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the Tru Oil didn't dry on the mac ebony, I'll have to clean it off and just use lemon oil on it.
I wiped the Tru Oil off of the ebony using mineral spirits, it came off really easily, which is good. I taped it all off and continued with coats. I think I'm up to four coats (not counting a little bit of sand back in a couple areas). I'll do one more then do a wet sand with Tru Oil to fill in the grain.
I guess I should work on the electronics in the meantime, I've got a piezo buffer/magnetic pickup balance circuit and a preamp to wire in. Theoretically it should be easy to get it all together, it's all Bartolini stuff, but there's always something! Right off the bat the summing board for the piezo saddles has these micro pins and plugs, but the buffer doesn't have those plugs for input, so I'll have to do some micro soldering.
I had the knob placement all done and now I sanded all those marks off. I'll do all that once I get to putting it together.
I guess I should work on the electronics in the meantime, I've got a piezo buffer/magnetic pickup balance circuit and a preamp to wire in. Theoretically it should be easy to get it all together, it's all Bartolini stuff, but there's always something! Right off the bat the summing board for the piezo saddles has these micro pins and plugs, but the buffer doesn't have those plugs for input, so I'll have to do some micro soldering.
I had the knob placement all done and now I sanded all those marks off. I'll do all that once I get to putting it together.
I guess probably on coat number six or seven, I lost track. I'll let this one dry and sand back, there are a couple of rough spots, but it's looking pretty good!
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,004
- 1
- 31,699
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
drool
I put a couple more coats on the body and neck. I had a small drip on the body that I had to sand out, I think this will be the last coat, pending a sunshine inspection. I'm not sure these pictures show anything different than the ones above.
I finished the necks. I knock the shine down with 0000 steel wool, then put two coats of wax over that, buff it and done. It comes out silky smooth, a really nice feeling finish. The wax adds a bit of depth to stuff, but really doesn't change the luster from what it looks like after the 0000 sand down.
On the fretted neck I put a generous coat of lemon oil on the fretboard, let it sink in and wiped off the excess. I'll do that another few times over the coming week. Both necks look good and they look like twins, except for the super shiny fretless fingerboard finish. I suppose I could knock that back, but then you lose visibility to the grain. I'll stick with how it is for now.
Next I need to go through the bridge, pickups etc to clean them up. They have a lot of dust on them. I think it will be together by this weekend. I'll put the bad piezo saddle in, but use it on the G string so I can swap it out with the good one without having to remove the bridge.
I finished the necks. I knock the shine down with 0000 steel wool, then put two coats of wax over that, buff it and done. It comes out silky smooth, a really nice feeling finish. The wax adds a bit of depth to stuff, but really doesn't change the luster from what it looks like after the 0000 sand down.
On the fretted neck I put a generous coat of lemon oil on the fretboard, let it sink in and wiped off the excess. I'll do that another few times over the coming week. Both necks look good and they look like twins, except for the super shiny fretless fingerboard finish. I suppose I could knock that back, but then you lose visibility to the grain. I'll stick with how it is for now.
Next I need to go through the bridge, pickups etc to clean them up. They have a lot of dust on them. I think it will be together by this weekend. I'll put the bad piezo saddle in, but use it on the G string so I can swap it out with the good one without having to remove the bridge.
This looks like a good knob placement (I forgot I made those knobs!).
I drilled the holes for the pots. Thankfully I checked the diameter of each pot, the push/pull one is a smaller diameter than the rest. It would have been a sloppy fit if I drilled them all the same.
Once I have the general spot where I want the knobs I measure off the closest straight line, in this case the bridge. If the knobs aren't straight against that your eye will pick it up. I make sure all the dimensions are consistent - the space between sets of knobs and distance between each knob needs to be the same.
Then I drill a pilot hole with a 1/8" or so drill and then the final hole size.
I got the wiring done, basically we have a Bartolini piezo/mag buffer that feeds into a Bartolini preamp. There is a mixing control on the buffer that will allow me to mix the two signals. The wiring was pretty straightforward (famous last words).
I got all the connections soldered in. I have to mount everything, feed the wires through the body, connect up the piezos to the summing bridge and solder in the mag pickup. I ran out of time, perhaps at lunch I'll get that done. I'm going to really try to make this a tidy control cavity, it's been one of my weaknesses to date.
Once I have the general spot where I want the knobs I measure off the closest straight line, in this case the bridge. If the knobs aren't straight against that your eye will pick it up. I make sure all the dimensions are consistent - the space between sets of knobs and distance between each knob needs to be the same.
Then I drill a pilot hole with a 1/8" or so drill and then the final hole size.
I got the wiring done, basically we have a Bartolini piezo/mag buffer that feeds into a Bartolini preamp. There is a mixing control on the buffer that will allow me to mix the two signals. The wiring was pretty straightforward (famous last words).
hmm, as expected all is not well in electronic world. I seem to have no output on the D and G strings, I think I'm not getting any output from the mag pickup. More work to be done, but initial wiring issues.
Too many yellow wires. I mixed up two yellow wires, so funky things were happening, but I got that worked out. I still have a couple of problems, one being that bad piezo, the other being the piezos are way louder than the magnetic pickup. There's a pot on the buffer for turning up the magnetic and even with that all the way up, the piezos are loud. First thing I need to do is raise the bart up a bit, I can definitely get it closer, but I'm not sure close enough to fix this volume gap. There's an issue with the input jack that I need to work through as well, rotating the plug cuts output signal, not sure if something is loose or what.
I've had enough futzing about for now though, I'll get to that in the morning. It plays really nice, super low action and smooth neck. Once I get the electronics complete I'll put on the fretless neck to try it out. The piezos are also pretty bright I might need to knock them down a bit with a capacitor.
Oh and it has a temporary nut, I need to make one to fit (for both necks).
I've had enough futzing about for now though, I'll get to that in the morning. It plays really nice, super low action and smooth neck. Once I get the electronics complete I'll put on the fretless neck to try it out. The piezos are also pretty bright I might need to knock them down a bit with a capacitor.
Oh and it has a temporary nut, I need to make one to fit (for both necks).
Thanks for the comment!
It's not a mistake, it's a feature! (and I like the way it looks too)
I have the balance between piezo and magnetic pickups worked out, as I was working through the yellow wire fiasco I must have turned the pot for the magnetic pickup down, I turned it back up and it seems like there's pretty good balance. I also lifted the pickup as far as I could, which helps as well.
I still have some kind of problem on the OUTPUT jack
, I haven't looked at it closely, but it seems like the power is cutting out, I can hear the circuit turning off rather than signal going away. I suspect some kind of wonky connection, or grounding problem. Weird that I can make it come on and off by rotating the plug, but that leads me to believe that there is something loose or making contact. Anyway, I'm sure I can get that resolved, just need some time to dig in.
I installed the strap buttons, I used the recessed ones and put one behind the top horn, I really like the way those look. It keeps things very clean looking. My eight string has them in the same location, so I already have a strap set up for them (you have to reverse the lock on the front of the strap).
It's still a very bright instrument, even with just the magnetic pickup, I wonder if I should drop a capacitor in line to mellow out the highs. I can do that by dropping the treble and boosting the bass, but I feel like I shouldn't need to, but that's a personal problem I guess (it doesn't matter where the knobs are does it?). I could switch to flatwounds too, I guess.
I made a nut for it, but I messed it up, I always seem to have to make a practice one.
Rambling thoughts.
I still have some kind of problem on the OUTPUT jack
, I haven't looked at it closely, but it seems like the power is cutting out, I can hear the circuit turning off rather than signal going away. I suspect some kind of wonky connection, or grounding problem. Weird that I can make it come on and off by rotating the plug, but that leads me to believe that there is something loose or making contact. Anyway, I'm sure I can get that resolved, just need some time to dig in. I installed the strap buttons, I used the recessed ones and put one behind the top horn, I really like the way those look. It keeps things very clean looking. My eight string has them in the same location, so I already have a strap set up for them (you have to reverse the lock on the front of the strap).
It's still a very bright instrument, even with just the magnetic pickup, I wonder if I should drop a capacitor in line to mellow out the highs. I can do that by dropping the treble and boosting the bass, but I feel like I shouldn't need to, but that's a personal problem I guess (it doesn't matter where the knobs are does it?). I could switch to flatwounds too, I guess.
I made a nut for it, but I messed it up, I always seem to have to make a practice one.
Rambling thoughts.
