Geo

The Strat version is genius! Amazing look you have there.

My only suggestion is that aesthetically, the head might look better if it somehow blended a "normal Strat headstock" and "headlessness", if you know what I mean. I know you're just using a Squier neck for now, but it just came to mind.

It's probably the pot. I would just replace it. They do weird things when they break.

Pure class with a little bling..... aww yyeeaaahhh!!!

Great work.

And kinda related, I want to shield the cavities. I have a big roll of aluminium shielding tape, but I dont think it has staying power on top of the oil finish. In reverse, I dont think the oil will stick on top of the tape. So I guess I need to find something like copper paint and leave the cavities oil free?

Just leave the cavities unfinished, then you don't have to worry about whether the tape will stick or not.

Interesting discussion! That article really clarifies things. I think I'm going to try better shielding in this guitar.

Side note... the "ungrounded noise" I'm getting is definitely a buzz, not a hum. 120Hz and harmonics of that. I don't hear any 60Hz, and I would, because I keep my lows cranked on my amp, hehe.

I should add: I get a crackly sound (i.e. intermittent buzz) when sliding to a different position on a string, with my playing hand off the strings. Again, this seems to indicate that the coating is intermittently preventing me from being grounded (whether I am a capacitor or an antenna. )

The player is a giant ball of hum and needs grounded.

I think this sums it up. I am an antenna collecting and radiating EMI. If I'm not grounded, I'm live, and feeding EMI into the guitar. If I'm grounded, the EMI all goes to ground, hence the lack of buzz.

The strings being grounded is just the simplest way to get my big antenna ass grounded. I could wear a wrist band with a wire connected to ground and the guitar would never buzz, even with my hands off the strings (ignoring single-coil hum etc.).

That's my understanding anyway (basically what Elmo is saying).

Yes, but is the string exposed at the ball ends?

I believe so. Touching the portion of the string between the ball end and the bridge saddle removes the buzz, so the coating is not on the whole string, just the playing portion.

You know, the more that I think about this, the more enigmatic it is. In a regular guitar string scenario, if the bridge is grounded, then there shouldn't be any buzzing... in theory. I guess because the strings have a coating on them, they are now acting like antennas and picking up noise (EMI I assume), which would be happening apparently because they are not really grounded to the bridge and therefore that noise can't be shunted to ground as it normally would be.

My understanding is that the coating is preventing my body from joining the ground circuit, allowing me to act as an antenna radiating interference into the guitar (same scenario as with an ungrounded bridge).

The entire metal string is grounded--I know this because the ball-ends are touching the bridge, and because touching the tuners removes the buzz. It's the coating on the playing length of the string that keeps me from touching ground. The wraps at the far ends of the string are not coated, and touching the far ends of the string removes the buzz.

you can open the cracks a little, get some glue in there, then clamp it tight closed and leave it to dry. Only problem is that hammering in frets might cause the cracks to open up again.

+1, just keep the glue out of the fret slots.

Good score on the wood, I'm jealous!

the one on the far right is quartersawn but the others are flat sawn should i use one over the other?

Fender necks are flatsawn maple. Quartersawn is more stable with changes in humidity/temperature. It's up to you, but if flatsawn maple works on millions of guitars, you should be fine with that. Regardless, you're set with neck blanks for a few upcoming projects there.

I think you could, but you`d need to move the nut down closer to the bridge. The scale length is a nut to bridge thing.

Yeah, either the nut or bridge will have to move. If you do your research and plan it all out on paper, there's no reason it shouldn't work.

Does it sound like a lot of unnecessary work? Would keeping the 25.5" be simpler? Yes, but you want to learn, so I say go for it. You'll definitely learn a lot.

Just to continue this investigation... as the strings are breaking in, the buzz is getting quieter. Perhaps the coating is breaking down and I am making more contact with the grounded part of the string.

Good luck! Take your time. Shoot for perfection, but don't expect it!

Personally, I would start over and use this board for something with a wider neck (if I understand your problem). It's just easier to make something right the first time rather than trying to make it fit something else.

What type of bridge are you using?

I would expect the ball end of the string where the only core of the string only goes round not to be covered with the coating. Therefore with a standard toploading bridge the coating would not be a problem. Unless I'm wrong in which case you would need to scraped part of the coating off the where the strings are held by the bridge

If it is a through body stringing you might need to try grounding the string ferrule instead (again assuming that the coating does not cover the ball end).

Hmm just read that back and not sure if I make any sense

No, I know what you're saying. That was my exact thought--there must be some part of the string that ISN'T coated and thus could be grounded. Well, yes, the core of the string is grounded by the ball-ends (this is a traditional P bridge). I know this because touching the tuners eliminates the buzz, as does touching the string behind the saddle, where the playing wraps end. The kicker is, the part of the string that you play on is coated, so even though the core is grounded (and I'm sure the wraps are too), the coating is coming between my fingers and the grounded metal of the string. There is no solution, other than scraping off the coating between the pickup and bridge, or getting normal strings.

Nice video! I was wondering how you would actually play that thing.

I would just play it sitting down. Then you won't hurt yourself.

You could have a lot of fun with this using multiple amps.

I have never been able to shield a guitar to the point of eliminating all noise.

Me, either. And I honestly don't think it's really possible.

Even if the shielding is perfect, your body is still an antenna picking up all that junk. The moment you touch the strings (if the bridge isn't grounded), the junk goes into the strings, the pickup will pick it up through the strings, and the shielding isn't going to do any good... or that's my theory.

Forgot to add... I heard back from Elixir:

Hi George,

Thanks for your interest in Elixir® Strings. Our coating are non-conductive. Let me know if there are any additional questions or concerns.

Thanks and Regards

Elixir® Strings

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

201 Airport Road

Elkton MD 21921 USA

Ph: 800.367.5533

Fx: 410.506.7692

Reply to: elixirstrings@wlgore.com

To place an order: esorders@wlgore.com

ELIXIR, NANOWEB, and POLYWEB are trademarks of W L Gore & Associates Inc

imo, if you have properly shielded the guitar and grounded the rest of the electronics, grounding the bridge / strings isnt that important.. especialy so if you have hum canceling pickups.

In any case, it is much safer for the player to not be part of an electronic circuit

Probably true, but I have never been able to shield a guitar to the point of eliminating all noise. Usually I just get it to a low level I can live with, and part of that is grounding the bridge.

It honestly isn't too bad; when I start playing and gettin' funky , I don't really notice it. I think in a band setting, with cymbals sounding in the same freq range, it should be fine.

can anyone recommend an alternative hand tool to a band saw?

I have a jigsaw but I'm not confident in the length of the blade and the power of the tool to cope, and the drawn-out profile of the angled head stock is looking very delicate at this point!

Any extra arm work and elbow grease needed to compensate is not an issue in the slightest, but I don't want to compromise on quality in the long run

Have a little more faith in your jigsaw! Just make sure you use a new blade. I find that 10 TPI (teeth per inch) blades work best for cutting hardwood more than ~1/2" thick. The blade should be about 3" long.

I use an old Black and Decker jigsaw (so old it's orange, not black!). It's gotta be from the 80's. It hasn't failed me yet (although I have heard stories of them exploding). I have cut out about 5 guitar bodies and neck profiles with it--probably gone through about that many blades.

The trick with the jigsaw is not to push it. Let the teeth do the cutting, not your arm. If the saw gets stuck and you see black sawdust, back off, you're burning the wood. Go slow, practice, and leave about 1/8" around whatever cut you're making, because the saw won't cut perpendicular to the top surface of the piece (the blade swings from side to side).

...dont throw a piece of poplar or swamp ash in there...

grant

Nothing wrong with using poplar as neck wood. I've made several necks from poplar, and never had one twist, bend, or break. I don't see why a piece of poplar couldn't be used in this situation

Ditto, I have a poplar-necked-guitar that's been fine so far (a year and 4 months old). Needs a truss-rod tweak with changing seasons, but what guitar doesn't, where I live?

Even if you did expose some of the string's core material by cutting away the coating at the bridge saddles, your fingers would still be electrically insulated from the strings, so you'd be no better off.

You could:

1) Run a wire from any ground point on the guitar to any exposed area of flesh, to ground yourself.

Exactly what I've been thinking.

I just wish I had thought about this before spending $45 on them. Interestingly, I haven't had this problem at all on my electric guitars, which are currently strung with Elixirs. Oh well, live and learn....

Thanks for the help.

I tested the string with my multimeter. Set to the 20k range, with a probe on each end of the string (playing part of the string where the coating is), I read infinite resistance.

Didn't realize that isn't a normally marked fret... I thought you were complaining about double versus single dots... sorry, it's been a rough morning!

I hope you guys are joking....

Thanks! The body is actually fairly large and it balances just fine. Probably an optical illusion with the pictures.

I wish I had known that before I dropped $45 on those strings.

What's weird is that if I press the string down about 1/4", between the pickup and the bridge, I become grounded and the buzz goes away. So it must be stretching it and letting my skin touch a deeper part of the string that is grounded.