AlanRatcliffe
Ideally thin with mineral/white spirits (if you can't find at a hardware, art supply houses should have). Turps works fine, but smells for longer. You need to thin about 50% for your first penetrating coat, 25% for second and unthinned for third. Don't use a third coat if you are using it as a sealer for shellac and/or nitro.
Wizard
Just got home ... all excited to see my (large) piece of delivered Alder ...
AND ... discovered ...
Alder has knots !!
After some very careful investigation I MAY get 4 decent blanks out of the 3m plank ... with 2 having minor blemishes.
Or ... get 3 blanks with no blemishes.
Clearly nature's placement of branches (hence knots) didn't have guitar making in mind.
Slowly dawning on me why pristine single piece bodies are so expensive and rare.
Wizard
Just cut the wood.
I have 3 decent (one piece) blanks.
With careful measurement I may be able to make another 2 piece blank.
And a fairly large amount of 46mm Alder with knots in it.
Now I need a bandsaw to start cutting out body shapes.
No wait ... I first have to decide what shape I want ...
djpauw
Do you have a price per blank yet?
Will you be cutting the body shapes? Saves me the trouble, but I'm still trying to figure out what shape I want myself! It's between a Strat or SuperStrat or ESP F series....
I would prefer the last one but I don't know if it'll fit in your blank size.....
Wizard
Wizard pencils in Strat shape onto blanks ... and makes a realization.
Strats have pickguards that cover a significant part of the front.
--> Knots can be hidden behind pickguards.
Yield goes up to 5 blanks.
Also discovers that Alder sawdust makes him sneeze.
Gearhead
Gearhead writes Wizard-style: Knots even while hidden still influence flow of vibrations through body; better put knots where major routing is going to take kak out of contention. Jack rout is very deep. Volume/tone pot rout is very large. Let there be no knots in back!
Wizard
I agree with you Gearhead.
The blanks with knots in them have different tap-tones to those that don't. (higher pitched)
The same is true with marimba bars - a knot in the wood introduces a mass of high density that changes the vibration pattern.
The ideal marimba wood is quarter sawn with straight grain ... so that the fibres of the wood act like a collection of strings stuck together.
I am guessing that the same logic applies to solid bodied guitars.
My intention is to use the "salvaged" 2 blanks for my learning process.
Allow myself to make mistakes on pieces I would have confined to scrap.
I am though a little wary of routing into knots - this can be tricky as they are so hard.
I will take and post some pictures.
Gearhead
Maybe the knotted parts could be used for Flying V shapes, or other deformed differently shaped guits?
I tried this whole 'learn on this body' thing, you end up making it look fine anyway...
AlanRatcliffe
Quarter-sawn is better for necks (stiffer), flatsawn for bodies.
MikeM
Alan, I have heard from a very reputable builder (The one I look up to most) that quarter sawn although stronger, is not as lively as flatsawn for necks, although it is difficult finding stock stiff and hard enough (Lol) for a good flatsawn neck ?
Gearhead
Rubbish Mike, the difference with necks (being no more than twice as wide as they are high) will be mostly in the stability. Flatsawn has more lively figuring but the difference only comes out in larger pieces. It also warps more since the curvature of the grain stays inside the blank. Think about it for a second: a square piece of wood would always have the same figuring no matter which cut was made first (at a given radius from the tree center).
MikeM
GH you can rationalise your views how you want, but not to offend you, this guy builds high end electrics for a living, and I am pretty sure he knows what he is doing.
Although if I understand you correctly, I must say that I am not talking about figuring, I am talking about sound..
Gearhead
1. Are you sure he is talking about sound instead of figuring?
2. He does not only build them for a living, he also obviously markets them for a better living too. My dogs tend to do whatever I want them to before getting fed, pro salesmen are no different. I am not saying they are all full of cr@p, but whatever is said needs to be taken with two pinches of salt.
3. I dare whomever this guy is for a double blind test with a quartersawn and a flatsawn neck with the same setup put onto the same body and see if he can tell them apart. I bet you one month's salary he will not. Two. Three!
MikeM
Yes I am very sure of it as this was a topic that I discussed in depth with him.
I am sorry to say that he does barely any marketing, in fact, he also keeps most of the details of his guitars to himself as many of them he spent many years researching (He builds vintage replica Fenders)
This is really getting to the what affects tone debate. Can you tell the difference between a cheaply knocked together Ash body costing $110 and a cherry picked one costing 5 times that? Who says that ithe is the most important thing? The neck is as important and has an equal effect on creating good tone. Clapton even transferred his neck from Blackie to Brownie (or the other way around).
I agree that one has to be wary of all this "snake's oil" that's out there. But I hold this man in very high regard as he does not have gimicks, he does not talk crap and this was something that I pestered him to find out about as I thought quartersawn necks were always best.
Wizard
Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
Quarter-sawn is better for necks (stiffer), flatsawn for bodies.
Good to hear.
This stock I have is flatsawn.
Gearhead
MikeM wrote:
I thought quartersawn necks were always best.
Quarter sawn are a better bet imho, since the only thing more important than ultimate tone from a neck is that you can actually play on the guitar. Meaning, it should bend evenly and only parallel to the fret plane.
The direction of the grain is easy to spot so if it is his best kept secret he must be painting his necks opaque or something.
Anyway, have you bought anything with the dude? ?
AlanRatcliffe
For neck stability and durability there is no contest - quartersawn rules. quartersawn is more expensive though (wastes more wood), which is why some don't use it. Tonally they are different and yes, some prefer the tone of a flatsawn neck, just as some prefer the tone of a thin neck. For vintage builders, a lot of guys go for flatsawn because "that's the way Leo did it".
I like stiffer necks. Stiffer neck means less frequencies lost on their way to the body. So for me, a one-piece maple neck must ideally be quartersawn. Failing that I like a chunky two piece flatsawn (or a multi-laminated through-neck - which doen properly, is the ultimate in stiffness).
Try an Eric Johnson Strat...
MikeM
GH, I cannot afford anything from him :? Doubt I will be able to for the next 10 years at least, but I have watched a few clips and seen many many photos ?
Gearhead
Have you told him yet? I seem to recall talking to one of your victims, he was seriously pissed off with the way you had taken his time ? ?
aja
Gearhead wrote:
Gearhead writes Wizard-style
What DID you have for breakfast? HAHA! ?
Gearhead wrote:
Let there be no knots in back!
I agree. Send the wood for a massage!
