Andyjr1515

Excellent news

Thanks, Neil and all you others. I was doing so well until the end of the England match when, in the excitement, I went down and cut a few bits of wood: "Oh no - he's not going to try an make his own knobs again, is he???"

Far too many to count. Let's just say that I now fully understand the lyrics of one of the more irritating Beatles songs in their portfolio - and most of the answers posed in said number are, in reality, 'no'.

Nope - for a live interview (NOT an easy thing to do - especially a long one) much better than most. And very interesting indeed. Full marks Andy

As you can see from the bobbly lines, I still have the final sanding of the neck to do and will finish off the volute at the same time - but this is pretty much where I want it to be in general terms: Not quite as butt-ugly as its creator

It reminded me of 'sad monkey'

I'll beat the inevitable responses from our other friends - if it's the former, then it would be truly an image in one's own likeness Happily, it should look nothing like me once it's finished...

Another one off the list - and one of my least favourite ones. Fitting the tuners. And fitting tuners shouldn't be as fiddly as it often seems to be. Also - a bit of a repetitive gripe - hmmm, I do like Schaller but... They make some REALLY nice products Their customer service, in my experience, is FIRST CLASS BUT they often don't seem to check how difficult it is to fit their own products. And they often don't provide the basics to allow the fitting to be done successfully and/or easily. The worst case of this was this piezo Hannes bridge. Flagship product. Total nightmare to fit. And I pretty much know what I'm doing! And I've got lots of standard and obscure tools. And I still needed to buy another specialist drill bit. Yes - a drill bit!!!! : Looks nice. Until you see the back: ..and then read the instructions of how to bolt it, and the instructions of how to string it, and the complete lack of any reference, whatsoever, of what you do with all the piezo wires and collector block - important in the context of the 10 or so precision drill holes (tenth mm precise at the guitar top and tenth mm precise at the guitar back after drilling through 30mm of wood or, trust me, it isn't going to fit) you've already drilled perilously close to each other and very perilously close to where the piezo wires are going to have to be. Anyway...I've taken a few more pills and calmed down a bit. And compared with a Hannes bridge, fitting a Schaller pegged tuner is, I suppose, a doddle. But is it asking too much - and surely it wouldn't be too much trouble - to pop a little piece of paper in the box with a full size drawing of the centres of the bush and two pegs to use as a template? Anyway, for what it's worth, this is what I do nowadays with pegged tuners if I don't have a template or the exact dimensional drawing to hand (and trust me - you can't measure the actual item accurately enough): I drill a hole for the bush in a thin piece of hardwood. I pop a drop of paint, or snowpake or wet sharpie ink on the pegs, pop the bush on, tighten until the pegs touch : I drill the peg holes on a drill press to ensure they are vertical and test fit the tuner. I then use this, with a bush pressed through the template and headstock hole, as the drill guide: Then, if everything is flat, square and vertical, the tuners should fit without having to 'ease' out the peg holes at all: Anyway, that's how I do it. And maybe it's just me that finds pegged tuners a PITA... Next job is carving that slightly ugly volute

Yes - where the fretboard is over the body, there is only room for the 3mm versions. Albeit I did them vertically (as there was no raised fretboard - the body curve was the fretboard) I did the same thing on Mick's Psilos: I put the small dots on Neil's fretboard before gluing it on. Don't fret (like the pun?) about the glue line, by the way - the joint hasn't been scraped yet:

And another one off the list. And I remembered that it's best to install the luminlay dots before the final sanding of the neck! Some folks make their own, but with the material coming in stick form, it is SO easy to install: ...and looks SO good once it has been, especially the black bound version. Makes great daylight and low light visibility even if you don't charge them up for the glow:

And another 1.5 items off the list. Just-a-nut positioned and back glued, and ebony trussrod cover cut. This will be secured with a single small magnet once the headstock plate has been finish-sanded:

I'm at the stage where I can start listing out the remaining jobs. It'll be a long list, but it's a milestone to get to that stage! One of the jobs on the list was to cut the hatch rebate and cover. I've used an offcut of the poplar top and the hatch will be held by magnets: So that's one ticked off the list and only 16 to go...

Lovely looking bass on all counts

And this is why I hate routers... Nice fix

That's pretty much what I do. Despite the power of modern search engines, I've never personally found a way of finding narrow headed screws - or where they quote the head diameter at all.

First of all for the others reading, @honza992 , let me tell them I've seen this in the flesh - and confirm it's absolutely top dollar. The attention to detail is inspirational. I don't even like telecasters and yet I'd be completely made up if I owned this beauty! : Then back to your question I think @Christine sums it up well. Chambered guitars - even semi-acoustics like the ES335 - are fundamentally electric guitars whose sound comes from the pickups. While the tone changes to an extent (every 335 type I've come across has a darker tone than, say, a Les Paul, even with the same pickups) they nevertheless will never sound full and balanced because the harmonics and sub-harmonics are picked up by the pickups, not the top. On an acoustic, various parts of the top itself resonate to this myriad of frequencies and then the resulting acoustic sound is amplified and projected by the sound box. None of this really happens with a thick top. Even slimline electro-acoustics (like the Yamaha apx ranges - excellent though they are) rely on being plugged in for the full breadth of sound. Not to say that you can't hear enough clarity to practice with a solid or chambered solid - you can. I do! And the more air around, the more volume you will hear - but you won't hear the full breadth of sound as you would with the resonating top of an acoustic. A 335 unplugged is actually quite loud - but very jangly and one-dimensional. When I next visit Nottingham (next week? I'll pm you), I can bring along my 335 clone to show you what I mean. There is, of course, the jazz hollow-body: These are closer to a 'normal' acoustic than an electric and, of course, would originally been acoustically played. Like a normal acoustic, the bridge sits on the top which then resonates. On the solid bodies, ES335, etc, etc, the bridge is fixed into the body or centre block and there is little vibration passed to the actual top Ref the later questions, yes a Tune-o-matic type bridge relies on seating on the posts, which are fixed by screw bushes into the body or central block. Incidentally, the bridge on a hollow body above, is actually often unfixed - you slide it forwards or backwards over the top to intonate (hence the term floating bridge) and when you take the strings off it falls off

Well, this is a special build for a special birthday for a special guy...so I reckon it needs a special inlay. How about some New Zealand Paua? My normal method - cut the inlays, then draw round them: Then use a Dremel with a precision router base to cut out the chambers: Then glue them in and sand them flush, then slurry and wipe with tru-oil to fill any gaps: And that deserves another mock-up, followed by a Pimms in the garden. Here's the mock-up. You'll have to use your imagination for the Pimms

Oh...and couldn't resist a quick mock-up

Still got to drill the location prong holes at the back, but the tuner holes are positioned and drilled: Next...

Haven't finished it yet (I'm about 1/2 way through) but well impressed as a first pilot. In terms of things to think about - maybe split into slightly shorter chunks? I am rarely in one place for more than 1/2hr and my memory isn't reliable enough to guarantee remembering to go back to things.... Great result though and I'm sure a huge amount of effort. Well done all!

Yes - you can still get them. Most model shops sell small packs of them, but I bought a box of 100 through the internet. I don't bother putting a burr on them - they scrape fairly well as is. You can also use a Stanley knife blade, although they do tend to cut a bit deeper and harder.

Gained a bit of time over the past few days with a visit by MrsAndyjr1515's sister, which=the two of them going for trips out, which=building time for Andyjr1515 And so, it was an opportunity for starting the headstock. I sliced a 3mm plate from some poplar offcut and veneered the back with the redwood veneer, then added a couple of wings to the headstock cut from some neckwood offcut then, after carefully checking and double checking for straight string runs and room for each of the tuner blocks, finalised the shape: I've done the slight cutaway at the top, similar to some of the other recent builds: This afternoon, all being well, I'll drill the tuner holes and then work out where best to put a brace of swifts

Hi, John Thanks! I am pleased how the blocks have come out. You've probably spotted the basic method I used, covered on P2 of the thread, but in terms of your specific questions: The perimeter of the route used a 1.5mm router bit and so the corners are a very small radius and I rounded the corners of the ebony with some 800 grit paper accordingly rather than chiselling the chambers I cut the ebony on the band saw a teeny bit oversize and eased up onto the exact fit using a disc sander and sanding block. The ebony was thinner than ideal so I couldnt risk either the middle being lower than the fretboard or the ends filing to nothing with the radius - it was therefore safer to radius first and the I could fit the depth of the inlay exactly right. This also helped reduce the amount of ebony dust contamination as I was then effectively radiusing isolated ebony blocks using a razor scraper rather than a full combined sanding block I'll pm later ref a revisit !

Actually, my own photos are still OK on the thread - luckily I was already using imgur. The formatting etc is all over the place but - it being 27 pages long (!!!!), I suspect the photos are the only things most sensible readers might be interested in. There is only so much Andyjr1515 rambling most sane people can cope with. Certainly, that's a view expressed often by MrsAndyjr1515

^^^ wot he said