ToddW

Are you looking for a way to get lacquer to adhere to paint and fabric?

Looks like you stumped us. I don't think you need to put sanding sealer on since you won't see the top, but I would. That way, if it's ugly, it'll be easier to get the spray glue or whatever you use off because maybe it won't sink in as much.

Are you building a tweed topped guitar?

Edit: Oops, mis-read. I thought the question was body and top or just body. Didn't realized it was top or top and body.

If you used an open pore wood, sanding sealer before painting seems like a good idea. I kind of think you'd need it more under the paint than under fabric.

I went through all the GOTM for the past year, and couldn't find it... does Mr. Mykia have a different name on these forums?

I think some people call him David

Mex, is this the one?

http://www.mykaguitars.com/instruments/064/default.htm

I was thinking you could recess it in the side. Initially I though you could route a flute or narrow recess in the side and use a slide potentiometer. But then you get into parts supply, how long the slide is, and it getting bumped.

So I figured you just drill a 1/2" forstner bit 3/4" or so into the side next to the jack. Use your round-over bit in a drill press to give yourself someplace to grip then knob, and choose one that doesn't extend past the guitar's edge. Carvin sells mini knobs, I'm sure some others do to, or you could make one to match the guitar.

I would just have it control a standard 500k pot with a push on split stem.

If you get into push pull pots, you'll wind up having to worry about being able to get a good grip on it or having it get pushed down if it extends past the edge when you pull it up.

The other thing I'd make sure of is that you don't put your bridge HB too close to the saddles since this is a one PUP.

Different amps have different input sensitivity, so I wouldn't go sans volume unless the pickup were a very low output one.

If you want it to look clean, why not just hide a volume control? You could drill a 3/4" diameter cavity right next to the jack and put a shallow 1/2" knob there. It's make your guitar more versatile.

Todd

Pretty guitar, but hard to sell a "home brew" for what it's worth on ebay. You should put it on Craigslist!

Regards,

Todd

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/serpar.php

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/sw3.php

Diggidy,

We can't pick a pick up for you Sorry, couldn't resist. But there are too many variables, your ear being one of them, your attack, your amp, the cycle of the moon . . .

Happily, there's also a lot of amount of overlap among the different humbuckers, despite what the marketing people want you to believe, so if you pick a decent HB in the "tonal area" your looking for, you'll do OK. Play a bunch of guitars with bridge position HBs, and see what you like. I'd try to do that with an amp comparable to what you'll be using, because the amps gain and sensitivity will matter. I can overdrive the little 1/2W tube amp I built for my daughter with my Gold Lace Sensors at 4 and the amp gain at 4 or 5, so the PUP and the amp both matter here.

I still strongly suggest you keep two of you SCs and just buy the HB. You haven't hated those SCs, so live with them a bit longer. Wire the HB up with a Series / Parallel switch, and see what you think. You may find that the HB plus the parallel wired HB in series with a SC, or some other combination gives you all the tones you want right now. And if it doesn't, you'll know what tones you still want and can choose your middle or neck pup to get them.

Does that make sense?

Todd

A guitar you made for her!

You probably shouldn't make a pointy one with bloodsplatters or skull decals, unless your one of *those* kind of couples

Thanks, but I already bought her a baby Taylor a few years ago. She never touches it. I'll come up with something.

Todd

Perhaps then a "pointy one with bloodsplatters or skull decals" is actually what she wants

She's a child psychiatrist. The only way that might fly would be if I could get my cousin to have to some old rock stars sign it. Then it would make a good wall prop.

A guitar you made for her!

You probably shouldn't make a pointy one with bloodsplatters or skull decals, unless your one of *those* kind of couples

Thanks, but I already bought her a baby Taylor a few years ago. She never touches it. I'll come up with something.

Todd

I've always liked it too, but it would have been cooler to have been member 666

I had the Clapton boost kit in my strat plus and took it out. Didn't love it. Like the Lace sensors as they are.

Diggidy is going to change the pick guard, so I actually like the HSS setup for what he's asking. I'm partial to Lace sensors because I hate hum, but a fairly low impedance (not resistance) SC at the neck, a slightly warmer one in the middle position, and a HB at the bridge is pretty darned versatile.

Wire it up with a superswitch and your pretty versatile.

That said, Diggidy, I'd do this stepwise. Get an HSS style pick guard, a push/pull pot for wired as a series/parallel switch (that way you're hum cancelling in both positions unlike a coil tap which is a compromise sound to me). Use two of your current SC's plus whatever HB you like in the bridge position when you go to the guitar center and play a bunch of guitars

After you do that, see what sound you still want to improve or change and change one of the other 2 PUPS.

From curiosity, are you playing at home, in a band, both . . . Amps make a huge difference, and my current home practice favorite is a 3W PP I built myself. Did I miss seeing where you play and at what volume?

Regards,

Todd

It's not so much that you can't tune up the new Stanley planes. You can. But you can probably get an older one for less, and if it's in good condition, it's probably a higher quality plane.

I asked my wife for the Lee Valley bevel up jointer plane for a 10th aniversary present.

Now I just have to figure out what to get her!

Todd

Thin CA glue wicks very well and dries Very Very fast. You'd have no time to position the binding, so if it touched in slightly the wrong place, it'd be stuck there.

I think pentacryl is more aimed at displacing the water in green wood while polycryl is supposed to stabilize punky or funky woods.

I have always thought the colored / marbled plastic woods are pretty cool. I don't know that'd I'd want an entire guitar top to look like that, but figured redwood would be pretty.

Todd

Quarter sawn wood is stiffer for the mass, so a quarter sawn neck will have more sustain than a slab sawn one. Also, some violin luthiers avoid using very figured wood for necks because it's thought to be less stiff than straight grained.

That's a very odd statement that seems to have little basis in reality.

Why would quartersawn be stiffer? A perfectly flatsawn, square cross section length of wood is quartersawn if you turn it 90 degrees. You won't find it's significantly stiffer in one direction than the other.

The only advantage I can see to quartersawn is that the shrinkage planes are in line, and if you have different shrinkage %s in the radial and tangential directions, then a quartersawn neck will change less in it's width than a flatsawn neck.

I'd only worry about it if I were laminating a wood that expands a lot to one that doesn't, in which case I'd want the one that shrinks/expands more to be quartersawn. But if your wood is at 6%, that difference is pretty small! You don't see many issues gluing a flatsawn maple top on a mahogany back, and that's more than a foot wide. With a neck, you're talking 2 inches.

I won't argue that people mark up the "tone wood". I will say that finding super fancy quilt or flame is not easy at the lumber yards around here.

Regards,

Todd

Edited to add: violin makers would avoid the highly figured woods because they expand/contract unevenly and the necks are more likely twist or warp.

Polycryl works well from what I've heard. I'd do a search on that both here and on the web. I also know that some people have "pickled" burl wood in a solution of acetone and some acrylic or something? It's not lexan, but one of the clear plastics that disolves in acetone.

What you're thinking about doing is essentially what pen turners do to burl blanks before they shape them. The experts might be found at a wood turning site.

Sorry I can't offer more.

Todd

Nope least not over the internet. I'm just watching and learning.

-Todd

edit:

Oh, removable pickups . . . (googled them)

What I said wasn't applicable.

Ummm, what do shotgun shell ends have to do with a guitar? Walnut and gun stocks go together, but shell ends?

Anyway, this sounds like a cool idea, a nine string. I'll watch to see how it goes.

Todd

Hey Andre,

I listened to all of them, albeit not the full video on Loki or Pete, and voted for you. All the recordings are pretty bad, but I though you guys were better than the others. Stephie wasn't bad though, and if Pete had a voice, I think his guys woulda smoked everyone.

A couple of the bands seemed to have back up vocalists singing way of pitch, although who could tell with Loki since you couldn't hear her or the back up vocals.

I don't think you're going to be able to beat a bikini top even if you're better. Stephie will get the girl power vote and while I didn't love her rendition, her guitar work and ability to carry a tune seemed ok from what I could tell.

Anyway, good luck,

Todd

I've seen reasonable maple from Woodbay and Fine_woods on ebay. Fine_woods is Fraser Valley hardwoods stuff that is too small or such to sell from their store. NWTimber also sells beautiful stuff. There are others.

Todd

That's why I recommend something like the Veritas LAJ - it is big enough to true up blanks with, and can be adjusted to smooth reasonably well. They're not that expensive these days, and they work straight out the box, which shouldn't be overestimated.

I agree with you. Getting my Stanley #5 tuned up took a few hours and some blood. Then again, it was "free time", and the blood was cheap.

Lee Valley has 4 planes I'd like to get and 2 spokeshaves. I want them, but don't need them, and they'd cost me more than an 8" spiral cutter head jointer from Grizzly. It's tough making a decision like that.

Oh wait, no it's not, I just remembered I don't have the money to spend on either option right now

hey, try out this program for tuning. it pretty precise, hook up the guitar to your computer and test the pitches of each string and each fret, and see how well the pitch centers

www.aptuner.com

Sounds like he already knows it's far off pitch with just his ear.

I'd tune it with a capo on. Might take a few minutes because you'll have to keep loosening the capo to adjust pitch on each string, but if the guitar plays OK that way, you'll know you just need to lower the action at the nut. I think a zero fret would be a better design on a mini guitar.

Enjoy the sqier mini,

Todd

I built a 17" scale guitar for my son with a steel truss rod. My friend Mike has it now and his 3 year old son loves playing with it. Mike plays it too, and it stays in tune and intonates pretty well. Because it's a small scale, I tune it to an A. The guitar you show could be that small. If it is, then you'll run into problems if you can't tune up to A and also have a very low action. On Eli's mini guitar any open chords were way off until I cut the nut slots lower. Put a capo on yours and see if chords are better that way.

But honestly, if you're having problems with it already, then I might recommend you return it and get the Squier Mini. It's $99 and is really a fun little guitar. Just make sure you play several, because it took our trying 3 before we found one with no loose screws or cracks in the finish

We actually now have two 22.5" scale guitars. A Daisy Rock heart shaped guitar that is my daughter's, and a Squier mini strat which in theory is my son's. But Maddy plays the strat and Eli plays the Mason & Hamlin :DB) . The Daisy Rock is better made, and has better tuners, but the heart shaped body doesn't balance well so Maddy uses the mini strat.

All the Fender really needs is better tuners! It'll go out if I bend notes. Not a big deal since Maddy doesn't do that yet, and by the time she does, I'll have her custom Maddacaster done. Still, I'm guessing that the tuners is not the only problem with your little guitar. I think it's probably a poor scale, a too high action because there's no truss rod, and iffy tuners. Might be more work or money to fix it than to just get the mini strat!

Good luck and let us know how you solve this,

Todd

I guess my biggest concern with the 8-32 was whether the bolts would be strong enough. I really have no idea how tight you need to make them.

I may order both since S&H is more than the inserts and it sounds like either will be fine. If I decide to use the small neck plate I got from Carvin, I'll go with the 8-32s.

Thanks,

Todd