DIY Guitar Messing About (5 Viewers)

[JohnnyRaz]

@ann post, @JohnnyRaz and Moose, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the input. Srsly.
If I read you correctly, Moose, (I'm assuming a typo and you meant to write "with" an output, rather than "without") this is exactly right. He uses his amp presently, a Line6 thing which has preset beats. He triggers a beat then loops vocals, synth stuff and guitar with the pedal which is part of the amp setup. It's fine for a while but when he gets into it there are lots of layers and I'm quickly and disastrously lost. It's far from ideal for several reasons but that's what we've got. He's resistant to moving to anything more complicated than perhaps another pedal, so I'm attempting to be pragmatic and constructive so I'm starting there.

@ann post a signal splitter won't work, he uses the one pedal so whatever goes into the splitter will always have all of his stuff on it. The engineer have been doing that anyway, for FOH and monitor mixes so I've tried getting surgical with eq but it doesn't make any substantial difference.

@JohnnyRaz afaik he only uses presets. This is something I'm very keen to change but in the short term that'll only happen if the pedal-with-the-line-out-for-drums-only also happens to have some kind of programmable space too.

The idea of a line out with just the drums seems simple enough to me, but that seems to be exactly the difficult part....I have been looking but I'm not great at reading tech specs for this kind of thing and I haven't found anything yet.
I honestly think something like an MPC with a trigger pedal would do it, but that's not going to happen. So perhaps there's just this great cheap-ish pedal in the ether waiting to be found.

Anyway...I have a couple of months to figure out some kind of solution so if anything comes to mind please @ me

Sound.


Edit: I mean, ffs, he uses Ableton to compose stuff on, there's a solution right there, but it's not going to happen.

I’d suggest throwing a cheap drum machine in the mix. Something like an old zoom Rythymtrak or something you’ll pick up second hand and see if you can wean him off the presets in his amp, onto presets you can more easily listen in to

Zoom Rhythmtrak 123

Zoom's new beatbox offers a wide range of percussion sounds and patterns at an extremely affordable price.

www.soundonsound.com

 

[Burgerbarbaby]

I’d suggest throwing a cheap drum machine in the mix. Something like an old zoom Rythymtrak or something you’ll pick up second hand and see if you can wean him off the presets in his amp, onto presets you can more easily listen in to

Zoom Rhythmtrak 123

Zoom's new beatbox offers a wide range of percussion sounds and patterns at an extremely affordable price.

www.soundonsound.com

Totally. That was suggested. The objection is that the basic rhythm needs to be absolutely accurate. If he was stomping his looper by ear to coordinate with a beat it would go out of time. If you get me. Having the rhythm in the pedal takes that problem away.

But to take this puppy for a walk...is there then a pedal which could take a (MIDI?) signal from a drum machine and loop exactly to that? Something like that would work and wouldn't be too mind-bending to set up. I think.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Totally. That was suggested. The objection is that the basic rhythm needs to be absolutely accurate. If he was stomping his looper by ear to coordinate with a beat it would go out of time. If you get me. Having the rhythm in the pedal takes that problem away.

But to take this puppy for a walk...is there then a pedal which could take a (MIDI?) signal from a drum machine and loop exactly to that? Something like that would work and wouldn't be too mind-bending to set up. I think.

Beyond my experience! I’m more a hitting buttons and hoping there in time kinda guy!

 

[GO]

I've a new project under way.. building an isolation cabinet . Basically a speaker in a box with a mic

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Marked out for cutting. Will look a lot less neat afterwards!

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Marked out for cutting. Will look a lot less neat afterwards!

Grain filling fun and games - left is pumice, which is part of the traditional French polish method, middle is no filler, right is modern commercial black grain filler.
@magicbastarder - this is some of the wood I got from you - makore I think based on internet snooping

 

[magicbastarder]

from that photo, it's hard to tell a significant difference between the pumice and the modern filler?

was back out with the lad who lent me the clamps last night. he was showing me some of the stock he has; i missed the start of the story, but he has a good lot of wood that camer from papua new guinea, but i think the background was that a couple he knows was given a pallet load of it as a wedding present, for reasons unknown. they didn't have use for it so gave it to him.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

from that photo, it's hard to tell a significant difference between the pumice and the modern filler?

was back out with the lad who lent me the clamps last night. he was showing me some of the stock he has; i missed the start of the story, but he has a good lot of wood that camer from papua new guinea, but i think the background was that a couple he knows was given a pallet load of it as a wedding present, for reasons unknown. they didn't have use for it so gave it to him.

The pumice has more depth to it, as it’s translucent in the pores, as opposed to solid for the modern stuff. More difficult/time consuming to do - but depending on the finish/wood would be worth the effort.

 

[magicbastarder]

all glued up. it's a beast of a thing, and damn hard to plane - i was more careful with grain orientation on the top (this is the underside) but it's very teary wood, so if you're not planing with the grain it comes out in chunks. i like to think the top will be easier.

 

[Space]

Looks class. Where do the strings go?

 

[magicbastarder]

i still haven't ruled out making a guitar body out of the same oak...

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Beginning to cut the neck. I bought a prefretted fingerboard. One precise and exacting skill to learn at a time.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

all glued up. it's a beast of a thing, and damn hard to plane - i was more careful with grain orientation on the top (this is the underside) but it's very teary wood, so if you're not planing with the grain it comes out in chunks. i like to think the top will be easier.

View attachment 16006

Looks great - I don’t envy you planing it without tearing, oak sands down well at least!

 

[magicbastarder]

i had to stop planing this evening as i was sweating too much onto the wood. but i'm beginning to get the knack of planing (a little, anyway). i've a 1000 grit diamond stone which seems to keep the blade sharp enough to avoid the worst of the tearout, going 45 degrees across the surface.

 

[magicbastarder]

Beginning to cut the neck. I bought a prefretted fingerboard. One precise and exacting skill to learn at a time.

what's the current job? shaping the neck profile?

 

[JohnnyRaz]

what's the current job? shaping the neck profile?

Yeah - almost the step before - cutting the blank from a square piece of timber to meet the angle of the fretboards. I’m cutting well outside the guidelines to give me some wiggle room - will take it down with a plane and a rasp then when I’m doing the profile of the back of the neck

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Also finished this one - special request from the son. A thin line kalimba

 

[magicbastarder]

Yeah - almost the step before - cutting the blank from a square piece of timber to meet the angle of the fretboards. I’m cutting well outside the guidelines to give me some wiggle room - will take it down with a plane and a rasp then when I’m doing the profile of the back of the neck

i've usually seen it done (on youtube) where people 'step' a profile at the head end and body end, and use strips of sandpaper to round them off, and then simply join those two profiles (if that makes sense) - is that what you're doing?

 

[JohnnyRaz]

i've usually seen it done (on youtube) where people 'step' a profile at the head end and body end, and use strips of sandpaper to round them off, and then simply join those two profiles (if that makes sense) - is that what you're doing?

no - I made the head stock scarf cut, cut a cheek off it to thin it and the right place, and then glued and filled to the rest of the neck. What you describe would probably be easier if you had machine cut timber that was 100% accurate at the scarf joint - for me the easiest way to make sure everything was centered was to mark the center after I had made overall neck. it does make cutting harder as I'm starting at the 'thin' end.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

Taking shape