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djhollowman

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Everything posted by djhollowman

  1. Hi all, Not far off finishing a new maple neck which also has a maple fingerboard, and I'm thinking about how to finish it. I'm assuming it will require to be sealed?? I like the idea of an oil finish, however my past experiences with Tru-Oil have shown me that it considerably darkens the wood. This is not at all desirable - I want to keep the colour as light as possible. Surely there must be alternatives to Tru-Oil which give as nice a finish, but do not have the darkening effect? As for the fingerboard, normally I use Dunlop 65 lemon oil on my 'boards but I read on the bottle that it's not suitable for maple, any suggestions? Appreciate your thoughts fellas! Thanks, DJ
  2. Hmm, I've seen someone selling offcuts on eBay but it's not what I want, and I'm not paying a tenner for postage!! I just want a small black bit, suitable for making a nut for an 8 string. I emailed several companies asking to buy small samples, but not one of them even replied! I don't see corian choppiong boards on amazon either... DJ
  3. I'm having minor trouble getting some corian samples in UK - any pointers? Ta DJ
  4. I looked up the pic you posted, prostheta, just out of curiosity, to see what it's for - it's "A 4-bit, 2 register, six assembly language instruction computer made entirely of 74-series chips." So now I know. DJ
  5. Sorry....well spotted! So it's a conversion to ringless pickups? Is that a new top, or has it just been sanded? DJ
  6. ...ahem....yeah, I kinda wondered that too...... DJ
  7. Hmm, interesting! I have the same here on my Aria 7-string. Same rings, same source! (Ignore the fact that they're HZs in the photo - I've since replaced them with a 81/7 in the bridge and a 707 in the neck!) My pup rings are also just for looks, and are only there at all because I didn't want to refinish the guitar to fix the screw holes that removing pup rings altogether would leave! I really wanted that clean ring-less ESP kinda look, but wussed out of a re-fin! Wish I had now. I still prefer the look of it. Never mind, the sound is fantastic on this guitar, which I always put down to the fact that it sports active EMGs, rather than being anything to do with how they're connected to the body. Food for thought I guess! I think it has an alder body. The neck is maple with rosewood 'board. DJ
  8. Thanks for your replies fellas! Wow, this has really set you thinking Donovan! I really like the idea of a master brightness control pot, or even a tiny trim pot which could be kept inside the control cavity. Perhaps for this project I'll stick to something fairly simple - I like the idea of only the 12th fret inlay and side dots being illuminated. By that I mean I probably won't have front inlays other than the 12th fret one. I also feel that many of the LED-equipped guitars I've seen on the 'net so far are waaaay too bright, and look garish as a result! I'm all about subtlety! Besides, I'm having trouble enough getting my head around a simple LED array! However, I'm waiting on delivery of some LEDs which it may be possible to use as front and side markers! We'll have to see. In fact, I'm waiting on several items to be delivered (everything has to be mail-order where I live! The internet is a lifeline) which will enable me to start experimenting with arrays and such. I'm sure it's gonna be fun! Yeah, I've also toyed with the idea of those bi-colour LEDs...hmm. A possibility, certainly. Thanks for your input guys! DJ
  9. It's a seven-string Wes, but I take your point! As I say, I have other guitars with EMGs already, and it's nice to have some variety! Also, my R7t has a mahogany body and ebony fingerboard (neck is maple with bubinga stripe) I'm assuming a dense, heavy body like that (and it is heavy!) would darken the tone anyway? Bridge-wise it's a tun-o-matic style with thru-body stringing. I get brilliant sustain! I even moved the pickpus a little nearer the strings to improve things. It doesn't really matter and I'm kinda hijacking this thread, but I'd never really considered pickup mounting to have that big a bearing on tone, esp. a really distorted tone. Hmm....we never stop learning eh? DJ
  10. Sadly, I already did that.....on both occasions. Thanks anyway Wez. Never mind, I have a couple of other axes with EMGs for metal sounds. I like the "sterile" "hi-fi" EMG sound. Distorted or clean. DJ
  11. Ah, that might explain why I'm just not getting the chunky sound I wanted from my Capricorn R7t! I made it have direct-mount pups. I originally put it down to cheapo pickups, but I've since replaced those with DiMarzio Blaze ones, and the sound is not really any better. I'm finding exactly what you said - the cleans are good, but any attempt at a decent metal tone just seems to lack high end bite. "Decreases articulation at high gain" is an excellent desciption of it. Interesting! Or, more accurately...dammit! Does that mean I'll end up having to sacrifice the look for the benefit of the tone???? Also, you get those little metal inserts that screw into the body, and then you can use short machine screws instead of (self-tapping) wood screws. That would be another way to mount directly. (BTW-I know the ones in that link above are for plastic, it's just to make the point!) DJ
  12. I think it is better to use as many in series as you can, because you waste less power in the resistors, less overall current. If you want 10 overall, and say they drop 1.5V each, you might find 5 in series with one resistor works with 9V, then have two such series in parallel to make 10. Thanks. Hmm, that's interesting. When I put in some values into this wizard, that is exactly what it suggests doing: 2 strips in series linked in parallel to make an array of ten. Like so: Right, enough pontification, I've ordered some LEDs and some resisitors and I'm just gonna physically try it a few ways and see what works best! DJ
  13. Bump! Just out of interest: where did you get the fingerboard? Was it an off-the-shelf blank? What width is it where the neck ends? (I have a fingerboard blank I'm considering using for an 8 string, but I don't know if it's wide enough at that end!! I can't seem to find out the string spacing of a Hipshot 8-string bridge, or I would draw up a mockup to work out the necessary 'board width.) Thanks, DJ
  14. Yeah, I'm really thinking that parallel is the way to go with this anyway now. Thanks, DJ
  15. Thanks Garth, that really does help! OK, I went to that page and entered the following figures: source voltage = 9v diode forward voltage = 0.7v diode forward current = 4mA number of leds in array = 10 hit the button to let the wizard design the array, brilliant! So, one question: if I make it exactly as it shows, will I get even brightness across all ten? Or will I get the brightness drop that prostheta mentioned earlier? Thanks, DJ
  16. Ah, thanks! The LEDs I have were ones I bought on eBay last year, I got 20 for about the same price as one from Maplin! And some free resistors.... I'm gonna have to do some experimentation now with LED placement and fibre optic cable etc, see what works! DJ
  17. Excellent, thank you! Have now given up on the idea of using a driver. Right, I have some LEDs that I'm thinking of using for this. From the spec I got with them, the forward voltage is 4.5V (they're blue, which I know need a higher voltage). So, if I use a 9v battery, 9-4.5=4.5. The next bit confuses me slightly. You mention "recommended current and maximum current values" - well, I have "Max continuous Forward Current = 30mA" and "Max Peak Forward Current = 75mA" on my specs; are these the equivalent values? If so, do I use 30mA, 75mA, or an average?? OK let's assume it's 75mA (just to finish my example and to check if I understand the theory! Bear with me!) So...... R=V/I V is 4.5, and I is 0.075, so 4.5/0.075=60. Therefore I need a resisitor value of (60/1000) 0.06 kiloohms, or 60 ohms...yes? Or, if it was 30mA... 4.5/0.03=150, so a resistor value of (150/1000) 0.15 kiloohms, or 150 ohms??? more ( ) I have some 510 ohm resistors lying around, but that's no use is it? I need somewhere between 60 and 150 ohms. DJ
  18. Hi all, Doing some research into the idea of having LEDs in a fingerboard. I came across this very useful page, in which the builder mentions that he used an LED driver. I've never heard of that before, can anyone help me source something suitable? Here's one I found - is it suitable?? Also, I've found this kit, which doesn't mention a driver. Is the driver necessary?? Do I need resistors too? Power-wise I could use any type of battery since I'll be making the body. I just don't really understand the electronics of it, and I don't really want to either. I'm hoping someone can just point me to the correct driver. A little cheeky, I know! There's also a topic on here already from a while back - http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...09&hl=fiber Thanks, DJ
  19. Also, my meter isn't a digital one, must get one! So my readings are perhaps not as accurate as a digital one would be! DJ
  20. Thanks Wez! It's strange - I checked all these things before, and even unsoldered it and resoldered it! I must have made a cold-solder join on the black and white join maybe?? DJ
  21. Thanks Wez! Yeah, that was how I had it hooked up in the first place. Just re-soldered black and white together, checked resistance across red and green and it's 14 ohms!! (Don't know about the mismatched coils, must be.) Re-wired and IT WORKS!!!! YAY!!!! Not 100% sure what's happened, but I'm thinking it must have been the black and white join. Anyways, thank you all! Problem solved! DJ Was sold to me brand new as an Evo2. Haven't checked the baseplate though. Packaging says it's DP215.
  22. Thanks for your help so far guys! I've disconnected the pickup, and separated all the wires out. Here's what I get on the meter: across the red and black wires is 6.5 ohms, and across the green and white wires I get 8 ohms. (I get a zero reading when I try any other combination of wires.) Since I have separated the wires out, these will be readings for single coils, yes? I've also just took a reading off a couple of decent (working!) single coil pickups I have lying spare, and they have roughly the same values!!! OK, this is making me think that each coil is working now! So, I'll check that I have the white and black wires linked together correctly. Back in a minute! I'm sure I didn't damage it during installation - I've installed dozens and dozens of pickups now, and I'm always careful not to put strain on wires. Yeah, I like the idea of opening up the pickup, never done this before! DJ
  23. Hi all, Well, suddenly my DiMarzio Evolution 2 has stopped working properly! It's a bridge pickup, bought new about a year and a half ago. It has been working perfectly up 'til now. There's some output, but it's really thin, and only audible at all thru the high gain settings on my amp. The other pickups in this guitar are still working fine. I tried wiring the Evo 2 direct to the jack, to rule out the switch and pots, and it's still the same. Funny thing is, when I have the Evo 2 selected via the 5-way switch then the tone control acts as volume control for it!! Perhaps the pickup has shorted internally?? I'm in the UK, so I'm assuming contacting DiMarzio directly won't help me much, warranty-wise?? Is it worth it to have it repaired? Or just suck it up, and buy another? I had it wired up to be humbucking in series: white and black joined together and isolated, green and bare to ground, red to switch. Any other tests I can carry out? Or is it FUBAR? Greatly appreciate any help! DJ
  24. Sweet work as usual Andy! You really have the whole 80's/90's Vai vibe down brutha! More pics of the nu-look GMC please! Are those mirror inlays in it? And would that be some of that nice green signwriters enamel from the PAW swirl that you've used to re-swirl it? What next from the Ibanez back catalogue I wonder?? DJ
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