Finished Pics! SG-style in Yew

Andyjr1515

JGTay said:

Have done some of my wiring today, hiding cables on a hollow body is a pain.

Yes indeed.  Last time I replaced the wiring loom in a f-hole-only semi-acoustic, I had to sit in a darkened room for a few hours afterwards!  And even then, there was one wire I could always see when I was playing it!!!

And a couple more jobs off the to do list.  
First of all, drilling the bridge earth wire hole and fitting the earth.  

I talked about a tip to get inserts out.  A bolt would be better, but I found that the screws they use to fit bed heads to beds are the right thread   So with great care not to let the screwdriver slip (which is why a bolt would be better, I screw it in until it bottoms at the wood inside the hole:


And then just carry on screwing.  The bolt can't go any further down, so the insert has to move the other way:



With the control layout paper template, I mark the points from the insert hole to where I want the earth wire to come out into the chamber:



I draw a pencil line joining those points on the other side.

Then get a very, very long bradpoint drill and line it up with the line.  Theoretically, it has to drill through the insert hole.  Always a relief when it does, mind you  



And then simply push the earth wire through, with a generous length stripped of insulation, and just re-insert the insert, trapping the copper of the earth wire as it does so.

Finally, drilled the recessed hole for the tele-style jack socket I am using:


Just 7 items left to do

WezV

Just be careful with that method of stud removal on thin bodied guitars.

It's the same method I use on LP's, but wouldn't do it on a Gibson SG because of the thickness and wood choice.  Or at least go very carefully.

 It's fine until it isn't

MLten80

Omfg the waiting is killing me & it's not even mine
 Tidy as, andy!
 Those long ass drills bits are so handy 

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

Just be careful with that method of stud removal on thin bodied guitars.

It's the same method I use on LP's, but wouldn't do it on a Gibson SG because of the thickness and wood choice.  Or at least go very carefully.

 It's fine until it isn't

Good point, @WezV makes here.  

This method is OK when there is plenty of meat underneath the end of the insert.  But for certain designs, the amount of wood at the bottom of the insert holes can be quite thin and, in those cases, it is possible to simply break through the back of the guitar! 


As a point of interest, @WezV, what is the 'safest' way to remove an insert for those cases without damaging the top?  Happily, I've never had to do it...

WezV

You can use the same kind of bolt, but pull from the top rather than push from underneath.   

The uncouth way is with a small crowbar/claw hammer resting on a caul of some kind to prevent marking the top.  You need to be careful not to pull out at an angle though, so work around it without too much force in any one direction.  It's not ideal but will get you by if you use common sense and care

The better way is to use a knob/bushing puller like stew Mac sell, but plenty of DIY versions out there too.  It applies even pressure in the right direction

Of course sometimes none of them work because some fool has glued the bloody thing in.... Then you have to heat it first and see which one feels best.   

Whatever way you do it, never force it

Sarge

I've pulled out inserts using a socket (from a socket set) with a metal washeron top with the bolt going through and into the insert, obviously using something like thick felt to protect the guitar.
If the bolt can't go down, the insert will come up (providing your bolt has at least a couple of turns into the insert)

Andyjr1515

Sarge said:

I've pulled out inserts using a socket (from a socket set) with a metal washeron top with the bolt going through and into the insert, obviously using something like thick felt to protect the guitar.
If the bolt can't go down, the insert will come up (providing your bolt has at least a couple of turns into the insert)

That's a great tip.  So mine's good for a strong bottom and weak top, and yours is good for a weak bottom and a strong top

Can't believe that anyone here will make an innuendo out of that

Andyjr1515

And another one ticked off the list.  I popped a couple of P Rails into the pickup rings (Matt will be supplying his own pickups) to line everything up.  The strings, again, are just for lining up - they are a set of flatwounds I tried on a piccolo bass build a few years ago.


The P-rails are useful as one of the tasks was making sure that the pickups fitted and adjusted in the chambers and the coils of the P-rail are just a touch fatter than most humbuckers - so this should be worst case.

Spent quite a bit of time chiselling out the tight spots.  These now adjust fine, so I am happy that Matt's will also.



And that leaves 5 jobs left on the list  

Roland

Andyjr1515 said:

... And that leaves 5 jobs left on the list  

That’s a little depressing. Dies that mean that ar most we’re going to get 7 more posts? One for each job, one for the handover, and sometime later a video of him playing it.

Andyjr1515

Roland said:

Andyjr1515 said:

... And that leaves 5 jobs left on the list  

That’s a little depressing. Dies that mean that ar most we’re going to get 7 more posts? One for each job, one for the handover, and sometime later a video of him playing it.

Surely you know me by now

There'll be the 47 posts of me finishing it and putting right what Matt found was wrong with it and then the posts of me stopping people in the street (2m apart, of course) to show them and following them until they tell me how beautiful it is and then the bulk spam shot of 'Have You Seen THIS????' to 64m unsuspecting computer users in Europe and then....

MattNovak

Have a wow, looks great Andy

Andyjr1515

MattNovak said:

Have a wow, looks great Andy

Thanks!

I posted this on a bass orientated site and most of the bass players and builders were unaware that the ToM bridges have to be angled because there isn't enough intonation adjustment for them to be parallel to the frets. A few commented and I've had to explain the 'Gibson Way' of angling the bridge rather than designing a bridge that has enough adjustment.  

But what they haven't mentioned yet is that, actually, the two pickup rings are also a bit skewiff to each other...and they shouldn't be.

Looks worse than it is  - there is a shadow and they are ramped rings so there is an optical illusion at play - but there is, indeed, a 1mm skew there that shouldn't be.  Easily fixed...but that makes it 6 things still on my 'to do' list

I'm sure the good folks here have seen it too but are too polite to say

Corvus

Looks gorgeous Andy. I've got a big slab of yew that was a fire mantlepiece laid by, this makes me want to find a way to cut that thing up...

Andyjr1515

Corvus said:

Looks gorgeous Andy. I've got a big slab of yew that was a fire mantlepiece laid by, this makes me want to find a way to cut that thing up...

Sounds good to me

Today, started by straightening up the errant pickup ring.  You can see better the teeny offset on the bridge that gives me the extra couple of mm safety factor with the intonation:



Then it was to the control chamber with some copper shielding and some magnets:


The two strips on the cover are carbon rods so that the cover always stays completely flat:



And with magnets adding to the hatch too, control chamber is done and I'm down to 4 items on the finish list

JGTay

That is looking very nice Andy. I do like the magnet idea for the back plates, bit late for mine unless I make new back plates, but maybe on the next build. 

the_jaffa

That looks great. How easy is it remove the cover when using magnets? Is it just a case of getting a fingernail or similar under the edge?

Andyjr1515

the_jaffa said:

That looks great. How easy is it remove the cover when using magnets? Is it just a case of getting a fingernail or similar under the edge?

Thanks!

There's a fingernail cutaway at the front edge (I'll take another shot when I get a moment but if you look closely above, you may be able to see a soft arc just at the thin forward end).  It's easy to remove but very securely held in place

the_jaffa

Simple as that. Brilliant. 

Milk

does this copper shielding need soldering or is the adhesive conductive?

Andyjr1515

Milk said:

does this copper shielding need soldering or is the adhesive conductive?

Some is and some isn't and some is supposed to be but isn't!

So yes - I just run a tiny bridging line of solder across at least one joint per strip so all the strips are electrically joined up.  It only takes seconds because the copper heats very quickly locally and the solder loves copper to flow across.