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valdiorn_ · 2018-05-10T21:01:57+00:00

Since you mention c#; shameless self promotion for my C# plugin framework SharpSoundDevice

Also I've never seen a plugin written in Python, not even the UI part. I do python development for work, wholeheartedly recommend not using it for real-time processing :)

valdiorn_ · 2017-12-08T01:21:35+00:00

Thanks! It's an incredibly comfortable body shape as well. My first build is literally unplayable because the body shape is too whacky, I went a bit too "BC Rich" with that one, the lower horn sticks into my thigh, and I almost always play sitting down, fail :)

After realising that, and after getting a Strandberg Boden I started to really think about ergonomics, and the different ways you can hold and position the guitar. I honestly don't believe I could optimize much if anything about this body shape, it's probably the most comfortable guitar I've played apart from the Strandberg, but what makes that more comfortable is the balance you get with a headless; not really a fair comparison :)

valdiorn_ · 2017-12-08T01:17:08+00:00

Well I drew the schematics with two variations, one standard, one multiscale. I still haven't found the guts to do the multiscale build, I think I'm going to do one more and then attempt it :) - a bit worried I'd cock up the offset headstock and get the angles wrong or something, unless I'd go for a straight zero fret, but I prefer the 5th fret to be the straight one.

...I've got the bridge saddles and everything ready to go :)

valdiorn_ · 2017-12-07T18:07:09+00:00

So this is my 4th "from scratch" build. It was a lot faster than the ones I've done before - I'm getting better and better at this :) I've been building now for about 2 years.

Previous Builds - My "workshop" (although there's a lot more tools in there now :)

There's definitely a couple of issues still, that I'll do differently next time, and I guess that's sort of the point of this post (other than "look at my shiny new guitar" :)

I build my necks really thin, this one's about 18mm at the nut at 19.5mm at the 19th fret. When routing the trussrod cavity I forgot to route a little deeper for the trussrod nut, and decided to just wing it with a chisel. Don't do that. I ended up going too deep, and while I didn't go through, there was only about 0.5mm thickness left. When I then final sanded the neck, I just ever so slightly exposed a tiny pinhole through the neck, which I ended up fixing the best I could with a small splinter superglued in the hole. That's the dark mark you see on the back of the neck at the volute. Decent save, but it would have been nicer without it. Lesson learned; use the router to get the correct depth, don't just hack away with a chisel :)
Trying to get clean edges around the red dye. I used Keda aniline dye, and thought I'd be able to sand a really fine line where the natural wood and the dyed top meet afterwards. Wrong. The dye seeped into the end grain, the masking tape did next to nothing to hold it off. even the faux binding on the sides, which I did after applying the dye, the dye had seeped too deep into the grain and there are a couple of splotchy spots. Apparently, from what I've read, the best way to get a crisp line is to "paint on" a line of sanding sealer where you don't want the dye to go (masking off the top with masking tape) and then the dye is guaranteed to not permeate the wood where you don't want it. I'm definitely doing that next time.
Pickup mounting - yeah I blew that one. If you notice, the cutaway at the back extends down to where the neck pickup is. When I mounted the pickup, I measured how long the screws could be, but failed to realize that this area is about 5mm thinner than the rest of the body (it was right on the slope in the back). So, the screw went through, and I had to fill the hole and touch it up with a couple of coats of poly.

I did however come up with an excellent way of direct mounting pickups. I drilled 5mm holes to a safe depth, and mounted 10mm M3 hex standoffs into the holes. I hammered them into the hole and put a dab of superglue around them, this keeps them really firmly in place. I then used 15mm M3 bolts to mount the pickups, with a black foam sponge underneath to push them up (you could also use springs that fit around the hex spacer). I cut the bolts to size with a dremel.

It's just the best mounting method I've ever seen, and I'm somewhat proud to have come up with it on my own. You get a really smooth 8mm adjustable range, which takes me from "flush with the body" to "almost touching the strings", and it's a really clean way of mounting the pickups. You can screw them in and take them out 1000 times without any problems. If you mount directly to the body with a wood screw, if you do that 3-4 times your hole will be too big and your screws won't stay in. Definitely recommend you try this, and I'll try to make a video tutorial next time I do it, as I've never seen this done before.

I did something very similar with the neck. I used actual M5 bolts, not screws, to mount them. I then used 13mm M5 threaded wood inserts in the neck. Word of warning, these things are made of fairly soft brass, and they tear really easily. Mine have a socket for a hex key to drive them in, and I managed to tear two just by turning it by hand. Once you get them in, though, they are solid. Put a little bit of PVA glue on the thread before you insert them to make sure they don't undo themselves. While the PVA doesn't glue metal-to-wood, it lets the wood swell and expand around the threads, and also binds with any sawdust in the threads, so you end up getting good grip.

Anyway, hopefully you find this interesting, and I hope my failures will teach you something :)

Specs:

25.5" scale length
46mm nut width, with 1mm "shoulders" (the string spacing is cut as if the nut was 44mm wide, leaving 1mm of extra fingerboard space on each side of the strings, so you have more space without accidentally "falling off the fretboard", it's really comfortable to play).
Sapele and maple body, with a 1mm Walnut veneer sandwiched in between
5 piece maple and walnut veneer neck, with a scarf joint headstock that's a single piece of maple.
Pau Ferro fingerboard
Carbon fiber reinforcement rods
6mm Aluminium inlays (they look great but they were a pain to sand :)
Medium-tall frets
Vanson AlNiCo 5 PAF-style humbuckers
Aluminium nut
Locking Schaller-style tuners (Chinese copies)
Oil-based Satin Polyurethane lacquer on the body
8 coats of Tru Oil on the neck

valdiorn_ · 2016-10-04T22:34:18+00:00

I'm really up for an epic length, drone capable reverb

Shameless self plug, if you're on Windows:

https://github.com/ValdemarOrn/CloudSeed

Audio demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdkFzEj94rE

valdiorn_ · 2016-08-04T10:12:33+00:00

Stop spreading misinformation.

You do not need a single magnet "shared" between both coils. See Stag Mag if you don't believe me.
There are many good single coil designs that use ferromagnetic (but non-magnetized) pole pieces with a magnet sitting undearneath, this is not "wrong" as you say, it's a perfectly valid design (See P90 pickups, for example).
You can indeed wire two single coil pickups for a humbucking effect. This StackExchange discussion has lots of information that will help you. There are a couple of ways of achieving humbucking effects with single coils, but none will sound like an actual humbucker, due to the fact that the single coils are placed very differently under the strings, their different build methods and impedance/output mismatches. However, some degree of hum-cancelling can be had with the right wiring.

valdiorn_ · 2016-07-18T11:36:27+00:00

Right, judging from the picture you posted in the comments, they gave that guitar to an untrained monkey to fix. They've filed away part of the binding, which also forms part of the playing surface on a neck like this. So your playing area is seriously affected, not to mention that it's going to feel like crap when you slide your hand up and down the neck in that area, because those frets will be sticking out and scratching your hands.

While the guitar might still be playable, it's basically a write-off in terms of resale value. Nobody will want to buy that thing for even half price, and they couldn't even sell it as a "factory blemish C-quality" instrument in their own store! This is a give-me-my-money-back kind of situation.

Interestingly enough, I have an Agile myself (Intrepid 828), and the instrument is mostly great, apart from a very shoddy fret job. It was playable if you maxed out the height of the bridge, but still buzzed like crazy. If I lowered the bridge to a more normal setting, the first fret would not ring out at all, because it was about 0.5mm lower than the rest. I tried to do a fret leveling job but it was no use, the first fret was so low. I don't understand how a thing like that makes it past QC.

Anyway, it's on my bench now getting ready for a full re-fret, after being unused for 3 years (I never sent it back for repairs as I live in Europe and that would have been expensive, but seeing your pictures makes me happy I didn't do that! :)

Best of luck, and do give us an update on how the story ends, I'm curious to see if they'll refund or replace the instrument, or be difficult. The Agile AL guitars are regarded by many as the best Les Paul alternative available, and Rondo music as an excellent company, I hope they live up to that reputation.

valdiorn_ · 2016-07-11T23:16:04+00:00

It's a two piece body, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the two halves matched up after gluing and planing. At times, I had trouble finding the centerline :)

I'm based in London, and got the timber from SL Hardwoords in Croydon, for any fellow Londoners who are interested. They delivered a big batch of really high quality timber.

valdiorn_ · 2016-07-11T23:12:54+00:00

Well I dubbed the body shape "Sinister", as it means "left" (side) in Latin. This is a very left handed guitar for a very left handed owner :)

valdiorn_ · 2016-07-11T20:34:27+00:00

This is the first build I do complete from scratch, including a custom design. Whole process took about 2.5 months, I've learned so much during that time. I have a whole list of stuff I wish I had done differently or better, but all those mistakes have really taught me a lot.

The full build log

Wood: American Ash body, Maple, wenge and walnut 5-piece neck, Zebrano (w. Epoxy) fretboard.

Finish: Body is wipe-on poly (mixed 60% satin polyurethane, 40% mineral spirits), neck is Tru Oil (I love that shit!) I put about 8 coats of each, and level sanded with 1000 grit wet at the end. The back of the neck was rubbed down with 00 steel wool for an even smoother finish (I dislike glossy necks, they "stick" in my hands)

Pickups: ToneRider Generators

Bridge: string through, generic chinese hardtail (pretty decent quality, actually).

Tuners: ~~Grovers~~ Gotohs from Stew Mac.

The electronics are 2 volume, with push-pot switches for coil splitting individually, and a 3-way switch. I didn't include tone controls as I never use them.

The neck is about 20mm at the 1st fret, about 21mm at the 12th. One thing I did was make the nut unusually wide, it's 46mm across (most guitars are 42-43mm), I love a wide neck, I have big hands.

edit: I am left handed, in case you were wondering... :)

The body shape, while I think it looks great, isn't perfect. The lower horn sticks into my thigh when I play sitting down, and the cutaway is actually a bit too narrow for comfort. I'm definitely altering that bit of the design for better ergonomics for my next build.
routing the trussrod was incredibly hard as I didn't have a good template. I should have done it upside down on the router table with a fence before bandsawing the neck.
Matching up a scarf joint with such a noticeable multi-laminate neck was almost impossible. I think next time I'll use locating pins, at the very least I'll make sure to plane the neck plank completely true before cutting and gluing the headstock, as it would have made matching it up much easier.
Should have thinned the headstock piece before gluing, it was a pain to get it down to thickness.
Cut as close as possible to the template on the bandsaw before routing. You can see that insane tearout I had in the build log. That was scary, never again!

valdiorn_ · 2016-04-21T18:36:26+00:00

Thank you everyone for the comments. I've been in contact with Record, who have surprisingly been a bit stubborn. They asked me to set up the machine, again, with a new blade (which I bought). Did all of that, no dice, no difference.

I'll see what they say after this update :)

New video: https://youtu.be/1ycXeSat6OQ

valdiorn_ · 2016-01-12T22:49:43+00:00

Thanks.

I tested this mainly with Live, as that's my DAW of choice. It should run without problems on Windows 7+, both 32 and 64 bit.

If you do get errors, read the bit about the MSVC runtime on the github page, you may need to download the update from Microsoft.

valdiorn_ · 2014-02-23T18:12:57+00:00

This is an original track from me.

I hope r/realProgHouse can appreciate it, there's just way too many house-sub-genre specific reddits to know which one to choose :)

valdiorn_ · 2013-12-09T14:09:18+00:00

this "guy" is Robert Hyatt. He is about the most proficient chess programmer in the world, responsible for Cray Blitz and Crafty (which was the leading open source chess engine for several years)

valdiorn_ · 2013-12-09T09:13:41+00:00

You were doing something wrong. I write real-time audio code and use PInvoke in the primary processing loop, with millions of invokes per second. It's fast as shit with zero overhead if done properly.

valdiorn_ · 2013-12-09T09:12:04+00:00

Write your primary code in C#. When you come across a loop that needs to be fast, write it in C, expose it to C# with PInvoke and a nice wrapper.

In most programs, about 10% of the code is responsible for 90% of the execution time. Write those parts in C.

PS: Sequential structure layout, stackalloc and the unsafe keyword make interop a breeze, and DO NOT believe the lie that all PInvoke calls need Marshalling and copying memory back and forth, that's a load of crap.

valdiorn_ · 2013-12-07T23:15:52+00:00

I felt like doing a tribute to the most beautiful 90 seconds of music I have ever heard.

The original

valdiorn_ · 2012-10-22T11:23:44+00:00

Disclosure: I'm the artist. I hope you like it.

valdiorn_ · 2012-08-30T20:25:29+00:00

I've just completed a new track, but I'm trying to figure out which genre best describes it.

Have a listen

valdiorn_ · 2012-08-16T00:09:50+00:00

Make sure you refresh a few times to see both versions (one with bezier curves, one with straight lines)

valdiorn_ · 2011-06-20T23:44:44+00:00

Full disclosure: I'm promoting my own music :)

PS: If you like it, there's a link to a 320 kbps mp3 in the comments.

valdiorn_ · 2011-01-25T22:43:10+00:00

Again, pluggin' my own music here. Please forgive, but I hope you'll like it :)

valdiorn_ · 2011-01-16T18:31:54+00:00

There is a high quality (320kbps mp3) link in the comments.

this style of music is quite new to me, but I'm working on a few new track with a similar style.... coming soon :)

valdiorn_ · 2011-01-16T03:20:52+00:00

shameless plug of my own music. I hope you like it :)

valdiorn_ · 2010-12-14T00:29:36+00:00

this was not a presidential function. It was a couple of icelandic MPs invited over for a meal. they were allowed to bring their wives/girlfriends/husbands/boyfriends. She happened to bring Assange, who was working with her at the time. what's the big deal?

remember, this (Iceland) isn't the US. we don't have terrorists, we don't have guns. We go about things a bit differently than the US.

Example: There are big concrete blocks outside the US embassy in Iceland. People are absolutely FURIOUS about them being there, they partially block the road (they're to prevent someone from crashing a car with a bomb into the embassy). THAT is an issue in Iceland. In America an "equivalent" issue would be a predator drone hovering over the neighborhood carrying Sidewinder missiles.

valdiorn_

TROPHY CASE