Thread: Challenging the challenged

Andrew I have only potted stuff , when the pup is put in the pot it is going to live in & then filled with wax or epoxy,,,, electricly speaking there is no reason to even have an outer pot on the pup you could just smooth the wax & job done, the main reason for the covering around the pup i would think is for durability or for looks if you are selling them.
I have actually seen a set of home made pups that were wound & had just sticky tape around the windings without any wax or other potting medium at all. They worked fine.

but if i dont pot they will squeel like a..... you know... b...

lol

the volume i play at and the amp being close to me, and the gain level.... its just asking for trouble...

hmmm

i will do it tomorrow if im feeling better...

had a huge day today....

i dont think i have evver walked into so many jewelry shops, and i dont think iv ever talked to so many chicks in a day..... lol
now my wallet is empty.... again... haha

on another note....

i was in a music shop today and this guitar caught my eye.... except for the headstock inlay....
but anyways... yea so i see this guitar and im like wowwwwww
i call the bloke over and ask how much they retail for.... hes like 1700, but this one is display stock an has nicks so we will take it down to 1300....
its a signiture series yamaha acoustic, painted white with black binding and star inlays.... I LOVE STARS... lol
i was like... whos signiture? hes like some guy...
LOL
no idea.....
i had a few strums and as most guitars straight out of a shop do... sounded like crud with a high action to boot lol...
then i looked inside!!!!!!!!!! wtffff lol..... has an undersaddle piezo AND a mic inside it by the looks of it......
was wierd....
funny thing was, it wasnt heavy lol....

so yea thats my story

Andrew_BYou can get some decent sounds out of the combination of the piezo & mic mixed. My Maton EBG-808 (Artist Series) has a mic & piezo

thats pretty cool....

the one i was looking at had the battery on the upper bout.... looked stupid

and the mic was on the bass side....
would have a difference in sound i guess....

by the way, your guitar looks like it needs a clean

hey pups are looking good andy.. Does the winder work well? I wanna have a crack at winding my own soon..

Why were you jewellery shopping? Thats gotta be the worst kind of shopping!!!

anniversary today... (we are having problems, so im goiing all out and changing my stupid ways in the process)

you know what makes jewelry shopping worse....
the fact that i had no idea what she would want... so i narrowed it down to white gold + stone.... hoping she will like...
so i kinda had to talk to assistants in the shops and by "the shops"... i mean all 6 of them.......
one assistant in one shop was a really cool chick... so she helped me pick one
and eventually after umming and ahhhing for an hour and a bit and day dreaming about donuts... i was just like... yep this is the one

expensive lil things....

so yea thats my story...


ahh the winder....
well i figured out its issue.... LARGE amounts of black crap around the contact point thingy....
so i spun it a few tiimes while holding some sandpaper against it.... it started spinning..
held the sandpaper against it while it spun and it spun faster....

so yea... its just really dirty, but its going now....
great speed, no breaks... a fair bit of tiime on each coil though....
back pain sets in after a bit, and you go cross eyed lol

oh arent you a good little boyfried lol
how long ya been with her?

You uses your old jigsaw for the winder didnt you?
You'll have to show me your plans..

So with a T-O-M Bridge, does it have to be on an angle? Im gonna recess it so i dont have to do a wicked neck angle, but i remember yours was on an angle..Wats the benefit or necessity of this and how big an angle is needed?

lol

i did build another winder with an old jigsaw....
but that one is waiting for me to find or make some sort of small electric motor speed controler.... its just a lil to fast on the start off to wind... just snaps wire

you can recess a tom but id say you would still want an angle on the neck

from memory, the angle isnt big at all... (3-5 degrees?)
ofcourse.. i only did it with my approx method... lol
(i didnt have my fancy square/angle guide back when i glued it up)
only a couple of degrees... think of it like putting a shim under the back of a bolt on... shim is only thin angle is only small

im sure i posted a diagram on your thread or something

yea i think ya did. i mean the other angle lol.. i dont know how to explain it... most bridges run parallel to the frets but the toms are always angled a bit...do ya know wat im sayin lol?

Originally Posted by Dix_Fix

the main reason for the covering around the pup i would think is for durability or for looks if you are selling them.

From what ive read, wax potting is to stop "micro feedback".
Being that the whole idea of a guitar is to litterally vibrate, it can cause slight problems with transducers/microphones/pickups.

1. You dont want to be singing into a mic that is wobbling around in front of you.

2. The coils themselves can also vibrate very slightly. That coil vibration causes a kind of small varying frequency to the overall output. A bit like taking a dodgey (scratchy) lead wire and giving it a shake,,, but on micro scale.

3. Potting generally shields the coils from condensation, which causes corrosion, which causes dead coils,,,,, which makes guitar rockers sad

Thats what ive read anyway,,,,or what I could make of it.

Ok so heres what I did today.

I took the clamps off the headstock veneer and trimmed it up,,,, not that you can see that in this pic. I also done a bit more shaping and almost have it to where I want it.



I started on the Redwood scratchplate inlay,,, Transfered it from the design to the wood.



Screwed around cutting it out as close to the design as possible.
Laid it down on the body and traced around it with a sharp blade.
Why?,,,, cause it helps see exactly how close you are when routing. It stops any curling grain making the edge all fuzzy. The two main reasons for that would be, 1, fairly soft wood,,,,, and 2, blunt router bit. Ok so ill buy some new bits soon



Heres the whole route done, with under lying lead cavities for the pups.
I know the inlay and route look deep, and they are, but its for a good reason,,,, its gonna be an arch top body



And here it is inlaid and glued. I'm never perfect with inlays, but I always plan ahead The edge will be trimmed with pearl,,, after the top has been shaped.



So thats what I did today,,, plus a few other bits and pieces which had nothing to do with the guitar. Which reminds me, I have to make more pups.

Originally Posted by floody_85

yea i think ya did. i mean the other angle lol.. i dont know how to explain it... most bridges run parallel to the frets but the toms are always angled a bit...do ya know wat im sayin lol?

ohhhhhhhhhh!!!!
lol you idiot....
the toms are angled to get the intonation right .....
you dont get enough room to properly intonate on a lespaul (i think it had something to do about the strings they were using back when it was designed/built... and they never changed it to compinsate? something like that... lol)

Stu posted about it on another thread that i asked about the angle...
(5mm back on the bass side i think it was)



looks like your well on your way there aussie....

what guitar do i see on the left of the last pic? lp jr or something?

i didnt do much today....
my missus got me some cork sheets... iv been looking for some good thick cork sheets for a year!!!!!!!!!!! thanks to her i can make some spool clamps... finally....
so i glued them up to some hard wood, and i will cut them up with the hole saws in the drill press tomorrow...

i attempted to pot my pickups...
lesson learnt.... wooden bobbins with that particular lacquer dont go well in wax lol...
the bass pup i did went better though... that was perspex lol...

its all good

and i started making a wooden cover for the bass pup....
my mitre saw is really getting a workout lately.... lol

oh and a cut a bit of wood for a fretboard....
will have another go at hand slotting and see if im happy with it

oh and i got some jumbo fretwire in the post today.....
still not as jumbo as the fretwire on my ibanez, but its a bit bigger than the last lot i got....

just gotta wait for the other goods to arrive...

I misunderstood your question too Floody ... but I thought we'd covered this before?

Anyway, go to the Stewmac site and enter all the details for your neck and roughly the type / brand of bridge. It's quick and easy and it will tell you how far back to put the bridge as well as how much angle to compensate with ... usually a few mm.

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator/

Any probs, come back here and we'll work it out.

^^^ they have some great stuff on StewMac site eh? ^^^