mistermikev

33 minutes ago, Urumiko said:

my immediate creative flow headed off in a more art deco direction

not entirely sure what you mean... please elaborate!

8 minutes ago, Stu. said:

This my robot "StuToo":

Untitled by S K, on Flickr

Untitled by S K, on Flickr

He was from a cheap entry-level kit on Amazon. I gave him a new lease of life by extending the working area, replacing the chuck, and upgrading a couple of motors.

Yep! The maple and ebony are running perpendicular to the wenge beneath. I tried to make the sides a little wider too, hoping that would add strength.

I hadn't even thought about that, nice shout! My head stays firmly inside the box sometimes.

dang you got robot skillz.  envious! 

I like what you did with the f hole... it's a hair big, but there's something there.  thank you both for the inspiration.  Sometimes just a little push and we're off to the races trying some dif things!

right on.  I guess the first thing to figure out is if you are flat mounting or counter sinking... which at this point will be determined by your neck height/depth.  afa setup... not sure how much you know but that's always a fun step - to float a floyd you really have to stretch the strings as you tune them.  I think of it like tuning a guitar 15 times in a row.  I tune all 6, stretch them vigorously, tune all 6 again.  I've learned over the years to go ahead and overtune them about a 1/2 step up and progressively less and less overtune as I get closer and closer to A440.  all the while keeping an eye on the angle that the trem base sits at compared to the body.  if I start to see that take on an angle, I flip the guitar and tighten the trem claw screws... then stretch and tune some more.  just a thought.

I play a lot with my fingers sort of knopfler style... but usually when i go for the trem I'm doing 'pick style'.  I like to think it's like different styles of kung fu - "dirty chicken style vs hunt and picken' style"

3 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

You can glue a piece of gauze or even tighter fabric to the place before cutting the holes, measuring about an inch all around the hole. I'd suggest using cotton or linen or other organic materials as they might live similarly to the wood if the humidity changes. That's a common method used by fiddle and mandolin builders to prevent cracking with straight grain woods like spruce.

 

hmm, interesting and good to know.  I'd give you a thanks but I'm all out... again! i guess I must thank people more than avg?!

I was actually thinking of just routing the entire area around them down to 1/8" but I like the idea of following the cutout more closely.  I think I'm going to take that idea (thanks for that) but do it with my bowl bit or even a 1/4" bull nose bit. 

that said... the really delicate bit would be the edges around the diamond.  they would probably only be 1/8"... would probably want to reinforce them with a toothpick or something assuming I could cut them without blowout!

52 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

How are you thinking of doing the f-hole, is the diamond shape an inlay or a cut out? it could be quite delicate 

I was thinking delicate cutout but i'm not entirely sure about it as is.  would probably want to leave at least 1/8" material there and perhaps even reinforce it.  Other thought was to inlay some pearloid pickguard while making the other two parts a cutout.

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

1) I see what you mean. The effing hole just doesn't match!

I like the 'Vette type headstock inlay, especially if you carve an indentation for it similarly to the model. You might want to apply the same curves here and there, both in the F-hole and the pickguard.

The diamond in the F-hole is not in the same angle with those on the neck but I suppose that's just because of the sketchy nature of the image.

funny, I had tried using the sm swoop as a single f hole... but couldn't get happy with it.  had tried to add it to the top of the pickguard but couldn't get happy there either.!  thanks for the push.

22 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

It's all subjective obviously, but I like it all except for the pickguard - to me, it steels the thunder of that glorious f hole.  

thank you AD.  going to play with it some more tonight... I hope to reconcile the two.

so my next project is going to be a tele... have been playing with the design and have a number of questions in different directions so here goes...

1) not satisfied with the cohesive lack in the below.  def going with diamond inlay, def pearloid binding and pickguard, def an ash top that will be died black and def a trem king.  wanted to echo the diamonds in the f hole but not really satisfied.  maybe a diamond cutout in the pickguard?  love the corvette style swoop on the headstock but it seems like it doesn't match w the rest.  almost feel like the entire headstock belongs on a dif design.  just wondering what your honest thoughts are.  push me in some direction.  tho it might be painful, your true gut feelings are appreciated.

2) trem king?  what say you?  too late I bought one.  want a bigsby, but have never been happy with how they don't stay in tune and ltd range of motion.  hoping this might have the same style 'feel' ie 'sleepwalk vibrato'... but more range.  any experience?

What kind of robot do you have?

Those pickup Rings look great, how did you do them, with CNC?

7 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I didn't think the attraction was strong enough. It could have something to do with the iron content of the screws I tried. That didn't even occur to me at the time. 6x2 magnet to magnet is plenty strong though. Gives me piece of mind to know I can't bounce the covers off.

SR

 

right the smaller mags I used work ok, but I get the impression that if you really shook the guitar (perhaps if you play "you shook me all night long" by acdc) you could knock them off!  thanks for the reply!

10 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I use the 6x2's and tried the flathead screw approach and didn't like it. I used those magnets on both sides and liked it a lot.

SR

what was it you didn't like?  my other possibility is to slightly countersink my magnets and rely more on proximity to hold the covers in.  in my first go... they are not countersunk, and as such had issues getting the covers to sit even.

2 hours ago, gpcustomguitars said:

Time to finish this guitar! I was having second thoughts whether to use a floyd or not, but I have no floyd equipped guitars, so here goes... I've printed out the pickup routes jig, will glue to MDF and start cutting!

noice... so what kind of floyd?  floyd floyd or gotoh floyd or?  looking fwd to it.

I just used 4x2 n35 on my recent and they aren't quite strong enough for my taste... so I bought some 6x2 n50 for next time.  I'm thinking it might be nice to use steel flathead screws on the guitar side so I can 'level' things after the fact.  having seen yours I may have gone too big! 

Just now, ADFinlayson said:

Planing either side of the pickup cavity, the angle of the top around the cavity does affect the pickup because the ring sits on the top, if the top has a 2° angle the the pickup will too. If planing before routing then you would end up putting an angle into the cavity wall, but we are talking about insignificant amounts. If you were direct mounting though, that would be a good thing as the pickup is screwed to the base of the cavity which would want to be parrallel with the top. 

something lost in translation here... obviously the top/ring effects it.  I thought we were talking about putting a grade on the actual pickup cavity.  Thought that was the original question.  not sure it would matter afa direct mount as really the only thing that matters is the angle of your drill as you drill the hole.  having an angled area doesn't really guarantee that, but I get where your heart is.

just muddying the waters here but crimson guy above clearly has his pickups routed before planing the top... so pickup cavity itself is not planed.  also, if you do (angle the pickup cavity)this... are you angling the side walls of the pickup cavity?  did I misunderstand you?

also... you can plane the pickup cavity all you want... it isn't going to effect the pickup angle.  if it's on a ring... the ring determines the angle of the pickup.  if it's mounted to the body, the angle the screw going into the body will determine the plane that the pickup is on... not the angle of the pickup cavity.  Not sure I understand a good reason to do this unless I've missed something.

no, i take it as wood carved (hehe).  by natural instinct I have loosely followed close to this pattern... but seeing it laid out like that kind of makes sense so... good call.

that is an interesting and informative tip... storing that away.  thanks for sharing.

;( I imagine that if this happened to me I'd be a bit discouraged... sorry to hear.  perhaps it can be hidden by pikups?  inlay?  just gotta find the right solution.  here's to that coming your way!

17 minutes ago, Urumiko said:

Haha yes you have a point with the acetone, I need to put in an order for some. It's recommended for the palmwood also. And probably the wenge. I've come away from the shed with what looks like henna tattoos before.

Yes i really wanted to do everything on this build. I am very much in favour of CNC fretboards and inlays,

I think if i could get the right software I'd have quite a bit of fun programming inlays in, but also so i can cut fret slots that do not reach the edge of the board.

if i do manage to expand to a larger work space i'll be looking at  sticking linux on a crippled old laptop and getting a cnc at some point no doubt when they can be had for a price i can afford. I can still convince myself its DIY if i program the CNC =).

I note there is a CNC "tutorial" on this very site although it seems to leave out a lot of nescecary info and the more complete packages from cnc companies are still up in that semi pro price bracket at the moment.

 

hehe, I had to go google henna tattoos... yes I'm THAT out of the loop.  fretboard is the one thing that kept me from ever trying to build a guitar 20yrs ago.  Just couldn't reconcile getting that kind of precision w/o some time of tool, but people seem to do it all the time.  that said, it'd the one part of the build I'd just rather pay for.  down side to that is no 1 piece necks and it's also difficult to find really exotic/figured woods.  will likely have to cross that bridge someday.

yes, blind fretslots are cool.  also the (I forget the term) fretboard inset into the neck wood.  so many cool things that cnc opens up.  that's on my someday list too.

I can't imagine keeping a plane square planing an edge of a fretboard... not much area there. 

again, nice choice of background music.

I buy my fretboards cnc cut and radiused (yes I'm a cheater) so the back side has generally been pretty well prepped... but with ebony many recommend ruffing it up anyway, and also a wipe down with acetone as the natural oils might interfere with the glue bond.  for those reasons I usually hit it with a level w sandpaper on it and then acetone.  watching this, it hadn't occurred to me how much work I'm saving by buying those.  money well spent... but admittedly don't get the pride of diy on that.

anywho, just some thoughts.  good job on your video.

if I may... once you have the plane in the top... you can cut the pickup holes too... but I think it is at least somewhat common to not bother putting a gradient on the pickup routes since it is really the top that will determine the pickup angle anyway (assuming you use pickup rings) and if body mounted - it's really not going to make much of a difference.  iow you just cut those straight.

it's not really 10 mins w a hand planer... it's x minutes to setup the block the sm width as your bridge, then 10 mins to hand plane it, then 10-20 mins to cut the pocket.  on my side... I literally only have to adjust two bolts and then rout.  if you calculate the distance between the two sides of the router plane jig(3')... (x/y = rise / run so x = y(rise/run) )... 2.5degree and 3' between bolts would be 52/1200 = x/3'... solve for x - 3'(.043) = x == x = 1.548" difference between the bolt heights..  once the angle is setup - route the top, then route the pocket. 

Probably be less work if you factor in setting up your hand plane/blade - but like so much of this... the real obstacles ore more in your mind than anything else.  for me hand plane would be more work, for you using a router sled would be more work.  Either isn't much work at all.

well that answers the question of having to calculate it - thank you I now see how you don't have to calc if you are doing an angled pocket vs heel.

"powered planer is necessary" - yeah but it sure looks fun!

I think for me... the hangup is using a planer at all.  I prefer to do it via router because A) don't need to buy a planer and B) guaranteed consistency w a router and no real setup/sharpening required.

Thinking about it some more... it should be pretty easy w my router sled.  Just have to get the right rise/run and set corresponding heights with the 4 bolts on my sled/plane... then cut the top, then dropping the bit lower and cutting the tenon pocket all from the same sled.