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[SOLVED] First license plate guitar, sounds horrible. Tips?

I started throwing together a LP build yesterday, and have got this far:

So... I've made a pretty sturdy box (3/4" thick pine) with a plywood base, and have the plate attached with 8 screws on the original mounting points and one at each corner. I haven't added the frets or indeed set up a nut (currently just a bone nut blank). I'm not expecting it to be loud but I'm planning to fit dual piezos in there eventually.

This is my first try at a bolt bridge, which looks cool for this style of guitar but seems to buzz pretty horribly all the way up the neck (but curiously not when played open...) - is there any special preparation that needs to be done to use of of these?

Break angle behind the bridge seems fine, certainly no less than I've successfully used in the past.

Also, I've tried with a wooden/bone bridge as I normally use too, and it seems to have the same problem. It sounds slightly less hideous with a slide. Think it'll sound better once the frets are in?

Any thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Coventry Halfpenny guitars on May 22, 2014 at 10:25pm

hi all

Is there any difference betwee a new plate and an old plate,as I think I read somwhere that pre 1950 plates are metal and later ones are some sort of white metal alloy.

cheers btb

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 22, 2014 at 10:30pm

Hmm not sure. Mine is 88 and it's steel. I think modern ones are aluminium.

Interesting fact: most US licence plates are produced by prison inmates.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 23, 2014 at 1:07am

It's called "rehabilitation therapy," or "giving back to society." It's also a whole lot better than chopping cotton.

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on May 23, 2014 at 1:59am

I'm not sure about your bolt - but - I think a reverse thread might work better - the angle of the thread gets worse when you angle it. I haven't done any studies and I don't know if it makes any difference but it looks odd. There could be side pressure that comes into play.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 23, 2014 at 2:25am

Thanks for the replies guys. As I mentioned in my update I'm not having any particular difficulty with the bridge, either in terms of intonation (which is the closest to perfect I've ever got) or notes not ringing true. In fact acoustically it sounds lovely, just very quiet! As some of you may be aware I don't normally use bolt bridges, I prefer using hard wood and bone, I just felt the bolt looked cooler on this build.

The piezos didn't work out for me and I've wound a new pickup for it. I cut the hole for it this morning and will fit it and hook it up tonight after work. I'll keep you posted!

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on May 23, 2014 at 3:29am

I hear ya - I gave up on the piezos on this one and put the mag in the neck - sometimes you can get a nice "banjoie" sound from the plates but I haven't found a way to replicate it thru the pickups. Oh, that neverending search!! On this one you can see how the threads seem to be at an odd angle.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 23, 2014 at 3:40am

Cool build Jawbone! That is a novel pickup placement. For mine I've cut out the 6 on the plate for a bridge position one. 9200 winds so hopefully it'll rattle some windows when its done :-)

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Permalink Reply by Rob Bennett on May 23, 2014 at 4:26am

Well nice!!!...thats interesting to make the neck like this....looks like you have rubber washers under the plate fixings this will help the vibrations too

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on May 23, 2014 at 4:52am

Yeah - I forgot that - I think those are the washers that come with metal roofing screws. That was the second neck for this one - first didn't work and I didn't want to cut the plate. I'm very fortunate that I live in a forest with many mature trees. With a bit of preplanning, I try to have a few large pieces for just this instance. I don't feel like I'm wasting wood since before CBG's, it was all firewood - now just the pieces that aren't CBG's are firewood.

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on May 23, 2014 at 4:15am

regarding acoustic properties, if you now have it sounding like you want, but it's too quiet, you might try cutting a small sound port (1/2-3/4") somewhere in the box (side, front, bottom, or back) This releases minor pressure differences inside and outside the box when the top is vibrating and frees the top a little that will make it louder.

I didn't see anyone mention that you can "tune the LPG up" to a higher tuning, thus creating more tension on strings which will often "wake up" an acoustic instrument. If you like the tuning you are using, you can always switch to heavier strings and tune up to your prefered tuning.

just some thoughts.

BTW, LPGs are not very good acoustic instruments (my opinion) and I always use mag pups for an electric sound. Piezos on metal are usually not good. My exception are paint lid banjo CBGs. I have used piezos on them to good effect.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Bennett on May 23, 2014 at 4:24am

Oooh how did you make those...any link to your work?

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Permalink Reply by Rob Bennett on May 23, 2014 at 4:30am

I was thinking about putting a LP on the top and one on the bottom with spacers on the bottom to leave a gap for the sound to come out ...like a resonator back...Ive found a good confederate flag numberless plate that would do the back