Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on March 20, 2011 at 4:04pm

Don, That's fricken art.;

also Don

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Permalink Reply by Glaze on March 20, 2011 at 5:10pm

I'm impressed with what you can do with pliers!!!  That looks home made but also really good.  

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Brian Hunt on March 20, 2011 at 5:39pm

If you know how to silver solder, nickel silver can be silver soldered at your joints and buffed so you can't even see the joint. I have done so with nickel silver when making fittings for knives and swords.

 

Brian Hunt.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on March 20, 2011 at 10:38pm

I have a torch setup and use a 00 tip with the heat dialed back for brazing.  Never worked with Nickel Silver but can gas, stick and tig weld so I'm pretty sure I can make it work.  I'm just worried about the thickness.  Some of the material I have on order is pretty thin.  I used to be able to tig weld Platinum thermocouple wires and stitch weld sheet metal but its been awhile since I've worked with any thin materials like this.

Brian Hunt said:

If you know how to silver solder, nickel silver can be silver soldered at your joints and buffed so you can't even see the joint. I have done so with nickel silver when making fittings for knives and swords.

 

Brian Hunt.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Brian Hunt on March 21, 2011 at 1:52am

Hi Don,

 

To silver solder, you just need some flux, some silver solder and some carefully applied heat.Your small torch solution should be just fine, just keep the heat low. You are just melting solder until it runs into the joint, not welding or brazing. You don't need to bring the material to a red heat.

 

You don't need the type of heat you would use to weld or braze to silver solder something. Especially if you use a lower temperature silver solder. Just use a silver solder that runs at a lower temperature than the melting point of your nickle silver and keep the heat in a small area. Only solder one joint at a time.

 

For flux, I prefer some mule team borax mixed with water to a paste for flux. Apply some flux with a small brush, then heat it till it bubbles. Add a small piece of solder to the area you want to solder with some tweezers and apply heat until it runs and seals the joint closed. Do this one corner at a time with heat only used in the area you want the solder to go. You will have to clean up the excess flux and buff out the fire scale.

 

With real silver, I pickle it while it is still hot from the freshly soldered joint to help clean up the flux and the fire scale. You can also pickle nickel silver, but you need to use a pickling solution specific to nickel silver, such as "Nickel-Pickle." You will want a heated pot for your pickle. Just drop your freshly soldered piece into the pickle each time you finish a joint corner. You will need enough pickling solution to completely cover the piece you are working on. This will make final buffing much easier and quicker.

 

If you do a google search for "how to silver solder nickel silver", you will find several websites that describe the process.

 

Also, if you solder the corner joints shut, you shouldn't need the overlapping flap at the corners. Just make sure they meet flush and square with a small file; also be sure there are not any gaps between the edges.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Brian Hunt.

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on March 21, 2011 at 9:52am

Looks great, will you be selling any complete thin pickups?

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Permalink Reply by Don Goguen on March 21, 2011 at 10:57am

MichaelS Country Boy Guitars said:

Looks great, will you be selling any complete thin pickups?

That is a good question.  I had considered it with previous designs I've done for 3 and 4 string pickups but decided not to.  My other designs included this tele inspired pickup

And the even smaller,

The main problem with these two was string spacing variances made me decide it would be too much work to custom space every pickup to the instrument it was going on.  It is worth it for me on my builds because I am making more money selling a completed instrument.  Selling just a pickup and having to build each one differently seemed too much trouble.

With this one I have 3 different design sizes (with a fourth in the works) and string spacing isn't an issue.  I also don't need a separate pickup for 3 and 4 string instruments.  Still I don't know how much the "market" is willing to spend and if it would be enough to gear up past the handful I need for my own work.  The covers are also a fair amount of hand work to form, file, sand, solder and polish.  The pickup coil itself is not too bad other than without the solder ferule, they are a pain to wire a lead to.  I've totally ruined a few by just the slightest slip.

Right now, I am working on voicing the first three designs and figuring where each ones sound fits with what I build.  I have a few instruments going from drawing board to build that are going to use these.  Once I have a better handle on the sound and performance, I will have a better sense of what to tell people about where they fit from a tone perspective.  This is something I am fussy about and will fiddle with it till I like what I hear.

I am also looking to beta test with a few players I know and maybe a couple from this community.  After all of this, if there seems to be enough interest, I might be convinced to make a limited run and see how they are received.

Don

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on March 21, 2011 at 6:24pm

Don, very nice. Well thought out!!!!!

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