Building a guitar with what I've learned here. Walnut/Maple/Ash/Eastern Red Cedar

[lbridenstine]

I like the satin look more than the gloss.

I realized that with the amount of layers I put on, it probably won't actually be glossy anyway. Generally I agree that I like the satin look better, I was just kind of leaning towards trying gloss on this one (leaning towards it for a couple days anyway, haha). I like how it looks in these pictures, but in person at different angles to the light it looks cloudy at certain angles, and being a carved top, certain areas look cloudy while others don't at different angles.

 

[lbridenstine]

I buffed the guitar for a bit with a microfiber cloth and a tiny bit of lemon oil (like a drop or two per section), it looks better to me, so I ended up installing some of the hardware. I was going to put more Tru-oil on the pickup rings today, but didn’t end up having time because I got caught up in this… which is only going to make me have to wait an extra day to get this done. BUT, it's almost there.

 

[lbridenstine]

The pickup rings should be ready by tomorrow.

I did the wiring and it's a mess, but I'm pretty sure everything is hooked up correctly.

And, the cover is done.

 

[lbridenstine]

I got everything done except for intonating the bridge. I checked the intonation and it's pretty close, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to do.

Everything sounds good except the open E sounds kind of weird. It's not a fret buzz... I'm not sure what it is.

Anyways, here's a shot of my guitar and bass together.

The headstock with the truss rod cover.

And here's a comparison with my Soloist. My goal when I decided to make a guitar was to make something that I liked as much or more than the Soloist and I accomplished that, so I'm happy.

I'll try to get some better photos and more detailed shots out in the sunlight either tomorrow or sometime this weekend.

Thanks for looking in on this thread!

 

[MrArose13]

Nice! I think the zebrawood knobs were a good choice.

Bring on #3

 

[lbridenstine]

Nice! I think the zebrawood knobs were a good choice.

Bring on #3

I think so too. I want to make my own knobs for #3, so those walnut ones were kind of just a test. I'll definitely have to make the bass ones better. But yeah, I think the zebrawood looks nice on the walnut. They match surprisingly well. I think the veneers underneath the knobs actually look good too, so yay for covering up mistakes (again)!

#3 will get going very soon, I promise.




Also, I think the weird sound the E string is making is because when I glued the nut in, the clamp made it slant towards the fretboard instead of sitting flat, so I'll knock it out and re-glue it and hopefully that will fix that.

And, I managed to get the action pretty low and had no fret buzz on any note, so I'm happy about that! I didn't actually measure the string height, but it's pretty close to how the Jackson is and I got that set up pretty much as low as they could do it.

 

[lbridenstine]

I removed the nut and filed the glue/wood underneath and glued it back in and it sounds perfect now. I went over the fretboard with the fine finishing pad to smooth out the oil that didn't look even before and I intonated the bridge too, so now it’s officially completed.

Final guitar photos.

This is the only one I managed to get where the pickups look like they actually do - brushed chrome. They look black in the rest.

Direct sunlight wasn't helping me out too much, so I took it inside and put it by a window and took some more.

 

[lbridenstine]

Here's a video of my brother playing it unplugged. I'll have my own using an amp at some point.

http://youtu.be/maeVF4t1fDg

 

[lbridenstine]

I decided I needed to cut off the corner of the neck pickup ring because it was sticking out over the cutaway. Re-finishing.

 

[Hopkins]

Good call cutting that corner off, I really never even noticed it before you pointed it out though.

That guitar really sings acoustically, We need some sound samples of it plugged in. Keep on keeping on, your skills will keep improving with each build.

 

[Splods]

I didn't like it much at first glance, but it is really starting to grow on me.

Nice build, hopefully #3 goes a bit more smoothly though

 

[lbridenstine]

Good call cutting that corner off, I really never even noticed it before you pointed it out though.

That guitar really sings acoustically, We need some sound samples of it plugged in. Keep on keeping on, your skills will keep improving with each build.

I didn't mention it, because I was waiting to see if anyone even noticed. I was going to leave it, but someone on tdpri suggested shaping it and then I caught my finger on it while playing it, so I decided I better do it.

I'm working on learning some songs. My amp head is at my friend's house, and I have to borrow a cab from him because we sold mine, so I have to find a time when we're both available to record.

I didn't like it much at first glance, but it is really starting to grow on me.

Nice build, hopefully #3 goes a bit more smoothly though

The pickup ring or the guitar? Just curious. I didn't like the idea of the pickup ring not being square, but I guess it'll be alright.

Thank you, I hope so too! I got some new tools which should help out if I can get them to work! (having issues, read about it here if you'd like http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/carved-top-buckeye-burl-mahogany-bass-960452/index4.html )

 

[Neek]

That turned out great. I would have never noticed the pickup ring issue, but now that it was pointed out, cutting the corner seems like the best idea.

Did you go through with oiling the fret board? I have a rosewood board that looks a bit "chalky" and I was wondering if you had any success with putting a finish on yours. It looks great in the pics.

 

[lbridenstine]

That turned out great. I would have never noticed the pickup ring issue, but now that it was pointed out, cutting the corner seems like the best idea.

Did you go through with oiling the fret board? I have a rosewood board that looks a bit "chalky" and I was wondering if you had any success with putting a finish on yours. It looks great in the pics.

Thank you.

Yep, I put two thin coats of Tru-Oil on the fretboard. I had to use a Q-tip to get it up against the frets, I only did one coat there because the Q-tip laid it on thicker, then it looked uneven, but after I went over it with a Scotchbrite fine finishing pad, then a microfiber cloth with a drop of lemon oil, it all evened out. I should probably polish the frets again after doing that, but it's only noticable if you get it right up to your face. The Tru-oil and lemon oil made the abalone inlays look much nicer too.

 

[lbridenstine]

Okay, DONE. Again.

 

[lbridenstine]

I finally got to plug in the guitar a couple days ago. Another lesson learned: don't put magnets on the cover directly above the jack. It plays through the amp fine with the cover off, put it on and it might send signal, it might not.

I finally made a video too. Here it is.

http://youtu.be/pJBau82GOU4

-Lisa

 

[lbridenstine]

Well, Youtube tells me that the video is blocked in pretty much every country other than the U.S. because I have the song I'm playing to in the background. Let me know if it works for you guys or not.

 

[pilotjones]

I finally got to plug in the guitar a couple days ago. Another lesson learned: don't put magnets on the cover directly above the jack. It plays through the amp fine with the cover off, put it on and it might send signal, it might not.

That sounds very odd. The magnet itself is not going to affect any audio signal, so it sounds like you;ll need to figure out what is actually happening in there when you install the cover.

 

[Hopkins]

That sounds very odd. The magnet itself is not going to affect any audio signal, so it sounds like you;ll need to figure out what is actually happening in there when you install the cover.

Yeah the magnet shouldn't be causing you any problems. I would guess that you have either a loose connection on a wire that the cover is hitting, or more likely your cover is hitting a wire causing it to ground out killing the signal.

I would start by wiggling wires with the cover off and see if you could kill the signal.

 

[lbridenstine]

Okay, good thing I haven't tried doing anything about the magnet yet.

In that case, my first thought would be one of the wires for the battery, maybe. The battery was dangling with the cover off, so the wire was definitely moved. I'll give it a try while I still have the amp at home.

When I recorded the video, I had the cover on and no problems, but I did have issues with the pedal tuner, sometimes (and every time before the day I shot the video) it would work perfectly fine, but that day and the following day, it would either show nothing or it would all be A's and B's no matter which string I played. I think the A and B thing is kind of like no signal going through though, because when the tuner is on and nothing's plugged in, it does the same thing.

Anyway, then I recorded the video and had no problems with the guitar through the amp that day. The next day I went to shoot a couple more angles and I plugged it in and it wouldn't work. If I unplugged it and plugged it back in enough, it usually did work, so I thought it was the jack. I unscrewed the jack plate and took out the jack and looked at it and checked if the wires were loose. Everything looked fine, so I put it back. I changed the battery just in case. I plugged it back in, it didn't work. I took the cover off, then plugged it back in and it did work, that time I was able to put the cover back on while it was still going through the amp, but later in the day, my brother was playing it and it wasn't working through the amp, he took the cover off while it was plugged in and it started working, put the cover back on and it cut out, took it back off and it worked again.

I know nothing about wiring, that's why I got EMGs.