Hi Marcel, I tend find full strength TO goes off and stickier quicker than 50:50 blend in any weather conditions plus a bottle of the stuff just seems to go that bit further.
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Hi Marcel, I tend find full strength TO goes off and stickier quicker than 50:50 blend in any weather conditions plus a bottle of the stuff just seems to go that bit further.
I've tried 50/50 TO and never had good results, im just not good at it.:( Full strength is the only way to go for me
Really? Maybe I am a freak or just damn lucky. Thinning it down does make things very watery and can introduce runs which I overcome by almost wiping each coat 'dry'.....what I mean is that it with a rag you squeeze as much out as possible then open up the small square bit of cotton and smooth that all over fresh parts of the surface and keep going back and forth a few times to make sure it is not left too moist as that is when runs develop, and by doing it this way after a very short number of wipes the TO starts to dry and go a little bit tacky, therefore no more wiping.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
Straight out of the bottle is good but if one coat laid is substandard it shows up through subsequent coats. Also tend to find that full strength does not like being 'worked' onto the surface and goes tacky quicker than when diluted. Have found that the thinner coats provide more depth or glass like appearance and wet sand a whole lot better too.
I suppose Waz that be it TO or a rattle can or a LP spray gun or whatever kind of poly everyone has to find out what works for them...
After applying a few more full strength coats of TO to the body over the past few days I made the choice to set the neck today.
The 'strings' you see are 0.5mm enamelled copper wire held taught at the headstock with only a little twisting. The wood pad on the back of the body is a purpose made device with high density bubble foam attached so as to protect the finish on the body while spreading compression force evenly across the back area near the neck pocket. A.small pine block in the PU hole confines the compression force of the G clamp to only the tongue of the neck in the neck pocket.
TiteBond original glue used so 24hrs from now should see this neck fully set.
Interestingly the posts for the bridge and stop bar only required firm hand force to press in most of the way, and only a few taps with a small shoe tack hammer to be fully home... I am more than slightly concerned that the stop bar may work itself out of its hole over time.
Might be worth pulling the inserts out (I hope you remembered the bridge earth wire) and sticking them back in with Titebond and maybe a few scraps of veneer in the holes to make the inserts more strongly attached.
The post with the earth wire is the tightest Simon. Quite solid, but its partner above it I dare say if I used a decent pair of multi grip pliers I'd probably be able to pull the post out with minimal effort...
Including a dab of Titebond in the hole beside the post is most likely all it needs.
Unfortunately having pushed the insert in once, the hole will now be wider and so the insert will be looser when pushed in again. hence the suggestion of sticking some thin bits of wood around the sides, as well as some Titebond.
Titebond won't stick that well to the metal, so it won't make the insert impossible to remove if this is ever needed at a later date, but it will fill out some of the gaps.
Imagine this Simon.... A precisely machined metal shaft sliding into a precisely drilled hole in a metal block with both parts covered in extremely thick heavy oil. There is considerable resistance however the parts do not freely move yet nor are they stuck firm.
There is a solution, just gotta find it...
Fitted all the hardware, shielded the control cavity. completed the electronics using kit parts for now, so most of the actual build part is done
Just waiting for my headstock label thingamy, then I'll fit some strings...
If it was me, I'd run some more copper tape around the lip of the control cavity. There's not a lot there at present to contact any shielding on the underside of the cavity cover plate, in order to complete your Faraday cage. Even if it's just around the screw holes, at least it's in areas where there will be a good contact pressure.
I admire the way you did the wiring and soldering. Respect!
I wanted a Black headstock and using transfers wouldn't work if I wanted my name on it so I went to a local sign maker place and got them to make a engraved plate that I could stick on. Also got them to engrave an old truss rod cover that I supplied.
Once I had the name plate and it was glued in place I then had to use a Dremmel to carve away the excess bits and holes for the tuners and truss rod access. Then the get the edge even closer I used a file to match the edge of the name plate to the shape of the Mahogany head stock. A few minor errors were hidden with fresh coats of FW stain and TO.
I think it looks pretty good, though next time the name plate will go on before the head stock is shaped instead of being the last item of the assembly part of the build.
Nut needs only minor adjustment, and I doubt I'll need to do a fret level as every note rings clean... I suppose all that is left is Intonation and play ...
Well done mate. Looks nice and shiny.
That's a beaut Marcel!
Scored a goal in the looks department, however it was only after plugging the buggar into an amp that I discovered the real hidden nasty...
Intonation went fine... tunes up easy peasy...
Strike a 3 string chord on the E, A & D strings.... Damn awesome... sounds hot... With my AC18 i/p gain cranked it is a dead ringer for ACDC or Sabath
Include the G string.... Uuuugh !?! ... WTF?
Check tuning and intonation again... yep, all strings just fine and dandy ... Any chord that includes the G string...YucK!!!!!!
Seems there is an 'out of tune' issue on all the first 12 fretted G notes, by at least about 3 or 4 cents flat on the 2nd fret with less higher up, presumably most probably I'm guessing based on something wrong to do with the nut....
I doubt it's the nut. A dodgy slot can cause issues with the open G note, and a high slot can cause issues on the first one or two frets, but not up to 12. I'd be more inclined to try a new string and see if it's any better.
You've also contradicted yourself by saying the intonation is correct but it's still out of tune at the 12th fret! You are intonating on the fretted notes at the 12th fret aren't you? I'd recheck this before swapping strings. Although if these are the cheap factory strings, then I'd swap them for decent ones straight away.
Got that Simon.. Used a brand new set of Ernie Ball Slinky 10-46 strings.
12th fret intonation is fine, but as you go down the neck the de-tuning gets worse with the 2nd fret being the most noticeable as due to how often chords down there use it.
When looking at it direct on from the front I can perceive a step in the nut that makes the G string seem almost 1mm longer (and to a lesser extent also to the B string), but when you look across the nut the fretboard edge looks straight. Being a Black nut in not the best light makes it hard to see but from the front on position that is how the light reflects off the string so I presume there is a dip in the nut at the G string that is not evident on the nuts upper edge. I'm presuming the extra 1mm on the string is not affecting the open/12th fret intonation set up but it is causing me to set the intonation wrong with respect to the fret board and thus all the wrong fretted notes.
As a start I think I'll just replace the nut, most probably with a bone one.
Ah, yes. If the string isn't coming off the nut right at the edge, but the nut slot floor is uneven so that it's coming off a bump within the slot, then that will cause a problem. Not enough nut slot height left to correct the slot?
However, a new bone nut is always a worthwhile upgrade.
Dodgy plastic nuts on most kits and have replaced every one on all of mine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcel
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There isn't a lot of height. Might give it a trim and see what happens, and then change it anyway...lol
Ahhrrgghh!!!
Nothing I do gets me any closer to getting this G string to play nice...
Filed the plastic nut which had nil noticeable effect.
Replaced the nut with a bone nut... a slight improvement... now the 2nd fret is only about 2 but closer to 3 cents off (high/sharp), and a Am or D or A chord still just sounds wrong, and worse if you add any gain in the amp. The open G and at the 12th fret is perfect. By the tuner all other strings/notes both open and fretted are 1 cent or better. 2nd fret bar looks, feels and measures fine. Play above the 5th fret is fine, and 3rd fret and above is often quite passable, It's just those finger chords that include any of the first 3 frets on the G string that sound off...
Hmmmm...
My JMA was like that initially with the 'g' string, I've heard that lowering it at the nut will help, did you do that with the bone one as well? I redid all my compensation and its a lot better than it was, I'm waiting for it to well and truly settle down before I try any more adjustment.
The bone nut I used was originally cut quite well SM. To bring it in I filed the underneath until 4 of the strings were at the right height which left only the low E and G to adjust with some light slot filing. I did both the low E and the G with my Japanese nut slot file so now all strings are at slightly above (0.010") minimum height, so there is very little room if any for improvement height wise at the nut.
I'm starting to think there may be a weird issue with the G string itself, which is odd as it was a fresh brand new set of Ernie Ball slinky 10-46's...
Interesting. I guess its possible that its a dud string, at least thats an easy one to check.
I've just been doing some googling and it seems like a super common problem to have across a variety of guitars. The answer appears to lie in a combination of truss rod adjustment, nut slot depth and action adjustment. Apparently a dud string isn't than uncommon either, so maybe try that first. I'll be interested to see if you come up with a good solution.
Yes, you do get the odd dud string where the wrap string tension had a hiccup or the core wire diameter has varied too much along its length. I'd try a new string before trying anything else. The other strings play in tune, so the frets must be OK, the nut slot is low, so ther's not a lot else it could be apart from the string (unless you've got a very localised space/time distortion in the neck).
I suppose you could try lowering the pickups in case magnetic pull is creating a kind of wolf note, but it's pretty unlikely with humbuckers and I don't think it should make a difference - but it's quick to do and then you can cross it off the list.
You might be on to something there Simon.... I'll break the electron microscope out and look for tiny Black Holes under the 2nd fret bar tomorrow... :rolleyes:
Damn those time/space continuum distortions..... so annoying !!
Sounds a bit like Dr Who and the Daleks.......exterminate, exterminate, exterminate....Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcel
What a wonderful idea... Thanks Waz.... Use the Sonic screwdriver to dislodge those space/time distortions out from under the fret bar...... Now, where did I leave that darn thing????
On a SG - Poker chip or NOT?
I know it comes down to personal preference but I was wondering what do you guys think...
Don't you mean "INTONATE, INTONATE, INTONATE"? Or in the case of a Rainbow Dalek "ACCESSORISE, ACCESSORISE, ACCESSORISE"
It seems that leaving the thing well enough alone is what was needed. After getting fed up with the compressor pedal I cleared the bench so as to change the errant G string. After giving the beastie a quick tune I thought to check a few fretted notes to surprisingly find all were close enough that a run through an amp was in order....No string change required.
Fretting notes gently is the go, pressing too hard as I all too often do is less than desirable... and with a light touch this dark one sings. On the VOX Pathfinder 10 in overdrive mode is awesome. Not too much bottom end on the neck and plenty bright enough on the bridge where it counts, a nice range that with the flick of a switch or tweak of a dial inspires the imagination with the well known overtones of Sabbath and AC/DC...
Neck seems somewhat fatter that what my taste prefers, and I'm not yet accustomed to what feels like a much longer neck, but the balls are there in spades ... I'm saying it's done... Just need a decent guitarist to pick it up and play....
That looks superb Marcel, very very nice, I have one of these kits waiting in the wings to assemble, also my first venture with Tru Oil to go on it, now fingers crossed it will look as good as yours does... well done
Agreed, this is really nice.
I think I need one.
Nice look on the back of the neck too.
Overall it is something I would be happy to add to my own collection.
Very nice indeed! Well done job Marcel :)
Thanks guys... Inspired by your comments I've entered this one into November GOTM...
Simon mentioned about the copper shielding, going under the screws and I did correct it.
From experience in RF shielding throughout my career the more complete the shielding is the better particularly as you move up into the UHF and SHF frequencies, but at audio frequencies it it perfectly permissible to leave tiny holes and slight gaps and be none worse off. So long as at least one good low resistance contact is made and the shielding covers from all sides better than 90% of what you want to protect there should be very few problems.
A bit of rain outside from another of those cyclone thingies so I hid from the wife in the shed and did manly stuff that men do in sheds....lol
Anyways...
I got distracted from the planned upgrades to my 2204 amp build and ended up powering up the AC18W amp into the 2x12 Celestion cab to check something on one of my other guitar builds... Did some tweaks, and suddenly felt in the mood to just drop everything else and just play for a while... Half an hour on the test bed Strat had me craving for decent sounding humbuckers so a switch to the SD rails loaded strat seemed right.... An hour of noodling latter and I put it down to give my shoulder a break and I soon found myself wandering around the shed re-examining other builds I house there... And then I picked up the SG...
"Bzzz.... Bzzz..." was the horrid noise from the high E... after a WTF moment I became inspired with a 'I need to fix this now' thought, and so after a 30 second inspection found that an errant bridge PU height was the problem, and I also had the bright idea that this SG needed to be tested...
The rain from the TC was hitting the shed hard...wind blowing... small branches crashing against the tin roof....
"Buggar this, I can't hear a damn thing".... as I reached out to the AC18W amp and opened the audible flood gates.... Gain @10, Master volume @ 8... "That's better"....
;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
An hour and a half went past so fast..... I honestly though my watch was lying to me.... ;) ;) ;)
What a great excuse to make lots of loud noise.
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