NGD - The Avonator! Now for sale

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NGD - The Avonator! Now for sale

Post by Delayman »

So yesterday I received the Avonator- the avocado shaped resonator.

I’m going to have do some work on it before I’m happy with it. But I’m quite excited about it as a project. A couple of frets are sitting proud and causing massive fret buzz, and there we’re various other rattles and buzzes.

I opened it up, cleaned out years of dust from the cone and spider. The cover was a little bent and i think that’s where some of the rattles were coming from.

Looks like a spun cone to me, don’t know if that’s important. Nice touch inside, the builder has noted his name and date of build.

I also managed to lose the shim from under the nut, and replace it with one much too high. Now I have to decide if I remove and try again, or just file the slots down. Advice would be welcome.

I recorded a “before” video, and had intended an “after” one, but even though I’ve messed up the nut height and it’s fighting me... I started playing and forgot about everything else. I won't post the 'before' as it was pretty ugly with the buzzes and so on.

The last picture in the next post will explain why I didn't record the “after” video. I think this will be a lot of fun when it's sorted.
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Last edited by Delayman on Wed Jul 27, 2022 4:13 pm, edited 3 times in total.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: NGD - The Avonator!

Post by Delayman »

and a couple more...
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They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: NGD - The Avonator!

Post by MattH »

I love the text capture! Looks like a fun project!
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Re: NGD - The Avonator!

Post by Delayman »

MattH wrote:I love the text capture! Looks like a fun project!
Yep I thought it was pretty funny, but I was a apologetic as it was a school night and I didn't realise how late it was.

It is very loud for the small body, apart from the bass strings which are out of balance quiet. But i'll keep trying things.

I was surprised the spider looks like a barbeque part not a musical instrument part.

Now I have to get some guitar tools, as there are two frets that definitely sit too high.

One great thing (that I was worried about) is the intonation seems great. Poor intonation drives me nuts, so this is a relief.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: NGD - The Avonator!

Post by Delayman »

and the 'truss rod cover' is just cosmetic. But that neck is so chunky i'd be surprised if the neck could be pulled out of shape.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: NGD - The Avonator!

Post by Delayman »

I sat down to muck around with the Avonator yesterday.

Wrote a little tune and recorded it on my phone. The guitar still rattles and has fret issues, and the nut is too high so it's capo only. But I really really like. I wanted to do a rough take on my phone, but the dog wandered across the video and I thought it was funny . So I put in in logic and added minimal drums and strings.

Next time - always check we're in concert pitch in case we want to add things later, and use a click because it's very hard to add drums to a free tempo idea(!).

I'm torn about this. A part of me cringes because it's rough, out of time, it's a phone recording with a rattly guitar and I make mistakes (and the dog etc). I had written the tune about 30 minutes before so both versions of the verse are different.

But the other part of me is really stoked that I had an idea, captured it, and pushed it out to my friends on facebook. To be honest the other thinking has stopped me doing a lot of stuff. So here's to rough and hopefully beautiful things.

https://www.facebook.com/david.darcy.56 ... 694161078/

My other worry is because it was all very quick, that somebody is going to say "that sounds like xxxx song by yyyy" but it would be good to know if that's the case. And I can pretend the cover was deliberate.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by WellyBlues »

won't let me see it on FB, maybe it's only for your friends.
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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by Delayman »

WellyBlues wrote:won't let me see it on FB, maybe it's only for your friends.
Thanks, I've made it public now - I didn't realise I needed to do that.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by Jay »

I thought that was quite nice. Well done. Pity I had to go onto BookFace to see it. SoundCloud?

If you are not a purist, and the nut slots are cut well, just put a new shim under the nut.
And yes, looks like a BBQ thingie :lol:
When faced with quality, I recognise it every time.

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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by Cdog »

Sounds great mate, nice one

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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by Bg »

Sounds great mate, nice one :eek:

Action too high, remove nut (if glued in, carefully cut around with a stanley knife/scalpel, tap out gently from the side with a suitable drift and a hammer. Piece of sandpaper - 180 grit-ish, and rub it gently until JB comments(fnarr fnarr). Refit and test again. And like JVPP says, if you take too much off you can always add a piece of paper/card/wood underneath.

When refitting, add one tiny spot of superglue to hold it in place.

If its way high, you may need to do this a few times - there are more accurate ways but they're a faff around and this way works well enough. There maybe a reason it is high though which will indicate neck/fretwork needed.

Or just play it with a slide :D
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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by k1w1 »

That sounds pretty good, a little banjoish on the bass. These aren't hard to set up, get the saddle right, true the spider legs and get the tension screw right and that should sort the sound (and the nut slots).

Stewmac has a pretty good set up blog

https://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_R ... Setup.html

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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by MattH »

Sounds lovely! Nice emoting!

:)
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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by Delayman »

k1w1 wrote:That sounds pretty good, a little banjoish on the bass. These aren't hard to set up, get the saddle right, true the spider legs and get the tension screw right and that should sort the sound (and the nut slots).

Stewmac has a pretty good set up blog

https://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_R ... Setup.html
Thanks for that. It definitely needs some work but it really nice to play and write in so I think it’s worth it.

I’m no luthier so I’ll have a look at the stew Mac site and see if I’m more likely to do harm than good...

I kind of like the banjo quality.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: NGD - The Avonator! includes recording now

Post by Delayman »

MattH wrote:Sounds lovely! Nice emoting!

:)
Yes I worried about that, I wasn’t really planning on publishing. But that’s just what I did when I played it. I used to try and be cool, but that’s a fool’s errand in my case.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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