Welcome to TiddlyWiki created by Jeremy Ruston, Copyright © 2007 UnaMesa Association
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Error: #f88
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To get started with this blank TiddlyWiki, you'll need to modify the following tiddlers:
* SiteTitle & SiteSubtitle: The title and subtitle of the site, as shown above (after saving, they will also appear in the browser title bar)
* MainMenu: The menu (usually on the left)
* DefaultTiddlers: Contains the names of the tiddlers that you want to appear when the TiddlyWiki is opened
You'll also need to enter your username for signing your edits: <<option txtUserName>>
These InterfaceOptions for customising TiddlyWiki are saved in your browser
Your username for signing your edits. Write it as a WikiWord (eg JoeBloggs)
<<option txtUserName>>
<<option chkSaveBackups>> SaveBackups
<<option chkAutoSave>> AutoSave
<<option chkRegExpSearch>> RegExpSearch
<<option chkCaseSensitiveSearch>> CaseSensitiveSearch
<<option chkAnimate>> EnableAnimations
----
Also see AdvancedOptions
This started out with the intent of doing a significant upgrade to the Squier Strat. It has transformed into a "from scratch" project using all new parts.
Most parts come from Carvin except for the pickups and pickup covers. So essentially its a Carvin Bolt kit with Seymour Duncan Vintage for Strat SSL-2 Flat pickups.
Details and current progress will be posted on [[this blog|http://blue-zebra-guitar.blogspot.com]].
Here's my current plan for finishing the body... I want a high contrast, dark grain vs blue stain effect -- i.e., fill pores with dark grain filler, sand back, stain blue. After that I'll follow the standard sand/sealer, clear lacquer, and polish schedule.
[[Timeline|2008 Guitar Project Timeline]]
* January 16, 2008 - I ordered a [[Carvin replacement neck|https://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=BN]] w/ standard ebony fretboard and 12" radius. I also ordered locking tuners and am I'm having them tung oil the back of the neck for me.
* Feb 11, 2008 - I ordered a set of 3 Seymour Duncan Vintage Flat ~SSL-2 pickups from West LA Music. I got the call on Feb 27th that they had arrived and I picked them up the next day.
* March 4th - ordered shielding supplies from the Carvin website.
* March 5th - the neck arrived today - it looks great!
* March 6th - shielding supplies arrive.
* March 18th - This is no longer a squire upgrade. After getting about half of the black paint off of the body using a combination of blow torching and razor blade, I've found that the body is at least 5 pieces - 3 pieces of alder plus a thin wood laminate over the the top and bottom. Underneath the black paint is a harder clear plastic coating over the wood. Its going to be too much effort to get it down to bare wood in good condition, so I'm going to buy another body and all of the electronics, etc for a completely new guitar.
* March 21 - Ordered the body and remaining supplies from Carvin (except the pickup covers and screws, which they don't sell).
* March 28 - Body and parts arrive, kind of surprising since they said it would be 4 or 5 weeks to manufacture and ship the body.
* April 3 - Stopped at the House of Hardwood in WLA and picked up a piece of scrap ash. I'll use this to experiment with the finish process.
* April 6 - Order stain, grain filler, sanding sealer, sand paper packs, and polish from ~ReRanch.com
* April 10 - ~ReRanch order arrives. Picked up 6 cans of Deft clear gloss aerosol lacquer from Home Depot (3 for refinishing the Squier).
Quick facts:
* Born in 1962. I am married, have a son, and three dogs.
* I live in Culver City, California.
* I am a software engineer.
* I play guitar. In 2008 I am [[assembling a custom a guitar|2008 Guitar Project]].
* I tinker with audio and MIDI software on Linux to create backing tracks for playing guitar.
* Every Thursday evening during spring and summer I race with my Dad on his sailboat.
* About once a year I [[brew beer|Homebrew]].
The cost of creating my [[dream guitar|Dream Guitar Project]] is likely to be pretty high, so I've looked for off-the shelf guitars that match my specs. All of these are rear-routed Strat style guitars. The notes indicate how each guitar deviates from my specs.
|!Guitar |!Description |
|[[Zion Radicaster|http://www.zionguitars.com/main.asp?template=products&level1=Radicaster]] |Zion has options or will customize to match my [[dream guitar specs|Dream Guitar Project]]. Two piece neck. Approx $3125. |
|[[Carvin Contour C66T |http://www.carvin.com/products/guitar.php?ItemNumber=C66]] |Unspecified body wood with flame/quilt maple top. HSS option available. $1200. |
|[[Fender FMT HSS Deluxe Strat|http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0101570852]] |Ebony fretboard, flame maple over alder body, only two color options, HSS noiseless pickup configuration. $1400. |
|[[Washburn X33|http://www.washburn.com/products/electrics/x/x33.aspx]] |Website specs not detailed, limited options, multi-piece alder body, probably doesn't ship with locking tuners, sunburst body with rosewood fingerboard, black body with maple fingerboard. Good reviews. ~$420.00 |
I plan on creating a [[custom guitar|Dream Guitar Project]]. In preparation, I found the following suppliers of parts. This is not an exhaustive list -- I find a new one every time I search the web -- there are a lot of small custom guitar shops out there! In order to make the list, the shop must at least sell replacement guitar necks or bodies. For ratings, I've been looking at [[Harmony Central|http://reviews.harmony-central.com/]].
|! Name |! Notes|
|[[WD Music|http://wdmusic.com/index.html]] |PDF Catalog only. Necks and lots of parts, electronics, etc. They offer quite a few necks, but wont build to custom specs as far as I can tell. |
|[[USA Custom Guitars|http://www.usacustomguitars.com]] |Lots of choices for necks and bodies, will build to custom specs, good ratings, expensive. So far they have my [[favorite body|http://www.usacustomguitars.com/carvedtop-s.html]]. |
|[[AllParts|http://www.allparts.com]] |Necks and lots of parts, no bodies that I can see. They offer quite a few necks, but wont build to custom specs as far as I can tell. |
|[[Warmoth|http://www.warmoth.com]] |Necks, bodies and more with lots of choices, and will build to custom specs. Looks like a great option at first, but for the last two years they've been getting trashed in all reviews on Harmony Central. |
|[[Musikraft|http://musikraft.3dcartstores.com/]] |Necks, bodies, and parts -- will build to custom specs. Reasonable prices, good ratings, but not too many options on the bodies (e.g., just standard front/rear routed Tele and Strat stuff - no carved tops). This is my current choice for the neck. |
|[[B Hefner Guitars|http://edenhaus.com]] |Reasonable number of neck and body options, the most expensive I've found so far. |
|[[Stewart Macdonald|http://www.stewmac.com]] |Everything for building and repairing strings instruments. |
|[[Mighty Mite|http://www.mightymite.com/index.html]] |Replacement necks, bodies and other parts. One friend gave a good personal recommendation for these guys and most on-line reviews are OK, but customer support specific ratings are in the dumps. |
|[[Guitar Parts USA|http://www.guitarpartsusa.com]] | |
|[[Mojo Bodies|http://www.mojobodies.com]] |Custom bodies only. |
|[[Best Guitar Parts|http://www.bestguitarparts.com]] | |
|[[Lucas 3D Wood Duplicating|http://www.lucas3dwd.com]] |Custom bodies only. |
|[[Carvin|http://www.carvin.com/products/group.php?CID=KBN]] | |
[[About Me]]
[[Software Projects]]
In summary, it is a solid-body Strat with a rear routed body. It might have a carved top.
It might look like this:
[img[Guitar Mockup Image|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/blue_mockup_guitar.png]]
The current plan is to do most of the assembly myself after purchasing the neck, body, and hardware. I feel confident that I can do almost everything myself including the soldering. I have two neighbors that have full workshops so I should be able to borrow or use their tools when necessary. In case I run into trouble I can always turn it over to my guitar tech, which I might do for the final setup anyway.
!!!Features
Here are the features I'd like:
* Locking tuners.
* No string retainers/trees (tilt back head or LSR roller nut?).
* Nut width 1.6875 inches.
* One piece quarter sawn maple neck (matte finish on the back of the neck, high gloss finish on the fretboard).
* 9.5" fretboard radius.
* 25.5" scale.
* 22 medium-jumbo frets.
* Modern C neck shape.
* Swamp Ash Stratorcaster-style solid body, rear routed or maybe a [[carved top|http://www.usacustomguitars.com/carvedtop-s.html]].
* Transparent blue body finish.
* All black hardware (tuners, switches, knobs, pup covers, bridge, etc).
* Seymour Duncan California 50's RW/RP pickups - not sure, keep changing my mind on this. Bridge humbucker?
* Wilkinson tremolo bridge w/ push-in bar.
* Fully shielded and properly grounded wiring.
* Pickup switching to include standard Strat modes plus extras such as bridge+neck, all on, series/parallel, etc -- ([[some ideas|http://alexplorer.net/guitar/]]).
* Hardshell case.
!!!Cost
Here's how much this guitar might cost to build... [[cost analysis spreadsheet|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/dream_guitar_cost.html]].
!!!Alternatives
Several people have suggested buying an off-the-shelf guitar instead of building one. Here's a list of some [[commercial alternatives|Commercial Alternatives to My Custom Guitar]] that either meet the specs above, or get pretty close.
Five years ago I bought my first electric guitar for $140.00 -- a 20th Anniversary Edition Squire Stratocaster. Last year I finally "upgraded" to a Line 6 Variax 600. Although the Variax 600 is a much higher quality instrument, it did little to satisfy my urge to acquire more guitars. In fact it had quite the opposite effect -- I began thinking of the Squire as a spare guitar which could be customized by upgrading its parts. At first I thought I would customize in phases -- replacing the neck, then the body, and finally the electronics -- eventually resulting in a completely new guitar. On the plus side financing is easier when spending $500-$600 per phase over time and also eliminates the need to justify a one-time $1600 guitar purchase to my wife. But sometimes I get nervous about buying a neck for the Squire and then moving it to a custom-ordered body later -- a strategy my guitar tech has also warned against. Something about the neck pocket on Squires being non-standard due to the large variety of manufacturing locations, he says. So I've been waffling back and forth between a plan to [[tweak the Squire|Squire Upgrade Project]] and building my [[dream guitar|Dream Guitar Project]].
[[2008 Guitar Project]]
[[Squire Upgrade Project]]
[[Dream Guitar Project Details|Dream Guitar Project]]
[[Bodies & Neck Supplier List|Custom Guitar Bodies and Necks]]
[[Guitar Part Supplier List|Guitar Part Suppliers]]
[[Guitar Building/Modification Links]]
[[Guitar Tech Tips]]
|!Link |!Description |
|[[Project Guitar|http://www.projectguitar.com]] |Lots of information on setup, modification, building. The good links are at the bottom of the page. |
|[[Alexplorer's Axe Hacks|http://alexplorer.net/guitar/]] |All sorts of info on modifying guitar electronics. |
|[[Guitar Nuts|http://www.guitarnuts.com/index.php]] |Guitar wiring, shielding and more. |
Here's a very short list of guitar suppliers of guitar parts. I'm getting lazy or this list might be longer.
|!Name |!Description |
|[[Guitar Fetish|http://www.guitarfetish.com]] |Low cost supplier of parts. Nice web site. Prices seem too good to be true. |
|[[Stewart Macdonald|http://www.stewmac.com]] |Everything for building and repairing strings instruments. |
|[[AllParts|http://www.allparts.com]] | |
|[[GuitarElectronics.com|http://www.guitarelectronics.com]] |Lots of electronic related parts for guitar. |
|[[Kinman Pickups|http://www.kinman.com/]] |Noiseless pickups for Strats and Teles plus lots of information on guitar tone. |
Collection of tips on guitar setup...
[[Pickup Height|http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/pickup_height.htm]]
Here's some recent activity in the beer brewing department. My brewing partner is German Hernandez.
!!! Evil Monkey Pale Ale - Dec 2, 2007
This recipe is almost identical to our last batch brewed over 2 years ago. The only difference is in the type and amount of hops -- the last batch ended up a little too bitter since the London ale yeast results in a relatively dry beer. This time we've reduced the bittering units to get a result more balanced with the residual sugars.
* 2.5 gallons tap water for the boil
* 6lbs Alexander Light Malt Extract
* 1oz Kent Goldings hop pellets, 6.0% acid for 60 minutes
* 1oz Kent Goldings hop pellets, 6.0% acid for 30 minutes
* 1oz Kent Goldings hop pellets, 6.0% acid for 0 minutes (added right before we transferred the wort to the fermenter)
* 2.5+ gallons of Arrowhead bottled water added to the carboy
* 28 ~IBUs calculated
* Original gravity measured at 1040
* London ale yeast (Wyeast #1028)
To get the wort down to pitching temperature we put the carboy in a 40 gallon trash bin with water and 7lbs of ice. Eight hours later the yeast was added.
!!! Bottling - December 16th
Final gravity measured at 1012. German named it "Evil Monkey Pale Ale". It tastes good now and should be great in about 4-6 weeks.
/***
|''Name:''|LegacyStrikeThroughPlugin|
|''Description:''|Support for legacy (pre 2.1) strike through formatting|
|''Version:''|1.0.2|
|''Date:''|Jul 21, 2006|
|''Source:''|http://www.tiddlywiki.com/#LegacyStrikeThroughPlugin|
|''Author:''|MartinBudden (mjbudden (at) gmail (dot) com)|
|''License:''|[[BSD open source license]]|
|''CoreVersion:''|2.1.0|
***/
//{{{
// Ensure that the LegacyStrikeThrough Plugin is only installed once.
if(!version.extensions.LegacyStrikeThroughPlugin) {
version.extensions.LegacyStrikeThroughPlugin = {installed:true};
config.formatters.push(
{
name: "legacyStrikeByChar",
match: "==",
termRegExp: /(==)/mg,
element: "strike",
handler: config.formatterHelpers.createElementAndWikify
});
} //# end of "install only once"
//}}}
[[About Me]]
[[Guitar]]
[[Software|Software Projects]]
[[Favorites|My Favorite Things]]
[[Homebrew]]
New favorite stuff I've "discovered"
!!!2008
* [[Guitar Refinishing and Restoration Forum|http://www.reranch.com/reranch/viewforum.php?f=1]]
* My Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue, purchased from craigslist.com
* [[iMacros|http://www.iopus.com/imacros/home/fx/welcome.htm]]
* [[Greasemonkey|https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748]]
!!!2007
* [[TiddlyWiki|http://www.tiddlywiki.com]] - if you're reading this you're running it!
* [[Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce|http://www.sweetbabyrays.com/]] - the sauce behind [[Versailles|http://www.versaillescuban.com]] great BBQ chicken.
* [[Facebook|http://www.facebook.com]]
* Text Messaging
** [[Google SMS|http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/sms]]
** [[Facebook Mobile|http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2915120374&b]]
** [[SportsAlert.net|http://sportsalert.net]]
* [[Ruby|http://www.ruby-lang.org/]], and [[Ruby on Rails|http://www.rubyonrails.org/]]
** ~ActiveRecord is way cool, check out [[this tutorial|http://www.railsenvy.com/2007/8/8/activerecord-tutorial]]
!!! 2006
* [[Variax 600|http://line6.com/variax]] and the [[PODxt Live|http://line6.com/podxtlive]]
* KCRW and NPR Podcasts
* [[Debian Linux|http://www.debian.org]]
* Toyota Prius
more data points for the information age
Sometimes I use my spare time to write software. Here are some of my creations:
|bgcolor(#e0e0ff): Project Name |bgcolor(#e0e0ff): Link |bgcolor(#e0e0ff): Description |
|Simfish |http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/simfish |A simple predator/prey simulation implemented as a Java Applet. |
|~FluidGUI |http://fluidgui.sourceforge.net |A GUI for the ~FluidSynth sound-font based synthesizer. Implemented in Java. |
|~RawMIDI2SMF |http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/rawmidi2smf |Converts raw midi generated by the Linux 'amidi' utility into a Standard MIDI File. |
|Starboard Tack Scoring |http://sts.sourceforge.net |A yacht race/series scoring program. STS is ~RRS2005-2008 Appendix A compliant. |
|jpmidi |http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/jpmidi |A simple Jack-based command line MIDI sequencer. |
At one point I was going to upgrade the Squier Strat. Here are the 'before' pics and audio recordings. After getting off enough paint to realize that the body is non-refinishable, I abandoned this project in favor of assembling a completely new guitar. I'm thinking of refinishing the body in a solid color. So far I like the (low cost) suggestion to use [[Deft Aerosol Lacquer|http://www.deftfinishes.com/trade/OurProducts/details.cfm?ProductID=4]] over [[Krylon Interior/Exterior Spray Paint|http://www.krylon.com/main/product_template.cfm?levelid=5&sub_levelid=9&productid=1745&content=product_details]]. Apparently the two products are chemically compatible. Sanding sealer would be applied before the paint, of course.
!!! Pics
''Before''
[img[Front View|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/small/front.jpg][http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/front.jpg]] [img[Angled View|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/small/front_angled.jpg][http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/front_angled.jpg]] [img[Body Front|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/small/body_front_close.jpg][http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/body_front_close.jpg]] [img[Body Rear|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/small/body_rear_close.jpg][http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/body_rear_close.jpg]] [img[Headstock|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/small/headstock.jpg][http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/headstock.jpg]]
!!! Audio
The recordings in each row were made with the same equipment and settings.
|bgcolor(#e0e0ff): Description |bgcolor(#e0e0ff): Before |bgcolor(#e0e0ff): After |
|Just handling the guitar without much playing to demonstrate how noisy or silent the guitar is. The Variax comparison reveals just how much room for improvement there is. |[[squire_noise.mp3|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/squire_noise.mp3]] [[variax_silence.mp3|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/variax_silence.mp3]] | |
|Shine on You Crazy Diamond intro played using the neck pickup. |[[shine_on_intro.mp3|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/neck_pickup_shine_on_intro.mp3]] | |
|Neck+middle pickups |[[hideaway.mp3|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/neck_middle_hideaway.mp3]] | |
|Middle pickup |[[ram_bunk_shush.mp3|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/middle_ram_bunk_shush.mp3]] | |
|Bridge pickup |[[penetration.mp3|http://geocities.datacellar.net/kellinwood/squire/before/bridge_penetration.mp3]] | |
http://www.tiddlywiki.com/