mpeg2

I've been asked to build a guitar - Flying V shaped body with a bolt-on neck. Is there sufficient body support around the neck to allow a bolt-on to work?? Thanks, Rich

I agree - the first is a total shot in the dark. Luckily, I managed to cover up most of my mistakes. For the second, I found a whole new set of mistakes to make (but didn't duplicate any of the first set). As long as you're learning from the mistakes, they keep on getting better & better. I've got #4 & 5 in progress now & find that things that were very confusing initially make sense now - even though there's new challenges with each one (different designs each time) - I've got enough experience to approach them in a reasonable manner. Rich

Never tried it on Guitars, but way back when, I made some coffee tables from Redwood slabs & finished with this stuff (or its equivalent). I'm not sure I'd want to finish a guitar body with this - produces a very glossy, very durable - but very thick finish - maybe too thick, there'd be some concern about what it would do to the sound. From what I remember, there are a number of things to watch out for - primarily air bubbles (especially if there's any kind of surface flaw - or even grain porosity) and drips - the stuff drips off the sides. Rich

Finishing was pretty simple - normal sanding, a coat or two of water based grain sealer (with the fine sanding inbetween) - then 4 coats of TruOil. I get pretty impatient to play it by this point, so keep things as simple as possible - wipe on Tru Oil with a piece of old cotton T-shirt, rub in a bit, wait at least 2 hours, light go-over with fine steel wool After the last coat, I wait a day & call it done. No buffing (I may not get the best possible shine - but like the way it comes out). Real simple process & gives good results. TruOil is wonderful! Rich

Here's a view of the back: I used 1/4" Chestnut (the only 1/4" stock I found that was at least half the width of the body - edge glued. I cut the control cavity covers out before gluing to the chambered body. For the headstock laminate, I took a piece of ebony veneer and glued it to the headstock (after taping off the truss rod). After the glue set, I trimmed off the excess & cut out for the tuners & truss rod. I had a little slipup (a sliver of the veneer came off the edge), so I beveled the edge a bit to make it uniform. Next time, I'm going to use some grain sealer before applying TruOil - the veneer really soaked up the oil. Rich

Build details: Most of this one was fairly conventional - a body from Padauk/poplar (I couldn't find wood thick enough, so had to use multiple layers) - chambered with 1/4" thick front & 1/2" on edges - the solid center was about 3+" wide. I used some 1/4" thick chestnut for the bottom. The humbuckers were mounted traditionally & I used a fixed bridge, with the strings going through the body. The electronics chamber was pretty big (had to be for all the circuitry & controls). I replaced the saddles that came with the bridge with Graphtech Ghost saddles (each saddle has a piezo pickup inside). This meant that there were 6 sets of wires that had to go into the control cavity. I routed a slot about 1/4" wide just above the bridge for the wires & routed a 1/8" wide lip around it. I then took a piece of 1/8" purpleheart that I had, cut it to fit the lip & then filed 6 slots to match where the individual wires left the bridge. I drilled a hole from the slot into the control cavity. Just inside the control cavity is a "header" that came with the piezo pickups - it mixes the 6 signals into one wire, which goes to the piezo preamp (also from Graphtech). At a future date, I can add a 2nd bit to the preamp which replaces the header - it adds the capability to run all 6 signals out to a Roland Guitar synth. The humbuckers were wired into a Carvin Active/Passive module - which gives the capability to either run the hums in passive mode (vol + tone) or active (vol, bass & treble) - as well as having switches for PU selection, coil split for each PU and phasing. I had to figure out how to connect the two sets of electronics & make sure that the battery was switched off by the input jack. I disconnected the Carvin module from the jack it was supplied with and ran the output to the piezo preamp. Graphtech supplies some pretty good schematics to figure out interconnects, which I followed. There's a power output from the piezo preamp, which can be used to power the Cavin module - so the battery switching was covered. I used a on-off-on switch - the "on" positions ground one or the other of the preamp outputs to select where the sound is coming from (grounded means no sound). The stereo jack supplied with the piezo preamp is wired so that if a mono cable is used, both preamps are routed to the output - if a stereo cable, then each comes out on a different channel. Graphtech offers options to add mid-boost or selection of electric/piezo - but these are outrageously priced ($20 for a miniswitch & a connector) - I used the schematics they gave, some switches & sip headers I had around and did the same. It took a while to get all of this figured out - but so far, the results are worth it. Rich

Here we go - end result first. I've only had this thing together for a day - and got the setup mostly completed earlier this afternoon, so I haven't had too much time to play around with optimizing the sounds. For the electric side, its what you might expect with humbuckers into active electronics - with coil splitters & a phasing switch. Quite a few variations in sound here. The "acoustic" side with the piezo pickups is very clean and tends to be a little bright. I added a mid-boost switch, which evens out the sound a bit (to my ears). When run into a guitar amp, you lose much of the acoustic character, since guitar amps are far from linear - most of the energy is in the midrange. Since I don't have an acoustic amp, I ran the piezo side into a bass amp (SWR with 4-10s & a tweeter). This has a much wider response than the guitar amp & lets me hear the full range of sounds. So far, I've found that using a stereo cable, with both amps (hums into a guitar amp & piezo into the bass amp) gives the best sounds. I've been setting the volumes on both amps to give roughly the same level & then using the electric & acoustic volume pots on the guitar to balance things dynamically. THere's a switch on the guitar that controls where the sound is coming from - electric/acoustic/both. One interesting combination that I've found so far is to have the electric side go into a fairly high gain configuration for the tone & sustain, with the acoustic having a bit higher level to cut through. You get a very clean, sharp attack on the note from the acoustic side, with the overtones & sustain from the electric. I haven't had enough time on this to figure out what I don't like - but, since nothing is perfect, I'm sure I will... Installation stuff in the next note, since this one is getting a bit long. Rich

Thanks for the suggestion - deadline for Oct has passed, so I entered into Nov. Rich

I'd like to enter my newest build: Specs: Chambered body from Padauk/Poplar/Chestnut Carvin Maple Neck w/Ebony fretboard & Ebony headstock overlay Sperzel Tuners Carvin C-22 Humbuckers Active/Passive electronics - w/coil splits & phasing Graphtech Ghost piezo saddles w/preamp Birdseye Maple TRC An incredible variety of sounds is available from the guitar - especially when connected to both a guitar amp & acoustic amp. More details at: Active/Passive/Piezo and a full image: Rich

I'm not quite in the younger category (altho I may act that way at some times) - but I agree that this is one of the things that I had to do. I'm back to the simpler designs for the future. Most of the controls are in the category of set it for the sound that you want & leave it alone, so operation during playing isn't a big deal. In a past life, I used to do transmission electron microscopy - sitting in a pitch black room, face buried into a viewing port & "playing" the controls - about 20+ knobs & an equal number of switches. Operating that thing was quite similar to playing a musical instrument - so even this layout isn't a big deal, once I get used to it. Rich

Just finished a new project: Chambered Padauk/Poplar/Chestnut body Maple Neck / Ebony Fretboard Carvin C22 Humbuckers w/Active-Passive Electronics, Coil Splits and Phase switch GraphTech Ghost Piezo pickups (for acoustic sound) Amazing range of sounds available from this guitar - just a bit difficult to remember what each of the controls does. Details at: Active/Passive/Piezo and a view of the body here: Rich

This didn't make an awful lot of sense to me when I built one with P90s, so I used short lengths of rubber tubing between the PU & wood to act as springs - I can adjust the height easily (and they sound great). Rich

I do most of mine this way - the woods I use are hard to find in 1.75" thickness - mostly they are 1/2 the required thickness. No problems yet with building or sound. I've built two with 2 layers of the same wood and the layering is visible. On one, there was a faint line at the joint - maybe due to glue absorption into the wood surfaces. In the other case, you could see a change in grain direction above and below the joint. In neither case did it look bad - go ahead... Rich

Interesting - my next project will be a tele-shaped semihollow - I have a blank cut out with Padauk on top & Poplar below - the bottom will be some kind of 1/4" thick wood (I have a few candidates around the shop). I'm going to try my hand at a neck for the 1st time (I found a nice chunk of mahogany big enough for 2 - managed to get the truss rod channel cut perfectly). I'm going to try to get a bit creative with the electronics on this one - probably humbuckers with coil splits, active electronics (my own design) and maybe a Tube Screamer clone circuit built in (lots of room in a semi-hollow for circutiry). I'm also thinking of putting on a piezo bridge for the acoustic tones. It'll be interesting to see if it all comes together... Rich

The weight isn't too bad - considerably less than a Les Paul. Brightness isn't an issue either - sound seems to be nicely balanced. I went with the Gibson P-90's partly from a sense of appropriateness (why not go with the folks that created the originals) - also after trying some SGs & Les Pauls out which had them. I went with a Carvin neck, not Warmoth. I have a Carvin guitar & love the neck. Carvin's pricing is significantly less than Warmoth, so going with this seemed like a natural. Rich

Thanks for all the comments. I mostly play sitting down & use strap locks when standing, so I don't think the placement of the upper mount will be a problem (I have to admit that I did it by eye, without thinking too much). In a past life, I used to "play" transmission electron microscopes, so got very used to tightly placed controls. Still getting used to the shape - I like it visually, but the guitar balances a little differently, so takes some adjustment. I'm now starting to plan out my next one - semi-hollow telecaster shape, but want to play around with pickups - probably going to at least add a piezo & some form of active electronics (cobble together my own circuits). Rich

Just finished my second solidbody project: Padauk body Gibson P90 pickups Carvin Neck Tru-Oil finish Here's a pic (with more at: Padauk P90 Even tho I messed up the pickup alignment somehow (displaced from the centerline), the guitar sounds & plays great. A few things learned: 1) Tru Oil produces a really good finish - easy & fast to apply, lets the natural wood show through, produces a gloss (but not plastic looking) finish & is supposed to be quite durable. I liked the results much better than with tung oil 2) Putting the extra effort in to totally shield everything & ground properly (star grounding) - is well worth it. Even with all the reputation that P90s have for hum, this guitar is almost totally quiet. Rich

Now that I have it tuned properly, I tried out the lap steel I made out of leopardwood. It sounds nice - but kind of hard to extrapolate to what a "normal" solidbody would sound like. Project page at: Leopardwood Lap Steel

I just finished another project - a Lap Steel Guitar built from Leopardwood: I found very good directions elsewhere in the tutorial section of this site. Visiting my local exotic wood place, I stumbled on a piece of Leopardwood, which was very interesting looking. The project went together without too many complications. Now, all I have to do is learn how to play it! More details at: LapSteel Guitar And a view of all my projects at: Guitar Projects Rich

I'm about to embark on building my 1st neck (having successfully done a Tele-clone & lap steel, figured this was next to try). Since I'm doing this more for enjoyment than anything else, if the project actually works out, its a plus & there's a body in the works to put it on. Anyways, I have a piece of leopardwood left over from the lap steel - it's about 13/16" thick (same thickness as StewMac sells for electric neck blanks). Altho a bit hard, the wood works very well & looks beautiful. Any thoughts on its suitability for a neck (probably use Ebony or Rosewood as the fingerboard)?? Rich

I just finished a lap steel using leopardwood - I bought it solely because of appearance. I've only played it once (just finished yesterday - pictures will be posted soon), but no problems with tone. Its a beautiful wood - works and finishes wonderfully. Based on its characteristics & feel, I'd guess it would be similar to walnut for tone. Rich

How about this as an entry for April - the competition is tough, but I might as well try: Homemade body - Walnut/Poplar/Cherry Carvin Neck Fender Texas Special Pickups Sperzels Maple Pickup "ring" & control cover Stew-Mac hardware More info at Walnut/Cherry Telecaster Rich

Drak: I used Fender Texas Special pickups - the bridge was from Stew Mac. The original intent was to use a mini-switch for each pickup - with the 3rd to allow switching between series and parallel. When I did the original wiring, something got messed up and everything was very noisy in the series position - so I simply pulled that part of the wiring out (its now conventionally wired, with the 3rd switch unconnected). I dropped by a Guitar Center today, just to try compare some Fender Teles - I think I actually like the sound of mine better than any of the ones I tried. One important thing I noticed - I put a lot of time in shielding the cavities & doing star grounding. Every Fender I tried had considerable noise - the one I made is as quiet as any of the humbuckers I have. Rich

Isn't that what ping pong tables are for? Actually, I just used mine as a horizontal surface to spread things out on. I still use it for its intended purpose. I've been doing most of my work on one of the Black&Decker workmates - probably the best invention for a workshop ever! Rich

How do you enter in GOTM?? Rich