and now i have 3 weeks off
Isn’t that study time, or revision time, or something??
😋 😋
Surely it can’t just be 3 weeks for you to do fun stuff ....
Be great to see the guitar progress - are you aiming to get it all done in the 3 weeks?
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@tv1
hi, yes i have 3 weeks off. But i have some small task for school wich i spread throughout the 3 weeks. In the morning i do some tasks and in the afternoon i have time to build the guitar. I have all my parts ready, so yes i am planning on finishing it in these 3 weeks!
Take care
Louis
In the morning i do some tasks and in the afternoon i have time to build the guitar. I have all my parts ready, so yes i am planning on finishing it in these 3 weeks!
@louis-kerckhove Good for you Louis, get cracking. 👍
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸
Home stretch @louis-kerkove. Yup Boo is right in the fretwire. Really do not want to mess around with inappropriate radius in fretwire. It is nerve wracking as it is already. 9.5 is too extreme for 12 but can be manually bent if you wish. May not be worth the hassle if doing so. Syick with the plan. You are almost there. Keep it coming.
Update:
Drilled the holes for the strap locks and tuners today. I also drilled a hole on the side of the body for the guitar cable, i made sure that the hole is far enough from my leg so that the cable doesn't interrupt the playing. I also glued the fretboard onto the neck, now i will let it dry overnight (i made sure to use enough clamps). Tommorow i will put the frets in and start making my own custom scratchplate. Here are some pictures of
the progress so far:
Louis
Update:
Did the fretjob and i am cutting the scratchplate now (pictures coming soon). I have a question regarding electronics. I am using a humbucker, 1tone, 1 volume configuration but i want to add 2 caps instead of one. I also have a switch to choose between the 2 caps so that i can show my teachers the range of frequencies that can get cut out on both caps. Is it safe to put 2 caps in this configuration? I have a shematic to make things clearer.
Louis
Hi Louis
It's been nearly 30 years since I did my electronic engineering HND but your circuit diagram makes sense. I've never seen a guitar use capacitors that large though - do you really mean 27 and 33 Millifarads (mF)? More common values would be 0.1, 22, 33, or 47 Microfarads (uF) depending on the type of pickup and the preferred sound.
If you're wanting to demonstrate how the capacitor effects the tone for your thesis then have you considered soldering some wire and crocodile clips to the tone pot? You could then demonstrate a much wider range of caps.
What taper are you using on the tone pot - linear or audio? With linear (the standard wisdom for tone pots) your ears don't really notice a big change until you've turned the pot a long way. With audio taper you get a more noticeable change for a small amount of movement.
Thankfully solder is easy to remove so I'd say experiment with a variety of caps and pots until you find something that sounds good to you (that's the important bit - not the values used).
Other tips for soldering; tin the wire ends first, rub the pot bodies with sandpaper, melt some solder onto the pot before attempting to join any wires, and don't blow on joints to cool them down. The less time the pots are exposed to heat - the less chance of damaging anything.
Guitar making is the art and science of turning expensive wood into sawdust.
Hi Louis
It's been nearly 30 years since I did my electronic engineering HND but your circuit diagram makes sense. I've never seen a guitar use capacitors that large though - do you really mean 27 and 33 Millifarads (mF)? More common values would be 0.1, 22, 33, or 47 Microfarads (uF) depending on the type of pickup and the preferred sound.
If you're wanting to demonstrate how the capacitor effects the tone for your thesis then have you considered soldering some wire and crocodile clips to the tone pot? You could then demonstrate a much wider range of caps.
What taper are you using on the tone pot - linear or audio? With linear (the standard wisdom for tone pots) your ears don't really notice a big change until you've turned the pot a long way. With audio taper you get a more noticeable change for a small amount of movement.
Thankfully solder is easy to remove so I'd say experiment with a variety of caps and pots until you find something that sounds good to you (that's the important bit - not the values used).
Other tips for soldering; tin the wire ends first, rub the pot bodies with sandpaper, melt some solder onto the pot before attempting to join any wires, and don't blow on joints to cool them down. The less time the pots are exposed to heat - the less chance of damaging anything.
@rockpile99 Thanks you so much for the in depth explenation, i will be using the tips u recommended!
I was reffering to MicroFarads, I asked my electricity teacher for a couple caps to experiment with and he gave them. My tonepot is a audiotaper and my volume just a regular lineair pot. Thanks again, really helpfull tips!
There are some great options for alternative tone wirings out there Louis, and some websites devoted just to them!
Take some time looking through articles on Premier Guitar ...
https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/mod-garage/mod-garage-deep-diving-into-treble-bleed-networks
Somewhere, I've got a link to a guy who built an off-guitar switching board, so he could try out different cap values on a test set-up without having to re-solder his guitar each time. I'l try to dig that out tomorrow.
Top tip for soldering - get yourself a decent soldering station if you're going to be doing much soldering. A variable-temperature iron with that lets you change the tips depending on what you're soldering.
Also, whilst I think of it - I've fitted a varitone control to a couple of guitars. Gibson used it on a couple of models, including the Blueshawk.
http://www.bigdguitars.com/products/big-d-varitone-switch
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
PROJECT IS FINISHED!
Hi guys, my guitar project is finished, i still have to make a plate to cover the trussrod at the headstock but the guitar is ready and she plays fantastic. here are some pictures, i will try to upload a demo of the sound when i have some more time. I know it may not be the best build someone has ever done, but i am proud i have a working guitar that i will enjoy and love for the rest of my life.
What a brilliant thing to have done, and to have done brilliantly!
Thats something that you can keep forever and enjoy every day.
Great school you must go to, that allows and encourages you to learn all the skills to create that.
Good work Louis!
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
UPDATE!
Hi everyone,
My guitar is playing great and my thesis is almost finished. I had to do a powerpoint presentation to my class and teacher dutch about the guitar i built. She told me that she had never heard someone talk with so much passion, Thats was a huge compliment. I have been think about what i want to study next year because i will be 18 this summer. I am very happy i can tell you that i am probably going to follow a study course on instrument making. It is a 5 year course and i am very motivated to learn about different instruments. My plan is to start building guitars on a regular basis and hopefully open my own workshop some day. This guitar building journey has sparked a flame in me that i didn't know i had in the first place. Thanks to Mark, Caroll and everyone in this community, u guys are awsome!
Louis