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Thread: New Build - EVH Wolfgang

  1. #46
    On the way to getting bridge located and mounted, I drilled the ferrukle and screw holes for the neck. I can usually clamp the neck in place and get 3 of the four. I mark and drill them, them screw the neck down before marking the 4th.





    I tacked a 1.625" nut with 2 dabs of Weldon cement. Then I strung up the E and e strings and set the bridge in place, with it just hanging by string tension.

    This is a very roomy neck...check out the space between the edges and the strings! This bridge has 2.125" overall spacing which is wider than the poles on the humbucker. I'm guessing that with a neck that's a full 3/16th wider than a Fender at the heel, EVH's branded FR bridge probably has wider string spacing as well.



    I didn't route the recess for the FR because I wasn't 100% confident in the neck angle I had chosen. From the look of things, I won't need to recess the bridge...might even have to bump it up a touch after the fretboard is on. It's hard to tel even from this pic becausew the strings are taped down to the fretboard at the nut to keep them in place...making them angle down too much...looks good for now.



    With the bridge located and centered, I drilled the holes for the pivot inserts.

    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  2. #47
    I tapped the inserts in and threaded in the posts.



    I reinstalled the bridge and it looks pretty good. But I may have to roll the edges of the fretboard a bit to make the spacing look like it belongs...man that's roomy!



    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  3. #48
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Hill Country Texas
    Posts
    941
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Crenshaw View Post
    This is a very roomy neck...check out the space between the edges and the strings! This bridge has 2.125" overall spacing which is wider than the poles on the humbucker.
    They make F spaced humbuckers for Fender/Floyd spacing... a little wider. I usually get those for my tremolo guitars. A little harder to find though...

    "Standard/normal" humbuckers are Gibson spaced.

  4. #49
    Quote Originally Posted by Bryan Morgan View Post
    They make F spaced humbuckers for Fender/Floyd spacing... a little wider. I usually get those for my tremolo guitars. A little harder to find though...

    "Standard/normal" humbuckers are Gibson spaced.
    HI Bryan. I've heard of them...I think I've seen them referred to as TremBuckers. I'll be winding my own pickups for this build so I'm going to look for Fender spaced bobbins...not sure they exist for sale as parts only.


    Peace,
    Mark

    Edit: I found these 2.04" spacing in both black and white, screw and slug side. They're slightly wider than my Seymour Duncan HB which is 1.92" spacing...much closer to my Seymour Duncan single coils which are 2.025" spacing.
    Last edited by Mark Crenshaw; 04-05-2010 at 5:12 AM.
    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  5. #50
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Hill Country Texas
    Posts
    941
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Crenshaw View Post
    HI Bryan. I've heard of them...I think I've seen them referred to as TremBuckers. I'll be winding my own pickups for this build so I'm going to look for Fender spaced bobbins...not sure they exist for sale as parts only.


    Peace,
    Mark

    Edit: I found these 2.04" spacing in both black and white, screw and slug side. They're slightly wider than my Seymour Duncan HB which is 1.92" spacing...much closer to my Seymour Duncan single coils which are 2.025" spacing.
    As far as I've read, all single coils are F spaced... Apparently during the 90's, Les Pauls also had bridges that were wider, though I don't know if they used F spaced pickups or not.

    This build is great! I ordered the templates to build one myself so I am watching this thread intently! Also looking forward to see how you wind your pickups! I've only ever swapped out magnets from existing pickups.

    Question about the finger plane you are using for the carved top... is it a flat or curved blade?

  6. #51
    I got started on my pickup winder this evening. It's very simple in it's design and I know there are better ways to do this but I really just want something that will spin the bobbin and count the turns. Scatter winding is the goal here...no fancy traversing or auto shut off.

    I bought a sewing machine motor and foot controller. It seems to have far more power than I need...I'll have to put a physical limiter on the foot controller to avoid an accident.

    I started by cutting a piece of aluminum bar stock and drilling for the motor shaft as well as set screws on both sides...probably only needed one but I wanted to keep it balanced.





    Here's a test run of the plate attached to the motor...this file played on my machine in Win Media and Quicktime. Apologies if there are issues, I don't have a way to comvert to mp4 or Quicktime until I get into the office tomorrow.

    http://www.crenshawweb.com/wolf/motor.avi

    I also found a free app that use the serial pot on a computer to counts triggers and thus, revolutions. You can download it

    http://pickups.myonlinesite.com/downloads.php

    I used the counter.zip file to be sure I had all of the runtime files needed to run the program.

    The trigger for it is very simple. Just a 9-pin male connector, a switch and a piece of 2 conductor wire. That's it! The wire is soldered to pins 9 and 4 and the switch is attached to the other end of the wire. Doesn't matter wich wire goed to which pole, you just need to close the circuit to trigger a count.

    Here's a count to 50....it warns you when you hit your wrap target.

    http://www.crenshawweb.com/wolf/app.avi

    Now I just need to package it all up and do some tests.

    Peace,
    Mark
    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  7. #52
    Progress and updates on this build have been pretty slow. Work is kicking my butt and with 16 hour days and deadlines looming, it will probably be after the 16th before I do any serious work on this.

    I did manage to get a little done last evening. The second neck, with angled headstock, is coming along. The truss rod came in so I was able to get it installed, the fretboard glued up and trimmed.





    I also routed for the locking nut and removed the excess fretboard material behind it. This shot doesn't show it but I blended the fretboard into the headstock also.



    It's looking pretty good so far. I'm really anxious to get this one done...but I'll have to be patient with work...gotta pay the bills.





    Peace,
    Mark
    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  8. #53

    Why I Build Guitars

    People ask me why I spend so much time building gutars. First, I love guitars...have since I was 5 years old. And, even though I have a job where I'm allowed to be creative and enjoy a fair amount of freedom to make decisions and guide the outcome of projects, from time to time, it absorbs my every waking minute...this weekend is one of those times. Building guitars takes me away from all of the software, keyboards and video tapes.

    A glimpse into how I'm spending my weekend...not building guitars. Life will be much better after the 15th. Crap, I still have to do my taxes, too!



    Peace,
    Mark
    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  9. #54
    I ened up with a few hours to woprk on the Wolfgang after all.
    I carved the back of the neck and did some detail work on the headstock. Not much, but it's more than I expected to get done today. I have tomorrow off and I plane to touch every build I have going...just so I won't feel so far behind.











    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  10. #55
    I got back to work on the neck(s) today. I started by leveling the fretboards then marking, drilling and installing the fret markers. Pretty simpe stuff.



    I awlays like to apply a bit of clamping pressure to make sure the dots don't pop up during curing time.



    Ready for radiusing...



    Here's the neck in various stages of the radius process.



    Done!



    I used my fret saw with the depth gauge to radius the fret slots and take them to final depth.

    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  11. #56
    I fretted both necks and filed the fret edges...still need a final dressing.



    I also did some work on the body. I did quite a bit of block sanding to finalize the carve. I remembered from the video link I posted about violin maker Joe Thrift, that he only uses scrapers on his violins...not sandpaper. He states that sanding dulls the reflective properties of figured wood.
    Just for grins, I ran a scraper over the treble side of the body to make a comparison. There is definitely a difference in the intensity of the grain on the scraped side.



    I installed the tremolo. I had to take the spring cavity a bit deeper than the original route...my body started at 2" so the trem block wouldn't reach without the deeper route.

    This shot without a flash shows the carve pretty well.



    I strung the 2 E strings to put some counter tension on the tremolo. The string spacing and action are nice. I really like the spoke nut truss rod...I can adjust the trus rod with everything in place. The neck needed a bit of relief put into it but only slightly.





    This one's getting close to being ready for finish.

    Peace,
    Mark
    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  12. #57
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    Oh, man...that's going to be one beautiful instrument, Mark! Between the wonderful figured wood and that neck...wow.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  13. #58
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Oh, man...that's going to be one beautiful instrument, Mark! Between the wonderful figured wood and that neck...wow.
    Thanks Jim. I've been off this build for a week or two but it's back on...along with another that I'll be posting tonight... a Paul Reed Smith style double cut.

    Peace,
    Mark
    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  14. #59
    Wrapping up some of the details before finish. I made thicker templates today for the cavity cover lips. The original template is too thin to get a shallow cut so I made them out of MDF. I've been putting this off because I didn't have any MDF but I found a scrap and even tough it wasn't big enough to cut both on the same piece without getting into holes in the scrap, I made them separately and large enough to be stable during routing.



    I always keep the dust collection close when cutting MDF...I wear a respirator, too.



    Ready to go. I'll make some progress on this build tomorrow.

    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

  15. #60
    I finished up the last bit of routing on this one...it's now ready for finish prep. I have a PRS build that's getting close, too. I'll likely spray them at the same time.



    More as soon as I get to that point.

    Peace,
    Mark
    "Thought that is no longer limited brings experience that is no longer limited" Marianne Williamson.

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