cknowles

Here's Blackie being done by Fender

Oh to be humble rich and famous and to own both of these!!

Drooollll

This guitar belongs to my brother in law. His Mom gave it to him around 1980 or so.

Gibson-ish headstock though not angled.

Bigsby style trem, only works to raise tuning.

"Zero" fret

Bolt on neck

Single coil pickups

Floating tune-o-matic style bridge plastic bridge pieces.

two volume two tone and 3-way switch.

Made In Japan imprinted on the neck mounting plate.

No other manufacturers marks

Reminds me of a Gibson ES or Gretch Country Gentleman from the '60's.

More detailed pictures at My Webpage

Double check your wiring to ensure that you haven't got any ground loops.

An incorrectly wired pup may also cause the buzz you're refering to.

Very cool!

You're an awesome Dad Dude!

At long last, I've got some sound clips of my Saga Les Paul.

Personally I think the stock pups are at least acceptible.

Neck Pickup Clean

Bridge Pickup Clean

Both Pickups Clean

The following clips are through my DigiTech RP250 processor.

Dirty

Mucho Reverb

Floyd with Reverb

Jazzy Chorus

What a beautiful Guitar!!!

Excellent work, I"m jealous!

I don't know enough about the saga lp to know how it is supposed to fit together, but don't assume it is the same as a gibson. You could always try shimming the neck to change the angle in order to set the bridge lower. It's easier than routing, and far more reversible!

Those more experienced than me may have better ideas.

Thanks again, it's one thing to understand these things in theory, a totally other story altogether when

putting them into practice. I've read about string condition and neck angle affecting tuning, but didn't

really understand...now I have a better idea.

I've taken your suggestions seriously.

New strings - somewhat better

Shimmed the neck to change the neck angle, 1/2 of a business card under the edge of the body at the neck

to tilt the neck back. Made all the difference. String action is now at 1/16" with no buz anywhere on any string

over the full neck length. Bridge and tailpiece are now nice and low.

I also discovered that my frets seem to either be pretty tall, or else my acoustic playing style puts too

much tension into the string, I can make everything go sharp just by squeezing. Frets haven't been dressed yet

so that's next, along with replacement of the wiring and adding additional shielding.

Thanks again RGman and "another doug".

I'm learning, and even better having a ton of fun!

Wow, thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

Yes, .008 my typo (Grin) Bridge adjusted for intomation.

Nut adjusted to fix major tuning issues. Stock nut made the note 1/4 tone sharp.

I used the tutorials at Project Guitar

Your comment about the extra downward pressure makes sense. This isn't a high quality

bridge after all.

I've been doing some more research to find out about the tailpiece/stopbar adjustment.

So far I've acquired the following information (tho I'm not sure of the veracity of all of it):

1. tailpiece/stopbar should not be adjusted so low that strings come in contact with the bridge housing

this will cause string breakage.

2. While there's no general rule for tailpiece height, 1/4-3/8" above the body is in the ballpark.

3. Tailpiece adjustment changes the break angle of the strings over the bridge, and the "feel" of the strings

4. According to Gibson USA

"Adjustable Stopbar Tailpiece. The stopbar tailpiece may be adjusted up

or down to change the downward pressure across the bridge. There is

usually no need to adjust the stopbar unless the strings are moving

out of the saddles, in which case the stopbar should be lowered."

5. I can't wait for that Melvyn Hiscock book to come so I can stop being a pest here

So far I've tuned the nut so that tuning is almost perfect up the entire neck.

There were 2 frets that were slightly high, and I found that they weren't quite seated

into the fret board, so I carefully pressed them in the rest of the way and all the

frets test level. I have .08" clearance between the 6th string and first fret when

pressing the string down on the 3rd.

To answer your question, the tuning with the tailpiece mounted high is spot on.

Lower the tailpoece then retune and the tuning is spot on at the 12th fret, going sharp as I go down the

neck towards the nut. I can't lower the strings any more at the nut without bottoming out on the frets.

That's what has me baffled.

Before I route the neck pocket, is the fretboard supposed to be raised from the body, or touching it?

I think I understand.

If I adjust the tailpiece toward the body, I increase string tension and the strings go sharp.

When I retune to a concert pitch, everything should be back to normal.

Intonation at the 12th fret is bang on, however the string tension is still greater since

I've increased the overall length of the string, therefore tuning at lower frets will be out.

Is this correct?

After looking closer at my kit, I am of the impression that the neck pocket is slightly shallow

though the neck angle appears OK. To compensate the bridge and tail piece sit about 1/8" higher

than examples of factory guitars that I've looked at.

At this point I have 2 choices, leave the neck alone and live with the bridge and tailpiece sitting

slightly high, or re-rout the neck joint to make it fit more closely. 3rd option is to build my own

guiter using the kit as a template.

This may be obvious to the experienced builders out there, but it has me baffled.

I've installed the tunematic bridge and tailpiece on my LP copy, and when I set the tailpiece

down real low, my tuning goes out. Intonation is consistent at the 12th fret, the strings are

close but not touching at the first fret with the string depressed at the third fret. Problem is

that the third fret note is about 30 cents high. When I raise the tailpiece to about 1/4" off the

body then retune, the tuning is spot on with no intonation issues at all over the complete

length of the fretboard.

Looking at it mechanically I can't understand any reason for tailpiece placement to affect tuning at all.

The string length between the nut and bridge is unchanged. Bridge height is also untouched.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Chris

Here's my guitar Crick

Well Here it is, finished today.

Headstock and MOP Logo

Clear shot of neck

Full back shot

Sound clips to come.....

Try Leevalley http://www.leevalley.com/home.aspx

Click on the hardware link at the top.

I've bought case latches from them for several of my projects

Pick/scratch guards are easy even with simple tools.

here's mine for my LP copy.

I made my own plywood out of curly maple with mahogany core.

If you're going to do this it always helps to make several so that you can become one with the experience.

You can spend several hours sanding and carving to shape it right, then more time on it making the bevel perfect. Then put a really smooth coat of nitro on it let it sit over night then the next day set it on the

guitar to see how it looks, then realize the bevel is slanted the wrong way!

I did this. So if anyone wants a really nice "LEFTY" LP scratch guard......

Pretty cool stuff here.

I was wondering if you've already got your wiring done? Or is this a theoretical discussion?

If 2 HB's are wired similar to Les Paul, the volume pots can be wired to operate independantly

when the pickup switch is in the center position. This gives you the blending option without

altering the outward appearance of the guitar.

Wiring examples are available at GuitarElectronics.com

Standard LP style wiring

Alternate Wiring

Drill press with depth stop adjustment and brad point bits?

What have you got to lose by trying it?

The worst you can do to a piece of wood is to turn it into food for the fire pit.

It appears that the grain on the sides of the guitar appears to be natural. How many pieces of basswood can you count on the back?

I lost count at 5 pieces,

Can someone remind me; A word or name cannot be copyrighted, is that correct?

Gibson is a trademark, and is protected as a company name, and they can protect their designs,

but a word like Firebird is fair game. Or am I out to lunch?

Found my Answer, a name get's Trademarked.

Eg, GM recently renewed it's application for trademark of the name "Firebird"

That means that no-one else in the industry can use Firebird when competing with GM.

Similar Gibson's Firebird.

You aren't mass producing "Firebird" Guitars are you?

I think you're safe to call it what you like.

Gibson alraedy has a Firebird

Ok, how about Camaro?

Buwahahaha I couldn't resist!

Where I accidentally sanded through the maple veneer on my SAGA LP, I found Basswood.

Looking that the control cavities, I'd say they used some kind of rotary saw or really badly worn router

because of the lines left behind.

Where there's grain showing I'd say it's the veneer or basswood.

IN hidden areas where it won't be seen I'm content to believe that it's MDF.

For all intents and purposes, MDF is just really dense cardboard.

Again with the shielding paint, it is really hard to tell what is inside there, though

no-one will ever know once I've got it all together.

The carved top on a Saga LP kit is laminated paper, not wood.

That would explain the weight!

Brian put sheilding paint in for me when I ordered my SAGA throug Universal Gems.

So I can't see what the material is behind it without removing the sheilding.

Regardless, I'm still having fun, and getting more inspired to build my own real one.

Here's a view inside the neck pocket.

Looks like basswood in this shot.

However, looking at Universal Jems website you can see that they definitely used something

different at another time.

Absolutely.

This guitar is my personal guitar (ie not for sale) because it's pretty crappy. If you notice the unstained edge has stain bleed and is uneven. Also there is a ding on the top of the headstock. Also the finish has many tiny air bubbles in it that you can barley see. The reason for these problems is I used an auto body shop to spray on the finish (I did all the sand/buff) and the guitar has been refinished twice. The last time the sealer (which I've never used before) let the stain bleed through. I tried to sand it away but it diddn't seem to go away (real deep? I'm unsure of the cause). The reason I don't -fix- these problems is time. I'm working on too many things that are more important right now, so this one will just stay with these cosmetic problems until I get around to making it perfect.

@Russ, The cavity cover will be mahogany yes.

Keep with it Godin.

These problems will only make you better at finishes.

I've had my fare share of sanding back to bare wood on other non-guitar projects. I share your pain, however

you've already gotten to a finer state of the art than most other 16 year olds.