mistermikev

50 minutes ago, ScottR said:

That's coming through my monitor as a highly purple purple to me.

SR

thank you sr.  I'd like to get the fretboard a lil more... but the risk is not worth it.  Purple 'nuf fer me!!

thank you as always for your encouragement.  very much appreciate it.

"nice joint" -sounds like something a hippy would say... still... nice joint!

pointy guitars aren't my thing at all... but you did a  nice job on that.  love the more reserved 7 string there.  nice build.

reminds me a bit of this:

with just a little modification it could be a replica.  that said... yours has nicer curves.  steve's def has an air of "jigsaw" to it that is not present on yours.

sliding pickup... interesting.

i know that nobody really cares... but for the record I tried this out quite a bit the other day and it is fantastic.  #1 it runs very smooth and doesn't bother the hand at all.  The 4.0Ah battery lasted long enough for me to sand 220 and then 340 on the entire guitar and idk how much time it has left but that's good enough for me. 

I imagine if you had a LOT of sanding to do all at once you might want a couple of spare batteries... perhaps even a plug in sander if it is really a lot of sanding... but this for me is a detail sander.  It is so small and agile - perfect.  Little bit heavier than a da sander.  With the speed control I would be willing to bet I will be able to put a buffing pad on this and it will be VERY handy for buffing contours auto-magically.  I give it a 9.5/10 as the only downside I can see is the weight.

so... probably fairly reckless and certainly experimental... now that I have my purple body finish sanded... I wanted to take a heat gun to it to try to enhance the purple.... 

before:

and after:

purpleheart starts to "sweat" if you get it hot enough... and I imagine that is getting to the danger zone because heating up titebond is a dangerous proposition.  If you watch enough pen blank videos you'll see them really heat the piss out of the blank and before your eyes the purple will darken... def not going that far here.  Can't heat it up before you work it because sanding turns it back to dull/brown/red.  it def looks a hair more purple to me.

Super deal: low profile sander at lowes! so... my sander died today. I've wanted a festool or 3M for a while... would love an air sander as they are the ultimate for guitar, but req a giant compressor. Found the bosch genx 18v sander on sale at lowes for $109.99. Went into the store and they had a sign "buy one get one free" saying you buy and base tool you get a battery free... but the guy says the sander isn't part of the deal. looked on their website and it shows the sander and battery as part of the deal... so they got the manager and I walked out with both the 18v sander (good deal at $109) plus the 4Ah battery kit ($109) for a total of $109.99. This is the perfect guitar detail sander so just wanted to share with my luthier bretheren!

14 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I have a scraper with a yellow handle. It took about a year to find it as it wasn't in my toolbox. I finally found it in the basket by the broom cupboard -  a place where my wife might put things she has used and might need in the near future.

I often find myself about to curse... because my wife is maniacal about cleaning and freq puts stuff in the most random of places.  just happened the other day when I had bought groceries along with a new box of latex gloves... made the mistake of leaving it on the cupboard for 24hrs and now it is lost forever.  that said I always catch myself and give thanks that she keeps our place so clean and doesn't complain about how messy I am... she's a saint really. 

had a set of 2x15 fender/jensens from a late 60s bandmaster and one of them I didn't have a box for... she put a box right on top of it in the closet and the box corner tore a hole right through the cone.   i guess that was on me for not immediately finding a box.  still not over it. 

tools... man I'm trying to learn to put them back in their place as soon as possible.  that and guitar parts... I try to keep everything for a build in a box... but then I pull stuff out to measure or test fit... and I somehow loose the original tuner screws or can't find the nut I was gonna use.  at points along a build I will have every open space on every bench covered with stuff.  then I spend a half hour looking for the tool that was "just in my hand"!  tis the nature of the beast!!

On 3/8/2023 at 3:25 PM, henrim said:

And yet it moves!

Doppler effect is clearly there but not too pronounced with fully open cabinet frame and a makeshift rotating baffle. But I already love it!

Maybe I make openings to the front and sides so that they can be blocked/opened individually.

I need to change the motor as that servo motor is too noisy. I guess I need to find a silent dc motor.

really hopeful to hear this.  that sound srv gets is lovely.  have never seen that vid but have seen/heard that song a million times.  a while back I had an h and k rotosphere that i played all the time... instant "late night with david letterman" sounds.  cool project, enjoyed your share and hope to see a demo someday!

1 minute ago, Bizman62 said:

I start hearing some rattle with my Lidl gaming headphones already at 20 Hz but 3o is where I can tell it's definitely a note. I can't hear any noticeable difference between those and my Sennheiser HD 599SE phones.

listened again here on my studio monitors then on my q701s... I think there maybe is something in my axefx setup that might be restricting the lows on that b.  it does seem to drop a little bit.  so much so that I went to my axefx and looked at my setup for this sound... think I found the culprit:

1 minute ago, Bizman62 said:

Came home from the LAN party and used my regular headphones. It might just be that the lowest tones naturally sound like going on and off, the low B being only about 30 Hz. For checking what I should hear I tried several bass test videos and the 30 Hz really has that sort of vibrato. So nothing wrong there.

well, had shared this with one of my long time friends who is an accomplished gtr player and his fist thoughts were also regarding the low b... so you aren't alone.  he remarked that for such a low note it was very 'clear'.  the low b is really at the extreme edge of my hearing ability - so much so that I more feel it than hear it... and I have not listened thru headphones yet but I know with my dt990 and q701s... only just reach down to 20Hz and 5Hz respectively so... I can't imagine that note would be represented well on anything less than an 8" speaker but what-do-I-know!

6 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I very much liked the piezo, the sound is mellow and suits the music styles I like to listen to. Oldies... Did I hear right or is it just this pair of headphones, but to me it sounded like the lower frequences came through a bit quieter?

Nothing wrong with the magnetic either, perfect for vintage rock'n'roll and such.

Both are pleasant to listen to, by these examples they'd both be perfect for backing.

thank you biz.  very much appreciate it.  the piezo... well was hoping this came across similar to an upright, at least that is what i was going for.  idk if the low b is quieter, but it def is clearer then on my other 5s.  doesn't flab out.  that said I was playing it more delicate than typical.

pretty happy w the sound of either by itself... but blended there are still some issues... might be impedance mismatch or phase but they don't combine so well.  will have to work on that. 

thanks for taking the time!!  very much appreciate it.

brothers and sisters... would really appreciate it if you could lend me your ear?  Tell me how this strikes you?  Would appreciate it.

piezo

magnetic

1 hour ago, Stu. said:

I've just flicked back and spotted the scales on the truss rod cover. Such a neat detail and nod to the design language of the bass!

thank you stu for noticing.  I had considered how I might integrate that sm motif with the bridge but couldn't reconcile how it  would work with the mirrored "claws" , perhaps something for next time.  thank you again for the feedback, very much appreciate it!!

10 minutes ago, Hydrogeoman said:

Just beautiful! Being a huge Carl Thompson / Les Claypool fan, I appreciate the "tribute" aspect of your design, but you throw in just enough of your own enhancements/ideas to make the basses truly "yours." Great work!

thank you, very much appreciate it.  I like to think I'm currently "studying the masters" and gravitating towards something more "my own" with each build.  thanks again for the kind words.

1 minute ago, killemall8 said:

one of the coolest builds ive seen on PG!

that is a very generous compliment and means the world to me from you sir!

doh, thought I was looking at a top... but for the record the 'lovely' part was still accurate.

lovely top there.

the way I see it... this gap has to be there and a compression rod style truss rod... as the idea is it has to have wood to compress against... but I put that there on a two way rod because I feel it is better to have as little air space around the truss as possible.  I also like the idea that even that small of a piece of wood will reinforce the neck there to some degree so... for those reasons I either drill out to leave that wood or sometimes rout out and then glue a small piece of wood in there.  I want it secured in that channel as much as possible.  I believe some leave it out because of two main reasons: 1 it's easier and 2 in theory you could potentially remove the rod if there is ever an issue.  I don't think there is anything  wrong with either.  ymmv

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

That is a stunningly superb build, you've really done your homework in learning how to code your CNC. All those curves can't be redesigned in the fly!

Not only that, you've also improved your photography skills by a margin! Very enjoyable to view even full screen.

thank you Biz.  really means a lot to me.  Honestly... this was a cnc fail in a lot of ways.  almost every edge detail on this thing had to be re-worked so it was a LOT of manual carve.  The backside carve I manually re-did with a belt sander and card scraper.  The top carve... on this oak one... well it was never meant to cut this deep so I had to 'massage' that bottom edge and hence the little piece left on the lower horn.  the top is so thin in places I was burning through it right at the edge.  So in a lot of ways, this one was saved from the edge of disaster and almost didn't make it.  All that said - invaluable lessons learned and it's a really great playing instrument at the end of that so... just lucky I guess - esp for first cnc project.  Thank you again for the support!!

no offence but I wouldn't recommend taking out your copper tape or anything until you know that's the problem.  don't chase your tail. 

plug into a cheap amp and take a screwdriver and tap it at the live contact on the jack... if you don't get sound then the problem is there at the jack.  sometimes a jack will make contact with wood and short to ground... so take the jack out and let it hang loose while the cord is plugged in... if it all the sudden works that will zero you in on that area.  if you do get sound tapping... then tap further up the chain (usually the vol live depending on the layout)  anywhere you have live... if you tap it with metal... it would ground it through you and you should hear that through the amp.  don't use an expensive amp as the tapping might stress your speaker.  i use a battery amp for such testing.

another common mistake is simply mistaking the live for ground and visa versa on the jack.  double check that the shield is neg and the prong is where your positive from the volume (or switch depending on order of your layout).  rule out these simple things first and respond and we'll def help.

also... again... take pictures of the jack outside the guitar, take detailed pics of the switch, the wires from the pickups... etc.

2 hours ago, MiKro said:

Mike,

I used to have the pleasure in having access to a friends wood working shop anytime I needed it , had my own key to the shop, about 20k sq ft. He had a drum sander to die for.  It would handle a 6ft wide piece and would go down to a thickness of 1/8".  It had roller in feed and out feed tables that were 12 ft long each.  LOL!!

A tornado took out the shop a few years back and he retired. Oh well.

MK

noice, good friend to know!  I worked as a cab maker as a young man so am familiar w giant weber sanders... wish I had one and also a giant compressor so I could run a dynabrade orbital.  that'd be heaven indeed!  

tornado... well that must have been a sad day for you both!

I think I have some 20+ guitars... about a third are factory guitars, another third are partscasters, and the rest are my builds.  At any given point there are 1 or 2 that I'm in love with... but that changes pretty freq.  Haven't played my classical nor my acoustics for quite a while... but every now and then I'll get an idea in my head that requires an acoustic or classical and I'll focus on those for a while.  Right now I'm in bass mode... mostly because I'm working on a bass.  Haven't played my 295 in a looong time but someday I'll get inspired by some brian setzer track and focus on that for a while.  Building guitars makes me want to play guitar more... buying gear makes me want to play more... buying wood makes me want to build more... it's a vicious cycle!