recent progress- post yours

**black_labb** · 8th October 2007, 01:57 AM

ok guys, ive been getting some work done on a few projects i have going.

the first ive been doing for a long time, its a walnut guitar that i have been working on for the longest time. its taken the longest time because its the first guitar where ive made everything from scratch. its still not finished, but all the woodwork is done, save a little bit of final sanding. its turned out well with no flaws. its a set neck that is well within the body, which will be covered by the white pickguard. it will be danish oiled a natural colour and has black hardware. it will have 2 homemade single coils which will be wired up to be bridge-bridge and neck in paralell-neck aswell as a switch to put them in series (like a humbucker with coils firther apart) there is also a switch to put them out of phase. they will be opposites magnetically so they will be hum cancelling in the modes where they are together.

the second is a bass guitar that i am making for my girlfriend to play/learn on, as the band ive gotten together she is singing, and we cant seem to find a bass player, were also happy to keep it a 3 piece as we seem to enjoy working with eachother. the neck is a one piece design in the sense that the truss rod is put in from the back, but has 5 laminates (New Guinea rosewood, wenge, zebrano, wenge then NG rosewood). instead of inlays ive stained the zebrano section of the fretboard on the apropriate sections red, which i quite like. wether the danish oil holds up enough to usage to protect the red stain underneath i dont know. the body is NG rosewood as well (it was cheap and ive heard its a great tonewood. even with the expensive laminates for the neck the guitar turned out quite cheap, as body wood makes up a huge amount of the bulk) the truss rod strip is walnut (an offfcut from the timber place i go to, got it for free including machining to the right thickness) instead of using thick pieces of wood for the laminates, i bought a thinner size and a bit longer so i could double it up under the body. it worked out great. somehow the zebrano at the butt of the guitar has all the grain running perfectly between the 2 pieces, i didnt even see the wood when it was glued!!! the body is going to be heavily carved front and back.

for both of these i am winding my own pickups and am making a vary simple preamp for the bass, which has half strength pickups. i can either use the preamp with the pickups, or i can put the pickups in series to get a proper output without the preamp, which is nice for when batteries run out.
the third project is an amp. it is my own variation on a fender tweed deluxe 5e3, with a bit of a different preamp. it runs a 12ax7 instead of a 12ay7, and has the 2 channels the same as the instrument input, but one has higher gain than the other (one im hoping to be around the value of the original 5e3 with a 12ay7, the other like a 5e3 with a 12ax7 put in it. there are also switches to change the value of the cathode bypass resistor, one a 25uf (whats usually in a tweed amp), and the other being a .68 uf which is what marshalls had to give the extra treble they have, aswell as an option to go without any bypass cap. im making it into a head and then a separate cabinet for the speakers.

**kiwigeo** · 8th October 2007, 12:57 PM

Nice work on the guitar and the amp. Not an electric man but Ive always loved valve amps.

Looking at that router and the shavings on the floor I think you need to get yourself a workbench...youre going to end up with a bad back.

Cheers Martin

**old_picker** · 8th October 2007, 06:48 PM

lookin good
theres no amp like a 5E3 - hope you get what you want out of yours

you definetly get a bit more kick with 12Ax7's
i am thinkin of putting 6L6's in mine - what do you reckon??
the main power tube is a 5U4G

**againstthegrain** · 8th October 2007, 08:22 PM

Beautiful instruments and nice looking amp!

I actually originally found this group because I want to build a couple of cases for amps and speakers. I'm an electronics tech by trade and a guitar player for...oh about 40 years now, and I am looking to build a couple of valve amps and speaker cabinets for personal use. I can't imagine attempting to build a guitar but then again, you never know what this old dude might try in the future.

I'm glad this forum has a section for musos. I will be looking with great interest at your finished products.

Keep up the great work!

**black_labb** · 8th October 2007, 09:25 PM

thanks for the good feedback. i have a workbench, but i often find myself doing routing with templates on milkcrates on my knees (usually put some foam under my knees) the main reason is the workbench is too thick to clamp anything over 35mm to it. i do most on the bench other than routing and some sawing.

i am putting a 5u4 in the amp as well, but can always change to a 5y3 if im looking for some more squish. in terms of putting 6l6''s, you probably need a bigger output transformer, and maybe even a bigger power transformer, depending on what you have in there at the moment (yours was homemade from memory?) the main effect the 6l6's will have is give it mroe headroom, in reality you dont get that much more output wattage (i think i read somewhere that you get around 18-19watts, compared to the 13.5 or so from a deluxe, but i may be wrong. dont really know the reasoning behind that, must be due to the circuit, or even the amount of power the preamp can muster up not being the same level as most 2x6v6 amps in push pull, but im not sure on any of that. mission amps do a 6l6 conversion kit with their amp kits, im not sure if you can get them on their own.

if you go to http://music-electronics-forum.com/home.php there is alot of information about amps and other things. i started going there for pup info but they have huge amp section which ive started to use a bit as well.

ive just started back at uni this week (had a 2 week break) so i dont know if ill get things done as quickly as i have recently, but i may just as well end up slacking on uni work and doing this instead, but i really shouldnt do that considering how much work i should be doing.

ive done some more carving on the bass. its starting to really look good. the carving makes the relatively plain looking NG rosewood really come alive by cutting across the grains a bit more than the flat top did when the photo was taken. ive also wired the preamp onto a small board which will fit nicely into the control cavity.

ive always thought about making an acoustic, but i feel that some of the freedom is lost in the way the bracing and shape is hard to change much without effecting the vibration of the soundboard. i love being able to do it completely myself designwise.
i do greatly respect any acoustic builders because of the more difficult steps that you have to do. i can imagine myself just leaving an acoustic build aside because im too afraid to do something wrong.

ill post some more photos once i get the pickup covers made. did i mention that the pickup covers are going to be big red lips?

**black_labb** · 9th October 2007, 04:37 PM

does noone else have much progress being done in the electric area?

ive done some more on the bass, and also started on making the box for the bass head. i feel like an idiot because im having more issues planning the box than i did designing the bass or guitar. it shouldnt be hard, i think my mind keeps wandering over to the more interesting woodwork for the bass.

**black_labb** · 15th October 2007, 12:05 AM

now ive run into a bit of a hurdle, in the form of a cracked headstock that happened when i was drilling the tuner holes.

would you guys suggest flooding the crack with glue, or seaparating it and then gluing. the advantage of separating it being that i could get the glue into some of the smaller corners, but the disadvantage being that it would be a bit more difficult to get perfectly lined up.

**old_picker** · 15th October 2007, 12:48 AM

flood it with glue and clamp it back tight
hopefully if your cunning others wont see it - you always will
d@mn i hate that sh%t

just finished a hot rod tele and i got some new teles on the go as well -
i will post some pics soon - building a cab for the new lil dawg d-lux i just brought in from the states - pics of that too

busy busy busy

**black_labb** · 15th October 2007, 01:55 AM

Originally Posted by old_picker

flood it with glue and clamp it back tight
hopefully if your cunning others wont see it - you always will
d@mn i hate that sh%t

just finished a hot rod tele and i got some new teles on the go as well -
i will post some pics soon - building a cab for the new lil dawg d-lux i just brought in from the states - pics of that too

busy busy busy

thanks for the help, i did just that. i opened it up a bit without snapping it off so i was able to get the titebond right through the crack fortunately. should be alright.

im waiting to see your tele

**petersemple** · 15th October 2007, 04:52 PM

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect that adding a veneer would make it a bit stronger? It would change the appearance though, which you may not want.

Peter

**black_labb** · 15th October 2007, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by petersemple

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect that adding a veneer would make it a bit stronger? It would change the appearance though, which you may not want.

Peter

it probably would add some strength, but i think the glue is strong enough, i got it right in there. ive drilled the rest of the tuners and the glue line is invisible after a bit of sanding. wenge is open grained enough that it doesnt stand out.

**RGM** · 15th October 2007, 07:20 PM

Glad to hear you got her all repaired black_labb! looking good.

**oz tradie** · 15th October 2007, 08:26 PM

Well done Black_labb.
Oh how the heart must have sank when you saw the tearout.

I've been chambering, and making templates for it.

**RGM** · 15th October 2007, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by oz tradie

Well done Black_labb.
Oh how the heart must have sank when you saw the tearout.

I've been chambering, and making templates for it.

You do not know how long i have been waiting to see more of your current projects! Thanks!

Got any more you wanna share? (nevermind, raided your photobucket!)

btw, looks bloody nice.

**oz tradie** · 15th October 2007, 10:55 PM

Nothin' to hide there !! More stuff on the way too.
Maybe you could post 'em for me considering I'm crap at it.

And here's one you may have seen.

cheers, Stu

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