Copper shield and switch added

I've made a couple of additions to the switching system of my black SG. One of them is a series/parallel switch down by the tone and volume knobs - on the brass disc that leads the copper tubes into the control cavity. I also added a copper shield to cover the holes left by the original knobs and switches. It's still quite fresh and pink, and looks a bit out of place, but I expect that once it has oxidised a little it will turn a more brownish hue and blend in nicely with the rest of the metal.

At present, the shield is only fixed by the nut of the tone and volume pots. I'm still contemplating wheter to use a few screws like on the brass shield or - which would look interesting - a lot of small brass tacks along the edge.

Exposed cabling in copper tubes

The black SG that I used for experiments with coarse and fine tuners has been modified further. I wanted to be able to phase switch the pickups. Plus, I'd had this idea of having the cables run in copper tubes to shield them from noise. The copper tubes should be on the face of the guitar rather than running inside the body. Each switch or knob should be mounted in its own separate hole with copper tubes running to and from it.

Apart from shielding the wires, I thought it'd look good. And not only good, but also logical. I want to be able to see what's happening with all the switching... to know which pickup is going to what swith and from there to which pot. That way, swithcing would be more transparent. You can't see how the wires go to and from a six way selector switch beneath a strat pickguard, and I missed that. The six-way switch is easy to use, but leaves you clueless as to what is hapenning inside the control cavity.

So I made a phase switching system for the black guitar. Each pickup goes to its own On/Off/Counterphase switch on the upper horn, and from there, they both go to the control cavity. Each switch is mounted in a brass disc. If I should keep true to my principle, I'd have to also mount the tone and volume pots like this, but I'll stop here. I expect that on a future guitar, I will fully implement the copper tube and separate switches/pots design. For now, I'll stick with it as it is.

It looks pretty much as I expected it to. I like the... "functional steampunk" look of it, though I use the word with some caution. There's quite a lot of the steampunk design aspects, that I like ...the combination of wood, brass and copper, for instance. Still, I think that steampunk has become too much about old-fashioned costumes and glueing cogs and sprockets on top of things. And then spraying them with copper. I wouldn't add anything just for its ornamental value. It has to have a purpose.

Opinions are welcome, constructive criticism even more so.

Coarse tuners part 4

Since everything - restringing, tuning and playing - worked fine with the latest version of the coarse tuners, I decided (as mentioned in this post) to keep this layout and cut off the remaining headstock. The shape it has now might be altered slightly - I'm not quite sure about that. I have to paint the headstock black where I've cut and sanded it, but apart from that, I am just going to play it for some time and not alter anything (or not much, at least).

It's a real pleasure to play without the head. Much more compact and manageable.

The P90 neck pickup is just for testing. I'll put the other humbucker back in soon.

Coarse tuners part 3

As mentioned in this post, I am trying to make a set of coarse tuners, compact and light, for use with my fine tuning bridge, allowing me to ditch the headstock. The first version used T-nuts, but this time, I made a brass plate with threaded holes to hold the tuning pegs. I have also managed to lower my failure rate in drilling holes in the tuner pegs (which are blind screws). Now I am down to around one broken drill bit per finished peg. And I've made twelve of them, six short ones and six long ones. Progress!

It's all mounted on the guitar I use for experiments. And it works. It works well, actually. Stringing up - especially getting and keeping a correct length of the string ends through the peg holes - is a bit troublesome, but I believe that once I've done it a couple of times, it'll be almost as easy as with a traditional set of tuners. The coarse tuning itself is easy. The tuners are sufficiently precise, and the fine tuners of the bridge do the more delicate tuning.

Once I've used the system long enough to believe that it works in the long run as well, I'll cut off the excess headstock and shape the remaining part - plus the brass plate itself - in a more elegant way. I will also tidy up the recessed holes for the allen nuts on the back of the headstock - those are the nuts that fix the peg when the correct note is reached. Plus, I will also buy get some prettier nuts. The ones I used are modified from those that you use for assembling IKEA furniture (Zachary isn't the only one building IKEA guitars ;-) The allen nut on the far left in the picture is for mounting bicycle brakes and I am going to get some more of these.

I also intend to recess the screws that hold the brass plate to the headstock and perhaps some time in the future, I will do a galvanic etching on the brass plate. It seems that I'm not even half way with this small project yet. Meaning that lots of fun remains.

To-do list - Status

I am having slow progress on the T-beam bass (remember the to-do list?). I have carved out the curves for neck and body on the aluminium beam using hacksaw and file. There is still some filing to do before I mount the mahogany sides, which will also have the same bottom shape as the T-beam.

Time to buy a decent plane and spokeshave.

And to learn to use them.

Coarse Tuners part 2

As described in an earlier post, I've tried to make a compact set of coarse tuners to go with the fine tuners on my Schaller 456 fine tuning bridge, so I could reduce the headstock and loose the big and heavy traditional tuners. The earlier attempt in the form of a locking nut wasn't succesful, but now I think I'm on to something.

I've installed my own coarse tuners, each consisting of a blind screw, a T-nut and an allen nut (a.k.a. an internal wrenching nut). In the blind screw, a hole is drilled for the string to go through, just like the peg of an ordinary tuner.

To tune up the guitar, you turn the blind screw clockwise with an allen key until you reach the approximate tone. Then you fasten it by tightening the allen nut on the back of the headstock. The rest of the tuning is done with the fine tuner at the bridge.

One of the beautiful things about it is that when you tighten or loosen the string by turning the set screw, the height of the string over the fingerborad stays the same, since it rests in the screw's thread. And the pull of the string tightens the allen nut against the T-nut, securing the string even more.

The best thing about it is, it seems to work perfectly. And it's much smaller and lighter than ordinary tuners, so it's a good solution if you want to build a headless guitar - or convert an existing guitar to one. You'll have to leave a little bit of headstock for the T-nuts, but that's not much. And you might want it anyway to stop your fretting hand from sliding off the neck.

On my own guitar I've mounted the tuners on the very end of the headstock. The reason is that I'll be using the other sections of the headstock for experimentation with alternatives to the T-nuts. A set of threaded inserts and a brass plate with threaded holes are some of the things I want to try. Next experiment will probably be threaded inserts mounted on the next section of the headstock. And I imagine that when I have reached the last section of the headstock, next to the nut, I'll know which of the solutions I prefer.

Drilling the string holes in the blind screws was a pain. I only got two made before I had dulled or broken my drill bits. I'll have to buy some new ones and do it right. That's the reason why the remaining four strings in the picture go to traditional tuners.

Btw, I imagine that if you add some loctite or similar to increase friction, you might be able to do away with the allen nut. Afaik, there also is a substance called "peg dope". I have to get some and try if the tuner can hold the string without the allen nut.

To-do list

Nothing much has happened on my T-beam-bass lately. I've replaced the jack connector since the old one didn't work and clamped the connecting cable going from the jack more securely to the sliding bracket. Plus, I've borrowed a friend's bass to do some comparisons of sound, feel and ergonomics.

His is a 34" bass, and though the picture doesn't really show it, mine, with its 30" scale length, is much smaller and lighter.

My bass still isn't exactly pretty, but I do intend it to be so one day. But until now (and probably some time ahead as well), most of my focus is on experimentation rather than looks.

Nevertheless, in an attempt to convey an idea of what I expect it to become some day, here's a list of some of the things, I'd like to do next:

• Make the saddles lengthwise adjustable for intonation, i.e. making slots for the saddles and fastening them with nuts.
• Shape the neck as shown on the image . I have to modify the sole plate of my jigsaw to be able to do that.
• Make a prettier and more ergonomic shield in 5 mm acrylic (that's approximately 0.2"). The current one is just 3 mm thick, and it's too fragile and flimsy looking.
  
• Make mahogany sides rather than the current spruce ones. What's keeping me back here is that I'm not quite sure yet where the holes for the shield are going to be, and I'd rather keep the mahogany intact and experiment on the spruce.
• Decide whether I like the sound of the vertical pickup. If so, I'll tidy up the bracket. If not, I'll buy a P-bass-pickup and use one half of that in a new bracket.