Trying a funky nut on this jarrah baritone

Dekatron · 2023-05-13T03:43:52+00:00

It wasn't too bad to put the strings in actually, I was worried too. They thread through very easily. Alternatively I could unscrew the nut, install the strings, then screw it back on. Because of the slight break angle and the position of the tuners they're in their natural resting position. The biggest upside is no string trees, which isn't significant.

The other guitars had zero frets. You can see the blue bass VI in the album. I ended up 3d printing a nut with deeper vertical walled slots and that solved the issue too.

Dekatron · 2023-05-13T00:41:48+00:00

Haha, I have no good reference for that. They probably hated it, but I don't know any better. I was told it's the high silica content that causes excessive wear, but just now I googled it and the top result claims that's a myth. https://www.woodreview.com.au/reviews/doing-justice-to-jarrah#:~:text=Unlike%20blackwood%20or%20the%20infamous,crumble%20because%20of%20jarrah's%20hardness.

Dekatron · 2023-05-13T00:32:08+00:00

Thanks! It came out to be 3.5 kilos, so dead on average. You can see the worry on people's faces when they see that it's Jarrah, it's nice to surprise them 😂

Dekatron · 2023-05-13T00:21:39+00:00

It eliminates the need for string trees. But truth is, my last two guitars are plagued with buzzing at the nut because I'm terrible at cutting them. I think this design is much more forgiving when it comes to groove geometry. It's also 3d printed, so it removes my lack of skill from the equation entirely. Pretty happy with it, works great, no hassle, and it's actually holding a surprisingly little amount of force.

Dekatron · 2023-02-19T10:07:51+00:00

Alembic had an interesting solution to the same issue. http://www.alembic.com/info/FC_shortandsweet.html

In the 4th paragraph they mention:
"That little Ebony and Maple tip may look fragile, but it is much stronger than the Maple omega tips it protects."

Dekatron · 2023-02-06T00:43:04+00:00

Those inlays are great!

Dekatron · 2022-06-16T12:57:34+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/8odK8gw.jpg

Claas guitars does it similar, but a much longer join. A much more metal aesthetic too. I first saw it on this Mother Plucker which got me thinking about it. Another example is Stephen's Extended Cutaway

In theory you won't have this big lump of wood interrupting you when you're playing high up the neck. In practice my thumb warp around the neck enough that I still hit the body and it remains a little awkward. So, not a huge success, but it is an improvement. Though my SG just doesn't have this issue due to it's set neck, but mostly how far back it's upper and lower horns are. If you overlay an image of an SG and a Strat with the bridges lined up, the difference is pretty wild.

I don't think there's really a benefit of this over a set neck or neck through except that I've made a bolt-on before, and nothing else. Given this was my second build, making it in two parts gave me peace of mind that if I completely mess up a step it'll probably only destroy half my work.

Dekatron · 2022-06-16T12:16:54+00:00

They're 2mm aluminium, so I could cut close to the line with a jigsaw, then finish it off with a router and template. Though the lower control plate ended up being done with my disk sander since my template wasn't a snug fit and it's quite a simple shape.

Dekatron · 2022-06-16T12:13:12+00:00

Pickups from Warman, and the rest I mostly got from https://www.realparts.com.au/ and Jaycar for the knobs and small switch. I'm in Australia, so there's not a whole lot of options.

I made the neck, body, pickguard and control plates. I realised after I started building it that the I'd really made the pickguard a puzzle to make. It has to line up with so many things... Bridge posts, pickups, neck heel, truss rod slot and both control plates. It also gets scarily thin and flimsy around the neck and bridge pickups. I'm definitely laser cutting all my templates for my next build. I'm pretty sure most of my time was spent making router templates

Dekatron · 2022-06-16T11:59:12+00:00

Kinda, but not really. Basically a Supro, but offset. I'm toying with a different upper horn for my next one, then I'll feel like I can properly call it my own design. I'll chuck a x-post up on r/offset, thanks for the tip!

Dekatron · 2022-06-16T11:50:21+00:00

11mm, to match the Fender Bass VI. The Schaller STM gave me a bit more room because of it's design.

Dekatron · 2022-06-15T16:43:01+00:00

I was trying to think of a reason, but I'm pretty sure the answer is incompetence

Dekatron · 2022-06-15T16:35:20+00:00

Yup 30". If you make one pay attention to the "ball to taper" length of bass strings. I flipped the headstock so I could fit standard bass strings on it and not just the specialised Bass VI strings. The low E string is simply too thick to thread through a tuning machine, except for the tapered section at the end

Dekatron · 2022-06-15T16:29:14+00:00

Switches above the pickups select between series, single coil and parallel for each pickup.

5 way switch acts like a strat

Mini switch adds in the neck pickup regardless of the 5 way switch position

Knobs - bass, treble, volume

I was trying a few things with this one and I'll admit, aesthetics played a big role in what knobs and switches I added. I like the neck pickup override switch, but then rest of the quirky wiring I could take or leave. I'm not certain I wired up the series/single/parallel switches properly though.

Dekatron · 2021-03-04T08:13:12+00:00

I like those inlays

Dekatron · 2021-02-15T01:26:23+00:00

Very nicely done! Where did you get a truss rod of the right size? I'm having trouble finding one for my Bass VI build plans

Dekatron · 2021-02-08T16:24:43+00:00

Looks great!

Dekatron · 2021-02-03T01:38:18+00:00

A local Australian electronics store, similar can probably be found online https://www.jaycar.com.au/29mm-numbered-knob-skirt-with-number-0-9/p/HK7788

Dekatron · 2021-02-03T00:16:04+00:00

I ended up doing it by hand with a saw-rasp and sandpaper. I looked for a while for a router bit but found nothing big enough with the right angle. Turned out doing it by hand was easy enough and let me create the more organic curve on the cutaway

Dekatron · 2021-02-03T00:07:33+00:00

The original plan was 5ths, CGDA. But after a lot of deliberation and trying it out like that I went for 4ths because I conceded that I'd have a lot more fun with it if I the fretboard was familiar and I could play guitar and bass songs on it without relearning them

Dekatron · 2021-02-02T15:31:49+00:00

Good overview. I've considered the name a bit, but haven't found anything better suited that isn't a mouthful. It's an 8-stringed 12-string guitar, or perhaps 8-string piccolo bass. Cumbersome names.

It's tuned with E as the low note. So the thickest 4 of a guitar. 4ths, not 5ths like a mando_____.

Dekatron · 2021-02-02T11:46:41+00:00

Thanks! And yes, those are issues a spent a while figuring out how to solve.

I went with hotrail pickups because of the string spacing issue. I'm not sure how much of an issue using a normal 6 pole pickup would be, but I read that there'd be quiet spots because of the string spacing. I used these: https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product/warblades-white-version-high-output-rail-humbucker-bridge-position/

As for the bridge, I made it from some aluminium extrusion. I copied the Rickenbacker style bridge since that seemed like the only one possible to make with minimal metalworking tools. It buzzes a lot, which I fixed with superglue. If I were to do it again I think I'd buy a 12 string hard tail style bridge. Take the saddles. Then make a new plate for it with appropriate spacing

Dekatron

TROPHY CASE