Geo

As well as you make it. A good tru oil finish starts with good finish-sanding (having a perfect surface for the finish to build on). Level between coats with 0000 wool or 1200 or 2000 grit paper as you go along.

*Just opinion... I have not built any hybrid guitars...* I don't think you can get around this problem. An acoustic guitar has a bridge which is free to drive the top, creating real acoustic (non-electronic) sound. A bridge that is free to drive the top is a feedback machine when amplified. I think of "amplified electric guitar" and "good acoustic sound" as being on opposite sides of a teeter-totter... you can only improve one by reducing the other. BUT that's just from thinking about it. There are plenty of people who play amplified acoustic guitars without feedback, so maybe you could eliminate it with a notch filter or a graphic EQ tuning out the body's resonant frequency.

Beautiful work!!! And good call on the chickenhead knobs.

I pulled a lot of poplar out of a dorm that's being demolished. It's about 6 ft long, some pieces 2"x3/4" and some 3"x3/4" (though slab-sawn). I'm thinking of laminating it with maple (i.e. a simple poplar/maple/poplar laminate) for a neck. Any opinions? The maple is quartersawn of course. I would flip the poplar "on edge" so it would be effectively quartersawn relative to the quartersawn maple in the middle.

VERY good guy... he ships immediately. You get the stuff a day or two after you order it!

Try Hoffman amps... he sells parts and has a forum with a lot of knowledgeable members. http://www.el34world.com/ http://www.el34world.com/Forum/index.php

Agreed. Think about it; when you go up the board, you slide along it. You don't slap it from below.

I wouldn't change anything about it. I think it's very consistent "within its look", if that makes sense. It's a very original take on the "violin-guitar" concept. I think white looks better BECAUSE violins/violin basses are always brownish.

It sounds like you have hot and ground mixed up for the whole circuit, or else either hot or ground is not connected (which gives an open-circuit buzz like a naked cable plugged into an amp). You may need to swap it at the jack. That would be an easy test--just move two wires, if it sounds normal, you fixed it.

Fret slotting machine? (fret slots and fretting are so tedious... )

I thought you were drunk... but the last time I suggested a poster was drunk, I got in trouble cuz he wasn't drunk... he just couldn't write.

Nice. I play through a silverface Bassman. Not exactly hi-fi bass LOL!

Beautiful work on both of those!!! You must get thumpin' with that ampeg!

The head would probably break off if it was angled at 40 deg. When you glue the scarf joint, you are gluing endgrain (the head) to the neck. If the head construction were different, the angle might not matter. I've seen many paintings of lutes (1600's?) with heads angled back very sharply. But it probably wasn't the same kind of joint we usually do on guitars.

Don't be discouraged... but I have some constructive criticism for you. 1) The body halves look like they weren't jointed properly before being glued. 2) Is your chisel sharp? It looks like that carving was a struggle. A sharp chisel used properly should give you a smooth, easy cut. 3) It will be a hassle to put binding on that body. You've already carved the top, meaning the router (using a bearing bit to cut the ledge) has nothing flat to rest on. It may be best to leave this body unbound and plan the next project fully. 4) (segue) Speaking of planning fully, you'd better plan out that neck joint before cutting any more wood!!! Some things can be modified along the way, but I would feel very uncomfortable modifying a major structural joint on the guitar after already fabricating the body. And since your neck joint is still up in the air, what about your bridge position, and thus your pickup cavities? Everything flows from the placement of the scale length along the guitar. Sorry for the negativity... but I think you can learn from it. On the bright side, it looks like you're well on your way to cleaning up the body. You have more patience than I do with sanding.

Does your meter need a new battery? I don't know if anyone suggested that yet. Just a thought.

Kudos for building your pickups! It's surprising to me that more people don't do that. If you can build a guitar, you can build pickups... and it can be cheaper... and more fun.

I think if this were the case, you wouldn't get a consistent DCR reading. It might go between 0, 14k, and infinity. That would be a sign of an intermittent short.

Is that an active circuit? If so, there's an awful lot that isn't shown. More info would be helpful.

I think the reason to finish the guitar and then scrape for the bridge is to ease the polishing/buffing/etc. of the top. If you're french polishing it, it may not make a difference (don't know how easy it would be to french polish around the bridge). I would rather glue the bridge on before getting shellac on the top. Somehow I don't think the bridge would bond as well to shellac as it would to bare wood.

If the strings hit all the frets, then you need to raise your bridge or decrease your neck angle. The other problem I could see is if you had backbow in the neck. But I assume you set up the truss rod properly since you've built a lot of guitars.

I think the F-hole looks good. It's classy and original.

You can just buy a speaker cable too.

If a pickup shorts, it will read a lower DC resistance or a total short of no resistance. The only way I can think of for the DCr to go up would be if a wire broke and the pickup read infinite resistance. Remember that DC resistance is not the only factor in pickup output. Perhaps the "overwound" pickup has weaker magnetism. Who knows.