Geo

This one is done.

Body and pickup:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...ss/100_1674.jpg

Headstock:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...ss/100_1675.jpg

Body:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...ss/100_1676.jpg

Neck:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...ss/100_1677.jpg

Back:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...ss/100_1678.jpg

The tone is punchy with a really fat low end. I'm really digging it. The only problem is that I'm still getting ungrounded bridge buzz, even though I have the bridge grounded. When I touch the bridge, it goes away. Touching the strings doesn't work! The strings are Elixir Nanowebs, so I'm wondering if the coating is preventing my fingers from being grounded.

I just finished a bass and I have the classic buzz of an ungrounded bridge. Except, I grounded the bridge. When I touch the bridge, jackplate, etc., the buzz goes away. But apparently my Elixir strings are not conductive, because touching the strings doesn't change the buzz! I'm thinking it must be the protective coating. Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas how to fix it?

Thanks.

I started this one in August. Of course now it's April when I'm finally finishing it up. Why did I think I would have time to build a guitar during my last year of college? Why did I have to spill tru-oil all over my landlord's floor? How did I run out of fretwire when I got to the 22nd fret? Anyway...

This is a no-frills 4-string. Maple on maple neck, mahogany body, stacked P90 humbucker. Accents are bloodwood. Finish is tru-oil. Neck attaches with machine screws into brass inserts. The inserts are epoxied in because I didn't realize how large the thread on them was, and I don't have a tap, so I just drilled the holes out.

I'll get some better pictures soon. The lighting is really weird down there.

http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...09-2010%20bass/

I love your style with these! This one looks great of course. Love the curves, color, pickup choice, etc.!

The ash with the dark burst is way classier IMO. The figure in the maple is too distracting and it just looks like "another figured maple guitar".

I don't think you're killing your pots. It just sounds like one of the connections on the tone pot is not good. It sounds like the tone pot is acting as a volume control. Pots do break of course, but usually only after lots of use. Your pots are probably fine--just double-check your circuit against the diagram, and follow PSW's tips on soldering. Luckily you have a very simple circuit, so it shouldn't take too long to find the problem.

IMHO pickups, tuners, and trems. are three things that you shouldnt go cheap on. with pickups theres so much to loose for just a few bucks and with cheap tuners and trems your just asking for tuning problems.

Yep, with these parts you absolutely get what you pay for.

Try bezdez. I have bought pickups from them. I will be replacing them sometime, of course, because they were $19 and are lacking in harmonic development compared to my homemade pickups. But if you just want a cheap pickup that will put sound in your amp, these will work.

http://myworld.ebay.com/bezdez/

If you think you're going to find GOOD pickups for CHEAP, you're wrong!

In a music store once, I found a Rickenbacker guitar with a lacquered rosewood fingerboard. Certainly not standard practice though.

I would not recommend Tru-oil for this. My Tru-oiled guitars feel a little gummy when the heat and humidity peak in the summer.

Looking good!

This reminds me of a guitar I built, mostly from the wooden pickguard and the shape of it.

http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...-cut%20project/

Classy! This is my kind of guitar!

Used to do that all the time, Bad habit i got into a few years back. Just use a realy sharp chisel to take away the excess in the corners, 5 mins for each pup cavity & your done. Just make sure it a REALY sharp chisel.

Yep, this is the easiest way. Only the very top of the chiseling needs to look good because the pickups will hide the rest of it.

Don't overthink it. You just need to remove some wood.

Personally I would just go with what's comfortable, and that would be similar to a guitar as far as thickness. There's a truss rod in there after all, so I wouldn't worry about "higher tension". If you're really concerned, consider using two truss rods or adding carbon fiber.

I fret the neck before ANY shaping of the back is done. Since I hammer them in, it's best to have a flat back.

The trouble with this is that sometimes carving can unlock some hidden tension in the wood and it will backbow. If the fingerboard isn't attached yet, no big deal, just let it sit for a month and then sand or plane it flat again. If the board is already attached AND fretted, you got trouble.

Guitarists have no need to play guitar hero. We also have no need of an iPhone app that tries to simulate what we can do with a real instrument. This guitarist also has no need for an iPhone, but that's beside the point.

Nice work!!!!

It looks like the tru oil really brought out some figuring depth in your wood!

Just build your guitar, it will sound good. Don't worry about the tone voodoo stuff.

If the top is so stiff that it can hardly produce sound (as with semi-hollow electrics etc.), the lightness of the bridge does not matter. E.g., the Gibson ES335 has a TOM bridge. Of course, it also has solid wood beneath the bridge.

If you're talking about archtop acoustics, that's a whole nother beast, as the sound production is based on the downward force of the strings trying to crush the top rather than the torquing force of the strings trying to tear the top off the guitar.

Obviously fretted notes have their own harmonic series. Many of the overtones have antinodes over the 2nd octave and they just happen to have the same wavelengths as the ones left from the open string! When you have the pickup set back as with a 24 fret guitar you separate this “marriage” between the two harmonic series. You may still have antinodes over the pickup which both have in common but its all hit-and-miss

Just to state my response to this clearly (I'm not trying to offend you--I see that you've digested the response. Just for others' sake):

As I understand it, there is no marriage between the open-length harmonics and the fretted harmonics in a fretted string because equal-tempered fret placement is out of tune with the natural (transposed down) overtones of the open string.

I love the geometry of that body from the back! It looks like a ship from Star Wars.

I thought why not go 1/4 wide?

Would this transfer more string vibration to the top?

I'll take a stab...

The bridge needs to be as light as possible, because its inertial mass (correct technical term?!) will kill string vibration. There is no need for the extra weight of a 1/4" wide saddle. I imagine that a nylon-string bridge should be even lighter than a steel-string, considering the lower tension (thus lower energy) of nylon strings at standard pitch.

Also, if the saddle has the proper shape on top, the strings will only rest on a tiny portion of it.

and geo if you use a convex not a flat blade it would to it a breaze

Doh! Need to get me one o' thems!

I've used superglue, but I don't know if that's best. You want to apply it pretty thinly, otherwise it will be forced out when you press the binding in, and it'll get all over your fingers and the rest of the guitar.

A toggle would probably wear down faster because it isn't made to be flipped back and forth so fast. Just a thought.