A good friend of mine and fellow guitar maker has a Go Fund Me campaign for funds for vital repairs and improvements of his workshop. He is a non-profit organisation near Falkirk, Scotland and is a constant help to people in his community. He makes some wonderful guitars and makes people who can’t normally afford the guitar they want, very happy. He makes them extremely affordable and any small profit he does make, goes straight back into improving his tools and workshop. He does need a bit more help though so if any of you could spare a small contribution, he and I would be extremely grateful. 

I really look forward to returning to this forum with some new guitar builds this year. 

Thanks very much. 
Boo 🤘😜🤘

https://www.gofundme.com/f/ymh3xe-eco-workshop-repair-fund?attribution_id=sl%3A3d5b5d98-e65f-4ad5-aa15-0e80637cf996&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=facebook

I’m moving back to the uk next year, bringing my assortment of guitars, some of which include components made of CITES regulated species of wood (ebony fretboard, for example). Does anyone have any experience in customs clearing these types of things?

cheers

Steve

I’ve got someone who wants me to make him a Tele with very simple spec BUT has specified a wide neck. 
Does anyone know if there is a recognised wide size for a Tele. I’m still going to use 25.5” scale length. 

Thanks in advance for any help. 

Cheers. 
Boo. 

Is it possible to use a Floyd Rose trem on a shorter scale electric guitar such as a 25” or 24.75”?

I used to play with a guitar with a Floyd for years and years but then got bored and used anything but. I now like playing shorter scale guitars but fancy having a Floyd in it. They are normally used in 25.5” scale guitars but maybe they can be used in various other scale lengths too. Having said that, I’m now wondering if they can be used in longer scale lengths too? The intonation will obviously be different for each scale length so that will determine where the bridge will be installed. Will there be enough adjustment on the trem? 

I would be grateful for any info. 

Thanks.

Boo. 

Given the convention of not naming the original guitars being copied, e.g. T type or S type, let’s just say that this is a J type. But I’ve never seen pickups like that.

I’ve been testing a totally unique, never-been-done-before, pickup (more anon) and I’m suddenly worried that my inventor friend might have been pipped at the post.

Can anyone tell what these are?

so I’ve always been interested in demystifying things. And pickups to me were basically magic, so I wanted to learn.

i found a couple tutorials on how to build a winder (premade winders get pricey). It’s basically a motor with a speed controller, a counter, and a housing…. I 3D printed a housing I found on thingiverse ( I’ll post stuff in the comments).

I also found a guy making great tutorials. I’ve been chatting with him back and forth and he’s super cool. I also built my gauss meter from his tutorial as well. His YouTube page is @ChasesWKshop if you’re interested. 

Anyways, at the base level, a pickup isn’t complicated. A copper coil wrapped around magnets creates a wide magnetic field. This actually magnetizes the steel guitar strings and when strummed creates a disturbance in the field and then that is then converted to voltage. Easy peasy, right?

So basically (let’s talk about a single coil strat pickup for now) you take flatwork. Flatwork can be made of plastic or fiberboard. For these I use fiberboard and I’ve been actually laser cutting them. Of course you can buy flatwork premade. For a strat pickup, you then get 6 pole magnets. Place those inside the flatwork, add a couple metal eyelets to the fiberboard and now you have a bobbin.

i like to then dip the whole bobbin in a laquer (like for wood). This really seats the magnets….. then I tape the Bobbin to spindle of the winder. 

you take magnet wire that’s 42gauge (some use 43). That’s a bit thinner than a human hair, which is where it gets challenging. You set the stops on your winder, solder the wire to one eyelet, and you start winding. The tricky part is proper tension, making sure the stops are set just right, and the general fragility of the copper wire…

you start the winder and as it spins, you move the wire back and forth by hand (this is scatter winding. Otherwise you would need a very expensive machine). You wind it going back and forth making sure the stack of winds is as even as possible with no bulges here or there in the wire. Once I get to my desired winds (let’s say 8k), you stop the winder, cut off the wire from the spool and wrap it around the second eyelet… then solder both ends of the wire to an eyelet.you should have a lead side and a tail side.

take a moment now to test the resistance between both eyelets. Maybe about 6.5-8kohms (that’s an estimate). Once youve confirmed continuity,you’ll now solder a black and white wire.use black for the head and white for the tail….. solder those in the eyelet with your magnet wire.

once that is done you’ll magnetize your magnets… on stewmac they sell “guitar repair magnets” get 2 of those…  I use a jig made from a table vice and put a magnet on each side, and slowly pass the pickup back and forth keeping in mind which polarity you want (north up or south up). Now that  you have them nice and magnetized (a gauss meter is a bonus!), you’ll wrap the copper in either paper or cloth tape… I use paper pre wax and cloth post wax.

from now on, I check continuity and resistance at each step to make sure nothings broke, before you pot, everything’s pretty fragile…

now for potting.

i make a wax of 80% paraffin and 20% beeswax. Heat it up to 140 f or so…. I have an old homedics hand wax bath that keeps it at the perfect temp….. I wrap the cables on a dowel and dip them in the wax. I leave them submerged for 20-30 minutes or until the bubbles stop. When they’re done, pull it out, wipe off any wax, let it cool, recheck resistance, and brother you’ve got a pickup going.

 
that’s basically it! I’ve made about 25 so far and I’ve loved every minute of it.

PLEASE. feel free to ask questions!

Just wondering if there are any builders here living in the South West of England - specifically Cornwall or Devon?

Might be useful to meet up and share ideas, experiences, tools etc?

Let me know if that's something that might work?

Cheers

James

I really enjoy watching this man build stuff. He probably can make whatever he wants out of anything. I think this is the second guitar build he does, and it didn't even look hard. A real handyman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJoG_0WpS5g

Here’s the video of the Gibson Nashville plant, which is where they’ve recently moved the semi-hollowbody production, alongside all the Les Pauls and SGs and Firebirds and the rest. 

https://youtu.be/r4Vv5BI6msg?si=L-RlKwzsvaOb2wgR

About 12 weeks old. 🐈‍⬛ 

🎸🎶🙂🙏