount on just regular hook and loop pad or do I need to buy the mirka pad?  If I knew the pad was more flexible it'd be a no brainer... as I'd like something flexible.

for some reason getting a very art deco vibe from that.  lovely stuff.

so... got what I think is the final coats of gloss on my stuff last night.  now the long wait for final wetsand as I work on knobs, cavity covers, and pickup covers...

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I've used some Italian made paper sold at a nearby "inexpensive" hardware store. I've also used the Mirka Abranet mesh wet.

A drop of dishwashing soap helps preventing gumming. And of course a light hand is a must! Even with water the friction can produce enough heat to burn the sugar in the wood dust to a gum. The finer the paper, the more friction there is.

thanks for the reply biz.  I do use the dishwashing soap and all.  when nitro is only a week old it gums up no matter what and that's fine... but the abrassive-ness of the 3M stuff, even on cured finishes... just seems to turn south on even the sides of paper I'm not using after just a few applications.  I think it has more to do with the paper it's on.  

Good paper is well worth the money in my experience.  When I worked at a cab shop we used this dura gold stuff for all the da sanders and that stuff would last a long time... I recently aquired some 400 grit sticky back for my fret level bar and it is great.  also some sanding pads and I find that I can start with 220 instead of 150 because the stuff is just so abrasive right out the gate.  

Did find some dura gold wet sand 800 and ordered that on amazon... will see if it's any better.  Going to look into mirka because I've heard that name before.  Thanks for the tip.

light hand... have you seen my mits?  no such thing here!!  hulk smash!

learning to sand light... in every context is a must.  when you sand hard on anything it actually just heats up the paper and also takes things out of flat real quick.  I am aware that sanding light is actually faster than trying to sand hard - but it's a good point and thanks for bringing it up.

really starting to look like a guitar (this is the best part!).  Excited for you.

afa angle... you might want to just lay your parts out as best as possible and use some string to see what is going to happen.  Whether you need a shim or not is going to come down to how thick the neck is and how deep the pocket is.  Even on production made guitars that are 5/8"depth per spec and necks that are 3/4" + fretboard... there is a surprising amount of wiggle between one mans 5/8 and anothers'.  Long story long... solve that problem once you know you have it

afa sides... while gaps on the side of neck pocket are not ideal... there are lots of great new and vintage guitars that have them to some degree or another.  If the neck screws are tight the neck isn't going to move.  that said - very few of us here would be happy with that (think I can speak for y'all).  

as an easy fix... you can just glue multiple pieces of veneer in there until the neck fits.  assuming you use the sm veneer on either side it will center the neck... but again doing a moch up might be a good idea because depending on your bridge/pickups center might not be where you want it.

look fwd to build pics.

I usually go to the auto zone or other and get it... I believe it's 3M brand but it sure seems to loose it's grit fast.  Just wondering what others are using for wetsand paper?  Primarily I'm interested in 400 - 1000 grit. 

I have micro mesh and it's great for higher grits... but wouldn't want to use that to level out initially because I suspect it would just get gummed up fast.  I like it quite a bit for 1k and up polishing... but I'd be interested to know what y'all use there too.  

On 10/1/2021 at 10:19 AM, nakedzen said:

Sanded the green back to 320 grit, dyed again with less blotchiness, shellac and couple coats of oil on now.

The ss frets I got from my friend for the guitar were ready cut pieces with no radius. Hmm. Let's see how a small amount of Titebond on the tang plus clamps for 30 minutes works. So far so good, pretty slow going though.

that green is quite handsome.  

just a suggestion - if you want easy... it just can't be gloss!  I have often wanted to just do tru oil on a body and stop there.  it will protect well enough and if you don't overdue it... ie just maybe 3 or 4 coats - it makes for a nice flat finish.  I can never stop there tho... it's a matter of self control!!

nice work nicco.  some nice details there like the pickups covers and cavity covers.

afa magnets... damned if I didn't have the sm issue.  Getting bigger magnets means bigger cavity and not exactly idea.  Seems the next available step up in size is too big... so in my case I resigned myself to deepening the mag holes and stacking two mags each in there.  If I'm wrong... and you happen to find some that are maybe just a hair stronger (mine were n52) or just slightly larger - feel free to enlighten me!

afa nuts... generally speaking they make them a hair large so you can sand them down or file them to suit.  I always just take a piece of sandpaper and rub it back and forth... constantly flip it so I don't end up taking it out of square.  Then I keep checking it on the guitar and pulling back out and sanding some more until it's really close.  I don't like to wear out my good files any more than necc.  

I always touch up the slots with good files at the end because it seems sl0ts are hardly every perfect from the factory so just leave myself enough room to take off some with a few passes on the file.  Feels like this is also less work (sanding then filing as opposed to just filing then having to potentially remove material fromt he top of the nut.

if I'm telling you all stuff you know... forgive!  just trying to be helpful.

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

1920s radio, that suits my playing style and helps mask the bum notes.

sm here for sure.  when you need THAT tone... out of phase is THE thing to have.

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

Something else I noticed about that diagram, whenever I've attempted to ground the pickups on the switch like that instead of back fo the pot, I've always got massive hum. That might just be down to my lack of knowledge on circuitry but I've never had good results doing that.

well... should be able to ground fine... as ultimately it is ground thru the 'out to vol pot casing'.  i can tell you that this wiring scheme would have a fair amount of hum (in specific positions) even if well grounded tho.

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

pos 2 and 4 on the modern widing .ie.

2. both slugs in parallel 
4. bridge hum and neck slug in parallel 

gives plenty of strat quack without as much volume loss or hum IMO.

I did add a mini toggle on my last build so I could split have just the slugs on the neck or bridge but it only sounded any good under gain once I added a couple of resisters into it. I think I put a 1.5k on the bridge and a 2.2 on the neck, or the other way round possibly. 

afa both slugs in parallel pos2 - well that is one of the 'good' positions for sure.  inside coils in parallel. 

pos4... might be less hum than a single by itself... but crank some gain thru that and you are going to hear more hum than the typical humbucker... just doesn't even make sense.  might as well give all four coils there or any other balanced option imo.  if it works for ya great.

That said I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking that the old prs wiring was where it's at.  

afa splits... and "just slugs" well... perhaps the pickups were not like the old ones.  if you tried just slugs w the typical seymour set... you'd get two out of phase coils which sounds like a 1920s radio with loads of hum.  

21 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Interesting, I'm personally not a fan of that wiring either. pos 2 and 4 with just a single split humbucker sound a bit meh.

right on.  better off just having a 3-way toggle at that point imo.  someday when I build a prs style prob do a super switch and slight variation on older style wiring.  Really is the cats meow imo.

15 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Ah I see what you're getting at. I just assumed you were talking about the wiring on the modern ones with the 5 way blade. I don't really understand how the inside vs outside wiring works on the above diagram but then the 5-way rotary wiring makes no sense to me.

right on, the blade, or "superswitch" - is really no dif than the rotary.  just a 4 pole 5 throw switch.  could do the sm wiring on either rotary or superswitch.  the modern wiring on that is silly imo.  not a fan of 3 single combos (pos 3 below - hums and not particularly intersting) nor a single coil from humbucker by itself (pos 2 below hums and does not sound at all like magnetic poles).  IDK what the heck they were thinking there but... two each his/her own.  the single advantage to that wiring seems to me to be that the wiring itself is fairly simple.

for reference:

27 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Yes, I can confirm that the older 5-way rotary switching scheme is fully humbucking in all positions, but I'd have to open mine up to verify how it's done and what wire colour goes where. There's probably someone out there that's already done the hard work on reverse engineering the wiring on the older CU22 and 24 rotary-switched scheme.

right on - thank you very much for confirmation. 

if it's(yours) eighties... perhaps one of these (below) - most do at least one inside coils combo ("parallel single coil" and/or "series single coil").

Idk if prs has changed how they wire their pickups... but as I understand throughout the 80s/90s the whole deal was that their neck pickup was wired different and that def caused some confusion amongst folks trying to work on them or replace pickups.  I believe that would have meant reverse polarity reverse wind relative to the bridge pickup as that's the only way you are going to get screw coils on the outside and ability to do inside vs outside coils w hum cancellation.  of course these were all 3 conductor wiring schemes.

I have a number of sets of older seymour two conductor pickups and dredging this all up has me really thinking about trying to open them up and run a whire from that series link... but that'd def be a gamblers run!

edit: has me thinking over here... if i had three conductor pickups... and they had the rev wind rev pol on the neck... just connecting those two series wires together in one position on a push pull would effectively give inside vs outside coils on a three way because the live wouldn't connect to the opposing pickup in either extreme of the 3-way and the grounds would be static.    edit edit - nah... it'd result in 3 coils on as the grounds are static... hmm...

ah, this was the one I was looking for... the prs 513 wiring.  I've kind of always given prs the credit for coming up with the idea of inside vs outside coils... there may have been folks who came up with it earlier but they certainly made it popular.  I remember working at a music shop the first time I saw this wiring... some issues w a guitar and boss asked me if i could fix it (I could not!).  was intimidated as all get out by the complexity of the rotary.  

anywho, my goal was not nec to copy this diagram... but to improve upon it.  basically you get many of these same combos but they are on the 3-way so in theory it overcomes the thing folks hated about this wiring: that it was hard to see where you are and get back to a simple bridge or neck sound.

also... afa all you can do is ground - if you look at above drawing it's showing three conductor setup and yes... grounding both series links from screw coils gives you outter coils in parallel.  one could have added positions to send the series link to the other pickups live link and this in fact would give you outter coils in series so it is possible.

2 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

From my experience PRS pickups don't feature inside vs outside coil splitting, pretty sure it's just both slug coils in pos 2, certainly isn't hum cancelling. Most of them are 3 conductor so all you can do is ground the screw coil. And from what I understand about their newer fancier "TCI" pickups and the older 408s , it's still a 3 conductor pickup with 4th wire being a tap so the slug coil is tapped in humbucking mode and not tapped when the screw coil is grounded, making it a phatter single coil. On my Pauls Guitar with the 408s, the split coil was actually pretty damn noisy. So the TCI part of it is just resisters for tuned coil splits to reduce hum a bit. 

That is just my interpretation so I might be totally wrong, in which case, tell me to bore off.

i can't speak to what they do nowadays... but back in the day when the rotary switch was much more common they def did inside vs outside and it was def hum cancelling. 

below is a nice summary of dif schemes through the years.  

-------------------------------------------------------------------

V2 wiring from a mid 1988 Sig
10 – 9.69 (treble)
9 – 13.52 ( MODIFIED power out of phase, just one coil of bass against both coils of treble)
8 – 8.83 (2 coils in series)
7 – 2.30 (strat sound)
6 – 7.99 (bass)

’85 to mid ’87

10 – treble PU
9 – both pickups together out of phase aka ‘power out of phase’ (NB the early wiring is different to the later power out of phase wiring)
8 – both pickups in parallel, in phase
7 – inner (slug) coils of both humbucker pickups in parallel
6 – bass PU


Mid ’87 to circa mid ’89

As above except

9 – both pickups out of phase BUT one coil of the neck pickup out of phase against BOTH coils of the treble pickup (my experience is this is a much hasher sound than the original out of phase wiring)
8 – inner (slug) coils of both humbucker pickups in series (replaces previous both pickups in parallel, in phase, wiring)

Post circa mid ‘89

This version is the same as the mid ’87 to circa mid ’89 wiring , EXCEPT position 9 power-out-of-phase changes. However I’ve not owned a guitar with this wiring, so I’m not 100% sure what power out of phase changes to.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

here is a diagram showing...