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What's on your workbench?

This could be git related or not. So, what's on your workbench at the moment?

I have 4 scarf joint necks in different stages of work.

A 25" scale pine 5 string neck for a Banjo-Res, A 25" scale Red Oak neck for my 6 string Strat-Res build, A 24 & 1/2" scale Red Oak neck for my 6 string Double Cut Tele build and a 27" scale 6 string Baritone Conversion neck for a Modern Strat body I have.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on July 15, 2021 at 7:24am

It's funny that the 3 of us made a triangular shaped dulcimer like that. Hahaha

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Permalink Reply by MadGomer on July 15, 2021 at 9:28am

I just shamelessly followed strumstick plans on the web (sort of at least). The neck was cut like a tuning fork so the bottom could be spread out to form the sides of the body. I actually made the body way too big, so several frets are actually sitting in the ash soundboard.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on July 15, 2021 at 11:23am

I got the body shape idea from a band of Russian Rock guys touring the US around 95 or 96 when I made mine, they used big triangular 4 and 6 string semi-hollow body guitars. Can't remember what they call those gits. I reused frets from a MIJ guitar I had. It was a fretless wonder guitar, you know, barely any frets, so I reused them on this thing. It actually sounded good distorted and using slide, it was tuned D/D/A/A/D/D. I paired big strings with little strings like they do on a 12 string, had a nice full sound. Pickup was from the MIJ guitar and like a P90 and Tele bridge pickup put together.

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on July 17, 2021 at 9:38am

Yes, when I was working as a roadie, a lot of european bands toted triangle shaped lutes along with their gear. I saw rudolf schenker & matthias jabs of the scorpions go to town on some traditional German songs in the middle of a holiday inn parking lot, while waiting for their rooms to be cleaned. You can’t ever forget that!!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on July 28, 2021 at 6:41am

Bet that was awesome.

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Permalink Reply by Lonman on July 25, 2021 at 2:46am

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Permalink Reply by MadGomer on July 26, 2021 at 2:33pm

I'm getting ready to start on my first resonator build, using a wooden champagne box with a stainless stove burner cover for the resonator. I expect that the box will be decent acoustically, but if I want to amplify it and not lose the reso tone, is a rod piezo under the bridge a good approach?

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on July 26, 2021 at 3:24pm

Hi, strip piezo undersaddle pickups sence string vibrations, disc piezo pickups pickup cone or top vibrations.

Taff.

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Permalink Reply by MadGomer on July 27, 2021 at 3:28am

Thanks Taff! Should I put the disc directly under the bridge or off to the side a bit?

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on July 27, 2021 at 9:59am

Hi, The discs used for full size Reso cones go directly under the bridge on the inside of the cone. That's with the spider bridge style. They have a hole in them and use the centre bolt in the spider bridge slot. However, in a CBG the cones are not thin, spun, good quality aluminium, so respond differently.

I have a dog bowel Reso I'm building on the bench now, ready for a piezo and even after doing a few I will still have to experiment positioning.

Things I try are. Inside the bowel, inside the outer wall of the bowel, using thick mounting double sided tape, putting a wooden patch between disc and bowel.

I have even drilled a hole though the disc and used the bolt method. After all that the best set was to also fit a pre amp.

Hope this helps. The sound can be too tinny/bright for my ears, if not "tuned".
Taff.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 9, 2021 at 11:27am

I managed to finish my Tres Cubano CBG build posted in the CBG 101 group and have moved on to a couple 6 string SG guitars.

1 of the SG's is a Stewmac kit I bought back in November 2018. They changed vendors shortly after and no longer offer a SG kit, but they do have a LP kit. This kit is decent, hardware and electronics can be iffy in these kits and the pickups are usually overwound ceramic types which can be a good thing sometimes. Only issues with this body and neck has been 1 of the tuner holes is a little off from the others and the body has a wave appearance on the back and 1 side where the cutting blade skipped a little, but didn't seem to show up until I painted it. Urrgh

I painted it with Dupli-Color Sunburst Gold Metallic. It'll have Black hardware and plastics, pickups are Deneb-Tone Rail pole humbuckers with Neodymium magnets made by a friend in Ukraine. They come with 2 magnets for each pickup that allows you to tailor your tone. He also makes Strat pickups that are awesome.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 9, 2021 at 11:38am

The other SG is a set neck kit body that I'm bonding a bolt on neck to that I also wrote about in the CBG 101 group. Had to make a spacer to bond the neck to and it had to have the right degree cut so the neck would be in the right angle. Not easy, but I pulled it off and it's being painted now in White with Black neck and hardware. It'll get a Black dog ear P90 in the bridge and a Tortise Shell Jr pickguard with one of my Minibucker to Firebird converted pickups in the neck mounted to the guard.
I'll have to post a pic later.
Got a Reverse Firebird guitar, a Fender Bass VI, couple Strats, A Fender Jaguar, a Fender Duosonic/Teisco Spectrum 5 mashup and a few amps to go. Whew