Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

I really dig this guitar!

;>)/

thank you sir. we'll have to see if I can realize it!

I have enough trouble tripping over one single coil pickup in the middle, let alone two!

this was a concern at first, then i played a few of my strats and realized I pick almost directly over the top of my pickup. by spacing them away from the middle I'll actually be moving them out of my way. had no idea!

Wow, cool -and you got the most important thing right -The 70s CBS headstock.

Id have to think on the electronics.... I like the board layout and chip approach -as I have so many custom guitars filled to the brim with loose or stuffed components and wires -even a few with switchable pedal effects inside them that could have been consolidated into one board.

i hear ya. I've put sho, stratoblaster, etc in a guitar but as you said... when wiring starts to grow it can get ugly fast.

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

just some minor updates...

 

[Mincer]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

Wow, I dig the chambering on that body! What is the overall weight going to be? Do you think it will be unbalanced with such a light body?

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

I think -even after doing a radius- once I add a 1/4 maple top, tremolo, 4 pickups, and electronics... I'll probably be north of 5lbs... so I don't forsee balance issues. I recently built a dano that was around 3.75lbs after routing but had a 1/8" top and lighter hardware... still ended up close to 5 lbs. I think if you are going to have neck dive with mahog you pretty much have to work at it (like gibson and the sg!)

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

few additional minor updates...

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

pretty meager update but got my fret markers on and re-shaped my headstock transition. then I sang "bondo bond bonDO" while I made this... it's a caul I'll use to form fit to the transition when I overlay my rosewood veneer.

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

so keeping an eye on weight... looks like 3lb 8oz body, 1lb 5oz neck, 2oz per pickup so 8oz, 1lb 3oz bridge, 8oz tuners so 7lb? still will be removing some pickup wood and a deep belly cut - I'm guessing that will take about 12oz off so estimating just over 6lbs here.

got a little hairy this week when I dry fit my top and cut the neck pocket for my set neck version. the neck needs to be glued before I attach the top... but wouldn't be able to cut the top with the neck installed so it's a catch 22.

now to deal with the rounded corners... I'm not that great with chisels... but give me a laminate file and I'm right at home (see below)

spent a lot of this week building/testing my binding jig... required quite a bit of tweaking. Added and then removed springs, changed the length for tension several times... to get it just right. these drawer slides have built in mechanism/springs for making a 'soft close' which is nice. the carriage doesn't just drop... it eases back into position.

rebuilt my plexi piece because I couldn't cut the last 1/8" right up at the neck pocket - literally was that close. So rebuilt and now it has plenty of room.

it works pretty intuitively. nice and straight.

It is perfect everywhere except right at the highest points...you can kind of see here. My donut was simply a plumbing piece that is a cover for faucet pipe. had a 7/8" hole already, and has a nice slope. It is a hair too large (approx 1.5") around and this is preventing complete flattness on most of the guitar. The two closeups below show that it drifts almost a 1/16th at those spots.

For this guitar: it will kind of be cool. There is going to be some manual shaping of the 1/2 round as it won't dig in as much on the sides... but will dig in fully at the back. This should follow that pretty good so I'm going to use it as is... but will likely build a new donut at the point where I use it again.

 

[mistermikev]

Re: Just wanted to share what I'm building on... has some interesting wiring...

don't think I'm bob villa or anything but just thought it might be nice to show a time lapse of my set neck carving... here it is with the facets drawin:

halfway through the first facet (3mins)

facet 1 done:

then hold at 22.5 degrees and facet 2 done

then hold at 67.5 degrees and facet 3 done:

sm thing on the other side... about 10-15mins per side total. this side shows them after being blended together:

move my clamps and do the vallute

the blend the vallute/heel on the spindle:

then to my best tool: hands + sandpaper!

thanks to vallute, heel truss, ebony overlay and fretboard, and 1.75 width at the nut... this thing is very rigid. can't bend it at all yet it's .786 thick at the 1st. no flex in the headstock at all.

the wood I used here is something I have a lot of. wanted to use it for this neck to see if it would be "pretty enough" for a body. It has all these 'brown specs" and it didn't occur to me till now what they are - or at least what I think they are: ambrosia? there are no holes anywhere and I thought ambrosia typically would have that. they are just tiny versions of what looks like ambrosia here and there. Would love some enlightenment on this topic.

for the bolt neck... i wanted to get my neck attached before I cut the pickup and trem cavities from the top... so even though I hadn't cut my neck relief on the back... I drilled my ferrule holes to depth and bolted her up.

drew my neck lines on the body and checked it against the top centerline - looking good. then used a level and shims to get my top sitting flat on the radius and clamped it down ensuring my template was matching up with my centerline. used a combo square to ensure the but end was sitting correct above my binding rabbet.

routered out my pickups and trem cavity...

http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/projectguitarcache/monthly_2019_03/DSCN2190.thumb.JPG.c338d4afb4dfe3a901cd3c96d3ad3f72.JPG

took the whole thing off and set it at an angle to do the jack plate...DSCN2193.thumb.JPG.b0a884129465df599596ec01178d4019.JPGDSCN2192.thumb.JPG.d37c304f7ff2b00336478601168abcd8.JPG

all set!

glued up my set neck version... MORE CLAMPS!!!

and removed all the clamps (28hrs later... 24 to dry and 4 to remove all the clamps!)...

followed basically the sm proceedure for the set neck but had to elevate my template 3/8" to sit on top of the fretboard...

and all done w that!