joshhill67

I want to put a pattern on my white tele pickboard. Specifically this type of pattern: I'm not confident that my free-hand painting skills are good enough to do it justice, or how to paint onto plastic like that? Does anyone have a creative suggestion or an alternative? I was wondering about finding something with said pattern (a table mat?) and cutting it to shape, but I can't think of what. Cheers!

God that sounds simpler than building an amp into the body... You, sir, have sold me on this idea.

yeah this is also a possibility. So my original plan was to build a small headphone amp into the body. Which I COULD still do, but carving out a hole for it, and making it line up nicely with the outside just seems like so much work for such a small benefit. So maybe a 1/4 inch output would be a better idea. My concern for that was getting the grounding right so I don't electrocute myself when I plug it into an amp! I thought it was pretty simple to begin with, then when i started messing around with my leccy I realised that the strings were grounded too - presumably so that if you touch the strings to the pickup the current doesn't take a shortcut through you because the path of least resistance is through the strings? Anyway - I like messing around with 12v circuits, but I try to leave mains currents well alone

Sorry for the radio silence - the build has been progressing slowly but surely: I played it today for the first time and... its okay!! It sounds like a guitar should. It still needs work - the neck thinning down, a knee rest adding, and then lots of finishin My main conundrum at this point, is whether to bother adding electrics? Frankly... I just want the thing finished and playable! And having played it, its plenty loud for me without headphones. I would only need to add electrics to play with distortion (unlikely) or to play to an audience (even less likely, as my playing is awful!)

Ah good point! I had assumed the fretboard would be the correct width but you are right, without actually putting the strings on (at least mocking them up seeing as the head is not finished yet) I have no idea! Guess what I am doing next time I have some free time

I got around to re-soldering the amp board I have. I was wondering, a lot of the parts are duplicated, and my guess that is so that it can output to two chanels? I only need one chanel output. Do you think I could get away with not soldering the entire board? What do you think? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUX-Mini-DC-3-7-12V-5V-TDA2822M-2-0-CH-Stereo-Audio-Power-Amplifier-Board/173519470063?hash=item286690fdef:g:6N0AAOSwmtJXV-8g:rk:17:pf:0 Thanks!

There is also an option C I suppose... to cut the bridge down and make it so that it fits the existing taper of the fretboard That would perhaps be the best option, but metalwork is hard, and painting the bridge black again after would be difficult. And I would struggle to fit any sort of pickup if I did that... would need to be less than 65mm wide.

I would really welcome some advice please folks! I took a little break while waiting for some parts, but am making progress again. I have my bridge, which means I can start working the shape of the body. What I have is this: I think it looks fairly good, although it is only rough. But I have a slight problem. The taper of the fretboard is not the same as the angle needed to go from the end of the fretboard to the bridge. Which creates a problem. What to do on the left side of the neck here where the body is aysmetrical?? Option A is to cut right up close to the fretboard so that it is no longer asymetrical, but then it would have a strance sort of zig zag shape from the neck, to the non-existent pick guard, to the bridge. Option B is to leave it as it is or somehow try and eccentuate the asymetry to make a feature of it. Suggestions would be great... Thanks!

That is exactly it - thank you!

Update on the body/neck. I went with a solid 1x4 plank for the though-neck. Its staight and true, and hopefully of sufficient quality to stay that way. Ideally 2x4 would have been better, but it would have been impossible to work with the tools I have access to, but I can double it up where needed. After some careful planing I started cutting into the flexi-ply body and jig sawing the neck: I also have a question. The fretboard is "borrowed" from another guitar I had. When Measuring it up I realised the guitar had not been constructed according to the correct scale length. That is, the bridge was further back than it should have been. When positioning the bridge, should I put it where it should go in theory, or at the same distance as it was in a previous life? Cheers!

Body is done! It holds its shape. Needs sanding and varnishing to make it pretty, but I may proceed with the rest of the design before finishing anything to a nice standard. Was looking at scale lengths to see which I prefer - almost certainly going to go with 25 1/2 scale. Suddenly the decision what to do with the body has become much more urgent!

At the simplest level it is plywood that is flexible What this means in practice is that the grain all runs in the same way, rather than the layers being at 90 degrees to each other. I'm sure there are many types of flexi-ply, but this one is two thin sheets of wood, with a layer of fabric between them, and some sort of flexible adhesive holding it all together. About 5mm thick in all. On its own it is incredibly flimsy. I have used 3 layers, and I hope that when the glue dries it will provide some structural integrity.... Will let you know when I un-clamp it and find out!! I am currently trying to decide what size to make the neck and body. I have an old $99 guitar (fender squire?) that I am canabalising for parts, but one of the things I wanted was for this to play like an acousitc - i.e. heavy gague strings and a wider neck / bridge to allow finger-picking. I suppose I just need to buy a wider bridge, but I don't want to spend too much - any suggestions on something that will simulate the string spacing of an acoustic guitar without breaking the bank?

Hello everyone, I am building myself a silent guitar to practice on. I have shamelessly stolen the design of the Yamaha silent guitars because I absolutely love the look: I didn't want to buy one for a few reasons - 1) price 2) they are nylon stringed 3) they are plastic and 4) they fold down. So here is my attempt - a current work in progress. Today I made the basic shape of the knee rests out of Flexi-Ply. Tomorrow when it is warmer I will glue it and leave it to dry. Then later I will start work on the body and neck - a single piece of wood like on a neck-though guitar (or possibly a single piece made from laminated woods or plywood). I will update this thread with progress and questions as I go! My first question I suppose is suggestions for what to construct the body from - less from a practical standpoint and more from aesthetics. I initially had planned to make this knee rest / sides out of a single piece of steam-bent ash, stained a light grey, and have the body match. Now that I have gone with a plywood construction on the outside I'm unsure what to do for the rest of it. Any suggestions would be great!

Without a probe or multi-meter I wouldn't even be able to troubleshoot problems effectively... plan B would be touching up any bad looking solders, then plan C unsoldering and resoldering the entire board...

Well... I built the amp above and as a result... had an amp that didn't work But, Thank you for the suggestion - I will see if I can fix this one, and if I can, might be braver about trying another! If not, I suppose I can canabalise one of those Headphone Guitar Amp things you see on Ebay for £10. I would like to throw another complication into the mix however... I said in the origional post I wanted a "silent" guitar with the possibility to amplify it, so that I could practice at home without disturbing people, but play through headphones. Well, I COULD have just used an electric guitar not plugged in (seeing as I have an electric guitar). What I should have said is that the reason I am building this instead of using an unplugged elecrtic is because I want the difficulty of playing an acoustic guitar (the thicker, tougher strings, and the wider neck) so that if I ever want to play acoustic, I can. I know this changes slightly how I will amplify the sound - are there any thicker "acoustic style" strings that work for electric guitar? Will any heavy, thick gague wires work? Or do I need to start messing around with different types of pickup? Thank you!