What's on your work bench?

[ChAoZ]

Offsets !

The plan is to make 4x Strat bodies, Griff gets pick of the litter and the rest go up for sale

[StrummersOfThunder]

Offsets !

The plan is to make 4x Strat bodies, Griff gets pick of the litter and the rest go up for sale

Booooo

Nah sounds rad . Nice work

[Timoes]

74 Jazz. Natural relic. EMGs. Benched for wiring issue.

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[jeremyb]

Restringing the Kramer with 13-62's for some B standard action, the tusq nut I installed might have needed a dash more glue as it moved when I was trying to tune it and get the tension right on the trem... have reglued and fingers crossed it holds this time!

[NippleWrestler]

Another custom humbucker set for a lovely chap who plays a lot of ambient soundscapey stuff that goes from atmospheric reverb-drenched chordage to out and out speed metal. He also wanted something to gel with his blacked out guitar and wanted to look somewhat industrial. Good fun.

So, these will live under black metal covers, and I wanted the hex poles because they fit the bill in both looks and sound, but I sanded the protruding tops slightly to reveal some of the silver. I thought it would look a bit cheesy being either all black, or black with very bright silver poles showing, and this gives them some visual interest while not shouting too loudly. Plus, since they're done by hand every pole is different. It's a subtle touch, but that's what custom pickups is all about.





Due to the customer's interests I called these the Rock Climber... because he goes rock climbing and it's a nice pun which is very low hanging fruit in the pun orchard. My wife thought it said Rack Cucumber so there's that.

13.3k bridge/A5/scatter wound/asymmetrically wound too. That's a nice medium output humbucker that'll clean up great, but still have some balls.

8.3k neck/A5/less scatter/asymmetrical wind. A nice balance that will do the sweet soft clean lines but sing under some gain. I used smaller poles here to alleviate excessive low end that so plagues neck humbuckers.

Anyway. Sorry for the essay, but this is why I really enjoy making pickups for people - you have a chat, build a friendship, understand where they're coming from and what they're seeking, then design and wind something that's 100% bespoke for them and their music.

[Lyle]

Totara is a lovely wood to work with. Maori use it extensively for carving.

My 1st telecaster I built from a large, sixty year old or so totara fence post. Sadly enough I didn't realise that the grey streaks were water/fungus damage and the body split a few years later. My slab was also relatively heavy resulting in a 2392 gram body weight. Which is 2 pounds heavier than the tele body I am making atm.


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Pity about the split, it looks great. The original 1940s totara piles at my house got replaced and there's a few stacked up under the house.

[Lyle]

Pity about the split, it looks great. The original 1940s totara piles at my house got replaced and there's a few stacked up under the house.

Whoops that was a half formed thought. I've also got some rimu & matai. I need to get my act together to set my workshop up so I can start trying to make some stuff.

[jeremyb]

This might be a handy tool, although in the case of my Kramer which had some high frets they needed a bit of hammering in to place first.

[GrantB]

Yep, on a well prepped board, a little bit of CA and careful compression can solve a lot of issues.

[robthemac]

Yep, on a well prepped board, a little bit of CA and careful compression can solve a lot of issues.

Stock up, big guy.

[MikeC]

Yep, on a well prepped board, a little bit of CA and careful compression can solve a lot of issues.

"CA" ?

[Jay]

Yep, on a well prepped board, a little bit of CA and careful compression can solve a lot of issues.

"CA" ?

Cyanide

[codedog]

Yep, on a well prepped board, a little bit of CA and careful compression can solve a lot of issues.

"CA" ?

Cyanoacrylate... aka superglue.

[MikeC]

Yep, on a well prepped board, a little bit of CA and careful compression can solve a lot of issues.

"CA" ?

Cyanoacrylate... aka superglue.

Ahhhh, I thought it must have been very expensive requiring the input from a Chartered Accountant

[jeremyb]

What is everyone's favourite super glue? Of the easily available ones I quite like the Loctite liquid ones, although have had some Zap CA glue from a model shop years ago that was a great performer.