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More expensive firewood and why I probably should have chwcked in here first....

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James
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  • I reckon I should get a ton of Hero Points for being the GM member who has posted NO pics of successful builds, LOADS of pics of cock ups and for sweating unnecessarily because his log burner is working overtime getting rid of expensive pieces of tonewood.
  • I'm trying to make a bass with a one piece bolt on neck with a one way truss rod and skunk stripe. The combination of Mark's byo electric and bolt on neck courses together with his one piece neck Livestream provides all the tuition needed...... What it doesn't provide is a brake. 
  • 2 blanks in I'd managed to turn out a passable neck including a pretty damn accurate 'horror hole' and hole sawed head stock, tight skunk stripe and beautifully radiused one piece fingerboard.... 
  • Then I realised that the truss rod was rattling.... instead of coming on here with a post that could have been titled 'why is my truss rod rattling'I tried to investigate it myself.
  • I should have stopped on so many occasions but my situational awareness was non existant...... to cut a long story short, the bullet nut is rogered, the heel has a hole cut in it to prove that the end of the rod is still anchored and the horror hole has been enlarged beyond belief.
  • I'm too embarrassed to show pics of how I made it go from this
    20201121 181904

    to this

    16063364427228271834091650878653

    but at least we're warm tonight and Mark will get another order for a neck blank. 

  • Remember.... check twice, cut once, then ask the Forum as cock ups cost dough!
  • But on the bright side..... if you learn from your mistakes then I should have  phD in guitar making by now 😃   All the best, Dr James 

   
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tv1
 tv1
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🙁

I'll admit that various bits of wood have left my workshop and met the log burner.  Though never such nice pieces of wood.

Funny story time ... I mucked up a CBG neck (which had only been made from scrap anyway), so I cut it into log burner sized pieces and left it by the fire.  My wife took it off the pile of firewood because she like "the lovely curve on this side of it" (yes, the carved back of the neck!) and didn't want to throw it away.

 

Did you work out what was causing the rattle?

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James
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@tv101 I reckon I hadn't matched the curve of the truss rod to the curve of the slot and ran out of thread on the bullet nut...... just poor planning me thinks..... my fault entirely for thinking I knew what I was doing rather than going back to check...... if only Mark had warned me.......


   
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Robin
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I should have stopped on so many occasions 

So sad to see all your work go up in flames James. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, but just stop when things go wrong, think about it overnight, I often find the solution to things while I'm asleep.


   
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tv1
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think about it overnight,

i've done some stuff that I've had to think about overnight for a good few months ...

 

if only Mark had warned me.......

He needs a memorable phrase that we can all keep front-of-mind when we're doing stuff ... 

😉

 

You seem to be remarkably calm about it all.

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James
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You seem to be remarkably calm about it all.

I think I'm just a bit catatonic just now...... and I'm match fit you know. If I had a quid for every cock up I've ever made I'd be richer than say........... Bagpress? 

 


   
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darrenking
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Hi James

Trust me, after this year, you really don’t want to be poorer than me !!!

Where are you based? If you are in the  South East then pop in and I’ll give you some (not perfectly quarter cut) maple or khaya blanks to practice on. If you are too far away, then email me your address (darren.king@bagpress.com) and I’ll send you a couple for the cost of the postage. You can learn a lot from ballsing thing up, it’s just about getting the ratio of guitar:firewood to a satisfactory level!

Hang on in there, 2021 is just around the corner, it’s going to be a bright new world and you have lots of GMUK friends happy to help you on your journey!

Cheers

Darren

PS If you have any kindling going spare......


   
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darrenking
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@tv101 eg Think thrice, measure twice, sleep on it, repeat steps 1&2, cut once? I can see a new T-Shirt in the GMUK online shop just in time for Christmas!


   
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darrenking
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@james-chacewatergmail-com-2 Catatonic, but warm!


   
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mark bailey
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Ouch... 😮 

Folks who think 1 piece bolt on necks are easier take note.

For future reference if anyone has any problems like this it is better to ask - that's why we are here 🙄 

Some members have even sent their workpieces up for me to check/diagnose...nothing is unfixable! The offer stands for all premium members...

Measure twice, cut once...


   
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Robin
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@james-chacewatergmail-com-2

 if only Mark had warned me.......

I had a similar moment when I routed a radius on the back of my body, the router guide fell into the neck pocket and took a bite out of it, a bit like the notch out of your neck, but deeper. As soon as did it, I heard Mark's voice in my head warning me to be careful not to do that. When I do stupid things like that, I go and talk to my missus, she hasn't got the faintest idea what I'm talking about, but she says all the right things and takes away the internal rage. A bit of creative carving to merge the neck into the body saved the day.


   
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mark bailey
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When this kind of thing happens to me (yes believe me it does) the best thing is to put it down and do something else for a bit...Things never look as bad the next day and there's always something you can do to fix it.

At least nobody was hurt - worse things happen at sea...

Thanks for sharing your disaster - I feel your pain!

We all learned something and live to fight another day 🙂

Measure twice, cut once...


   
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tv1
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When this kind of thing happens to me (yes believe me it does) the best thing is to put it down and do something else for a bit..

Quite seriously, on the build (and cock-up) that I admitted in the thread below, I put it down for a good few *months* whilst I tried to work out the solution.

And to make sure that I'd calmed down properly (yes, it took me a while to calm down).

I was actually rescuing someone else's cock-up, and feeling rather pleased with the progress I was making when I did what I shouldn't have done.

A lovely piece of Honduran Mahogany for the body, a custom made neck, and a really thick piece of birdseye maple that I used for the cap.  And had spent hours and hours carving and sanding.  There was a lot of investment gone into this build.

Then I did the thing that I shouldn't have done ...

https://guitarmaking.co.uk/community/guitar-er-when-guitar-builds-go-bad/a-challenge-with-a-happy-ending/

But, it does have a happy ending.

🙂

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tv1
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PS If you have any kindling going spare......

Hang on @bagpress ... are you offering to swap bags of kindling for some nice maple neck blanks??

I've got a lot of old twigs and branches here, perfect kindling

😆

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darrenking
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@tv101 I did say that they were for practicing on so no, I'm not giving away beautiful, perfectly quarter cut maple neck blanks. I'm nice, but I'm not that nice!! 


   
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tv1
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I'm nice, but I'm not that nice!! 

I was offering a trade @darrenking - thought you wanted some kindling.

I've got some very nice twigs to trade. 

I'd not normally consider swapping them for some useless perfectly quarter cut maple neck blanks, but I am that nice. (as are the twigs).

They might even be magic twigs ...

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darrenking
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@tv101 I thought you had a lot of work on! 🤣 🤣 


   
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tv1
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I've just declined a contract extension offer @darrenking!  

Work made me miss the second half of Weds' live stream, and there *are* limits to what I sacrifice for work.  Priorities, etc.

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darrenking
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Well done you! Let someone else sort out Brexit whilst you get on with the really important things in life - like your first acoustic build!


   
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darrenking
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I fear we're wandering off topic!


   
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