Even Dunner (or...How I Bent My Rod with a Hickey)

So my friend Tom lent me his 1/2" Hickey EMT bender.  I attacked the 1/2" aluminum rod with it.  It was not pretty but here's what I ended up with:

That's one single piece of aluminum.  If I can, I'll bend the armrest in toward the body more.  But it's not happening tonight.  How's it work?  The leg rest is awesome.  The armrest is a bit tall and it doesn't seem aesthetically pleasing, exactly.  But hey.  What're you gonna do?  That thing's permanent.

Intonation - the 12th Fret Harmonic vs. the Open String

The question I tried to answer today is, "Which is more better?"

• Comparing the note at the 12th fret with the harmonic at the 12th fret, or
• Comparing the note at the 12th fret with the open string

Today I set the intonation on my new guitar for the Xth time.  I have a Peterson Strobostomp, which is good because neither my ear, nor a needle tuner, has ever helped me intonate a guitar.  And I couldn't tell see much difference between the two methods.  I think the reason is that if the intonation is already close, the harmonic and the open string are converging somewhat.  Who knows?  It's such an inexact thing.  My favorite E-form barre chord sometimes sounds good to me, and sometimes sounds horrible, when played up the neck.  That can change from day to day.

I tried hacking the G string compensation a little by increasing it arbitrarily, because it seems like the G is the primary culprit in spoiling my perfect chord.  I've heard of studio musicians doing that when they know exactly what intervals, and where on the neck, they're planning to be.  I think experienced luthiers, guitar techs and musicians consciously or unconsciously "sweeten" their intonation, and they're not telling me how it's done.  I've read that experience musicians of the fretless persuasion (eg violin) adjust their intonation dynamically, like magicians.  

I'm trying to work up a system for hacking intonation that works reliably, and when I do, I'll post it.  It'll be something along the lines of:

1. Play your chord or group of notes where it needs to be
2. Strum repeatedly and silence different strings in turn, looking for the one that's ruining it most for everybody
3. Use the regular guitar tuners to nudge that string up or down a little at a time (basically make it out of tune) until it plays better with others
4. If you sharpened it, decrease compensation for that string beyond what is normal, and if you flatted it increase compensation beyond what is normal

Also I just realized that I might be able to do something using just the tuner:  hold the chord up where I need it and, in effect, see how far from equal temperament perfection each note is.  That's basically simple intonation, but maybe it changes the equation when all the strings are fingered?

I am a monkey.

Strange High E String Failure Mode

I've heard it said of tremolo use and Kahlers in particular, that guitar string windings at the ball end should be soldered.  I always wondered what the heck that was about.  From what I have discerned, Kahlers have fixed saddles and wrap the string ball ends around a semi-circular rotating stop, similar to Bigsby tremolos and, in a way, to some wrap-around TOM (Tune-O-Matic) fixed bridges.  And there, I thought, was the crux:  something about turning a corner with the wrapped end perhaps caused problems.

Now maybe I understand.

I lost the ability to maintain tuning on my high E string on my new homemade guitar.  Every time I did a bend, it came back low - and it's a fixed bridge.  It happened over and over and over.  I even loosed the Steinberger gearless tuner at the headstock, unclamped the string, grabbed the free tail and reclamped it with the slack taken up.  It kept happening.  Here were my theories, in descending order of probability:

1. string clamp mechanism slipping - but I didn't see any less tag end than I remembered having after the initial string installation
2. string stretching like all getout - but I couldn't imagine a string stretching that much without breaking
3. tuner shifting in the soft basswood of the tuner hole - but i saw no visual indication of it
4. adjustable saddle moving of its own accord - but I checked the compensation screw head and it was against the rear of the bridge
5. bridge moving - but the other strings were great

Then I measure the wrapping at the ball end where it comes through the rear of the bridge.  I measured 19/64ths, worked the string by bouncing the guitar on it repeatedly.  I measured 16/64ths, but I didn't believe it.  I stretched the string again and it became clear:  the high E string was getting pulled around the ball end and  smooshing the wrap toward the ball end.  In this picture you can see it:

Imagine for a moment that I had a camera made after about 2003, that could take a picture worth a damn.  You would see that the green arrow is approximately where the final wrap used to be, and the yellow arrow is where it is now.  Between the two is kinked-up string, unwrapped wraps that have wriggled out of the wrap zone.

From now on I will solder my strings, I guess.

The Guitar with the Finish (but not the Finished Guitar)

After weeks of applying thin coats of wipe-on poly I got enough layers on there.  The poly is not mirror smooth - that happens later, after the poly has cured (2-4 weeks, and/or until the smell disappears), when it's wet-sanded and buffed.  Who knows if I'll even bother doing that?  In the photos that follow, you can see the ripples in the poly.

The headstock with the Steinberger gearless tuners and Fender LSR nut. I've been slacking the strings, adjusting the neck relief with the truss rod, and re-shimming the nut each time.  What a pain in the sack.

The battery is wrapped in blue electrical tape, both to prevent it from shorting any contacts, and because CVS batteries are Not Very Metal.

Six-bolt neck attachment:

I still haven't figured out how to bend the 1/2" aluminum rod. I'm working on that.  It may involved annealing the metal with a propane torch (until the carbon in a Sharpie line fades out).  I've located a machine shop very near my house, but I haven't given up yet; I've managed to do just about everything by myself so far.

Poly Wanna Slacker and Extreme Glueline Remediation

So I've been putting wipe-on poly on the neck (about 10 thin ones or so), and, after letting the Danish Oil dry for nearly a week I put a couple coats on the body as well.

Then I got tired of the glue line on the sides of the body, so I cut a 1/4" x 3/8" fillet.  You can see I dipped into a control cavity.  That's cool.

I turned my router into a self-contained router table, and tie-wrapped it to the legs of my band saw for stability:

I clamped a guide to the band saw table to make a 1/4" strip of oak.  I had to sand a 64th off it despite my careful calibration and testing of the guide.  I set the strips into the side fillets with Titebond, which is way, way too thick for this kind of thing.  I clamped up in the middle first to drive out the excess glue, which sorta worked, then used my only two long-enough clamps to get the all-important ends (I don't want glue showing there) and put weight on the middle with dumbbells.

This means I'll have glue to clean up on the body.  I'm hoping the few light coats of poly already on there makes it not stick so good, and that the sanding required to bring the oak strips down to level doesn't wreck the danish oil finish.

I really want this thing to be done but those glue lines were bugging the hell outta me.  I couldn't leave it like that.  Couldn't.

Finishing Up and the Aluminum Silhouette

There's nothing to photograph lately.  But I've taken the whole guitar apart again to apply finish to the neck and body.  For the neck:  Watco Danish Oil.  It's a penetrating, hardening type of varnish.  For the neck: Minwax Wipe-On Poly (gloss).  It's basically a pre-thinned poly that goes on in fine, controllable layers; I picked gloss not because I want the shine, but because satin finishes are "satinized" by the addition of stuff (silicates?) to gloss finishes.  I figure it's better without stuff in it.

The world of finishing can be pretty confusing.  You got shellacs, polyurethanes, other polys, varnishes, and multiple type of lacquer, including nitrocellulose lacquer which is traditional for old guitars.  I literally surfed for 6 or 8 hours before settling on the two I picked.

Currently I'm sanding like crazy.

Also I took delivery of 4 feet of 1/2" aluminum bar stock.  The idea is to make the rest out of it in the form of a guitarish outline.  Unfortunately the stuff is hell to bend - I've got nothing that works on it, and I'll have to go in search of a bender.  On the other hand, if it survives the bending process it'll probably be strong enough to handle the day to day battering a guitar gets.

More soon.

Closest So Far to Being Done With This Guitar Part IV!

Okay, control cavity covers.  Working with acrylic is a pain, but not as bad as the hardware store guy made it sound.  I used a rabitting router bit to make the inset or whatever you call it, then I laid the acrylic on the cavity and drew the pattern, then I cut it with a hacksaw, then I sanded it until it fit as good as it's going to.  The downside: doing these three cavities probably took me 5 hours.

You can see where the two cavities join.  The cavities connect this way because my guitar-designing skills are not so powerful.  And that shitty battery is fabulous-looking, no?

I made the front jack cover the same way but with aluminum.  It's gnarly because I didn't want to buy a flat of aluminum wide enough, so I pounded a piece of angle flat.  Yeah!  Also note the switch mount.  The dominant artistic theme that I'm trying to evoke here is "crudely-formed pieces of aluminum screwed randomly to a brown block of wood." I think I achieved that look perfectly.

The knobs are certainly not final.  See the master volume to the side of the bridge?  It's different because the other kind wouldn't fit there.  Genius! Also those speed knobs look shitty on this guitar.  I'll be searching for something a bit nicer.  Or making them, more like.  Another adventure.