spindlebox

I know it's a niggling thing but maybe they will consider it if somebody sees this thread. I don't know if any Stew Mac people are members of this form.

Yeah it should never list MM next to a measurement that is obviously in inches.  Fortunately, MM and Inches are obviously far apart in scale so you can figure it out, but still.  I don't believe it's a difficult algorithm to program.  

Well, there's obviously a flaw if it comes out like that, which is all I'm saying.

The Stew Mac fret calculator appears to be incorrect. As you can see on the fret scale it lists millimeter.  On my calipers that number comes up but is in inches.

What the heck am I missing?

HAHA.  There could be worse things a guitar could play.

I'm fine with the color, the finish is beautiful, pretty much why I bought it!!

Thanks for your replies.

That's all great advice!  I appreciate it.  It is just such beautiful wood!!  I had never known about it until I heard someone mention it.  Definitely want to make a natural finish body out of some!

Anyone ever use this beautiful wood for a guitar body?  I'm seriously considering it!

Which shows the importance of not wasting precious time arguing about things such as that on the Internet.

39 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

But if it's not audible, does it matter?

 

No.  To me.  But to some, it gives them the warm fuzzies.

I challenge anyone to listen to a recording of different instruments, recorded with the same microphone and amp into a DAW - to tell me which one was made from Alder, which one was made from Cedar, and which one was made from Rubberwood.
 

If it sounds good - it IS good.

39 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Hah! I was just going to say Rubberwood as that's the name often used for pale cheap Far-East furniture.

Regarding "tonewood", if the guitar you build out of it makes a tone then what would you call the wood? Electric guitar bodies have been industrially made out of chipboard, particleboard, plywood, fiberboard... Not to mention other materials like composite which is what Flaxwood guitars use, and you can't call them inexpensive!

Oh trust me, i know.  I used fairly atypical wood on my first build:  Cedar and Oak, and it sounds just like my other Tele from Fender.  I mentioned it because some people go nuts over that stuff.  I believe Acoustic guitars - YES that makes a massive difference, but for electric - not so much.  I won't be getting into any "tonewood" debate here either.  I was just trying to figure out what I have!  It's actually really nice and hard wood.    I'm looking forward to working with it.

A little more research turns up that it very well could be RUBBERWOOD.  It is very similar to Maple and Teak.  

https://www.wood-database.com/rubberwood/

So I have gotten some things from Harbor freight, specifically a work table and the drawer France basically just said hardwood. I know it was made in Asia.  

So I just salvaged this table from the side of the road and I'm going to be making a flying V style guitar for the singer in my band. It looks to be the same as the drawer fronts of the workbench.  It is good solid wood, no particle board at all, but I am just wondering what kind of light hardwood they have in Malaysia? It says made in Malaysia on the bottom.

 Just curious if anyone knows, I am doing searches and haven't turned up very much.

Yes yes, it isn't tonewood, etc.  But this is what I do.  

Thanks in advance!!

4 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Well, there's a luthier here in Finland that makes half sized electric three string guitars and one string basses for children - but the prices are 850 a piece! No wonder, though, I've met the guy and the build quality is excellent. But considering you can get a short scale six string strat type for 70 that's a lot of money. Now the big question is, can you build guitars below that? Agreed, the sub-100 guitars usually need some TLC worth another 100 before they're fully playable but so do much more expensive guitars. It may not pay.

Beautiful idea, though.

 It helps using reclaimed materials and I have a partner with a business that changes out a ton of hardware That he is going to send to me. Nothing wrong with the hardware, Just not the most expensive stuff.  That will help a ton!

16 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

Glad I could help.

It actually seems that 3/4 is used for guitars that are just slightly smaller! Didn't know that, I was thinking about something closer to the half sized ones. Apparently the fraction markings in stringed instruments aren't accurate! A quick comparison at Thomann's revealed that a 1/8 size acoustic is about 76% of the length of a full size one! And a 3/4 of the same brand is 91% of the 4/4.

I stand corrected.

Shoot, I was just repeating something that I'd heard others say.  It gets us in the ballpark!!!  

I definitely need to make some smaller templates to make guitars for smaller people!  One of my objectives is to make guitars for kids that can't afford them. 

Well I just used the 3/4 scale as a blanket term, not really as an accurate unit of measurement, the scale length is the key element.  YES!  Your 2nd drawing looks just like what we need.  Thanks for figuring that out for me HAHA.  So I'll get a free template and see what I can figure out.  I appreciate it my friend!!!

The singer in my band wants a flying V, but we need to build it 3/4 scale.  I am considering getting this template (or one like it)

https://www.electricherald.com/shop/guitar-dxf-gibson-flying-v-2016-t/

It needs to be a 22.5" scale length, I'm wondering if I can scale down this template as a starting point, until I get that scale length locked in and things are proportional?  Would that work?

I say it needs to be 22.5" because she's currently playing my Fender Duo Sonic and it's perfect for her.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Right!  Plus they look REALLLY cool if done right.  Not to mention the fact that - supposedly they're stronger and more stable.  

37 minutes ago, soapbarstrat said:

There was actually a member here who said something like that many years ago. He said he didn’t trust the guitars he built. I couldn’t help but imagining his guitars suddenly blowing up in his face or something

He could have a brand called Timebomb Guitars.

HAHAHAH!  "This guitar will self-destruct in, 5,4,3,2............"

3 hours ago, soapbarstrat said:

I’ve seen a lot of people build their own guitar, but still prefer to play factory made guitars. After building one myself, I don’t understand those people. I feel way more connected to the one I built, and became more distant to my factory made guitars.

The only thing I can think of is the one they built isn't very good.

2 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

Nicely done, congrats. You might not know it yet but you're going to spend the next 5 years of your life in your garage and you're going to spend all your money on wood and tools.

Hi my name is Ash and I'm addicted to making guitars. 

Um, I have pretty much spent a fortune already on tools hahaha.  Especially since I'm basically putting together my own body blanks and am going to get into laminated necks.  haha.

I just finished my first build and boy what an experience it has been!

It's all using reclaimed wood which I first had to joint, plane and glue up.  I found a bunch of cedar and so I used that for the body.  Then there was an old Oak headboard that I used part of for the neck.

It's obviously a Tele style guitar so a 25.5" scale.  I wanted to reproduce a Fender Tele that I have so I could sell it.  They sound REALLY similar so I put the Fender on sale today. 
I did build the pickups.  The neck is 8.3K and the Bridge is 9.5K (the Fender actually had HOTTER pickups!)

I used my favorite Fender-licensed locking tuners.

Bloodwood Fretboard and Oak Dot inlay.  Rolled fretboard.

The neck was lightly burned after I shaped and sanded and finished with Tru Oil.  Body is finished with Wipe On Poly and finished with a light coating of wax.  I also had to make my own scratch plate; my dimensions are slightly different from standard.

37 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

In my opinion the only viable way to have a dust collector in a hand held router would be a hose coming from up above (from the ceiling) with some sort of a locking mechanism. A stiff hose on the table - or worse, hanging off the table and grabbing the edge - is something that very effectively can make you lose the precise control of the tool and in the worst cases ruin your workpiece.

 Nah. It's not as bad as you might think. I didn't have any problem Keeping control. And actually the hose I'm using is a little heavy.  The things I am routing are things like pick up cavities so it doesn't require a lot of movement. So you just hang the hose off the edge of the table and go to work.

For an especially deep cavity, it beats having to cleanup afterwards!

I will say that I did pick up the Dewalt, and tried it using a pickup template - I have to say I'm very happy with being able to see what I'm doing more clearly, and it's obviously not as unweildy as the bigger Triton.  I still see myself using the Triton from time to time (currently it has a fence that enables me to very easily cut truss rod pockets), but I'll probably be using the Dewalt for most of my hand routing, and the Triton for table routing.

The Dewalt DID come with a dust collection accessory that is again EXTREMELY difficult to fit with a connector to a hose.  I managed to fabricate something from a set of Universal Ports I purchased from Amazon, so I have it working - but I think manufacturers need to spend more time either 1) providing adapters, or 2) making sure their ports fit standard sized hoses.

So this is a thing, when I 1st took that measurement I hadn't magnetized the pick up yet. So I took the reading and figured it was good. Well I magnetized it and then I waxed potted it and then then decided to take another measurement for giggles.  So what was 9.6 so I think this estimator is OK. Maybe a little off but not as bad as I was thinking.

Apparently a magnetic field can affect the resistance and I did not know that.

Well this is a little frustrating. As you can see by the photos I did everything I was supposed to do and actually measured my bobbin with calipers and entered the correct dimensions. I even went slightly above "Tight scatter" which is kind of what I figured I was doing, I may have to go to loose machine?

It looks like I can almost fit another 1500 winds on there however.  I may just do that!!  Not sure how this guy developed that chart, but my experience at this point is shaky with it.