looks really good, you'll have a great range of sounds
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looks really good, you'll have a great range of sounds
Here is a pic or two of the back, Dont think that it is as good as the front, so tomorrow might see the front finished. A last light sand and a light coat.
The back at least another two coats.
Now I am happy with the neck, think it will be the best playing neck I have done, not that the others were not good just this one feels so much "better". The question is, will I give the headstock face another coat (?) if I do will it be any better? or will I mess it up and need to redo it? These are the questions I ask my self.
I dont know why they say I'm crazy?
pic of the back much the same as the last ones.
Rick.
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looking good Rick, hope the body in the sun is just for the purpose of the photo
Hi Stan, with the three pups' and the wiring that I hope to be doing should give me a few different sounds, some with only slight tonal difference. But I am only interested in the guitar, straight into an amp. I have used a few different amps in my time and it's only been the last 30 years that i use Fender almost exclusively. I have 3 Fender amps, but only play through my two 15 watts, one is a G-Dec and I am not too impressed with it. When I first got it a few years ago thought it was the best but soon got sick of it even changing the 100 presets to the blues presets so that is only in the back ground silently moaning
behind my other 15 watter. May be it adds something maybe not. Mostly use it cause of the headphones.
Wokkaboy, what can I say! No I put it in the sun on purpose, with this "method" I'm using now I sand, spray, wait for 20 - 25 minutes then spray again clean up then put the guitar in the sun for 30 minutes, then turn it 180 deg and leave it for another 30 min. It appears to be working at present, maybe as it gets down the line a year or two it's will be a "melted mess". It will give me an excuse to get another.
However this guitar finish is turning out better than the other three.
OK DB! I'm heading for the naughty corner to my reserved place.
Rick.
That back looks like honey, shaping up to be something pretty neat.
looking nice and tasty :)
I'd keep that as is on the back mate. Looking great.
HI Again.
Well gave the face a sand with 600 (wet) then sprayed a coat top and sides. Not too much to say about but there will be no more spraying maybe not even a polish, well yeah a polish just to finish it.
Tomorrow one coat on the back (after a light sand) and will see how it looks.
Pic 1 Our back fence loos nice reflected on the guitar.
Pic 2 I like it.
Pic 3 As too our neighbours palm as a "bridge"
Ric.
Ps no sun today.
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Looking awesome dude!
Cheers,
Gav.
Rick that clear coat looks awesome, is that the first clear coat and what type of clear have you used ?
Hi Wokkaboy,
Ummm, after an initial sand and coating, then sanding back to bare wood I gave it about three light coats of "French Polish" (shellac) then two coats of polyester, that finished the bit I had left, then with a new tin from Bunnings (I don't like Bunnings) gave it that final coat. Now that it is "dry" it feels soooo nice smooth and bright.
Just remembered reading (about Fender) that a polyester gives a plastic look, and that just about sums it up.
Am happy with the result, I'll leave it for a few days, while I give the back a coat or two. then give it a polish with some liquid car polish I have (maybe) or could use Christine's furniture polish, UuuuuMmmmm thats a thought. I do have some Gibson polish but it's not the same finish as a gibo.
What's the bet if I do use something it will turn it dull, maybe It mightn't get a polish for a long time.
Now I hope that I don't drop some hot solder on it while doing the electrics. But I wont be surprised if I do.
Rick.
take your time and put something between the body and the wires/pots you are soldering Ric. That should keep the unwanted drops etc off the finish :)
good tips AJ, I've forgotten this a couple of times and paid the price.
Even a sheet of cardboard is generally enough for the solder not touch the body
[The good part about doing the soldering is it's all from the back so that is not so important, but still need to be careful.
Got up early this morning and, instead of going for a paddle decided to sand and coat the back. a nice wet sand, took off a small run on the side, waited until it was nice and dry then a light coat of the magic stuff. Well don't need to do any more to the back, I cant believe that it came up so good, that stuff is a lot better than the first stuff, I think (may not be but I am having excellent results with it.)
Since that came up nice I did what I decided not to do, and that is "do the neck, with just one coat" now that may have been a mistake. I broke one of the screws that hold the machine heads, not low enough to grab with multi grips so will leave it as it will still stop the head from turning and the nut on the post will hold it. (see pic) If not then will fix at a later time.
Time to start looking at putting the neck in place, will leave that un till Sunday, give a bit extra time for every thing to cure.
Rick.
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back is looking nice and glossy Rick. Bummer about the tuner screw snapping, what size drill were you using ?
She's really starting to look great Rick. Love that gloss on the back. I don't know how many times I've dripped solder on my perfect finish, and still I never learn.. ;)
Cheers,
Gav.
WOW! A bussy day, work in the garden, shopping, and stuff like that. However this afternoon I looked at the monster and thought it was about time I put the pups' in.
clamped the neck set it with a couple of strings, mounted the pickups and fed the wires through, then decided to glue the neck on as I didn't have anything else to do.
It turned out ok, took a few pics and thats about it.
Think I have decided on what to do with my switches, will just use 3 of then and see what happens.
Rick
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...005_123654.jpg
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looking good there :)
Looking great Rick!
cheers,
Gav.
mock build looks excellent Rick !
Well, that was a mock build, but I glued the neck on shortly after the pics were taken, on a home ward track now. Left the clamps on for about 26 hours.
There were two pressure marks from the clamps, but a quick rub with 600 and a spray, almost like new.
You may have noticed that the centre pickup mount ring is broken, not sure to leave it (after all Ace Frehley would), repair it with some epoxy or replace it.
Leaving it sounds good, as dose repairing, but will eventually get a new on some day.
Today I put the pots in and wired the 3 volume pots.
Am waiting for some components to do the tone switches and pot.
Now I didn't use the pots that were removed from my Gibson, the holes were too small, but mainly I didn't have any nuts to suit, and I am impatient.
Will drill the holes for the switches maybe Wednesday, or tomorrow (depending on how board I get) but want to do most of the soldering be fore they are mounted so would like to get the caps first.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...006_143822.jpg
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I have the creme pickup surrounds from the lp kit I am building that didn't get used if you want them? Email me your address and I'll chuck them in the post. lunaticthighs@adam.com.au
Gosh! So many new builds, good to see.
Ok! Today, thought may as well stick the three switches in.
Drilled the holes, no trouble, put the first switch in<><><><><><>too short. Yep the face was thicker than the switches were long. Not at work to have the facilities to easily make it the right thickness, so out came the drill and an end-mill (must have been in my pocket when I came home from work one day), it was blunt anyway.
Carefully dug the wood away, and finally got them to sit ok.
First pic. The "damage" done (gosh that sounds familiar) where I dug the wood away.
second . All lined up.
Ps have made that last switch parallel since pic.
Third . Lined up for show (at present)
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nice work Rick, good workaround, so what do the 3 switches do, just turn on and off the 3 humbuckers ?
or a coil split ?
just trying to work out you would need a 5 way switch like a strat to control 3 buckers
Hi Wokkaboy,
Each pup has it's own volume pot and with this "set up" I am trying to get an experiment to work, I hope it will. All switches are DPDT one on off on. the other two are on on. The bridge switch is the on off on and will switch between 2 caps, .022 and an 0.047 uf, the third position (centre) will be a by-pass (no cap or tone pot). the middle will switch an 0.01uf (or about that size) and no cap . So, hopefully this will give me 5 cap sizes (maybe) plus a "passing lane with no tone. This is also adjustable by the master tone pot, bottom middle.
The last switch is connected to the centre pup, switching the signal to either straight to the output jack and a home made "black ice" through a volume pot. I am not sure if the black ice will still work on the other pups', if the vol for them is up (I think it will, but may not) or directing the signal straight to the circuit.
I won't be sure if this works until it is up and running.
What do you think?
Just thinking I won't get the 0.01uf by it self so that knocks out one position, I'll think about that a bit more. I won't be using any more switches so it's interesting.
Rick
Ok! Today I decided to start the wiring of the tone. Every thing is done except for one cap, the 0.01uf that I need to buy from Jcar, maybe tomorrow.
Got it finished and found out I put the two main caps on the wrong switch, just sat down and the post man brought me some components, thanks Adam, very good timing.
Anyway in stead of just taking the caps off I took the switch out. Now anyone else it would be an easy job, not for me I drilled the holes tight and threaded the face so the switches needed to be unsoldered screwed out then screwed back in again, frustrating.
Plugged in in and it did work, surprise surprise, but I need to finish it and then fine tune as it is not 100% so a bit of fiddling is required.
One thing, I won't get the 0'01uf cap by itself or a bypass of the tone control, but a by passs of the caps.
Two photos today.
Pic 1 partially wired
Pic 2 with 2 of the caps
pic 3 an oldie
Rick
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Ah yes, the joys of doing something differently.
Seems like nature sows mini mine fields for those who dare.
However, the pleasure of triumph when all obstacles are surmounted is well worth the trouble IMHO.
Your instrument is looking brilliant already and should also be great fun trying out the available sound palette.
Today my pick up mounting rings came, so replaced the offending ring with the new, only to find the same thing was happening.
The pickup was firm in the ring but didn't think that would be enough to break it, but filed the space bigger and tried again.
Same thing, investigation found that the screws were 30mm so took 3mm off each one and tried again. Still too long so drilled the cavity (where the screws sit) and that did it.
Tomorrow I'll put some strings on to see how it may sound. It still has some trouble shooting and may need to revise the purpose of the switches, but they will do something. With the strings on it will be easier to find just where the wrong wire(s) is or what ever.
There is a pick up soldered to a wrong pot, so this will be the first to be changed then work through the switches to find what the problem is.
1st pic.....the pups in place
2nd pic....another view.
3rd pic.....shame to not use a pic space.
Rick
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what a beast, looking forward to seeing this all rigged up!
Looking superb Rick. I have found that tap testing the pickups is usually enough to check that each pickupsis making sound and that the selector switch, volume pot(s) and tone circuit(s) are working as expected. Can all be accomplished without the strings if the strings are a hassle.
cheers,
Gav.
look forward to the sound test Rick, you will have more different sound options than you can poke a stick at !
The beauty of deep LP routes. So much room for mods! Interesting to see you put so much effort into different cap values. Will be cool to see how it sounds.
Yeah me too Wokkaboy, I am having trouble recording, have all the gear but cant get a sound out of it b ut will keep trying.
AaaHhh, Gavintuner, the ole tap test, yeah that is what I was doing but strings are heaps better, except the ones that I just put on, they won't stay in tune, they go sharp then flat.\\, had the same trouble with Taylor, but in my frustration I put another set on and I could actually tune it and set it up. However I have the crappy strings on and that will do to get it set up a bit then when I change them it should only take a quick fiddle to get it correct.
I am having neck trouble at present, instead of the relief at the 12 fret it is at the 3 - 5 th fret. I won't touch the truss rod until I put the good strings on.
The action is slightly over 1.5 mm (which is not bad) but any lower and the strings are completely resting on the higher frets.
I have not filed the nut and this might have some think to do with this. I only need to raise the bridge a quarter to 5/16 of a turn to correct this, so the nut might hold some answers.
Now! Having said that, I have played it (haven't looked at the electrics yet) and it appears to be going ok but still want to change a few things in the control cavity.
Will keep you posted.
Rick.
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looks cool strung up Rick. Pity you don't have 3 matching pickups
Yeah Wok, I just put inb what I had. They are old pups' the Dimarzio super dist. being the newest which I got in the early 80s'. The other two came from Canada early 2000s' on a guitar I "swapped" with a guy that wanted a guitar I had.
Been playing it a little today, set up intonation, filed the nut deeper needs the top filing when I put the new strings on. It plays good, love the neck (defiantly the best neck I have made). Had a little trouble with it but an e-mail from DB and we had that figured.
Now some of the things I'm not too fused about, well there is only one, and that is THREE PICK UPS'. I am not used to that middle pup, it just gets in the way. Oh yeah and that pick up selector switch, when I play chords (just about all the time) it gets in the way, hadn't noticed this before on other LPs that I have played although I haven't played one since November last year, UuuMmm thats a year ago
Anyway three pics, nothing much different, will TRY to do a demo when I have the 'lectrics to my liking.
Rick.
and it came with a box (HAHAHA)
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Looks beautiful dude! One super classy LP. I don't mind the 3 different pickup types, it makes the thing look like a tricked-out tone monster. Super job! I would also love to hear a sound demo. I have one of these in my list and can't wait to get started on it.
cheers,
Gav.
nice one Rick, sounds like its pretty close to a sound demo. I could imagine the centre pup getting in the way when strumming chords, but the 3 way switch getting in your way, do you strum over the 22nd fret ?
Yeah Wokkaboy, when I started playing (a long time ago) I would strum above the back pup. Over the years I started to dislike the sound and gradually moved towards the neck.Ended up on the neck up past the front pup. When playing a melody it is different, picking between the front and back pup but closer to the front.
As for a sound demo, I will try as soon as I mod the wiring, it is not the way I thought it should be. Will get that done this week I hope.
Another pic but still the same.
Rick.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...015_153236.jpg
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i think it looks great Rick, nice job
Even playin' on the neck, you must be doing a Pete Townshend impression to be hitting the switch:PQuote:
/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/Quote from rockmof on October 16, 2014, 05:39
Yeah Wokkaboy, when I started playing (a long time ago) I would strum above the back pup. Over the years I started to dislike the sound and gradually moved towards the neck.Ended up on the neck up past the front pup. When playing a melody it is different, picking between the front and back pup but closer to the front.
Strumming up there kind of defeats the purpose of putting good pups in if you ask me...