mistermikev

never heard of brushbox before but it's very pretty.  Nice work picking something more unusual.  7 strings?  you crazy... I can hardly play 4!

wow, creativity and craftsmanship combined.  nice work.

wow, noice top.  looking god.

thank you crusader.  I appreciate the response.  All the things I've done here are actually pretty simple in photoshop... I'm really an intermediate user.  Like anything else... it just takes practice.

afa f-style headstocks... good point.  I will have to come up with my own variation. 

the sg - yes... was planning a carved top.  I suspect I could do 90% of it with bits... 1/2" roundover, 3/8 cove, ... and  3/8" plunge roundover.  thats the plan anyway!

thanks for taking the time!

 so... I've taken the comments I've gotten to heart and made some new fantasy guitars.  Have been improving my photoshop skills.  Have added a few new ideas for builds as well.  Any all comments welcome and thanks again for previous comments.

the sweetspot strat:  I've been wanting to do a 4 pickup strat for a while.  my fav settings on a strat are 2 and 4 ie the sweet spots.  This idea would offer up 3 sweet spot settings plus a tele setting (neck and bridge would now be rwrp).  just an idea altho sooner or later I AM going to build a 4 pickup strat!the deltalectric: I've missed my dano ever since I sold it.  THE slide guitar.  Always thought it could be improved with more hum cancelling options and this would be an attempt to facilitate that.  I also thought I'd dare to mess with the original formula of pine+masonite and go for a more upscale wood choices like maple and mahog with a little more rosewood thrown in for good measure.

the night-owl... I've always wanted a blueshawk, but the 2009 version with the 24.75 scale neck.  this version would have 2 std p90s plus a stacked p90 for the middle offering some more interesting hum cancelling positions.

the diamonte: my first good guitar was an sg90.  Was quite the departure from a std sg.  had a steinberger trem that could lock, 24 fret neck (back in 91/92 it was the only 24 fret gibson - at least I have read).  I broke the neck on mine and then did a failed repair... ended up trading it off just to not have to look at it.  anywho, this would be my tribute to that.

finally, my last idea... the Texas Cattle Hand.  I purchased a big piece of 8/4 black walnut 14" wide for my first build (a bass).  pictured here is my actual walnut, so yup, this is just an idea of how to spend some of that walnut that is burning a whole in my pocket! 

Probably should be noted that many of these recent ideas feature binding + a heavy roundover.  I was inspired by Norris and his gotm entry.  You get the coolness of binding with the comfort of a roundover??? sold!   

aha, you just learned me something.  thank you.

very nice.  i really like how you've shown the body contour with gloss.  how did you do an irregular contour like that in photoshop?

one thing that stands out is the 5 way and vol knob does look a little close when in fwd position but that may just be a taste thing more than anything else.

roger that.  thanks again gentlemen!

thanks for the advice gentlemen.  I've done plenty of fret leveling but this is my second shot at replacing and as mentioned the first fret did not go well.  I hope that's just a product of slot depth.  With that in mind... how do y'all measure the slot depth?  Piece of paper and a pen?

that is a great tip.  I like the idea of super glue as opposed to wood glue... I'm not sure why.  I plan to tape up my frets when I next attempt to prevent getting glue on my fretboard.  I think I will use a block to hold them in place, and another block to hammer them in. 

thanks for the tips gentlemen!

I used the plastic end on mine once before... and didn't have an issue but it just seems like it could mar the wood at any moment if you hit it with an edge.  Think the rubber should do it... or like mentioned the plastic with a block.  Think I'll try that next attempt.

thanks again for the responses!

here's what happened in my head when I read that: "my specialty fret hammer has been ordained by none other than scottr"!  hehe

I was using the rubber end.  It should be nuff to push a fret in... I mean it did push in the ends... there was just about a heavy 32nd a half in long - in the middle - that just would not sit in there.  Here's what I've learned: you can't put in frets w/o a fret saw.

thanks again guys - I am in your debit (hehe).

thank you gentlemen.  I very much appreciate the advice.  I was using a simple home-depot special with one side plastic and the other rubber - nothing like your fancy hammer collection!

thank you again for the input.  building up the courage to go back at this!

thank you gentlemen. I think you are spot on, good advice.  I will implement some changes and take a look.

thanks gentlemen for the replies and commiseration.

I will have to snag a fret saw asap.  (hangs his head)

Do y'all use a mallet or a press?  I've seen a few tutorials on building a press caul and also I've seen you can buy one with inserts for approx $50.  also had some ideas about 10" pvc pipe and chopping out a couple of pieces and gluing to a bar bolt or something.

Not sure it would have helped anything here but just wondering if it is "a better way"?

thank you sir.  I had used a can of air to blow out, and thick razor blade to check for sawdust and other in the slot before install. So I guess the slot probably was just a hair shallow.  Will have to check actual depth and snag a fret saw.

any opinions on LMII fretsaw vs stew mac?

so... I come to you know for help/advice...

this build was going along swimingly but now really struggling with frets.

I got my fretwire coiled up in appox a 10" coil from the vendor.  I figured - no need to build a bender. 

I got my fretboard pre-slotted and radiused.  I did do some sanding on it to bring down my fret markers after cutting them off(120-220) - but not a lot... and I was paying attention to try to stay 80+% on the markers and not the fretboard.  I also sanded from approx 220-3k for finishing purposes.

I put super glue on the fret, placed it and started tapping on one end with my rubber mallet.  To my horror - the center was not flush.  Couldn't get it flush.  the glue was still wet... so that's not the issue. 

Panic!  Thought "well I'd better pull it before the glue sets"... and pulled out a good divot along with it.  doh!

so... in your experience, if you had to pick one thing, was the problem more likely improper fret bend (bent too much) or improper slot depth? 

if it is a problem with improper fret radius on the frets... it would seem it's bent too far... so would a diy fret bender 'un-bend' my fretwire?  seems unlikely. 

should I buy pre-radiused fret wire?  anyone use?

fretwire you are a worthy adversary... I am humbled.

so what am I doing on a 3 day weekend while I wait for things to dry???  obsess over designs for my next build. 

I want to try inlays... would like to avoid angled neck if possible but one choice would require it so... def want to try set neck or neck thru next... not sure I'm ready but def willing.

Just calling these off the top of my head...

we'll call this one the "diamonte"

The "Blues Jay"

and the "Delta Lectro"

I'm an sg fan.  I gotta say the natural really highlights the carve.  looks great.  nice work.

7 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Very nice switching possibilities! I think a three-position rotary is better anyway so you're never having two switch through "neighbours" in the switch to get to your destination mode. The bummer is when you have to switch both that AND the toggle. Still, I love it.

thank you sir.  I probably would have been happier with a 4p4t... oh crap why did I think that... now I'm going to have to dig through my bag of rotary switches!

right on.

I remember the montgomery ward and sears catalogs.  that's a good memory.

cheers

6 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Well, I'm absolutely glad that we don't need to use tape and hand-drawn masking for UV photoresist any more! I could never afford the UV box when I was a kid (probably for the best) so only did my first when I got to college and could use theirs. If I desperately have to prototype something these days, I use a similar approach to that press n' peel (never used it) by printing in mirror on either glossy magazine paper or the backing from a sticker sheet (usually jams up) through my laser. The rest is the same; iron on, mask missing areas with a Sharpie and etch away. Still, drilling. Brrrr

never done that myself but I've seen some layouts that just look pretty that way.  All those curvy lines!  Cudos to those who dare.

this mornin' I whipped this up.  This is my wiring plan for this bass.  A 4p3T plus a les paul toggle.  3 modes...  each with 3 possibilities (that's 9 combinations).  Was going to go with a 4p6T from stew mac and do a number of other combos but don't want to buy anything else from stew right now and have a number of 4P3T lying round so...

Uses two humbuckers with the same winding and polarity ala PRS style.

2 hours ago, curtisa said:

All the more reason to have the boards made up for you. I found that provided you spent the time during the board design stage, you'd iron out 95% of the bugs in the circuit before committing to the fab house. Even if there still a couple of errors, they were nothing that couldn't be fixed with some minor PCB surgery and wire jumpers, and you still ended up with a better looking and better made product than you could achieve doing self-etching and drilling at home.

Good riddance to Press 'n Peel, I say. The number of sheets I wasted trying to find the right laser printer, printer settings, iron settings, pressure required, time of transfer, and then dealing with the etching and chemicals, drilling...  

 

all great advice... it's not so much that I have issues with bugs but more I don't re-build the same thing a lot... always finding new circuits to try.

afa quality, I'll admit: fab looks nicer. 

I've worked on old fx with razor thin copper w/o issue so I'd say I'm decent at desoldering.  That said recently I struggled my arse off to desolder and remove a header that I installed upside down on a fabed board.  had to wait a week to get a new board. 

iow I think there are pitfalls either way you go...or perhaps I'm just old and stuck in my ways! (yeah that's probably more likely)

4 hours ago, Prostheta said:

At the rate I have time - or can afford - to get around to things, I wouldn't hold your breath! 

Try it, because what works for me might not necessarily be so for yourself.

I hear ya brother... never enough time to do the things...

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Very impressive stuff.

Producing an etched circuit board of any circuit puts you both in the category of wizardry in my book, but for you and @Prostheta to also be able to talk about the make up of the circuit and understand what each other is talking about takes it to a whole new mystical plane. 

I'm just picking up what the internet put down...

and back to the 'never enough time theme'.  this is a box of tested circuits ranging from guv'nor clones to jcm800 fet emulators to anderton projects.  I call it the box of shame cause I'll probably never get to 90% of it.

1 hour ago, curtisa said:

It's been a looooong time since I did any self-etching of PCBs. The Chinese PCB fab houses just made it far too easy and cheap to have professional boards made up - multi-layer boards, silkscreened component layouts, solder masks, odd shapes - there just wasn't any reason to continue with the hassle of etching PCBs at home.

but then you can't change your design literally every time you build something, hehe!  Almost everything I build is a one off.  Makes for some interesting troubleshooting some times.  as mentioned... it's the drilling that is a little ruff especially when you are staring at a 220 hole chorus!  I use a dremel with a foot switch and a gooseneck... keep a knife sharpener handy.  I've found that if you switch bits every 30 holes and keep them sharp it goes pretty fast. 

I've been asked to troubleshoot a phaser circuit once that was built on cardboard.  Basically point to point.  I suppose that is one way to get around drilling! 

When I get fed up with it I start doing all my layouts in strip/vero board.  As long as you don't need to make something smaller and don't mind cutting the traces - well it makes me feel like I'm not doing as much work anyway!

59 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

It's a good idea to do it for prototyping, definitely. I just hate drilling the boards....

I hear ya on the drilling.  I recently bought a mfg board for a dimension c chorus clone... some things just aren't worth it!

in that vein I had considered replacing the 4.7k bright switch resistor with a 10k trim... but forgot to do so before I made my layout/etch on this one.  As I recall the orig had a fairly subtle effect.  Also considered adding YET ANOTHER control to this bass with a few different options for caps but it is already overloaded so... perhaps I can try that vicariously through you?  Or perhaps next time I'll try it.