Guitar Nerds Anonymous

No, it doesn't quite - but I can't tell if that's the angle of the picture. The spaces don't look even.

Here's mine (standard, not jr)- it's the one I made so ignore the width of the whole neck, but it's a pre filed nut I bought. The strings are c.7mm on centre, and each evenly spaced.

1 Attachment

That sucks Joe, so sorry.

Nut looks a touch off, maybe get a scalpel and ruler and try the lined paper trick, you know it?

I got this, like you say, difficult to photograph...

1 Attachment

Don't want to add to the heartache but.....

You're right the spacing doesn't look right also and it may just be the photo but the a string slot doesn't look right to me either; it looks as if the filing of the the slot has gone wrong then been filled with bone dust and super glue. Which will shorten the lifespan a fair bit.

Sorry for taking a while to came back on this, I've been busy working on my callouses and (perhaps foolishly - there must be easier songs) trying to teach myself fingerstyle by learning to play Going to California.

Yes it's a 10e.

Speaking from the point of view of someone who does woodworking for a living the way it's constructed is very interesting and efficient. The back and sides are made from layered sapele / poplar / sapele with crossed grain (basically a VERY high quality plywood) that has presumably been shaped in a machine press. The back has a belly to it similar to what you'd see on an es 335. All this means that the back and sides only need kerfing and no other bracing so relatively unskilled labour cam be used to make them. This allows skilled labour to focus on getting the really critical parts right (soundboard, neck, fretboard etc) and is I think a really good way to go about making a cheaper instrument without sacrificing too much of the quality that a company like Taylor is built on.

2 Attachments

Just bought a couple of raffle tickets since it is for charidee. The D'Angelico Premier DC is very pretty and would satisfy my current lust for an ES-335 style guitar, and the Faith acoustic also looks nice. Wish me luck. :)

@Fatberg I recall you getting a Joyo octave fuzz a while ago. How do you find it? Can you engage the octave without the fuzz?

A very nice looking guitar. That detail on the binding is very classy. May it bring you much pleasure ( your fingers wil get used to the strings eventually!)

Cheers, I contacted Anderton's about the pick guard and they have no idea how it got on there but credited me £20 for something I would have probably asked for if I'd purchased in store....

Over lock down I've got into DIY pedal kits. It's been greta fun, and a lovely way to while away a few hours while working from home. They are not especially cheap, but the sound quality seems amazing (to me at least). For many years now I've been an acoustic picker, but having these has rekindled the joy of playing electric, loud!
From right to left a 60's style pre-amp (based on the Hudson Broadcast) a Blue Breaker (based on the Marshall, a Gilmour Fuzz (based on a Fuzz face) and a delay/reverb. All from Jed's peds.
Basic soldering skills and kit required, but nothing too complicated. Would recommend

1 Attachment

Yo. It's "okay". What do you expect for the money tho? And nope, the octav eonly works with the fuzz engaged.

I’ve been meaning to give DIY a go, I have a soldering iron that doesn’t get enough use. Thinking about a harmonic percolator from Fuzzdog.

Sold. I'm totally getting one of these this week.

That website is a bit hard to navigate. Is there a list of what the cryptic names are supposed to be hinting at anywhere?

Any that you'd recommend?

Those pedal kits look fun - I think I'll get something also. I've got to get the soldering iron out soon anyway; annoyingly something has gone wrong with the bridge pickup on my Les Paul - it's no longer outputting anything no matter the volume.

I'm not very good at debugging electrics, I imagine it'll be one for my father-in-law (electrical engineer / understander of multimeters) to diagnose...

There’s a (limited) list here.

Have a look at these guys and this lot as well. They tend to be just PCBs rather than kits, but if you’ve got the time to source your own components then they’re a lot cheaper.

I built a Crowther Hot Cake and an EQD Hummingbird last year, they both came out really well. I also made two attempts at building a Timmy, using the instructions on this site and stripboard. Didn’t go so well, pre-made PCBs are definitely the way to go for me. Hundreds of cool schematics on that site if you’re handier with a soldering iron than I am, however.

2 Attachments

Box of Gilmour is great - four knobs so there're lots of different sounds from it. Relatively easy to build too. It's the first one I did and (barring some schoolboy errors) it worked first time, despite the fact that I didn't really know what I was doing

Kit comparison spreadsheet

1 Attachment

• Kit Comparison 122020.xlsx

Noob question: I’ve ordered that harmonic percolator kit from Fuzzdog. The pots are .25” / 6.3mm splined shaft jobs for push-on knobs. They’re sold out of all such knobs and I’m struggling to find any elsewhere. Will 6.3mm grub screw knobs also work or am I being an idiot?

I can't see why not. 6.3mm is 6.3mm. Go for it!

*I'm not an expert or nuffink...

I figured maybe the grub screw ones would have a metal collet or something while the push on ones would have nylon rings or something softer to grip the splines... not sure though. I’ve sent an email to Fuzzdog.

In my experience, push on are splined to grip the splines and grub screw ones are made to accept the shafts that have one flat side. I'm sure they're not the only options though!

Yeah, if you don't have a flat edge on the shaft you should be able to nip the grub screw tight enough for general handling. If you want to abuse your knob you might find it slips round though. Many innuendo etc.

Heh, thanks all! I’ll see for sure what the pot shafts are when the kit arrives. Pretty sure I have some grub screw ones somewhere that I can test with and if they don’t work I’ll track down some push on ones.