It certainly is! Well done!
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It certainly is! Well done!
That is coming up lovely! You must be chuffed with that. :)
Thanks folks, I am very happy with it. However, I did bump the neck and body with the drill which has resulted in the need for a spot touch up in about three spots. Would not of happened if I continued by hand, but then again I don’t think I would of achieved this finish. The polishing kit I pictured before contained a stick product, not liquid. I used the final buffing wheel with the Nu Finish polish after I gave it a good going over by hand.
Mmmmm SHINY!Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkMark
DarkOscar, “Why are you putting those on for? You hardly ever tune your axe!.”
DarkMark, “Yeah I know, but they do hold one end of the string. Now take your drool elsewhere, it doesn’t need a spit and polish from you.”
I wouldn't let my dog speak to me like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkMark;170761Dar
cheers, Mark.
I cannot wait to see the glamour shots of this when it's all done, that finish is incredible!
Ooh, can we get a clearer shot shot of Oscar for our Dogs of PBG thread? Guessing he's an old, adorable companion.Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkMark
Edit: just saw you already posted another pic, but we can't see his face.
Oscar already has a thread. The trouble is most of the time he is snoring so I’ll try and catch a photo to post in his thread tomorrow when he is up and about. He’s been a much loved member of our family from the age of two. He will be 14 soon. Coincidentally we share birth dates.Quote:
Originally Posted by adam
Oscar is awake
Ok, so I had a truss rod cover which I liked the shape of. The white layer didn’t match and the top hole was off centre. So I used The first scratch plate I made (mainly because I’ve used up all my black stain) to make my own. Then as I was Tru oiling it I decided I didn’t like the natural edge and stained it with a used staining cloth and left over cedar. Now it looks like I’ve intentionally burst the edge of the truss rod cover, Ha! Anyone need a heavily relic scratch plate?
It's all character ;)
Ha! As happy as I am with my second scratch plate I’m not sure I can bring myself to put it on and cover up the stain. If I can play it without the plate I think I’ll leave it off.Quote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
Visited a family friend today who has kindly done the wiring for me today. It seems to work so far but does anyone spot any obvious errors? Now I understand I have to drill a hole in the side of the guitar beneath the tail piece for my black wire to make contact with...something about an earth connection?
Yes, you really want to ground the strings, so a ground wire out to the tailpiece is required. It really is easiest to push this through and then fix it from from the outside rather than try and find a small hole in the rear block and push it through from the inside via an f-hole. So you may find it easier to either remove the existing wire for this purpose from your harness, then use another piece to push through which you should be then able to pull through the f-hole and solder onto the rear of a pot.
(Which reminds me that the back of the volume pot doesn't appear to be connected to ground, so the casing won't provide any shielding for the innards).
The easiest option might be to keep the harness as it is, push another bit of wire through for the tailpiece grounding, pull the ends of both wires through the f-hole and then solder the two wires together (cutting down the length as necessary first so you don't have an excess of wire inside the guitar) after first slipping a piece of heat shrink over one end so that the job can be insulated to avoid any accidental shorting.
I'd be tempted to cut off the unused connection tab on the tone pot. It's not ever going to be used but it might get bent when you are fitting it into the guitar and short out on the casing, which would stop things working properly. It's almost impossible to see inside the body to check that nothing like that has happened.
For the tailpiece connection, I'd suggest drilling a hole that's just big enough to get the wire through, then drill a short bigger hole (like for a rear ferrule on a Tele), so that you can tie a knot in the wire that fits in the hole and stops the wire ever being pulled through. The end then either needs to be stripped and flattened so that it sits pressed against the underside of the tailpiece, or soldered to a small washer that is held in place underneath the tailpiece by a fixing screw, or even just has a loop soldered in the wire which fits around a screw.
You can always test your wiring harness out by holding the pickup above another guitar and strumming it, after connecting the jack socket to an amp with a lead. A second person comes in handy for holding the pickup whilst you strum and turn the pots to check operation.
Thanks for taking the time to take a look Simon. I’ll ask our family friend about your volume pot grounding concerns. We held a hacksaw blade with multi grips above the pick up and gave it a flick to test if it all works.
This is what I did after spending a fruitless half hour trying to pull the wire through with cotton.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Again, this is what I did. Obviously pick a nice thin washer, but don't worry about it making the tail-piece sit proud, it'll disappear completely. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Pots connected to ground and fully installed. Washer soldered to the wire to make contact with the tailpiece, I expect I’ll just place it around the screw which holds the tailpiece/strap holder.
Again (again) that's what I did. :)
Ha, I probably got the idea from your diary.
Electronics in, strings on, some adjustments made. Sounds quite good but some fret buzzing on the first and second frets. Don’t/can’t go any lower with the bridge (otherwise action too high) and truss rod adjusted about as far as it will go in the concave direction.I’ll wait and hear what happens when I put some chromes on. Currently got the Chinese strings from the kit on. May need to lower the second and third fret.
Give it a bit of a chance to settle with the strings on as well. I'm finding its taking 2 or 3 goes to really zero in on the setups on mine.
Yeah, I’m noticing subtle changes over time. I slight lift in the bridge position may be the answer. I’m hoping the chromes will pull a little harder on the neck. Maybe a cautionary tale for next time, after all I guess that first fret can be as high as it likes. As you say Sonic, let’s wait and see.
Or maybe add a bit more neck relief and lower the bridge. The bridge height I find is dictated by the upper frets and the ability to cleanly fret and bend strings on those. The lower frets are more a mixture of nut slot height and neck relief. Of course, high and low frets can create their own issues.
One thing I noticed when I first straightened the neck and leveled the frets was that there was a very slight convex curve right at the end of the neck but the rest of the neck was straight. Don’t know if this is a common thing or not as I’ve never adjusted a truss rod before. I’ve turn the truss rod anti clockwise to the point that there is not resistance when it turns...should I continue turning it anti clockwise? See what happens?
Today the fret buzz has gone. I’ve taken an extra 1/1.5 mm off the nut and it feels like a completely different guitar. Action is nice and low and I feel really, really happy with it at the moment. String change to chromes and bridge modification on the cards.
Compensated bridge sliced in half to reduce height and combined with the base of the stock bridge (once again to reduce height as it was lower than the base of the compensated bridge). Truss rod cover on tomorrow and we have ourselves a finished guitar.
Tah dah! Finished!
Sorry for the excessively long thread. I certainly took the detailed build diary to heart. As a first time builder I always wanted to know every detail required as people built their guitar. Next time I shall be more succinct. A big, big thank you to everyone who took the time to offer help, answer questions and contribute to the experience. What a great environment this is spend a little time in each day.
Long trip to an outstanding outcome.
I love it :-)
Congratulations!!!
I'm impressed with both the guitar and luscious green grass in Perth at this time of year.
Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk
Thanks, it sure was a long trip.Quote:
Originally Posted by cork sniffer
We had some pretty consistent rain over here this winter (there’s a mixture of dicondra growing in the grass filling the shady areas)Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
Love how this has turned out. Been fun to watch at the same time as building mine.
Ditto, they’ve both turned out great.Quote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
Great job mate. Love the colour of the stain.
Random question: how loud is it unplugged?
Thanks Richy17, the volume is not as load as an acoustic steel string guitar so it would be unsatisfactory if that is what you are after. Having said that it would be loud enough annoy Mrs DarkMark if she was asleep in the next room.Quote:
Originally Posted by Richy17
That is a BEAUTIFUL guitar. You have done a fantastic job Mark, you must be very proud of what you have achieved.
Thanks Dougr. I’m glad you got to see it. I couldn’t of done it and would not of attempted it without your YouTube videos so I owe you a debt of gratitude. I’ve made a small change. I’ve replaced the wooden knobs with chicken heads. I didn’t like the chicken heads when I first did a mock build, but I like them now. I ordered them after watching a video of Barney Kessel talking about his guitar. He had pulled off his knobs and replaced them with chicken heads (Please, no jokes) from an old record player because he could not read the numbers on his knobs under stage lighting. Not a problem I’m likely to suffer, just a little nod to Mr Kessel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dougr
Thanks for checking out the diary.