Yew-topped SG-style Guitar * Finished Pics!

[Richard R]

1 minute ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Not quite right. 

It is the bending of the string, albeit vertically, to reach the fret (or in a fretless the fretboard).  So if you have a high nut, your bottom frets will NEVER sound in tune because the string is bending and therefore tightening out of pitch in trying to press it down to the fret.

So high nut, low action - it will be in tune at the upper frets and out of tune at the lower frets

and low nut, high action - will be in tune at the lower frets and out of tune at the higher frets.

And if you have high nuts and a low action then please join me for a chorus of Saturday Night Fever. One two three and..  "Well you can tell by the way I sing and squark.."

[Richard R]

Sorry Andy. I will go upstairs and practice scales.

[Maude]

Thank you Andy, that all makes perfect sense. It's nice to have it explained clearly. 👍

[SpondonBassed]

Indeed.  Thanks for straightening that out.

[sprocketflup]

On 29/04/2020 at 18:26, Andyjr1515 said:

Actually, great advice.  The rough side of brown packing paper is also fantastic as a slightly rougher 'flour paper'.

Ah yes, one of two working titles for a Pink Floyd album. I believe they chose the other one......

[Andyjr1515]

I'll sand these fully flush when I tidy up the fretboard and give the neck its final oil and buff after fret levelling, but the mother of pearl fret side dots are in:


That's another one ticked off the list.  Just 11 things still to go

[Andyjr1515]

Another two jobs off the list - fret levelling/recrowning ; fretboard tidy-up.

And another shout here for Chris Alsop Guitars - after levelling with my 1m aluminium beam, I used one of his whole raft of really usable and practical tools - this fret recrowning file:


It is a good radiused diamond file housed in such a usable handle!  Easiest re-crown to date.

I did the normal marking the flats on the frets with a sharpie and then used Chris's file first on its own, then with 320 grit sandpaper wrapped over the file, then with 800 grit sandpaper, 
and finally with 3200; 6000 & 12000 microweb cloth, again using the file as a radiused sanding block:


Then used a single-edged razor as a scraper to tidy up the fretboard.

It's come up nice:

[Andyjr1515]

The SG has quite a cramped controls cluster.  Some of that is the body shape, and some the fact that they have a top-mounted jack.  While I can't do anything about the body shape, I do have the advantage of going for an edge mounted jack.  

I'm sure there are lots of other ways of laying them out, but after lots of mockups, sticking the knobs and tip on with blu-tack, this one below passed my 'air guitar test' of ensuring I would never accidentally hit the switch while flailing my arms Pete Townsend style, but could still reach both or individual volumes quickly without hitting either the tones or the switch.  
I tried with the switch position a little further forward but came to the conclusion that it is safer from accidental adjustment here.  So it's still tight, but I think is going to work OK live:


Inside, I wanted to leave most of the chamber bottom thicker than the pot spindles to maximise the stability in that knotty area, so I just Forstner-cut some recesses for the pots and switch to allow good thread access the other side:


Once I've cut the jack hole, I'll tidy up the inside shape to make it look more like it was supposed to look like that  

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

while flailing my arms Pete Townsend style

Please say there is a clip of you doing that somewhere online.

[Andyjr1515]

And a couple more jobs off the to do list.  
First of all, drilling the bridge earth wire hole and fitting the earth wire.  

I talked about a tip to get inserts out.  A bolt would be better, but I found that the screws they use to fit bed heads to beds are the right thread   So with great care not to let the screwdriver slip (which is why a bolt would be better) I screw it in until it bottoms at the wood inside the hole:

And then I just carry on screwing.  The bolt can't go any further down, so the insert has to move the other way:


With the control layout paper template, I mark the points from the insert hole to where I want the earth wire to come out into the chamber:

I draw a pencil line joining those points on the other side.  Then get a very, very long bradpoint drill and line it up with the line.  Theoretically, it has to drill through the insert hole.  Always a relief when it does, mind you 

And then simply push the earth wire through, with a generous length stripped of insulation, and just re-insert the insert, trapping the copper of the earth wire as it does so.

Finally, drilled the recessed hole for the tele-style jack socket I am using:


Just 7 items left to do

[TheGreek]

49 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

And then simply push the earth wire through

Ah, you say that.....

[Andyjr1515]

And another one ticked off the list.  I popped a couple of P Rails into the pickup rings (Matt will be supplying his own pickups) to line everything up.  The strings, again, are just for lining up - they are a set of flatwounds I tried on Pete's piccolo bass build a few years ago.
The P-rails are useful as one of the tasks was making sure that the pickups fitted and adjusted in the chambers and the coils of the P-rail are just a touch fatter than most humbuckers - so this should be worst case.

Spent quite a bit of time chiselling out the tight spots.  These now adjust fine, so I am happy that Matt's will also.



And that leaves 5 jobs left on the list 

[Pea Turgh]

Bloody lovely, that!  Everything is just right.  Very visually balanced.

[Jabba_the_gut]

Really nice - draws your eyes in and the black/chrome/yew works so well.

[Si600]

Is the bridge pickup surround slightly skewed, or is it just a photo issue?

 

Or my eyes!

[BreadBin]

3 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Is the bridge pickup surround slightly skewed, or is it just a photo issue?

 

Or my eyes!

I think it's the bridge that's out of square, deliberately 👍

Edited May 10, 2020 by BreadBin

[Maude]

It's definitely slightly off in the picture. If you zoom in and then scroll up and down, the lower edge of the neck pickup sits almost perfectly on the lower edge of your screen, the top edge of the bridge pickup is definitely not sitting level on the edge of the screen when doing the same. Whether that's a quirk of the camera angle, I don't know. 

I hate to pick fault as it's exceptional but it's better to know if it really is out. 

[Andyjr1515]

17 minutes ago, Si600 said:

Is the bridge pickup surround slightly skewed, or is it just a photo issue?

 

Or my eyes!

No - your eyes are fine.

I've never explained that and it's never occurred to me that basses rarely have the issue.

Yes - as @BreadBin says, the bridge is intentionally out of square.  This is actually less of a tilt than the original Gibson because the bridge I'm using has more adjustment than the original Tune-o-matic - but it is tilted nonetheless.  

Basically, the bridge design isn't wide enough to be able to adjust for the intonation, so the bridge tilts a bit like an acoustic guitar saddle.

[Andyjr1515]

Here's a Gibson:

[TheGreek]

Pretty sure that Matt is going to be more than happy with this beauty...is he actually going to play it? I could understand if he's going to be precious about it...

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

Pretty sure that Matt is going to be more than happy with this beauty...is he actually going to play it? I could understand if he's going to be precious about it...

No - I think he'll play it

[Andyjr1515]

2 hours ago, Si600 said:

Is the bridge pickup surround slightly skewed, or is it just a photo issue?

 

Or my eyes!

Re-read, @Si600 and promise to pay more attention next time 

The bridge itself is skewed and that should be.  But yes - the bridge surround is also skewed...and that shouldn't be

I skim read the posts because I was actually pm'd about the bridge and assumed that the other comments were also about the bridge.

So, just to clarify:

Yes - the bridge is skewed on purpose = Andyjr1515 is a great builder and knows what he's doing 

and

Yes - the bridge pickup surround is also skewed, but in error = Andyjr1515 's work has been found, quite frankly, wanting and he should have gone to Specsavers (if they'd been open)  

In my defence, there is a bit of an optical illusion too - the two pickup rings ramp up from 1mm thick for the edge of the neck one next to the fretboard, all the way to 10mm for the edge of the  bridge one next to the bridge.  And the ramp is casting a shadow.  But it is undeniably about 1mm out of square.  And it will, of course, be fixed  

OK - that's quite enough c**kups  emojis for one day  

 

 

[Si600]

I'm glad I'm not going mad, but equally sorry for you too 🙂

[Andyjr1515]

10 minutes ago, Si600 said:

I'm glad I'm not going mad, but equally sorry for you too 🙂

What - that I am going mad?    That bridge, as well you know, Simon, was crossed many years ago...  

I'd have spotted it eventually anyway and it's a super-easy fix.

[Pea Turgh]

4 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

Bloody lovely, that!  Everything is just right.  Very visually balanced.

Shows how much I pay attention then 🤣🤣🤣🤣