Jump to content

chennik

Established Member
  • Posts

    49
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by chennik

  1. This build reminds me very much of a guitar I got as a pawnshop find in Kentucky several years ago. Mine has a walnut neck and a Khaler Spyder trem, but otherwise very similar, and definitely not factory made. The tone is unreal, something about walnut in a strat body... best 80 bucks I ever spent!
  2. I have to agree. I got this book as a gift, and I read it cover to cover in a matter of 3 days. I think I've read it about once a year since. It's an incredible resource that keeps information on hand that you might not be able to keep in memory. I would go so far as to say this book is about as important to what we do as Melvyn Hiscocks book. Maybe not quite that much, but close.
  3. Osage Orange is very stable IF you find a good piece of it. The nature of the tree is pretty gnarly, it has multiple trunks, low crown, leans and curves in what trunk you do have, which means alot of reaction wood. I have a coworker that makes bows out of it, and he said that it's important to look closely at the grain, much as we would for anything else we would use in guitar building. Osage can have a pretty straight and clear grain by appearance, but if the tree gets a spiral growth pattern, you actually could have short grain running through say a piece that was perfectly quartersawn through the log. A well selected piece of Osage Orange will not steer you wrong though. It's incredibly durable.
  4. Does anyone have any experience with the HCZ/Dragonfire active pickups being sold on guitarpartsonline.com? They say they are a generic version of the EMG 81/85 at lower cost. I always stay away from EMGs because of cost, even though I like the tone (especially for hard rock and metal), they're just too expensive. I'm curious as to if these are worthwhile considering they're half the cost. If they're 80-90% the pickup and generally in the same ballpark soundwise, I'd be satisfied. I'm looking for anyone that can offer any experiences or opinions on them.
  5. I"ve got a neck that I'm going to do a full scallop on the fretboard, then i'm going to build a new body and use some leftover parts to finish it off. The one thing I'm missing is a bridge. I can't make up my mind to go with a floyd or a fixed bridge. This is basically going to be a shredding super strat, and the floyd suits that concept. The downside is that it's more expensive, more work, and I'm not sure if the floating bridge creates any problems when doing crazy scallop fb vibrato etc. I'm quite used to the fact that when you bend a string on a floyd the others go out of tune. I'm wondering if this is more of a problem on scallop boards, where you can vary the force you fret a note with much more effect than on a standard board. The fixed bridge would be less expensive and less work, in addition to being more stable should I do any of that crazy vibrato, string bends, with all the other strings being held constant. The problem is, I have only played on scalloped guitars a few times and I don't remeber how this worked. I am crazy for even asking this? I don't know, I'm hoping you guys can tell me. I'm on the fence now, but if I floyd is going to cause me more stability problems, I'm going fixed.
  6. I'm planning on building a neck through bass where I initially thought of doing a 3 laminate neck of maple walnut running down the center and a maple fretboard, But now I'd like to do the reverse, outer laminates of walnut with maple as the center laminate. I haven't seen a walnut neck on a bass that I can recall, and I'm wondering if there are any structural issues I should be worried about. Anyone thoughts? The other thing is, if I do this swap, i'm contemplating trying walnut for a fretboard. Other than having to grainfill and finish it, does anyone think it would or wouldn't work as a fretboard?
  7. Honestly, a low B really does not make much difference in setup other than it adds one string. I don't know of an online tutorial for setup, but this is what I generally do. 1. Eyeball the saddle locations for intonation first, usually high e is close to all the way foreward, low E/B is all the way back, everything else kinda tapers along that general line except the G. If anything, make the saddle a little extra flat, because it's easier to adjust sharp/forward w/ string tension on there. 2. get the springs connected to the bridge block and claw in the pattern you want 3. install the strings and do an approximate tune to pitch. You will do this many times in searching for equilibrium 4. Watch the bridge and how it sits... if it is level as you approach pitch, you're in good shape, if it sits low, back off the screws for the spring claw. If it sits high, tighten the screws or add springs. You will have to check pitch and adjust, many times in the search for equilibrium. 5. Once you reach equilibrium (where you are at correct pitch and the bridge sits level) you can adjust the action with the posts. Check pitch again every time you adjust. 6. Check the intonation. Reduce string tension to make the adjustment and then tune back to pitch. Do this one string at a time. 7. Once you are done, check everything again. The rule of physics "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" was written for floyd's. They are tedious to set up because every adjustment changes something else, but once you reach the equilibrium, they work very well and need little to no extra attention. When I do setup a floyd, I also make it a point to take the whole thing apart and clean it really well. They attract alot of gunk and oil and grime from your hands and such. I also lubricate everything, a light machine oil will work, but I prefer Militec which is a synthetic lubricant used for weapons. It generally bonds to the metal and you can wipe off the excess so there is enough to lubricate, but not enough to attract grime. I hope that helps.
  8. I would stay away from branches entirely when it comes to anything but mulch and firewood. Even if you took every precaution in the world when drying it, the boards would probably get up and walk away with as much movement as you would get. Unfortunately, the trunk is the only good place to get any lumber, and even at that, a very straight, upright trunk is best. I have a huge (probably 70') black walnut tree that's gotta come down, but the 40' long trunk has a slight "S" to it, and I'm worried about that being worth cutting up.
  9. Anybody ever use envirotex clear coat (in a spray can)? I just finished applying about 2 cans of Deft to the body of my current build, which is what I've always used and gotten satisfactory results. When purchasing the Deft though, I saw "envirotex" clear coat next to it on the shelf. I tried it on some scrap, and it seems to work pretty well... in fact, when sprayed on thick, the orange peel seems to level itself out. I'm not really sure about how it holds up or it's tonal properties. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this product? I'm contemplating it for my next build.
  10. Thanks for the input guys. Regarding pickup locations, The Stephen Carpenter ESP was the model that came to mind when I put the original post up. I've also seen the guitar players in Lacuna Coil play a similar model, and I've seen a few other folks play baritones with similar pickup locations. I need to think about what I want to do for scale length.. shortening it by a fret or two may be the answer.
  11. I've been kicking around the idea of building a baritone guitar for myself out of some parts I have lying around. The biggest thing is that I have a 30" scale slotted and radiused ebony board. I was going to use it on the bass I'm building for my wife, but I found some purpleheart thats the right dimensions, so she wants me to use that instead. So, what to do with this 30" scale board... of course think up another project that I dont have time for. Anyhow, I was thinking of doing a six string baritone... low string tuned to B or A. The design will be neck through and ebony board. I'm going to make the neck maple/walnut laminates, but I have a few questions about baritone construction, pickups, hardware and body wood. -Am I nuts to use a 30" scale? Is this too long without fanned frets or something to make it sound good across all strings? If need be I can cut off the last fret slot or two and get it shortened somewhat... -I'm looking for decent note definition in the tone, fairly bright with tight bottom end. For the body wood, I've got hard maple, ash, soft maple and walnut that I could use for the wings, but i'm not sure which of these is the best for what I'm going for. If this was a regular scale guitar, I'd probably use ash. What do you guys think? -I notice lots of baritones seem to have a neck pickup closer to where a middle pickup would go on a standard guitar, kinda where most 'neck' pickups are on basses. Are there any rules of thumb for this? I have the fb slotted to 30 frets, and I'd like to have some extended high end, without losing that traditional "neck pickup" sound. -Last question, Can I used a strat style hard tail bridge for a baritone? Will the intonation adjustment be sufficient? Reason is, I have one of these lying around, and that keeps the cost nice and affordable. I know that's alot of questions, but any advice you all can contribute is much appreciated.
  12. Cherry is great for bodies, it's the right strength, density, weight etc... it finishes excellent. The biggest reason you don't see it used by major manufacturers is because it's expensive (probably costs 4-5 times what alder,basswood or ash cost), and can be hard to get in the right dimensions. Because the majors dont use it, it hasnt really caught on. I have some that I'm going to use for body wings in a neck thru superstrat I'm planning on building though I havent used it yet myself. I have talked to the local luthier about it, and he's used it a few times. He said tonally it varies, but it's always been good tone. He said it varies from "bright mahogany" to "sweet alder", but it always has great harmonic response, with character that is unique. If you have your hands on some cherry, I say go for it.
  13. The standard answer would be to glue the scarf join first, then the ears. But,It depends on the profile of your headstock really. I would glue the head to the neck first, then go back and glue the 'ears' on. That way, you are working with a neck blank and a head that are the same width, and when clamping, you can use a flat surface, like a work top or a jig of straight boards, to line them up as you clamp them, and keep lateral movement to a minimum. Once that is complete, you can glue up the ears and they can overlap the neck side of the joint as well, just in case your headstock profile requires a width greater than the neck in the area of the scarf join. If your head design would not require a width greater than the neck blank through the area of the scarf join, then you could glue ears up first, which would make working with the head easy. But, that would be added bulk that could be awkward and get in the way when you glue up the scarf. That would make it more difficult to clamp, and more difficult to keep in line, for the scarf join.
  14. It's a good question. I've got a good bit of white ash lying around that i'm going to use for furniture, and some guitar building. The stuff is pretty hard and seems like it would work out well, but I've heard (not sure of it) that it is flexible and might bow quite a bit under string tension. It does absorb shock pretty well, hence it's use in baseball bats, but I'm not sure if that necessarily translates into it being flexible. Another concern with it is that it has a pretty coarse texture, so it's probably not too easy to carve into the curve of a neck, and it would need to be grainfilled for a smooth finish. Right now, I've got enough hard maple for my neck building purposes, but might try ash down the road. If I do, I'll let you know how it turns out.
  15. I'm about to get started on building my first neck from scratch. I've got a nice piece of straight grained flatsawn maple that I'm planning on using. I have a question for something I've never seen mentioned in any of the guitar building books I've read, and searching on here didnt really produce anything that addressed this question, so here it goes. Which way should the edge to edge grain from the annual rings arch when making a neck from flatsawn timber? Should the fingerboard be on the convex or concave side of the annual growth rings? or does it matter? Is there an industry standard? I know that lumber tends to distort so that the annual growth rings attempt to straigthen, causing cupping on the convex side and bowing on the concave side. This piece of lumber I have was purchased kiln dried and has been sitting indoors for over a year, and it hasnt distorted at all from when i purchased it. So, I'm not worried about warping and distortion, at least not too much. But I am wondering if the orientation will have any stability effects on the neck, or if one orientation or the other is stronger or more durable. Thanks for any assistance on this.
  16. I gotta agree, it should work just fine. I've used "bridge" pickups in neck positions many times, especially Duncan JBs (have em in 2 guitars as neck pickups), and the Duncan JB is one of those that supposedly is "never" supposed to be used anywhere other than "bridge" position. Matching the pickups to your style is what is important. While I used JB's as neck pickups, I used incredibly hot bridge pickups to balance with them. I knew one guy who played a tele and had a stock single coil bridge pickup(low output), then a Dimarzio X2N(extremely high output) in the neck. Odd, but it did suit his style. Spacing is another issue, many "bridge pickups" are F Spaced, but these usually work in the neck just fine, even if they are wider spaced than the strings, the strings have a wider and more powerful vibration at the neck position and it's always worked for me. Now, in the bridge, I think accurate spacing is more important, because naturally, the strings vibrate less, cover less of an area, and have less natural output. I've had huge differences in tone related to pickup pole spacing when it comes to the bridge. Looking at those two pickups you have, despite the "bridge" designation on the AlnicoII, you have a pretty well balanced set there that is honestly comparable to many marketed pickup combinations (such as the Duncan Hot Rod: JB bridge/Jazz Neck). I'd say that unless your style is really out there, you should have a great pickup combo on your hands.
  17. For mine, I went with this rod from LMII: http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts....tion+welded+nut I thought about trying something U shaped, but then decided that I liked the construction of this one, despite it's higher cost. After looking at it once it arrived, I think it is worth the extra $10, because I think it's pretty durable, and although I forget my calculations, I could still get something thinner than a wizard, leaving at least 3/16" of wood between the bottom of the route and the back of the neck. I guess soon enough I will find out if that is really the case.
  18. I'm glad you brought this up, unfortunately, I can't offer any insight, but I am in the same boat. In about a month and a half I'm going to finally be able to start working on my first (of many) axe, and I'm trying to maximize the use of the time I'll have (since I have about a month where I hope to have half days from work, before things pickup again). One of the things I have been reading is that if you are using quartersawn stock or a multilaminated neck with vertical grain orientation, the amount of movement is very little compared to flatsawn stock. I'm debating doing the laminate route for that reason, but I'm interested to hear what the experts have to say.
  19. Yeah, the problem with that dimarzio is that it's old and I think it has some breaks in the wire or something, since it makes pop and creak noises despite all my attempts to fix it. It doesnt ever seem to read the same resistance on the multimeter either. I've checked all the rest of the wiring, and it's good... the other pickup doesnt have the same problem. I'm just looking for a reasonably suitable pickup, and figured with the GFS I could replace both pickups for the price of one, and at least have working pickups in the thing. As far as the Dimarzios being a good match, they usually are, and to be honest, if cost were no factor, I'd probably put them in all of my guitars... but, i've had pretty good luck finding the tone I want in cheaper pickups, and even swapping out stock pickups from different guitars (jackson pickups sound great in my yamaha!), so I want to give the GFS ones a try.
  20. I've been wanting to try GFS pickups out for awhile now, and I think I'm going to try them in an ash body/ maple neck/fb strat that I have which has 2 humbuckers. I generally use this guitar for playing classic rock in the vein of early Van Halen (first 2-3 albums). Right now I've got a dimarzio PAF pro and a no name pickup in it, both of which sound okay, but they strike me as being a little too low output and without enough presence. I'm thinking of replacing them with a set of GFS's, but I'm not sure which ones would be the best match for early VH tone. I'm thinking the "Crunchy PAF" or the "Fat Alnico", since they both seem to be a bit more ballsy than what I have in there, but does anyone have a clue which would be the better match?
  21. You know, I used to believe that an angled pickup mattered less and less the further you go from the bridge, until I got my 80s yamaha RGX611, which has a H/S pickup configuration with the neck pu angled like a strat bridge pickup. The guitar sounds awesome with the bridge pickup, but the neck pickup didnt sound so hot. 3 pickup changes later, I have a jackson hot rails type in there and it sounds okay, but I took some single coils out of other guitars I had that sounded great in the neck on other, similar guitars (with straight neck pu orientation), but they didnt sound good in the angled neck position of the yamaha. I finally got the picture that it was the angle and position of the pickup that made them all sound that way, not the pickup itself. Now, I'm wondering about a single coil bridge pickup that isnt angled. I'm going to start on a tele style w/ 2 strat pickups, and I'm debating on having the bridge pickup not angled. Not sure how that would sound though... Not sure if its worth trying or not. As far as your reasoning for the effects on the sound, everything you said is true. I just look at it like this, the side angled toward the bridge will in effect sound more like a middle pickup. I'm not a big fan of middle pickups (certainly by themselves, though I occasionally use em in combos), so it goes to reason that I dont like angled neck pickups. That said, it is something you dont see too often, so it does lend itself to some unique nuances in the sound.
  22. ihocky2, I found the guy thats going to cut this stuff up only because i happen to be friends with a tree trimmer, and he happened to know a retired guy who has a minimill and cuts part time as a hobby. Where I'm at (northern Kansas) there's not much demand because there's not much population really... but alot of it is just luck. When I was leaving last week to come off R&R I bought a Fine Woodworking magazine in the airport, and it has an article on Mini-Mills this month, and the guy who wrote it is from near Philadelphia (my hometown, and not too far from where you live according to your location). There was a portable mill that a guy in South Jersey had, plus there were two others featured, one in Perkiomenville (probably about 45 min from you) and then one in Worcester (about an hour's drive). I dont remeber the names of the places, but I'll see if I can dig up the article and let you know, or you might be able to find out from the magazines website. One of the tips they suggested was getting in with the local tree trimmers, developers, etc... Folks who would have this stuff cut down and have to get rid of logs, since they usually know all of the outlets. Thats how I found the guy who will cut this stuff up for me. An option for getting the tree's cut up and moved would be to have the landscaper transport them to the large mill as part of a package deal (Since he has to take it someplace to get rid of it) or to have a portable mill come to you. If you get the logs delivered to a large mill, you can probably rent uhaul truck or something to go pick it up later on when it's finished, since the mill probably isnt going to be just waiting for you. They may give you a better price if you can afford to wait and have them cut it at their convenience, since they can use that to fill what would otherwise be idle time for their machinery. Like all businesses, the mills have busy times and slow times, and they like to keep the busy times from getting too busy (paying overtime, etc) and like to fill the slow times (keep from sending guys home early, or laying them off in slow months). I hope that helps. I'll see if I can dig up that article for you.
  23. H-H: Bill Lawrence L500XL (or Duncan Dimebucker) in bridge, Duncan JB in the neck, 1 Meg Volume pots... Screams like no tomorrow. Gotta have coil taps for the cleans though, otherwise, these pickups are way too hot... This is the most fascinating passive combo I've had for hard rock and metal, you also get great bright lead tone from having a phase switch on there and putting them out of phase. H-S-S: Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge, Bill Lawrence L298 middle and Bill Lawrence L280 Neck. I use this with 500k pots for volume and tone and a DPDT on-on-on for series-split-parallel for the SD, then a separate switch to turn on the neck PU to get any combo. This is the most versatile HSS setup I've ever come across, its perfect from country spank and soulful blues to raunchy funk to crunchy rock and raging molten infernos of metal.
  24. Thanks for all of the input on this guys, I appreciate it. I spent some time talking to the woodworker types in my unit too about all of this, I may have a few of them that are interested in going in on a few logs worth of wood for some various projects we all want to do when we get back. One of the guys has done some work with silver maples before and says that with the right stain, you can make a rather nice faux cherry look to a piece of furniture. I'd like to give this stuff a shot as a body wood, but considering that I'd like to do some furniture building (and cherry is probably my favorite look for furniture) I'm going to ask for a log of that too. Actually, with some of those guys, we may just split the cost if we can get our hands on walnut, hickory or locust, since those are pretty popular for furniture, and I'll be able to get more than enough for a few guitars. As far as hackberry goes, I found this http://www.apolloguitars.ca/K100618.html which I have to say looks like a pretty cool grain. I may try and get my hands on some of that too, because it would make a nice trans finish on a guitar, and I like the look for furniture too. I already have an amazing piece of spalted quartersawn sycamore that I picked up on site in a sawmill about a year ago that I can probably get a few tops out of, but in retrospect, I may be better off just looking for the occasional "best piece" of that rather than a whole board, since it seems like a waste to use it for anything other than tops/veneers. (I have to post a pic of that spalted sycamore on here sooner or later, I just dont have the ability right now) Cottonwood is probably one I'm going to stay away from, I heard its mostly used for making pallets, and it's a pain to work to a finish grade. I didn't know it is a poplar, but given that it is, I'll probably stay away from it, because I've never really liked to look or the tone of the woods along those lines (Poplar, basswood, other varieties of very soft, plain grain hardwoods) Ironically, while my guitar building dreams got me into this mess, I think i'm going to come out of it building alot of furniture too. I've wanted to do furniture building, but the high prices and volume of wood have kept me shying away from it, until I realized I can get 200 board feet logs turned into lumber for next to nothing thanks to the conditions in the local economy. I'm going to have my hands full when I get back.
  25. While I was home on R&R, I ended up talking to a friend of mine who has a tree trimming business, and I was able to get a some wood off of him for free. Apparently, there isnt much of a market for him to sell lumber from the trees he cuts down, and while the limbs get chipped for mulch, the logs either get split into firewood or he pays to dump them. The day I visited him, he had cut down a silver maple, and the next day he cut down an ash tree (northern ash, not the magical swamp ash). He set aside the ash log on his lot for me, and he knows a guy with a minimill who will cut it up however I want for about $50-100. That brings me to my question. This log is about 30" diameter and about 10' long. There is clearly alot of lumber in there, and I'd like to make the most of it. I'm not really sure what to ask for when I get it cut up. I'm planning on more flatsawn orientation (since quartersawn looks pretty boring on ash) and probably looking at 2" stock at least (maybe 3") so that it's thick enough for guitar bodies. Ideally, I'd like to get it sawn wide enough that I can make one piece bodies from it. I know once its cut I need to seal the ends and dry it, and I'll be waiting years to use it (or paying to get it kiln dried). The thing is, What I dont use for guitar building (which will inevitably be alot) I'd like to have available to build furniture with, which is generally more the realm of 1" stock. Anyhow, I'd like to know if anyone has any thoughts on what the would be best way for me to get this log sawn up. Anyone have any experience going from tree to finished product? This friend of mine told me he'd set aside pretty much anything I was looking for in the way of wood that he cuts down(provided he has the space on his storage lot). I told him if I can find the use for it, I'll buy them off him. He cuts down alot of: cottonwood(pretty lousy from what I understand) silver maple (not good for necks, but maybe good for bodies? or furniture) hackberry (not sure about this one, never heard of it used) he also occasionally/rarely comes across: black walnut (I got a few nice slabs of that from him too, its green though) sycamore (which looks cool quartersawn, not sure of its tonal properties, I dont think i've ever seen it used for anything) hickory (seen it in furniture, never guitars) locust(seen it in furniture, never guitars) hard maple (I already told him to set any of those aside) Anyone think any of those are worth me asking him to set aside a log of? I told him definitely on hard maple and I'm strongly contemplating asking him to do it with walnut. I'm not really sure about the tonal properties of the others, and if they'd be worth setting aside or not. I'm thinking the silver maple might not be bad to try for a body since i hear it stains well and isnt too heavy. If any of you have any ideas or thoughts, let me know. I figure the extremely large amounts of wood I dont use for guitars I can use for furniture or trade away, and who knows, I might even find him a market for this stuff he pays to dump. You can also spare me the warnings about getting in over my head and going too far and ending up with more wood than I'll use in a lifetime... I already forsee that...
×
×
  • Create New...