mistermikev

1 minute ago, ADFinlayson said:

yeah the bolts through on the locking nut is something I am also concerned about, he has atleast said he want;s a big neck on it, I believe it's the R5 locking nut, something like 44.5mm wide, I wonder if there is anyway to avoid screwing through, I don't particularly want to go down that road if I can avoid it. Also I wonder what the value of a locking nut actually is with a premium set of locking tuners? He was talking about a zero fret and a locking string retainer like he has now but that would mean a zero fret, a nut then the string lock which would look weird to me. 

with a kahler... you have to have a locking nut... no locking tuners going to do it.  you could get the alternative screw down locking nut... just has wood screws instead of bolts.  all that said... if you do things to strengthen the neck I think you'll be fine.  make a vallute, do some precision drilling to ensure you don't bury the nuts too deep in the back... maybe consider a multilam neck.

w a zero fret... i don't think you'd need a nut if you have the locking nut.  haven't looked at the kahler version but the floyd keeps the strings in exact position so no need for a nut before it.

3 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

yeah that's true PRS don't have a huge amount of glue joint, but they do have a fairly chunky heel and I haven't seen one that isn't quarter sawn mahog. I haven't managed to ruin any of my prs style builds either and I do like a cheeky neck dive.

hehe yeah I know, I am not a trem guy. I did take the Kahler out and have a good look at it though, I quite like it - all encompassed within the trem itself with no back route, just enough clearance for the spring mechanism underneath it (which I need to try and find a template or plan for) and just 4 wood screws attaching it to the top. It seems like a easier entrance into into a whammy build. My only trepidation at the moment is around the locking nut and getting the cut/route for that at the right height and clean, esp on a roasted maple board. I generally don't like maple fretboards because it's way harder to hide any blunders. 

have had/have many a floyd... but never a kahler.  I have one in a drawer but I think I'm req by law to build a pointy guitar for it lol.  with it being a cam... my guess is it feels a lot like the trem king.  very fluid action.  def benefits from a lock nut. 

doing a lock nut- there is not much room for forgiveness.  you can always shim it... but ideally want to nail that.  Another complication is that if you do the bolt thru lock nut... it will significantly weaken the headstock transition... which makes doing a thin neck rather risky... esp if you've got a big truss rod going through right there.  both my jem and my hamer ss are like that... surprise the jem has stress cracks and the hamer was broken.  

yes, maple is a nightmare for inlay work... but I'm sure you won't have any trouble.  now michael j fox... maybe not (lol too soon?)  

had you considered preval?  those are these little kits you can buy at hardware store where you can mix your own spray.  comes w an aerosol can.  I mention because clearly the pictured guitar is using a tinted clear.  it's kind of opaque so the grain is muted.  The only way I know of to achieve that is w spray.

that said... if you don't care about grain being creamy/opaque like that... and just want the color... you could simply mix up some water based gray dye w a small amount of blue.  no reason you can't get that color... then clear over it... it's just not going to have that one aspect.

1 minute ago, ScottR said:

Danish has many formulas but most of them are similar to Tru-oil, in that it is boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits.....and probably something else- and definitely in different ratios. It is intended to harden below the surface of the wood, ie in the pores. If one were trying to leave enough on the surface for a film build-up, I would be hesitant to spray anything over it. Mu success was with the soak and wipe completely off type Danish oil finish.  You advise about testing first is valuable and should not be ignored.

SR

well oddly, in the case of that bass... in all the places where it was walnut the oil soaked in fine... but on that mappa burl top... it really sat near the surface and as i mentioned left it sort of waxy.  I imagine I could have gone clear over the walnut w/o much trouble but that mappa... doubtful.  I did whipe it after... but apparently not enough.

when I saw you post this on facebook I looked at that joint area and thought... "I think I know what the problem is"!  less real estate than an sg.  The prs is kind of like that too... it's an absolute marvel that more of them don't have issues tho... as it's a pretty vetted design.  

this should be quite the departure from prev builds for you - seemingly a shredder... and with a kahler... noice.  look fwd to seeing it come to life.

1 minute ago, ScottR said:

I've gone with lacquer over Danish oil successfully in the past. You do need to make sure the oil has completely cured/dried. Give it a couple of week or more before spraying, depending how open the pores were and how much oil soaked in how deep.

SR

well surprise - I'm wrong.  I did some danish on my first bass and it was such a waxy feel... wouldn't have guessed that it would be anything but trouble with clear over it.  I stand corrected.

no expert but anytime you hear "oil" followed by "lacquer/clear" - had at least better make sure you do some tests.  i know tru oil is pretty forgiving in this regard but it's not really oil.

2 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Just wondering: Would it be usable longer if you divided the can into smaller bottles right away, to minimize the amount of air the unused paint is in contact with? I know it works for whisky... But the shielding paint I bought from Crimson hardened in the tiny bottle as well before I could actually use it. I wonder if their recipe is similar to the DIY one: Choose conductive lumps of coal, grind it to powder and mix with water and white glue. At least it smells a bit like Titebond!

that is a great suggestion to the tune of "why didn't I think of that".  it is def the air trapped in the can that did it in... perhaps I should get some plastic containers that I can squeeze the air out of and close.

afa diy... I've read quite a bit about diy and commercial shielding and seen a number of shootouts.  you get what you pay for.  from everything I've read the versions with actual metal in them are by far the best.  stew mac is very good... but mg chem super shield consistently gets higher ratings.  I don't use metal based all the time because they are silver in look... so sometimes go with mg chem total ground if it's going to be visible... but I'm convinced the silver look is something you have to suffer if you want better shielding. honestly copper is best but all my ctrl cavities tend to have irregular nooks and crannys that make that impractical so my compromise is shielding paint and copper on the cavity cover.  ymmv.

8 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Yes, that was clear. My attempt was to accentuate that, maybe not so clearly.

well my powers of observation are somewhat lacking sometimes!

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Telling the exact prices for parts is a mission impossible, at least for me. Exotic or otherwise fancy wood is one thing and I can't help wondering how the Far-East bulk manufacturers can sell guitars featuring figured tops for 100 money! Here a simple body blank can easily cost that much.

Speaking about truss rods, I've bought them from China for a fiver or less, the prices have come up a bit since then after they started adding VAT for all items outside the EU. So it's about the same as @curtisa mentioned. The same rods cost a tenner or more at a Finnish luthier supplier. The same applies with most of the parts, domestic or local suppliers cost double compared to the cheapest online vendors.

Regarding the total cost... The workshop/course alone is €165 for 70 hours divided into 5 hour sessions on Saturdays. But that includes tools I never could afford or fit anywhere plus a bunch of fellow builders to help if needed. It's a hobby and most hobbies come with a price tag. Plus it frees me from the household chores on those Saturdays! Anyhow, I could have bought the half a dozen guitars I've built for a quarter of the cost... Who cares!

 

well for the record... this isn't really about trying to make or save money... on some level, perhaps subconscious... I'm trying to dissuade myself from being so "into" it by knowing what it's actually costing me!  do I think I could give it up completely if I wanted to?  no, probably not.  At the least it will make me more learned, and that is never a bad thing.

thank you for the thoughts sir!!

3 hours ago, curtisa said:

If @mistermikev has listed prices he's paid or prices as currently quoted (single quantities at retail), I'd say his numbers are bang on. $25 For a Switchcraft toggle is about right, particularly if Switchcraft are struggling, like most other manufacturers, to overcome supply chain issues since the start of the pandemic and the Russian/Ukraine conflict. $24AUD ($18US) was about what I'd pay for a Switchcraft toggle before the world was put on pause. Local prices for me are now $45AUD!

Although I would say $34 for binding and $20 for shielding paint seems a bit of overkill, so who knows 

even before the pandemic... the cheapest I could find switchcraft was philli luthier... $22.  binding... well for a lp build getting thicker binding is key... and the best I could find (w/o looking around too much) was $11+ each.  you figure you'll need at least one for the body, one for the neck, and probably half of one for the headstock plus some slop.  

shielding paint... the only way I can save money there is buying a big can of it.  I did that years ago when I was building partscasters and even keeping the can in a plastic bag it dried up by the time I got done with 4 guitars.  at $50... that's about $13 ea.  I now buy little bottles from mg chem and they are about $30 plus shipping... and with 3 coats you get about 1.5 guitars out of them.  that's a 1 oz bottle.

thank you for the thoughts... def some places I could shave a few bucks here or there.

9 hours ago, RVA said:

I think your numbers are all low, except for the 3-way switch - $25?

As for time/effort/cost etc,, I think it is a losing proposition. This is a labor of love. Recoupment is possible, profit is fortuitous for the unknown and non- mechanized builder (a cnc machine does help)

I learned to work with guitars by buying $100-300 guitars and seeing how close I could get them to sound and play to my Tom Anderson and PRS guitars. IMHO, I got darn close, and certainly more than enough for the player who is more interested in playability than name and how thick the figured top is. It caused me to ask myself who would ever want to build a guitar, a question I still ask myself, often in the middle of a frustrating build. The answer I came up with is someone who enjoys it, which I do, right now.

Since then, I stopped thinking about the cost. The build provides satisfaction that cannot be purchased. Even if I sold a guitar for cost, I would be happy knowing that guitars I made were making music and making players happy. I like seeing them on my wall and knowing that I created it, similar to the feeling of many jobs I can look over afterwards and appreciate as a job well done. Unfortunately,  I don't enjoy playing them as much as I should (too critical of my own work)

You are an artist brother. Create for art's sake.

Sorry for the long non-answer!!

shit I'm sorry, I somehow missed your post.  yes, that's the switchcraft premium.  I'm well aware of some decent less expensive options.  that said... I love the feel of switchcraft and oak grigsby.  both have a stiffness you just don't get anywhere else.  Both def things that would be easy to save money on if your main purpose was profit or just keeping costs down.  

I think one of the mistakes many builders make is comparing their build to mass produced.  It'd be like comparing a painting done by banksy to a lithograph.  As I said to AD... you don't get a guitar built by one luthier from fender/gibson until you go custom shop... and those start at $3400 and probably average $5000.  These are not customized models... these are production models made by the custom shop... and you aren't going to find anything but switchcraft, honduran mahog, 5A tops, etc on those builds.  

I certainly am building for the love of it.  cnc actually takes way more time unless you are producing in large numbers.  I probably have spent 60+ hours just on cad/cam, and another 120hours building each of the recent teles I did.  Of course I wouldn't go through that if it wasn't satisfying to me... and it is most def that.  I love this hobby so much it has consumed me... and I have about 50 guitars I want to build... but I've recently come to the realization that I don't think I'll be able to afford all the things I want to build without at some point, to some degree or another, considering selling some of my completed builds or doing some builds for others.  If you figure an avg of 800 each minimal parts/materials cost... don't even think about my investment in tools... that's around 7 grand.  Nothing wrong with building cheap... it just doesn't suit my tastes.

thank you again for taking the time!!

6 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I recon my lp specials I have been doing are around 45-50 hours maybe slightly more. I kept a bit of a casual timesheet on a semihollow carvetop build I did back in 2020 and stopped counting at 150 hours though, so how long is a piece of string. A lot of the labour really depends on the process though - You can be cooking the dinner while your CNC is operating where as I have to make sure I'm not stabbing myself with a chisel  I have sped up a few processes though, table saw for slotting and decent buffer must have shaved 10 or more hours off a build for me. 

hehe, cooking dinner.  one of my thoughts getting into cnc... was that it would keep my fingers away from power tools... and ultimately be safer given that it is easier to take very small bites of wood.  I'm not sure how valid that is.  that said... idk about cooking dinner.  It could throw a workpiece at you pretty easily, or start a fire... so I'm pretty much watching it full time.  I think ultimately, w/o even factoring in the design time... I would bet it actually takes significantly longer to do a one off on cnc vs by hand.  I don't have a bit changer and so the time I spend changing bits after each operation, plus the time I spend aligning things... plus factoring in that you almost have to do a prototype operation for every actual operation... if you are really lucky at best you build two guitars... but more than likely you toss 35% of your first operations.  I would bet the break even point is building 3 or 4... cause by #3 you know your code works as intended and can just run it.  slotting and inlay especially.  those operations take forever on cnc.  that is part of my motivation here... I'm curious how much more time it actually takes.  I def feel like my building has slowed down drastically since I started cnc... but it's hard to tell how much of that is just learning curve.  

afa chisel... um... a while back I damn near cut my index finger off with a util knife so... there is still plenty of that in my life!  150hours... so you figure a grand in parts... and 150 hours of build time... if you paid yourself a meager $20/hr that's a $4000 guitar.  If you look at what it costs to get a guitar made by 1 luthier from fender tho... that'd be entry level custom shop... which starts at $3400... and even then a lot of the prep work is done by the factory so... pretty much on target. 

thanks for you feedback - very much appreciate it!!

36 minutes ago, curtisa said:

As would I as well, so I'm curious to see what you get if you decide to record your hours. Like you, I've never worked it out exactly; I've always just assumed it was hovering around the 80-100 hour mark.

that's a good guess.  I've read over on tdpri that the typical flat top tele is generally 50 hours and that's a really simple build.  I've read at mylespaul that the typical standard is 85hrs.  I wonder how much of an under estimate that is for me!

10 minutes ago, curtisa said:

I reckon you'd be surprised how prevalent the cheaper rods are in commercial builds. Allied rods are (for me at least) around $80AUD each once I factor in the exchange rate and shipping in one-off quantities. A basic Chinese rod is about $12AUD in single quantities. Even if I buy a bunch of cheap ones, test them all before using and throw away the ones that fail (which I am yet to have one fail...so far...), that makes it a simple choice in my head.

FWIW, I did buy a 3 or 4 Allied rods when the exchange rate was much better some years ago, and one of them gave me grief with rattle after installation which eventually led me to scrap the neck it was in. Maybe I just got unlucky, but 1 in 4 fail rate isn't good for a premium component, and led me to reconsider exactly how important price vs function was to me for a component like that.

 

If you were to factor in builds that are based off templated designs (either from physical routing templates you've made/bought, or CNC code that you've previously developed), you can increase your speed and cost margins significantly. However if every build you make is a bespoke, one-off custom, that's where the biggest hit to your margins and speed can occur. If you didn't have a CNC you'd be spending time and money making new MDF templates from scratch. If you did have CNC you'd be spending time and money doing all the CAD and CAM from scratch. Naturally in those situations you're going to take longer to build the guitar and (should) increase your sale price to cover the extra cost.

Realistically even if you had perfect CNC code you're still not going to hit 'play' and walk away - you're probably going to keep an eye on the machine and supervise its operation in case something unexpected happens. Your time is still being expended in that case, even if it's just sitting on your bum watching cat videos in the background on Youtube

no, I actually am fairly aware I guess... our own lef guitars uses them.  Probably the majority here use them as every build I see seems to have one.  Its just that I think the allied rods, and the lmii for that matter, are worth the small difference (in the context of the build).  I have four left from the 5 I bought when I did the dano style... probably use them at some point to.  

oh, if I factored the cad/cam into the equation... esp given the learning curve for me... they'd be...

I generally wouldn't walk away from the machine unless I was very confident in what I was doing... ie it was simple... I have a camera on it and freq have that on my phone while I'm in my office goofing around... but you are right - those hours factor into the real 'expense' of a guitar for me.  

I'm just really curious how long it takes me... as for the most part I'm doing one-offs... and this is def NOT the way to do them to make money... nor really is my design... but I'd still like to know the awful truth of how long I actually spend on them.

25 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Don't forget a set of strings.

Tracking your time and money is an interesting exercise. There's probably a 'clock-on/clock-off' app out there somewhere you can stick on your phone that you can smash every time you head in and out of the workshop.

Generally your raw material costs highlight some of the regional differences there can be pursuing this guitar building interest of ours. I couldn't get mahogany, maple or ebony for those kinds of prices down here. Conversely however, I can see some savings I can make against your table - I wouldn't buy an Allied Lutherie truss rod for example, as IME it doesn't give you 8x the performance for 8x the cost of a ordinary double acting rod. I'd also make a scratch plate from a large sheet of raw pickguard material rather than buy a pre-shaped one. 

Tallying labour costs only make sense if you intend to sell the product you're building, otherwise it's more of an academic exercise. But assuming you were interested in tracking it you'd typically set them to something that covers your 'hidden' expenses (power, insurance, heating, website maintenance, advertising, use of the car if you need to go to the shops to make purchases etc) and then apply a fixed factor to allow you to make a profit off your work (2-3x is pretty normal in any industry). Once you start tallying it up it can be quite shocking how much you should actually be charging your finished products out at; you might find that the $810 guitar you built should probably be sold at $3-4k.  

very thankful to have your input as always.  good call - set of strings... I'm guessing there are 30 other things I'm forgetting and would love to hear more if you or anyone else sees a hole - will add that one asap.  

well... I'm not sure my raw material costs are reflective of what it would cost me today... but at a certain point you have to just put down your costs and let the chips fall where they may.  

the allied truss... I think it's a very reasonable point... cost/benefit.  That said... when you are talking about a 900 investment and 95+ hours of your life... I'm not sure truss rod is the place I want to save $30.  the allied truss is braised instead of welded... the metal is really high quality stainless, there is 1" of block at either end, the threads just feel like precision, and the spoke nut is much smaller than the Chinese variations of this rod.  afa I know the cheapest dual action I can find is bitter root for approx $13 so not 8x but perhaps you weren't trying to be literal.  I guess if one was seriously considering mass production that would be a good place to cut some costs tho so - good point.

tallying labor - well if I trade/sell a build I'd like to know at what point it would be "worth it" for me and for me... that would include my time.  That said I'm more curious than anything else.  I'd also like to know how fast/slow I am compared to others (would love to know if anyone has an idea of how long various builds took them).  I guess with cnc in the mix it's going to muddy the waters... but also I'd like to know what percentage of my hours is just running the machine vs working the parts/assembly.

I suspect actually tracking my hours would be a real eye opener.  the tracking app is a good idea.  I think I might try to setup a camera and turn it on every time I work, but the track app would be a good fallback plan.  

thank you again for the input!!

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Now that you said it... I must have been thinking about some awkward way of doing it! The end of the router indeed does make a smooth surface - there's usually no need to sand the cavities...

 Right on, I guess like anything else it all depends on how you do it . Now that I think about it when I was doing that with a jig I was using a bowl bit the whole time and that probably makes a big difference too not having sharp edges

On 4/26/2022 at 11:13 PM, Bizman62 said:

That is very much so. You can't get a smooth surface with a router, no matter how fancy the jig is. WIth a sanding block you can go up the grits for a satin sheen, with a router you'd get something similar to 100 grit.

You can use a more aggressive tool like a belt sander to knock the corners off to speed up the sanding process, though. A facet or two will cut the actual sanding down to - dare I say an hour for the shape and another for polishing. Use a coarse paper (60 or 80) for the shaping and remember to brush or blow the dust off after every two strokes to prevent clogging.

not sure I agree that you can't get a smooth surface w a router.  if your jig is smooth the surface is only going to have superficial tool marks that will easily be sanded away at 220 grit.  When I did the radius for my strats - by hand with a jig... the sanding prior to gluing on a top was absolutely minimal 5 mins max.  sure you are going to have to do some sanding either way... but the amount of sanding you'd do doing the radius-sanding-block vs the amount of FINISH sanding you'd do after a router/jig is night and day different amounts of work. 

i think above, you say after the belt sander you can do it in an hour... so figure 20 mins of belt sander + 1 hour of hand sanding... if you spent that 1 hour building a jig it's going to mean 10 mins of runtime and another 5 - 10 mins of finish sanding.

more importantly... a router/jig is going to be much more consistent and less prone to issues when leveling.  not saying it can't be done well... but even with guides at the side keeping your radius block flat... unless you use a 21" radius block... it would be very easy to get results that mean more sanding afterwards with a leveling bar to flatten things perfectly.  iow it's more idiot proof and I suppose that's why it resonates w me so well!

so lately how much i spend on guitars has been under the microscope (by me, not necc the wife - she lets me get away w far too much!)... I suppose partially due to prices/inflation/gas etc... but also because I get a few asks here or there to buy a guitar I've made.  not really interested in selling, I don't build with that intent... but at some point all of us probably have to consider just tossing more money at guitar builds or perhaps selling off an old build in hopes of recouping some cash to finance future builds.  Also, perhaps to prove a point... maybe only to myself.  I think in general most of us would be surprised at what we actually spend building a guitar.  I know I was surprised at what I spent on kevin's tele for sure. 

With that in mind, I wanted to track actual costs on a future project as accurately as possible.  I also would like to track my hours.  

so I've started a spread sheet for a future lp build, not going with the cheapest of parts... but also not going overboard.  just middle of the row stuff - stuff that I would actually buy.

I'd be interested to know what you think of it... just honestly how it hits you.  I did not factor in shipping costs... and I'm guessing some things are missing... but an honest attempt at figuring actual cost for a prospective build.  Have any of you done a similar analysis?  What did you find?

further... how many hours would you guestimate to actually make a lp standard with single binding, typical 14 deg headstock, trapazoid inlay?  I'm told the avg tele takes 50 hours... my guess is a lp would be near 90.  I don't know what I spent on my baritone tele/paul... but I'd bet it's even more than that.

7 hours ago, RVA said:

Thanks to all the helpful advice here, I was able to wrap my head around the measurements for my scarf joint cut. I will have 1" on the headstock side and about 2 inches on the FB side for error. I realize that my miter saw is too shallow to make the cut in this location. So it is either the table saw with a jig like Mike suggested or the band saw. I am more comfortable with the band saw, and my table saw is not great, but it does square well. Decisions!

Here is my first victim.

FB side

Cut line

Back of neck

 

well that's a lovely piece of maple.  afa bandsaw... it is certainly a do-able proposition.  lots of folks do it that way... but some sanding it going to happen.  if you have some sort of disk sander or belt sander that can clean it up afterwards - would make things a lot easier.

another alternative... since you no doubt have a router... is to create a jig for doing it via router.  i used to do angled headstocks with such a jig.  use a protractor to draw the angle on two pieces of scrap, use a straight edge piece of scrap to router off the angle.  then use some straight scrap to connect the two pieces.  put a big chunk of plexiglass on your router and it should allow you to place it on that angled surface and move it around.  

just a thought.

so was talking on the axe fx forum about wiring and had mentioned one of my fav mods for a strat... is just wiring a dummy coil up to the 2nd volume as it allows for hum cancellation against the bridge or neck as you dial up the volume.  Someone had asked for a drawing so I did a quick and dirty... thought I'd share it here.  In fact... we should really have a schem repository but then they are so available in this day and age, perhaps not worth it.  anywho... this is that.

basically you grab another single coils that is similar in spec to your bridge/neck pickup... pound out the poles with a screwdriver or nail set... and wire it up as pictured below.  stick it in the extra space between your pickups or in the control cavity... doesn't really matter.

so... as you turn it up it cancels hum in the 1/5 positions... You can just turn it up until the hum stops... but also dials down the pickup output a hair... making it less aggressive.  also dials down the brightness just a touch... like a fine tune control.  

looking good brutha.

14 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Might be a silly question, but do you know for sure if you need to ground the strings? Depending on your preamp/pickup choice you might find that adding a string ground for noise suppression makes no difference to hum levels (think EMGs for example).

 

Dry milling aluminium (or aluminum if you prefer) is achievable on CNC, just need to take things slowly and in small bites. The harder grades of aluminium can polish up quite nicely too for an almost chrome look. Brass might be doable in the same way

Hello curtisa, always good to have your input. 

yes, I am aware of the fact that emg uses a difference amp to subtract the noise from the signal... and as such doesn't require a ground.  In fact most actives use some variation of this idea. 

in this case I was planning on using a cool pickup that was made for me by my friend over at oat soda pickups.  it's two p bass passives - one based on p bass and one based on a split jazz.  so in short they are passive, and could be quite bright (have not heard them yet). 

the orig carl t used an emg guitar pickup... and my early drafts of this bass were using that. 

the downside there is that there would be no splitting/combining of differing pickups ie less variety. another downside is I'd have to re-think the preamp I was going to use... i do have a haz lab pre pcb cut... and it does have an option to optimize for actives vs passives... but has more controls than I intended(bass/mid/treb + mid freq).  

the upsides being that the piezo doesn't require grounded strings, so using them would indeed mean no string ground required... and it would simplify the controls a lot...

hmm... I'm gonna think on that, good call on your part.  

I have a p/j set and a 707... would have to see how I would integrate them into my existing route/cover-design.  

well I thought of doing this but A ) the ferrules have black paint... which would have to scratch off where they make electrical conn and it might be problematic to actually solder to it, B ) it would seem a bit cumbersome as if it gets disconnected after the ferrules are in... would be a pain to take out. Also... running wire from each ferrule to the other... would be hard to hide this and not have issues with the ferrules sitting flat.

I had thought of running a ground wire to just one ferrule... then using a steel or brass nut to transfer ground to strings E-G... but again then with the nylon tape between the actual string and the nut I don't think there'd be a great electrical connection there and also would not be black. 

another idea I had was to just get some 1/16" flat brass and drill holes for the ferrules to mount in it, this would ground them together, then put a finish plate over the top of it.

with the radius there... would just create a route for the new ferrule block and given the string slots are pretty long on top... should be able to make it work.  again, would make a wood cover to top it and use magnets to secure.  would hide the whole thing.  

option z is I machine my own brass block and put make the holes follow the arc.  I guess it's really only drilling 6 holes... in theory my cnc can do brass... but then have to buy some bits for metal, have to get a coolant pump... not sure I want to go through all that.  

I guess I'll just keep thinking it over in my head until it comes time where it's the last thing I have to do and maybe then I'll know which way to go!

appreciate the input biz - thanks,

7 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Me too, and purdy she is indeed!

A simple brass bridge similar to a wooden one should be easy enough to do even with hand tools and that would also solve the grounding issue. Or, if you go wooden, insert a piece of fret wire similarly to the bone in acoustic bridges. Or even a thicker slab of brass, now that I got to thinking...

thank you.

well I'd kind of have some ideas how I'm going to do the bridge.  I bought these locking studs... that are for les paul style tailpiece and have tops that screw on... was thinking I could do an acoustic saddle... over a piezo ribbon, and create set screws in front/back of the studs to allow for fwd/rev action on the bridge.  so that rules out a ground connection via the bridge itself... but I was thinking I could buy one of these: https://graingerguitarparts.com/products/grainger-bass-string-ferrule-block-5-string-19mm-spacing and bury it in the backside and do some sort of wood overlay.  then just run a ground wire too it. 

the ironic thing is I use nylon tapewound strings which make a ground connection thru fingers rather weak... but you never know when you want to toss some round wounds on so best to have it.  having it at the ferrules at least makes connection to the string balls and not via the strings themselves so I think that will work best for my application.  

i do need to add working with brass to my skill set... but this bass isn't a great candidate since I don't want gold/brass.  finishing it would be problematic at best.  

anywho, thank you gents for getting my brain flowing!