GregP

I only have three words for that one: awe some!

Aluminum foil will work, but you have to plan it out better and be trickier with it for a few reasons: - the copper foil's adhesive is also conductive, so you can just stick'em all over. Aluminum you have to make sure that one piece remains continuous with the next. Eg. that your adhesive of choice doesn't create an insulating barrier between pieces - the copper foil is sturdier, so it's easier to "work" it into corners 'n' stuff. I've used both. The Aluminum foil is at least a LITTLE better if you use spray adhesive instead of bothering with anything else. Unfortunately, my dang apartment and its crazy levels of hum are leaking into my gear moreso than my guitar, so not much can save me except moving to a new apartment. Greg

Anything vector-based is going to be better than anything raster-based. I use Real-Draw Pro, Illustrator being so $$$.... Greg

That SG looks awesome except for the one obvious flaw. The finish is bootiful, though!

Well, cherry *will* take dye + sandback method! My query was only to clarify that it was dye + sand that was actually being recommended rather than pore-filling. Greg

I don't really know anything about the aging side of things or what the ultimate look will be from his technique. But all figured woods "pop" when they're wet, no matter what the liquid is. People use different things around here all the time to show off figure. I think I've seen mineral spirits and naptha being used, along with good ol' water. Greg

Big fan of the assymetrical version. Reminds me a bit of Scott French's stuff, but yours has a thick upper bout instead of a thin horn. I haven't looked at the Duncan single-coil sized pickups in a while, but that vintage rails looks great! Greg

[quote name='westhemann' post='328245' date='May 9 2007, 03:51 PM']This thread is sooooo three years ago,doods.[/quote] Something weird is going on-- I've had old threads popping up in my "View New Posts" view. Which is the only list view I ever really look at.

Especially when filled with Gyros and Tzatziki sauce!

Nice one. So, if you've split the coils, positions 2 and 4 are just redundant, right? (a single pickup can't be series OR parallel, it's just active)

Taking some twists and turns from the Mark Wood page, I ended up at the site for Dee Snider's "Van Helsing's Curse". Some of the women playing in the string section are somethin' else. With regards to the upright electric bass-- aren't there even suppliers who carry contrabass fingerboards already? That would reduce the curve a bit. For the person who suggested sourcing a LOT of ebony-- ebony isn't the only wood you can use. You can use pretty much any hard wood or even hard material. Pretty sure the Ned Steinberger ones aren't using actual ebony, though I haven't checked his site in a while. Seems like a cool project. Greg

I might be the one with the incorrect understanding here, but my impression is that tight-grained woods like cherry won't really accept much grainfill, and therefore it would have no "cool factor" impact on the end product. I worked a piece of cherry for my lap-steel, and there's no way any grainfill was going to remain behind after wiping. So, just to clarify-- is the suggestion actually referring to dying black and then sanding back again so that the grain pattern is emphasized? Not the same thing as grain-filling. Greg

+1 vote for flakiest post by Drak evar. I understand what you're saying, though. I agree that if you feel ridiculous or out of place with something, your... er... holistic... er... chi centre of... er... spiritual ergonomics might be in jeopardy. But be honest... all you're REALLY saying is, "ergonomics schmergonomics, I feel damn silly and would feel socially uncomfortable (eg. ashamed or self-conscious) playing such a weird looking guitar." You're willing to make the perfectly acceptable sacrifice of "some" ergonomics (a tele is still pretty comfy! Ergonomics certainly aren't out the window!) for the sake of not feeling silly, and there's nothing wrong with that. But you can't take that stance and paint it as "a different interpretation of ergonomics." Ergonomics iz ergonomics, and what you're talking about is aesthetics and self-consciousness. A whole separate and legitimate line of debate, but not one that actually addresses the issue. Of course, if you're tough enough to not give a da** what other people think, or to even embrace the cool of alternate designs, then the selfconsciousness is gone, too! I for one wouldn't feel anything even resembling shame with the Forshage guitar in my hands! I saw him playing his own live, and it looked great as a standing and strapped-on (no funny comments...!) guitar, too. The Forshage body is a bit sleeker and less out-of-the-ordinary looking. In any event, all these "live" situations are fairly moot points. Sure, the way a guitar hangs on a strap is important, but that's a much easier ergonomic problem to solve. There, with the exception of the neck weight/balance issue (not to mention overall weight so you don't break your back) it's a matter of strap height and subsequent guitar position. I mean, how high can any given person hoist their guitar before they look like a total idiot? As an experiment, I'm sure we've all taken the time to hoist that guitar up when nobody's looking... not right to the neck, but higher than usual... tilted the neck up more than one normally would... and felt our wrists breath a metaphorical sigh of relief as ergonomics take over. But you can guarantee I wouldn't wanna rock out with a guitar up that high, even when standing up. I remember one guy in my dad's band did that (with a strat, no less) and I always thought he looked a right git. No offence to high-guitar-strappers. The MORE likely situation for a lot of us who aren't gigging musicians, is that we'll be at home with an audience of one (children/friends/spouse) if we're lucky. Generally not. Greg

I'm not sure what you mean, suicide... You don't have to go to your vol knob directly from your pickups. I have to admit, I didn't read the first post carefully, though-- but the information should still hopefully end up being the same-- if they're not active circuits (little circuit boards stuck directly on the pot usually) then they're usually just 25K pots for actives with integral preamps (EMG, for example). It'd be helpful to have a photo or at least a description of what's on the pickup and pots in terms of text.

Does it only go "off" when you touch the strings (the usual situation, if it's grounded right)? Since there's almost no time that both your left and right hands are off the strings or bridge (you can have your palm touching the strings past the bridge even) that means that it'll only "cut in" with buzz like... 1% of the time. I'd rather have my guitar buzz and hum only 1% of the time instead of 100%! Then again, if you knew me you'd know that the absolute bane of my existence is my EMI/RFI-littered apartment. I can't stand recording because I always hear the hum, even with my properly-wired humbucker-equipped guitars. It leaks into my preamps... unavoidable... and makes my life miserable. So I'm a bit psychotic when it comes to hum and I can't relate to tolerating it even for a second, never mind intentionally keeping it wired so that it always hums! Greg

Well, the "nitro instead of poly" advice isn't really something everyone will follow. Lots of people do fine with poly or other non-nitro finishes. BUT, *if* the information is correct that you shot too soon between coats, you might have more problems in the long-term than you want to think about. *If* another independent source or two can confirm that you're doomed from shooting too soon without curing in-between, there might be SOME merit to the idea of starting from scratch. I can't be that source, not having enough experience, but the information presented DOES set off a few alarm bells. Greg

Only difference is how they're wired. A volume pot bleeds the entire signal to ground, which means that you go from full to no signal (it all goes to ground). A tone pot passes the signal through a capacitor, which only cuts certain frequencies... not sure how the electronics of it work... but since only "some" of the signal gets sent to ground, you don't get much of a volume drop (though strictly scientifically speaking, there's SOME!) That's the over-detailed and not 100% researched version, so the short version is: the actual potentiometers are identical in 99.99% of passive guitar setups.

As long as the scale length is the same, it won't matter. But if you're not using a Fender scale (25.5"), then yeah-- you'd have to measure from the "ideal brdige" (not the intonated bridge, which won't produce consistent or useful results). So, if your guitar is actually 25" or 24.75" scale, you'd measure back from that point rather than up from the nut. Greg

What's a bug brand pup? The ToneRider pickups are definitely inexpensive for what I perceive to be high quality... can't say I've tried them myself, but going by the description they're every bit as good or better than a lot of aftermarket pickups. $130 compared to $85 is substantial.... are you saying it's NOT? Greg

Cool, Paul! I personally would've been tempted to trim off the excess fingerboard that extends past your last fret. But that's just me. You might also want to review your wiring. There's no way for me to say for sure, but the gain of your amp is emphasizing a fairly prominent hum, which unless you're absolutely bombarded with RFI/EMI, shouldn't be quite so audible. At high gain, you'll usually hear at least a LITTLE, but that's quite a lot. It sounds like there's a ground loop in your wiring. The good news-- an easy fix! Greg

That's about right for the polepiece of the treble side of a standard slanted tele bridge pickup. The bass side is somewhere aroung 23.5". That'll get you close enough for rock'n'roll at least. I couldn't find a proper measuring tape, but I used a 12" straight ruler and I know that 24" isn't -exact- but it's pretty dang close. Maybe more like 24 1/8". Greg

Fun.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schem..._1t_3w_1pp.html Like I said, I'm not very good at electronics, so I'd prefer someone to confirm this before you go ahead and try it. That said-- I THINK all you need to do here is cut the tone knob out of the equation. So, looking at the volume knob, the "left" lug in the diagram would go directly to the switch, the wire that WOULD connect the switch to the "solder" blob on the tone knob can instead go to the solder blob on the volume, and ditto for the wire that connects the ground of the output jack... it'd go to the solder blob on the volume instead. Anybody? Am I missing anything there, or do I have it totally wrong? Sincerely, The non-electronics-non-guru, Greg

There's definitely gotta be a schematic for the push/pull combo out there. My own guitar uses something like this, but adds 1 Tone knob. I'm not very good at generating diagrams or I'd offer to do it myself-- but if you're at all inclined you should be able to take the above advice, combine it with an actual diagram from somewhere like guitarelectronics.com, and take it from there. If you run into a roadblock, I bet SOMEONE on here can help you out, but they're more inclined to sacrifice their time if you've already shown that you've given it some independent effort first. Plus, if you solve it on your own, imagine the knowledge you will have gained! Greg

Ah, I see. I've never seen that notation in these parts, though it sort of makes sense now. When I've described stuff, I've tended to use longhand (what you ended up doing), though I'm sure I've seen people refer to "NS" (Neck, Single-coil) or "BH" (Bridge, Humbucker) before. In particular, though, if there's "no" middle pickup at all, most people just call it an HH configuration (not H-X-H). It's assumed that the humbuckers are at neck and bridge. Since none of your options require a mixture of H+S, I'd actually recommend a different approach-- push/pull on your vol knob to cut the coils on both humbuckers at once, and a 3-way switch. Should be nice and intuitive to dial in whatever you want, and would allow you to avoid a complex "4-pole, 5-position switch" (also known sometimes as a SuperSwitch) diagram. Plus, you'd add in the conspicuously absent "Bridge single-coil only" option. Greg