Next Project ... opinions? ... & updates!

TTony · July 2016

Sporky said:

And if anyone asks about the plug, just say it's a tone experiment and you can't reveal the details.

I had actually thought of that

This is the guitar that just keeps giving ...

I thought I'd test fit for the size of the holes for the bridge studs. A quick measure suggested a fraction under 12mm, so I drilled some 12mm holes in a piece of scrap, popped a stud in, and it just popped right out again. So, OK, 12mm would be a bit too big, so I'll use 11.5mm holes. Lucky I did the test first, right?

Drilled 11.5mm holes in the guitar and put the studs in. Well, half-way in. So far, so good, they need to be a nice tight fit. Out with the rubber mallet to tap them in ... And in they went a bit further, but not all the way. Tap, tap harder, tap *very* harder, and still the studs are proud of the top of the body.

And there's no way that they're coming out again, because they've been tapped *VERY* hard by this stage.

Hmmmmmmm.

TTony · July 2016

After a pause for some thinking, I decided to try clamping them into place.

Got one of my long reach G-clamps, with a nice big piece of scrap on the back of the body to give it some protection, and the end end of the clamp right over the stud. And by turning the clamp a few turns, the top of the studs are now nicely flush with the top of the body and I can screw in the bridge supports!

RESULT !!

TTony · July 2016

Except ...

I'd forgotten to put the bridge earth wire in place first.

Where's the facepalm when you need it?

I'd measured the depth of the studs before I'd fitted them, to make sure that I drilled the hole deep enough. And I'd set the depth stop on the pillar drill to get the depth right - with c3mm extra to give a bit of "just in case" room - I didn't want to drill the hole too shallow.

So, I knew from the measurements that there should be c3mm "space" at the bottom of the hole beneath the end of the stud.

So all I needed to do was drill a hole from the back of the p'up cavity, to hit that 3mm gap at the bottom of the bridge stud hole!

Simples ...

And then somehow thread a piece of wire through the hole and up into the inside of the stud so it could then be clamped in place when I screwed the support into place to form the ground connection.

There was no-one around to hear the swearing.

Sporky · July 2016

I use the drill press to push studs in - clamp a bit of brass rod in the chuck and put a bolt in the stud and there's little risk of damaging anything.

TTony · July 2016

Sporky said:

I use the drill press to push studs in - clamp a bit of brass rod in the chuck and put a bolt in the stud and there's little risk of damaging anything.

That's a good idea too.

I never thought that 0.5mm would make the difference between being so-loose-that-it-falls-out and so-tight-that-it-can't-be-hammered-in!

Sporky · July 2016

Also you can set the drill press depth stop so that it can't drive the brass rod into the guitar body.

The bolt is good for pulling the studs back out too - you can get some serious leverage under them.

TTony · July 2016

Going back to page1 of the thread, it looks like I started this in March 2015.

There have been a few pauses-for-thought along the way, but it's still take a long time to get done.

But now it's done, and after a quick plug-in and strum just now, it's been worth the various problems that the project has thrown up during the last 15 months. Worth it because (a) they've all been interesting learning experiences - even yesterdays - and (b) the end product is definitely worth the work.

Now, where did the pics go ...

TTony · July 2016

Image: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/uploads/editor/1z/8ukajllp7zct.jpg

Image: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/uploads/editor/lv/tho0rrhab1vd.jpg

Image: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/uploads/editor/f5/cjkd4gqr6xdx.jpg

Image: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/uploads/editor/rl/qkjdjlscfxxn.jpg

Image: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/uploads/editor/4g/p3634c7ufgo6.jpg

TTony · July 2016

To recap - it's a one-piece Mahog body of some weight, which I chambered, and a birdseye maple top. The neck is (fairly obviously!) a 3-pce mahog/maple laminate with (I'm pretty sure) some carbon fibre rods as well as the normal truss rod.

The back is finished in EZEOil alone. That's turned out quite nicely. The front is treated with the washed denim stain from Crimson Guitars and the finished with EZEOil again. The neck is just wiped with a couple of coats of plain Liberon finishing oil.

I'm really *VERY* happy with the finish of it. The washed denim stain looks exactly as I think it should, and it was really easy to apply and get this sort of finish too.

The p'up is an Oil City special. It's only had a quick play so far, but that's up to Ash's usual high standards. Bridge is a Pigtail proper unit, with a new set of saddles that I had to get sent over from the US at ridiculous cost!

It's wired through 2 push/push pots. The first switches the coil tap, and the second allows for the tone control to be bypassed. I might swap that around so that it bypasses tone and volume pots.

Thanks again to @guitargeek62 for donation of the original body (if you want to know why, read from page1!), to @Wez for having made a very nice neck, to @TheGuitarWeasel for another of his specials, to @GSPBASSES for a tester bottle of EZEOil and to Crimson Guitars for the stains.

guitargeek62 · July 2016

Superb salvage Tony!

OilCityPickups · July 2016

Yay, I see the Masterwound Tokaido Bullet has found a new home :-)
Alnico 8 'Super 70' homage pickup for those interested.

Andyjr1515 · July 2016

Beautiful build @TTony

Roland · July 2016

TTony said:

I thought I'd test fit for the size of the holes for the bridge studs. A quick measure suggested a fraction under 12mm, so I drilled some 12mm holes in a piece of scrap, popped a stud in, and it just popped right out again. So, OK, 12mm would be a bit too big, so I'll use 11.5mm holes. Lucky I did the test first, right?

Yesterday I tackled the same issue. 12mm Brad tipped drill cut a hole which was too loose. 12mm "metal" drill bit cut a hole which fitted well. After the test drilling I measured the two bit with a calliper. Both came out at 12mm diameter. They just cut differently.

Roland · July 2016

... and it is a beautiful guitar. The clear speed knobs go well with the faded denim finish.

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