volowv's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

i couldn't stay away.

Very cool!
Stoked you're here.

Very cool!
Stoked you're here.

+1 - Very cool indeed - I loved your work in the last challenge!

count me in the group that's happy to see you here, too. I really liked your build last year and am excited to see what you do this year

Welcome back, and good luck! :grin:


Dave

thanks guys. it's good to see everyone here from last year.

i checked in around the beginning of the month. i figured the contest had already started so i was safe from the madness. i've been telling myself i wasn't going to do it this year because i didn't have the time, money or any good ideas. last night i peaked just to see who had started threads. i guess the mania took hold because this morning i started looking around the house and the parts drawers. i didn't find much, as expected, but i found just enough to make a strange, minimal-budget guitar.

best of luck to everyone!

i couldn't stay away.

+1

I am so busy right now there is just no way I should be entering the build this year-especially with how much work my build is going to take. But just like you said--I couldn't stay away.

Good to have another vet return.

The 'mania' took hold, no kidding! Great to see you here.

Loved your work last year and looking forward to more.

my main limitation here is that i have 4 tuners. i have no idea what they came off of, or where the other two went. so i'm going to make a 20" scale tenor guitar, 10 1/2" bout, chambered, set neck, more or less a rehash of last year... because that is how i build guitars, but i'm going to try some new things too. the original plan was to use 2x6 pine sandwiched between two pieces of 1/4" maple plywood, with a maple neck. after a few hours of thinking i decided i didn't like the pine. then i remembered a friend who works in a furniture shop. i noticed his waste bin the last time i was there.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7045/6841283262_9091de2112_z.jpg

sapele. alot of warped wood, discoloration, splits, insect damage, etc. nothing very large. nothing particularly useful ends up in these bins right? in a few minutes i gathered a pretty good pile of possible material. at home, i separated the best stuff and took this picture:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7184/6841283208_facd8a1723_z.jpg

the plywood is a leftover piece of luann that my neighbor was using on the floor of his apartment. the fretboard is all the way on the left, a piece of some kind of brazilian cherry flooring that was left over from someone else's house.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7049/6987405343_f2eacfcb6e_z.jpg
then i went to another friends shop... after a few passes over the jointer. the blank is about 11 inches wide x 13 inches. there wasn't enough in the bin to make anything larger. i made another blank at the same time that looks like a butcher block, none of the laminations are over 3/4".

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7055/6841283088_a6f6901cae_z.jpg
my buddy's jet 14".

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7052/6841283020_04033c6ae6_z.jpg
neck. i think i have preeb to thank for this clamp... or someone else who got it from preeb. i use the dial on the front of the ryobi to get the tension even. start at zero and go to five maybe.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6841282950_ece4561d28_z.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7176/6841282850_4bc482afca_z.jpg
later, after chopping out the body. there were some splits in the blank but i couldn't tell how far they went into the wood... but now i can see i have a problem. for a minute i went through the options; epoxy, bondo, wood filler... decided the best (and cheapest) thing to do was to just remove the offending portion.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6841282756_942d7cd895_z.jpg
ran the body over my 4" craftsman mini-jointer, a pass over the ross for good luck. at this point i had used all of the wood i had taken from the original scrap bin, so i dug a small piece of spanish cedar out of my own bin.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7204/6841282684_6930f13922_z.jpg
i had been thinking of going with a fairly opaque stain to even out the color but i'm not sure anymore. there are alot of joints. it's not going to be a clear finish.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7052/6841283020_04033c6ae6_z.jpg
neck. i think i have preeb to thank for this clamp... or someone else who got it from preeb. i use the dial on the front of the ryobi to get the tension even. start at zero and go to five maybe.

I stole the idea from preeb, can't thank him enough!!

I like your idea for this guitar. I really like the reclaimed wood. I do that myself when the opportunity presents itself. It's really fun to take things other s have thrown away, and make something that sings out of them!
Good luck. You're off to a great start.

I like everything about the build--tenor, using scrap, set neck. It's going to be fun to watch.

Very interesting build! I really dig off-the-wall stuff. One of the greatest things about this challenge is seeing things that you don't usually see.

Your really gonna like that tenor. Gonna tune her the standard CGDA? If you like playing in the key of "C", it gives you a lot of range. Not to mention I can get my son to play it and play along with my lapsteel tuned in C6 :smile:

BTW, if you find one of those other tuners, double up your "A" string for a real treat :wink:

Good work!


Dave

thanks for the support everyone.

crazydave, yeah, ACDG. thats the standard right? 10 on top and a 52 on the bottom? i'm not sure about the between gauges, i'll have to check a tension calculator when i get a chance.

axedaddy, totally right, i got that clamp idea from you last year.

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2266xx.jpg
4lbs 5 oz. too heavy.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2267xx.JPG
put the neck on the centerline, screw down boards and hog.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2270xx.jpg
removing the face of the neck pocket. the piece of wood on the inside is a cut-off from the neck tenon. it's really tight against the sidewalls. forms the backside of the template.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2268xx.jpg
hogged. face is taken down to 3/16"s. sidewalls are 3/8". no template. face-plate of doom on the PC690.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2296xx.JPG
cutting x-bracing. set bandsaw table at an angle.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2300xx.JPG
2x3 blocks on top of the bracing.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2301xx.JPG
clamped.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/z_DSCF2299xcx.JPG
1lb, 7.7oz. it would be good to level it again, but i don't have a thickness sander.

still not sure what's going to happen with the layout, pickguard. i'm pretty sure its going to be one pickup. finish--- i'm starting to think black with cream/ivory binding...? but i don't know. i'm going to use rattlers, because i don't want to run color through my gun. lazy, lazy. maybe dupli-color? any suggestions?

Ah yes - I remember that faceplate from last year:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5493833302_0a76a8da78.jpg

That looks extremely useful.

beach weather is finally here.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/a_DSCF2281xx.JPG
76 the other day... in march? something is very wrong but i'm tired of the heating bills so spring is a welcome site.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/b_DSCF2279xx.JPG
spent an hour gathering up some shell fragments from blue mussels.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2276xx.JPG
back at home i filled the jar with water and good dose of bleach. after 10 hours or so i pulled them out and let them dry.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2283xx.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2284xx.JPG
sorted by color. i just used the white sections though.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2288xx.JPG
$4 mortor and pestal. just a swish around once or twice. the shell pieces are pretty flakey and i don't want to break them up too much.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2289xx.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2290xx.JPG
i re-crushed anything that wouldn't fit through the big shifter.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2291xx.JPG
the little shifter separates the powder and smallest flakes so that i'm left with a fairly uniform size.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2303xx.JPG
$1 #5 plastic(polypropylene) mold. only use #5 or the resin will melt your mold. no release agent. i'm using polyester casting resin. there are tons of youtube videos if you want more information. i should be using a mix cup and pouring into my mold but i'm using so little of the resin i mixed right in the mold. some of my corners were a little under-catalized, mushy.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2304xx.JPG
way too much resin. this probably 2 oz.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2317hjfj.JPG
not entirely what i was aiming for but it will do.

Looks really cool! Good job so far.
I have used the Duplicolor lacquer before, in my 100 year old Pine P bass build. It turned out great. Just be careful if you go that route. Duplicolor makes lacquers and enamels. Most of the auto parts stores put them on the same shelf with one another. Make certain you get lacquer.
And, aprdon my ignorance, but what is the difference between a tenor guitar and a uke or mandolin? Construction? Tuning? Scale?
The reason i as is that i've been thinking along the lines of an electric mandolin, and would like to know what I'm getting myself into, lol.

Ah yes - I remember that faceplate from last year:

That looks extremely useful.

look at how clean it is!:lol: i guess i've put a few miles on it.

lately i've been noticing how effectively it contains the dust in the chambers. i should cut a hole in it and mount a small vacuum hose to it. someday.

Looks really cool! Good job so far.
I have used the Duplicolor lacquer before, in my 100 year old Pine P bass build. It turned out great. Just be careful if you go that route. Duplicolor makes lacquers and enamels. Most of the auto parts stores put them on the same shelf with one another. Make certain you get lacquer.

i checked the dupli-color website looking for a color chart but i didn't see one. anyone know where i can find one?

Is that OOB?? One of my FAVs

Is that OOB?? One of my FAVs

it's just south, about 5 miles.... Fortunes Rocks.

Cool shell work... I've been thinking about clear cast lately too.

Dig the shell work. That's gonna look great!

Very cool idea. Can't wait to see the implementation

thanks guys.

@guitarbuilder, casting resin is alot of fun. i probably should have used epoxy resin for this because it's clearer i think. but the budget...

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2285xx.JPG
laid out some lines with a stew-mac fret calculator print out, razor knife and square. came in 5mm off each line on the 3, 5, 7, 10, 12; 4mm or so on the higher frets.

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2287zxx.JPG
here we have a temporary jig. the router slides on the white plywood. the fretboard is sitting in between two other pieces of flooring. slide it up and down, clamp, rout. 1/4" bit on the lower frets, 1/8" for higher.

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2305xx.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2320klhj.JPG
sawed up the shell resin, sanded it to size on the ROSS or by hand on a piece of sandpaper.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2321jkjkj.JPG
this is before i glued them down with CA. black or white binding? either one looks pretty sharp i think.

sweetnes! I'm not sure about the binding...

And, aprdon my ignorance, but what is the difference between a tenor guitar and a uke or mandolin? Construction? Tuning? Scale?


This should help :smile: LINK (https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MoDrlZ7mDcE/T2lDoyOl6lI/AAAAAAAABAE/iXag-rOIHCQ/s800/CD1362.JPG)

crazydave, yeah, ACDG. thats the standard right? 10 on top and a 52 on the bottom? i'm not sure about the between gauges, i'll have to check a tension calculator when i get a chance


Standard tenor tuning is CGDA, like the tenor banjo they evolved from. Another very popular tuning is DGbe, or "Chicago tuning" as it's called (like a baritone uke). Mine has a 23" scale and I tune it CGDA. The string gages follow the tunings. For standard I use 36,26,17, and 10 (you can vary each side of this somewhat. For Chicago tuning you can just use the top 4 from a set like d'adarrio XL110 or XL115. Standard tuning is in fifths, like a fiddle, Chicago is like the top four of a guitar, easier to learn, but not a true tenor tone and the tab and chords for each are quite different. Since this your tenor, do it however your comfortable. With a shorter scale like you have, you could do STD, but half to a full step higher, putting it a fourth lower than an octave mando. With the shorter scale, you could could up to G. The possibilities are endless :lol:. Read here LINK (http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/cittern.html)



black or white binding? either one looks pretty sharp i think.

Like the black myself :wink:

Dave

I like the black binding better FWIW, great looking build and very unique. Love the weight, that's my kinda guitar. What is that giant face plate on your router made out of? I must have one.

thanks crazydave, i totally missed that question... my mind is stuck on paint right now. thanks for the gauge info too. i think i'm going to go with heavier strings and keep the tuning CDGA even though the scale is shorter.

muzikp- on the weight, granted it's not a full size body and it doesn't have a back yet, but i was pretty excited to reduce it by almost two thirds, 4.25lbs to 1.5lbs. the faceplate is just plexiglass. it was originally some kind of packing material for a large roll.

on the binding, i like the black binding too. i'm going to have to double bind the body since i'm using a plywood back. given what i have sitting on the shelf here are some possible combinations that i'm considering:

black body, ivory or white binding, tort guard, black PU.
duplicolor light colored body, black binding, black guard, black PU.
duplicolor light colored body, white or ivory binding, tort guard, shell flake(?) PU.

i also have a single ply white guard blank, but its not calling me at the moment.

i'd like to find some kind of light green or blue. at moment gold or silver seem oddly interesting though. there are so many silver cars these days... fender did have inca silver and shoreline gold on the chart.

it's seems there is no duplicolor color chart. i checked some huge auto paint databases online but i don't really know what's available off the shelf locally. i'm going to have to go to the autoparts store and write down everything that looks promising and check on google.

meanwhile... some of the less exciting action.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2282xx.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2308xxx.JPG
the end looked ugly so i made a plug.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2307xxx.JPG
moved bandsaw table to 5 degrees, set the neck face down and marked with a level.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2314utuy.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2315hjgj.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2323uikljl.JPG
i leveled the face of the headstock on the ROSS before the fretboard went on. i use a couple sewing pins for alignment. just tap the ends in with a little hammer until they bend and clip everything but a few mm's off the top. pop the fretboard on with a few taps from the hammer and it sticks in place.

beach weather is finally here.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/a_DSCF2281xx.JPG
76 the other day... in march? something is very wrong but i'm tired of the heating bills so spring is a welcome site....
You're killing me... It's snowed here just about every day since the beginning of the challenge... Someday my spring will come...

it's been in the 80s for the past few days mojotron. it's unreal. i'm sure we are going to have to pay for this later. usually this time of year we are hoping we aren't going to get a snow storm on april 1st.

well, i'm just plugging away at the guitar.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2324xx.JPG
cutting the neck taper. one side and then move the board to the other.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2325ljk.JPG
i cut the binding channel here also. i forgot to mention that i cut the fret slots awhile ago, before i glued the board to the neck. i use a razor blade to score the lines, then .11 razor saw to open the slots, and finally a stew-mac fret saw. freehand, no jig. it doesn't look very interesting in pictures so i forgot to even take a picture of it.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2327hgfj.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2328kijh.JPG
don't fight the ross. it knows whats best.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2330xxx.JPG
i went with a very simple headstock. everything i drew out looked like something else and i just got bored with it. i cut this headstock to thickness by dragging it backward on one side of the bandsaw blade. the teeth remove a 32nd-64th on each drag. this is why there is an unusual amount of sawdust on the table. once i got close i leveled it out with the ross.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2332hhjf.JPG
only a few worm holes left.

I like it! :smile:

I appreciate the "shell into inlay" idea. Living in Florida, I can walk out to the backyard
and find shells and I've always wonder how to get them turned into inlays. Good work.

Hey, I think I have a mortar and pestle somewhere...
Very cool!

I dig the headstock too. It's like a few well-placed notes...

Well, Sydney's full of beaches isn't it? I'll be out there with a small plastic bucket next time we visit the mother-in-law in Manly ... actually it's only 20 minutes away, no need to visit the mother-in-law is there:roll: ?

Volowv, nice build and thanks for the inspiration. Love last year's build too by the way...

thanks guys.

a tip on shell collection, look for stuff is flakey or damaged. the easiest stuff to work with is almost falling apart when you find it at the beach. look for small thin walled shells too. anything that is thick is going to require so much grinding that nothing will really be left of it by the time you get it to a useable size.

on the headstock, i was a little concerned about weight too. the body is so light... it seems to be balancing nicely.

on the paint front, i went to the autoparts store and wrote down anything that seemed promising and check google. i didn't find any of the many silver tones acceptable. "storm grey metallic", which is a GM color, is growing on me. earlier in the day i had seen a dark grey metallic Edsel at the gas station. didn't look too bad.

back at the shop... cutting some rudimentary faucets. the neck is so small that it didn't really take much. its 3/4" at the nut, 7/8" up at the 15th fret.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2333njhf.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2334kjg.JPG
i smoothed over some of it with the ROSS.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2335ghd.JPG
then shoeshined with 80.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2341lokk.JPG
ground down the heel with a block and 80 grit. a little ROSSing was involved also.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2343hgf.JPG
radiused the fretboard. polished the inlays up to 400.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2345xvb.JPG
had to be a little more careful than usual. i didn't think the inlays would pop out, but resin is fairly brittle and a stray hammer blow would not be good.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2347hj.JPG
ground down the fret ends inside the binding channel, ala gibson. i hate doing fret ends, so the frets go in first.

Wow, volowv, you've got a lot of cool tricks up your sleeve.
Super educational. I want to see how you approach the binding
on the neck. Do you prefer a certain thickness binding on the
neck? In particular I'm wondering 0.060" vs. 0.040".

BTW, Get Happy may be my favorite album of
all time. I wore out a couple of vinyl copies of it, and learned
the bass part to every tune. Great bass playing!

Definitely looking good. I do have a question though. Why do you have a fret marker on 10? Is it something that is usual on tenor guitars?

Definitely looking good. I do have a question though. Why do you have a fret marker on 10? Is it something that is usual on tenor guitars?

i had to think about that for a while before i did it. doesn't quite seem right, does it? maybe crazydave will chime in, but it seems that instruments that are tuned in 5th, like mandolins, mandolas, tenor guitars, etc, have a markers at the 10th fret. finally, i checked the bigsby book and his tenors had markers at the 10th. i couldn't really argue with that.

Wow, volowv, you've got a lot of cool tricks up your sleeve.
Super educational. I want to see how you approach the binding
on the neck. Do you prefer a certain thickness binding on the
neck? In particular I'm wondering 0.060" vs. 0.040".

BTW, Get Happy may be my favorite album of
all time. I wore out a couple of vinyl copies of it, and learned
the bass part to every tune. Great bass playing!

get happy is certainly my favorite costello record. i'm a bass player at heart, started on the bass. completely agree with you about bruce thomas, one of the most underrated bassist.

sometimes i wonder what everyone else is listening too in their shops. i listen to music all the time while i'm working but it doesn't come up much in these posts, so i decided to stick the covers in the photos, to give everyone an idea of what's going on.

i hope someone is getting something out of this thread.:lol: admittedly, my methods are odd, and my documentation is sketchy... but i think the ideas are what is important, not the details, because everyone else's specifics are going to be different.

on the binding, i probably should be using something thinner like .040, but i'm using using $1 .060 binding i got from bezdez. i might undercut the channel a little bit, but not .040, maybe .050? and then just shave it flat with a razor. i use a roybi laminate trimmer from the 1980s so it's not hard to do this sort of thing... it is a bit harder to get consistent results, but its worth the $5 i paid for it.

so, after the frets are ground flush with the binding channel end i blue the frets and level, then check with a rocker, re-blue and relevel if necessary. i use a sheet of sandpaper (200, 300) on a radius block. re-blue and crown, wrap the crowning file with 300 sandpaper and polish a bit and then just run over the ends with a little 300. not major sanding, just taking off any burrs.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2352kh.JPG
then the binding gets glued on. the whole thing. you can see it sticking up in the picture. it should be roughly level with the top of the frets. i'm sure there is a proper way to do this. btw, i stole the basic idea from a stewmac email last year, so if you check the back files i'm sure there is a more official version out there. i love dan and eric but somehow they had managed use a bandsaw to notch the binding... which i thought was silly. very silly.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2353khjh.JPG
what i do then is just run a razor on the binding at 45 degree angle, up and down the entire neck. in a short while you should be roughly even with the fretboard on the outside of the binding(if that makes sense), and you will start to see little bumps like this:
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2364lpoo.JPG
at this point i might take a sanding block to the fret ends and the bumps, and just clip the very tip off, it really depends on how the frets went in, how high they were to begin with in relation to the binding, etc... use your own judgement.

then just turn the razor level with the fretboard and grind off the section between the frets. it's not going to be as smooth as if you'd sanded the board before the frets went in, but it's so much easier to deal with than under clipping tangs and polishing fret ends.

sorry, my good camera died a few months ago. i'm still getting use to this horrible camera, it won't focus and every picture needs a flash.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2365ihjio.JPG
then i'm pretty much done. i don't like little files, or taping off the fingerboard or all of the rest of the unpleasantness of fretting. i said it before, i'm lazy. the whole process is easy and very fast.

fret dots.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2366lpl.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2367hkk.JPG

Looking good -- thanks for the detailed comments on how you
do the neck binding.

thanks flatfive.

strangely enough, not the worst binding job i've ever done.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2354sdfg.JPG
i use medium viscosity CA. i just hold it for a minute until it sets. the challenge is in not gluing your hand to the guitar.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2356hhj.JPG
grinding the body flush with the binding. not really the way you want to do
it.

so i need to rout for a pickup. i rarely use templates for anything. i can't really see using MDF for a guitar i'm only going to make once and my bits are more or less trashed. so, here is what i do...
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2357hj.JPG
i use the outside of the router base as the bearing. it's 5.75" across. i make a box out of construction debris... 2x4"s and luann and some sheet rock screws. i want a 2.5"x1" rout and i'm using a 1/2" bit. add the dimensions to the measurements of the router base and subtract the bit diameter. for a 2.5"x1" rout i made and 7.75"x6.25" box. its not rocket science, but it's an effective way to do things on the cheap.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2359iiii.JPG
i mark the centerline on the body and then draw a centerline on the template. drill a hole for the bit to drop into and rout.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2360ooo.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2361iii.JPG

Looking very elegant. Especially like your big, bold binding.

i had to think about that for a while before i did it. doesn't quite seem right, does it? maybe crazydave will chime in, but it seems that instruments that are tuned in 5th, like mandolins, mandolas, tenor guitars, etc, have a markers at the 10th fret. finally, i checked the bigsby book and his tenors had markers at the 10th. i couldn't really argue with that
Your correct, markers at the tenth fret are very common on these instruments. I've heard quite a few therories, none I put much faith in. I'm sure, at some point, there was a point in it :lol:

thanks newtherapist. i guess it looks large because the body is undersized.

crazydave, it makes as much sense as putting a marker at the 9th fret. who knows.

glued the neck.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/DSCF2372fgh.JPG
cut the back.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/DSCF2374iuyi.JPG
got out the body clamp.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/DSCF2376oiuo.JPG
five minutes later.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/DSCF2378iuy.JPG
no more fighting with clamps.

3/4" plywood and some 1/4" carriage bolts. cheap. cheap. cheap. not stiff enough? double up the plywood and glue it together.

Can't wait to see the clamps (or should I say clamping jig) come off. Going to look great!

Is it a PITA getting all the bolts in the holes? It looks like it would be a little cumbersome to do.

Is it a PITA getting all the bolts in the holes? It looks like it would be a little cumbersome to do.
Ya, when I did something like that for a different jig - this reminds me that I need to make one of these myself - I just got a 4' threaded rod and some nuts, then epoxied segments of the rod into holes so that the only end I had to position was the top and the screws did not move.

BTW, what a great idea to control the torque on the nuts with the clutch of the drill! I have one of those drills too.

crazydave, it makes as much sense as putting a marker at the 9th fret. who knows
:lol:, Pretty much, although the 9th makes some sense tuned in fourths. I just took my tenor out and played a few lines. I'd never paid much attention (since I laid the fretboard out like a guitar) but the fretmarkers could actually be on the 2nd, 4th, 7th,9th and 12th and make more sense when tuned in fifths. It's where the chords and 2 string runs just seem to fall :roll:. Ahh, who cares :lol:
Your doing a fine job building a beautiful instrument :wink:

Dave

well, i think i've been wearing the same pants for four days. it's time to do some laundry before i'm tempted to wear 'good' clothes into the shop, just for a second. five minutes later... i've sanded a hole through my pants and smeared glue on my shirt.:lol: i should note that i have managed to keep the dirty dishes down to a reasonable level in the sink.

on the clamp, i've thought about spinning a nut and washer all the way down to the bottom so that they don't fall out and don't move, but i reuse this same set of bolts on the neck clamp. it's not that much trouble to line up the bolts and spin the nuts on. i'm sure you've seen the pictures of hoards of steely clamps descending on poor innocent guitar bodies, how much trouble is that? with plywood and carriage bolts the pressure is alot more even and i don't risk damaging the body. but the cost factor isn't even close. plywood and carriage bolts are pennies on the dollar to any other clamp.

here we have a ryobi laminate trimmer mounted under a piece of plexi. i cut a hole for the bearing foot. i flush trimmed the back on the router in the background and i've just cut the binding channel with the laminate trimmer.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2382.JPG
as you can see the bearing won't pass the neck heel.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2383mnb.JPG
my solution to this is just to clamp a board to the body. line up the laminate trimmer base and the board with a spot just above and just below the heel. make sure the cutter edge is pointed to the channel edge... of course. then close your eyes and zip it.:lol:
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2384lklk.JPG
binding.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2386mhj.JPG
use a forstner bit. if i can spare one person from trying to do this with a spade bit...
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2387hi.JPG
2lbs 15oz, just have to remove an ounce for the control cavity.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2388iuh.JPG

here we have a ryobi laminate trimmer mounted under a piece of plexi. i cut a hole for the bearing foot. i flush trimmed the back on the router in the background and i've just cut the binding channel with the laminate trimmer.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2382.JPG

I have that exact Ryobi trimmer. They used to be really premo tools :sad:. I've lost the clamping screw to my "foot" somewhere along the line :roll:


(you didn't mention the zipper, I didn't mention the Trojans, good deal :lol:)

Same pants, 4 days.... haha (I think I've gone a week! And don't even get me started on shaving...)

Yeah... spade bits! Haha. I think I need to throw all mine away, or at least give them to people I don't like...

...
Yeah... spade bits! Haha. I think I need to throw all mine away, or at least give them to people I don't like...

The only good use for spade bits is for running wire through house framing :)

crazydave, i lost mine too, i replaced it with a M6(i think) bolt and a wing nut. it works ok. and yeah, your thread seemed to be getting seriously off topic. :lol: i tried to get you back on track, reposted a big picture.:lol:

so, i did some really poor grain filling and wiped it down with shellac to seal up the wood. i should also mention that i drilled out some tuner holes. i spaced them out so that i would be able to replace them with mandolin tuners at some point. the headstock seemed too long... i just didnt like it, so i chopped an inch off and gave up on the mandolin idea.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2389.JPG
it looked so good i started wondering why i was painting it...
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2390.JPG
then i looked at the back and remembered.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2391.JPG
i should have known something was wrong in the first few seconds but somehow i figured it would get better... but it didn't. the main problem with the color was the color mostly, but also the color. it had a strange green tinge. i probably should have primed it first but... my original idea for this guitar was to make an instrument only slightly better than a cigar box guitar. there has been some mission creep.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2393.JPG
of course, my inadequate surface preparations became apparent at this point, so the best solution seemed to be some light sanding, there really wasn't much paint on there but i didn't want to strip it. and the tuner holes were a little off, so i plugged them and redrilled.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2424.JPG
so, i went back to the autoparts store, wrote down colors, checked google, decided what i really wanted was black but i already have black binding, decided the next best thing was some kind of metallic black color, decided i should lay down some base coats because i didn't want that green/grey sparkly color to show through.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2428.JPG

i just didnt like it, so i chopped an inch off and gave up on the mandolin idea.


:shock:, well, there went the 8-string option :lol: (they're kinda fun :smile:)

I thought for sure you were going natural on the top, black in the back and neck like a Les Paul (don't know where I got that). Oh well...............:smile:
Going for a P-bass type pup? Seems to be the size rout. It's looking good!


Dave

yeah dave, i decided if i wanted an 8 string version i would just make another one. i went by the shop where i got the scrap for this guitar and got another big pile of it the other day. i known since the start i was going to have to spray the whole body. there was some tear out in the top and the discoloration around the joint on the treble side didn't look too good.

this is the core for the pickup:

first, i used a box like the one i used for the pickup rout in the body and cut a straight line with a 1/8" router bit, and then cut the fiberboard with the bandsaw and round it off on the ross. the fiberboard is from mcmaster-carr. they sell it in 12x12" sheets. only problem is that its gray, but thats not a problem for me.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2415.JPG
here we have an alnico 5 magnet for a humbucker and a matching length of 1/4"X1/8" key stock, also from mcmaster-carr. i broke the magnet in a vise and then rounded it off on the ross(not recommended, but it works. cool it off frequently in a container of water.) there are also 4 lengths of junk binding. i glued these all together with CA and rounded them off on the ross. because the core isn't very long the key stock is being used as a spacer to provide more height for wire.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2417.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2418.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2419.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2423.JPG

so i mixed up another batch of resin. a note on the resin, i posted this last year but i know there are new people here so... the resin isn't an exotic material. its for sale at every michaels craft store and AC moore. it cost around $35 for 32 ounces, but ac moore and micheals have 40%-50% coupons on their websites and in the sunday paper. this batch of resin was 4 ounces, roughly $2 of material. the dye is mica powder, which is for sale on the internet in hundreds of colors for around $5 a container.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2416.JPG
hours later, i chopped it on the bandsaw to a rough size and sanded it flat on the ross. the waste section isn't really waste, because i can stick it back in the mold and pour another batch of resin on top of it and it will fuse with the new batch.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2430.JPG
here is the blank blocked onto the bench. i've marked out where i want the rout.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2431.JPG
here, i've screwed a box over the block. this is the same box i used to rout the slot in the flatwork.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2432.JPG
routed with a 5/8" bit
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2433.JPG
and then switched to a 1/8" bit.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2435.JPG

sand the cover to size on the ross. this is a rout in a piece of pine since the guitar is off in another room.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2437.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2438.JPG
cut the baseplate. put the core into the case. sand the baseplate to size and drill, punch the eyelets and glue the baseplate with CA. i've also cut a notch in the base of the cover around the eyelets with a razor blade and a file.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2440.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2441.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2442.JPG

Nice work on the pickup! Is that polyester resin you're using?
Looks like handy stuff.

Very cool pickup-making. I'm not even brave enough to try winding my own with pre-made
parts, let alone building the entire thing. Very nice and I can't wait to hear this thing.

thanks guys.

flatfive, yeah, it's polyester resin... "Castin'Craft Clear". very useful stuff. the only issue is working on small pieces with large routers... i've never had a piece blow up on me because it machines and sands very easily, it's just a matter of keeping the workpiece in place. but you can see exactly how i do it here... which works fine for me.

emoney, i really enjoy making pickups. it's not really that hard, in my opinion... it's just like building a guitar, everyone thinks that's really hard too, right? i don't think i'd have as much fun if i were following a pattern, trying to reproduce the classic designs. i really do admire people who can do it, but it's never what i set out to do.

sanding... 220, 320, 400
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2445.JPG
drill for screws. i use a larger bit to recess the heads and then drill through to the baseplate with a small bit.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2446.JPG
here you can see the notch in the base of the cover for the eyelets and wires.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2448.JPG
kenmore winder. no counter, i just wind until the bobbin is full. i sometimes use an online calculator to make sure the bobbin is roughly the right size to hold enough wire to produce a good amount of impedence.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2449.JPG
i use a hose clamp to hold some small steel brackets i made to hold a piece of advantec decking to the spinner on the sewing machine. i just tape the bobbin to the faceplate. a few tips: tape some shims into the foot controller, i use pennies and dimes, so that when it is fully depressed it is running at the right speed. if you don't shim the pedal, the fully depressed speed is far too fast. also, as the controller heats up it will run faster due to the decrease in resistance in the resostat, so set your stop shims with the pedal warmed up. also, in the picture below you notice that there is a smaller dial/knob on the spinner, this knob, when disengaged, disconnects the sewing section of the machine so you don't have to listen to it while winding. i'm not sure if this is on every machine, but its a feature you might want to look for if you decide to go this route for a winder. i paid $13 for this machine at the salvation army.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2450.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2452.JPG
sanded out to 2000 and buffed with a ryobi buffer. poly resin buffs out very well with just sandpaper and the ryobi if you spend the time on it. i've looked into epoxy resins but they seem to require special "plastic buffing" agents.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2466.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2468.JPG

Nice work. For me there's just so much mystery in pickup winding-- partly because I've never done it, and partly because electronics are just so foreign to me. I've never understood anything about them.

Seeing you tackle it like this really takes some of the "magical" aspect out of it, which is a good thing.

Really nice job on the pickup. That's gonna look cool :cool:. Just a note here, I've found my preference on a tenor pickup to be on the lower output end of things. Cranked up mine sounds just weird, but then again it's an 8 string, so maybe it's like an electric 12, less is more. I'm anxious to hear this one though, I'm betting it rocks! :smile:


Dave

Seeing you tackle it like this really takes some of the "magical" aspect out of it, which is a good thing.

geez roger, nothing could be further from the truth. im sorry if i gave you that impression but there are several steps that i didn't go into. normally pictures like this aren't posted outside of a secret TDPRI forum, but i asked paul and he agreed to let me post these here for your benefit.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2483.JPG
now, you'll need to handful of sawdust from your guitar body in your right hand, a rasher of bacon or a pork bone in your left. sometimes a chickenfoot(for country-tone) or a french curve(jazzish) will work, depending on your needs. then you recite one of the secret spells that have been handed down by generations of winders and toss the sawdust into the air. if you've done everything correctly the tines on the forks will start ringing.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2484.JPG
there are photos from the winding room at fender in the late 50s with piles of pickups in the middle of patterns like this. when CBS took over they put a stop to it, and everyone knows the rest of the story...

dave, i just finished up a long scale 8 string mandolin/mandola. the pickup had a short core and ended up at 2.6k ohms. it has an interesting sound. "they" say that the lower the impedence the larger a pickups dynamic range... so maybe thats it.:lol: i put a .065 cap in it and it's not too bad.

then you recite one of the secret spells that have been handed down by generations of winders and toss the sawdust into the air. if you've done everything correctly the tines on the forks will start ringing...............................
there are photos from the winding room at fender in the late 50s with piles of pickups in the middle of patterns like this. when CBS took over they put a stop to it, and everyone knows the rest of the story...
:lol::lol::lol:...............I nearly wet myself :lol:

dave, i just finished up a long scale 8 string mandolin/mandola. the pickup had a short core and ended up at 2.6k ohms. it has an interesting sound. "they" say that the lower the impedence the larger a pickups dynamic range... so maybe thats it.:lol: i put a .065 cap in it and it's not too bad

I would really love to hear it :smile:. I also think there's something to the fact there's more string mass in a doubled course. It's like "they" say on a baritone or a BassVI, you don't need red hot pickups when you have a lot of string mass/weight. It makes sense electronically at least, the more powerful the driver section is, the smaller the power amp section need be. That large cap raises the circuit impedance/resonant frequency. It probably is quite responsive compared to it's size :wink:.

geez roger, nothing could be further from the truth. im sorry if i gave you that impression but there are several steps that i didn't go into. normally pictures like this aren't posted outside of a secret TDPRI forum, but i asked paul and he agreed to let me post these here for your benefit.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2483.JPG
now, you'll need to handful of sawdust from your guitar body in your right hand, a rasher of bacon or a pork bone in your left. sometimes a chickenfoot(for country-tone) or a french curve(jazzish) will work, depending on your needs. then you recite one of the secret spells that have been handed down by generations of winders and toss the sawdust into the air. if you've done everything correctly the tines on the forks will start ringing.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2484.JPG
there are photos from the winding room at fender in the late 50s with piles of pickups in the middle of patterns like this. when CBS took over they put a stop to it, and everyone knows the rest of the story...


:shock: ah crap.

:lol: Good stuff :lol:

:shock: ah crap.

that's exactly what i thought when i read dave's thoughts on tenor pickups. i realized i was going to have to really take this pickup one step further. one better. take it to eleven. that's when i thought "what would nigel do?", and all at once the answer became obvious.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2489.JPG
oh how they danced, the little children of stonehenge.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2491.JPG

Thanks for making me look like a dork in front of a full class of students!
I can't even explain myself on this one...

that's exactly what i thought when i read dave's thoughts on tenor pickups. i realized i was going to have to really take this pickup one step further. one better. take it to eleven. that's when i thought "what would nigel do?", and all at once the answer became obvious.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2489.JPG
oh how they danced, the little children of stonehenge.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2491.JPG

Sir: You just won the internets.

that's exactly what i thought when i read dave's thoughts on tenor pickups ]
Sorry :lol:, I'm usually the last person to try to overthink a thing

if you finish your stonehenge pieces in nitro, you'll get better tone.

Sir: You just won the internets.

+ One hundred bazillion! :lol:

If this thread starts cutting the heads off live chickens, I am soooooo out of here.

wow, what a build. Great design and impressive execution!!

ok, i think i'm done with the pickup now, so the chickens are safe, emoney.

anyone, i have a hard time explaining this to myself, but the tone... the tone...

bowensby, the druids didn't have nitro, so this is actually vintage correct.

dave, i think you're right on the double string theory, btw. i'll try to get some video of the mandola-guitar and post it in the main forum.

thanks dilbone, roger and customxke. even if i have won the internetz i don't think i'm going to get a stewmac gift certificate.:lol:

well, here's how things look at this point. i guess i've settled on ford's dark blue metallic. this picture lost some resolution in the upload, but it's metallic paint. i masked off the neck, in case things didn't go well when spraying, i wouldn't run short on paint... and things didn't go well, so it's going to stay black.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2494.JPG
i think its close to the color they used on mustangs and shelbys in the 1960s, so its sort of vintage-ish. no racing stripes on the guitar though.
http://img.cars.cozot.com/pics/us/2012/02/10/1965-FORD-MUSTANG-SHELBY-GT350-TRIBUTE-For-Sale-20120210184048.jpg

volowv, that color's nice, and not one you see on guitars
a lot. Maybe you could refer to the Shelby by using a
pickguard that's white and shaped appropriately (I have
not idea what the appropriate shape is, though -- don't
make it horse shaped!).

I like that color quite a bit. I say go all the way with it and deck it out in racing stripes :grin:

this paint is a little darker than LPB, i don't know why this isn't a more common guitar color. the neck is going to stay black, if only because i've already spent $20 on paint, and i have to clear coat it.

i can't imagine what that pickguard might look like either... a cobra?:lol: i do love vintage race cars, but i think i'm going to steer clear of the obvious racing tie-ins. i think i already have a crazy pickguard design i'm happy with. in single ply black, i don't think i can get away with a white PG with black binding and a black pickup. i should have planned this out a little better. i didn't really have a plan at all, i just wanted to try a bunch of new stuff i have been thinking about.

I really like vintage racing stuff, and am planning to do one of my next in orange with blue racing stripes. Like the Gulf oil color scheme.

Right on,the GT-40 Caster!

i used to know a guy that painted the porsche gulf oil 917's in the early 1970s. he had breathed too many lacquer fumes.:shock: amazing porsche machanic though.

a better picture of the color. minus the binding tape.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2496small.JPG

Sweet! :wink:

What a GREAT color choice!!!

...all at once the answer became obvious.
...oh how they danced, the little children of stonehenge.
...
I've been using spoons all this time!
http://blackwaterdog.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/homer-simpson-doh.gif?w=290

+1 on the color - Nice!

That color is awesome, this guitar is going to rule.

thanks guys. i had to take a few days away from this... i'm a little discouraged. i think there is too much paint on the guitar, it seem really tall at the line between the binding and the paint. it got flakey at that edge and some of it chipped when i removed the binding tape. this only added to the general unpleasantness of scraping binding. i'm sort of terrified of sanding into the color coat so i've been spraying clear to try and melt it down a little and sanding to level it. it's so much fun i decided the best course of action was to start on another project to keep my momentum going.:lol: i guess i had set a personal goal of being done with this guitar in a month... which seems a little unrealistic at this point.

Since I've never applied a finish like that before (all i've done is spray with deft) I can't really offer any advice, but I'm sure someone here can offer some helpful tips. Good luck getting it sorted. I really want to see it done.

volowv, hope you don't give up on the challenge deadline.
Couldn't you easily finish this in a month? Your plan of
spraying clear and sanding sounds right. Are you sure the
problem with the binding is as bad as its seems?

Once you get past this hurdle you'll be heading to the
finish line. :lol:

thanks guys. i had to take a few days away from this... i'm a little discouraged. i think there is too much paint on the guitar, it seem really tall at the line between the binding and the paint. it got flakey at that edge and some of it chipped when i removed the binding tape. this only added to the general unpleasantness of scraping binding. i'm sort of terrified of sanding into the color coat so i've been spraying clear to try and melt it down a little and sanding to level it. it's so much fun i decided the best course of action was to start on another project to keep my momentum going.:lol: i guess i had set a personal goal of being done with this guitar in a month... which seems a little unrealistic at this point.

Yeh, don't give up, you know you want that tenor to sing :smile:. The finish on mine wasn't anything to write home about last year but I went ahead and finished and was glad I did. Go for it! :smile:

sorry guys, i've just been really distracted with this other build. i'm sure everyone knows how it is. i'm going to finish this one before the deadline... i just ran into a little problem.

good news: neck looks cool
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2516small.jpg
bad news:
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2524small.jpg
any advice on this? i sprayed the blue over the clear coat and now it's doing this when i spray over it with clear. i've tried to level it out but it comes right back when i clearcoat it. i guess i'm going to have to really get down into the layers because something has gone very wrong.

i swear ever time i look at it.:lol:

Incompatible base/clear?

...
bad news:
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2524small.jpg
..

Oh ...... been there - sorry all I have to offer is empathy and praise for the clear on the neck that looks great.

Incompatible base/clear?

Ditto

Incompatible base/clear?

but wouldn't the entire guitar look like this?

mojotron, i do remember your problem last year. it was the first thing that popped into my head.

but wouldn't the entire guitar look like this?

mojotron, i do remember your problem last year. it was the first thing that popped into my head.

Ya - my problem last year was going too heavy on the later coats when it cracked - then I had a problem with gassing out later and exposing the guitar to sunlight made it much worse: Waiting longer and letting the guitar gass-out in a warmer/dryer environment would have helped me.

Someday I will learn how to do a good finish job. I ended up ignoring the finish problems and focused on everything else. That guitar became one of my favorites to play - I'll go back and refinish it someday.

Wow I love that color, bummer about the wrinkling. Had that happen with a Tele I made a couple years ago (using Krylon color and Krylon clear) and ended up stripping it and starting over.

I've not done any finishing, so I don't have any advice on the problem area, but the neck looks great!

5 minutes with a utility blade...
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2529.JPG
10 minutes... you can see some blue in the dust.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2530.JPG
a little later, it looks good at 640x480. the surface was level, but when i wet it down i could see traces of the pattern still in the lacquer... down inside it. very strange. and a little off color patch popped up.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2531.JPG
so i kept going into the layers until the pattern finally disappeared... unfortunately i hit some black on the corner. relic finish?
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2533.JPG

Ah, you shouldn't have messed with stone'enge... You've ticked off the little people of lacquer.
I'd say embrace the relic.
I think it looks killer!

finish is still finishing.

here are some photos of the bridge. started with a piece of aluminum u-channel to wrap the edge of 1/2" plywood.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2403.JPG
the legs have been ground down to about 5/16".
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2405.JPG
this is a scrap brass shim from some kind of machine.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2406.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2407.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2408.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2409.JPG

Interesting, I like it :smile:

thanks dave. sorry i've been dragged away from this project. hopefully, this week i can wrap this up. these pictures of the bridge actually happened weeks ago. that seems like a long, long time.

this is a piece of 1/8" aluminum L. i cut off one leg.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2453.JPG
once i flattened it out i taped it to the bridge(i should have use electrical tape), and drilled through the height adjustment holes to mark the baseplate.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2454.JPG
then i enlarged these holes with an oversized drill bit.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2455.JPG
drill some attachment screw holes.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2457.JPG
almost there, i just need to put some springs under the height screws.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2458.JPG

I love the genious of DIY hardware. Thanks.

...
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2458.JPG

Excellent bridge!! I thought long and hard about how to do that kind of intonation without going to posts and that's a great design.

thanks guys, but the design is total rip-off of the classic rickenbacker bridge.:lol: it is very nice in it's own brutally simple way. the only thing i think i've added here is that i used metal from home depot. i really need to get some brass U-channel, but this is what i had laying around... so.

putting something on the headstock... low-budget style.

cut a pattern in sheet of plastic transparency paper with a razor.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2514small.jpg
tape and spray.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2515.JPG
overspray blah, blah... it adds to the charm.

Very cool vibe!

tailpiece=aluminum L-angle.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2461.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2464.JPG

jeez... trying to wrap this turkey up, but it refuses to go easily.

on friday night i realized that one of the bushings on the tuners was too short to go through the headstock. i was not happy. my local guitar shop let me rumage through their parts drawers on saturday morning, and i found the right part.

its hard to see in the photos but there is a second black layer of pickguard under the plexi. the upper pickguard is held up by spacers cut from 36 cents of vinyl tubing. i dug some vintage bevel top witch hat knobs out of the bin. the cap is orange and labeled .050uF... i pulled it off a circuit board. alpha 250k pots.

i decided to string it with the bottom four strings from a pack of 10s (.017, .026, .036, .046). this gave me a pretty good usable range with the scale. the .046 will go down to E without getting to floppy. it seems pretty comfortable tuned ADGB... the middle four strings of a guitar, and in that tuning its easy enough to play the familar guitar chord forms. for the video i tuned it to GDGB.

it was tough to photograph.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2605.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2616.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2610.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2615.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2606.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2611.JPG
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2619.JPG

it's been fun. good luck to everyone in the voting... and more luck to anyone still working on their builds! i can't wait to see the compilation list because i know i missed a ton of amazing builds this year.

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2614.JPG

dloPnn3hldA

just have to send my 'completed' email.

Really cool build. Love the design of the split level scratch plates - I can see a bit Ampeg scroll bass influence in the black bits anyway. Sounds really cool too - and nice playing. Cheers

That is a real beauty. The multi level guard is inspired thinking, and really adds to the build.

It sounds fantastic too!

I'm crazy about the aluminium hardware. I love seeing it used like this, it's such a versatile material to work with.

Such style and ingenuity!
Thanks for doing such a thorough tutorial on the pup building and shell inlays.
This thread is a valuable reference.

thanks guys. as i said earlier, my original intention was to make something that was only marginally better than a cigar box guitar. i obviously got off course.

the pickguard came about because the piece of black i had dedicated to this project was too small to make a single pickguard... it was waste really. the multi-layer happened because with this neck joint offset and bridge there is alot of space to fill under the strings. you never see these on fenders because the neck joint doesn't allow it.

on the sound... the audio wasn't great out of the camera, but it got worse when i converted it for upload. after a minute of listening to it i sort of got use to it... it's consistently distorted at least. of the actual instrument... the heavy gauge strings on a short scale at relatively high tension produces a pretty intersting tone. i should upload some better recordings of just audio.

Please do make some killer audio clips.
I want to hear more of this.

killer?:lol: well... i threw this together last night in an hour and half. there are four different sections with two tracks. the melody track is usually a 2nd or 3rd take so excuse the notes that might not follow the exact rules of western harmony.

the tunings run:
ADGB----middle 4 on a guitar
GDGB----drop
EbBbGbDb---5ths from the Eb under standard E
F#BF#B-----dont know, i just kept turning the knobs until something happened and then figured out what the notes were after.

the signal path is the guitar->tech 21 60watt->sm57->m-audio 410 interface->reaper with no plug-ins or effects. the reverb is from the amp.

KNLoRmTblOg

killer?:lol:

I know, I know... I'm a peaceful man... every now and then the vernacular of my insensitive youth slips out... haha.

well... i threw this together last night in an hour and half. there are four different sections with two tracks. the melody track is usually a 2nd or 3rd take so excuse the notes that might not follow the exact rules of western harmony.

the tunings run:
ADGB----middle 4 on a guitar
GDGB----drop
EbBbGbDb---5ths from the Eb under standard E
F#BF#B-----dont know, i just kept turning the knobs until something happened and then figured out what the notes were after.

the signal path is the guitar->tech 21 60watt->sm57->m-audio 410 interface->reaper with no plug-ins or effects. the reverb is from the amp.

Thanks for posting this. I gotta wait to hear it later, but I'm looking forward to it.
How do you like that TM60?

thanks guys.

@guitarbuilder, casting resin is alot of fun. i probably should have used epoxy resin for this because it's clearer i think. but the budget...

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/DSCF2321jkjkj.JPG...

Hey volowv - this was amazingly cool to see how you did this, I was going to attempt this about a month ago, but had some questions:
- Did you use whole shells, or did you separate the iridescent inside from the outside of the shell?
- What brand of epoxy would you use, if you were to use epoxy? I've been using some really clear 5 minute epoxy (glue), but I'm not sure if it all that hard. When I hear epoxy resin I'm thinking maybe there's some stuff that people use for surfboards that might work better than what I have on hand.

I get a lot out of this, and last years' threads - thanks!

killer?:lol: well... i threw this together last night in an hour and half. there are four different sections with two tracks. the melody track is usually a 2nd or 3rd take so excuse the notes that might not follow the exact rules of western harmony.

the tunings run:
ADGB----middle 4 on a guitar
GDGB----drop
EbBbGbDb---5ths from the Eb under standard E
F#BF#B-----dont know, i just kept turning the knobs until something happened and then figured out what the notes were after.
...

Wow - who needs more than 6 strings, 5 even? Great sounds and playing!

Back in 1982 I was playing in the rhythm section of a musical - practicing in this hall with a bunch of big practice rooms. I met up with a guy that was selling a speaker cab in one of the small rooms where his band was playing. I go to this room and his band was in the middle of a set so I just listened in. He was playing an electric mandolin - sort of a tiny strat with 4 strings: The band was a power trio and all this guy had was an old Sunn amp, an Ibanez analog delay pedal and this speaker cab and it was amazing. They were playing a bunch of stuff that sounded a lot like Yes' "Drama" album - this huge/complex sound all from just 4 strings and some busy fingers...

Yes. That sounds great!
I especially like the ambient stuff at the end.
Very cool instrument!

mojotron, i figured out later that the polyester i used about a year old. i used the very last bit in the bottle for those inlays and the pickup cover. i guess it gets a little yellow and slightly cloudy when it ages. i bought a new bottle about a month into the contest and it was much clearer.

on the epoxy... i don't know what to tell you. i actually bought a box of easycast epoxy and returned it after i read the directions which said that you could polish it with "plastic polishing agents". i didn't want to figure out what that meant, because it probably means that you have to buy something else. poly resin polishes out with just sandpaper and a buffer. easycast epoxy is the kind of stuff that people use to make jewerly and do-dads. if you have something that is clear and not yellow like the hardware store types, just try it... that's all i can suggest. epoxy wont stick to #5 plastic either btw... if you are going to go the mold route. with epoxy you could just stick it right in the fretboard though... which must be what you are aiming for.

i'm not really sure about the hardness of epoxy either. within a few days poly-resin dries rock hard.

on the shells, i used just fragments that were solid mother of pearl. its possible when you crushed them to sometimes separate the outside from the inside but its tedious work. i've tried sanding the outside with the ross... but it stinks and is not much fun at all. with the kind of shell i'm using, blue mussels, the outside actually looks really nice... its iridescent blue to lilac purple. if i had known this guitar was going to end up blue i would have just crushed the whole shell, inside and outside. i also have a pile of just blue sections.

on the four string thing... limitations usually inspire creativity and trying a new instrument always makes me come up with different stuff. if i pick up a 6 string i play the same things.

chris/anyone, i'm not really a guitar player, i guess i'm more of a musician that plays guitar sometimes so i'm not really particular about 'tone' so much. i played guitar through a bass amp for years, so the tech 21 was a big improvement. it doesn't sound like a fender or a marshall but it sounds good enough for what it is. it's terribly practical, it was cheap and light(19lbs, i think), and no tubes to replace, etc. i haven't tried everything but i think its probably the best solid-state amp in mass circulation. and i sort of refuse to go into digital-land... ala line 6. i do have a couple of pods but i don't use them much. and my comment on 'killer' was more about the sad state of my chops, not your word selection.

chris/anyone, i'm not really a guitar player, i guess i'm more of a musician that plays guitar sometimes so i'm not really particular about 'tone' so much. i played guitar through a bass amp for years, so the tech 21 was a big improvement. it doesn't sound like a fender or a marshall but it sounds good enough for what it is. it's terribly practical, it was cheap and light(19lbs, i think), and no tubes to replace, etc. i haven't tried everything but i think its probably the best solid-state amp in mass circulation. and i sort of refuse to go into digital-land... ala line 6. i do have a couple of pods but i don't use them much. and my comment on 'killer' was more about the sad state of my chops, not your word selection.

That's exactly what I've been thinking - I love tube amps, but I'm tired of the weight and upkeep... and modelers just seem too...homogenized...
Yeah, I'd much rather listen to music than chops and tones.

I've really enjoyed and learned a lot from your builds! I'm finishing my first build, hope to post it soon. I've got an old Martin tenor, and an older National Steel tenor guitar. I know just what you mean about the changes in no. of strings/tunings breaking our self-imposed barriers.

My next build will be an electric tenor- I gotta try making my own bridge and pickup too! Thanks, inspiring work- nice music too.