Designing a pick-guard for a custom guitar

[Swizl]

One piece neck, separate fingerboard.

It's got a new side adjust mechanism.

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Yep, new to me too. Never seen one of those. I've only ever dealt with truss rods on the Strata/Tele caster type bodies. I've had a ton of cheap ones here and there.

Pretty neat.

Some of my favorites.
I've had a bunch of different guitars over time. I really wished I never sold my 79 reissue of the 59 Tobacco Burst Les Paul. It was super heavy.

I also had one of the paisley pink Telecasters. Wish I hadn't gotten rid of that one either. (not mine, same model though) http://www.themusiczoo.com/images/7-28-11/Pink_Paisley_Telecaster_P063940_a.jpg

Now I've got a Epiphone AlleyKat (this one isn't mine, but it's exactly the same). http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/guitarfish/Guitars/AlleyKat/5-AlleyKat-Full.jpg This guitar is pretty awesome considering it wasn't super expensive.

I've got a Fender Jazzmaster Bass in all black.

A co-worker of mine's husband builds custom guitars and amps. I'll have to see if I can scrounge up some pictures of the guitars he's made.

 

[ZooHead]

paisley pink Telecaster, Epiphone AlleyKat, Jazzmaster Bass in all black.

A co-worker of mine's husband builds custom guitars and amps. I'll have to see if I can scrounge up some pictures of the guitars he's made.

Nice guitars, I have a new respect for Epiphone ever since I heard the story of how Gibson acquired them.

Epiphone was an old instrument maker who was having money problems.
Les Paul Calls Gibson and tells them they have to keep them going no mater what
"You know I'm a Gibson man, but I'll always be an Epiphone man".

They had to listen to Les Paul!

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[Swizl]

Nice guitars, I have a new respect for Epiphone ever since I heard the story of how Gibson acquired them.

Epiphone was an old instrument maker who was having money problems.
Les Paul Calls Gibson and tells them they have to keep them going no mater what
"You know I'm a Gibson man, but I'll always be an Epiphone man".

They had to listen to Les Paul!

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Definitely, you should try one out if you haven't before. I think they had gotten a bad reputation for a while because at one point how cheaply they were made. The last 15 years or so I think the quality has gone up a lot. Probably from the input of Gibson. I've played a lot of low grade guitars in my life and this one isn't one of them. It plays really really well. Especially for a sub $500 guitar.

 

[ZooHead]

I'm shielding the pickup and control chambers with copper foil.

It's a little tedious but not that hard.

I got one more to go.

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[Albert]

Beautiful job 'ZOO'.
Looking great!
Love the grain on that body...

Keep us all posted... can't wait for the next step

 

[ZooHead]

Thanks Al, just did a test fit after some sanding on the neck, nice and snug.

Next, the pickups, the thing I know the least about.

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[ZooHead]

After researching guitar pickup wiring diagrams, I decided to use a trick called coil tapping.
Where they pull an extra set of leads while over winding the pickup coils.

This way I can get a vintage sound and a hot single coil sound with a simple switch.

Here's a model of the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Tele neck pickup.
I think it's called QUARTER pound because the pole magnets are 1/4 inch in diameter.

A single coil pickup has two wires, ground and hot.
A humbucker style pickup has four wires,
two ground and two hot, because it has two coils.

Telltale signs of a tapped single coil pickup: Three wires, one ground and two hot,
one hot lead for the entire coil and one hot lead "tapped" part way in for the vintage sound.

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[ZooHead]

Right now I'm waiting for my pickups to arrive. In the mean
time I located what I believe to be the finest bridge ever designed!

The Babicz full contact bridge. I've never seen a design like this before.
And the construction, instead of being made off chrome plated brass,
it's all aircraft grade aluminum. The finish is amaizing, all edges are
smoothed with a mirror finish all over. May even be anodized it's so shiny.

Here's one of six, I guess I would call them saddle holders.

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[ZooHead]

Once again I have to praise the new Ghosted display mode.

I just finished modeling the cylindrical saddle piece
and set the saddle bracket to Ghosted for a quick look.

It really helps to see the object to object relationship in this situation.

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[ZooHead]

The Membrane shader looks great in Falcon, which is good
because the Cheetah renderer doesn't handle it very well.

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[Swizl]

I agree those are helpful. I've had to do some mechanical cutaway type of stuff that included some semi-transparent material. The material was a pain to get looking right and involved a lot of dial fiddling. I'm sure this will come in a very handely when I need to do it again.

 

[ZooHead]

For sure, I tried render tags on everything but I still didn't get it.

Here's the same model with the Cheetah Renderer.

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[ZooHead]

Although I still think this is one of the best bridges available, I found the base plate very slightly bent.
The front and back edges are raised up a hair. So... being faced with the prospect of sending it back,
I took the chance and bent the damn thing back to other way. It worked perfectly, now there's a slight
bend in the other direction, so I know I'll get "Full Contact".

I suspect that in milling so many holes, so close together, they get some warping.

Modeling so many holes, so close together, I got a bit warped as well.

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[frank beckmann]

I suspect that in milling so many holes, so close together, they get some warping.
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Pretty sure it´s coming from the heat while drilling - then it needs to be (slow) drilled&chamfered in a water basin.

Cheers
Frank

 

[ZooHead]

Pretty sure it´s coming from the heat while drilling - then it needs to be (slow) drilled&chamfered in a water basin.

Cheers
Frank

I agree, but I'm sure they use CNC machines
so lube and cooling shouldn't be a problem.

They may need to slow it down a little as you say.

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[ZooHead]

I've had some unforeseen delays like a neck pickup cover
so badly distorted that the pickup wouldn't fit in the cavity.

That of course was after hand wrapping the wires in copper foil and stuffing
them into a tiny hole in the body, removing and unwrapping them again.
We'll see if I get a good replacement.

Apparently SD pickups don't get good quality control
unless you order them from the custom shop.
Like the "Zepher" pickups, wound with pure
silver wire at four hundred smackers each.

And back ordered tools, 1 month to get a notched straightedge.

Regardless of setbacks that are out of my control, I have the
fever, and have already made a deal on another Tele body.

I think I'm crazy but I could not resist a spalted maple top.

Spalting is produced by colonies of fungus that battle for
resources and actually erect "walls" to keep other colonies out.
The "walls" are the black lines that are a unique characteristic of spalting.

The bridge model is looking good, no poor quality parts or missing tools here.

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[Swizl]

Looking good!

A man has to hav some vice, ... Right?

 

[ZooHead]

Looking good!

A man has to hav some vice, ... Right?

Well...it's better than binge drinking.

Thanks Swizl

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[ZooHead]

I just finished beveling the edge of my custom pickguard.

It looks exactly the same as the rendering in the first post except it's White Pearl/Black/White.
It came out great and my bevel cuts are actually better than the factory cuts.

The Seymour Duncan neck pickups are a pain in the butt. The
pickup cavity is so tight, if any thing is off, things don't fit well.

Both of the ones I got had crooked covers that stuck out and made
it impossible to mount straight without taking a Dremel tool to them.

I should make a 3D Illustration of the problem and send it to them.

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[ZooHead]

Pretty pictures.

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