mistermikev

6 hours ago, Nicco said:

Congrats Mike

thank you!!

"Perfect is the enemy of the great" is the theme for the weekend.  So given that this bass has a very long fretboard/neck... and I will be cutting both in two stages... important to get my materials planed as flat as possible. 

110 degrees this weekend so 20 mins in the garage and I'm drained and drenched. 

adjusted/leveled my planed rigorously, and built a new feed sled.

so i took some 3/4 purpleheart, sapele, and oak and some 3" mahog... resawed and planed them down as stock for 1) a fretboard for my prototype in oak, 2) multilam of sapele/oak/qtr-sawn mahog for my prototype, and a fretboard blank in purpleheart for my final build.

havent decided yet... but thinking just a couple of strips of oak lam on the outside of the sapele and between the mahog here:

my oak has a little tension in it...

could change my mind and add another oak strip in and put some lam between it... thoughts?

the sapele... just lovely stuff imo.  note to self use more of this as it smells just wonderful!

left oak fretboard, right on bottom is the purple heart fretboard.

and the evidence: man glitter everywhere...

2 hours ago, nakedzen said:

Congrats! 

thank you, really appreciate it!!

3 hours ago, JGTay said:

Congrats Mike.

thank you very much!!

4 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Woohoo!

thank you... really enjoyed: "Two troubadours travelled the terrain with twin Twangmaster Tele's while telling tales of triumphant times in Tacoma's taco house".  greatest hits album.

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Congrats! Lots to love in both competitors, a fair win.

thank you biz!

25 minutes ago, MiKro said:

Congrats on the GOTM Win Mike.

mk

thank you Mike!  Very much appreciate it and all the guidance!

3 minutes ago, RVA said:

Good advice, thank you!

Happy to help.

I'm guessing you started from the ledge side... you could start from the other side to prevent it... but honestly given that it's on the top of the guitar... a little sanding and fine.  

I'm no bandsaw expert but when you are trying to make a straight cut generally a wider bade is the ticket... and lots of tension.  I don't think a fine blade would be best because it's going to cut slower and you will be more likely to pull things out of wack.  I'd go for a coarse cut and plan on some sanding... but ymmv.

hadn't realized you have such a nice bandsaw... might put mine to work more if it was as nice as that.  it looks like it's going to need sanding, but pretty minimal.  nice work.

11 minutes ago, Yeti said:

Yeah, that's what put me off starting this - hence this post to see what other people think.  I have levelled frets before but just the odd one here and there, and always higher up the neck from about the 9th fret onwards.  I could give them a little tap with the fret hammer to see if that's enough - the slight buzz is probably just 0.1/0.2 mm off.

well, only you know what tools you have and what is best with it right in front of you.  if it were me I'd take the strings off, flatten the neck perfectly, level the frets, and re-crown them.  it's just not that much more work and the only way I know to guarantee they will be perfect.  ymmv.

Just now, Yeti said:

Thanks for your reply.
Yes, it looks as if I might need to level a few frets at that end.  
The truss rod is dual action and not hard to turn.
There's virtually no relief, when I hold down a string at 12th fret and also at body fret the middle fret is touching the string.
Re-checking the string gauge, the action is about 1 mm at 12th fret, 6th string.

imo... leveling a few frets is almost never worth it.  there are some cases where it would be... but that is typically if the frets that are problematic are really high up the neck.  if the problem frets are lower than most likely as you level them you just move the problem a couple of frets higher... then chase the problem all the way up the neck.  

so if there is no relief... just make sure you are going the right way with the truss (check relief, turn truss, check relief again) and eventually you should get there.  you should be adding relief which in most cases would mean loosening the truss rod.  with a dual action... it could be that it was adjusted so much that adjusting back... you eventually hit the 'middle point' on the truss where adjustment just doesn't do anything until the threaded block starts to pull the truss back in the other direction.  

1mm would be incredibly low action.  

noice... so can we hear a recording?

well imo i think you answered your own question.  if your rocker is finding places that rock... then you need to level and crown.  there may be other issues... but unless the guitar is leveled and crowned you can't rule them out.  I think you just have to rule things out methodically.  

your instincts about truss rods are right... ime you do a quarter or a half turn and then it takes a day to fully change.  if by the end of that day you don't have the right relief you adjust again.  as long as the truss rod doesn't become really hard to turn... you are likely fine to turn it again.  if it starts giving real resistance well then you have to be very careful proceeding. 

this is an epi?  so I suppose we are talking about a compression rod?  ie... this only goes one way and that is to add MORE relief... is that what you need?  

get a straight edge and look down the neck... what is it doing? 

check your relief by holding down the string at the 1st fret and also where the neck meets the body... look halfway between... you should have just enough room between the string and the fret to slip a thin fender pick.  get that right first.  then you set action... you action looks fairly high... 1.75mm at 12 on low e?  that is generally at the higher end of the rec range.  1.5 would be pretty good.  1.25 would be above avg.  

if your neck isn't doing anything funny, and you've set your relief, and you've set your action... and it's buzzing in an area... that means you need to level and dress.

hope something there helps.

5 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Not necessarily so. There's hundreds of variants both for stainless and "regular" steel and there's some plain steel variants that are stronger than most any stainless steel.

Back in the day we visited Paris (France, not Texas) and saw the Eiffel Tower. The bars used to build it had the quality markings embossed. My dad who worked in the steel importing business looked at them and said that he had never sold steel of that poor quality. Yet it has been standing there for 133 years despite two fires so the structure is strong enough.

well I'm guessing in this context... the likely candidates to be used are going to be avg stainless vs avg steel.  that said... this truss rod will def not be holding up the eiffel tower!

5 hours ago, Akula said:

Ok, timber shots!

I regularly keep a notepad on my person at work, and it proved invaluable in the planning of this build. I have full-scale drawings at home, but I'll write down numbers and draw ideas in my down-time on the job, and after three months I finally got a break long enough to shoot off an email to my local timber yard with some board dimensions. The guys at Anagote are great, they had some decent sticks lined up when I arrived one afternoon, yet they offered me to look through all their stock for the stuff I needed. That included a fine piece of Tasmanian Blackwood with some hella nice figure. Ben bookmatched it for me with great skill.

- Jam.

so nice to have a lumber place where you can just go looking through the stacks.  I have a local spot that used to let me do that... but they recently have gone through some changes and no such luck anymore.  really is therapy to just dig through some boards sometimes - enjoy that!

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Just a side note: Rust is usually related to moisture. I know there's areas where corrosion really is a problem as there's so much salty mist all over the place - even the life span of a PC is only a couple of years there! But for the rest of us I guess stainless steel isn't worth the extra price.

right on, in this application that probably doesn't matter but my understanding stainless is a bit stronger.  I usually do as much as possible to seal the part of the rod that isn't exposed anyway... so rust shouldn't be an issue.  I suppose at the threads it could be a problem... just something to consider anyway.

1 hour ago, Professor Woozle said:

That may explain the price difference, stainless steel is significantly pricier due to its nickel and chromium content. I wouldn't rule out them being the magnetic form of stainless (martensitic) but it's most likely these rods are a standard tool steel of some sort.

right on, i suppose the most important part of this rod is probably the welds.  they look pretty good.  as long as it holds under pressure... totally worth it.  I've tested them and they seem to turn fine while clamped so... it's a good mid road option.

1 hour ago, Professor Woozle said:

Not all stainless is non-magnetic, but generally the stuff used for applications where it doesn't need to be hardened will be non-magnetic. Incidentally, regular iron and steel is also non-magnetic at high temperatures, there's a point generally around 800 degrees C where the crystal structure of the metal changes (to what's known as austenite), but that same non-magnetic crystal structure can exist at room temperature in heavily alloyed steels like stainless.

well as it were... this rod is magnetic... but the rod I got from allied luthier (known to be stainless) is not.  therefore I think I can conclude the lmii rods are not stainless.  good to know.  I appreciate your insight.

1 hour ago, Professor Woozle said:

To see if they're stainless you could try testing them with a magnet? All of the A-coded (austenitic) grades of stainless steel aren't magnetic, and they tend to be the ones used for applications that don't  require heat treatment (i.e. edged tools).

well that's a good idea... i guess alum would be noticeably lighter... did not know stainless was not magnetic.  I will def try that - thank you for the suggestion.

have been wanting to try some lmii truss rods just to see how they fair... thought I'd share what I found for my own future reference and in case anyone else is interested.

slightly less expensive than allied luthier... free shipping making them moreso, and delivered w/i about 3 days for me. 

have to say... the welds on these look pretty good.  the feel of the threads is very smooth.  seems like an awfully small threaded block but I s'pose that accounts for more potential movement.  These appear to be stainless steel but could not confirm via their website.  all made in the usa.  

comparing to a few others... 5.2 oz for a 23.75" rod.  5.4oz for an allied luthier 18.375" w spoke wheel, 5.6oz for an allied luthier 19.75" rod w/o spoke wheel, 

5.2oz for a bitter root 15.25" dual way truss rod, 5.3oz for an 18.`25 bitter root rod with a spoke wheel.  

2.1oz for allied luthier 18" one way rod.

1 hour ago, curtisa said:

I'd advise against using a zero fret with a lock nut, for the same reason that omitting the string retainer bar behind a locking nut makes it impossible to tune and lock the guitar without the string pitch rising.

If the strings are slightly higher as they enter the string clamps due to the zero fret being higher than the leading edge of the nut, as soon as you tighten the clamps the strings are going to kink down slightly between the zero fret and nut, and rise in pitch. Making the zero fret exactly the same height as the locking nut surface will minimise this effect, but at the expense of inviting nut/string buzz. In this situation trying to get the two components the same height would be as much work as installing the locking nut by itself.

is a good point... that if anything it's going to be more a pita.  that said... every locking nut guitar I've ever owned suffered this to some degree.  my jem, my hamer, a kramer I owned a few years back... i always tighten the fine tuners 30% then lock the nut then drop the fine tuners back out to go back to pitch.  This suggests to me it's kind of inherent in the floyd style lock nut.  my hamer has an original floyd, my jem has low edge pro, my kramer had a more modern floyd (mid 90s).  

Just now, Bizman62 said:

I have a bunch of polypropylene mayo bottles stored in my cellar to be used for my BBQ sauce... PP doesn't harden in the dishwasher like PET and it seems to keep things quite fresh, at least the edible ones.

I mentioned aluminium just for the colour and because it's the most common metal on Earth and thus available for everyone. Any silvery surface can be painted.

right on.  so you diy bbq sauce?  noice.  you just made me want to visit famous daves stat!

16 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

I tried to find a conductive copper epoxy but they all seem to be "silver coated copper" like https://www.mgchemicals.com/products/conductive-paint/conductive-epoxy-paints/copper-epoxy-paint/ which most likely is even more conductive. Then again, some of them were described as epoxy glues... Anyhow, if you're worried about the looks, there's tons of paints to hide the silver. Aluminium foil painted matte black will still create a Faraday cage if the cover and cavity shieldings allow metal to metal contact in a few spots.

Re small bottles, I'd recommend glass or metal. Plastic may allow some solvents to evaporate through. A friend used to study biology at the University and the budget being tight he opted for using clear plastic instead of glass for his preparates - and the spirit evaporated in a few years! Then again, if the original vessel is plastic, the same type of plastic should work until the best before date.

right on, it's more that if I'm going to buy some... and I know I'm doing a guitar where at least one pu cavity is seen... I'm going to go w/o silver.  that said if i do buy a big can of silver based... I also have a spray can of carbon based I'll use at final i guess... or yeah, just spray some black in there.  afa aluminium foil... then you have to solder all sheets together... just not worth the hassle imo but I have done alum tape on the back of pickguards where I know it will have several contact points to ensure conductivity to all strips.  

the advantage w plastic in theory would be to get a tube where I could squeeze out any air as I use the stuff.  I think I would still store in a ziplock... but if you've got air inside the bottle... gonna have the evap problem.  I'm gonna have to see what amazon has avail afa a refillable container that one could squeeze to remove air.  super shield is water sol so should be fine w just about anything.  

edit - now that I think about it... might be best to get a small mustard bottle or something.  

oh shoot moving the truss rod out of that area... that'll do it right there.  knowing that I'd do the bolts w/o worrying too much.  

zero fret... interesting thing I heard the other day about zero frets... that they wear out that fret pretty freq.  that totally turned me off on the idea.  what a pita to replace compared to a reg nut.  looked at the kahler locking nuts... they have the sm v shaped string slots so... no worries afa string movement.  might have to snag one of those pro nuts with the flip mechanism.  those are really nice.  

yes, i'd agree that there really is no point in a zero fret w a locking nut.  the only real advantage to zero nut is it makes setting height part of the leveling process, and you can change string gauges... the floyd nuts are just sort of a V shape so pretty sure you could use just about anything in there w/o issue.  I certainly wouldn't do that (zero fret)... but this just in: gtr players have all sorts of crazy ideas about that sort of thing lol.