Bizman62

Hi @Brian5531 and welcome to the addiction! You don't get a comprehensive answer from me, there's others who know their ohms stellarly better. This much I know: Any pot will basically work. The question is how much it affects the tone. With humbuckers 500k pots are mostly used as the pickups by nature sound quite dark compared to single coils. The higher ohmage pots allow the brighter tones come through (lots of information if you Google it). Thus I'd choose the 500k pots for individual pickups. Logically the master pot should be at least the same to prevent muddiness. But should it rather be of higher ohmage? That's a question for someone else to answer.

No such thing! And the pickups match perfectly both for colour and size. At first glance it's not obvious that they're of entirely different type and shape. Notice that this comes from a guy who thinks "cream" is just aged white having been exposed to sunlight and dust.

That should definitively work! One should do it just the way you described, jack the truck up and slide the piece right under the tyre. Trying to drive on the piece would cause slipping. Simple ideas like this should be collected under the title of "How to Get Perfect Results Without Specialist Tools and Expensive Gadgets".

All you need is imagination! I was thinking somewhat similarly. Basically that is a variation of a go-bar deck. My thought was to wedge in some 2x2's instead of the rods they normally use. Speaking of go-bar one of the oldest illustrations is just a beam between the ceiling and the workbench. Regarding your original idea, there's a less destructive way to tighten the block ends. No holes needed, just pairs of blocks and a loop of cord. And a stick. The idea is similar to how you'd tighten a bow saw, here's an illustration for those who've never used one:

Ahh! Now that I saw your illustration I'd say they actually are clamps! @curtisa has a point in worrying about spreading the pressure evenly. Although purpleheart is stiff, it can still flex. The flexibility can be somewhat addressed by putting the blocks standing on the side and cutting them so that the grain pattern is vertical (illustration below). That isn't fool proof, though: I have done some flooring using twice dried warped 1 1/4" x 5" planks and even those were easy enough to force the gaps closed with a hand tool. Shimming sounds like a viable idea as it would leave the centers of the purpleheart blocks untouched for future use. Some 0.5 mm thick veneers should do just fine, I doubt there will be more flex than that. Another option to spread pressure evenly is to use plastic foam. The 1/4" type used for packaging works well with veneers, for this job I guess even the ½" insulation mat used for camping or yoga mats might do. The foam will compress to match every gap.

I have my doubts about rods especially since you can't apply any pressure in the middle. But... There's ways to clamp without clamps! If you have a board and some wood, attach two slabs on the board somewhat wider than the total width of your purpleheart. Use a third slab and wedges to apply sideways pressure. To prevent your work being glued to the board use some cling film, plastic sheet or baking paper between the board and your work. Like so:

Welcome back! For what I've read here, old posts should be there, photos not necessarily especially if they've been linked via a third party service that has since expired. Supposedly you used a different name back then, but the admins should be able to make the two accounts into one in case you want your old posts to be found more easily.

Looks very factory built (in a good way) with that battery box!

It must be a different type of poplar. Shaping is no issue, sanding is. Mine sands easily but as said the summer growth tends to sand even more easily no matter what type of block or paper I use. It seems that even the dust sanded off the harder growth rings eats the softer parts away!

How did you find working with poplar? My experience so far has been that it's very soft and gets dents just by looking at it. And it's a PITA to sand level as the softer grain just vanishes no matter how you sand it, leaving the harder stuff proud. And it doesn't seem to like blades of any kind, the fibres just tear off instead of getting cleanly cut or scraped. American poplar may be another species, though. Mine was cut from a yard at the town centre, fast grown to a diameter of 70 cm in only about 40 years.

The cavity in a cavity looks neat! Agreed, most of the time only you know it's there but should anyone see it sure will make the viewer believe that the same level of craftmanship and dedication has been a standard all over the build. The extra cover adds another layer of safety as well. I can easily imagine a situation where you'd have to change the battery in a hurry in the middle of a gig. One could easily drop the 9 volt battery to the electronics compartment and knock a wire off, or worse, shortcut the terminals against the most delicate component. That simple cover is a good insurance against mishaps. Well done!

Oh my! Such a simple thing as a matching truss rod cover can add yet another level of stylishness. And your logo just keeps pleasing my eye - simple, yet dynamic and original.

I can agree with the 25% "you" and most likely it'd be the same for "me". There's ways to get a smooth surface with a brush but aside the proper tool it requires the hand of someone else. Having used the slower epoxy might indeed have helped. I've seen videos where they make those glass smooth shiny tabletops without any sanding needed afterwards. There's one trick that neither of us would have the patience to do: They pour it on the centre and let the excess drip down on the sides! After it's dry the blobs can relatively easily be cut level with the edge, then do the same on the other face. I can see a couple of caveats in that method for a carved guitar: First, you can't do that with a Les Paul type guitar with the marble run as it would be filled up. Second, getting the viscosity just right for a uniform layer even on the highest spot but still fluid enough to self level can be somewhat challenging. That should be doable, though.

Woohoo! Yet another video worth the wait! One thing is for sure: I definitely won't ever use epoxy for finish!

Believe me, I fully understand! My current build is the first one with a glued in neck after a few neck-thru ones the advantage of which is that you simply can't miss the centerline. On second thought that isn't true, it's highly possible to glue the fretboard in an angle and with a preslotted or prefretted board that would put the bridge off center... But I'm digressing. What's the worst scenario that could happen? Supposing your wood is of high quality and the neck pocket snug enough the neck should almost automatically align with the centerline. Unlike screws you can even adjust the angle while clamping. Also, if you find out that the neck break angle isn't right there's quite some time to pull the neck off before the glue has fully dried. And should it against all odds happen that the neck is totally off, you can cut the neck and reroute the pocket for a new neck.

That's a valid point. I've actually not paid attention to that as I've only used them for basic tuning. Although some of them seem to have very fine long scales which should improve accuracy you never can be sure about the quality of the microphone. After all the microphone is meant to catch a human speaking voice instead of the sound of a guitar, acoustic or amplified. And of course if you own a top quality tuner you'd want to use that.

Don't you have a smart phone? There's tons of tuners in the PlayStore. Most likely in AppStore as well.

Oh, the idea was to cut the red pieces out of the bottom itself and attach them with screws or magnets while the rest of the bottom would be glued in. But since you're not going to use the centre-block it won't work as such. I thought the block could be used to support the detachable parts of the bottom. Yet another idea would be to cut large enough holes to the bottom, put some cleats in and attach the cut pieces to the cleats. That said, if you can make it through the pickup holes that would make the neatest looking guitar.

Ah,,,,I think thats in the too-hard basket! What about two halves? I already saw why that's not an option, the horn would be difficult to get right... Just as food for thought, by no means saying that this would be the optimal solution:

Yepp, I should have sprayed some lacquer to a cup and brush it on. The nail varnish is just so convenient to use! Never thought there's fifty shades of clear and what further puzzles me is that the nail varnish makes the lacquer below clearer as well. That gives me some hope that the difference in transparency is only a polishing issue.

And what happened to the full size back panel idea?

Continued idiocy: The nail varnish makes a much clearer and harder surface! And that was the very reason I didn't try CA glue... I tried to sand the "fixed" spots level using a nail polishing sponge (very good for frets!) which seems to start from about 600 and end to 6000 or so. Not good, the grit that makes the lacquer matte just polishes the nail varnish! I wonder how many bottles it would take for the entire guitar...

I just noticed that I'm a blind idiot! As it's a bright day and I had some spare time I took another look at the guitar and what do you know, I found the spots mentioned earlier: They're in the upper bout, not the lower! I've been searching from the wrong place all along! And it's even visible in the photo, you can see the neck in the upper right corner... Oh well, as there was a couple of other similar tiny spots where I had sanded through I just applied some clear nail varnish to make them waterproof. That should blend in quite nicely based on previous experience with that very same bottle.

@Tommy Dugelius did you notice that this thread is already 16 years old? A more detailed search revealed that @PunkRockerLuke last visited this forum nearly two years ago. Based on his forum activity you may not get the answer very soon. But who knows, maybe he gets an email every time his name is mentioned and chimes in to read your wish. Miracles do happen.

Electrickery is magic to me so I can't just draw you a schematic. Looking for Tele 5 way switch options might help. After all it's about two single coils, the bridge one in this case being farther from the bridge than normal. It still is a two single coil five way switch system like a Tele. There may even be drawings for a treble boosted option.