Bizman62

The bass strings now seem more articulate and flavorous, the treble ones still sound a bit ukey especially when strumming chords.

For testing purposes that looks solid enough.

For fast swapping, Relish Guitars have invented a swappable pickup system allowing at least any humbucker sized to be swapped even while playing: https://www.relishguitars.ch/article/focusing-on-material-innovation-and-functionality

They also sell the pickup mounting hardware separately, here's how they're installed: https://youtu.be/416t56R-V5c?feature=shared

4 minutes ago, henrim said:

Some time ago I made some notes to myself about a guitar with revolver type top plate for pickup testing.

Such a guitar already exists! https://www.gyrockguitars.com/

Thanks, this tiny bit of conversation made me search for information I didn't know I didn't know. (Is that good English??? Looks funny!)

Having it written down is a good reminder for us and a nice tidbit for future readers.

11 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

I guess it’s partly a question of where people commonly place their thumb on the back of the neck, I suppose that typically it’s either the  middle or slightly below, or occasionally wrapping it over for bends and Hendrixisms. 

Funny you mentioned Hendrix. This topic has been brewing in my head and when thinking about "optimal" neck shapes Hendrixisms popped up. Ergonomically a V shape is the best shape for wrapping the thumb over the bass strings, that has the least amount of wood around the finger and palm joints. And yes, the proportions are pretty much right, the crosscut of the neck really is that small! A slim D in turns despite potentially being thinner has much more meat against the joints, it definitely wants the thumb to rest on the back. The slanted spine of Strandberg guitars is a good attempt to connect these two worlds.

10 hours ago, henrim said:

6 string, 24,750”, 12” and so on. As always.

KISS

The best principle ever.

19 hours ago, ScottR said:

Oh! You said Greek.

Grrrrr... See the RRRRR's?

We just had a LAN party last weekend. Not much computing though as the connection was too unstable for gaming. So instead of geeking we nurtured our stomachs.

8 hours ago, avengers63 said:

Yes it is. But there are two differences

One: By 'widespread' I meant exactly that they're pretty far apart.

Second: Where's the 'parallel'? Instead of waiting for your answer I did a quick search to find out that the traditional humbuckers are in series and the pickups of a single coil in parallel. But there's parallel humbuckers and wiring schematics for single coils in series, all of which cancel hum when two coils are active at the same time. So yes, coils both parallel and series cancel hum but in a different way just as you said.

No offense, just trying to clarify to myself what you said.

32 minutes ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

If I have a strange idea there’s always a possibility that Crowe has tackled it at some point

Must be a Brit thing. Something in your cereals, maybe?

7 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Me too. I was hoping you could read it.

Hey, I'm a Finn, not a Greek!

1 hour ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

a bit more like this, where it is scooped at each side

Does this answer your question, starting at about 29:30:

3 minutes ago, ScottR said:

You know what to do with that dish of ice cream.

data:application/pdf;base64,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

The first few sentences I could understand but the rest is Greek to me!

You mean that the profile would be faceted instead of half round? Like this:

If so, there's a Crimson guitar named 'Odd' with that kind of a neck.

My guitar history started in the latter half of the seventies, first with a classical which soon gave way to a Hagström Viking which in turns was swapped to an Ibanez FG100. That was the era of the 50's Rock'n'Roll/Rockabilly revival which means my idols played more or less clean sounds with some sort of echo-oh-oh-oh. At that time I didn't know anything about the differences of pickups, to me they were just things that picked the sound to the amp, in my case at bedroom volume levels with the parents sleeping in the same room - not literally though.

Anyhow, a slightly overdriven sound is what I've learned to prefer. I've never learned to play using distortion, the few attempts have sounded horrible even in my own ears. When I once tried a tube screamer at a shop it almost made me sh*t my pants, it literally screamed like a banshee making me embarrased and ashamed to produce such a sound in public.

Lately I've seen videos where they explain how to use such devices for just fattening the clean(ish) sound but since moderately using the gain control seems to give me the sound I like I haven't bought anything of that ilk. Were I in a band things might be different.

So my first guitars were equipped with humbuckers but my own builds all have single coils, don't actually know why as I've heard nice crisp humbuckers on some videos. Then again, isn't a dual single coil in both pickups mode basically a widespread humbucker?

Same here. The old ones sound nasal, like they'd suffer from a serious cold. Similar to your voice when your sinuses are clogged...

9 hours ago, ScottR said:

But I didn't like the grain direction compared to the black limba

Yep, it sure looked a bit off and as both woods have such clearly visible directional lines the misorientation would have been more than a beauty mark.

4 hours ago, ScottR said:

find a similar piece with regards to grain and markings and cut a scoop

I'm eagerly waiting for that to happen to see what exactly you mean. So far my imagination shows a boat shaped piece been cut off along the grain lines but any happy surprise is welcomed!

Congrats! That was well earned, beautiful and meticulously engineered

10 hours ago, ScottR said:

I see aliens in that bookmatched burl.

Now that you've made your confession I feel confident to tell that you're not the only one.

It seems you'll have to get a new location for your shop outside the house. Maybe a shed in the backyard? Looking at your location it seems that you wouldn't need too much insulation to keep it above freezing point, in the summer rather the other way around. And since woodworking will be somewhat dusty in an outside location as well you'd need a mudroom in your house for changing to dust free clothes. Maybe she'd also like you to get a shower to get your hair and skin dust free?

Fortunately my wife is not that tidy as we have firewood in every room and they tend to spread dust and other particles all over the place. Which reminds me that I'll have to take the four bags in the hallway to the wood shed and fill them...

She sure has a nice voice! The third example was the only one that made me think of a uke, others were very guitary.

Had my parents laid such a beauty in my hands when my size was suitable for that I might have learned a bit more than just a bunch of cowboy chords!

As I still wasn't happy with the darkness of the edges I sanded them cleaner again...

There's still spots that could have been sanded even more, the oil darkens quite a lot of what looks light grey after sanding. But the darkest areas now sit on the outermost curves of the bouts so it looks like natural weathering which was my intention to start with.

I must say I really love this oil mix! Lacquer would not have allowed resanding and refinishing the edges without borderlines.

First thing to check is the jack: Is the ground connected to the sleeve prong and the hot to the tip? That should give you the sound with massive buzz.

If you don't get any notes at all, there's something wrong with your pickup wirings.

3 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I'm also tempted to enter GOTM

Follow the temptation but do it early on so I don't participate in the same competition!

You mean this area, marked red?

I'm by no means an expert but I'd redo at least the blue area. On the right side there'd be a butt joint, addressing that for maximum strength might be tricky. Then again it'd be no different to a neck joint so being solidly glued both on the side and bottom should be plenty strong enough.

Is it possible to reach the bushings from the bottom side as well? If so, adding bolts from the bottom to prevent the bushings from nudging might also help. Like so:

1 hour ago, curtisa said:

Thin/deep.

Exactly. Just confirming, there's nothing to add to the explanation.