tklaavo's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

[Muzikp]

Tk this has been a great thread to follow, I've really enjoyed it. I've also pimped it in several other threads when people were asking the best way to do such and such, I commonly just referred them to your thread and said "He showed and explained it really well". Nice thread, great guitar, not sure about the food, Grandma rules!

[macaroonie]

Great work TK I have saved one of your pics for next xmas time. Hey when this challenge is all over perhaps you can start a thread of Grandma recipes.
PS she looks like a lovely lady ! Mac

[nosmo]

The pic of Grandma holding the guitar is priceless! Fantastic job. I learnedly a lot from this build - thank you.

[anyone]

This is seriously wonderful!
It turned out fantastic.

Yep, grannies are for pwnin noobz!

[Olav]

Originally Posted by tklaavo

All right, it's finally time for the picture some of you have been waiting for



[...]

Mummi looks so proud. Truely the best pic in this Challenge.

Thanks for that mini-tutorial on DIYing compensated nuts.

O! and let's hear that thing!

[tklaavo]

Grandmother about the photo: "there's an old woman and a new guitar!"
Actually, she used another word for "old woman", but I don't know how it translates best, so I won't even try...

Oh well, it wasn't ready yet.

I had to work on the wiring. And the bridge pickup is now totally dead, that Samarium Cobalt Noiseless one. It used to work, but I probably messed it while soldering. Damn, the neck pickup of the same series sounds great. I tried to check what's wrong, but it's too complicated with two coils and a strange magnet array between them. Forget about that one.

So in order to finish this in time, I had to cannibalize the other tele I just made:



It's a moderately hot pickup originally from a Tokai, and worked well on that other guitar. I put it in, swapped the scratchy tone pot, soldered, then had to change the neck pu polarity to have them in phase, etc etc.

Now it is almost officially ready. Here are the final shots in a more urban environment:















Now let's do the video!

[jpbturbo]

That really came together nicely.
I can't wait to see how it sounds!

[dilbone]

fantastic work...very impressive

[JeffPBlues]

This whole thread is great. The guitar turned out fantastic! Great job.

[Ryden]

Originally Posted by tklaavo

All right, it's finally time for the picture some of you have been waiting for

The Mummicaster combo ROX!!!

[tklaavo]

I'm converting and uploading the video now. I had to make it quickly, wish I had more time. There were some last minute problems: My high e string broke, I only had a .011 string to replace it, all shops closed today, so no choice. It makes a difference in setup and intonation.

Ok, I played the tune in two takes - first some chords and then the melody on top of it. Tried a couple of different sounds. The video tells the naked truth about the tones of the guitar and my playing skills. Didn't bother to do any more takes, that's it. The amp is a Blackstar HT-5, with a reverb / delay unit in the effects loop, recorded with a Shure SM58 to Protools.

The song is a Finnish traditional / folk song "Tuuli se taivutti koivun larvan" ("The wind bent down the top of a birch tree"), I chose it to honor the wood I used

[tklaavo]

Here's the official pic:



The official video:



The specs:

- two-piece hollow birch body, one-piece pine top
- three-piece laminated birch neck with birch fret board
- curved home-made truss rod, thermo ash skunk stripe
- neck finished with Danish oil, body with oil-based stain and shellac
- epoxy putty binding on top of the body
- Fender Samarium Cobalt noiseless neck pickup, Tokai bridge pickup
- standard wiring, 250k pots
- weight 3,25 kg

[Jupiter]

Looks beautiful, sounds great!

[adirondak5]

Congrats tk , great build , thread , and guitar

[Allthesound]

Outstanding! Congrats on a great sounding and beautiful build , be proud!

[Ryden]

Aivan ihana Tuomas! Se kuulosti Dick Dale keskellä.

[Barncaster]

Hey TK,

Really nice build. I love the look of the pine top with binding. Very different and well bone!

Rob

[nosmo]

Congratulations, your work is so neat & clean. Your thread had so many great ideas and methods I had to bookmark it for future reference. I bet your grandmother is pretty proud of you - and she should be!

[CarlosN]

Great video, guitar sounds amazing! Such a good job, congrats!

[kwerk]

Congratulations, man, that's a beautiful guitar, and nice playing on your vid. Well done!!