What's On Your Workbench?

[Flamingo21]

I don’t recall seeing selfies of @instrumentalist

 

[Matt Liebenau]

View attachment 4722359

Just about like I expected. Very purty!

 

[tbrannon]

It is definitely Manzanita. Pulled from a huge bulldozered burn pile in the hills East of Livermore, CA.
A unicorn log. It was nearly straight for 3 feet, and almost 10" in diameter.

There are 95+ species/subspecies of manzanita in CA. Of those, a dozen or so are endangered. Manzanita is the generic name, like "pine" or "duck".

This particular log was most likely Big-Berry manzanita, though it shares a range with Common and Whiteleaf manzanita. Most species of manzanita are very common, and are not listed, or, even close to being threatened.

Manzanita species (like most western chaparral species), in general, -require- late summer fires to propagate. The ground needs to be fire sterilized, and the seeds need to be fire scarified before they will germinate. With all the fires in CA over the last 5 years, most manzanita species are booming.

There -are- several species listed as endangered. These species, as expected, are exclusively near urbanized areas. Urbanized areas generally have pretty good fire departments. Add 50 years of excellent fire suppression to creeping urban growth. -> If the entire range of a particular species or subspecies is in that fire-free buffer zone there will be no reproduction.

I source my manzanita from land being cleared, either in the Central Coast range or the Sierra foothills. So not to worry, I am fully aware of the status of the particular species present.

Rick

Home > Manzanita (all) for California

It is definitely Manzanita. Pulled from a huge bulldozered burn pile in the hills East of Livermore, CA.
A unicorn log. It was nearly straight for 3 feet, and almost 10" in diameter.

There are 95+ species/subspecies of manzanita in CA. Of those, a dozen or so are endangered. Manzanita is the generic name, like "pine" or "duck".

This particular log was most likely Big-Berry manzanita, though it shares a range with Common and Whiteleaf manzanita. Most species of manzanita are very common, and are not listed, or, even close to being threatened.

Manzanita species (like most western chaparral species), in general, -require- late summer fires to propagate. The ground needs to be fire sterilized, and the seeds need to be fire scarified before they will germinate. With all the fires in CA over the last 5 years, most manzanita species are booming.

There -are- several species listed as endangered. These species, as expected, are exclusively near urbanized areas. Urbanized areas generally have pretty good fire departments. Add 50 years of excellent fire suppression to creeping urban growth. -> If the entire range of a particular species or subspecies is in that fire-free buffer zone there will be no reproduction.

I source my manzanita from land being cleared, either in the Central Coast range or the Sierra foothills. So not to worry, I am fully aware of the status of the particular species present.

Rick

Home > Manzanita (all) for California

it's gorgeous- I'm glad you saved that Unicorn from the fire.

I have a small piece I got at a camp as a kid. We sanded and hand polished those gnarly little suckers for days.My first sanding blisters were earned.

Its such a gorgeous wood. Thanks for the Manzanita lesson too.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Updated my franken J. G&L Tribute body,, Mint Mist metallic, white pearl pickguard, flame maple neck , chechen fretboard from Freestone.. Dressed the frets.. installed Kent Armstrong Lipstick pickups , vintage (salvaged) CTS 250k pots from old G&L parts back stock, .05mfd wax n paper tone cap, cloth wire new jack.
Fully shielded, and strung with the first set of rotosound swing bass 66's i've had since the 80's. Mesa Titan knobs.
Behold!

 

[Lo-E]

Just a quick template for an upcoming project:

 

[Flamingo21]

Using up leftover wood and hardware from all kinds of projects of the last twenty-odd years, to build a tool rack in the workshop.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Updated my franken J. G&L Tribute body,, Mint Mist metallic, white pearl pickguard, flame maple neck , chechen fretboard from Freestone.. Dressed the frets.. installed Kent Armstrong Lipstick pickups , vintage (salvaged) CTS 250k pots from old G&L parts back stock, .05mfd wax n paper tone cap, cloth wire new jack.
Fully shielded, and strung with the first set of rotosound swing bass 66's i've had since the 80's. Mesa Titan knobs.
Behold!

***TLDR: LIPSTICK pickups sound even better than they look

*report. Massive success. Wide spectrum (more bass, sweeter treble, low mid-range tight and punchy) Growley and really touch sensitive.
Glad I did the extensive shielding, the venue's power was exceedingly dirty. My poor guitarist, his tube amp had Buzz almost equal to his signal!

Continuing, output slightly stronger than the over wound cheap Chinese ceramic magnet (12.00 for the set I originally installed)
Rolling that tone control back produced a really steep roll off of treble starting sooner, with the midrange bump kicking in about 1/2 way through the rotation rather than 3/4 like with a .047 cap and by full rotation is a dub machine (great for Doby Gray's drift away)
Sound through my rig was substantially different enough that a patron who had seen us in the past commented that it sounded less harsh, fatter and "cleaner" with more definition.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I had a set of those Kent Armstrong lipstick Jazz pickups. I still regret I didn’t take them out of the bass they were in before I sold it.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Not much happening over on my workbench. The wife and I both have the Wuhan, so we're basically laying around half dead. We are both feeling better today, so there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm tired, gonna go lay down.

 

[StereoPlayer]

Not much happening over on my workbench. The wife and I both have the Wuhan, so we're basically laying around half dead. We are both feeling better today, so there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm tired, gonna go lay down.

Get well soon!

 

[AK4570]

Not much happening over on my workbench. The wife and I both have the Wuhan, so we're basically laying around half dead. We are both feeling better today, so there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm tired, gonna go lay down.

Thoughts and prayer out for you and your Bride, my friend. Having had our own bout with that particular bug, you all have our sympathy.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a speedier return to the woodshop!

Best regards,
John

 

[Passinwind]

Recently replaced the Q-Tuner BL4 pickups in my Crescent Moon bass with LeCompte Triple Threat single coils:

...which lead to a new DIY onboard preamp, as most things do in what passes for my world.

This bass has always been a bit on the dark side, until now. Mission accomplished!

 

[dwizum]

Speaking of the dark side, I did a new (guitar) pickup design last weekend. I bet you guys can guess what I'm watching on TV these days...

 

[Crawforde]

The Inquisitor
Cool name for a pickup model.
Maybe include an optional circuit that mimics a Leslie.
Sorry

 

[Jon Clegg]

Maybe include an optional circuit that mimics a Leslie.

Working on it

 

[TerribleTim68]

Well, the battle with the Wuhan is hopefully over. I'm back at the office today, the wife started her new job today too. We're both doing okay. I appreciate the well wishes from everyone.

Hopefully I'll get back to the Tele build this weekend or something. Got a truss rod arriving this week, then I can measure and rout for that. Fret wire and nut are also coming this week, so we can start in on a fretboard. That will be a lot of work with the inlay, so I'm both excited and nervous to get started on that, but it's next in line.

 

[tubedude]

Doing some experiments in alternative speaker cabinet construction. This one will be a ported box like the TL806, with roughly the same volume, but not the same shape.
An eighth inch braced cab of uneven dimensions with no parallel faces, it will be sunk into a larger eighth inch constructed open faced box, loaded with an industrial spray foam. The panels for the interior box will have extended finger joints, forming a stegosaurus like tail on each edge. That should stabilize the box in the foam. I'm hoping for a lightweight shop speaker that is rigid enough to not be dramatically colored.

Bear in mind this is a rough sketch.
I couldn't remember how to determine the length of segments from the angles in an uneven polygon, or if it can be done, so I plotted it out in air with rulers. Not the exacting method, or tools pros like Agedhorse likely uses, but we'll see what ensues. The speaker baffle is on the 20" face (top in the sketch).

 

[Flamingo21]

The panels for the interior box will have extended finger joints, forming a stegosaurus like tail on each edge.

I have no idea how to form a mental image of this, but I find it fascinating all the same.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I have no idea how to form a mental image of this, but I find it fascinating all the same.

Think of it as a finger joint that didn't get flush trimmed, like this but even longer -

 

[ARandGenUsrName]

Rewiring my Jaguar H for the fourth or fifth time in the last week and a halfish. Grabbed a $40 Donlis MM pickup off Aliexpress and have been testing out what sounds good using a push/pull pot. Series, parallel and split are all very usable, so I'm ready to route out the body and make it permanent(ish).

Wife and kid are both still sleeping, so I've pre-wired up what I can for controls, then hopefully route the body for a switch this afternoon and wire it all up tomorrow morning. Probably should go grab some heat shrink though to extend the pickup wires... I could just strip the main wrap way back, but I feel like running two of the wires that far to the switch wouldn't be best practice? Or does it not matter?

Having a hard time deciding what looks best, switch straight or angled? Thoughts? Tele plate just for placement reference, but it will be a tele switch going in there.

Long term this will all get redone again - going to add in a second pickup, then one of these plates and have series/tap/parallel sliders for each pickup, then keep the tele switch for regular switching. Tapped out for cash now though, so that'll be a ways down the line. It'll live as is for a good bit I think.