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Bjorn.LaSanche

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Everything posted by Bjorn.LaSanche

  1. Well I can say for a fact that Sustain doesn't live behind any of my pickups. That is where Dust and Pickdust live in their hovel. Across the street from them lives Sweat Gunk and Blood Drops. All of whom are getting evicted rather soon. Sustain lives between the neck plate and the neck. He says those other folks are just too trashy for his taste.
  2. Can images for this thread be updated by those who originally posted them if possible please?
  3. Any thoughts to when Part 3 will go live? I am at a place myself where the topic is of high interest.
  4. I sometimes wish that mounting system Dimarzio had back in the early 1980's to advertise/test drive their pickups would have caught on. The pickup would be attached to a removable block that snapped into the back of the guitar. The pickup holes were routed clean through. This way you could test out pickups directly in the store instead of having to buy one, take it home and install it, then reverse the process again and again until you find something you like.
  5. True, unless you have a mug like mine. Almost every time I fly with a pedal board, I happen to get the mouth breather that doesnt understand that the little boxes with wires connected to them that say terroristic things on them like Boss, Crybaby, ISP, and have titles like, Super Overdrive, Compressor/Sustainer, Chromatic tuner, etc.. aren't items of mass destruction. Luckily I insist on making the suggested 2 hour before departure, this way I can deal with this nonsense. Luckily I have not had to have the one on one search as of yet. That would be depressing. You guys know what TSA stands for right? TOTAL SEXUAL ASSAULT
  6. No there isn't an angle to the pocket. I've decided that I am going to tackle this once I get back from Baltimore next month. Until then I have too many other things going on. I have to rebuild my pedal board so that I can fly with it and hopefully not have TSA wig out about what all those things are wired together, I also have two guitars in primer that I would like to shoot at least the color on before I leave. We have also decided to rerecord the album, so that pre-production starts next weekend. Not to mention my day job and I have to fit family in somwhere.
  7. Thanks, I was actually going for stagnant pond overgrown with algae green as that is the color swatch on the dye. It was actually more like fresh cut golf course fairway green once it was done. This was the decision to hit it with the torch to darken it some. I did learn one thing from doing this type of finish. They belong only on instruments made with wood of rock maple hardness or greater. This guitar is basswood and my fingernails have gouged a trench around the volume knob and where I anchor my hand to pick.
  8. I don't think one should use a powered sander for any step of the refinish job except stripping of an old finish. It is too easy to sand through any work you have done and destroy an otherwise good job. I make my own sanding blocks about half the size of ones you can get in the store, and glue a piece of leather smooth side out to it. I spray glue my sand paper to that, and peel it off to change grits. It works a lot better than a store bought sanding block. The amount of pressure needed to sand the finish coats is so light that a powered sander would eat through them in short order.
  9. Here is my 1984 Ibanez DT-250 I purchased in 1987 and have had since. Due to extensive use/abuse and moves over the years, the finish on various areas of the guitar popped off. I got tired of it looking like a beater and decided to refinish it using an oil finish. I tinted the oil using a Mixol #14 Oxide Green. The oil finish I used was Formby's satin Tung oil. The procedure I used to apply the oil was cribbed off Warwick's forum. I melted raw beeswax which I applied liberally over the body, allowed to dry, sanded back down to the wood, applied tinted oil finish in small areas which I used steel wool (0000) to rub in utilizing the wood/oil emulsion to act as a grain filler. I applied two maybe three coats of the oil, allowing to dry for minimum 24 hours between coats, light steel wool sanding between each coat. One done, I applied a mixture of beeswax/turpentine as the polish. Mixture of the wax/turp is 3:1 respectively which was picked up off the Warwick DIY forum as the mixture the factory uses. I did not take a complete set of pictures as I went through the process. Apologies about that. Body prior to disassembly and stripping. The BK in the neck pocket was original as I was first owner of this guitar. Shoddy installation of real Ibanez Edge done in 1989 by local "luthier" Routing is ugly and there was no wood removed as per Ibanez instructions from the front shelf of the tremolo cavity resulting in almost no ability to pull up with the tremolo Using a heat gun to remove finish due to Ibanez' formula of Great Wall of China thickness poly, As I went through the black layers I came across the transparent red base coat. These guitars came in Trans red, Black, and White. I suspect all got the red undercoat with black and white opaque finishes as per other orders. Fairly interesting though. If stripping a poly finish use a heat gun its really fast compared to using Jasco aircraft stripper(also fast but also very messy). Picture of a piece of the poly clear finish after 30 years. I didn't bother to measure it, but the thickness was about the same as the cover of a standard genreic brand spiral notebook you used for school. Body post stripping and sanding. I left the pickup cavities alone, as well as the tremolo cutout(it was colored with black marker from when I had it installed, really pro job considering what I paid to have it installed ). After first coat of oil. Fairly light at this point and bright as well. It came out very very grassy green and this was the most muted green Mixol has. I had to scumbag it up some to fit my personality. I used a torch to "toast" some areas, mainly around the tremolo cavity, pickup rings, and knob/switch areas. Reassembled and ready to play. I modified the original circuit of the electronics by adding a second tone pot, moving the cable plug to the lower side of the body using a Fender Strat type cup, Knobs are metal with one rough side for volume and two smooth sides for the tones. I did eventually discover a problem with the refinish job (aside from softness and my fingernails digging grooves into the wood around the pots, and my playing anchor point) which I will add to this thread as I tackle them. Right now I am in the planning stages of that repair.
  10. Use a piece of plastic tube like what you find in a 1/4" plug to cover the wires and split it so you can make it smaller in conjunction with the method shown in the video adds a little extra security as well as it gets smashed between the set screw and splines, an splines and other side of knob shaft.
  11. Have you thought about other spalted lumbers? Spalted maple just is a tad ordinary these days. Spalted camphor is pretty intense looking. There is a tree here in Texas called mesquite that will usually have some really beautiful spalted section and it is far less expensive than spalted maple. IT has a greater variation of colors appearing in the spalted mesquite. It is your guitar though use what you like.
  12. The action on the guitar is good. Matter of fact, This guitar, as well as my other Ibanez, I mainly play are the two most stable guitars I own. Both are set up with neck relief of .028mm at the 9th fret, and the action is low enough just to remove any damping buzzing while playing(on my RG 1.75mm at 24th fret for E, 1.0mm on e, the DT is maybe a tad lower, only due to it having 21 frets). My goal is to be able to lower the tremolo closer to the body on this guitar, as the tremolo sits high enough off the body to put my picking arm into an uncomfortable postion due to that I am used to lower action guitas, the string distance away from the body at times will have my picking hand travel a normal pickng arc, which results in the pick being slipped between the strings too deep. If that makes any sense. If I can lower the neck into the body some, say for argument 1/4", I can lower the tremolo 1/4" resulting in the strings being closer to the body resulting in a distance where I will not have to make too drastic change to muscle memory paths of picking mechanics as I have to now.
  13. Here are the pictures.. My camera did not want to utilize it's flash, so this is dark and I had to edt it in Paint. Area of concern is in yellow rectangle. The arrow pointing to the right is the forward edge of the knife point pivot. The arrow pointing left is the face of the body where the tremolo route begins. The knife edge should be able to sit into the tremolo route so that the bottom edge of the knife edge (in the pic it is the rectangle just above the arrow pointing left)is flush with the top edge of the body when looking at the guitar from the same direction as this picture is taken. From the previous pic the neck is sitting too far from the body face Rear of neck where it meets the body. The neck pocket has always been slightly loose, even when it had the Ibanez Death Coat Poly on it, That is the reason you see the indentation of the lock washer. I use that to keep the neck from shifting. The horizontal line is wax build up from maintenance. Top down neck pocket. Top left corner of it as well as the lower right are factory slop jobs. Trying to show that the pocket is the same thickness from front to rear from the side. I think it is safe to remove some wood from the pocket. The heel is 1-1/8" thick off a standard metal ruler. I guess I will create a jig to compensate for the lack of wood on the lower edge of the pocket. I am not sure how far out a fret board should be from the face of the guitar body. I will just take a few measurements off my other guitars, and get an average between the two or three I tend to play most. I am not trying to create a zero need for shims and they will be used if needed to create a proper angle, but this guitar always makes me feel like I am fighting the guitar by having to lift my picking hand away from the body to play.. FWIW the final picture was taken when finished with applying oil finish prior to waxing. I used Mixol tint Oxide Green to tint the linseed oil I used on the body. This picture makes the body look too pretty it actually looks like I picked it up out of a stagnant pond which was the effect I was going for.
  14. I'm late to the game on this thread, but I oil finished all of my bolt on necks this year, as well as two guitars my bass player owns. Totaling 7 guitars. The first three each used a different technique that I found online. I am by no means an expert, but I do play a lot both at home and live, so I can give my experience from that angle. Guitar 1: Used 80 grit to get to the wood fast. 100 grit next, then proceeded to walk up the grits to 220. Each grit was sanded until all scratches from previous grit were gone, cleaned neck off with tack cloth then acetone. I then applied water to the neck with a damp rag ( idea here is to only use enough water to darken the wood as compared to dry to raise the grain). Sand again with same grit as first pass until it felt smooth. The oil I used was boiled linseed oil. Used rag to hand apply until coat was even. Allowed to dry 24 hours, Sand with 220, Repeat the process twice more. After the final coat of oil, I allowed the neck to air out for two days then applied a 4:1 mix of raw beeswax and turpentine. allow to dry (5 minutes or so), then buffed off. Final result - Neck is really fast and comfortable. Feels like the finish of one of the old San Dimas custom Charvels from the mid 80's. FWIW, The body was done using same technique, but I dyed the linseed oil as I was told the oil will make a stain blotchy. Also have to wax the neck after every 2-3 weeks of hard usage. Wood darkens a bit from hand oils. Guitar 2: I used the Tru-Oil method a lot of people use, use the instructions on the bottle . Application is the same as above, but the finish, ends up like a production "oiled neck". In other words, it doesn't feel like wood under your hands. This will get redone after November to same technique I used for the next guitar. Guitar 3: I experimented here. This time I melted straight beeswax to liquid and applied that to the neck after initial sandings, and before oil application. After I got the neck covered, I used a heat gun to warm the wax allowing it to penetrate into the wood. I repeated this application twice which left wax proud of the wood when dry. I then sanded the neck back down to the wood, then applied matte finish tung oil as above and finalized again with beeswax/turpentine mixture. This technique is similar to Warwick's method of oil finishing. Final result. I have a hard time putting this guitar down. The feel is similar to guitar 1, but somehow feels slightly refined. Also the first application of the wax I believe creates an additional barrier to ward against oxidation and sweat discoloration. The 4 others I refinished, I used the last method, and am happy with the results enough to keep using this method. I do not sand further than 220 grit as I like a little tool handle feel to my guitar necks. The second guitar i took to 320, but it feels too plasticky with the Tru Oil. To the OP: To answer your questions. No the oil wont come off on your hands if you wax it afterward. Even if it did, the amount is very small you wont feel it. I used two coats of oil on each neck. I don't like slick painted neck feel on an unfinished neck, but I want to feel the grain a bit. Dye the oil with an alcohol based dye designed for woodworking. Apparently stain underneath gets blotchy after applying the oil. I don't know how true this is, but I am not made of money and wanted to not have to redo anything from blotchy stain Yes. Keep in mind Im not an expert and only have done 5 of my own guitars and two of a friends. He always comments on how he digs the oiled necks I put on his guitars (Or just stroking my ego while secretly hates them, but he plays the hell out of them). You sounded like where I was last year, so I just wanted to pass along my experiences.
  15. Thank you guys. I have been away from the forum so long, I forgot I asked this already and just asked Prostheta in PM again. Sorry about that. Here is a photo of said guitar. No clue why it shows upside down.
  16. I have an old Ibanez where I have redone the finish on it resulting in the neck sitting a little higher on the body than it used to. It doesn't affect the way the guitar plays, but I do not like the way the tremolo is now having to sit proud of the body and would like to set the neck a little deeper into the neck pocket so I can sink the tremolo block back into the rout. My first thought was to remove some wood from the neck pocket, but what is the best way to determine how far I should look to take it? Would I measure how far down I need to take the tremolo, then apply that measurement to the neck pocket for removal? I don't want too take too much, but also don't want to take too many small adjustments.
  17. Schaller parts are essentially special order only now in the states from my experience. Even worse is that Schaller themselves will wait for enough orders for a certain item before they even manufacture a run. I ordered a set of Ruthenium M6's(standard plain Jane type) in 2011 and did not receive them until almost 2013. I placed the order through a friend's music store via Allparts right after 2011 NAMM show. They finally arrived almost Christmas 2013.
  18. Man, I always loved the way those Aria SB basses looked. The design would fit anyone for any style and look good. Protheta, didn't Cronos from Venom play those and actually had a signature model about 15-20 years ago?
  19. Wes, as long as one stays on top of maintenance shouldn't get too bad? Even if it will grunge up fairly quickly, As long as it comes from me, I'm not too worried. I don't own, nor want a trailer queen. All my guitars are players that are rode hard and put away wet in a manner of speaking.
  20. I picked up a real beater guitar at a buddies shop last month. It was an Ibanez DT-250 with the trans red poly finish in really bad shape. This far I have had to strip all the finish down to bare wood, Repair a decent size crack at the base of the neck and several long cracks along the body that were shallow, but might eventually become worse. There was also a chunk broken out of the body where the neck meets the body right before the neck pickup. The neck is straight though which is a plus. I can't say much for the frets/fretboard though as the frets were way beyond a mere re-leveling/re-crowning. It looked like someone tried to sand back the red poly finish on the fretboard, only to get mad at the job and beat up the frets with a tack hammer. I had to pull all the frets and luckily only had one small chip out at the 13th fret, which if I replace them with a little wider fret wire it will be hidden. The fretboard needs to be re-sanded to clean up the grubbiness. Once I get the neck back to the point where I am ready to seal the fretboard, I am interested in using tung oil as the sealer instead of a lacquer as I do not intend to refinish the neck except the headstock face to match the body. Will any of you who have experience in sealing a fretboard this way give your pros and cons to finishing the fretboard this way as opposed to using a poly or lacquer finish please?
  21. I liked that idea with the torch SwedishLuthier thank you for sharing. Pan_Kara do you think that this may be closer to the technique used on that bass, just done a little more extreme? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXzTe7vJng#t=102
  22. Man I hate when accidents like this happen, even if not to the extent of what happened in your case. When you give the guitar back after repairing it maybe include an invoice on what the repair would have cost him if nothing else, but for his records if he ever wants to sell the guitar again(make sure the amount due says no charge). This also clears you from any further tissue issues that may stem from the guy in the future. If I were in your shoes, I would make sure I pulled out all the repair mojo I had to make sure this was the best repair I could do for the guy to make him happy.
  23. Man Prostheta, you just had to wave that Aria in front of me didn't you. I swear that company made the absolutely most beautiful guitars without ever pushing into the gaudy. I have ordered the Machine heads and waiting for them to come in. I decided to go with Schaller M6's Regular old school ones. In Schaller's Ruthenium finish. Essentially Schaller's take on the Cosmo Black. I was told by one of the Schaller people via email that the Ruthenium finish is actually a part of the metal and not really a plated finish. Not quite sure how that is, but they take some time to get here. Already 6 weeks since I placed order.
  24. I see, I didn't understand the objective, but yeah, I see what you're getting at and agree with that.
  25. Not too bad actually, though I do see why the finish wears off of the Ibanez hardware and oxydizes quickly. When you really look at the hardware, you can tell that the plating is just average quality. I honestly wanted to use a different brand than Ibanez, but no one else makes the stop bar in that shape, and the bridge is the modern version of the old Ibby banjo knock-off. I am not disappointed though. I really love the visual aesthetics of the bridge pieces. I just wish Ibanez would have used some other metal under the plating than pot metal. You should see my DT-250 with the original Edge tremolo I have on it. The low E saddle is very eaten down over the years and the plating on it has what appears to be a bunch of bubbles that have come to the surface and popped. It looks similar to dust being sprayed over with finish paint. Saying that, when I had my Moser Custom Shop with a "new" Kahler on it, the saddles of the Kahler did the same thing within two years. I have a Peavey Mantis with a Kahler that has had hard use since I bought it when they first came out where the plating hasnt worn off like new chrome, or colored finishes do. The saddles and base plate on that tremolo are all brass underneath.
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