What's on your workbench right now?

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

Post by hexes » Mon Jun 06, 2022 9:41 pm

repoman wrote:
Wed Jun 01, 2022 10:12 am

Image
good lord this is otherworldly. love it.

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

Post by epizootics » Mon Jun 06, 2022 10:52 pm

repoman wrote:
Wed Jun 01, 2022 10:12 am
Dr Tony Balls wrote:
Wed Jun 01, 2022 8:11 am
damn those look great!
Thanks!

I just got the aluminum pickup covers and rings I had made through aliexpress. This is the 2nd thing I've had manufactured through Chinese manufacturing and it is truly frightening how cheap this is to have done, how well the stuff is made, how professional they are in correspondence, and how fast they work. I have 10 sets of these (will make 10 guitars) and it cost me less to have them CNCed, sand blasted and shipped over here than it would for me to buy the material alone. Unreal. :'( I still have to drill the holes and sand/polish them but still...

I had attempted to have some stuff made through US manufacturing/shops (specifically low volume/prototyping) and after about the 30th attempt of not even getting a response I went on aliexpress...within 1-2 hours there were about 25 different offers with quotes prepared to do this job. :jacked:


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Never replied to your previous post, but I assumed that was you :) An OSG member directed me to your builds on Ilovefuzz when I was trying to wrap my head around the Wandre smoke finish on my Guyatone / Wandre bass a few months ago. Inspiring work, good Sir.

Those covers look great. Will you be going for the traditional low wind recipe for the pickups?

Also, in response to your post on TDPRI ages ago, I just ordered a bunch of German-made paper-based phenolic sheet, including stock that is thick enough to make fretboards. I will report on how well it performs used in that way, since ordering Richlite is a pricey endeavor over here in Europe.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Flurko » Mon Jun 06, 2022 11:15 pm

Just off my workbench :

I got my very first bass in a trade more than ten years ago, and for most of this time the neck was on another body and the body was stored in my parents attic (please do not take this out of context).
I finally regrouped everything home yesterday, and now I have my old bass back !

So now I have a non matching headstock and a pickup cover I bought for something else now hides the unused jazz pickup route near the bridge.

And someone wanted to check this new thing out :D

Image

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

Post by repoman » Tue Jun 07, 2022 4:14 am

marqueemoon wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 6:19 am
repoman wrote:
Wed Jun 01, 2022 10:12 am
Image
This looks incredible. When will you be taking orders? :w00t:
Thanks,
Ha, I wish...I cannot paint guitars worth a damn so until I get that figured out...

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by repoman » Tue Jun 07, 2022 4:40 am

epizootics wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 10:52 pm

Those covers look great. Will you be going for the traditional low wind recipe for the pickups?

Also, in response to your post on TDPRI ages ago, I just ordered a bunch of German-made paper-based phenolic sheet, including stock that is thick enough to make fretboards. I will report on how well it performs used in that way, since ordering Richlite is a pricey endeavor over here in Europe.

Yeah, I'm gonna try to make them like the originals, I found some guy that sent me pictures of some real Bigsby pickups he had rewound and gave me the specs (5000 turns of 38 gauge if anyone cares), although his were the blade type not the screw pole piece. I'm not sure of the orientation of the magnet or magnets in them though. The weirdest thing about the blade type pickups is that the blade and the backing plate is all one piece of cast iron and the blade serves as the bobbin. Thought that was really unique. Ill probably just make these with the magnets on the bottom like a P90, that's my best guess as how they were done.

Image

Image

Heres some of the pickups drilled with a bobbin I made from printed PLA, I may try a more "vintage" type plastic...I bought a roll of Nylon but then figured it would be a massive PITA to print the bobbin as one part in Nylon and you can't glue it so I'm thinking of some other material, maybe polycarbonate (I know old Dynasonics had acrylic bobbins).
Theres a couple 3D prints of tremolo ideas for sandcasting. Might redo the shape though so its more like the Bigsbys that overhang the back of the guitar.

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

Post by antisymmetric » Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:20 pm

^This thing is so outstanding on so many levels. :-*
Watching the corners turn corners

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

Post by nnieman » Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:41 am

repoman wrote:
Tue Jun 07, 2022 4:40 am
epizootics wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 10:52 pm

Those covers look great. Will you be going for the traditional low wind recipe for the pickups?

Also, in response to your post on TDPRI ages ago, I just ordered a bunch of German-made paper-based phenolic sheet, including stock that is thick enough to make fretboards. I will report on how well it performs used in that way, since ordering Richlite is a pricey endeavor over here in Europe.

Yeah, I'm gonna try to make them like the originals, I found some guy that sent me pictures of some real Bigsby pickups he had rewound and gave me the specs (5000 turns of 38 gauge if anyone cares), although his were the blade type not the screw pole piece. I'm not sure of the orientation of the magnet or magnets in them though. The weirdest thing about the blade type pickups is that the blade and the backing plate is all one piece of cast iron and the blade serves as the bobbin. Thought that was really unique. Ill probably just make these with the magnets on the bottom like a P90, that's my best guess as how they were done.

Image

Image

Heres some of the pickups drilled with a bobbin I made from printed PLA, I may try a more "vintage" type plastic...I bought a roll of Nylon but then figured it would be a massive PITA to print the bobbin as one part in Nylon and you can't glue it so I'm thinking of some other material, maybe polycarbonate (I know old Dynasonics had acrylic bobbins).
Theres a couple 3D prints of tremolo ideas for sandcasting. Might redo the shape though so its more like the Bigsbys that overhang the back of the guitar.
It looks great!
I love the look of those pickup covers
5000 turns of 38 gauge wire…. Isn’t that very close to a Charlie Christian pickup?
I have no idea what a bigsby pickup is supposed to sound like but Charlie Christian pickups are great.
Big, thick but still clear and open sounding.

Nathan

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

Post by repoman » Sat Jun 11, 2022 12:54 pm

Not sure if that what Charlie Christian pickups had, I wonder if 38 gauge was sort of the thinnest you could get back then?
I was wondering about Charlie Christian pickups when trying to figure out what to do with these pickups...I had thought they were just sort of like P90s with a rail type setup but apparently those pickups are a lot more involved as there is actually two large cobalt bar magnets under the pickup that run lengthwise, and they are drilled to serve as part of the structure/chassis of the pickup. Pretty crazy! I'm curious if anyone actually makes and sells legit CC pickups currently.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by nnieman » Sun Jun 12, 2022 5:37 pm

repoman wrote:
Sat Jun 11, 2022 12:54 pm
Not sure if that what Charlie Christian pickups had, I wonder if 38 gauge was sort of the thinnest you could get back then?
I was wondering about Charlie Christian pickups when trying to figure out what to do with these pickups...I had thought they were just sort of like P90s with a rail type setup but apparently those pickups are a lot more involved as there is actually two large cobalt bar magnets under the pickup that run lengthwise, and they are drilled to serve as part of the structure/chassis of the pickup. Pretty crazy! I'm curious if anyone actually makes and sells legit CC pickups currently.
I don’t know if anyone makes a vintage accurate one.
The lollars seems to be pretty popular.
A friend of mine put a McNelly cc into the neck of a tele and it sounded fantastic

Nathan
Last edited by nnieman on Tue Jun 14, 2022 3:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by UC3 » Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:15 pm

Don't know about authentic reproduction, but I had Pete Biltoft of Vintage Vibe build me a set of his CC's.
After listening to Tim Lerch with Lollar CC's, I was sold on the idea CC's of some type in my next project. These just don't have the CC look.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqHdyhatjHY/url]

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Image

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Lost In Autumn » Mon Jun 13, 2022 2:09 am

it's neck day! Applying sealer to a Fender Bullet, Baritone Telecaster and smjenkin's '66 Jazzmaster neck.
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Image

The baritone neck is getting dyed fuchsia, the others will receive nitro...

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

Post by hexes » Mon Jun 13, 2022 3:47 pm

the princeton reverb lives! i have to redo the fuse and power switch wiring. mojo’s chassis designs are not great, and this is based off their cuts and punches. that said, as messy as it looks, it’s very quiet. tremolo is very intense and can move at a glacial pace. reverb needed some work. princetons get too cavernous too fast, so a log pot was used, with an added ‘dwell’ control

i love this amp. the added midrange control does some great things.

Image

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by thephza » Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:55 am

Hi everyone! It's been a looooong while since I've posted anything, but wanted to share the latest progress photo of my FranKOIstein Jaguarillo:
Image

Here's what's going on:
  • The body is made from reclaimed wood from a late 1800s/early 1900s Daniel F Beatty upright piano.
  • My friend at Fox Carpentry helped me get the body right with his CNC machine and my digital file.
  • Pickguard is from WD.
  • Switch is a 10-position Freeway switch.
  • Arcade-style kill switch is a TESI.
  • Mismatched pickups (gold foil, lipstick, filtertron) are all from GFS.
  • Neck is a padouk with a canary fingerboard and bloody basin jasper inlays from Warmoth.
  • Control plate and hardtail are from EYPARTS.
  • Hipshot tuners with tortoise buttons.
  • Blue aluminum neck plate featuring Bernie Wrightson artwork of Dr. Frankenstein (not pictured).
Up next, wiring!

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:08 am

That is hot!!! I love that neck and inlay especially!!!
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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

Post by ryland » Thu Jun 16, 2022 6:58 am

hexes wrote:
Mon Jun 13, 2022 3:47 pm
the princeton reverb lives! i have to redo the fuse and power switch wiring. mojo’s chassis designs are not great, and this is based off their cuts and punches. that said, as messy as it looks, it’s very quiet. tremolo is very intense and can move at a glacial pace. reverb needed some work. princetons get too cavernous too fast, so a log pot was used, with an added ‘dwell’ control

i love this amp. the added midrange control does some great things.

Image
Man, that's great! I just spent a couple weeks bringing my '64 Princeton back up to snuff. The bias diode had blown out, so I rebuilt the bias circuit and replaced the cap can (which was bulging). I bought the amp in '98 with a blown speaker...as I was working on it, I realized that the output transformer looked like potting had leaked out and lacquered it on one side and the bottom. It has worked all these years, but never sounded like other examples I've heard. I replaced it with a Mercury Magnetics one. I'm not sure that there's a real difference, I may swap the original back in and give it more of a test...

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