Prostheta

That defect looks like a knot crack from drying. I'd be concerned that surrounding non-straight grain will provide a shorter path through the workpiece for additional fractures, or indicate the potential presence of stresses within the material. When you start removing large amounts of stock, keep checking your flat reference faces and let the wood sit between major operations. A warp expressing itself out of internal stresses being released can result in a neck blank that won't work as intended in service. Something to be aware of before you get too invested in any specific workpiece.

A few things that I would change, based on having spent time with the dry-built instruments.

• The tremolo cavity could be fined-tuned. The area behind the tremolo where the string lock screws site could be reduced from 15mm to 10mm depth. This should look far better once it has been felted.
• The neck pickup could be moved closer to the end of the fretboard, if only for a slightly fatter tone.
• Inlay on a Maple board should never be done with CA glue. Ugh.
• As much as the bolt-holes on the back of the neck for the locking nut just look cool as a technical feat, they're a PITA.
• Always buy your tuners in OEM packaging; the black Gotoh tuners for Invaders from G&W came missing a washer which pissed me off.

Hi Andy! Its been a while. Yes, these pickups were a more than pleasant surprise. It'll take a good amount of time to feel my way around what they are truly best at, what they fall short of or simply fail to achieve, but at this stage they are very impressive. The main point for me is that they are noiseless. I run mine on 18v which is unnecessary with Fluence pickups, however it will open up the EMGs in Invaders very well.

The only thing that I think is a limitation is that there isn't a huge range of tonal options as with passives. If Fishman extended the range of Fluence pickups out beyond the classic, moderns and artist sigs, they would probably capture a great deal of the market. At the moment, having the option of a PAF and Distortion-esque in the bridge covers a lot of ground. I might have to try the moderns at some point.

It's the same with all things. A small fix here and there causes everything to get called into question. There's no reason not to do this though, however I would be tempted to suggest hitting the playability mark before investing more time and resources.

Nah, no use to me and I wouldn't like the cut in between positions.

I'm currently looking at illuminated arcade buttons and whether I can mod a couple for Invaders. One for the volume pot, raising the button out enough to make it rotatable by hand, or a latching kill switch. Similar idea for the tone pot, but a latching tone switch for the neck. I usually dial it all the way off, so a fixed resistor/capacitor LPF or even a preset resistor/capacitor switched in/out would do the trick.

No, absolutely not. The simpler and more player-focused, the better. All I want out of guitars these days is that they play well and sound good. This one certainly hits that mark. If the 3-way switch could be made into a 2-way, that would be even better but I have to live with that middle position....! Same as the tone control; I prefer it neck only rather than global. So far, Pearly is blowing me away for so many reasons. I'm certain that a lot of this is to do with those Fluence pickups, however the guitar feels very alive and responsive. The Maple board is contributing a lot of clarity.

I routed the electronics cavity specifically for this standard switch type. Freeway are rather bulky and provide more options than I can use I think. I've gravitated towards fewer controls as I get older, so I concentrate on playing instead of hunting in a sea of options. I just reconfigured my Helix so that my wahs disengage at the end of travel as well. Less is more, especially when it comes to my train of thought. I've become so dumb this year.

2 hours ago, mistermikev said:

well it looks real sharp.  at first I didn't even notice the invader behind... thought it was a shadow.  

is a sleek look w just the two knobs and 5 way... be a shame to break that up.  might consider some of those seymour switching pickup rings for alternative modes?  kind of spendy for what they do.  

anywho, lovely stuff.

Thanks man. I've never liked those SD rings. Switches can look cheap, however I use these:

https://www.banzaimusic.com/taiway-dpdt-on-on-flat-lever-gold.html

....since the appearance and gold colour plating ties in with the rest of the instrument. Not to mention that I am influenced by other instruments such as the Aria Pro II PE with their switches. Those were some sort of series/parallel and phase switches I believe.

None of that can be done here with Fluence. What I want to do is to eliminate voices that I know I won't find useful. I'm currently hard-wired into voice 2 for the bridge pickup ("hot rodded humbucker") and straight PAF for the neck. I haven't wired in the tone pot to the neck yet so I don't know the tonality as I use it. I'll probably ditch the whole "hollowbody" tone in the neck pickup, however I'll spend a few days with it to get an idea of how I feel. If I install one switch, it'll actuate perpendicularly to the pots and be sited in between. If I install two, they'll be as close as physically possible, also sited between but actuating in parallel.

1 hour ago, henrim said:

Looking good.

In Finland you can get them for example from Musamaailma. Not the cheapest option of course. Although if you just need one or two I guess it's not that bad. Obviously you can always make your own with standard pin header connectors.

Fantastic. Still probably cheaper than EMG. Fired an email to Musamaailma in Turku to check on stock of premade. Just less of a ballache than crimping.

Okay, so let's have a brief update on the details that I've been working out with these guitars.

At this point, Pearly is built and set up for examining how well she plays. The neck profile will be refined based on how the entire neck feels as a combination of neck profile and fret height. This will probably differ with Invaders since that has slightly shallower fretwork.

The electronics for the Fishman Fluence Classis in Pearly may change. Currently since it's in testing, I wanted to get an idea for how usable the modes are within the pickups. I'd prefer not to have to build in switching if it really isn't necessary, especially for the neck pickup "hollowbody" tone. If this switching does get built in, I also want to identify whether I want separate switching for each pickup, global voice 1/voice 1 switching or other combination with the single coil modes. Similarly, I'm not really a push-pull guy and prefer using larger 24mm pots in my electronics than mini pots. This will possibly mean adding one or two gold paddle toggle switches between the vol/tone controls.

Invaders is needing me to find some EMG interconnect wires to hook up the pickups so I can start testing that neck also. That has a pair of 24mm pots fitted, and is set up for 18v operation rather than 9v. Controls here will be simpler, just the usual 3-way vol/neck tone that I have with all of my guitars.

I'm really pleased with the tone and noise reduction of these Fluence Classics in Pearly, and amazed at how well she already plays. The neck is beefier than my #1 Ibanez by design, and other than a little squarity (I hope people are using that word already....) in the profile, it's very good in the hand and places the fingers well. It feels more ergonomic than the flat Wizard of my #1. The fretwork plays cleanly with only a slight adjustment needed with one low fret on the high end at 20th. The locking nut also needs a shim adding to eliminate minimal sitaring over the first fret with the D string. The action is consistent and low. Really really cool. The Gotoh GE1995-T tremolo is pleasing, even if I had a few initial problems getting the string blocks to grab strings fully at first. The arm mounting is perfect, at least at this stage. I love that the arm can be locked in with the bolt at the rear and tightened from swinging using a tiny Allen adjuster. How this works over time, we'll see. Tuning stability doesn't appear to be 100% perfect, but that may be a setup issue that I need to learn with use. This being said, specifically abusing the tremolo beyond what one normally uses during normal play doesn't throw it way out of whack and enough to bring it back in with the fine tuners. The three springs at the back are surprisingly noisy, so I guess I'm going to try foam or shrink tubing to see how this changes things.

Paint is going to be the tricky part to get past the end post. If it weren't for the work that the binding presents, I could possibly outsource this to an external painter, however I absolutely need the binding to be perfect. Unsure if I mentioned this before, however I've seen Toyota's Blizzard Pearl in person, and I think that is the correct choice over the Porsche Pearl White.

I'd go as far as saying that Pearly already exceeds my #1 in playability, feel and just that hookup that you get with an instrument. I'm definitely sold on Fluence pickups, that's for sure. Depending on how I develop with Invaders, the longer term goal there may be to swap out the EMGs for Fluence Moderns however I would probably need to learn to hate the EMGs for some reason. I don't at the moment in my Explorers, so this is unlikely.

2 hours ago, JGTay said:

Really sorry to hear about your struggles, hope things are getting easier. Talking helps, friends and family are a great resource.

Projects keep your mind busy.

SAD lights help for the winter months, a couple in your workshop will help. 

Thanks man. I'm actually volunteering some of my spare time improving English language skills to Ukrainian learners online at the moment which is a positive pursuit. Projects do keep one busy, definitely. It's likely a cloud that needs to pass, and I'm sure that it will. I don't think I have that many difficulties with light like some, so just vit D supplements and routine I think.

2 hours ago, henrim said:

I have thought that if I need to level the frets I have done a bad job installing them. Obviously that is a bit extreme but on my latest two necks I have been more careful than before and there has been a lot less levelling. I have done a very slight bevel and pressed the frets in. Huge improvement compared to my previous necks. Although I beveled the slots on the two single cuts too, but I hammered the frets in. 

It's a combination of factors, however for my own part I figured that pressing frets is more consistent than hammering them in. I modified a Bessey ratchet clamp for this, and "two clicks" is enough pressure to seat the fret. Anything more and the wire can mash itself into the wood. I started bevelling fret slots when I learnt that the drawing methods of fretwire often leaves a small fillet between the tang and the underside of the crown. Jescar wire seems sharper in this transition than say, Dunlop. Still, the bevel is also useful should it ever become necessary to refret the board also as it reduces surface chipout. At least, it has done whenever I've had to remove a fret to replace it. Not sure about the "years later" side yet. By far, the biggest improvement was ensuring the fingerboard surface was perfect. Every bit of effort there reduces the amount of metal needing to be removed from the frets.

Hi everyone. I've been taking a mental health break recently, as everything is somewhat less than easy this end of things. Everything is fine, however financial requirements, difficulty in focus, motivation and general enthusiasm has been an uphill struggle. Oh yay, winter darkness starting too. 

So I've not had that much chance to truly advance these two guitars beyond scraping together money here and there to buy all of the expensive bits like tremolo systems, tuners, pickups, etc. We're almost there aside from a few small items like pots and paint for the bodies.

Both necks are having their final profiles tuned, mostly the transition from the neck contour to the heel. The sharp transition of the heel translates to a corresponding neat finish for the neck also.

For the moment, this is a peek at levelling the EVO wire on Pearly's neck. After bevelling the edges using a block with a file set at 30 degrees, I rolled the fret ends with a needle file, taped off the fingerboard and marked up the frets with a Sharpie. Running a simple flat hand file down the length top to bottom knocks off the marker, revealing any low frets. This board has been absolute magic in that the first swipe showed a nice level board from the get go. Mostly I put this down to pressing the frets with even pressure, cleaning and bevelling the fret slots prior to fretting, and meticulous work ensuring that the fingerboard has no bumps or dips. That since factor usually translates to good fretwork of itself!

The light line along the fingerboard edge is cheap white painter's tape, not the binding! I have blue tape on a desktop sellotape dispenser and use that for the important masking work. The next step is to replace the Sharpie lines and use a crowning file to leave the smallest line possible across the top of each fret. A quick sanding with a fine sponge before aluminium oxide polishing with a Dremel and we're golden. Literally.

That colour isn't too far off a cream that I have seen from (I think) StewMac. I have some around somewhere (not enough for an instrument though) and it's more like a peachy-pink cream tone. Very weird. I've never seen orange, however being ABS it isn't unfeasible to buy and cut your own from a sheet.

Sorry for the slow response. Only just saw this in my notifications. It's a question of the material you're cutting and the size of the end mill. Single flute endmills evacuate the most material since the flute gullet will be larger, however there is plenty of chance of asymmetrical tool pressure within a cut, plus the cutting is less efficient in terms of cuts by distance. Three flute endmills will be the most even in tool pressure (to a point) but cannot evacuate larger chips as efficiently, leading to slower feed or spindle speed being required, plus a greater degree of recutting waste and heat in the cut. Sizewise, smaller endmills are less precisely made, especially less than 0,5mm diameter.

For the price that most endmills cost, it's worth getting in a few examples of each option so that you can develop a feel for the differences. Your CNC's capabilities, the material properties and milling approach may favour one over another. I don't believe that a single answer would be appropriate one way or another, mostly because it doesn't help develop a strong basis of knowledge. FWIW, my last fingerboard inlaying and slotting job used 0,5mm single flute mills which I drove way too conservatively.

No worries. Start a thread documenting your process, @ me in and start a discussion. It both helps others understand the process and also provides an opportunity for others to weigh in and help you through to the result you need.

Zombie thread! I would say that it depends on your CNC. If your spindle has significant runout or there is flex in the cutter, that 0,027" cutter might end up cutting a much wider slot than you want. A hair over the tang width is fine, so 0,027" would be correct in theory. In reality, I would consider having one or two finer cutters in case your spindle does want to cut wider than the endmill actually is. You'll probably find that if this is the case, you'll have a larger incidence of breakage from asymmetrical load.

Do tests and establish what you're able to achieve, and that should help you develop a working strategy.

Not just that, but a drop top also. A lot of people don't realise how much of a ballache that task is, even with a binding router jig. Dave's achievement here even in this one single aspect is something that deserves greater acknowledgement.

Agreed. Conceptually, the instrument is consistent and well thought-out. The tuner choice works with the headstock with enough minimalism to make sense, with a balance of detail such as the oval baseplates against a relatively straight-sided headstock shape. Everything works very nicely.

Feels like last year.

It's feasible. I wouldn't bother feathering as sharp transition is fine. I wouldn't put oil over shellac myself as it defeats the purpose somewhat.

I do a similar thing with Tru-Oil in that I scuff a finished surface with grey Scotchbrite/Mirlon with a little oil. It's enough of a non-dry scuffing that it leaves a nice warm and fast-feeling surface. The best thing is that finishes like these can be repaired and renovated ad infinitum.

It depends on whether you want to relic the finish or not. I made an Ash VH1 Franky and simulated both the heavily-stained and oxidised wood, plus the layers of what look like what as used to seal it. In my case I used shellac because it's easy to work with. Find out what wood it is first I guess.

Wax should be buffed until it is almost "gone" from the surface. It leaves a residue of course, but anything that is of the order of a film is too much. Grease it up, wipe it back till the clothes come back clean.

I went through a period of practicing shellac finishes using everything from pumice to abrade and fill the surface (this was difficult as pumice abraded the cotton pad, leaving fibres in the finish) through to full French polishing, stretching, etc. What I did learn is that it's a good way to seal a wood for subsequent finishes, so nitro or whatever over the top is a good move. I moved into harder sealer coats since then, epoxy finishing resin. Shellac needs a lot of work to build and tends to shrink back easily with it being reflowable and somewhat plastic.

Cutting back shellac and waxing is also a good way forward. Perfect for a silky satin finish that leaves you more in touch with the wood (sort of). It's not always the best playing surface, and wax tends to makes subsequent repairs more difficult. Not sure if shellac is more forgiving in that respect, but I shy away from waxes unless its the end goal.

Set neck instruments are hard, or at least, harder than set neck or bolt-on construction. They are definitely all different in sound, but not so much that I don't enjoy playing any of them or get something out of one that another doesn't still provide. I do like neck-through for drone-y clean stuff, and always wanted a 12-string like that.

I'd say that unless the wood is something very specific - such as Ash - then going for a softer, easier to finish and work with material would be the safest bet. @Bizman62's suggestions of Poplar/Aspen and Basswood are on the mark, however I'd add Alder to that also. None of these need any sort of grain filling, just a simple sealing and are very easy to work with.

Agreed, and done.