mistermikev

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

It's actually a common Ibanez design used since the 70s which is often seen on (I think) their modern acoustics and maybe archtops. The inspiration (I use that word as a stretch since it's a straight out copy....) is the Ibanez Darkstone which - like everything I want to build - was never available in the trim or configuration I wanted. All paint over cheaper woods, same as most Ibanez in the low-mid Chinese range. Whilst most of them were also Sapele or "Mahogany", you've got to question what is under that paint. Paranoia? Plus I like a bit of wood porn here and there. Not over the top burls, figuring and the like, but nice appointments. The wood can speak for itself, so can the intricate details here and there.

Which reminds me....I have some Kingwood pickup rings to make....the original rings on the Ibanez were a nice break from the norm, however I think I can imagineer up something equally individual for this build.

now that you mention it... I think that was used on one of my fav vintage ibanez.  I love ibanez. 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/30117891243239959/

https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/studio-still-life-of-a-1978-ibanez-musician-mc500-guitar-news-photo/102624338

6 hours ago, TParker2 said:

Joensuu.... by blender do you mean a blender of the two pickups. Yeah, I got thinking about that last night. That would make sense for when I select both pickups! Think that is a definite go.

Yeah mistermekev, it is going to be a ton of wire in the guitar. The drawing I've worked up looks is kind of nuts. Plenty of room and I'm not worried about confusion since I plan to just keep it mine. Should I consider a different arrangement too keep things shorter on the runs?Maybe both tone controls at the top and both volumes at the bottom?

What do you mean by slitting. Sorry very new to this. Is this splitting the coils thing? Or coil tapping? Just to hear how it sounds I put the p90 in another guitar that has cheap pickups. Doesn't have much hum. Guess the house is grounded very well and no 60 cycle lighting. But, that guitar does have a strange sound when I switch to both p90. Is that an out of phase thing? Got one flipped wrong?

 

well... you might want to use shielded wire wherever you can... and wouldn't want to have to troubleshoot it... but you'll be fine.

some lovely clean wiring there.  I like that you even indicated neg/pos on your caps.  never know when you'll want to slip a tantalum in there!

On 4/14/2020 at 9:17 PM, curtisa said:

The choke (inductor) is in there. It can be seen in the 6th picture down looking into the pickup cavity, where the two green wires and the black wire disappear.

right on.  good eye.  I saw that but honestly did not recognize it. 

love the headstock design

right on.  some interesting drawings.  here's a few observations.  you have one humbucker and one single coil... no mention of splitting... which means when they are both on you will get some hum... perhaps you've considered that and it doesn't bother you.  second observation is: while the switches are organized by what makes sense to you visually from the top of the guitar... there is going to be a lot of extra wire going back and forth across the guitar to accomplish.  again, perhaps this doesn't bother you. 

lots of options... I like that in a guitar... but lots of switches... ime can become hard to remember what combination of switches is the tone you like, but if you organize it well... it'll be fine.

rock on.

it's not nearly as impressive if you do that on accident huh?  asking for a friend. 

seriously tho... that took some doin'.

3 hours ago, komodo said:

its impossible not to swing when its teed up so well.

 

Back to the original thoughts - metal detector. No sense in that kinda risk.

hehe, tru dat!  joking in my threads is always encouraged. 

also... tru dat.  metal detector if ever any possibility of hitting metal. 

Just now, ScottR said:

Nice sled and a really tasty piece of maple you've got there.

SR

thank you sir.  believe it or not I got that as 8/4 soft maple from a lumber yard.  the figure was well covered up... but thought for the price I couldn't go wrong... boy was that lucky! 

so took some time off and had 4 consecutive days off this weekend and pretty much squandered it on video games and movies but... also did this (below).

so my current planing jig is great, but it's not long enough to do a neck thru.  I know I could build a platform for my auto planer but I get so much use out of this jig and wanted to improve on it.  so, got two 1" x 1" x 4' steel square tubes @ 1/8" thick steel.  I had a little bend in my old one so thought I was over-building this... but as it turns out... over 4'... with light pressure you can get it to bend 1/16" and with max pressure 1/4"... so had to add to t-nuts in the middle where I'll level using t-nuts/and 5/16 bolts.

all in all pretty happy as the oak router plane is rigid as all get out. 

below is/was my plan.  still have to build a few pivot clamps but got all the t nuts glued in and in between the 3/4" mdf substrate and 3/4" pine frame.  Pretty light overall considering.

the design:

the finished jig (almost finished - still have to make clamps and a cutout for headstock)

and started work on templates for some basses...  gonna b a neck thru 4 string 33" scale and a 5 string 35" scale fretless.  lots of challenges here including a compound radius top/back on the 4 string (and perhaps the 5) and a two piezo ribbon pickups... one of wich I plan to hide in the heel of the neck of the 5.  the purpleheart in behind everything is for the 5... and a 4 piece lam seperated by brazillian rosewood lam in front of that... and my wings for the neck thru in the very front.  will start a build thread on them when I get more going on...

i immediately notice something missing.  the orig varitone has a choke.  it is common knowledge that the choke is where all the "tone suck" in a varitone  comes from... (not really but yes) and as such they were freq snipped out of the circuit on many original 339s.  (and just reading curtisa pointing this out too).  not sure that even if you could find a matching original choke, you are likely going to find that it drops the output and makes the pickups sound 'weak'.  just 2 cents.

ahh, rest easy.  for once I am not the one posting silly stuff.  I opened this thread, started scrolling up and saw 'smoked pork butt' and wondered how in the world the conversation could have led to that... so in conclusion: smoking pork butt IS the ultimate symbol of 'doing well'.  i concur.

16 hours ago, JouniK said:

Easter gave me time to do some sewing, glueing and drilling.

Attaching the strap to the tip of the horn was successfull without cracks and splits. Thanks @Bizman62 and @mistermikev for advises. Drilled a looser pilot hole for the screw, first I did a dry install and used clamps to support the horn from the sides. Then soaked the screw hole with thin ca glue as much as I could. Let that dry over night and then fastened the screw and strap buckle. Used the longer and bigger screw that came with the DiMarzio strap. Success! No extra weight needed to correct the balance. No more neck dive.

Also modified the DiMarzio strap shorter. Teared apart both ends of the strap also the buckle part. Used thick gel like ca glue and phenomenal sewing skills of mine

Comparison with the original strap length. This removed also the issue where the wider part of the strap was resting on my collarbone.

"i love it when a plan comes together"  that upper horn is really thin so you should be proud to have pulled it off.  a real nail biter I bet.  congrats.

2 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Thank you sir. I have often been told I need to leave one at the carved unsanded stage. I'm always thinking that would make for some pretty raw looking fore arms.

SR

prob right... but it would look so  kewl.  I 'spose it's a lot like leaving something satin... almost impossible!

I always love the way your builds look right before the final smoothing.  that also look killer all smoothed out.  as always.

On 4/11/2020 at 12:51 PM, Workingman said:

In addition to making it hard, and thus dangerous, to control the router, it could cause the router bit to fracture throwing off a sharp piece of metal at high speeds.  This could also happen when using a power saw.  

that is certainly another frightening possibility.  a router thru reg wood is adventurous enough for me!

1 hour ago, marcelguitars said:

Hello from the Netherlands!

Since this corona is outside, I thought this is the moment to start my first guitarbuild.

Nice site with much needed information.

This is my progress till now.

 

welcome and nice looking start!

right on brother.  I don't really use others' diagrams much as I tend to just draw something new for each project but I am guessing others will find this very useful, so a nice contribution to the community.

Your drawings a fairly neat, so not a criticism at all... but you might consider going and getting diy layout creator.  on the one hand it's never backwards compat so you have to make sure you save a version in pdf... on the other it is a great tool for organizing your diagrams because it gives you a chance to re-organize your wires after you've laid them out.  just a thought. 

rock on.

15 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

The main thing with Tru-Oil is that it cures, making it prone to witness lines. As far as drop filling goes, it's not easy but not the worst. I find the biggest issue is dragging when the oil starts to tack up. I can't say that I've drop filled any recently, so I've sort of tuned that experience out of me. The next big bottle of Tru-Oil I get is being divided up between several jars so I'm not partially polymerising the bulk each time I use a small amount. Cheaper than an aerosol of wine saver to replace the oxygen in the bottle anyway.

this is a great tip.  always seems to turn on me before I finish it.  will have to snag some smaller bottles to divide it.  thanks for that.

39 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Finally some bass progress - Made a couple of MDF templates from measurements taken from the pickups. As above, I had to use a 1/4" straight bit to get the correct radius on the corners, so once I had made the templates, I sealed all the edges with wood glue to make sure the were hard enough to withstand the high speed bit with no bearing and I did most of the routing with a larger bearing bit, then just used the straight bit to get in the very corners. 

Did a test route first on a walnut offcut to get out the template. it was all good except not deep enough.

Marked out locations and hogged out waste with the pillar drill

Then routed, managed to get them perfectly square on the centre line and square with each other fortunately, because I need to make a ramp out of some pheobe wood offcuts to go between the two pickups.

Also did a test first, starting to look fairly basslike now. In fact it's not really that far away. I just need to drill holes for the 5 pots, bridge and an earth wire, sand the hell out of it and spray some lacquer. Hopefully all that won't take another 6 months.

looking good!

Just now, mistermikev said:

yeah... 60 years is a looooong time.  would not complain.  u r right about that prs... that does not appeal to my eye at all.  looks all 'fuzzy'.  and after 3 years...it looks like THAT?  and sells for probably 2-3K! it's one thing if you buy a nitro guitar - you should expect that and it's kind of cool... but buying poly... why NOT do uv resistant?  is it THAT expensive?

i'm floored by how washed out that looks.  tsk tsk.  note to self... if you use bright colors like that... might want to go poly + uv resist.

3 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

I guess you can forgive a gibson for fading after 60 years  I'd like to see more pics of a real '59. quick google finds you loads of stuff about faded prs. Here's a guy complaining about the fade on his 2016 private stock northern lights  https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/private-stock-is-fading.32484/

yeah... 60 years is a looooong time.  would not complain.  u r right about that prs... that does not appeal to my eye at all.  looks all 'fuzzy'.  and after 3 years...it looks like THAT?  and sells for probably 2-3K! it's one thing if you buy a nitro guitar - you should expect that and it's kind of cool... but buying poly... why NOT do uv resistant?  is it THAT expensive?

5 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

I was going by the older PRS factory tours I've seen where they've said they always use alcohol dyes and some of the colour fades I've seen on even some of their more recent guitars. PRS fading with UV is horrendous. 

I would have though that in those days Gibson would have painted the back in tinted lacquer the same as the coloured the tops. One thing I do like about Gibsons coloured lacquer finishes is that the finish and the colour ages as one and it looks consistent as the guitar gets older. But a PRS that's been bleached by UV yet still has an immaculate polyester topcoat just looks wrong to me. Just my opinion but it's my rationale for favouring nitrocellulose as a finish, it will yellow and fade and crack over time as the colour fades rather than just become bleached. 

did not know that (about the poly) will have to check that... got any good pics?  won't actually show the gibson pic in here but here's the link: gibby

29 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

I was under the impression Gibson didn't dye but used coloured grain filler, brushed on and wiped off which stained the wood, I've seen that done a few times in the factory tours anyway. Pretty sure alcohol stains will fade just as much as water based too. 

I believe they added aniline dye to the grain filler so... basically the sm as dying it.  and they used aniline to dye the base color on the fronts (as I understand).  now somehow the fronts don't fade as much.  (perhaps the color yellow fades slower?)  I'm told alcohol based dyes (not simply diluting aniline in alcohol) is more colorfast... but I think w/o uv protection almost anything is going to change to some degree.  would love to know if I'm wrong.

over at mlp a gent had a real 59 that he showed pics of the guitar with the cavity covers off... the cavity was dark red... the body looked completely natural.

https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/when-did-gibson-start-doing-the-back-of-guitars-in-red.438630/#lg=_xfUid-5-1586297119&slide=0

57 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Search youtube for Freddy's Frets and watch his series Building les pauls, that bloke knows all there is to know about spraying bursts. I was surprised to see that a lot of it is done in the sun fading, the colours he sprays are a lot bright than the final result.

freddy is a member over at mylespaul.com.  I could have asked over there since they know EVERYTHING about les pauls but generally it can take some time to get a response.   I trust scott's  experience on the matter so have what I need but that's def a good call on your part.

I was recently in a thread over there asking about "when did the cherry back start on the les paul vs natural" and it was a shocking ride.  I was aware that water based dyes fade over time... but I had no idea how much.  A few members chimed in that A) all vintage burst les pauls had cherry backs but many of them faded to the point where there was ZERO indication of cherry anymore.  could have knocked me over with a feather.  some of the pics that were posted - you'd never have guessed they started cherry let alone dark cherry.  was a real learning experience.