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Everything posted by Freeman Keller
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[NEWBIE] What to look for when buying a second hand guitar ?
Freeman Keller replied to nethanpaul's topic in Acoustic Guitars
Something I posted at another forum Evaluating a used Martin (or any other) guitar. | Telecaster Guitar Forum (tdpri.com) -
Neil, I'm good, a whole lot older but still crazy after all these years. All of my old HC threads used Photobucket links which have gone bad and I've pretty much switched allegiance to a different forum, if you are interested in my latest archtop build Lets build something that looks like an L5 archtop | Telecaster Guitar Forum (tdpri.com) And to the original poster, if you are curious about building your acoustic with the minimum tools I might be able to help.
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Chambered bodies are done fairly frequently on electric guitars and you could certainly make it an acoustic. It is very wasteful of wood, particularly if you go the full depth of an acoustic (2 inches is pretty shallow). Basically most of your sides will be very thin end grain which is pretty weak, particularly in the neck block area. End grain will look kind of funky and is harder to finish, it wants to absorb more of whatever you put on it. You'll probably want to make some pretty good templates for both the outer and inner routs. If you do them in two parts joined at a center seam (like two bent sides) you can cut them on a band saw - still dealing with end grain but might be easier than routing. Bending does involve several steps that are tricky for a new builder, you need to thickness the sides to 0.060 or 0.070, put together some sort of hot pipe and molds and then do the actual bending. Buying a kit or having someone bend the sides is a very good option - I built a couple of kits when I was first getting started and still play them. So bottom line, its certainly doable but not the way I would choose.
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How would you go about repairing this ?
Freeman Keller replied to dork lard's topic in Electric Guitars
GluBoost Applications Guide -
Shaving a back brace on an OM-21 with good results
Freeman Keller replied to BeeLectro's topic in Acoustic Guitars
Wow, I don't come around here much anymore but I happened to stop by the other day and saw this. Wow. I'm not really sure where to start commenting but I will say that I am very glad your modification was a success. But I do have issues with a few of the things you said. Its too bad you didn't take some sound clips before and after the mod - I would love to hear each of the open strings played before and after (with the same strings, pick, recorder, yadda yadda). Double blind listening tests are always interesting... Something else that is equally interesting is that there is now software that will let you compare two sound notes both in the time domain and the frequency domain. I have been using one that was especially designed for luthiers when I make modifications - here are two waveforms of the same guitar with a plastic and a bone saddle, this is A2 on the open fifth string, the fundamental is 110 hz Having something like that and the sound clips would get around the inability you are having describing what you really hear. OK, just so everyone knows what you are talking about I believe that you are shaving the lower back brace, sometimes call B4. This is an OM that I built for a HC forum member some years ago, there are two shapes for that brace that Martin has used over the years. One is wide and flat, the other is fairly skinny and tall like this one. That brace has two main functions - it keeps the back from splitting as the plate moves with humidity and it holds the 16 foot radius of the back's dome. Remember that the stiffness of a brace is the cube of its height, by removing one half of the height you reduce the stiffness (and strength) by a factor of 8. Some builders do attempt to "voice" the backs of their guitars and certainly that is a worthwhile endeavor - I've never felt that it made that much difference in any tap tones so I mostly just follow traditional designs (like Martins) and they seem to work fine. I'm intrigued by your discussion of wave length as it relates to your brace shaving, We know that the length of a wave is simply equal to its speed in whatever medium (air, wood, etc) divided by its frequency in hertz. I don't know if you are talking about the note in air inside the box or propagating thru the wood - the speed of sound in air is 343 meters/sec, generic wood is 4150 m/sec. That means your A2 (open fifth string) has a wave length of 3.2 meters in air, 38 meters in wood. Your low E2 string would be 4.2 meters in air and 50 in wood. Compare those with the length of that brace which is less than a half a meter, its pretty hard to believe that you are dramatically affecting the wave length - I guess I don't believe your theory. Your comments about halos around the notes looses me completely. If you are talking about all of the partials you can see how they changed in the saddle swap but the fundamental and first octave are pretty much the same. I'll make one last comment before I crawl back in my hole. Bryan Kimsey is (was, he is not taking new work) a very talented and somewhat controversial luthier and repair technician. One of the things that he does is after market scallop Martin guitars from the 1970's. This was often considered a low period for Martin's guitars - because of a lot of warranty issues they had gradually beefed up the size of TOP braces and bridge plate from what they were doing in the so called Golden Era before the war. Bryan's claim to fame was replacing the big rosewood bridge plate with a smaller maple one and shaving braces thru the sound hole to make them more like the pre war guitars, often completely removing the popsicle brace. Obviously it voided warranty and there were many people who were critical of his ideas. However I happen to own a Kimseyfied 1974 D-18. When Bryan reset the neck on it and refretted it he also replaced the bridgeplate and scalloped the braces (we left the popsicle alone). I don't belief the work changed the sound significantly but it certainly made it a heck of a lot louder. I did make some recordings before and after, people who have heard them agree that its hard to tell much difference except volume (and of course that can be playing style as much as anything). As far as back braces, I've never heard Bryan say anything about modifying them, only fixing them when they break. In the end it doesn't matter and I'll leave the good folks at HCAG to think what they think. I had a lot of good friends here and see that a couple are still around - hi to you all. I'm still building guitars and stirring up trouble. Life is good -
Its all chambered but still pretty heavy. And thanks, I haven't been here in a long time. Friend Gardo posted at another forum that good old HC had met its final demise and I was curious. Apparently it didn't really happen (yet) - once upon a time this was a regular hang.
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Home made 6/12 watt 6L6 amp. Just finished building a spring reverb, need to make an oak box for it. Does it make a difference that its the only amp I've played? Oh, and there's that old barncaster again.
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What woods is your favorite guitar made from?
Freeman Keller replied to knnr's topic in Electric Guitars
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Slick, "painting" a guitar body is not a trivial subject, and is one of the most difficult aspect of building a guitar. You need to decide on a finishing product, preparation, method of application, final sanding and buffing. One of the reasons so many hand applied finishes are popular with do it yourself finishers is because it is so difficult to get a professional finish. This is a great resource and does cover setting up your spray gun and compressor, but it is primarily focused on traditional lacquer finishes Depending on your wood you may need to fill the pores to get a smooth finish (it is very unlikely your guitar body actually is maple, it might have a maple cap however). If in fact your body is maple it would be a shame to cover it with an opaque finish like white. Dan does discuss some traditional white finishes but, again, he is mixing the colors with lacquer. The cardinal rule for any finishing question, and it goes double here, is to do all of your practice and experimenting on scraps of the same wood as your guitar. Learn your gun and compressor by shooting lots of water or solvent until you are totally comfortable with the settings. Wear the proper PPE and have fun.
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Building more jigs for the luthery hobby
Freeman Keller replied to kwakatak's topic in Acoustic Guitars
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Probably the best kit electric guitar company right now is Precision out of Vancouver BC. I'm pretty sure they can put together an SG style guitar for you. One of the nice things is that they don't include a bunch of cheap hardware and electronics that you will just end up throwing away. There have been some recent build threads of Precision guitars at TDPRI in the Home Depot.
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You can fill the holes with dowels and small round pieces of wood - preferably ash. Since the finish is probably catalyzed poly something you can drop fill with CA, level and knock the gloss off. The drilling looks like it might have been a tune-o-matic bridge with a Bigsby - measure your hole locations and compare with the engineering drawings of various trems at StewMac or other suppliers. Putting a trem back on introduces its own problems You won't be able to hide it but you can make them look better.
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https://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/faq2.aspx I you happen to be buying a roasted neck from Warmoth heed their warnings about tuner holes. Also Ken Warmoth says he expects the end user of their necks to dress the frets altho he knows most people don't.
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The simple answer is that a lap steel is an electric guitar, it makes its sound by the strings moving thru a magnetic field. A "dobro" is an acoustic guitar, it makes its sound by the cone moving air. Various kinds of pickups can be added to a "dobro" to amplify it - some are more true to the cone sound.
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Could I have my strat modded at Guitar Center?
Freeman Keller replied to Jericho-79's topic in Electric Guitars
Since the definition of "luthier" varies my suggestion is to take the guitar and all of the information you can find about the sustainer (they had pretty good instructions when I installed mine) to the person who might do the work and get an estimate. Installing the sustainer will probably involve routing the body which might mean some finish touch up. You need room for both the PCB and the battery (and make the access to the battery easy). There is substantial wiring in addition to the pickups that you want changed. I made new pick guards and a back panel cover and had them engraved. You will need to do the usual setup work. As I said before it is not a trivial mod. Edit - I want to empathize that I installed a Sustainiac (tm) not a Fernandez Sustainer. I can only speak to the issues involved with that particular unit. They have pretty good information about their sustaier https://www.sustainiac.com/stpr-org.htm You are on your own with the Fernandez model. -
Could I have my strat modded at Guitar Center?
Freeman Keller replied to Jericho-79's topic in Electric Guitars
As I recall I charged the guy for ten hours of labor plus some parts. We made new front and back covers and some other stuff - he didn't blink when I handed the invoice. I had to route the guitar to fit the pcb and batteries, I believe Sustainiac makes some models for strats that fit in the trem cavity. And for what it is worth, I wouldn't trust GC to change my strings. -
Could I have my strat modded at Guitar Center?
Freeman Keller replied to Jericho-79's topic in Electric Guitars
Not quite what he asked for, is it? -
Could I have my strat modded at Guitar Center?
Freeman Keller replied to Jericho-79's topic in Electric Guitars
Please understand that installing a Sustainiac is not a trivial modification. I put one in a flying vee for a guy - it was a major project. Would I trust Guitar Center to do this? Absolutely not. -
I've run a Paul Norman carbon fiber biscuit in my Duolian since 2009. Lighter than maple, intonation is fine for the combination slide/fretted play. Paul has sold a variety of compensated saddles for at least that long. My tricone has a normal Tee bridge, my spider has a spider bridge.
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I need to chime in on this. First, the idea of the flared slide is that it follows the radius of a fretboard which has a lot of radius to it. When you do slide barres you can get more even pressure on all of the strings. For most of us who play on acoustics with relatively flat fretboards a cylindrical slide works pretty well. If I was using a flared slide (which I don't) I would want the flare closest to my hand so I can control it over the first two strings while doing barres. When I pull down to use the tip of the slide for single string stuff I would want to use the straighter part. As others have said, there are many ways to play slide and if someone else puts it on the other way, whatever works. What might not work too well is the nut extender in Phil's post, They are designed to raise (and flatten) the strings on a round neck Spanish style guitar for lap style play. I guess it could be used Spanish style but I've never seen one that way. Most people who play slide include fretted notes, they would be very difficult to do with a nut extender. I happen to have one on my old round neck Dobro right now that I go back and forth between lap and Spanish style play. The capo thing seems like a complete waste but I've got to admit that I've never tried (or seen) one. If you are playing slide on an electric guitar you are probably tuning up to A or E, why would you want to capo above that? And I'll be very honest, a good slide player probably does not need excessively high action - I play slide on everything I own with nice reasonable low "fingerstyle" action. If you want to optimize a guitar for slide (my resonators are slightly higher than my acoustics or my electrics) then do so but there is no need to get carried away.
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Its not a M&T, its a bolted butt joint. You see them from time to time on ukuleles and its somewhat similar to Taylors NT joint except for the shims and bolt in the fretboard extension. If Bob is still around and has the neck off he can check the length by knowing that the insert is 1/2 inch long. If the neck is still on the guitar measure the length of the neck block, add 1/16 for the sides, 1/2 for the insert. He does not want the bolt to bottom out in the insert. Also, Bob, you should use Belleville washers under the bolt heads.
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I just worked on one. They should be SAE 1/4-20. The ones I use are 1-1/4 long but that might not be right for an A&L/Seagull.
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For what it is worth, the Eastman OM that I am storing is a 2003 model AC610. I has a 25.4 scale, is 1-3/4 at the nut and 2-3/16 at the saddle. That is slightly narrow by Martin's standards and I can see how some players would not like it (including me).