mistermikev

noa u gonna 'slappa da bass'?  looking fwd to your demo video! 

wow, that rosette really pairs well against the top/sides.  nice work!

sm thing I love about building pedals/computers/software/anything-else: I can build something much more unique than I could ever afford to buy.  I enjoy the dreaming it up just as much as realizing it... perhaps more (rosewood binding!). 

Also... I enjoy it when folks see something I built and think it's nice and respond as such.  Perhaps it is me just feeding my ego but I genuinely enjoy that.

good question.

Holly snikies does that look sweet.  nice work!

man, that is ALL things a high end guitar should be.

don't listen to him... he's a six stringer and they must not be trusted!!!  jk.  (hello Bizman)

I would just add that... I've found cheapies that sounded decent and cheapies that didn't... I think it depends more on the build than anything else and for the bad ones the general issue is with loss of high freq content which isn't going to be much of an issue on bass. 

that said... given they are humbuckers... you can buy some nice alnico bar mags on evilbay for $3ish and that can make a surprising difference.  it's sort of 'target practice while blind' but I've had decent luck doing that.  A2 seems to sound good everywhere to me.

Furthermore, with a hollow body and bass the more likely issue is going to be whether or not they are microphonic.  bass guitars, even clean, can really howl if they are not potted and/or if you don't put some foam under them in the guitar.  You may want to prepare for that.  You may also consider that replacing pickups in a hollowbody is NOT fun... at least it hasn't been for me.

wowwy wow wow.  (that's all I have to say)

I'll give you one piece of advice I wish I'd been given before I did a mapa burl top... If you are going with a dark (black) fill for voids... you should use it to spot fill the bigger voids and then use clear and go over the entire body.  I used black epoxy and and went over the entire top and it doesn't look bad (it was a gotm winner in 2018)... just a lot of unfortunate smaller voids got filled with black and that kind of took away from clean look of the mapa. 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!

funny, I was wondering if bridges for acoustics come pre-slotted or if you could slot them yourself... and now I know.  I'm not sure which way I'd do this (someday) but it's best to have some options.  thank you both for those - both great ideas.

careful sheriff bart... I think mongo is taking a liking to your backside (hehe - sorry, can't help my juvenile mindset... I am who I am)!

does look v nice tho.

certainly is an interesting account, thank you for sharing. 

Forgive me for being a voice of condescension but if we assume you pay $15 for an epiphone pickup... then put $10 worth of parts into it... pay yourself $15hr for an hour to disassemble a pickup, then scrape off wax and reassemble... we're at $40.  I buy used seymours all the time on craigslist for that... so I'm not sure it's worth it for everyone.  That said I've been known to waste a lot more on much more futile efforts so in summary: rock on.

Still good info, and I've replaced magnets/slugs on pickups with some success(convert silver to gold slugs comes to mind)... but it's the kind of thing I would really save for a pickup that I really liked or matched my guitar in some way, or just to have fun learning!

8 hours ago, curtisa said:

I suppose the issue I have with claims like that, and why I approach the importance of wood/frets/paint/air pressure/[insert factor here] with a grain of salt is that it's intrinsically impossible to prove that anything makes a difference when it seems to be universally acknowledged that they're all inter-dependent and can (allegedly) amount to no difference whatsoever. And if the player themselves is acknowledged to be a significant contributor to the tonal mix, then the whole argument that 'wood/finish/frets/fretboard X = resultant Y ' becomes moot.

The follow-on questions in that case could be, 'why should a Strat be made out of ash?' or 'why should I use maple in a neck?' etc (ignoring obvious structural reasons for selecting certain wood species for particular applications). My only logical conclusion to that paradox can be that we do it because we have convinced ourselves that it does make a difference and that all we're doing as builders or players is perpetuating an unprovable hypothesis when we should be focusing our attention on just building and playing a guitar.

I say embrace the things you can prove to make a tangible difference to the sound, and exploit the use of novel materials and solid construction techniques for their aesthetic benefits. The rest of the instrument will simply fall into place after that.

and you just are gonna ignore the MOST important comment I made re kirk hammet... must have really nailed you there (hehe). 

I'm taking one thing away from this thread... curtisa is on record as saying kirk hammet is capable aka good.  (hehe, he's better than me but I think it's funny)

other than that... EVERYTHING effects tone... to a huge degree or an infinitely small degree.  

So IMO it's perfectly legitimate to talk/consider those things... getting carried away with the importance of fretwire is the same as getting carried away with importance of brushing your thumb across the strings as you hit an a chord.  If it's .0000000000001% difference then it's a difference.   If it's dogma to you... ok.  If it's everything to you also ok.  I weight your opinion with your ability and tempered with the fact that if you are good you are likely endorsed. 

some nice progress.  rock on.  thing about sand paper is... you think a heavy grit will make it easier... but that is rarely true.  selecting just the right grit can save a lot of effort, and switching to lighter grits before you think you are 'done' can actually save some effort too... but as much sanding as I've done in my life it has taken a long time to understand that!  afa scratches... if you paint it you are still going to end up dealing with those scratches in the paint finish... so you might as well deal with them on the wood surface because it will likely save frustration.  just one man's o.

looking great!

I wish it was a basement... but no... just the garage.  technically my kitchen becomes my workshop from time to time (wife hates that!) and so I am going to clam 1 1/4 workshops.

wow, that's going to look great when it's done.  looks like you got-her-on-the-run.  nice work.

soon my garage will be tollerable for more than 10mins at a time. 

open it up and inspect.  more than likely the mono jack has been disconnected or perhaps is making contact with the shield.  ask youself: what changed?  new cable?

that just looks outstanding!

well the good thing is.. at least in my experience... it's a very forgiving finish afa if you get a divot/blemish because new coats actually melt into old coats.  stuff smells something aweful tho.

tar-swallow... that sounds like trail jibberish (hehe).

eh, super jumbo, advanced jumbo, round shoulder dreadnought... who can keep any of it straight.

right on... someday there is a jumbo in my future or even it's predecessor (I forget - what's the one that's bigger than a jumbo?).  hard to get a sense of perspective thru a pic.  bet it will sound big!

is it me... or is that bigger than a jumbo/dreadnought?  love the simple beauty of it.  normally I like things gawdy like... add some diamonds on the edge, 52 inlays, etc... but this makes a good case for sometimes simple is more refined.  nice work.

as you know no expert here but having done it with the watco nitro in a very dry climate all sounds good except you may need more than 10 coats (very thin for me).  I would plan to spray it up and do a wetsand right away to see if you can get to a very smooth surface before you start the 'waiting weeks' because you'd hate to wait and find out you need more clear.  also... given your wet climate you may want to wait a little longer between coats. 

just some newbie thoughts.