Es-12q

My Spring project just arrived!

Electric semi-hollowbody 12 string. My second kit from PitBull. The quality is really good - better than I expected. Although it was advertised with a basswood body, it's actually mahogany, the neck as well.

Wiped it down with white spirits to check for glue spills, and found none. Really nice book matched quilting on the veneer.

Gold hardware. As I'm staining it azure, I may want to switch to sliver.

Now I just have to wait for the finish to arrive. I'm using Wudtone Azure Lagoon.

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Always the most nerve-wracking moment.

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The first deep colour coat has gone on. I'm really pleased with how the quilted veneer is popping.

Now only 12 more coats of finish to go!

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Very nice, you scored a wonderful top on this one. Great Work!

That looks so nice Jmax, good luck with the rest of the build.

rob

Very nice. Looks like there will be two of us with the blue water tops :)

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Looking great so far! Love the color. Cant wait to see how it progresses

Love the blue, great choice, my fav colour.

Converted a 6 string piezo bridge to a 12 string. A bit ugly, but let's hope it works!

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Nice work.

Next stage - before and after several hours of binding scraping.

The colour coats are done and I'm starting with the clear top coat.

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That's looking very good.

Very nice

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Have you checked the height available at the bridge position yet? On my and an couple of other ES-1s, there's been very little height and I had to swap to flat topped (not lipped) inserts to get the bridge to sit low enough. The neck angle on the ES-1 (as on my ES-3) really needs to be increased slightly.

If you need to do any work, better to do it now before you start applying the clear finish.

I’ve already started the clear coats, so I’ll just have to cross my fingers.

Where did you source the flat-topped inserts? My first build was a GR1-SF, and I messed up the neck angle, so the action is higher than I’d like. Those inserts would probably help.

The metric thread option of these:

https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hardware-p...threads-p13495

But beware of using them on a fully hollow body guitar for the bridge. On my ES-3, where the kit neck angle is definitely far too shallow, the block under the bridge isn't very deep, and when I drilled it the holes out to a size and depth to make stud insert easy for my straight sided inserts (which were longer than the kit inserts), I went right through the block. There's only a very thin skin of wood between the standard kit hole depth and the other side of the block, so without the T-top to help provide support, downward pressure is likely to push the straight-sided studs out of the bottom over time. So in the end I didn't use the straight sided inserts on the ES-3 but had a go at insetting the T-top a bit. (I need to have another go to improve this).

In this situation there is the possibility of gluing another piece of wood on the bottom of the block for support. A couple of pieces of string through the holes, run out to a piece of ply with a couple of small holes drilled at the post locations, and the string run through the wood and knots tied.

You can then glue the wood, pull it inside and against the block with the strings, tension the strings and keep the wood pulled against the block until the glue has dried. I'd suggest epoxy or gorilla glue, that can cope with a bit of a gap, rather than wood glue. Leave the strings long so the knots are in the middle and the loose ends running out of the guitar body, then you can cut the tensioned end of the string off and hopefully pull the string back on of the guitar with the loose ends.

At least on the ES-1/ES-12, the block runs fully between front and rear, so the posts get support from below. Just measure the depth of the inserts and the holes before you install them, and drill out to depth if necessary. You can have the inserts sitting flush or just below the surface, but you won't want them sitting too deep. If the holes end up deeper than you want, you can just fit some suitable sized metal washers at the bottom to raise the height of the inserts.

Thanks so much!

Finished the first stage of soldering the wiring harness for my electric 12 string. Let’s hope it all stays together tomorrow when I pull it through the f-hole.

Also, a shot of my super-sophisticated soldering glasses.

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In the home stretch. Successfully managed the drilling of a channel for the piezo wire, which I was nervous about.

Everything is wired up, seems to be working as it should when I tap things with a screwdriver.

Took a bit longer than expected because somehow I ended up with a knackered push/pull. Fortunately, I had another one to swap out.

And, I discovered that like a numpty, I got the wrong machine heads, and have to order another set.

It's time for the plastic tubing and crossing my fingers when I pull everything through the f-hole, but I think I need to take a break for now.

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Well, it's all together now and I've got some problems:

1st, the neck angle is not good. I thought I checked it well enough before gluing it in, but it seem not. I'm looking at about 3.25mm at the 12th fret with the bridge cranked all the way down and the neck dead flat. The nut is still a bit high, so there could be some improvement in that area. There's not a lot of room to take it down further at the bridge, because then the strings would be too close to the pickups.

Has anyone had any experience steaming off this sort of neck? Any suggestions on how to go about it?


Next problem is with the electronics. It only took about six tries to get everything through the f-hole without breaking a solder joint, so the fact it works means everything should be pretty solid.

Here's what I was after:

• Coil splitting on the humbuckers with the push/pulls. This works
  
• The ability to bleed in the piezo signal. This works
  
• The ability to run the piezo on its own. This does not work. The classic wiring on the humbuckers is also taking the piezo to zero when one of the humbucker volumes is taken to zero. I had thought that putting the piezo on the middle lug of the switch would solve that, but it doesn't seem to have worked that way.
  
• The push/pull on the piezo is meant to remove the piezo from the signal chain, but the piezo signal is coming through regardless of whether it's pushed or pulled. I also seem to be getting a bit of 'tone suck' from the impedance miss-match, which is why I wanted to use the push/pull as a cut out switch.

Heres' the schematic of what I did:

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I've replied to these issues here:https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...l=1#post211485
And here:https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...l=1#post211483

But if anyone else has any thoughts especially on neck removal, please chip-in.

In my haste to resolder the wires that broke off on one of the attempts to stuff everything through the f-hole, I had attached the out wire from the piezo pot to the third lug instead of the push/pull section, so it was simply doing what I had wired it to do - operate as a normal pot.

The output of the piezo is nice and hot, so it blends in with the humbuckers very well, and works great on it's own. I've got some acoustic guitar impulse responses, and when I apply those to the piezo-only signal, it sounds pretty close to a real acoustic.

So do we get some completed guitar pictures, or are you waiting for better weather to take some good ones?

And, it's finished!!!


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Very nice looking guitar. You’re definitely improving with each build.

It may be worth trying at some point to reverse the neck pickup ring and see what that loos like. I know conventional wisdom says the thin end goes forwards, but on guitar with an arched-top, often the slope at the neck position is reversed to that at the bridge, so having the thicker end towards the neck can allow it to sit flatter with respect to the strings and top of the pickup.

Thanks!

I've tried the ring both ways, and can't decide. I'll need to live with it for a bit.

I ended up reversing the bridge ring on by GR-1SF, with the thick end away from the bridge which made it sit flatter.

It may really need a flat ring then!

The Kluson bushings have turned out to be really useful. I've just replaced the bushings on the stopbar as well. For both the flat profile, and the fact that they are longer.

The tension from 12 strings was pulling the standard length bushings out of the holes a bit. The Klusons are holding firm.

The stopbar ones are the ones that need the firmest fit as they have all the upwards and sideways pull on them. The bridge is almost all a downward force.