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Started my second build after managing to get hold of an old LP1ss kit which had been collecting dust at the back of some ones cupboard. Plan is to tru-oil the spalted maple, and use Dingotone Nullabor Ochre on the back of the body. I will possibly upgrade the pickups at a later date.
So far have given a few coats of TO and given a light sand. I filled a couple of holes on the maple veneer with CA glue.
Interesting top. Look forward to seeing this progress.
I love the spalted top. Also the headstock. LP's are my favorite kits, very sad they're not available from PB anymore. Do you intend to screw the neck or will you dowel and glue it?
LP's are my favorite also. I have 3 which are my main guitars. I will screw the neck on (I know it is not true LP style) as I have some experience with this - maybe at a later date I will try a glued neck ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by ThatCluelessGerman
I have been adding a few more coats of tru-oil to the maple veneer. Also added the DT Nullarbor Ochre to the back and sides. Now thinking about the shape I want for the headstock.
Coming along nicely.
Very pretty. I've built 2 LP kits in the past but sadly never built one for myself. Was one of those gonna-get-around-to-it things that kept get pushed back. Maybe I'll get some serious hardware one day and build one from a solid block of timber.
But I digress. Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. I'm jealous.
I have cut and shaped the headstock. I wanted it to be different to the traditional LP open book style.
Nice interesting shape.
That G tuner will be quite close to the end.
They all fit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
That's good! It's just one of those little things that's easy to overlook. You'd probably struggle with a vintage-style Kluson with the fixing ears at either end, but it's not a guitar you're ever likely to fit that style on.
This build has been very slow progress. The reason is that I'm building it at work - one lunchtime a week (if I'm lucky). But it is getting there!
Frets levelled and polished. Neck fitted. All electronics are done and tested. Finally I can add strings.
Nice.
Bridge paint scraped and grounded?
Yes, all good and tested with a multimeter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Great! So easy to overlook.
Turned out much better than I imagined when I first saw the veneer. I’ve really become a fan of the natural look with black hardware lately. I also like black binding, but I think the white binding goes with the white fret board inlay. Overall tasteful colour combinations, Trevor. I also like the headstock shape. Good luck getting a job done at work with that temptation sitting in the corner!
That looks really nice. Good job!
Thanks Simon, Mark and Andy.
@DarkMark - "Good luck getting a job done at work with that temptation sitting in the corner!" It is well out of view.
Very nice looking job that.
Finally got some strings on.
One problem I noticed during the setup was that the low E string saddle on the bridge was way too high compared to the others. So I filed it down to fit the curve of a 12 inch understring radius gauge.
This was when I questioned why the 6 saddles on the bridge face different directions.
Are the curved side of the saddles all meant to be facing the tail stop? The PB ones don't. The G brand ones do.
I would assume that reslotting the saddle should be similar to the nut, and the slot should have a break angle to the tail stop? This is difficult when the saddle is face the other way.
Anyway, I rotated the 3 low string saddles around. I'm not sure if it made any difference.
I just took a look at my epi LP and the low string saddles curve towards the neck, the 3 high saddles curve away from the neck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor Davies
e )
b )
g )
d (
a (
e (
It really doesn’t natter which way the saddles sit in term of sound. The bass side saddles are often arranged with the flat side to the rear just so that the string notch can be moved back further for intonation purposes. But if the bridge mounting holes are slightly too far back relative to the neck scale length, it may be necessary to rotate one or more bass-side saddles so the flat edge faces forwards in order to intonate the strings properly.
Thanks Simon, good to know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Finally got all the setup complete and intonation done. With a capo on the first fret I lowered the bridge to get a low action (as per an Action ruler). Then with a capo on the third fret I tried to achieve 1st fret string heights of .008" on the E/A; .006" D/G and .004" B/E (thank you McCreed). I needed to file the nut slots a bit so as to achieve this - so the Hosco Nut Files got a good work out (they seemed good to use). Overall I have achieved a Low action and she plays quite well. All good.
When amped up with high gain there is a bit of buzz when I'm not touching the strings. Maybe I need to shield the electronic cavity? I think I can live with it for now.
Also tested out how small/fine I can print a vinyl sticker using the Cricut machine.
That looks really nice. The truss rod cover decal is a perfect fit too.
I'd guess that any buzz might be the un-shielded control cavity - did you use the copper tape? It really is worth doing
Thanks Andy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andyxlh
No I did not use copper tape. I haven't used tape on my other kits and they have not had any buzz! Maybe it is time to experiment.
It’s worth checking the string to ground resistance. That black hardware finish isn’t conductive (typical kit hardware anyway), so the parts need to be scraped to get continuity. Even if you have, it’s possible if you’ve adjusted a post height that you may now have non-conductive areas in contact.
The string to jack ground is 1.5 ohm, compared to jack ground to 3-way switch ground is 0.4 ohm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
On my AG-2 the string to jack ground is 0.4 ohm, the same as the switch ground to jack ground.
The TB-4 was worst at 30 ohm!
I wouldn't have thought 1.5 ohm was a concern!
No, that’s fine.
Buzz at high gain is pretty normal, even for humbuckers. Standard electric guitar wiring dates from the 50s, and there's a lot more electronic noise around now than then, so adding shielding is never a wasted activity. The higher the gain, the more a small amount of noise is amplified.
You may find that there is a slightly high resistance ground connection to the back of a pot. It's quite often the case that redoing a wiring harness can improve the noise level. But if it's not noisy when playing clean then I wouldn't be too concerned about that.
I assume that it's the standard kit pickups at the moment? Some 'asymmetric' pickups designed to have different numbers of winds per coil may sound more interesting than 'symmetric' ones, but as each coil has a different length of wire, the noise signals from each coil are of slightly different amplitudes, so don't cancel out fully when the signals are combined. You wouldn't notice it at low gain, but it will become more apparent at high gain. It may possibly be the case that the kit pickups have different turns per coil (more through accident than design I'd imagine). If they are 4-wire, then a quick measure of each coil's respective DCR with a multimeter would give an indication of how well balanced they are.
Thanks Simon.
Definitely not noisy when playing clean, and yes they are the kit pups.
I will have a bit more of a play. Possibly time to have a go and try shielding a cavity.
Shielding is easy. Just need to make sure that the shielding is grounded and your signal connections don't touch it. Worth shielding the pickup cavities as well whilst you're at it. I know it has stopped hum on one LP-style guitar that already had a shielded control cavity that was being used in an electrically noisy environment.
A new logo for an old guitar. I should have thought more about the headstock shape so as to fit a logo! The logo is vinyl cut with a Cricut machine.
I'm also thinking about changing the pups to chrome so as to lighten the body a bit.
Not a bad idea. It still looks cool anyway, but chrome pickups would also look cool.