SBO22 - Wiggle stick V

[ctmullins]

Had to spend some time doing some house maintenance, but I did manage to get the body cut out, perimeter routed to the template, and rough sanded.

 

[J Posega]

What's your headstock going to look like?

 

[ctmullins]

What's your headstock going to look like?

Planning on doing the "normal" Flying V style headstock - nice and compact, and visually integrated.

I also want straight string pull for the Kahler.

 

[TFM94]

Had to spend some time doing some house maintenance, but I did manage to get the body cut out, perimeter routed to the template, and rough sanded.

That's a really interesting color scheme. The yellowheart is in fact very, well, yellow. I'll admit that I was a bit sceptical in your previous post, but you proved me wrong. I assume that the rosewood will darken quite a bit when finished, which should make for even better contrast.

 

[ctmullins]

That's a really interesting color scheme. The yellowheart is in fact very, well, yellow. I'll admit that I was a bit sceptical in your previous post, but you proved me wrong. I assume that the rosewood will darken quite a bit when finished, which should make for even better contrast.

Oh yes, everything will darken quite a bit under some clear coat! I just hope that we get to see that before mid-September....

 

[Freekmagnet]

I dig.

Despite being a mistake, I actually kinda liked this one!

 

[ctmullins]

 

[ctmullins]

I have, little by little, been making some progress here. The neck is coming along. It has its final taper, the truss rod slot is routed, and the headstock angle is milled into the front.

 

[ctmullins]

Also, I did a thing.

My original plan was to use one of my pre-slotted fretboards from LMII. But I was digging on the diagonal motif in the body, and realized that I had an unslotted fingerboard blank, and some yellowheart on my body offcuts, and I could continue the diagonal “arrow” motif through the neck.

So I sliced off some yellowheart, planed it down to the thickness of the pau ferro blank, cut the pau ferro into a wedge shape, and glued them together.

Then I printed out a 33” scale layout from ekips.org - FretFind2D, stuck it down to the board, and cut my fret slots.

(And it was here that I remembered why it is oh so worth it to just pay LMII the $9 to do this step…..)

Glued it on last night, and trimmed it up this morning.

 

[ctmullins]

Technical question: is it a bad idea to use a zero fret on an instrument with a vibrato bridge? I’m thinking “yes”…

 

[Flamingo21]

That fingerboard is fantastic! Your V now blows most of the world's Vs out of the water.



You win the internet today.

 

[Reedt2000]

Technical question: is it a bad idea to use a zero fret on an instrument with a vibrato bridge? I’m thinking “yes”…

I'd think it's a good idea for an instrument without a locking nut. If the strings are going to pass back and forth over something while using the vibrato (trem, wiggle stick, or whatever ). I'd think they're less likely to bind up on a zero fret than a traditional nut.

 

[ctmullins]

I'd think it's a good idea for an instrument without a locking nut. If the strings are going to pass back and forth over something while using the vibrato (trem, wiggle stick, or whatever ). I'd think they're less likely to bind up on a zero fret than a traditional nut.

Thanks, I can see that. I was thinking that a roundwound string might end up with the zero fret nestling between two adjacent string wraps, but I really don’t know. I’ll be using Sperzel locking tuners, if that helps any.

I think I’ll go and examine my other zero fret basses and get a close up of how the strings cross over the fret.

 

[ardgedee]

Thanks, I can see that. I was thinking that a roundwound string might end up with the zero fret nestling between two adjacent string wraps, but I really don’t know. I’ll be using Sperzel locking tuners, if that helps any.

I'm not sure what the concern is. Are you worried the string's wrap will bind on the zero fret? It shouldn't do that any more or less than on any other note you fret.

 

[TFM94]

Technical question: is it a bad idea to use a zero fret on an instrument with a vibrato bridge? I’m thinking “yes”…

I think it's a great idea and should work under two conditions:
1. The break angle over the zero fret is small, supported by a nut behnd the fret
2. It's a stainless steel fret, otherwise it will wear down rather quickly, especially when using the super magic happy fun time bar a lot.

 

[ctmullins]

Had some time to work on the neck pocket this weekend. Turned out pretty nice I think.

Plenty of access all the way up to the 24th fret.

I also got the radius sanded into the fretboard (a nice gentle 20”), and the fret slots cleaned out and ready for fretting. I usually try to hammer frets in while my wife is at work, since it’s so noisy….

If you can see the pencil marks on the body, you can see that there isn’t much room for pickups. I mean there’s plenty of room for a single pickup, but two would be pretty close together. I have been thinking of just doing one pickup, but I have a lot of options here, and having lots of options doesn’t help me decide!

 

[RichterScale]

Can you do 2 skinny strat style pups, slightly separated and wired like a humbucker, maybe with a series/parallel switch?

 

[ctmullins]

Can you do 2 skinny strat style pups, slightly separated and wired like a humbucker, maybe with a series/parallel switch?

Sure. What Strat pickups did you have in mind?

 

[RichterScale]

Sure. What Strat pickups did you have in mind?

How the heck would I know? I just work here.

 

[Reedt2000]

Looking great

I think that soapbar could slide closer to the bridge to squeeze a J in there. You could do 2-J pickups, maybe slanted like a Warwick Thumb. Or get a quad coil soapbar which would give you a ton of options...