WIFE: Damn, that looks good.
MYSELF: Until you hold it to the light... see, theres this one uneven spot bugging me.
WIFE: Dont be so picky!
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WIFE: Damn, that looks good.
MYSELF: Until you hold it to the light... see, theres this one uneven spot bugging me.
WIFE: Dont be so picky!
Mine says the same things too as it doesn't take long to ding or mark these things once you start playing them.
True, almost every guitar I own has a "memory" scarred on it, ha. And this one will too, I'm sure. But I hate seeing remnants of drips. :)
looking good
dings and scratches are a part of a guitars life - but I agree about drips and runs: I dont like them either. You'll get it how you want, nice colour too
I did fix that edge. A little wasted spray to make the run stand taller and a few good swipes with the flat sander, then respray. Still a little uneven to my eye, but I doubt any observer would notice it now. But a storm came through, so I had to put it away for the time being. Next I clearcoat the body some more, then get back to that headstock while the body cures.
Updated headstock... it's not a Mosrite, it's a Satellite! (yeah, boo, bad joke.)
Attachment 18430
Had to do some very careful painting, drawing and cutting, but I think I nailed it. There's a little bit of flash still visible in one peghole, but I think the washers that fit over the tuners should cover that.
looks awesome Rev good work buddy. How far off assembly are you ?
that head stock is fantastic!
The lettering was stolen from the old Satellite Motel sign in Wildwood, New Jersey... if you like midcentury modern stylings, google it, theres some great photos of the sign online. (My wife and I were there a year or so ago and spent a night walking around town looking at all the old neon signs and architecture.) The Mosrite belongs firmly in that era so it seemed like the style fit.
Now I have to finish shooting clearcoats, shield the cavity and buff the clear. I can start installing hardware after that. This is where it will get interesting as Im not overly adept with TOM-type bridges, but I can learn!
love the headstock - this whole guitar screams retro cool, love it
Heres a random question Ill throw out ahead of time in case anyone knows the answer. In my current project I'm usually playing my Mockingbird, because its got this unique "balanced" tone - not brassy or all high-end. If anything it tends to be a little weak on the high notes - which works well here, because Im mainly thickening up the bass player's work and keeping things solid while the other guy gets to do most of the piercing wheedly noises. I have only one other guitar that sounds similar (its an ESP LP type). I rarely roll down the tone control, and the pickups and wood types are quite different between the two guitars. Should I perhaps be looking into a specific capacitor to get that sound?
Why not. They are relatively cheap enough, about five bucks here in Oz for Sprague Orange drops and suggest getting one each of 0.022 & 0.047 and experiment to figure out which one sounds best as from memory this kit comes with a neck single coil and bridge humbucker?
For me, tone control is usually flat out all the time but since starting these builds I have played around with them a bit but they still mostly sit on 10 but there if needed.
Cheers, Waz
From looking at a bunch of theoretical technical calculations on the effect of tone capacitors, the capacitor value actually makes no audible difference with the tone control fully up. It's like a very small fraction of a dB difference in the resonance peak of the pickup, and you're never going to hear it. And that was with a 250k pot, so with 300k or 500k pots, there will be even less difference. The capacitor value (supposedly) only makes a difference how it sounds once you start to wind the pot down. (Note that these were theoretical response plots based on circuit assumptions, and not real-world test values, but quite a few people have posted them and stated their accuracy).
What will make a bigger and much more noticeable difference to the tone is the tone and/or volume pot value, with lower values being duller and higher values being brighter. There's nothing to say that the two pot values have to be the same.
So before you install the pots, you could get a bunch of resistors from 100 ohms up to 1 meg ohm, plus some different value caps (get some cheap ones for the test bit) wire in a bit of 'chocolate block' screw electrical connector instead of the volume and tone pots, (bring the wiring out through the scratchplate holes first), wire everything as if the pots are in the fully on position and see what combination you like. Start with the common 500k and 250k values, but don't be afraid to try other values as well. You can change the tone cap values here as well, but you should find that the cap value makes far less difference than the tone pot resistor.
Hmm. The Mockingbird has a Varitone switch... if I remember correctly, it runs the pickup output thru its selected capacitor either at the front or tail end of the circuit (I cant recall which). Theres definitely a position on that switch I favor (yes, Ive tested them all with demos - to the ear at the time they dont seem different, but theres a large difference when listening to recordings). I should look inside the Bird and note all the components and their order. Maybe I can mimic it in a stripped down fashion on this kit's wiring.
At least thatd help me track down the source of the "blended" sound it has.
What are the resistors for, Simon? For use with the block? Never wired any on a guitar circuit.
To simulate the resistance of the potentiometers to ground. The volume pot turned to 10 is the equivalent of a 250k or 500k resistor connected to ground connected to the pickup output. Likewise the tone pot turned to 10 is the equivalent of a 250k or 500k resistor in series with a capacitor (normally between 0.22uF and 0.47uF) connected to the pickup output and wired to ground.
So you can simulate the effect on the sound of changing the pots and capacitors with all the controls turned up using very cheap components. You can also do it fairly quickly so you don't forget what the previous combination sounded like (though making a recording can help as well).
The block's only there so you can change the resistors and caps with a screwdriver and not a soldering iron.
Oh, I got ya. Thought Id been missing something all this time when I rewired things, ha!
Did a quick mockup so I could make sure everything was still fitting together (I've taped off the neck pocket for a lot of the coats, but I wanted at least one coat to get in there just for preservation).
Attachment 18476
Heh, after catching myself plotting out a different design on same kit, I guess I now see how some of you are doing multiple kits at once.
Keeps things moving along and stops you getting restless watching paint dry.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev
I have ended up finishing 2 guitars at the same time for the third time (if that makes sense) as you always seem to have too much finish prepared for one plus if using Tru Oil it does go off if not used fairly soon after punching a small hole in the foil seal therefore best to have more jobs on the go to use it up.
Cheers, Waz
Nice job Rev. Yes more than 1 kit on-the-go is the go!
Sent from Lineage OS 14.1
Ive had to pause due to LACK of finish, ha!
But thats what I get for picking a relatively offbeat color, I guess.
Just call it additional curing time between coats.
The extra clear I ordered is arriving today, but we had a rather nasty storm front pass thru last night. As a result, its rainy, windy and cold today - there will be no painting tonight, heh.
Tempted to add a coat of heavy-duty hardware-store clear lacquer after these coats are done, just for durability, but I suspect that may cause issues down the line, as this synthetic lacquer Im using may or may not react well to it.
Dragging out my soldering gear instead, going to drop a few thin spots on the copper tape edges inside the pickguard and do some of the control wiring.
Other option is to toothpick on some conductive adhesive, which Im not ruling out...
Heh, bridge pickup lead is too short to reach the selector switch. Easily remedied, but amusing.
quite a learning curve on this guitar - but it's coming up great
I have to admit that this was much easier when I was a teenager and knew less. Thanks to the internet I now have to consider all kinds of options. Which isnt necessary BAD, lol.
Moving along, Ive wired in the kit pickups. We'll see how they do. There arent many options for replacing the minibucker, but the bridge pickup is a different story. I could go for a FS-1 like Gav did... not sure if Ill dig it, I generally dont like Strat tones. Might have to spring for some kind of railbucker.
I can recommend the Armstrong rails. Bitey. :)
I see them on WDMusic. Not against trying them!
Neck is starting to get nicely smooth now. Getting that glassy feel. Almost have the headstock coated properly too.
Glad it's all moving along nicely for you.
In line with Waz and Simons earlier comments, Im now slowly coating the sides of the neck. With fretboard face taped.
LOL- I was doing the final clear coat on the neck last week and suddenly a hole (about 1cm wide) opened up in the paint down to the primer! Must have been an air bubble trapped in the layers of color paint. But I fixed that with a few minutes spritzing and sanding.
Either that or some grease from a fingerprint on the primer surface stopped the colour coat sticking to it. But it's now sorted, so all's good.
I admit it startled me since the finish was looking good, but the issue could have been way worse.
Neck buffed, tuning keys installed.
Body is ready for final clearcoat and buff. Once that's done, Ill shield the cavity and itll be ready.
Pickguard is 90% wired and sitting in a box (Have to install bridge and its ground to finish wiring).