erikbojerik

That's the dirty secret that a lot of pickup manufacturers would like to keep a secret. The only big difference between you and Seymour Duncan is that Duncan has more experience on the "nailing specific tones" side of things. Great work!

That's one angry-looking bearded Wenge Ape behind the bridge.

If you're already set up for digital audio on your home computer/laptop, the Peterson Strobosoft app works great. Strobosoft

A perfectly straight fretboard could be (and obviously is) fine for some folks....but what everyone is forgetting here is that the string vibrates, and it doesn't just vibrate parallel to the fretboard, it is a 3D vibration. Think of the shape of a vibrating string anchored at the nut and saddle, and you'll see why you need relief in the center part of the neck if you want reasonable action at the high frets...because around the 12th fret is where the motion of the vibrating string is greatest for open notes. As you fret up the neck, the string motion becomes less and the position of maximum motion moves toward the upper frets. You can certainly raise the bridge and thus the upper fret action without fall-away, but with some fall-away milled in you can get lower action without buzzing. How much fallaway you need depends a LOT on how heavy you are with your strumming/picking hand. Guys with a light touch can get away with lower action, heavy downstrokers need higher action (or live with buzz). IMO this kind of fretwork is really where a custom builder can truly fit the instrument to the player and his playing style.

About the only thing I really don't like about the Tele is the lack of forearm contour; having grown up on LPs and a Strat, I am used to having my forearm rest at a certain angle to the deck that I can't get on a Tele's slab body. I guess that's why we build 'em, eh?

Pfft...that's nothing... 7th grade locker combo 33-11-0 my former driver's liscence # from 10 years ago 14582958 I won't go into all of the other things stuck in my head,because most of them are personal numbers(the dl# was reassigned,so it cannot be linked back to me)...but needless to say I never forgot much of anything... When I do my bills every month I write all of the account numbers on the checks in the memo line from memory...about 2 dozen of them... Sounds just like my younger son. He remembers the license plate numbers of all our cars (past and present) since he was a toddler, and the cars of all of our friends & neighbors too.

I have actually been researching this a bit; I bought my first Tele ever (a MIM) last month, so that I could test drive it, see what I liked and what I didn't, keep a few select parts, make templates, sell off the rest.....and make myself the custom Tele I was born to play (two actually....but that's for another thread). You can get a good characteristic Tele twang out of any of the above-mentioned pups, but.....I don't think you can get true vintage 50s tone out of a noiseless pickup. The original 50s bridge pups were not wax-potted (and they certainly were not noiseless), and so as they aged they gradually became more microphonic. If they got too bad, you'd get this real feedbacky "squeal" which sounds very porcine. But just the right amount sprinkled on top of classic Tele tone, and you have vintage Tele heaven (see Roy Buchanan). Lollar '52s are what you want in that case, I think they are not potted....at least you can tell Jason to not pot them. They will NOT be noiseless.

Think of parallel lines as "co-linear". Now the same in 2D....parallel planes are "co-planar".

Strat pickups....I can HIGHLY recommend Dimarzio Area 58s (neck & middle) and Area 61 (bridge). I rewired a friend's strat with them a few weeks ago, I was mighty impressed.

Didn't he get busted by his mom?

OK....so I am planning my ultimate rig, part of which will be a MIDI-controllable effects loop for my stompboxes. I've searched on-line but these things seem to go by a variety of names that make a keyword search difficult, so I've been able to find only two: Around $400 Voodoo Labs GCX loop switcher Around $2700 Skrydstrup MR-10 loop system AFAYK, is there anything else out there like these? They both consist of isolated and buffered effect loops with send/return, 8 of them for the GCX and 10 for the MR-10....so you have MIDI-actuated ON/OFF for 8/10 separate effect loops, the advantage being that a single MIDI program change message will tell which ones to be ON and which ones to be OFF.

To add more detail...the best way is to lay down a strip of masking tape over the location of the hole, and drill through that way. It will help prevent the finish from lifting. Then when you remove the tape, pull toward the center of the hole, pulling the tape low across the hole, so that you don't lift the finish with the tape itself.

I don't mean to be negative here, but good Lord man....your price point would get you a NECK BLANK at best (without shipping ). I guess you've never made a neck, eh? Check out the website of our PG member Doug at Soulmate Guitars, and see what a neck like that will run you. If anyone takes you up on that, run in the other direction. Honestly.

Yes you're correct, the actual MIDI output is generated by the controller; the Ghost system is itself not a controller, it just supplies the analog signal to the controller. I have not yet tried the Ghost system with MIDI, but I'll give you a semi-informed opinion based on similar experiences to yours when trying out those Roland-ready Strats at various music stores. The Ghost saddles are piezos, which will have a quicker response than any magnetic pickup. The problem you're having with playing two notes one-after-the-other is that the MIDI controller is not able to tell when the first note is OFF and when the second note is ON; it needs a more clear note definition. This should be much better with the Ghost system, but still may not be perfect. You may still have to tweek your playing style to get perfect tracking...that said, there is just some stuff that you just can't track via MIDI with a guitar. I think there are also settings that can be used in whatever controller you're using (Roland, Axon, whatever) that you can play with. It could also be the sound patch that you've chosen; if you're trying to play staccato and you have a legato patch without much attack...well, there you are. Not really....some of that "quack" is attenuated by the preamp that is intended for "acoustic" tone; at least on the Ghost system, the Hexpander MIDI board bypasses the tone-shaping part of the piezo circuitry. I think the short answer to your main question is that piezo pickups have a faster response than magnetic pickups when it comes to a digitized/quantized signal.

"Relief" is the slight bow you get in the middle of the neck to allow the strings to vibrate freely when you're fretting between the nut and about #9. If all the frets are seated well on a perfectly level board, it normally requires no work on the fret tops to achieve it, you just allow the strings to pull the neck into that position and then tweek the truss rod until you have it where you want it. On a brand new neck that has not yet settled in under string tension, you'll need to check this part of the setup a couple of times in the first two months. Then there's "fall-away" on the fret tops that starts around #12 to #14 and gets progressively lower to the end of the neck. This is to prevent buzzing when you're fretting at and above #9, and the amount of fall-away depends very much on your playing style, mainly how heavy you are with your strumming hand. If you have perfectly level fret tops from #1 to #12, you should aim for a fall-away that finishes anywhere from 0.003 (very light touch) to 0.015 (heavy downstroker...that's me) at #24. It will also depend on your choice of string tension (little fall-away for high tension-long scale and/or heavy gauge; more fall-away for low-tension-short scale and/or light gauge). Now...fall-away is normally milled into the fret tops (ideally with the neck jigged or with the strings on) and you can certainly achieve this with diamond fret tools. Pricey and requires effort and patience, but it's done all the time. The other option would be to try to mill this into the fretboard, provided you know how much you need. If you have a guitar that you really like the action of, you can try to take measurements from that (good straighedge and feeler gauges) and reproduce the fall-away on the slotted fretboard before you fret. Lastly....to keep the neck as straight as possible during glue-up, it is preferable to: *fret the board before you glue it to the neck, then flex it to allow the barbs to bite into the sides of the nut slot and thereby work out any bow from fretting *rough out the back of the neck (neck contour) so that you relieve any accumulated stress, then plane down the surface for the fretboard to perfection *THEN glue the board to the neck using epoxy (not wood glue) and using a clamping caul that is radiused to match your fretboard radius, and making sure you have even clamping pressure all along the neck. Epoxy is preferred over wood glue because the latter always has some water in it, which will swell the fibers of the neck wood but not the fretboard wood (if it is ebony or rosewood), causing the neck to bow slightly during fretboard glue-up. It is possible to do all this by eye and feel, but I prefer using a good straightedge and feeler gauges to I can measure exactly where I am in the whole process. Is it more work that just levelling the frets? Maybe....but the effort is distributed to different jobs that I rather enjoy, instead of accumulating on a single task (fret levelling) that I don't particularly care for.

A good fret dressing for low action usually requires some kind of "fall away" in fret top height starting at ~#12 to #14 and extending to the end of the fretboard, to avoid exactly the kind of buzz you're talking about. 0.010" at the end of the fretboard is totally within the range of acceptability for a bass, and while a step-function drop in height at #14 is probably not necessary....I'm having a hard time coming up with a reason to NOT do it that way. I know at least one person on the forum has done something similar on guitars.

Looking great Daniel. That orange striping is the african version of the ambrosia beetle at work.

The vintage Teles used nitrocellulose lacquer, the most recent ones polyester. If you want to end up with a finish that behaves like a vintage one (including checking/cracking), nitro is the way to go (and not many coats at that). If you want it bulletproof, go with polyester or urethane (much like the stuff you already have experience with). I think your best best is to try to source the pigment used (perhaps ReRanch sells it?), mix up your own batches and shoot on scrap. You'll probably need to contact the manufacturer(s) to find pigments soluble in your preferred choice of clear.

Zyon....to be fair, you probably haven't owned an acoustic that is old enough to have run out of bridge height adjustment room. On older acoustics, you can shave the saddle/bridge down only so far, then it needs a neck reset. That's what these adjustable neck joints are designed for....for avoiding bridge height adjustments over decades. Not to mention, the strings lose the ability to drive the top as the bridge saddle gets lower and lower. There is actually an optimum saddle height for driving an acoustic soundboard, which can vary with a lot of things...and this kind of neck adjustment can help you find it for each instrument. As has already been said, this kind of neck adjustment is probably overkill on an electric with an adjustable bridge (IMO).

The basic components to any of these clears are resin, solvent and sometimes a catalyst. The resin is the hard layer (the "solids") that remains after the solvent flashes off (evaporates), and if you're using a 2-part clear then the catalyst is what you're adding in order to get the resin to cure hard (chemically). The solvent is there just to thin it out, and of course you can thin it out more with addition of the same (or compatible) solvent. So the differences between these are that the name (acrylic, polyurethane, polyester, nitro, etc) refers to the chemical component that makes up the resin. They are not all compatible with all solvents, so check with the manufacturer about appropriate thinners (naptha, lacquer thinner, xylene, MEK, etc). Use the good stuff to thin your finish, and the cheap stuff to clean your equipment. FWIW I'd go by the data sheet.....sounds they the "they" in "they said" aren't what sure what "they" are talking about.

I've seen Tru Oil on swamp ash and it looks fine.

Well....have to really tried shooting a thinner coat? Do you really get it at all coat thicknesses?

Really really tiny craters, like pin-hole size? Probably your coat is too thick, and skins over before the solvent can get out. Try a thinner coat (although adding a slow reducer often will solve this as well). If its big craters, it may be that you haven't sealed the grain very well and trapped air is trying to get out. Though that should not happen after the first coat or two.

One question I have....can you do this with sufficient fidelity? Good A/D interfaces (cf. MOTU 896mk3) sport 192kHz sampling rates on 24 bits....if my math is correct, that's 3.2 Tbits/s which is about 6000 times faster than 802.11a. You'd need serious compression. Knowing what tone freaks most guitar players are....if you can hear the difference between MP3 quality and CD quality, I think you'd hate your sound through 802.11a.

I'm assuming you've ruled out the trem bridge as the source of your buzzing (it would buzz even on open strings, at the highest action). Meaning....that with the capo in a single position, you get buzzing on every single fret all the way up the neck? If you're measuring correctly, there should be only one or maybe two frets that light up with the tester...that's just the nature of the shape of a vibrating string. Methinks the LED tester could be fooling you. Remember that all the strings are in contact with the metal bridge...so if you have the probe only touching the low-E and you're testing (for example) the 12th fret, and ANY other string touches the fret you are testing (depending on how you're holding the neck), the LED will light up. Also be careful that you're not placing the LED's wire on top of the fret (so that the string is buzzing against the LED wire instead of the fret). In addition to getting a proper precision-ground straightedge, a set of feeler gauges are the only way you'll be able to accurately measure small gaps underneath the straightedge. Very low action is attainable only for those who pick very lightly. I also have a pretty heavy strumming hand, so when I reach the point of doing all that I can do on the neck, I just jack up the bridge, live with a little fret buzz, and don't look back.