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Bizman62

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Everything posted by Bizman62

  1. Either they're not too concentrated or the bottles are pretty big for such. I've got some Crimson Stunning Stains Shots that come in 10 ml bottles and pipettes. Some fellow builders at the course had some other brands in roughly similarly sized bottles. A few drops have been enough for one layer. For comparison the ready-to-use Stunning Stains come in 150 ml bottles. Thanks for the info about the finish. In that case mixing directly to the finish is probably best.
  2. I'm using headphones. They're pretty good but not stellar, aimed for gaming bought from Lidl.
  3. Looks like you're going to become a guitar manufacturer!
  4. You don't mean equal amounts, I guess, as the bottles I found are only 50 ml. You're using these, aren't you? http://www.ubeaut.com.au/dye.html Being water based intended for bare wood may be one issue. They don't tell about diluting them to any other solvent than water, then again they say that it can be used with even a 1000 times of water. What does the wipe-on recommend for cleaning brushes? Water or some other solvent? If other than water, then you might want to try mixing the dye to said solvent and then mix that with the wipe-on finish.
  5. There's lots of materials available as flat thin pieces. The question is, are they suitable for pickguards by their properties. The other question is, do they look good. And the third question is, do they fall into the aforementioned category of "plastic". I've seen fabric, napkins and drawings molded into clear epoxy, but isn't that plastic as well? There's nothing wrong with plastic, after metals it's the most tolerant material against pick scratches. You mentioned Masonite which is basically cardboard. Laminate used for tabletops and floors is printed paper and some sort of epoxy flattened under high pressure which makes it very wear resistant. Any wood based material like chipboard or plywood would sooner or later wear out without a tough finish (=plastic). Stone based boards are heavy and very brittle especially in the required thickness so plasterboard or fibre cement are out of the question. I guess ceramic would fall into that category. Glass comes in sheets and can be shaped, doesn't scratch easily but is not shock resistant. Zirconia used for knives would be hard and thin but where could you find it and how would you shape it? Same goes for carbon ceramic used in brake disks. -For what I could quickly learn it seems that ceramic would make a very cool pickguard. The biggest issue with it (outside pottery) is that it can't be made at home. Natural materials other than wood might be interesting. Leather was already mentioned. Turtle shell would look nice and even have some guitar related history as picks but it's not environmentally sound. But how about cow horn? It's hollow so there's lots of surface when rolled flat. And it's tough, buffs shiny etc. The only problem with that is to find instructions about preparing the horns so that they won't roll back or split. There used to be a comb maker in an outdoor museum when I was a kid but when I took my kids there they told that the skill died with the old master.
  6. Whaddayaknow! I found the comic in question in the Finnish Donald Duck digital archives (I've been a subscriber for DD since 1987) and after finding out the original name I found this gem: https://youtu.be/RLJeCyTqA6o
  7. A high frequency peak, you say? That might explain some, I don't hear anything past some 12000 Hz.
  8. I'd use concentrate. Basically if both your products are water based they should mix in theory. The question is if you really can add water to the finish to make it thinner? Most likely not. Use a dye that works with the recommended thinner for the finish you're using. Also, wipe-on products can act different to sprayed ones as there's some rub involved which potentially can blend with the previous layers causing unwanted effects. A burst looking like the back and fading to natural (or something else in your palette), might puzzle the viewer for a while to find out how you've blended two woods! Try some other colours over the sanded back flecks to see if you find something that you like!
  9. There's a classic Donald Duck comic where the nephews' pet squirrel is inside Donald's acoustic guitar, plucking the strings while Donald is unconscious. I didn't know of any other until I googled for some and lo and behold, there's some! https://youtu.be/fB1N7VjYIbM
  10. After listening all the samples I dare say that neither the pickup mounting nor the scale length really matters, the sound is mostly in the fingers of the player! Back when I was at school they had some recordings to support the music book. On one of the tapes they cut the attack off of the sound samples. You couldn't tell if the sound came from a guitar or a piano without hearing the very start. This is similar, the sounds are very similar and the only difference I imagine hearing is during the first nano-second. Yet another thing to test is to move the picking location from neck pickup (1/4 of the scale length from the bridge), mid and bridge in the locations where one of the harmonies get eliminated due to counteracting waves - along the maths described here: https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/sound/u11l4d.cfm I'm suggesting this as I've learned that an essential part of the sound of the bridge pickup is just because the second harmonic gets muted on that spot. How much might picking at the third harmonic at 1/6 scale length from bridge change the sound? And then the pickup location at the harmonic muting spots... I feel like I'm losing the focus!
  11. I've been criticized for my map reading skills: I could easily find our location, telling which way to go is something I struggle with. Which way to turn in the next three-way crossing? Umm... Let's see... If we're now driving this way to this direction - let me turn the map to match the road and direction - err... this hand is left so the other must be right... For side dot's real numbers might work best for me. Even better if they'd flash beforehand to tell where to move my hand next. And even better if the flashing would change and finally blink "Press this fret NOW, you idiot!" in the best ChittyChittyBangBand manner!
  12. Depending on material, the sub-base doesn't have to be thicker than the original base plate which it replaces.
  13. That really is awesome! Building amps is way beyond my skills so I can't evaluate that. As a guitar it's enviably neatly built!
  14. If you've applied glue all over the joining surface and get squeeze out all along the seam there's enough glue for an invisible joint. A quarter inch wide flexible glue joint is a totally different animal that has no use in luthiery. A huge amount of squeeze out can tell about several problems: The extra glue can fill the join and act as a stripe where no dye will stick A good tight glue joint can be stronger than the wood, plain dryed glue filling a gap is brittle and can crack There's quite some work to scrape the dried squeeze out by hand - dry glue can wear planer blades and similar expensive power tools prematurely! Wiping the excess off with a rag while still wet is also messy Glue isn't free, so using double the amount needed will double your glue costs!
  15. Let's see... Yesterday was May 1st so I had other things to do. The workshop is open six days a week but after a day at work I don't feel like being in the right mood. There's quite some runs to deal with, also I think I'd better check the hardware fitting before applying the final layer. I fear for having to reroute the control cavity a bit!
  16. My wooden ears could hear no difference! At times I thought there might be something but then that something disappeared. If there's any difference it might be in the attack. Even so it feels more about imagining a difference when the ears can't hear any. I wonder if the difference could be heard better with an overdriven pickup. Would extra gain accent such very subtle differences? Or would it hide any nuances into buzz?
  17. That was the plan, already did it with the previous layer. Thanks anyway, someone reading this thread may find the tip useful.
  18. After having read his comment I did the same with denaturated alcohol on my latest one. Worked pretty well especially in blending the burst with the bare wood.
  19. Looks similar to the one I have but like @curtisa I don't have the jaw swivel system. Same brand, though, and cheap enough for me to have bought it as new - guess it must have been in the €20 range.
  20. Hey, we're all here to learn things, either by asking questions or trying to find answers to questions posed by others.
  21. I liked the sound but the tune wasn't too catchy. In fact it was so boring I stopped halfways in the A part... Nice calm tempo, though, maybe I'll add this to my go-to-sleep playlist. Just out of curiosity, I came to thinking that on the first picture the pick was deep in the holder but later it was just barely pinched by the edge. Was that to prevent grabbing, allowing the pick to flex enough to release the string?
  22. The German half of me agrees and the Finnish half doesn't disagree. I prefer the golden pup covers as a) they match the hardware and b) there's not too much happening on the body so the decoration can be a bit shinier. Black would be another option as it matches with the fretboard. Maybe it's just me, but the cream looks like cheap 70's kitchenware.
  23. Right. Note that we're also talking about applying a base colour directly on wood as an option, applying a clearcoat in between and doing the burst and other effects with tinted finish. Let's just think that you'd apply yellow on wood and after it's dry, apply blue. Obviously they'd blend into a dirty green. But if you apply a clear finish over the yellow and then apply a transparent blue tinted finish the colours will stay separated and look like you'd have a blue glass over yellow wood. Looking at your test spots, see how some colours accentuate the dark grain better than others. I guess that's because there already is the same colour which just gets amplified or a contrasting colour which blends with the dye for a darker shade. I wonder how the brown would look when sanded back, or the yellow and orange. As the red and blue don't seem to enhance the grain as much, I suppose yellow is the key element combined with another colour - even the green looks livelier than the black or red or blue.
  24. No. There's 2k and there's 2k. The ones we're using are intended for industrial use, a proper spray cabin being a must. Professional luthiers in Finland seem to use the IL500 by Akzo Nobel, the local car paint shop sold the other brand after hearing we have a professional grade spray cabin and a teacher knowing the health regulations. Both are glass clear. As you said, 2k doesn't melt to the previous layers. The trick is to first apply a thin layer and sand it matte for a level surface - that serves as pore filler as well. The final layer is shot as wet on wet, allowing the 2k to harden for about half an hour between coats to prevent runoffs. As you know, unlike lacquer 2k doesn't dry starting on the surface, it hardens chemically instead. Thus you can let it solidify a bit before applying more for a uniform single thick layer which can be sanded and polished to the level shown in my photo.
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