Guitar Nerds Anonymous

@paradroid , that Cornell looks great! Attenuator isn't a bad shout. I have a SF 1970 Champ with a Weber Alnico in it and I can't comfortably get that overdriving without bothering the neighbours (Victorian terrace, bare floorboards).

Not 100% commited, but it's what I ordered. And I quite like the look.

Also the rear PU is going to be a humbucker, and I need some kind of PU ring, as I'm not to keen on showing the world my mediocre routing skills.

Has anyone bought a Chibson and lived to tell the tale? I'm ogling 6/12 double necks and think I may have to have one, I also desperately want a 6/4 double neck, it's an awful predicament to be in...

I've not bought, or seen one. I imagine that at least some of them must come from the same places that make epiphones and squiers though.

Ben Crowe did this a couple of years ago. I can't remember the result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saHmS_gOuvg

Even if it was ok, I've no idea how you'd make sure your order was for a good one!

I wouldn’t.

https://youtu.be/YXlHWR3io3I

+1 on attenuators. I haven’t looked back since I got one for my AC15, completely transformed playing at home. I play a lot more than I did before.

Look for one that has a balanced XLR out, headphone out, speaker cab simulator etc. Then you can play and even record completely silently

Yeah, I've got a reactive load box I built for silent playing. I can play at fairly decent volume now, but I will try guitar amp -> load box -> hifi amp -> 4x12" next. It still seems a bit of a faff, and reducing the tube amp to a pre-amp for ss amp feels maybe a little questionable. But meh, if it sounds decent I'm sure I can live with it.

Edit. Tried this quickly. Sounded at least ok, need to do more testing. I'll still stand by the "not ideal" :)

ACG doing Rowland Howard?!? Too cool for school...
https://youtu.be/JSqxdzlbR0g

PS if anyone sees an MIJ block and bound Jag neck for sale, let me know... Would still like to repro Rowlie's guitar, because I'm sad...

Stumbled across Moar Guitars on IG.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-CRYXrJ-6m

They've got a slimline hollowbody, called the Wayfair which looks amazing

I've been following this chap for a while, they're beautiful machines alright! There's something beautifully organic about them!

Back to the Chibson discussion and it's an extremely tricky one alright... There aren't too many options for a 6/12 double neck (and almost none for a 6/4 double neck) and what is available is violently expensive so ethics aside I don't really see another solution. When an Epiphone EDS-1275 is c.£1000 then a £300 Chibson even with the necessity for some fretwork and electrical work is a bargain!

If I'm being really honest I don't find a lot wrong with dicking over Gibson either considering their approach towards so many other companies regarding copyright...

What other options are there though for a 6/12 double neck?

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Sorry I'm probably spamming. Nice and compact setup... although replacing the '70s hifi beast with a small class D amp could make things a fair bit more discreet.

I'm starting to think this can sound pretty good. Added benefit is that I can put a reverb after the tube amp.

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Just finalised the control layout for my custom bass! Almost have the spec completely nailed down now aside from the headstock design!

Internet points for whoever can figure it out... I don't think anyone will :)

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I know it has an unconventional pickup configuration, I’m guessing there’s more than one blend control?

My design is slowly approaching the point where I can stop tinkering and start building. I hope.

Along with switching in a set of Firebird pickups, I redesigned the pickguard with a sweeping curve at the bottom. I couldn’t work out how to attach a control plate, so I’ve left it out. Does it work, or do I need to rethink?

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No blend control at all!
Three way telecaster pickup selector on the left for X-Coil only/ X-Coil and String-through/ String-through only. Four three-way toggleswitches in the middle for parallel/off/series for each of the four coils of the X-Coil. Volume and tone for X-Coil and and volume and tone for String-through.

Also that 12-string is going to be incredible! I wonder how a leopard/tortoiseshell pickguard would look?

Man, I’d be overwhelmed with that many tonal possibilities, but bassists do love that stuff. It’s going to be a proper beast! It’s one of several impending guitars on here that I can’t wait to see.

I wonder how a leopard/tortoiseshell pickguard would look?

Probably pretty good, but I’m trying to steer away from a trad Fender look, despite the design obviously being influenced by Fender offsets (although there’s a little bit of Gibson and Rickenbacker mashed in there). That said, I’d love to make a 6-string version with a shiny control plate, double P90s and a mint 3-ply pickguard in Candy-Apple Red. Maybe that’ll be next.

I had a productive weekend of sorts. After helplessly fuming about the mess my dad made in our workshop, I went ahead and started to make the template from 10mm MDF, followed by the routs in the body.

Ah yes routs in the body: ash is heavy. Like 6kg heavy for the four 20mm blanks I got. So I designed some chambers to go in there, 12mm deep.
I spent the best part of today drilling and routing these out. Ash is hard.

Then as a last step I made the neck pocket template. Not perfect, but good enough.

Now I'm waiting for some veneer I ordered as a contrast layer between the parts of the body.

Bloody pictures won't load...

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Nice work fella. Pretty sure I'll never build a guitar. I lack the patience and skill. Much happier buying otp and tinkering with parts.

This is looking really good - love how sharp those chambers are - always irks me when people just do forstner bit weight relief or leave them scruffy looking, even if it'll always be unseen.

Are you going to do any shielding on those cavities, I can't visualise quite where the wires will go :)

Did you weigh it before / after you cut out the chambers, always interested to see what difference it makes.

Thanks. They're not perfect, but good enough for something invisible.

I have given shielding some thought. The large cavity as a whole is too large, in my opinion, to shield completely. My idea is to fold a sort of box from copper sheet and suspend it from the metal pickguard / switchplate. That should shield things nicely and saves me faffing around with copper tape.

Is it worth it shielding the pickup routs?

Good point on the weight. I didn't weigh it, probably should have.

@Fatberg thanks. I very much lack patience too. I really hope I get this finished before it migrates to the huge pile of unfinished projects I own...

Is it worth it shielding the pickup routs?

I'm absolutely not an expert on this stuff, it always sounds like one of those areas of building that's shrouded in myths so I've always just shield everything on mine and be done with it.

It's pretty big - though you can get pretty wide copper tape. I don't think thinline telecasters are shielded, so it's probably not necessary to do the whole body

Hadn't thought of making your own faraday cage thing off the pick guard - definitely sounds like it should work, though the cables going to your switches away from the scratchplate would still be exposed (shielded wire exists though).

Chris (Highline guitars) also did a video recently on making your own conductive paint if you can be bothered with the faff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhxjzbxmDxA

I am very excited.
Bin friending for some crybaby.

Pulled out my real amp, spent about two years playing through my laptop with a guitar port, really old gearbox software and headphones.

The plan was to see what doesn’t work, everything does except I could do with an 18v DC for my power brick, a 12v is working as I no longer have any 18v pedals.
Must’ve sold my MXR double shot.

Is my Wah, or anyone’s for that matter, supposed to honk? Maybe I’m being too aggressive. I’m rolling back treble and guitar volume so much my guitar sounds underwater but if I hit the strings too hard as I use the pedal it honks, like a loud popping-honk-peak of treble kinda sound.

Am I making any sense?
Is it me or the wah?

Edit; umm might have babbled a bit there.
Pretty sure it’s the lead.

Still very much excited mind.

My baritone tele project is kind of trivial compared to what the other guys are doing, but seeing I got the neck in 2014 it's great to be making some progress.

I ended up getting the body from northwest guitars, perfectly happy with the quality. Lucked out with the weight too, well under 2kg for the finished body.

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Beautiful...

Needs a B-bender, obvs... 🙃