Shadoweclipse13's New Project Thread!

[Shadoweclipse13]

Blue and blue all the way.

Glad, we're all on the same page

[shadowplay]

My plan is to have the base of the "vault" lined with a casino-grade felt, .

Search for 'baize' (which is broadly a wool fabric of felted appearance in the same family as melton, doeskin and broadcloth). The best is by Hainsworth in Yorkshire England, who have been making it for well over 200 years* and it's often used when restoring fancy antique writing desks and they even make certified 'napped' versions for competition snooker but there's no doubt a quality and probably cheaper** alternative is available stateside. I bet you could find a good quality remnant and remember it comes in other colours aside from green and also in a cotton version which is probably false economy give the care you are taking with this project.

D

* they are the go to for authentic military dress, cerimonial and officer fabrics, having supplied them in the first place.

**I use Hainsworth woolen cloth a lot when working but they aren't cheap, even though the quality is absolutely delightful.

[Shadoweclipse13]

That's awesome information David!! Thanks so much for that!! I'm gonna try to get the woodworking done on the coffee table this weekend, and that would be amazing to have the felt too!!

[PixMix]

Killer work shadow, top notch. Look forward seeing the completed guitar, and love the idea of the amp stand with pedalboard storage. Very cool!

[Shadoweclipse13]

Killer work shadow, top notch. Look forward seeing the completed guitar, and love the idea of the amp stand with pedalboard storage. Very cool!

Thank you!! As they say, we are our own biggest critic, and I see tons of stuff I could do better, but I'm getting better with every project. I really love woodworking

[Shadoweclipse13]

A bunch of updates, though mostly furniture, and not guitar related, but that is coming VERY soon.

First, I got the amp stand finished:

Considering that this entire thing started off as entirely made up of edge-glued 1x8's (for a total width of 14.5"), I think it came out fantastic. This turned out to be my best stain yet! Hit it with one coat of English Chestnut (my favorite brown stain on oak; Minwax), 2 coats of polyurethane, and then smoothed out the bumps and knocked the sheen just a bit with a little steel wool.


In action!

Next up! It's been awhile, but some of you may remember that I was working on a record player stand in the fall. Here's how it's been for the last few months:


I got to spend the entire last weekend outside woodworking (sanding). It was a good weekend:


Here's where I'm at now:

The two big open spaces on top, will each be split by a shelf (for knick-knacks and other record peripherals). The turntable and receiver area in the middle will be split by a shelf as well, with the top of the cover for the turntable being flush with the very top of the whole thing.

On a guitar-related note, I ordered some straps for current and upcoming projects, and they arrived Thursday:

The left one is going to be on the 70's Sci-Fi Baritone (still thinking of a name), and the one on the right will be on the Deed_Poll-designed Offset Tele with Motorik JM color scheme (which will be named Olivia).


Both are from Souldier (LOVE their straps), and I sent a thank you with my order explaining that I love their straps so much, that they sent me a little keychain for free!

[Shadoweclipse13]

I'm moving all my stuff into one of those PODS (really cool by the way, no affiliation), and thought I'd get a quick picture of the finished record player stand before I don't see it again for a few months.


I had to see what my turntable looked like on it, and it seems I got the measurements about perfect. The turntable cover is exactly flush with the top of the adjacent sides. I can't wait to get to my new place and see it in action

[Shadoweclipse13]

A year or so back I designed a little box for testing different volume and tone pot values, and tone capacitor values, for guitars I'm building. I was never really happy with the enclosure after I tried stamping it, and was always considering having a bigger test box with more mods in it. Yesterday, I stopped by my local electronics shop to pick up a female IEC jack for my pedalboard, and I decided to get a few things for it, most notably a 15" X 7" amp chassis to build an electronics and mods testing box into:


I'm going to be putting the original volume/tone tested circuit into this box and adding numerous other mods including: phase, series-parallel, pickup switching, switch between audio/logarithmic and linear pots, JM/Jag-type rhythm circuit, mini varitone, strangle switch, Reverend/G&L style passive tone stack pots, at least 3 types of treble bleed, blend pot (between pickups), and possibly two circuit of modern vs 50's style wiring (but maybe not that one). I'm thinking about doing a small little breadboard mounted to the top, so I can plug unsoldered pickup wires into it, but I may just use a system like a modular synth with input and output jacks for each circuit. If I do everything as an enclosed circuit, I'd have to have on-off switches for every option, and I'm thinking it might be easier to do it with patch cables.

I'm going to be making Moog-style wood endcaps with an angle for a tiltback for it as well.

In either case, I'll post the final circuit schematic here as well for anyone who'd like to pursue one themselves (especially you guys who build guitars for other people and not just for yourselves).

[rank]

I'm going to be making Moog-style wood endcaps with an angle for a tiltback for it as well.

That sounds fantastic! It was already a great idea but that will put it over the top. I just built a pedal board & shaped it like a mix of an old Taurus pedal & Moog. In reality, I'm sure it looks like neither but I liked the way it turned out.

[Shadoweclipse13]

I'm going to be making Moog-style wood endcaps with an angle for a tiltback for it as well.

That sounds fantastic! It was already a great idea but that will put it over the top. I just built a pedal board & shaped it like a mix of an old Taurus pedal & Moog. In reality, I'm sure it looks like neither but I liked the way it turned out.

Thanks Rank!

Function first for me with musical gear and instruments, but I really do love the way things look sometimes. If I like the way it looks, I'm gonna be way more inclined to play or use something that's visually pleasing as well. I'm still figuring out the specifics of it, but I've had this idea of getting a guitar painted and assembled, and plugging in the pickups into a testing box like this before soldering to see what sounds best. Then, once I find its sound, I'll buy the components and make it permanent.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Wanted to throw this out there incase anyone else is interested in watching them like I did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8dp9clGe-I
This guy's little tester and switching box was a big inspiration for this idea too. I was doing a schematic for someone last year and stumbled onto this video looking for the difference between modern and 50's style wiring (as seen in some Les Paul's). Really interesting video series to watch (6 videos).

I was also just thinking that if I do decide to make this little tester box with jacks for patch cables between all the little mods, I could do something like this through the middle of the box, with all the jacks on an equatorial line for ease of jumping (or across the top or bottom):


Just thinking out loud here!

[rank]

Good lord...I can't even locate the on/off button on that thing.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Good lord...I can't even locate the on/off button on that thing.

Right!? Knobs make me happy and that system makes me feel funny in a good way


It's on the side though.

For the record, it's not my system. I don't have that kind of money. It DOES look fun though

[Shadoweclipse13]

I posted this on the master schematic page already, but I thought I'd show it here too.


Signal path: (Neck pickup: switch between 1/4" jack or a set of contacts like a breadboard > phase switch > series-parallel switch > pickup selector)/(bridge pickup: ground wire > series-parallel switch; hot wire > pickup selector). Pickup selector switch > JM/Jag-type rhythm circuit > strangle switch > varitone > switch (Reverend/G&L PTB volume and tone circuit/my original volume and tone pickup tester circuit) > cocked wah > middle pickup blend pot > output jack

The separate circuit at the bottom left is to compare the difference between audio/logarithmic and linear pots (both volume and tone, can mix and match types) In this circuit I left out the tone capacitor, so I can try out whatever specific tone capacitors I want. I'm tempted to add these pots to my original volume and tone selector circuit to save space, but I'm not sure yet.

Once I figure out the exact specifics, I'm gonna drill the amp chassis enclosure, and send it off to be powder coated in black (either textured or tiny flake like starlight) and have graphics applied to it too.

On other project news, I received 4 pickups from Ken/Roadhouse today! A P-80 and KT-100 for my upcoming Baritone project, and a Tele single coil bridge pickup and KT-100 for my slide guitar project. Once I get the fretboard, I can get my final overall length and scale length measurements, cut my giant chunk of Ash down, and plane it, to start making the slide guitar. I don't think I ever posted it here, but I'm doing a standard modern slide guitar headstock, template courtesy of Georgeboards (paid for, it wasn't free):

And with a body shape as close to this as I can get (with the exception that I'm gonna do it as more of a console style and have more of a tiered edge, like the above picture):


Good stuff is happening at the Shadoweclipse house!

[Shadoweclipse13]

After a year or so of planning and designing, I finally figured out exactly how I want to make my bed frame, and as of this weekend, it's now being built and progress is solidly being made! I was really inspired by a Japanese design. Japanese wood joinery is always amazing, but I wanted something that would be simple to put together if I move, with a minimum of hardware needed to put together. Here's what really got me going in the early planning stages:



And something like this for the headboard:


I'm having a friend help me with the electrical (mostly just to hang out since I'm fantastic with electrical), but in each top cubby hole on the sides, I'm gonna have an electrical outlet with the USB ports on them, so I can charge my phone, etc. Hanging from the "honeycomb boxes" that the mattress sits on, I'm gonna have rails to hang pine crates that I can store all my clothes in too. I should have enough room for 5 rows of 3 crates for my clothes. All made out of solid oak, and sized for a queen-size bed.

Here's where I'm at so far!


I've got the frame legs/corner posts rough cut, and (not shown in pictures) the 2 corner posts nearest the foot end of the bed (the two at the far end on their own in the first picture), planed down and gluing started on them. You can see from the second picture that instead of the quartered 4x4's like I am using on the edges and the foot end, for the headboard end I have 2x6's for the inside. There will be a 2x4 brace across each pair of them that the headboard will rest on when it slides onto the frame. I'm super tired, so it's probably a bit confusing, but this thing is getting made SOON! More pictures will follow!