Yes, I'll try scraping first.
In the meantime, here it is in the sunshine with the scratchplate on...
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/H1x3cJ.jpg
Printable View
Yes, I'll try scraping first.
In the meantime, here it is in the sunshine with the scratchplate on...
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/H1x3cJ.jpg
Cool. If the Wizard of Oz played guitar, that's what he'd play!
Are you tinting your own clear, or buying pre-tinted?Quote:
I thought I'd easily do it with a 230ml can, but I've now run out, so another can has just been ordered.
Not bad for a guy who doesn't like green.
Buying pre-tinted. I could buy powdered dyes and mix them with clear, but so far I’ve been able to get what I want from Rothko & Frost, and cost-wise I doubt there would be any difference. But if I ever needed a non-standard clear tint, then I’d try that route.Quote:
Originally Posted by McCreed
You can also use liquid dyes that are used for tinting resin (I think it's alcohol based). The resin dyes are what I used last year.
I got a pack of 13 colours for about 12 bucks on eBay. IIRC they were 1 oz each and I only used about .5 oz. of the blue.
More green coats sprayed today, I think I'm just about there with those.
Neck got sanded down twice yesterday and resprayed twice, once as I was unhappy with the tint and evenness and then I accidentally knocked the neck off its spraying hook, so the finish all had to be redone. It was definitely one of my clumsy days.
But the base tint coat is all done and the decals went on today.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/IVnW2h.jpg
So tomorrow the first clear lacquer coats go on.
...and time goes by and it rains a lot and is damp, so not a lot happens, than a sand through, then some repairing and more lacquer spraying, and then drying until yesterday and today when suddenly.
WHAM!!!
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/ICVmhc.jpg
...The neck gets polished, frets levelled and re-profiled and the tuners fitted. These are Gotoh rear-locking units as the original Northwest Guitars locking tuners had posts that were too tall for the headstock so the low strings had poor break angles. They were fine on my Explorer with its angled headstock, but the string hole heights are way too high for a flat headstock.
BIFF!!!
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/cRSnhd.jpg
...The body is taken down for sanding.
OOOOFFFF!!!
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/a3B7Bm.jpg
...The body is sanded with P400, P600, P800, P1200 and P2000
KAPOW!!!
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/9cp3J4.jpg
...The top is polished
KERRUNCH!!!
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/MqElmc.jpg
...The rear and sides are polished
SPLATT!!!
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/oQTo10.jpg
...The trem cavity gets a coat of conductive paint. Mainly to tidy it up, but a bit of extra shielding never did any harm.
There are still a few sinkage spots where I maybe could have sanded down more and removed those, but having sanded through once and put the project back by more than a month with repairs and waiting for good spraying weather, I didn't want to push my luck and am prepared to live with those few small dips. A lot will be hidden by covers and plates. The nitro will sink in anyway over time, so it's never going to stay pristine.
Bam! Shinier than a shiny green thing!
That looks great Simon. Well done.
I like the Batman references too!
Lovely progress update.
Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
The finish wasn't quite as hard as it should have been, as that masking tape left a faint pattern of dots behind when removed it. So I left it a few more days. Today I re-sanded and re-polished it, and have started to fit bits to it. Still to solder the wiring, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather the past few days and not at my most mentally alert, so am waiting until whatever I have passes and am thinking clearly. There's a lot of wiring to fit in a small space.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/d7PrKy.jpg
That looks nice Simon.
Your mate will be recording a YT demo for us all before you know it!
Feel better!
That's looking great, Simon.
Looks fantastic!
It all got put together and strung up for the first time and found that the neck angle was too shallow and the strings were touching the GK pickup, so a small neck shim was added.
Then I found:
1)The humbucker was polarity reversed with respect to the single coils
2) The split humbucker wasn't hum cancelling when mixed with the middle pickup, despite swapping the middle and neck pickup in their positions as per the Bare Knuckle guideline sheet for installing a HSS configuration.
3) I was getting no synth sounds from a Roland GR20, though I was getting the guitar sound through the GK cable and the up/down momentary switch was doing the same thing as the up/down switch on my GK2a pickup on my own MIDI guitar.
4) I was getting signals from 3 of the 6 hex pickups on the sensitivity setting mode, but as they weren't triggering any sounds, the GR20 obviously thought it was in synth off mode.
5) The humbucker sound was rather 'meh', and the single coils OK bu not outstanding.
6) The covered humbucker didn't look aesthetically pleasing once the bridge was installed; too large a mass of chrome divided by the thin black GK pickup.
So I first decided to try a different humbucker and Ordered a Tonerider Rocksong, as I know Steve Harris/Arkieboy prefers a more powerful bridge pickup to me.
I obviously took the guitar apart and checked the wiring for faults, but didn't find any. I then tried the components out of the guitar and found that the hex pickup now triggered sounds, so I probably had a short to the shielding in the 13-pin output cavity. So some insulating tape was added to the back of the small PCB on the rear of the 13-pin socket.
By now I'd read more on the web on installing the system, and noted that having the GK board connected when the guitar was just used as a guitar had an adverse affect on the sound, so I bought and installed a Switchcraft 12A jack, which has a simple switch function that breaks the guitar signal feed to the GK board when a jack is inserted.
Over the past few days, the Rocksong has been installed, the middle and neck pickups swapped over, a 470k resistor per single coil pickup fitted to the pickup selector switch to give an equivalent 250k volume pot feel.
As you can see there's quite a lot of wiring to fit in a small space to start with, especially with the two push/pull pots for humbucker coil split and a GK only/GK + guitar selector:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/d1UuI1.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/27p2L0.jpg
Then once the GK board gets plugged in, it becomes even more busy inside:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/ruamVA.jpg
And then it's time to push all the wires inside and hope for the best!
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/buqUns.jpg
Well, it did all go in, and a resistance check on the pickup output indicated they are all fine.
The neck is back on and I finally found the missing volume knob that was hiding right under the back of a sofa.
Tomorrow it will be restrung and I'll fit the Hipshot Tremsetter to help stabilise the trem. It worked well on the Eggle Berlin Pro I refurbished for Steve/Arkieboy as he likes a solid bridge for palm muting. Though that GK pickup circuit needs to be proved to work first or I won't be a happy bunny!
I've set the GK pickup radius to match the 12" neck radius, so it should be fairly easy to get all the GK pickup elements within 1mm of their respective strings, especially as I've cut down some pickup mounting springs to provide a small amount of height adjustment at each end and enlarged the GK mounting screw holes in the scratchplate for them to sit in. I had tried a thin strip of foam rubber, but screwing down on the two ends of the GK pickup left the middle high and the pickup curve radius reduced, with the two E magnets too far away from the strings with the D and G strings too close.
So let's see what tomorrow brings...
...the realisation that I messed up the 250k resistor wiring on the selector switch and I did only need one, but wired up differently.
Oh well. Lets hope it all fits back in again.
Here's the internal picture I forgot to post, with the serial number on the inside.
I've gone for graphite paint for this one, rather than copper shielding, mainly because I first used it for the trem cavity to cover up the various repairs, and the resistance was so low I decided to use it everywhere.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/jiRjwt.jpg
It also meant that I could connect the main rout with the jack rout shielding directly using the paint, made easier by having that extra passage for the GK output connector cables you can see poking through.
What an interesting project, cool!
I like the colour too
Well it all went together again, and the GK pickup side now works.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/mvMTFh.jpg
But it's all got to come apart again. The coil split brings the screw coil, not the slug coil into play, and that's too near the bridge and too thin sounding.
Also, only the outer 'E's sound properly. The inner strings sound really thin and 'crackly'. I can only think that as the coil is next to the hex pickup magnets, there is some interference going with the magnetic field so that the strings aren't being read correctly by that coil, though the GK pickup seems unaffected by the humbucker. But the GK magnets are higher up than the humbucker magnet, which may be why, and so it's just the field near the strings that is going wonky and fighting the field at the bottom of the humbucker coil.
This thinness is also affecting the humbucker sound, as although the full humbucker doesn't have any noticeably weak strings, overall it sounds a lot less powerful and less full sounding than you'd expect it to.
Off to do some research now, as I only want to take the effing thing apart and put it back together again one more time and for it to be perfect after that.
Oh, and the probably reason the Gibson humbucker sounded 'meh' through my HT5 was the fact that the HT5's definitely not well, probably with a dying power valve. Well it was from the very first batch back in 2008, so not too bad for an amp that's had a lot of use. But the Rocksong looks far better and sits flat, so as long as it can be made to work, it's staying.
Well, it turns out it wasn't a proximity magnetic effect, it was plain physical interference.
Although it could only be heard in that split coil mode, and wasn't picked up by the other pickups, the four middle strings were just lightly buzzing on the GK pickup magnets, which were that bit too close. You have a very narrow window with the GK pickups. over 1mm from the string and the influence of the neighbouring strings is too strong for a clean signal. Too near and the strings will touch.
I expect when they touched or came very close to the magnet, they themselves briefly became magnetic pole pieces, much likes the slugs in a humbucker do. Which then upset the signal picked up by the split humbucker, causing the signal weakness.
Anyway, simply raising the strings a touch and lowering the GK pickup a bit cured the problem. In messing about with the GK mounting height, I did away with the small neck shim, and added some fixed height 'washers' made out of old plectrums, which I first drilled a hole in to fit the mounting screw, and then cut a piece out around the hole with scissors to fit under the ends of the GK pickup. (A couple of years ago I had ordered a mixed bag of Jim Dunlop pickups of different thicknesses and materials to see if I could change from my standard red sharkfins. I settled for the celluloid thins, leaving a whole load of unused plectrums, which make ideal thin spacers).
After this was done, the humbucker now sounded like a humbucker should, and with a lot more output.
It was then time to fit the Hipshot Tremsetter. A bit of measuring, a couple of holes drilled and the Tremsetter was installed.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/fj4PYO.jpg
The Tremsetter really keeps the bridge stable when you don't use the trem, and you can palm-mute quite happily without affecting the tuning. The two-point trem is floating, so the whole set-up really benefits from having it. If you use the trem a lot, I can really recommend them.
You can also see the graphite shielding paint in the cavity which neatly hides all the bits of repair work, plus it adds a bit of extra shielding. It's grounded by the ground lead running to the trem claw screw (which obviously also grounds the bridge and strings).
The observant among you may notice the small mark on the bottom left corner of the trem spring cavity. This is where the sixth of the trem spring cover pate screws wanted to go, but there wasn't any wood. The trem is an OEM 2-point Wilkinson unit with a steel block and steel saddles. The block has the now-standard Wilkinson offset string loading holes, designed so that the hole is in roughly the right place for the saddle position so that all the hole-to-saddle string lengths are about equal, and the hole isn't covered up by one end or other of saddle, but always comes up through the slot in the middle. However, this means that with a standard trem cover plate with either one big slot (as on this build) or six smaller 'racetrack' slots, the fore/aft sting hole distribution only allows one position to put the trem cover plate if you want to access all six holes through the slot. Which meant that one screw didn't work. So the cover plate now has a cosmetic screw head glued in that location.
So hopefully I'll take some photos tomorrow (Saturday). Steve/Arkieboy comes to collect it on Sunday. Provided he's happy with the guitar, I should then video him playing it in both guitar and synth mode.
Man, this has been a big job with lots of troubleshooting. Good on you for getting it done.
Look forward to seeing a demo!
Saturday was a dull rainy day (and I ended up very busy on other things), so I only had a brief
period on Sunday morning to grab a few shots of the Hexacaster before Steve Harris came to pick it up and take it away (after a couple of hours trying it out).
So here it is in all its glory...
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/Z3UNav.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/4mKqJ2.jpg
Side view showing the 13-pin GK connector. The 13 wires carry the six individual hex pickup outputs, the standard guitar signal, power and various control signals, to/from the guitar synth unit. The standard guitar jack can be used, and it has a switching jack to disconnect the guitar signal from the GK unit if the guitar is being used just as a guitar, to stop the input impedance of the GK board from loading the pickups and dulling the sound slightly:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/n5g2C3.jpg
The Hexacaster headstock. Graphtech string tree and camel bone nut:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/tvKyw4.jpg
Rear of the headstock showing the Gotoh SG381 locking tuners. These have a great 16:1 ratio. I'd heave preferred the 18:1 versions but they were double the price of these and this is supposed to be a 'budget' build. And the Gotohs were fitted because the Northwest Guitars' locking tuners initially intended for this build had the holes in the posts too high up resulting in almost no break angle over the nut for the low E and and A strings:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/Vv47fG.jpg
Now for all the interesting bits. Two Bare Knuckle True Grit Boot Camp single coils and a Tonerider Rocksong bridge humbucker. The Roland GK hex pickup. Two volume knobs and a standard passive tone control. It's quite a bright guitar, with the Rocksong a good fit for the two medium-hot BKs, with not a huge jump in output or difference in tone when switching from single coils to the humbucker. Steve will modify his SY1000 patches to suit, as his other guitars are all a fair bit darker.
The volume nearest the humbucker is a 500k Bourns audio taper push/pull switched pot, with the switching splitting the bridge humbucker. There is a treble bleed (cap and resistor in series) wired across the volume pot.
The middle knob is the GK synth volume (50k linear), which sends a variable output signal to the synth unit, and doesn't lower the hex pickup signal at all.
The common tone control (on all pickups) is a 250k Bourns audio taper push/pull switched pot, with the 'up' position swapping from GK + guitar to GK signal only out on the 13-pin connector. The tone capacitor is a 0.022uF orange drop. I was originally going to try a PIO cap here, but the PIO was a lot larger than the orange drop, and space inside the cavity with all the extra wiring, so went with the smaller of the two caps. Yes, I could have fitted a ceramic disk cap, but there are limits, you know.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/ArIpmR.jpg
The LED is there purely to show the GK preamp board inside the guitar is receiving power from the synth and reassure the user that they have plugged the lead in and it hasn't fallen out. The mini toggle switch is a sprung-loaded-to-centre momentary contact switch, and sends out signals that can be set up in the synth controller to do things like increase/decrease patch selection values or turn effects on and off, though it does depend on the synth controller as to what it can be programmed to do. On some older Roland/Boss modules, the function is fixed.
The CRL 5-way switch has one side dedicated to the pickup selection, whilst the other brings in a 470k resistor in parallel with the volume pot when either of the two single coils are selected. This made a notable difference to the pickup tone, making them a lot sweeter sounding.
The bridge is a two-point Wilkinson trem, with steel saddles and a steel block. In the trem cavity are two springs and a Hipshot Tremsetter unit, which keeps the trem remarkably stable and under control. There is the standard-sized trem arm, and also Steve wanted to try out a reduced-sized trem arm à la Gilmour, so I got another one, cut it down and stuck a knob on the end. You can see both fitted in various photos.
Now for the cutaway heel and rounded neck plate. I also modified the neck shape so that there was a minimal flat section poking out from the heel joint and a much more gradual transition to the joint:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/E6rmk7.jpg
A player's view of the Hexacaster. You can see the far more gradual neck to heel transition with no step quite well:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/k0rhtq.jpg
And here is a photo showing the standard trem arm fitted:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/cFle5c.jpg
And here's a very rough video showing Steve trying out the guitar yesterday. He's testing, rather than demonstrating, so it's not the most exciting demo in the world. He runs through some synth patches, then some hex pickup processed sounds e.g. nylon string and steel string acoustics) before moving to the straight guitar sounds.
http://youtu.be/NBjolfF2Kx4
And just in, a pic of it hanging proudly on Steve's wall:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/ZKlpvw.jpg
Wow, that guitar is amazing. I'm in awe.
My sentiments exactly. Awesome, and gorgeous!Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor Davies
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
Camel bone?!?
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Thanks chaps. A few fraught moments along the way but got there in the end.
Yes camel bone (Anyone want to buy 99.995% of the rest of the camel? Going cheap? :rolleyes: ).
It's supposed to be a harder bone than the typical cow bone you get. More like ivory. Quite yellow/orange in colour but it goes with the amber tint. (Also it was the only nut of the right thickness and depth I could find on Amazon at the time unless I wanted to make one from a blank. But I'm quite impressed.
There are over a million wild camels in Australia, originally brought over by the Brits in the 19th century from India and Afghanistan for use as transport in the dry interior. And they are a big nuisance, so are being culled. So it may well be Australian camel bone.
Birds go 'cheap', not camels. They kind of snort and spit at you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Very nice work Simon!
And the synth sounds are really impressive too. Not bad for a "rough" demo!
Wowzers. Somehow I missed this entire thread until just now. I should be working but I just spent the past hour or so reading the entirety of this build. I'm usually stoked if I can get sound out of a stock standard build so going through build diaries like these makes me feel entirely inadequate. Just reading through all of that makes me long for a(nother) beer.
As usual, Simon, I'm overly impressed and in awe of your talent. Now back to seeing if I can wipe on stain in a relatively uniform manner. :-)
I put a camel bone nut on one of my builds. For the life of me I can't remember which one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Yes, camels are a nuisance here. But not more so than a lot of the humans yet they refuse to cull those for some reason.
+1 and LOL!Quote:
Yes, camels are a nuisance here. But not more so than a lot of the humans yet they refuse to cull those for some reason.
Hi Simon
Sorry I missed this build totally. What a fantastic saga. All problems resolved with the usual Simon aplomb. Well done. Love the gadgetry. That Boss gear is incredible. If only I had the talent.
Greg
Thank you.