What's on your workbench right now?

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
Post Reply
User avatar
Hellion
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 366
Joined: Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:24 am
Location: DC area

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Hellion » Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:45 am

The Bigsby Book has some funny stuff about Semie Moseley. Bigsby knew Ray Boatright (the "Rite" in MosRite) who told him there was a guy living in a shed behind his house that wanted to learn how to build guitars. Bigsby hired him and taught him how to do a lot of the stuff and Moseley claims he built quite a lot of the necks on the Bigsby guitars and did things like inlay work. Then (allegedly) Moseley started stealing casting patterns from Bigsby, Bigsby found out and picked him up by his belt and kicked him in the ass out of his house.

I've never really looked at the Vibramute and how it works but it seems like a straight up copy of how a Bigsby functions, I wonder what makes it smoother?

Springs have a massive influence on how Bigsby's feel, they always come with really stiff ones that have a crappy feel...there are some aftermarket ones you can stick in to improve them a lot...the best one I ever had was a Bigsby on a MIJ Gretsch and the stock spring in those must be different than the ones you get in offself trems here because it felt as smooth and floaty as an offset tremolo.
The Vibramute has a looser, slinky spring. The bar should feel heavier, but the taper makes it seem light. Moseley also got kicked out of Rickenbacker for using their tools. He learned from the best (including Roger Rossmeisl). Got his start and stayed with his gospel roots, but couldn't seem to jive with that seventh commandment.

User avatar
repoman
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 385
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 3:30 pm

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by repoman » Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:14 am

Haha, I love Mosrites. I love how they were born to be Bakersfeild country guitars but morphed into being associated with surf and punk and how they kinda sort of are not known for their Bakersfield connection, or at least much less so than surf.

User avatar
Lost In Autumn
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 886
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 3:01 am
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Lost In Autumn » Mon Aug 22, 2022 1:59 am

I'm back after recovering from some injuries- in between sessions in the spray booth, I've started playing with some shapes...

Image

User avatar
Shadoweclipse13
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 12435
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:22 pm
Location: Stuck in the dimension of imagination

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Mon Aug 22, 2022 8:50 am

Is a Gibson-style tenon neck joint or a neck-through design (like the classic Firebird) worth it as opposed to a bolt-on neck? Any advantages, especially as someone who's never done joints like that?

I'm really wanting to make an Explorer/Firebird hybrid (Explorer body with Firebird pickups, reverse Firebird head), and I found some templates for a company out of the UK called Crimson Guitars. They sell the entire template sets, or you can buy neck-only and body-only. I want to buy a Explorer body-only and Firebird neck-only template sets, but I've never done a tenon neck joint. Technically, I've never made a bolt-on style body from scratch either, but the tenon-style seems like a bit more of a challenge. Also, coming from a Fender world, the idea of having a neck glued on, where you can't replace it if it has an issue, just seems wrong.

Crimson Guitars - Explorer Templates
Crimson Guitars - Firebird Templates

Any thoughts?
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

User avatar
ThePearDream
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 2072
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 6:18 am
Location: Detroit
Contact:

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by ThePearDream » Mon Aug 22, 2022 6:50 pm

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
Mon Aug 22, 2022 8:50 am
...
Any thoughts?
I haven't made a set neck yet myself. It's a more advanced skill for sure. If you want a simpler option, Potvin sells a bolt on explorer template. Then, firebird drawings are readily available online and you can print those to scale and use them to shape a paddle headstock neck and position your pickups.

Another option is to buy a few basic templates for things like neck pockets, bridges, and firebird pickups, while making your own explorer template using full scale prints of the explorer plans glued to mdf. It's a relatively simple shape, being mostly straight edges, so it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate the body or pickguard.

Also, exoticwoodzone.com has a bunch of options for explorer sized body blanks.

Good luck!
Doug
@dpcannafax

User avatar
Gordon
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1510
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:22 am
Location: France/USA/Singapore
Contact:

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Gordon » Tue Aug 23, 2022 11:08 pm

Gordon wrote:
Thu Aug 18, 2022 4:56 am
Quick pictures, awaiting for strings...

https://i.ibb.co/p2xP6Ch/IMG-20220818-204749.jpg


Reminder: the pickup is wired straight to the jack, knobs only have an aesthetic fonction. :ph34r: They will soon be replaced with thoses:

https://i.ibb.co/wcmPY1h/s-l1600.jpg
So, black knobs, or white ones? :ph34r: I'm a bit torn.

Image
Graphic designer (comics stuff, Doctor Who, Star Wars...): https://www.instagram.com/monsieurgordon/ \o/

User avatar
Gordon
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1510
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:22 am
Location: France/USA/Singapore
Contact:

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Gordon » Tue Aug 23, 2022 11:08 pm

(yes, the white knobs are gigantic)
Graphic designer (comics stuff, Doctor Who, Star Wars...): https://www.instagram.com/monsieurgordon/ \o/

User avatar
repoman
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 385
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 3:30 pm

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by repoman » Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:51 am

Image

Image

Image

I had made a pair of these coronets as quick projects to learn making scarf joints and make two different style tenon/mortise joints (angled pocket vs angled heel). Sold one for 200 bucks and this was on CL for the same for a while so I decided to just finish it to have as a beater. Paint wasn't great so what happens to bad paint jobs? They become relics! (I love relics btw)
When I sprayed upside down duster on it for the DUDE LOOK AT ALL TEH CHECKING!!1! the paint basically exploded off the neck and curves :bored:
That shitty Behlens oil based grain filler I had used apparently never dried in 4 months of sitting in a dry basement before painting...
Knobs for these guitars are like 100 bucks on Reverb from all the shit sniffers so I 3D printed some, made little aluminum inserts on my lathe.

User avatar
Shadoweclipse13
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 12435
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:22 pm
Location: Stuck in the dimension of imagination

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:26 am

repoman wrote:
Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:51 am
Image

Image

Image

I had made a pair of these coronets as quick projects to learn making scarf joints and make two different style tenon/mortise joints (angled pocket vs angled heel). Sold one for 200 bucks and this was on CL for the same for a while so I decided to just finish it to have as a beater. Paint wasn't great so what happens to bad paint jobs? They become relics! (I love relics btw)
When I sprayed upside down duster on it for the DUDE LOOK AT ALL TEH CHECKING!!1! the paint basically exploded off the neck and curves :bored:
That shitty Behlens oil based grain filler I had used apparently never dried in 4 months of sitting in a dry basement before painting...
Knobs for these guitars are like 100 bucks on Reverb from all the shit sniffers so I 3D printed some, made little aluminum inserts on my lathe.
That is gorgeous! I love it with a Firebird head too :?
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

User avatar
Flurko
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 996
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:05 am
Location: Stroßbùrri
Contact:

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Flurko » Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:27 am

A friend just dropped his first electric guitar at my place, I wonder what I can improve without changing it too much, and using only parts from my collection :)

Image

(another reason to dislkie red guitars, like other forum members : they don't contrast at all with my favourite guitar stand/cool chair :D )

User avatar
bodhi
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 453
Joined: Mon May 20, 2019 12:47 pm

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by bodhi » Wed Aug 24, 2022 9:23 am

Gordon wrote:
Tue Aug 23, 2022 11:08 pm
Gordon wrote:
Thu Aug 18, 2022 4:56 am
Quick pictures, awaiting for strings...

https://i.ibb.co/p2xP6Ch/IMG-20220818-204749.jpg


Reminder: the pickup is wired straight to the jack, knobs only have an aesthetic fonction. :ph34r: They will soon be replaced with thoses:

https://i.ibb.co/wcmPY1h/s-l1600.jpg
So, black knobs, or white ones? :ph34r: I'm a bit torn.

Image
The white knobs look cool, but might be a bit too large to be practical? If not, then you might need some kind of larger telecaster control plate, if there is such a thing...
Jazzmaster project (got a body, placeholder neck, some pickups and ideas)
Tokai Telecaster Thinline with Creamery Pickups Filtertron and Tapped Tele
Blake Mills-inspired Strat project w/ Gold Foil and slide pickup

User avatar
michel v
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 81
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2021 1:09 am
Location: Belgium

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by michel v » Wed Aug 24, 2022 11:38 am

repoman wrote:
Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:51 am
I had made a pair of these coronets as quick projects to learn making scarf joints and make two different style tenon/mortise joints (angled pocket vs angled heel). Sold one for 200 bucks and this was on CL for the same for a while so I decided to just finish it to have as a beater. Paint wasn't great so what happens to bad paint jobs? They become relics! (I love relics btw)
When I sprayed upside down duster on it for the DUDE LOOK AT ALL TEH CHECKING!!1! the paint basically exploded off the neck and curves :bored:
That shitty Behlens oil based grain filler I had used apparently never dried in 4 months of sitting in a dry basement before painting...
Knobs for these guitars are like 100 bucks on Reverb from all the shit sniffers so I 3D printed some, made little aluminum inserts on my lathe.
That's a very cool guitar!

User avatar
JSett
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 8804
Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:33 pm
Location: Old Hampshire, Old England

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by JSett » Thu Aug 25, 2022 12:12 am

An old friend dropped off this early 70s Miles Platting V.50 head for a look over/service a couple of weeks back. Only just well enough to take a look.

From what I can tell it's some kind of Bassman preamp tied to a Plexi-ish power section. Tube rectified. Massive strong transformers too...happy with 4-16ohm

First job is to change out all the electrolytics as they all about 50 years old. All ordered up and, once those are in, I can check it all properly.

Image

Image

Image
Silly Rabbit, don't you know scooped mids are for kids?

User avatar
Gordon
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1510
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:22 am
Location: France/USA/Singapore
Contact:

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Gordon » Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:31 am

bodhi wrote:
Wed Aug 24, 2022 9:23 am
The white knobs look cool, but might be a bit too large to be practical? If not, then you might need some kind of larger telecaster control plate, if there is such a thing...
Thanks! However, there is no practicality here, the pots are not wired, pickup goes straight to the jack. :w00t:
Graphic designer (comics stuff, Doctor Who, Star Wars...): https://www.instagram.com/monsieurgordon/ \o/

User avatar
Flurko
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 996
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:05 am
Location: Stroßbùrri
Contact:

Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Flurko » Thu Aug 25, 2022 8:49 am

Flurko wrote:
Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:27 am
A friend just dropped his first electric guitar at my place, I wonder what I can improve without changing it too much, and using only parts from my collection :)

[clipping the photo so it doesn't post twice in a page]

(another reason to dislkie red guitars, like other forum members : they don't contrast at all with my favourite guitar stand/cool chair :D )
There's not much to this so its not getting its own thread, but I did chuckle when I opened this see-through plywood strat :D

Image

Image

Post Reply