Check Out My Wood!
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on August 12th, 2010
The body blank weighs a ton! I'll have to chamber it for balance.
For my next guitar build, I’m going to use African Mahogany for the body and Rock Maple for the neck. I’m also going to use a beautiful slab of figured Maple to top the body. As soon as I get it, I’ll post a picture.
For this build, I plan to video the whole process and post segments here. Stay tuned!
My Wall Of Guitars
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on August 9th, 2010
Every guitar player/builder/collector has one (or at least they should!). I’m talking about a wall of guitars in their home. I have one in my spare bedroom. Actually, I have guitars all over the house. Right now I have about 15 guitars scattered around me. It’s to the point where I have to sell some to make room for the new ones I plan to build. Here’s a shot of my wall right now:
A couple of lefties mixed in with righties.
The one on the far left and the two at the far right are brand new. The two lefties have been around a while. If you’d like to buy one, let me know. I’ll consider any reasonable offer plus shipping.
The Last Day Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 31st, 2010
Well the time has come to reveal the finish electric guitar build I have been blogging about for 29 days. Okay, so the days were spread out over months. I have only a few hours a day to build right now, so the process took longer than usual. Anyway, check out the results and let me know what you think.
Before we get to the good shots, I should mention that I was careful to properly intonate each string. This step is critical, especially if you have a really good ear.
I estimate total build time was around 85 hours.
That's a Maple and Purpleheart sandwich.
The Bubinga veneer matches the body.
Gotoh tuners, solid and reliable.
The neck heel was carved to maximize access to the upper frets.
The pickups are my own Highline mediums.
This view shows how high the strings are from the body. This is because the neck was elevated a bit more than usual. I did this to reduce the potential for the type of damage that usually requires a pickguard. To make it work, I had to lift the bridge which required a slab of Purpleheart to act as a spacer. Some may find this approach a bit unusual, but I think it works. Also, have you ever noticed how different playing is when you sit rather than stand. This is because when you sit, often you will have a better view of the fretboard. To improve the view while standing, the neck was attached at an angle that allows more of the fretboard to be visible to the player. It's kind of hard to explain, so I'll try and figure out a way to photograph what I'm trying to explain and post on a later date.
Here is a detail of the fretboard"s inlay. The red "berries" are the fretboard markers.
Well I hope you like what you see here. It was certainly a lot of fun to build. Let me know what you think. Hmm….
…what should I build next??
Day 28 Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 30th, 2010
Now comes the fun part; wiring the controls and pickups. The process is fairly straight forward here and as usual, the pictures are worth a thousand words.
This is my setup for wiring. The most important tools are a 20-40 watt soldering iron and a pair of helping hands clamps to hold the wiring while soldering.
Before I do any wiring, I have a diagram handy to make sure I don't make any mistakes. The diagram also helps me to plan how much of the work I can do outside of the control cavity. This diagram came from guitarelectronics.com, a great source of schematics for just about any wiring scenario.
To make sure the layout will work, dummy up the controls first. This will allow you to cut wire to the proper length before soldering.
Before soldering the wire, each end must be stripped and tinned with solder.
Keep the tip of your soldering iron clean by wiping it onto a damp sponge.
Insert the tinned end of the wire into the lug on the pot, switch or jack and heat it with the tip of your soldering iron. Add a tiny bit of extra solder if necessary. Be careful not to bump the part as the solder cools.
This is how not to wire up the jack. The jack needs to be solder inside the cavity first and then attached through the hole in the plate.
No matter how you decide to wire your guitar, don't forget to solder the grounds to the bridge ground wire.
Wiring up an electric guitar really isn’t very complicated. And, if you make a mistake, it’s pretty easy to fix. The cool thing about wiring a guitar is there are a wide range of possibilities. The key is to experiment and DON”T WORRY. It’ll either work or it won’t. If it doesn’t do what you want, re-wire it until it does.
Tomorrow’s post will feature photos of the finished guitar. Stay tuned!
Day 27 Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 21st, 2010
Fret leveling and dressing can make or break a guitar. If it isn’t done properly, all kinds of problems can happen. Problems like fret buzzing and playability are just a couple. Here is how I went about it on this guitar build:
First I loosened the strings and adjusted the truss rod to induce just enough bow to mimic the tension of the strings. Then, I marked each fret with a highlighter.
I used the same radius sanding block as I used to radius the fretboard in order to level the frets. The yellow highlighter helps me to gauge my progress. Once the highlighter is sanded off all of the frets, they are level in relation to each other.
Some of the frets will be sanded down before the others. This tells me they are higher than the ones which still have highlighter on them.
Once the highlighter has been sanded off, I use these gauges to fine tune the fret leveling process.
I place one of the gauges across three frets to see if the gauge will rock back and forth. If it does, I have a high fret that will need additional filing. The reason I have three gauges is to account for fret spacing. As they get closer together, I switch to a shorter gauge.
I use a file to grind off the tops of the high frets only until the gauge stops rocking.
This is a special crowning file. It has a curved filing edge to help reshape the tops of the frets after they've been filed flat.
To protect the fretboard, I use a thin strip of brass with a slot cut into it.
To remove the file marks from each fret, I use a small piece of 250 grit sandpaper and sand until the frets are smooth and nick free.
After I've finished with the 250 grit, I wrap a sheet of 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper around my crowning file. The paper conforms to the concave edge so it fits nicely over the frets.
After I finished with the 400 grit sandpaper, I repeated the process with 600, 1,000, 1,500 and finally 2,000 grit sandpaper. Then, I used a Dremel with a buffing wheel and some stick polishing compound to give each fret a shiny polish. The next step will be to tune the guitar and check for playability and fret buzz. Then it’s on to wiring the controls and pickups. Stay tuned!
Day 26 Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 20th, 2010
Today, I finished the nut and adjusted the truss rod. Here is how the work progressed:
Ideally, the string should only contact the nut where it leaves the nut toward the bridge (black arrow). The slot should angle down on the tuner side (red arrow) so the string doesn't touch the nut here. If there's too much contact, the string will sound like a sitar when plucked.
After the slotting is finished, I sand the nut with 400 grit sandpaper and work down to 2,000 grit to get a nice polish.Each grit should only take a few strokes.
I use a little wood glue to attach the nut into its slot on the neck. With the nut in place, restring and tune to apply clamping pressure. Be sure to wipe away any excess glue that squeezes out.
Once the glue has dried, I can adjust the truss rod. I like a little downward bow. To check the bow, I use a long straightedge with notches at each fret and the nut.
I'm using a double-action truss rod in this neck, which requires a 5mm allen wrench to adjust. I turned the wrench counter-clockwise to induce downward bow.
After adjusting the truss rod, I checked the level again with my notched straightedge. I restrung the guitar and tuned it up so the tension would be correct. Here you can see a little gap at the middle of the fretboard.
Tomorrow, I’ll get started on leveling, dressing and polishing the frets. Stay tuned!
Day 25 Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 16th, 2010
Today I made the nut for my current electric guitar project. I feel the best way to achieve a high-end feel on an electric guitar is to make your own nut. If you try to use a pre-made nut, there’s no guarantee you get the buzz-free action you want. Here is how I did it:
I start with a bone blank that's bigger than I need.
I place the nut blank into its slot on the neck. Next, I stack some brass feeler gauges until they are slightly higher than the height of the frets. Then, I press down on the edges of the gauges so they'l conform to the curve of the fretboard. Now, I can draw a reference line that will dictate the top of the finished nut.
This is what that line should look like.
To get the shape right, I grind away the excess bone down to just above the line. CAUTION: bone smells pretty bad when you grind it!
The top edge of the nut should angle down toward the tuners.
This is the rough nut, ready for string slots.
I start by marking the outer strings so they'll be positioned well inside of the edges of the fret wire.
I use a handy slotting ruler from Stewart MacDonald to mark the exact position of the other slots.
First I use a .010" nut slotting file to cut a shallow groove just deep enough to hold the strings in place so I can check the spacing. Some of the thicker strings will need a wider starter slot, so I'll have to use a thicker file. But the idea is to keep the starter slot shallow in case I have to reposition a string.
As you can see, the "A" string needs to move closer to the low "E" string. Once I'm happy with the position of each string, I'll use the appropriate sized file to deepen each slot. This has to be done slowly while checking the space between the bottom of the strings and the first fret. I like about .020" of space for the wound strings and about .015" for the others.
Since this guitar uses a flat headstock, I opted to use string tees.
Tomorrow, I’ll finish the nut by polishing its surface and glueing it into place. Stay tuned!
Day 24 Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 8th, 2010
After the holiday weekend, I got back into the swing of things. Basically, I’m in the homestretch. Here is what I did yesterday:
Here is a nasty chip around one of the tuner holes. If the washer covered it, I would worry. However, it doesn't, so I'll have to fix.
I used a brush to dab in some top coat to fill the chip. It took several coats and requires wet sanding from 600 grit to 2000 to smooth and polish.
With the tuners installed into the headstock and position correctly, it's time to drill holes for the tiny tuner screws. I use a bit that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the screw and mark the hole depth with some masking tape. After drilling the hole, I rub some wax onto the threads to help them turn without breaking.
Since I plan to mount the pickups directly to the body, I decided to enlarge the holes in the baseplate so I could use some larger #4 screws.
Like the tuner screws, I used a bit slightly smaller than the pickup mounting screw and marked the depth with masking tape.
I use a stack of three or four #4 washers to lift the pickup to the correct height before mounting it into the cavity.
This photo shows the pickups installed. The height may need to be adjusted during final assembly.
This is how I positioned the bridge. First I placed a ruler on the fretboard and measured 24-3/4" (628.65mm) from where the nut face will be. Also, I positioned the ruler so the edge would sit where the outer strings will be in relation to the edges of the fret wire. Then, I lined up the appropriate saddles in order to center the bridge.
When positioning the bridge in relation to the scale length, I line up the saddles and measure from the nut face back to the front edge of the saddles.
To mark the holes, I use a drill bit that fits snug into the holes. Then, I use my drill press and a brad pint bit slightly smaller than the mounting screws to drill the holes. Since this bridge has the strings passing through the body, the holes for each will pass through the body.
After drilling the string holes, I enlarge the back of the holes with a 5/16" (8mm) to accept the string ferrules.
Often forgotten is the ground wire to the bridge. I drill a hole at an angle from where the bridges baseplate sits down into the control cavity.
One end of the ground wire is fed into the control cavity while the copper strands are inserted into one of the bridge mounting holes.
After installing the bridge, I noticed that with this design, the fretboard sits so high off the body, I'll need to lift the bridge. That's for day 25.
Building electric guitars is all about experimentation, trial and error and problem solving. If I built the same design over and over, I could do it in my sleep. Where’s the fun in that?
In the next installment, I show my progress as I creep towards completion. Stay tuned!
Day 23 Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 2nd, 2010
When it comes to making things, I like total control. If I’m making furniture, I want to fabricate all of the parts myself. When I make a telescope (I’ve made several over the years) I make the optics and focusers. For me, the goal is to show people that I did it all.
The problem with guitars is that it can be difficult to fabricate tuners, bridges and some of the electrical components. However, I can make my own pickups and that is what I have done for this latest build.
When I make a pickup, I usually follow one of three styles; Hot, Medium and Mild. The choice largely depends on the style of music that will be played on the finished guitar. For this guitar, I am going to wind a medium set of my Highline EGP humbuckers.
By carefully choosing the parts of a pickup, I can tailor the tone to my liking.
The hot humbuckers I make will push an amp into distortion right off the bat. However, they lack the higher frequencies and as a result, sound very warm. You can really hear the difference in the samples I’ve recorded here. Some people like the warm, highly distorted tone, but I fancy a bit more articulation.
That’s why I like the Mediums so much. I get distortion and treble. And that is what I want for this axe.
Making my own set of pickups usually takes a couple of hours between winding the coils, assembly and potting. There are a lot of steps involved, which I won’t go into here (trade secrets!), but the results are well worth the effort in that I can say, “I made them myself,” when someone asks what brand pickups I use.
Day 24 will be all about installing the pups I made. Then, it will be onto wiring ‘em up. Stay tuned!
Day 22 Of My Electric Guitar Build
Posted by admin in The Fatback Build on July 1st, 2010
Today was spent drilling holes for the control pots, switch, jack and the tuners. Here are photos to show how this proceeded:
I printed the templates of the body and the headstock in order to position the holes. Then, I used the tip of an Xacto knife to mark the center of each hole.
If you look closely, you can see how the barrel of the tuner tapers where it sits in the headstock. This will require a tapered hole.
After drilling 3/8" (10mm) holes for the tuners, I widened the back of the holes by inserting the end of the 3/8" (10mm) bit about a 1/4" (6mm) into the hole. Then, I twirled the bit around while adding enough pressure to widen the back side of the hole. This allows the tuner to fit all the way in snuggly.
One common mistake guitar builders make is to sand the headstock too thin. If it comes out thinner than 9/16" (14mm), the tuner nut will stop before it can tighten down securely. The fix is easy. Just grind off a few of the threads at the bottom of the nut and it will become short enough to tighten down properly.
I use brad point bits to drill all of the holes. The point helps to precisely position the bit.
In this photo, I'm about to drill the pot holes with a 5/16" (8mm) bit. You can't see it here, but I've placed a soft towel under the guitar's body to protect the finish.
As you can see in this photo, the wood over the cavity is too thick to allow the pot's threads from extending far enough up to accept the mounting nut and washer. I'll have to thin the area from inside the cavity.
To give me enough threads to mount the pot, I'll drill a shallow depression around each hole in the cavity so the pot will sit deeper.
I position my jack plate so I can mark where to drill the jack hole. It should be positioned to allow the hole to enter the cavity to make wiring easier.
I use a 3/4" (19mm) Forstner bit to drill the jack hole.
From inside the cavity, you can see where I positioned the jack hole.
Now I’m ready to install the pickups so I can wire up this bad boy. But first, I have to wind a set of humbuckers. That’s the next step. Stay tuned!