Superfreaky Brain Fart ~ Luthiery Laboratories

August 24, 2020

Superfreaky Brain Fart

August 24, 2020

Not sure what possessed me at the time, but I built this with A250 tone pots and B500 volume pots, and the B pots are doing their usual on/off switch behavior - no change until almost zero, then cut off completely. After my most recent testing, I have concluded that B pots have no place in a guitar at all. I probably did this because I have just two A500 pots in the parts bin, one mini and one full sized. A few days ago I ordered a lot of them, when they come in, I will swap these out. In the meantime, the B's will do, especially at full volume, so I can check this thing out.

Uncategorized, 08/24/20

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Rickenbacker 4001 Bass 1

This one is kind of a joke and an experiment in just how cheap you can build a guitar. The body is dry-erase board over plywood - no finish - with Tolex side binding. Dry-erase board is Masonite covered with Melamine. The neck is 100% Radiata pine, even the fretboard. The "inlays" are glitter and CA glue. The pickguard is the other side of the dry-erase board - 'chalkboard'. The pickup mount is a 57 cent switch plate.

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Double-Acting Truss Rod

This is a spoke nut version, for use at the neck heel.

Here is a variation intended to adjust at the headstock rather than the heel, although it would work fine there too. I substituted a 1-1/2" 10-32 SS cap-head bolt for my usual spoke nut and threaded shaft. It is captured the same way, in a drilled-out coupling nut with a ground-down hex nut. The rod itself is 48" 3/16 rod steel, bent back on itself. Both coupling nuts are grooved on the attaching surface to hold the round rod. This greatly simplifies alignment and assembly, and the cap-head bolt eliminates one solder joint. All parts from my favorite luthiery supply shop, Home Depot.

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