Prostheta

There is something unearthly weird about looking at a picture of two monitors on my monitor. I've whittled my setup down somewhat as I really don't need a load of equipment any more. I would rather work quickly with the minimum of equipment to get ideas out quickly, and pay a studio to do the pro work based on the scratch work. - Yamaha 01x mLAN digital mixing studio desk - Various mics - Toontrack Drumkit From Hell 2 - EZ-drummer with the DFH expansion - Cakewalk SONAR - Oodles of metal

This wasn't posted in a sarcastic manner Erik, more as a distillation of quite a large heavy reading post!

Argh....i've been having a crisis for the last half an hour as to whether or not to buy a bending iron....gah....!!

Thanks everyone - I think that cocobolo seems to be the wood of choice, firstly because I love the stuff and being dark I should be able to get away with mitring as suggested. I'd better get ordering the wood then! As much as i'd love to buy a bending iron, it seems a little overkill for this application. Perhaps a variable heat soldering iron will work given that the bends are fairly small and tight, and the more sweeping curves can be fluffed using perhaps an iron or something....total DIY nightmare on the horizon...!!

Wow. That is truly crazydiculous!! Amazing result sir. How does it weigh now?

I keep a jar of binding scrap melted in acetone which I have used for filler, so I presume it might be possible to use it as "glue" also....

The information attached to the bending iron sold by Stewmac seems good reference: http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/I-0689.html So Indian Rosewood is easy and Brazilian Rosewood difficult....I wonder how this figures with Cocobolo Rosewood! I think i'll thickness sand a piece of scrap cocobolo in the workshop and do some experimenting on it with the soldering iron....

My current build is a camphor burl topped mahogany Warwick vampyre-style instrument, and i've decided to bind it, body neck and headstock. As you do. After a couple of attempts at figured maple, and laminated ABS i've made a U-turn as I wasn't happy with the finish of either. Neither were perfect and I wasn't 100% happy with the way they were turning out. Out came the router and off came the existing binding. I'm about to purchase a few runs of wooden binding and was wanting a bit more information on which woods are more "forgiving" when it comes to steaming and heat forming for tighter curves. Obviously fibres will only compress/expand to a certain point, but given a bit of care and patience I believe I can make it work. Now, the woods i'm considering are: - Cocobolo (i love the way it looks when polished up) - Figured Walnut (ummm...splintery and easy to fracture like the flame maple I used first of all?) - Ziricote - Lacewood I suspect the best of the four would be lacewood as a gut feeling - with a black purfling line this would probably suit the camphor burl nicely also....

By the time you get to around 10° the edge is fairly long anyway and passes happily over gaps of 1-1/2" unless you have a very thin pair of neck blanks! 17° might be too short however....

I tried that exact same method Perry, but found that the chipout on the thinnest leading edge was unsatisfactory and the old router/handplane technique prevailed! Still, good to produce a "coarse" stage from which you improve it to a "fine" result which is ready to glue up. The only way I thought of to reduce chipout was to clamp a safety piece of wood on the trailing edge as support.

I wouldn't associate with him either. After a couple of beers he gets more than a little bothersome :-D

Well... duh! It is interesting to note that there are two spikes in the age groups so far. I'm guessing the older group is having a 2nd childhood. Apparently, proof of: "Live fast, die young" "Or die trying, perhaps after tolerance of fifty or so"

Of course....I forgot where I saw the zero fret instruments on here - thanks for reminding me!

Indeed! Enjoy making sawdust and let the instrument make music!

That flows a lot better. If you look at the centre of yours, it is basically square! The one you posted becomes more slight from back to neck, and the corners work with each other and flow. If it were mine, I would be tempted to split it centrally and remove a wedge shaped piece from the centre to make the neck side less wide so it tapers, before rejointing and glueing.

I'm considering trying a zero fret in a future bass build, but have not experience with them at all really. The main reason I want to use one is to even out the tone between open notes and fretted notes. A very simple intention. A few things have come to mind before I jump in here. Firstly, what kind of pressure should the string have on a zero fret? If the headstock is angled, should the string break over the fret by a few degrees, run over the nut and continue as normal or should it have a slight pressure similar to a fretted note? I can perceive arguments on both sides of the fence, neither of which I can agree more with. Personal preference, or a real difference? I'm wondering how string angle/pressure over a zero fret will affect tonality and also how it will affect string bending (remember....bass build here). Your opinions and ideas on zero frets are appreciated in advance.

Will - sorry to hear you're kicking the game mate. The wood you sent me has all gone to cherished projects and you will be missed. Would it be too much to ask as to why you're deciding to close shop?

I think as far as mahogany goes, it is personal preference as to how you start the oiling. I found that the black CA I use is great as a grain filler and when finish sanded prevents you from going through a few tons of oil!

I had a problem keeping the oils from the padauk from being lifted by cloths soaked with acetone. I think sealing the maple off with shellac was recommended to me although this will sand straight off in your case! Perhaps masking off the maple when you get to higher grit sanding, and using a foam sanding pad instead, so you don't remove the tape?

I believe it depends on where you want the adjustment to "come in" as the rod will exert pressure centred on a certain point on the neck, from and to the end points of the rod. I believe that the location of where the neck meets the body (adjustment ends) comes into play somewhat also. I think the overall differences are fairly miniscule as long as the rod has more control over your neck than vice versa....! If i'm thinking correctly, the ends of the rod should like just before the nut, and just over the heel/body-neck meeting point? Can anyone give us a quick pointer or two on this as i'm using sense which doesn't always mean i'm correct! :-D

Indeed. I'm in the process of building a 30" scale instrument for which I am using a 21" rod. The adjustment length i've calculated correlates with Perry's recommendation and i'd put my money on it working out. Which I have done by committing. But anyway! 18" sounds reasonable. Any indications on what body shape you want to build, fretboard length, etc?

Mr Bungle did it better. Nice bass, but a totally different style to what I like....the moving line underneath at the bass end is very nice though!

So guys, ugly guitars....? Anyone?

So...yeah anyway It looks as ugly as a butt. Presuming an ugly butt is available for comparison of course.

I'm going to do some reading and searching on bending binding well. I'll refine the technique before I commit to the build!