The Mahogany Rosewood Telecaster

[Steve Holt]

Nice! Great work, excited for some neck stuff to happen

You and me both! I never start on necks until I have the the neck, the fretboard, and truss rod on hand. I've found too much variation in the stewmac truss rod in terms of length to just cut a slot and trust it'll be right.

I got the african blackwood on ebay and sent it off to lmii to be radiused and have the fret slots cut. It's actually work I CAN do myself...but I just don't trust myself on this expensive wood and I know they'll do it perfectly.

So the fretboards should ship by the end of the week. My truss rod got lost in Pennsylvania (long story) but it's finally headed this way. And my neck blanks are sitting in the basement just waiting for their moment to shine.

If I don't get them by this weekend I might take a break from body work and wind some pickups.

 

[crazydave911]

You and me both! I never start on necks until I have the the neck, the fretboard, and truss rod on hand. I've found too much variation in the stewmac truss rod in terms of length to just cut a slot and trust it'll be right.

I got the african blackwood on ebay and sent it off to lmii to be radiused and have the fret slots cut. It's actually work I CAN do myself...but I just don't trust myself on this expensive wood and I know they'll do it perfectly.

So the fretboards should ship by the end of the week. My truss rod got lost in Pennsylvania (long story) but it's finally headed this way. And my neck blanks are sitting in the basement just waiting for their moment to shine.

If I don't get them by this weekend I might take a break from body work and wind some pickups.

Yeah,crap getting lost in the damnedest places seems to be the norm of late

 

[Steve Holt]

Yeah,crap getting lost in the damnedest places seems to be the norm of late

Yeah it was more complicated than that. My sister used to live and work in Pennsylvania. I had shipped her some guitar strings from stewmac once or twice and sent them to her office.

Well I think stewmac updated their site because where my address was always programmed in, all of the sudden there's a drop down box with her work address from PA as the default.

I only realized it after it shipped. Trouble is she moved to Houston over a year ago. Fortunately she still works for the same company so she was able to text her coworkers in PA to have them ship me the package. But it was like pulling teeth getting her to remind them to ship it. So it's allegedly coming but I have no tracking number.

 

[Joebanjocolo]

Thanks! It hasn't been so bad. Surgery to remove my thyroid and then a radioactive iodine pill to kill whatever is left. It could have been a lot worse. But it is nice to have it behind me.

Hey, nice looking project. I also had Thyroid Cancer that had spread into the Lymph system. I saw my endocrinologist on Tuesday and the tumor markers and ultrasound are clear! looks like you have a good helper for the project! I will be checking up to see how its going

 

[Steve Holt]

Hey, nice looking project. I also had Thyroid Cancer that had spread into the Lymph system. I saw my endocrinologist on Tuesday and the tumor markers and ultrasound are clear! looks like you have a good helper for the project! I will be checking up to see how its going

That's great! I go see mine in February to see what the next step is. Should be done with treatment. Just need to keep doing scans I guess?

 

[Steve Holt]

It's pickup day! I'm bored of sanding and still waiting for fretboards so no neck action day.

We're doing gold gold gold. Goldfoils with gold everything else. I'm just following the orders of a mad man, but it'll be pretty awesome in the end I think

I've made several single coil pickups before, but this is my first attempt at making hunbuckers, so why not just add the complications of the foil why I'm at it. Here's what I'm shooting for. If I'm doing it wrong let me know...but it may be too late by then!

5000 winds per coil with 42 awg wire. Each pickup will be RWRP and I'll be able to split the pickups. So when I do that the two remaining coils will still be RWRP. So the magnet orientation will be something like this

Hhumbucker mode

N
S

N
S

Single coil mode

N
(Inactive)

(Inactive)
S

Is that how I should do it? Really not sure and haven't found much to go on in my research.

Anyway...

Spent an hour getting everything set up to wind. I'm constantly putting my winding stuff in a place I'll be able to find it. And then I can't find it.

Got the first coil wound to 5007 Winds and then disaster struck. When I was taking the coil off the lathe the start wire broke off rendering the pickup worthless.

So it was scrapped.

Here's one bucket wound. Just a note on my strange thumb ring, that's my wedding band. My fingers fluctuate so much in size when it's cold that it slides right off my ring finger. But it stays on my left thumb no problem!

Let me just say... nothing about making humbuckers is easy. Other than sliding the slugs in the slug bobbin. That was pretty simple. The rest of this is not for the faint of heart. I wish the plastic bobbins had brass eyelets to put the start and end in. Then you could just put your lead wire in and solder!

And to be perfectly honest I can't believe how well the first one turned out.

Although since that picture was taken I tried attaching the 4 wire and lost one of the leads. So I had to take it all apart again.

Wish me luck!

 

[peterg]

It's pickup day! I'm bored of sanding and still waiting for fretboards so no neck action day.

We're doing gold gold gold. Goldfoils with gold everything else. I'm just following the orders of a mad man, but it'll be pretty awesome in the end I think

View attachment 1075443

I've made several single coil pickups before, but this is my first attempt at making hunbuckers, so why not just add the complications of the foil why I'm at it. Here's what I'm shooting for. If I'm doing it wrong let me know...but it may be too late by then!

5000 winds per coil with 42 awg wire. Each pickup will be RWRP and I'll be able to split the pickups. So when I do that the two remaining coils will still be RWRP. So the magnet orientation will be something like this

Hhumbucker mode

N
S

N
S

Single coil mode

N
(Inactive)

(Inactive)
S

Is that how I should do it? Really not sure and haven't found much to go on in my research.

Anyway...

Spent an hour getting everything set up to wind. I'm constantly putting my winding stuff in a place I'll be able to find it. And then I can't find it.

View attachment 1075444

View attachment 1075445

Got the first coil wound to 5007 Winds and then disaster struck. When I was taking the coil off the lathe the start wire broke off rendering the pickup worthless.

So it was scrapped.

View attachment 1075446


Here's one bucket wound. Just a note on my strange thumb ring, that's my wedding band. My fingers fluctuate so much in size when it's cold that it slides right off my ring finger. But it stays on my left thumb no problem!

View attachment 1075447

Let me just say... nothing about making humbuckers is easy. Other than sliding the slugs in the slug bobbin. That was pretty simple. The rest of this is not for the faint of heart. I wish the plastic bobbins had brass eyelets to put the start and end in. Then you could just put your lead wire in and solder!

View attachment 1075448

View attachment 1075449

View attachment 1075450

And to be perfectly honest I can't believe how well the first one turned out.

View attachment 1075451

Although since that picture was taken I tried attaching the 4 wire and lost one of the leads. So I had to take it all apart again.

Wish me luck!

Good for you for giving humbucker building a try! I made my first three a few weeks ago. I finally figured out the coil winding process on the sixth coil but then I cracked the slug coil putting the slugs in and snapped a screw installing the coil to the plate.

 

[ChicknPickn]

Hey, nice looking project. I also had Thyroid Cancer that had spread into the Lymph system. I saw my endocrinologist on Tuesday and the tumor markers and ultrasound are clear! looks like you have a good helper for the project! I will be checking up to see how its going

Me too! In 2005. Had a radical neck dissection, two follow-up surgeries in the mediastinum, and five rounds of I-131! Survival chance at five years was 20 percent! And here I am. Glad you are, too.

 

[ChicknPickn]

Beautiful project. Very nicely done. Congrats on finishing up the radioiodine treatment. I'm a thyca survivor too.

What do you use to do your contours? They look really good.

 

[Steve Holt]

Good for you for giving humbucker building a try! I made my first three a few weeks ago. I finally figured out the coil winding process on the sixth coil but then I cracked the slug coil putting the slugs in and snapped a screw installing the coil to the plate.

Got any tips for winding? After a whole day at it I'm back to ground zero. I kept having issues with the start breaking off. I did watch a YouTube video helped me get a better idea of where to try to put the finished lead wires. That's where I'm struggling. I'm trying to get the thing taped up and the leads just fall out and then the thin thin wire snaps off.

 

[Steve Holt]

Me too! In 2005. Had a radical neck dissection, two follow-up surgeries in the mediastinum, and five rounds of I-131! Survival chance at five years was 20 percent! And here I am. Glad you are, too.

Wow! Glad to hear it! My wife's uncle worked in radiation oncology at the same place that's treating me before he retired. He told me he could cut off a couple fingers and still count on one hand the number of patients that he had who had to do the radioactive iodine more than once.

So 5 rounds...man. did you have to do the low iodine diet before every round? That was the worst! I started mine 12/20 so I had to go through Christmas, the New Year and my birthday on that miserable diet. And now my taste buds are still all messed up so I can't enjoy much right now.

 

[ChicknPickn]

Wow! Glad to hear it! My wife's uncle worked in radiation oncology at the same place that's treating me before he retired. He told me he could cut off a couple fingers and still count on one hand the number of patients that he had who had to do the radioactive iodine more than once.

So 5 rounds...man. did you have to do the low iodine diet before every round? That was the worst! I started mine 12/20 so I had to go through Christmas, the New Year and my birthday on that miserable diet. And now my taste buds are still all messed up so I can't enjoy much right now.

The LID sucked bigtime. BUT - - for the last two applications, we used a (then) experimental IV drug called Thyrogen to send the TSH level skyrocketing in a hurry. Took about five days to reach the max TSH level and then they gave me 250 millicuries of iodine. Did that twice. I've hit the lifetime safe maximum of radiation now, so no more for me. The taste buds do take a hit. It comes back in time. I lost my taste for coffee for about a year after the last dose. Strange stuff, but a lifesaver. Feel free to message me if I can be of any support. I celebrate life every day. No joke.

 

[Steve Holt]

Beautiful project. Very nicely done. Congrats on finishing up the radioiodine treatment. I'm a thyca survivor too.

What do you use to do your contours? They look really good.

For the belly contour I always kind of trace out what I want and then I go after it with a right angle grinder with a 60 grit flap disc to hog out most of the wood. After that I use the dragon rasps that stewmac sells to finish off the shape by hand. I tell you those things are pricey, I own two and they're two of the best tools I've ever purchased. I've had then 7 years and they still cut just as good as they did brand new. They were a lot cheaper 7 years ago though!

Then for the little contour on the lower bout I just use the rasps.

 

[peterg]

Got any tips for winding? After a whole day at it I'm back to ground zero. I kept having issues with the start breaking off. I did watch a YouTube video helped me get a better idea of where to try to put the finished lead wires. That's where I'm struggling. I'm trying to get the thing taped up and the leads just fall out and then the thin thin wire snaps off.

Steve

Here is the method I came up with for starting and finishing winding. I hope it makes sense. I watched a number of videos as well but descriptions of these steps were vague at best. I still have no idea how pros do them.

 

[ChicknPickn]

For the belly contour I always kind of trace out what I want and then I go after it with a right angle grinder with a 60 grit flap disc to hog out most of the wood. After that I use the dragon rasps that stewmac sells to finish off the shape by hand. I tell you those things are pricey, I own two and they're two of the best tools I've ever purchased. I've had then 7 years and they still cut just as good as they did brand new. They were a lot cheaper 7 years ago though!

Then for the little contour on the lower bout I just use the rasps.

Well, you weren't kidding about the cost of the rasp! But a good tool can be worth it . . . . .

 

[crazydave911]

It's pickup day! I'm bored of sanding and still waiting for fretboards so no neck action day.

We're doing gold gold gold. Goldfoils with gold everything else. I'm just following the orders of a mad man, but it'll be pretty awesome in the end I think

View attachment 1075443

I've made several single coil pickups before, but this is my first attempt at making hunbuckers, so why not just add the complications of the foil why I'm at it. Here's what I'm shooting for. If I'm doing it wrong let me know...but it may be too late by then!

5000 winds per coil with 42 awg wire. Each pickup will be RWRP and I'll be able to split the pickups. So when I do that the two remaining coils will still be RWRP. So the magnet orientation will be something like this

Hhumbucker mode

N
S

N
S

Single coil mode

N
(Inactive)

(Inactive)
S

Is that how I should do it? Really not sure and haven't found much to go on in my research.

Anyway...

Spent an hour getting everything set up to wind. I'm constantly putting my winding stuff in a place I'll be able to find it. And then I can't find it.

View attachment 1075444

View attachment 1075445

Got the first coil wound to 5007 Winds and then disaster struck. When I was taking the coil off the lathe the start wire broke off rendering the pickup worthless.

So it was scrapped.

View attachment 1075446


Here's one bucket wound. Just a note on my strange thumb ring, that's my wedding band. My fingers fluctuate so much in size when it's cold that it slides right off my ring finger. But it stays on my left thumb no problem!

View attachment 1075447

Let me just say... nothing about making humbuckers is easy. Other than sliding the slugs in the slug bobbin. That was pretty simple. The rest of this is not for the faint of heart. I wish the plastic bobbins had brass eyelets to put the start and end in. Then you could just put your lead wire in and solder!

View attachment 1075448

View attachment 1075449

View attachment 1075450

And to be perfectly honest I can't believe how well the first one turned out.

View attachment 1075451

Although since that picture was taken I tried attaching the 4 wire and lost one of the leads. So I had to take it all apart again.

Wish me luck!

Your single coils will be out of phase, not cool unless it's what you're going for

 

[Steve Holt]

Your single coils will be out of phase, not cool unless it's what you're going for

Can you elaborate? What should I do?

 

[Joebanjocolo]

Me too! In 2005. Had a radical neck dissection, two follow-up surgeries in the mediastinum, and five rounds of I-131! Survival chance at five years was 20 percent! And here I am. Glad you are, too.

Oh man, you really have been thru the ringer! Glad we are both here!

 

[Joebanjocolo]

That's great! I go see mine in February to see what the next step is. Should be done with treatment. Just need to keep doing scans I guess?

The endocrinologist manages me now . I had a repeat Radio active iodine scan at 6 months and the Thyroglobulin levels were less than 0. Now I have Thyroglobulan drawn every six months and a check of my T4 and T3

 

[Steve Holt]

Well, you weren't kidding about the cost of the rasp! But a good tool can be worth it . . . . .

I went and found my order from 2015 and back then I got a large coarse and a small fine for 80 bucks total.

Now that same pair is $180

I'd love to own more. Should have bought them in 2015! But a hand stitched rasp is the bees knees if you've never used one! I've shaped every neck I've ever made with those two rasps as well.