Barnaby's LP Scratch Build - Hand Tools Only

[jordans0nly]

Wow! Amazing boards Barn. Too bad I'm not in need of one, lol..

 

[Barnaby]

Wow! Amazing boards Barn. Too bad I'm not in need of one, lol..

Ah well...from seeing the work you have had to do on your build, I think you're more in need of a weekend off. Maybe Bora Bora?

Besides, the postage on one of these bad boys from my place in Japan would be killer. Still, if anyone wants the name of this guy to get their own delivery of magic wood, shoot me a PM. I'm impressed by what I got.

 

[Asdain]

Ah well...from seeing the work you have had to do on your build, I think you're more in need of a weekend off. Maybe Bora Bora?

Besides, the postage on one of these bad boys from my place in Japan would be killer. Still, if anyone wants the name of this guy to get their own delivery of magic wood, shoot me a PM. I'm impressed by what I got.

if only i knew how to work with wood...
but i am more of an amp builder

 

[Barnaby]

if only i knew how to work with wood...
but i am more of an amp builder

Now - a Macassar ebony amp? People would kill their grandmothers for that tone.

Of course, that much ebony would cost a fortune and the amp would weigh a ton, but...

 

[Asdain]

Now - a Macassar ebony amp? People would kill their grandmothers for that tone.

Of course, that much ebony would cost a fortune and the amp would weigh a ton, but...

........ .....

 

[BrandonLee]

B i wish i had HALF your talent and patience..this is looking absolutely killer mate

 

[Reverend D]

Good looking stuff man! A song huh? I guess it must have been flight of the bumble bee at under 200 bpm! j/k... I'd probably have to play the radio for them, if it was flight of the bumble bee I'd be in real trouble (unless it was just playing the rhythm, I could do that. haha). Anyway, good looking wood, should be interesting to see what you'll do with it!

Regards,

Don

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

the boards are gorgeous, barn and it seems like you made a really nice deal, but the thing i see in that stack of lumber is the sheer entertainment value. I can only imagine the insanity we will be exposed to by the time you use up all that inventory....but, pardon the pun---I'm on board.

 

[bertzie]

So...now I have enough boards for the next year or three - and they cost me a song!

Which song?

 

[Barnaby]

B i wish i had HALF your talent and patience..this is looking absolutely killer mate

Dude! I've said it before and I'll say it again - you're going to be making guys like me look like monkeys with craft knives in a year or two. I'm really impressed by your attitude of leaping in and getting it done.

Good looking stuff man! A song huh? I guess it must have been flight of the bumble bee at under 200 bpm! j/k... I'd probably have to play the radio for them, if it was flight of the bumble bee I'd be in real trouble (unless it was just playing the rhythm, I could do that. haha). Anyway, good looking wood, should be interesting to see what you'll do with it!

Regards,

Don

It'll be fun, that's for sure. Nice wood is inspiring, I think (even if it gets the ends sealed with wax and has to live under the bed for a while).

the boards are gorgeous, barn and it seems like you made a really nice deal, but the thing i see in that stack of lumber is the sheer entertainment value. I can only imagine the insanity we will be exposed to by the time you use up all that inventory....but, pardon the pun---I'm on board.

Consider too that I have two Brazillian blanks, an Indian rosewood and an ebony, along with a piece of wood thick enough to make two one-piece necks with maple fingerboards and that's a total of fifteen.

Still, I'm giving one of the boards to a friend here who wants to get into building. I think it'll be a nice way to encourage him.

Which song?

Well, considering the wood came from Indonesia, it must have been this one...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7o343ckPpY&feature=related]YouTube - Denada - Kucing Garong[/ame]

 

[Barnaby]

Some updates. I'm out this afternoon, so this is my morning's work...

Today, I started out with some lacquering. A coat for the top and control plates seemed like a nice idea, so I went with that. Here’s how the top is coming along:

Here are the plates and truss rod cover:

The fun thing today, however, was finishing the bridge pickup.

First of all, I laid out the parts. It’ll get a cover later, but I’m not worried right now. Note the maple spacer. It’s made from the topwood. The magnet is an Alnico V roughcast.

After this, I soldered the hot lead (from the slug coil) to the inner wire of the pickup lead. Then, the other was soldered to the base. One annoying thing is the plating on the polepiece screws. It just came right off, even though I covered my screwdriver tip with tape and was very gentle. This stuff is soft…

I assembled everything and tested. 7.43k – nice.

Then, I installed the pickup in my beloved Ruby. It’s a little softer than the other one, but has a nice crunch to it. I can’t crank it right up in the apartment, sadly, so am looking forward to hearing it properly once I get into a practice studio with the new guitar.

I made a pickup that works! To prove it, I made a very short video. The sound is pretty dodgy, as I just sat my 5W practice amp near the Mac and played straight into it with clean settings. No studio clarity here – still, with any luck, you can get an idea of the sound…

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDvH5FCzmVs]YouTube - Pickup 1[/ame]

 

['59_Standard]

Oi'right!

 

[Barnaby]

Oi'right!

Bit o' Keef!

 

[ptate]

Very nice tone there matey.....A bit of the Dick Van Dyke Cockney accent eh.....

 

['59_Standard]

I also added some more lacquer to the pickup rings, but got a little close and had a heavy coat on one corner. I left it and - lo and behold - the same bubbles appeared between the finish and the wood.

My theory is that too much lacquer means a buildup of excess solvent, which then works down through previous coats until it hits the wood, then bubbles up. It could be a problem peculiar to this type of lacquer, about which I know very little except that it's mostly nitro.

Sound plausible?

Dear B, allegedly, the theory behind Solvent Popping is one of conditions you refinish under - Humidity being a factor, solvents used and trying to do things too fast.

Paint/Lacquer has a solvent added to its mix and then you have a thinning solvent. Provided your conditions are perfect both solvents flash off at a nice rate. Now if ones slower to flash off than the other it gets left behind and becomes a: HELP ME!!!!!!! trapped bubble...

Blowing a Spray gun onto a Primer top coat is never a good idea -because you are skimming the top coat over when the solvents haven't fully released. Or putting an Infra Red lamp up close way too soon. I can vouch for the last two, from experience...

 

[Barnaby]

Very nice tone there matey.....A bit of the Dick Van Dyke Cockney accent eh.....

Not my natural state, as you might imagine...but my regular BBC3 speaking voice would sound a bit weird in that context.

We'll see how the tone opens up. Personally, I reckon I've got to wind a bunch of these things before I finally get something that really screams like a leopard being rogered by a randy hedgehog, but perhaps this isn't too bad for a first try.

 

[Barnaby]

Dear B, allegedly, the theory behind Solvent Popping is one of conditions you refinish under - Humidity being a factor, solvents used and trying to do things too fast.

Paint/Lacquer has a solvent added to its mix and then you have a thinning solvent. Provided your conditions are perfect both solvents flash off at a nice rate. Now if ones slower to flash off than the other it gets left behind and becomes a: HELP ME!!!!!!! trapped bubble...

Blowing a Spray gun onto a Primer top coat is never a good idea -because you are skimming the top coat over because the solvents have released. Or putting an Infra Red lamp up close way too soon. I can vouch for the last two, from experience...

Awesome explanation! Thanks, dude!

I swear...what you guys on this site don't know about guitar building ain't worth knowing.

 

[Reverend D]

Man! Love it! The top color looks amazing almost like a rosewood color which I love and hey as you say we won't know how the Barno'bucker will sound until its cranked up, but it makes noise and not a bad one! So that right there is a grand accomplishment (as is the whole guitar, lets be honest here! I'm duly impressed). Its a great looking Zebra set to me, I'm still not sold on the idea of even giving it a try myself, as I somehow could see myself wound up in 42 ga wire waiting until morning when the Mr's is able to cut me free! Good job SIR!

Regards,

Don

 

['59_Standard]

I swear...what you guys on this site don't know about guitar building ain't worth knowing.

My knowledge on guitar building could be written on the back of a Full Stop.

My lungs on the other hand do have some knowledge of Nitro\Isocyanate inhalation.

 

[Barnaby]

Man! Love it! The top color looks amazing almost like a rosewood color which I love and hey as you say we won't know how the Barno'bucker will sound until its cranked up, but it makes noise and not a bad one! So that right there is a grand accomplishment (as is the whole guitar, lets be honest here! I'm duly impressed). Its a great looking Zebra set to me, I'm still not sold on the idea of even giving it a try myself, as I somehow could see myself wound up in 42 ga wire waiting until morning when the Mr's is able to cut me free! Good job SIR!

Regards,

Don

I say give it a try! The feeling of playing your very first pickup is awesome. When you think about it, they are such an integral part of the sound of the instrument that it really helps define the thing as yours in a way that an off the shelf set can't.

There are drawbacks, of course:

- setup can be expensive (wire, parts, winder)
- it's frustrating (the wire tends to break at first)
- winding a tight coil is harder than it sounds
- it's basically hit and miss as to whether or not you get a good sound for a while

Still, I'm going to keep at it. I hope that, if I wind away like a demon in my spare moments, I'll produce a decent set sometime and be able to replicate it.

That being said, I have never actually heard a set of real PAFs, so am going purely on intuition and the dodgy sound of YouTube videos...

My knowledge on guitar building could be written on the back of a Full Stop.

My lungs on the other hand do have some knowledge of Nitro\Isocyanate inhalation.

Ah...too many fumes. That explains a lot.