What's on your workbench right now?

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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oid
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by oid » Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:44 am

epizootics wrote:
Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:22 pm
If you don't wanna touch the headstock, what you can do is enlarge the string holes on your tuning pegs with a larger drill bit. It sounds horrible but it actually works :) My concern would be the taper at the neck end of the strings though. Even with short-scale bass strings you might end up with the taper starting further up than the tuner.
Many short scale bass strings will just fit on any JazzMaster with the trem in traditional location and split shaft tuners, you have to put an extra turn around the post on the 6th, but other then that they work well. I had my JM running a set of slinky short scale bass strings for awhile, good fun that was. Drilling out a tuner does work but it does weaken it, I had an old Washburn shredder setup this way for a good while, top of the 6th post just popped off one day. Main thing to remember is to never have the string wound around the tuner at the eye or the split, always below it.
I wouldn't worry about string tension as you'd need pretty slack strings for such a small scale anyway.
Why would you 'need' slack strings? If you must tune to EADG the strings will be floppy, but you tune up a step or two and tension is quite nice and tone is greatly improved. When I had my JM setup with the bass strings I generally tuned to A and tension and tone was great, G was almost as good but A was easier to play in for me, F was getting a tad floppy and thuddy sounding.
As Old points out, the intonation might be all over the place if you don't move the bridge.
I was feeling somewhat young today, oh well, you can't hide from time.
There were some very, very short scale basses at one time:

http://www.mosriteforum.com/forum/viewt ... f=6&t=4841
That is a fun looking bass! My favorite of the super short scale basses will always be the uke bass, stick a piezo under the saddle, string it up wth surgical tubing and away you go. The sound they produce always amazes me, surprisingly upright sounding and from a tiny little thing, somewhat useless unplugged though. They make more proper strings for this these days, and even make bass ukes already to go, have not tried or heard one of them yet.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by epizootics » Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:16 am

oid wrote:
Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:44 am
As Old points out, the intonation might be all over the place if you don't move the bridge.
I was feeling somewhat young today, oh well, you can't hide from time.
Oh my :fp: . My computer has a tiny 12" screen and I just squinted hard enough to see the 'i'. I did think 'Old' was an odd nickname, but who am I to question? My genuine and sincere apologies :)

I'm waiting to see how long it'll take for the enlarged tuner on my fretless two-string thing to break, but, yup, I didn't feel like much of a luthier on the day I did the deed!

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by epizootics » Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:18 am

Gordon wrote:
Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:27 am
]Ah, yes, haven't thought about what strings precisely would be required... Shuck. I guess the idea stemmed from 4 strings guitar (baritone, but also the fantastic, regular scale one Healy Guitars made for Frank Black). Maybe I should stick to that.

Well, there were some interesting suggestions on this thread:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/what-s ... s.1165418/

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Gordon » Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:46 am

epizootics wrote:
Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:18 am
Well, there were some interesting suggestions on this thread:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/what-s ... s.1165418/
Oh, nice! Thanks!
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by oid » Tue Aug 28, 2018 2:06 am

epizootics wrote:
Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:16 am
Oh my :fp: . My computer has a tiny 12" screen and I just squinted hard enough to see the 'i'. I did think 'Old' was an odd nickname, but who am I to question? My genuine and sincere apologies :)

I'm waiting to see how long it'll take for the enlarged tuner on my fretless two-string thing to break, but, yup, I didn't feel like much of a luthier on the day I did the deed!
I actually like 'Old' as a nick and would have used it if I had thought of it. I chortled upon reading that and I do enjoy chortling, I almost enjoy the word as much as the act and you gave me an excuse to use it twice!

My tuner lasted a couple years and it was just a cheap Grover rotomatic. Doing the deed had no effect on my feelings towards myself as a luthier, I certainly felt better about it than I did about many of the things people paid me to do.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Toots » Thu Sep 06, 2018 2:22 pm

These two just left my workbench
ImageImageImageImageImageImage

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by ThePearDream » Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:22 pm

New neck day! Best Guitar Parts two piece maple, short scale, Jazz headstock with abalone dots.
It will be going on my white Squier Jag, along with the polished aluminum roller knobs I previously posted.

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Doug
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by antisymmetric » Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:25 pm

Toots wrote:
Thu Sep 06, 2018 2:22 pm
These two just left my workbench
:w00t:
Lots of questions and no time to ask them at the moment, but had to throw that emoji up there ...
Watching the corners turn corners

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:06 am

Toots, as always, you are KILLING it! That second one, is that the same color as the competition orange Mustang main body color?

It's been a long few months, and in the last 2 or 3 weekends, I've gotten no sleep, trying to get the bed done before the move. With all the stuff going on with the move, and the little bit of work I still have to do on it (mostly small alignment/adjustment issues), I decided to hold on so as not to rush it, but here's where I'm at right now with my bed frame:

Image

Image

The boards won't actually stick out like in the bottom picture, that was just to see how they all line up. I wanted a platform-style bed frame that would be easily movable, and this is what I came up with. All 5 sections are completely separate. The tops and bottoms of each have a 5.5" gap (3.5" in from the edge on the tops, 9.25" in from the edge on the bottoms) to fit a 1x6 board that will be fitted with cleats, to hold the sections together from the inside of each box.

Each section also has a 1x4 on each inner edge, which will be a rail, for homemade crates that I build to slide on, which will have all my clothes in them, except the stuff I have to hang up (nice clothes, jackets, etc.). One cool thing that I intentionally wanted with the rails is that they're just open from end-to-end. So, if it's just me, I could have the bed with one side up against the wall, and pull all the crates from one side, or if I met a woman and she moved in with me, I could have the bed in the middle of the room, and the crates could be pulled from either side.

I sized it for a queen-size mattress. Most of the body of each section is ACX plywood, with the ends and other visible sections being oak. There will only be about 2" on the left, right, and bottom (foot) edges that will show, so, you'll never see the plywood. I'm planning for a headboard (haven't started building yet, but the plans are pretty much done) that will just slide into 2 slots on the side of a box on the one end. The box will be screwed into the head-end section shown here, and is already built.

So, whenever I need to move, mattress comes off, I'll remove the 2 top boards with cleats, and then each section can be removed and carried separately. Each section is 14.5" tall x 17" wide, by 65" long, so SUPER easy to move (through doorways, up/down staircases, and with their solid rectangular shape, could sit on a hand truck nicely). In a truck, they could stack, etc. It's not perfect, but for what I want, I think the design is pretty cool! It's been 2 years since I bought a good mattress, but I've never had a frame for it. I'm really starting to chomp at the bit to get it done ;D

In the next couple weekends, I'll get the final adjustments finished, everything will be sanded to a final grit, stained, and clearcoated. Then I get to have fun building the crates!
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by andy_tchp » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:48 am

^ Seriously cool, smart and thoughtful design!

Beds take up so much space and often have no storage capability whatsoever. That aspect and the ease of (dis)assembly/portability are brilliant.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
David McComb, 1987.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Toots » Fri Sep 07, 2018 3:40 am

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:06 am
Toots, as always, you are KILLING it! That second one, is that the same color as the competition orange Mustang main body color?
Thank you,
I mix colors myself, so I just go til I’m satisfied. But yeah, we were aiming for something between comp orange and monaco yellow.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by nelsongeets » Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:57 am

This one's fresh off the workbench. A design I'm calling "Stella"

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Image

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Rgand » Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:13 am

I like it a lot. It's a fine, balanced looking guitar. Beautiful work.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by ThePearDream » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:49 pm

I love the yellow-orange color Toots and the tort on the other one. What's the story on the pointer knob on the upper horn?

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Shadoweclipse13, love what you're doing for the bed. My first big diy furniture project was a platform bed that I designed to be disassembled. I moved it in and out of three different places before I upgraded it.

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nelsongeets - gorgeous design you came up with there. I would gladly rock that. It looks like the fretboard is flamed? Any more pics of that?
Doug
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by blimpage » Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:08 pm

nelsongeets wrote:
Fri Sep 07, 2018 6:57 am
This one's fresh off the workbench. A design I'm calling "Stella"

Image
That carve is super interesting. Very nice work!

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