Build 11 - "Slydebyrd"

[slowlearner]

With a belly full of lamb roast, I decided it was time to have a crack at installing the bridge. This again, is one of those things that gives me the heebie jeebies. But really I shouldn't stress so much.



With a cheap plastic nut and some string, I got the string spacing where I thought it should be. Then I measured the bridge distance from the zero fret (almost messed that up). Measured twice and then traced the mounting hole positions and the front and back edge of the bridge.



Then I used the marks to come up with some proper points and centre punched them. You'd think with timber that centre punching is a bit much, but it really does help. Things are never quite perfect, but the punch gets it pretty close.



With that done I drilled some mounting holes and screwed (with soap on the threads) the bridge base on to the body. I then used the string through holes in the bridge as a template to get the holes in the right position. At this point I decided I might see if I could get my piezo PUs under the bridge instead of mucking around with them in another position I'd been considering. Initially I tried 3 piezos, but then realized I could get 4 under there.



If I remember correctly, the trick is to wire them all up in parallel and that boosts the signal (the opposite to mag PU that's like series wiring for a signal boost). As you can see, it's all pretty squished under there. I still need to organize an earth wire too. I'll also need to put in some small reliefs for wires and solder joints. Fiddly stuff. Hmm, should be fun.

[slowlearner]

Ok, so I have a question for you all. The timber on the back of the guitar is slightly distressed pine. You can see the colour of it here...





It's deeply oxidized and darkened about a 5mm deep. What I'm trying to figure out is what to do with it. It's got a couple of holes in it and some dents. Here are my options...

1. Sand it all super flat and get rid of all of any old marks.
Even if I do that, I'll still have old holes.

2. Get it pretty flat and good, but keep some of the old patina.
The front of the guitar will of course be spotless. But the back will keep some history.

I'm leaning toward No.2 because the guitar is made out of scavenged/rescued timbers for everything except part of the headstock and the fingerboard. I'd like to keep some of it's older character.

Thoughts? :hmm

[slowlearner]

Raised the grain and sanded the board from 240 through to 1200 tonight. Also got the frets cut to the length and the ends trimmed.



Bed time now, but I reckon it's ready to start fretting.

[slowlearner]

Hammer time!



This is gonna sound weird, but fretting a flat fingerboard is actually harder than a curved board. Still, I got the hang of it and the board is all fretted except for the zero fret. I'll do that after they're all leveled and polished.

[slowlearner]

Having taped up the board and leveled the fret, I realized I'd made a pretty big mistake.

Basically the issue was I'd adjusted the double action trussrod too far forward and ground the first fret WAY down. Now the fret 1 was a little tall, but even still. After grinding it too low, re-crowning was then even more painful and I ended up with the crown off centre and weird scores along the sides. So after pouting and hiding the corner for a few days I pulled it out tonight.



This is not a great pic, but you can see from it that the profile is not quite right. I managed to gently lever it out with an old chisel without any real dramas. A bit of sanding and a few quick passes with the fret saw and I was ready for a new fret. Just as well it was fret 1, eh?



With that installed and leveled, I put the zero fret in too.



It's a tall wide fret wire I usually use for basses. Where the other fret wire is more in the size of mandolins and parlour guitars.

P.s. The guitar is spose to be finished for the weekend. Can't see that happening. But then the gig is outdoors and the weather forecast is awful, so who knows if we'll get to play anyhow.

[kiwigeo]

This is not a great pic, but you can see from it that the profile is not quite right. I managed to gently lever it out with an old chisel without any real dramas. A bit of sanding and a few quick passes with the fret saw and I was ready for a new fret. Just as well it was fret 1, eh?

Easier and safer to walk the fret out with with a pair of fret removers or failing that the fret nippers will usually do the job. Not sure if you beveled the slots but doing so reduces chances of ripping out wood as you walk out the fret. I run a small triangular file over the slot a couple of times prior to fretting.

Looks like you're nearly there.....a build is more interesting if you learn something along the way

[slowlearner]

We disrupt the piano scavenging adventures to actually finish something...

This is one of those little jobs I've sworn off before because I hate the thought of screwing it up. Drilling the holes from underneath the bridge to the back of the body, I already got the holes a little off. So yeah, I was slightly panicked about getting the ferrule holes correct.



Using the bridge as a template, I drill straight through it into a scrape piece of steel flat bar. Having drilled the holes out to 8mm for the ferrules I was set to go with a proper template. Then I clamped it to the body and drilled through it super carefully.



By complete fluke, it was straight. Yay! Next!

I've been thinking for some time about the controls I wanted in the body. First, I decided I wanted 3 switches for the PU; 1 per coil + a series/paralell switch. I needed a dial for blending the piezos with the mag PU. I also wanted a tone dial. I have had output jacks in a variety of different places before, but the front of the body, ie. P bass, is the easiest and best. Other things can look sneakier and cleaner, but the jack or the cable gets in the way somehow. Having thought this out, I went scavenging for the old wiring harness from the westone most the parts came off and PRESTO! I had 3 switches and 3 pots... plus this interesting switch.



I haven't worked out exactly what it is, but I suspect it might be like a gibson vari-tone thing. If so, I'll use it for the tone control. It was attached to a pre-amp of some sort that was in the westone. The output jack was cross threaded (coz that's twice as good as tight, not) but I managed to remove the nuts and it's salvagable. I'm keen for this, because the more stuff I can use off the old guitar, the more I'm honoring it.

Then I drew things up on a curve and came up with this lay out...



So I drilled the positions...



Straight through the body to the back. Then I punched holes through them into a piece of paper and made up a routing template...





Router time. I ended up having to recess the spots for the output jack and switches.



Then a coat of shielding paint for the parts of the cavity I'd machined down and for the PU route in the front of the body. I know some people will say copper sheet is better, but this is so quick and easy. I throw on 2 thickish coats at the same time and it's done.





I'll cover the cavity with some plastic sheet and bevel the edges. I know some people like to recess it, but honestly, I can't see the point. The audience never see and it's not like the timber on the back is pristine. So we'll call this, "Done!". Next!

I pulled out my soldering (yes US readers, there's an "L" in there) and glued 4 of the piezos together in series. Of course, while I was trying strip tiny wires to precise lengths, my 12yo daughter was "bored" and the dog was running in and out from under the desk I was soldering on... hmmm.



Still, it's all done and should fit nicely under the bridge.



I've still got to grind some reliefs for wires and solder drops in the timber, but that should be straight forward. Actually, it's kinda scary how much stuff is going on under this bridge. Wires, screws and strings going everywhere. Now I better go and cook chilli con carne for dinner.

[slowlearner]

I've had a monstrous weekend with work, so with everything over this afternoon, I was keen to try and get moving with finishing things. I spent a more time just trying to get the reliefs right for the piezos under the bridge.



I was being so careful to begin with, but in the end, I just hogged out places where issues were. On a side note, the piezos don't set flush. They're actually proud of the surface and I'll be shimming the bridge in a few spots. I'm doing this, because I was proper contact and a nice strong piezo signal. If down the track this proves to be a mistake, lifting the bridge and recessing the piezos is easy enough... I hope.

With that done, I started sanding in haste. Man, I forgotten how hard the Eucalypt top is. It took me 20 mins with 100 grit sandpaper to sand out 2 fairly minor imperfections. I will say this though, it works so nicely. The pine on the back is a little more cantankerous. Hard on surface, but scratches and marks pretty easily.



I'm in the throws of trying to get the curves along the sides of the body spot on. My luthier mentor told me some time back, this is what separates the men from the boys. I could easily say, "ah, the back is rough anyway", but that's no excuse for a dodgy front and sides. I suspect part of the issue with the sides is actually the template, so I'll need to address that before I use it next.



Plenty more sanding to go. I only got to 240 grit tonight.

[slowlearner]

Sanding, sanding, sanding, wetting down, sanding, sanding sanding... you get the idea. Amongst that it's been time for lots of little details. Like filling the fret slots ends.



Fiddly stuff with a razor blade and some "jarrah" coloured filler. Then more sanding, sanding, sanding...

I was just about to put oil on the guitar today when I realized, "dang! I haven't branded it yet". This is seriously fun. I got off to a false start when my butane torch (cheap chinese thing) wouldn't work. I tried the stove top, but it would've taken all day, so off to the local tool shop for a proper one.



WOW! Where have you been all my life?! So much better. Heated up the iron SUPER hot real fast. I did a test run first, then hit the headstock properly. Lots of heat, lots of pressure and you get a proper brand right into the wood.



The only downside was, hot burning oil leaked out of the wood too.



I knew right off I'd have no chance of sanding that out of timber. Oh well. I did sand the timber back some anyway. I've ended up with this and I'm pretty happy with it. I'll know a little less heat next time.



I then put the first coat on. In retrospect I think I could have put more oil on, but there's lots of sanding yet.





We headed off for lunch and then I came back and sanded the 2nd coat in with 400 grit. I let it almost dry and wiped it across the grain.



Many more coats of this to go. I can see why people like spray jobs. Shame they make so much mess.

[seeaxe]

Looking good Pete.

[slowlearner]

Sorry, got the wrong pic in before. You want this one...



Time to start fiddling with electronics. Trace out the layout onto some cardboard.



Poke some holes and put in all the components. Much, much easier way to solder everything up without scratching the instrument. Then you just drop it in and solder up 6 PU wires.



I didn't get a chance to solder anything up, but I did unwrap the little preamp from the dead guitar and found this...





To all the electronics nerds, it had this attached to it too...



Can anyone tell me what we have here? I got excited about transformer, but I have no idea what it does. The red and black wires are for a 9v battery. Thoughts?

[slowlearner]

After a pretty big day, I managed a few minutes of work last night to get the PU mounted and the bridge on.





As to whether the piezos are exactly right will be a case of suck it and see. What gets me is, I know how much junk is under that bridge, but you can't see any of it from the surface. Pretty cool.

I also got the ferrules in the back of the body last night.



There's not much gold plating left on them, they're pretty rough. I had to laugh. Here I was belting them in with a brass mallet. Poor old things. The bridge is similarly skanky. Still I guess that's the whole point of salvaging parts and timber. Even that P-rail PU is a 2nd handy.

[slowlearner]

Been messing around with wiring and extended PU wires that were 2" too short. Typical. I forgot how I wired up my last killswitch humbucker setup. Then I went through some old build pics to see what I used last time and I came across this...



I'll be using the section on the upper right with the three switches. All I have to worry about are the white and gold PU positives and the blue wire (output) coming off the 3 switches and the earths. Curiously, fender runs the EQ section on the Jag flat out. The vol control being an input gain control for the 2 band. I don't understand much more about this diagram, I'm no electronics wizz. So if you need an easy diagram to wiring up to coils (or single cool PUs) with kill switches and a series switch, this diagram is super easy to follow.

[slowlearner]

I got all the electronics in this afternoon, but something isn't right. The switches aren't switching the coils in the way I imagine they should. Anyhow, here's a progress pic. I still have to cut a nut for it, so no strings as yet.

[slowlearner]

After a huge weekend, I finally got some time to put some strings on the guitar last night with a fake nut in place. I stuck it down with 2 drops of superglue... fail.

Great moments in guitar headstock design. You can see what's going on here.



Honestly, I had to laugh. Serves me right for canting it to one side to look cool.

In other news, the electronics are kinda interesting. The piezos are definitely working, but the switching of the PU is not quite right. I need to try and rewire it, but I don't know what the issue is. Hopefully I can sort that out soon. I think the neck also needs a little more relief. Aside of the skewed string alignment, it plays reasonably well and sounds ok.

Once all these issues are sorted I'll record some clips.