Hey that is not bad for a first go - I'm sure any of us would be proud of that. Neat coverplate!

Sometimes it can be tricky to get an electrical contact with black hardware...you could try roughing up the contact surface with a file?

I am currently getting my shielding paint from stewmac:

https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/shielding/conductive-shielding-paint.html

If you want to eliminate noise completely you could try some active EMG's?

@markbailey I used DIY paint option because I saw prices for that stewmac paint. They are so darn expensive. I have HVAC aluminum tape recommended by someone from youtube but my multimeter doesn't show conductivity but I have no idea how to use this tool so I don't really know if tape would work 🙂 I will definitely remove bridge and scratch surface to get contact with chinesium.

Active EMG? Way too expensive for me.

At that point I was thinking about good wall decoration, not an instrument but I wanted to finish the build to know the process better.

Most of us have been at that point, and then worked a way through it.  It's more satisfying that way!

Lots of nice design/build touches on that guitar, so if that's your build #1, they're going to be pretty impressive by the time you get to build #3, #4, #5 (and all the rest!).

Once you start building guitars, you don't stop!

@tv101 And this is my main fear about it. Initially I invested some money for "luthier tools". Cheap stuff but for home usage I think they are fine. Even the cheapest tools, in total gave a big sum 🙂 I would need to sell some of these guitars at some point, there is no way I can afford a guitar collection. I hope I will be able to compensate materials used in these guitars, profit is out of scope at this moment - not that precision level yet.

I hope I will be able to compensate materials used in these guitars, profit is out of scope at this moment

Mark often suggests that approach ... you can probably get to a stage where you can sell the guitars for the cost of materials, plus a small profit.  The profit gets spent on more or better tools enabling you to make better guitars, and a little more profit ... and so on.

But the old saying is very true ...

”if you want to make $1m by making guitars, you just need to start with $2m and a lot of spare time ...”

Its great fun though

😉

Forgive the cynic in me, but I know so many people who like to make things, from tea cakes to dresses to guitars to arts n’ crafts and think they can build a business out of it. But the only people who make money are the ones who like making money, writing invoices, squeezing clients, profit and loss, balances...

If you like making tea cakes, make tea cakes. If you like making money, make money. But don’t expect to make teacakes and get money.

But most of all, just play guitar. 🙂

Yup, going ‘professional’ can be a really efficient way to f*ck up a perfectly lovely hobby!!

Cheers

Darren

@mentosik That is an absolutely amazing guitar for a first build all credit to you for carrying on even when you thought all was lost. It’s about finding ways out of dead ends, not just avoiding them in the first place!

Regards your multimeter. If it’s a multimeter you can definitely use it to check out your grounding. Slightly higher featured multimeters may have an audible ‘continuity’ setting which basically sounds a buzzer if you have a short, or zero resistance, between the two probes. This is what you want when you are checking all of your grounding ie zero resistance between various points on the guitar. If you don’t have a nice audible continuity function on your meter then set it to ‘resistance’ or ‘Ohms’ and touch the two probes together. It will likely show ‘0.000000’ or some other flashing display and this is what you want to see when you test the grounding between the various contact points on your guitar. If you get any reading that differs from what you see when you touch the probes together then you do not have a good ground between the two points and you need to investigate why.

Lacquered metal has a very good insulating layer protecting it so you will need to scrape or file away the coating to reveal the bare metal beneath in order to get a good ground contact. If you can’t see shiny metal, it is unlikely that you will get a good ground.

Hope this helps and keep the pictures coming!

Cheers

Darren

If you want more of a shine to the finish then I am not sure that mechanical buffing of the oil finish is going to achieve that. An oil finish will alway have a sheen rather than a shine but if you want a bit more gloss then I would suggest that you apply a beeswax finish on top of the oil and hand buff it. This will produce a higher degree of gloss than you can get from an oil finish alone but will still allow more of the grain of the wood to show through than with a heavy lacquer finish.

Darren

@jamesbisset I like eating teacakes! Where do I fit in?

Regards your multimeter. If it’s a multimeter you can definitely use it to check out your grounding. Slightly higher featured multimeters may have an audible ‘continuity’ setting which basically sounds a buzzer if you have a short, or zero resistance, between the two probes. This is what you want when you are checking all of your grounding ie zero resistance between various points on the guitar. If you don’t have a nice audible continuity function on your meter then set it to ‘resistance’ or ‘Ohms’ and touch the two probes together. It will likely show ‘0.000000’ or some other flashing display and this is what you want to see when you test the grounding between the various contact points on your guitar. If you get any reading that differs from what you see when you touch the probes together then you do not have a good ground between the two points and you need to investigate why.

I have the cheapest stuff I was able to buy. Is this how I should have it setup? And which points should I touch?

I have

 I have a 40hr/week regular job, 20 months old son and other hobbies and I cannot imagine building a business from guitars. I just know that I cannot afford building guitars over and over again and this is pretty addictive hobby. Wood for electric guitar (basic wood) is not that expensive where I live but hardware + fretboard makes a serious money. So if I can sell next build and celebrate it with a pint of beer then I would be more than happy. I know selling guitar for a $2000 you have to have a build a brand. You can buy Ibanez RG series for $400-600 brand new and the quality is pretty good for a typical bedroom player like me.

Hi Mentosik,

Leave the black probe where it is but plug (There's a bingo card shout!) the red probe into the bottom socket on the multimeter and turn the dial around to '200' on the ohms Ω scale at almost exactly 6 o'clock (this is the position, not when you should do it! 🤣).

If you then touch the ends of the two probes together the meter should display 0 or 0.00 or something equally representative of bugger all. This shows that there is no electrical resistance between the probes and this is what you want to see when checking your grounding between the various points on your guitar electrics and bridge etc.

Your multimeter is not 'autoranging' so if you are using it to check the resistance of a pot for example, you will need to rotate the dial to the appropriate setting ie max 2000Ω, max 20KΩ, max 200KΩ, max 2000KΩ.

Hope this helps

You can never have your sensible head on when thinking about what guitars cost to make or buy, it just doesn't work like that.

It is an expensive hobby for sure but there are advantages 😀 

I have guitars that I would never buy in a million years but I can make for myself at a fraction of the cost. Like I always say - once you have the basics down the world is your guitar shaped oyster...

At some point a guitar playing friend will say 'can you make me one?' that can at least fund the hobby but it can be hard to let them go!

I think the buzzer setting is the one I circled here:

I think you need to move the red wire to the other hole - Touch the two ends together and it should buzz

To test the shielding just touch any 2 points in the cavity - it should buzz

Don't worry too much about shielding - it is not 'make or break' for a guitar. If noise is a problem there are other things you can do

• Turn off interence devices
• Change the room for a quiter one
• Noise gate/Expander

any other ideas folks?

That's the symbol for a diode so this is for checking whether current flows through a component in a particular direction. I guess you could use it as a means of checking continuity but it's not ideal. Not all multimeters buzz, some just rely on the display read out.

Cheers

I like eating teacakes! Where do I fit in?

Depending on how many you’ve eaten @darrenking, you might not fit in anywhere anymore ...

😆

Don't worry too much about shielding - it is not 'make or break' for a guitar. If noise is a problem there are other things you can do

• Turn off interence devices
• Change the room for a quiter one
• Noise gate/Expander

any other ideas folks?

Isn’t some forms of lighting a classic cause of buzz?  Strip lights??  

I said flippantly on the livestream yesterday about a ridiculously complex guitar. Seriously has anyone ever made, or seen, a bass (or even a guitar) that was fretted for the first 12 frets and fretless thereafter. I love the high notes on a fretless bass that sound like a human voice but not so much at the bass end where I am happy with precise, fretted notes.

There may be an issue with action at the fretless end but I think this could be overcome by the 12th fret being at most the same height as the nut? I think I'll try something like this with my next project with a bit of dining room table and an old shelf.

Any advice gratefully received.

Jim

Don't worry too much about shielding - it is not 'make or break' for a guitar. If noise is a problem there are other things you can do

• Turn off interence devices
• Change the room for a quiter one
• Noise gate/Expander

My room has plenty of electronics running like few monitors, speakers, amp and apmplituner for backtracks. The other guitar is quite so I think it is "playable" environment. I will try to find better paint and repaint cavities and try again. And also make a better connection for bridge.

Any advice gratefully received.

The only advice I'd give is to make sure you keep the updates coming here!  It's an interesting concept.

Some creative fret-levelling perhaps, where they fall away slightly as you go up the neck - would that help with the action on the fretless part?

What about the banjo?