GGW

Very nice. How do you get the black lines?

I was just in a guitar shop earlier today and saw inlays outlined in black lines (can't remember the the guitar) and thought how nice it lokked.

That superglue finish is very interesting. Can you provide any more details? How do you actually apply it? How is it's longevity?

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I read a book that suggested rubbing chalk across the etched lines. I used this method on my MOP inlay on ebony and it worked real well. Easy to see and easy to remove.

Thanks everyone. I wasn't understanding how the circuit worked. I was thinking it was more of a power on indicator. That seems to be more the way I'd want it to work. I just find it a bit strange to have a light on your guitar that is always off. The circuit from PSW looks good and thanks lovecraft; I'll look into building one of these as well.

I ran across a circuit that looks like a good idea. It's a LED that lets you know when your battery is loosing power to your active pickup system.

LoBat

I've checked around and can't find an equivalent DIY circuit. Shouldn't this be fairly a simple design of dropping the voltage across a resister to just above the trigger voltage? I'm not sure what the intregrated circuit is doing there and why they claim their circuit uses so much less power; they still have to light the LED, right?

I found a good supplier here:

http://www.fastener-express.com/index.asp?...mp;Category=266

I've done something similar to a nitro finished neck and it is great. The woodworking "master" I've trained with believes that you should always use a goss finish and then buff it if you want a matt look and feel. The reason is that the matt finishes are made by adding particles that obscure the wood. The gloss finish is clear. In his mind scuffing the gloss finish is the way to go.

As a further recomendation, you might want to try ScotchBrite. The grey one is equivalent to steel wool. It doesn't leave any fibres behind, as discussed, and I think it is more consistant. I've tries steelwool and it seems there is always one fibre that creates a scratch. I also don't think you should start with sandpaper. Try the steelwool/scotchbrite and if it is not enough, you can go back to a coarser grade of sandpaper, maybe 1000-1500. If you want it finer, there is a white scotchbrite.

Scotchbrite Pads

Try:

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/capac.htm

"Are you kidding me? With the vintage market spiralling into insanity these days, it's probably worth $10,000 if it can be validated in any way."

It is actually probably what it is claimed to be. This guy bought the guitar in this condition back in the late 70's from a guy who made a guitar out of what was left of some damaged ones. This was long before there was any sort of "vintage" market on people's minds. I met him in the mid 80's when we started to jam. When I learned a bit more about old guitars, I discussed it with him and he said that he was was aware of the implications. Due to the mix of parts and the fact that the finish job is kind of amaturish, he's been told that it is not in the top catagory however. He first became aware of what he had when he took it to a tech in the early 80's to see about upgrading the pickups and was told that the electronics were of that era and that he should leave this one as is and buy another guitar if he wanted different pickups. Sometimes it seems like people are getting carried away with hype about the old guitars, but when I first heard it I could hear a very nice bell like tone that I haven't heard anywhere else. He plays it fairly clean through a Fender Super 60 amp.

Around the same time, in the 80's, a guy I worked with and I were talking guitars. He was just starting to learn and brought in a guitar he had bought used from a neighbour. It was a Strat from the late 60's - early 70's that a relative had bought and never played. It sat under a bed until this time. These things do happen but I think they've all been gotten to by now.

Does anyone know what type of ash the old Fenders were made of? I ask because a friend of mine has a Strat that he bought as a kind of "fixed up" guitar. The body is supposed to be from about 1960 and the neck from another guitar of about 1961. The body has been striped down and finished clear. Probably not much vintage value left, but the guitar sounds fantastic. Anyway, through the clear finish I see a wood that has to be ash and it looks like northern to me. The guitar is quite heavy.

I have a Mode supply catalog that shows the internals of this jack. You should be able to see the diagram here:

http://www.mode-elec.com/index.php?search=...amp;go_btn.y=13

Thats a nice looking guitar. Do you know if that is a veneered top or actual solid Ash soundboard? Sometimes it is hard to tell with the electric/acoustics.

Peace,Rich

I don't know anything more about it than what is in the picture. I'm curious if anyone has seen ash that looks like this. Maybe it is a veneer?

Does This Site have what you are after? (About 2/3 way down - "Coil Split With a Twist")

It appears that the Hipshot site has been changed. The number referres to the thickness of the baseplate as others have already confirmed. The site used to link to diagrams that gave very exact dimensioning of the bridges. I can't find any of that info at the new site.

I got the one with the thicker plate. I like the bridge, but strings kept breaking at the saddle. I tried gentle filing and very fine grades of sandpaper but I could not get it to settle down. I replaced the saddles with Graphtech ones and haven't had a problem since. Why would that be?

I picked up a brochure of some Ibanez acoustic guitars lately and there's some very nice photos of ash guitar models. Here's a link to one:

Figured Ash

DRAK - when looking from the bottom of the guitar up, you'll see the left half figure, but the right half will look sort of dead, and then when you look from the top of the guitar down, the right half will explode with figure and chatoyance, but the left half will look dead.

I'd appreaciate a bit more explanation on this. I've just finished my first build and one thing I notice is that, on my three piece maple laminated neck, two laminations catch the figure one way and the other goes the other way. I'd like to understand this so in the future I can have a way to read the wood grain and control this. My theory was that it must be to do with the angle the wood cells approach the surface? If this was true, then you should be able to read it by looking at the edge of the pieces and getting them all the same way. Your description of the bookmatched top seems to suggest something else. If you look from the bottom (the strap button end toward the neck, right?) they should read the same in my theory. The top bookmatch would look different than the bottom if viewed straight on, with the guitar level as being played. What am i missing?

Have you tried taking one of those pickups you like and holding it over the strings of an electric to see if it gives the sound you want? If not, you might be hoping for a sound you cannot get with a solid body electric.

I've tried it and it's got the general sound. My plan was to see if I can construct a hollow/chambered guitar with electric pickups that will sound as acoustic as possible. The sound hole pickups seem to be either single coils or humbucking, but the coil resistances and shapes vary between models so I'm having trouble deturmining if they are one of the standard pickup comfigurations in a different package or something else.

I'm looking for an electric guitar pickup that will sound like a magnetic acoustic sound hole pickup. I've had a Dean Markely sound hole pickup and heard others and like the sound. I'd like to experiement with putting this type of pickup in an electric guitar but I'm not sure what electric guitar packaged pickups have the same qualities.

I've considered a lipstick style, only because of the descrition at WD Music for the Kent Armstrong:

WD Music

I'm also looking at the EMG-FT because they show it in a mount for a bouzouki:

EMG-B

Any comments on these or other ideas?

I've also looked at the sound hole pickups but don't see one that could be mounted in a solid body guitar and look like it was meant to be there.