mistermikev

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Yep, quarter sawn is much harder. Slab sawn will peel by the growth rings as shown in the image below:

The darker wood is the denser winter wood and the softer summer growth will both wear, dry and compress away.

hmm, did not realize this property of flat sawn.  I guess it makes sense... stack of papers flat vs stack of papers on end. 

I'm 6'1" and 250lbs... but I LOVE short scale basses!  they just play and sound so great!  this is gonna be a cool build.

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

I haven't done flat sawn fretboards but I know how flat sawn flooring wears and that is not nice. Agreed, pine is softer than maple but we're not wearing shoes upstairs where our bedrooms are. Several splinters have found their way through the socks since the Osmo oil wax wore out in places like in front of the toilet or in the kids' room.

interesting... you are saying quareter sawn wears different?  I had not considered that.  Honestly have zero wear on the fretboard of any of my guitars... but I imagine folks with long fingernails have more of an issue with that.  Something to consider anyway.  thanks for the reply.

45 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

For pushing gently you can use the drill press as well.

that's a good call.  the one with the nipple is actually pretty close to the edge so.... might spare my drill press and just use a clamp but it's a good idea and will keep it for reserve.  thanks for that.

so... have this long time friend of mine - he's a cop.  been asking me to build him something for a while and I've given in... least I can do to thank him for his service.  So... one of the things I thought would be cool would be to use the sm material for a top as the fretboard and headstock overlay.  I'm going to use birdseye for the actual neck - some really rock hard birdseye so that should add some serious rigidity to a 25.5" scale neck.  I have some 3/4" x 12" flamed maple that he likes... so was thinking I'd resaw it for a top and have enough left over for a fretboard and headstock overlay.  I'm half considering bookmatching the fretboard cause I think that'd be really cool... to just have it bookmatched all the way up the neck. 

I am aware that typically fretboards are made from quartersawn materials, and while I'm sure someone has done flatsawn... just wondering if any one here has any experiences doing that and what they learned from it?

I  imagine one stumbling block is - you don't want to resaw it and have it sitting around too long - way too prone to bend/cup/twist.  Other pitfalls you can think of?

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

He's a catfish! Whiskers and all!

Nipples are delicate things. Obviously you don't want to hammer a too thick of a stud into it, then again too loose of a hole isn't good either. Ruokangas Guitars has addressed the issue by applying bolts on the bottom side: https://ruokangas.com/specifications/bridge-talk/

interesting read.  It would seem he's focused on solving the locking mechanism more than the gentle install... but admittedly the idea that you could suck the studs into the hole as opposed to hammering - well it would def be more gentle.  so with that in mind... just would need some really deep jaw clamps.  I don't like the idea of drilling thru the bottom, as it would require some leveled off holes on the back, but if I can find some deep clamps that would def be a more gentle way to get them in.  thanks for the suggestion.

my money is on it's a bad jack.  if you aren't on the tip then you won't get signal at all (assuming the plug is pushed in all the way).  just use your multimeter and test that your live is going to tip to rule that out (as suggested by curtisa).  those jacks are notorious (specifically the cheap versions) for the prongs loosing their integrity.  they are really pretty small and delicate mechanical connections.  

btw and for the record... I can't prove it but I am almost certain I have had barrel jacks like this that did NOT follow the convention based on lug length.  If memory serves me this thru me for a loop at one point - but again... easy to test.

6 hours ago, dougrun said:

Local CL has a celebrity with a cracked bridge for $40. I imagine it would cost more than its worth to repair but I kinda like repairing ovations now. Any ideas?

 

I know it sold... but honestly I've seen so many of these ovations like this... I think it's fair to say it's a design flaw and that it would require an entire bridge replacement to truly fix it... and possibly some surgery to alter it to the post/peg style to prevent in the future.  that area should at least have been reinforced with metal inserts or something.  I had an ovation that did this from brand new in about 6 months back in the 90s.  I worked at a music shop back then and I couldn't even count the number that came in with this exact issue.  They were also prone to pull the entire bridge up there instead of splitting the thing... the pressure just isn't distributed well.  

anywho, you probably dodged a bullet in terms of the amount of work/headache potential!

found a little birthmark... but eh, adds character!  I think my string holes are going to take out a good amount of it but we'll see.

All things considered I think I'm coming out pretty decent for a "first cnc build"... lots to learn yet and lots of thanks for all the "leg ups" I've been given around here - special thanks to @curtisa and @MiKro couldn't have made it this far without your generosity and patience!

anticipating a little bit of potential to split that little nipple I made for the bridge on the left there when I sink the studs into it... there is such a differential in the top there that I didn't want a big chunk of stud/screw sticking up so... taking a chance.  If anyone as ideas on how to avoid an issue there I'm all ears.  

5 hours ago, curtisa said:

How far away is the rotary switch from the other controls? If they're only a couple of inches apart I'd be tempted to just run shielded cable from the pickups as far as you can and just use the exposed tails from each 4-conductor cable to reach where you need it to for each control.

5 hours ago, curtisa said:

If you're dead set on shielding everything as completely as possible, what about splicing extra lengths of shielded 4-conductor wire at each point along the pickup cable run where you need to break out one core? For example, you'd cut and strip the pickup lead where you need the red wire to take off, extend the cut end of the remaining three cores and shield with another piece of 4-conductor (minus the red core), seal the splice up with heatshrink and continue to the next stop. Fiddly, but maintains the shielding as far as possible.

the second option here - I like that.  would be a bit of micro surgery but that would satisfy all my conditions.  thank you for the suggestion.  all the spans are pretty close... between 1 and 2 inches apart.  Keeping the the unshielded runs as short as possible is def key.  

def not looking fwd to the pull through as it is always a pita.  

thanks again for the suggestion.

so... this is a (gulp) rewire of a 339.  previous adventures have made me keenly aware of the need for shielding of these wires.  dragging said wire through a 339 cavity is going to become very difficult if you tried to use all 2/4 conductor to keep it shielded.  really, it'd be a much better plan to use a 4p4t as it would not only give better options, but it would keep all the pickup wires in one spot... sadly 4p4t are very hard to come buy in the size that will fit through an f hole.  I have one alpha one left... and for now I'm hanging on to it as the source dried up.  So we are getting the most we can out of a 2p4t... and this is going to make shielding the wires complicated.  

one strategy... is to use 2 conductor for two sets of bridge wires... this works out ok.  one two conductor wire will take care of the neck-most wire set for the neck bucker.  then it becomes next to impossible to make pairs and using single conductor shielded wire will make this harness into a gorilla.  (I know what you are thinking... it IS a gorilla already - fair enough).

so... I could rip the shield from some push back wire... and pass perhaps 4 wires through it... not a great option.  What I'd really like is something I can wrap around groups of wire after it's wired up (as opposed to passing through).  So... could take copper foil and wrap it... then ground the foil at one side... not going to be very flexible after wrapped.  

Just wondering... any interesting/creative ideas for shielding the wires and remaining felxible?

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

It looks pretty dashed impressive to me! 

thank you sir.  

ran the back side yesterday... and we had another little controller hiccup... but not too bad.  def going to build a new controller stat.

9 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That's pretty awesome! I tried to look at that very spot but there was such a short bit of the seam visible that I couldn't believe there'd be a splice glued!

well thank you... I'm chalking it up as a win then!!  I imagine that if I add any dye to this top it's going to make it much more obvious.  that said... in order to hide my burn through on the top... think in the end I'm going to try ebonizing this.  should be fun either way!!

8 hours ago, Vitaly_V said:

I have a few thoughts on further building the guitar. But I can't form the final design out of them yet.

For example, fret markers can be made in the shape of horseshoes. Or in a hollow-body horseshoe-shaped f-hole.
Also thought of mustang body. But I don't wish use its shape.

i could see it going a lot of dif directions... chess piece inlays, makaray chess board top, rope binding, horseshoe burn in... horseshoe inlays sounds cool.  looking fwd to it.

2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Too easy. Dead center in the neck slot, the right side grain is at an angle compared to the left.

Oh, you  weren't talking about the centerline joint.

Too blurred for me to see...

 

hehe, well.... yeeeaaaah, hhhright... that is true the oak is joined at center.  

the big reveal...

the stock after the at the top there gives it away pretty good here... but also the little corner is not quite hidden...

w photoshop line...

after cutting the pocket...

all right folks - it's time to play "where's the splice" again.  I believe last time bizman found it first... so the gauntlet has been dropped.

if you've followed me at all you might know I had some issues with a bad drive board and as a result my neck pocket was cut a hair 'off'.  In the process I technically screwed up both sides - the right side of it (as pictured below) wasn't deep enough to be permanent, but the left side... well I spliced in a piece... see if you can spot it here and I'll post a bigger pic where it makes it obvious sometime tomorrow.  

I know you guys have great eyes for this so if it takes you any amount of time I'm gonna call it a success.  The one spot where you can really tell is the corner - but I spent so much time getting the edge right I didn't want to screw it up by redoing the corner so... with no further delay - splice on the left - can you spot it?

love the idea... hopefully you continue the horse or chess motif through the rest of the guitar.  "all right, all right, all right"

11 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

There's a little story about that.  I'll tell you all about it in the morning

looking fwd to it.

that guitar has styling that kind of remind me of a guitar I was always kind of fond of - the old westone

what is gitarrebassbau ?

wow, that wood combo with the thick veneer... ooh la laaa! 

19 hours ago, Nicco said:

So progress has been ticking away slowly, but I'm really happy with how it's going. 

Both the control cavity covers are now shaped. I've left them as a tight fit for now so I could press them into place and sand them flush with the rest of the back of the body without them moving around on me.

I also had a feeling I wanted to do an inlay in the body to match the fret board inlay. After much laying out of pieces, procrastination and mulling over, I decided to do it. Very glad I did, I'm really happy with how it looks. 

I also played around a little with some Tru Oil on the back of the cavity covers, just to see how it looks, and it came out great, the timber looks like honey! 

Next step from here is to loosen up the fit of the control covers (at the moment I've got to push them out from inside, so I need them a little looser before I glue the top on) then I get to move on to glueing the top on! 

Realistically, this is probably all I'll get done now until the new year. Being in Australia, we're lucky with our covid response having being very effective and interstate travel being back on the cards for Christmas, so we're looking at heading to see my parents who are desperately hanging out to see their first grandchild for the first time since he was 4 days old!

lovely

2 hours ago, Prostheta said:

My problem with noise is that our housing electrics literally don't have an earth. All ground wires are tied to neutral so they're noisy as hell. In that way the pressure to find a PAF-loaded guitar with a preamp that delivers the natural passive tones is high. I know what you're saying about noise, however our noise is super high. It's terrible. I'm almost considering going wireless for a run of less than a metre just to isolate myself from that shit!

well... see that's yer prob right there... it isn't certified TONE NOISE!!  hehe haha hoho!  wouldn't running your rig on a battery backup isolate you from the house ground issues?  I've never tried this because I've got a pretty good handle on clean power at my house but I've read about it and often wondered how well it works.

7 hours ago, Prostheta said:

The preamp I like using is the one I've been making for years as a retrofit for old Aria Pro II basses and guitars. The only two downsides are the dual batteries it requires plus the DPDT switched jack socket. It works perfectly in all applications I've used it in so far, plus it has the option of adding in an active filter. My point is that there is interaction between the pickups and the passive circuitry within a guitar, and I'm wondering how much of that is a valid part of the character of the guitar as a whole. Essentially, the pickups being buffered will mean they are no longer operating in a loaded state with the passives being in parallel. I suspect that this may make say, a PAF, less sweet at the top and tighten the spongy bottom too much. Whether it does or not is part of the fun of experimentation and discovery, even though I know this isn't new ground being broken!

right... yeah actives or even passives with a preamp don't sound anything like the original passives imo.  I always put in a tb push/pull for that reason.  esp if you are going to a germanium fuzz or wah pedal - you loose that slight loading effect on the pickups that is half the reason to use either.  that said... active preamps/pickups certainly have their place - esp for slapp-a-da-bass or drive-a-the-jcm800.  u r right about it ruining a paf... or from another perspective changing it to something totally dif.  I suspect the dif in magnets would def be drowned out by any active circuit.

further - differential - I have this theory that what most of us really like about the single coils IS the noise.  at least it's there entwined in the noise.  it's like the noise from vinyl somehow makes a recording better.  just watched an srv video in the studio and sounded amazing... when he stopped playing I literally could not believe how much noise was there!  long story long: me + noise = srv

for the record "welp" is my thing... I've copyrighted it... so you owe me.

also, you can't call it a complete guitar until you do a video of you playing it (I don't make the rules... I just ignore them). 

welcome to the club of club makers (in the shape of guitars).

well if I HAD to answer this at face value... I think it would depend on how you are doing it and what you are doing.  mahog seems to me to be the easiest to work so that'd get my vote... ash seems to be the most difficult (if we're talking about hand carving).  Ultimately I think you probably learn more by stumbling anyway so I wouldn't let that dictate my choice.