Build: Seven string multiscale Telecaster with some gimmicks

[Eumldeuml]

Hmm, interesting. How would chording work, though? I guess just light up the highest fret?

If you wanted to go all out, you could use both ideas: measure thumb position using conductive paint on the back of the neck, then use a very small constant current power supply with resistors between frets to determine the highest fretted note, and then light up everything in between, so your hands your be backlit with RGB.

Wiring the frets in from underneath before setting them in could be tricky, yes, since there is bound to be some wood dust capable of interfering with your electrical continuity, but maybe you could increase your chances of keeping a good connection by using stranded wire and flattening it out, or maybe painting in the fret slots with conductive paint after removing the dust with compressed air, or both.

Also, be mindful that different metals can react in peculiar ways sometimes. Nickel-steel frets with silver paint and copper wires might corrode one or more of the metals when they come in permanent contact with one another, due to a galvanic reaction.

Yes, with chording it will light up the highest fret but I'll program it so that it "blurs" the position a little bit. It will then light up not a single fret but rather the area where my hand is. This is also due to the fact that I intend to use a LED strip with a discrete distance from one LED to another so the frets won't necessarily line up with the LEDs, also considering that it's a multiscale so the fret spacing itself isn't consistent.

Painting the fret slots with conductive paint sounds like a really, good idea

Fascinating thread.
FWIW, I'd vote on the second inlay design. Having them start from the bass end of the board and go down feels more natural.

Yes, this is the design I'm going for... But I thinned out the connecting strip which makes it look more "natural"

 

[odibrom]

Glad I could suggest something useful. Please do keep us updated...

 

[Eumldeuml]

Right now I'm deciding which resin I want to use for casting of the inlays (seems much easier to do than making a negative form of the inlay and trying to fit it in).
I want to use a crystal clear resin and add a clouding or dulling additive so that the light will scatter through the inlay.
But there are several types of resins and I don't have a clue which will be best suited:
Epoxy resins
Polyester resins
Polyurethane resins
.. and many more.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

 

[Eumldeuml]

And there is still a microcontroller missing... also I very likely need a bigger battery pack if I don't want to drain it with 15 minutes of continuous use of LEDs.
But right now the smoke machine is somehow portable (no loose components dangling around and hanging from flimsy cables... just flimsy tape, but let's call that progress )

 

[Eumldeuml]

I'm still alive!

Other projects like my 3D printer, an overengineered drill and endmill sharpening jig and many more kept me quite busy so I didn't have time to build the second incarnation of my guitar. And there's also my bachelor's thesis that wants my attention..
But anyway, today I cast the resin into the inlay of the fretboard (from the backside). It's an epoxy resin mixed with a clouding additive so it scatters the light from the LED's. For the folks from germany (if there are any): The guy from https://shop.breddermann-kunstharze.de/ did help me out a lot! He recommended to use their BEL51 additive which is normally used to prevent bubbles from forming but it also scatters the light quite good (this is called Tyndall effect).

Now I'll wait till it's completely cured (takes up to 7 days) then I'll machine it flat, flipü the fretboard and do the radius and fret slots.
By the way, my fretboard is made out of HPL which is essentially the same stuff as Richlite I guess. It's very stiff, has a nice black color, doesn't warp like wood, is insensitive to moisture and machines like a dream. So quite an obvious choice lol. The only bad thing about it is the white layer of protective whatever, that I need to machine off.

 

[Eumldeuml]

If you don't have the right woodworking equipment... Well, you use metalworking equipment of course
Here I'm flattening the blank for the neck. I will also cut an angle on one end and glue the headstock blank on there.


I ditched the idea of making my own PCB since I changed the way how the position of the hand on the fretboard is sensed. It turned out that fitting an Arduino MEGA into an already crammed guitar body isn't too easy but in the end I found a way.
If everything works out as planned, I'll be able to control the whole lightning over my fretboard (even with some sort of multitouch lol).
Just building a guitar would be waaaay to easy, right?

And lastly a little preview of the fretboard with some LEDs behind it:

 

[odibrom]

awesome!

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

Dude that's dope as hell.

 

[Konfyouzd]

That headstock looks surprisingly good on a tele body. I would have never imagined.

 

[IGC]

@Eumldeuml what bench top mill is that? Let's see the cutter grinder jig

 

[Eumldeuml]

That headstock looks surprisingly good on a tele body. I would have never imagined.

Thank you! I had some doubts but in the end I went with it. Also it would be quite a hassle to change it...

@Eumldeuml what bench top mill is that? Let's see the cutter grinder jig

It's a heavily modified F400G from Paulimot that I got from eBay. The cutter grinder jig is sadly not finished yet since I need to get that ISO40 shank off of a boring head that I also bought on eBay (the mill uses ISO30 tooling). I don't know why but the thread is corroded or something which slowly drives me to the conclusion that an angle grinder is my last resort...

 

[IGC]

It's a heavily modified F400G from Paulimot that I got from eBay. The cutter grinder jig is sadly not finished yet since I need to get that ISO40 shank off of a boring head that I also bought on eBay (the mill uses ISO30 tooling). I don't know why but the thread is corroded or something which slowly drives me to the conclusion that an angle grinder is my last resort...[/QUOTE]


Cool, Just wondering if the grinder was like a single lip style...Deckel SO style maybe. Sometimes you need to break down, chew up the shank, and use a pipe wrench and strong bench vice to get those threaded shanks off your boring heads and other tool holders. Unless you have a ISO30 shank removal fixture, i'm guessing not.

 

[Eumldeuml]

I thought about making a Deckel SO style clone but in the end that was too complicated (especially with the integrated spindle).
My take on it is similar to this one here, although it might not look as nice:
http://www.metallmodellbau.de/pictures/MINI_BONELLE_II/MINI_BONELLE_II_605.JPG

But yeah, first I need to get that boring head working. But the bench vise and the bench itself is just too flimsy for the amount of torque that the shank wants. I tried everything I could think of so as I said I'm getting closer and closer to the angle grinder. But I'm not sure if that will help me either (since I don't want to damage the shaft on the head itself)

In the meantime here's a picture of the backside cavity of my guitar (this is a guitar forum at last)

On the left there is the Arduino MEGA (the brains of the LEDs), to the right is the smoke machine which got a to-be-3D-printed smoke channel so that I don't need to use flexible pipes (those take up a lot of space and I can't model them in a way that represents reality) and on the top there are eight 18650 lithium-ion cells that still need a way to hold them.
It doesn't look as crammed as it will be in the end because there's still a lot of components missing: A battery management system (so that the cells will be charged and discharged evenly), the voltage converter for the Arduino and the LEDs, the wiring (which again is very complicated to model in CAD) and of course all the core components for it to be an electric guitar (mainly potis and the three-way switch). I don't want it to be just hanging off a wall and look nice after all

 

[Eumldeuml]

+++ BIG UPDATE +++

It's been a long time since you've heard from me but now I'm back to building my baby (yes, the emotional bond gets very strong after more than two years and hundreds of hours of work )
Since my last post I made the new body and neck, designed and printed the battery holders, renewed my concept of the smoke canal and today I joined the fretboard and the neck . This process was especially nerve racking because I have every fret wired to a ribbon cable which needs to go into the wire channel while I lower the fretboard onto the glue surface. And as you can imagine the cables wanted to go everywhere except in the slot...
I hope that I didn't break any of the solder connections during glue up since that would probably mean redoing the fretboard and the neck . But I can't check it right now since I used an aluminium profile to apply even pressure over the fretboard and that of course shorts all the fret together so I can't measure the indivduial connections. I can only pray that it still works
These are the frets all soldered up before lightly pressing them in (I would have risked bending the or even breaking the fretboard if I had pressed them in all the way). I also applied some wire glue (which is carbon powder mixed with glue I guess) to the solder connections so if one breaks there should still be contact.


Here you can see the indivdual wires before I connected the frets. I also had to make a recess in the neck and the neck pocket to route the cables into the body because I somehow forgot to model that in CAD


And here is some shenanigans I did because I have more metalworking equipment than woodworking stuff..
I used this contraption to thin down my neck blank because it was double the thickness I needed and it felt like a criminal waste of wood if I had milled it all down. Also I don't even want to imagine the mess that will make...


And some other updates which are some kind of off-topic:

Cool, Just wondering if the grinder was like a single lip style...Deckel SO style maybe. Sometimes you need to break down, chew up the shank, and use a pipe wrench and strong bench vice to get those threaded shanks off your boring heads and other tool holders. Unless you have a ISO30 shank removal fixture, i'm guessing not.

After some thought I decided not to build my own cutter grinder and go the commercial way instead. It will be a Deckel SO clone for which I'm saving at the moment. Also I got the ISO40 shank off of the boring head (with just a little help of an angle grinder ) and made an ER32 adaptor for it.

Also I kinda finished my 3D printer (which was partially the reason why I didn't do very much for my guitar) and upgraded it with a dual tilting extruder and watercooling.

And lastly we released our second album which you might want to check out (some sort of symphonic modern metal(core-ish)):
"Wings of stone":

Funny vocal 'playthrough' of "No Way Out" (our singer is just very entertaining to watch ):

We will also be releasing a music video very soon which I'm afraid I will also need to mention here (but I still try to keep the band-related advertisements low)

 

[IGC]

Wow, that fretboard looks difficult, best wishes getting it together without any problems. Keep us posted.

Yeah, those single lip cutter grinders are pretty handy once you get the hang of how to use them properly. I can grind
radii to within .001 inch true to form (check on optical comparator) and perfect relief angles. Great for engravers too.

Glad you got your ISO40 cutter holder problem solved.


Getting my 3d printer going has been a struggle. I think the Pololu driver sheild for the extruder motor was faulty and somehow ended up frying all the ports on the left side of my good computer thru the USB cable, so be careful with that ARDUINO stuff.

I'v been trying to use Marlin with this older XP computer now but I think I need to get a new Arduino MEGA2560 board... Anyhow long story.

What's the word with your printer?

Darn near ready to just buy a new one, you can get one for several hundred USD. Just don't really have a need for one. They do a lot of 3d printed knick knacks around the shop and the quality is not for everything.

Digging your symphonic metal core band, good production and vid quality. Looks like only the singer in the second video blowing beer out of his nose? What guitar did you track with? Sounds pretty good/cool.

Cool man keep us posted.

 

[Eumldeuml]

Wow, you have a lot of questions...

Getting my 3d printer going has been a struggle. I think the Pololu driver sheild for the extruder motor was faulty and somehow ended up frying all the ports on the left side of my good computer thru the USB cable, so be careful with that ARDUINO stuff.

I've never heard of an Arduino frying a computer but that sounds scary... Maybe I should consider using my brain more instead of just uploading every change in the code and looking what will happen

I'v been trying to use Marlin with this older XP computer now but I think I need to get a new Arduino MEGA2560 board... Anyhow long story

When I built my printer I also used Marlin on a RAMPS board but quickly upgraded to a Duet WiFi. This board, although relatively expensive, is worth every penny. Sooo much easier to set up and the documentation as well as the forum is great!

What's the word with your printer?

At the moment I consider it done (until I find something to upgrade again ) and it works really well. Although I now have dual extrusion without all the usual disadvantages (no prime tower, no oozing of the inactive nozzle all over the print and no lenghty tool changes) I rarely use it. Most of the time I just keep two filaments loaded so that I don't have to switch it

Digging your symphonic metal core band, good production and vid quality. Looks like only the singer in the second video blowing beer out of his nose? What guitar did you track with? Sounds pretty good/cool.

Well yeah, I think he blows it out of his mouth but wants it to look like out of his nose lol

 

[Eumldeuml]

And now some updates regarding my guitar:

This the body after one coat of paint and some sanding. The 'worn' look is kinda cool...
The first coat I did with a brush which makes it quite hard to get a consistent color thickness so for the second coat which I did today I used a foam roller. That was so much easier and better!


Here's the neck wrapped up and ready to ship to someone who actually knows what he's doing.
Just kidding, I masked it of to level the frets
The leveling I took very seriously with a lapped granite plate which is flat to about 0.01 mm over the whole area As I already mentioned a few times I'm way more into metalworking so that's what I had...


Aaaand here we have some junk and the finished neck (covered with some matte polyurethane resin). I measured all the fret connections and all of them are intact

 

[IGC]

Wow, you have a lot of questions...

I've never heard of an Arduino frying a computer but that sounds scary... Maybe I should consider using my brain more instead of just uploading every change in the code and looking what will happen


When I built my printer I also used Marlin on a RAMPS board but quickly upgraded to a Duet WiFi. This board, although relatively expensive, is worth every penny. Sooo much easier to set up and the documentation as well as the forum is great!


At the moment I consider it done (until I find something to upgrade again ) and it works really well. Although I now have dual extrusion without all the usual disadvantages (no prime tower, no oozing of the inactive nozzle all over the print and no lenghty tool changes) I rarely use it. Most of the time I just keep two filaments loaded so that I don't have to switch it


Well yeah, I think he blows it out of his mouth but wants it to look like out of his nose lol

Yep seems unlikely that the arduino would fry anything via USB Just ironic that the ports stoped working at the same time I added the Extruder motor sheild. No Arduino configuration code changes. Was running an already proven configuration...long story.

I will check out the Duet WiFi boards.

Cool man, good that your printer is working.

Didn't you want to be in the vids?

Granite surface plate for fret leveling? Seems like a good idea if you have a flat fretboard. Do you?

 

[Eumldeuml]

Didn't you want to be in the vids?

We also did a regular playthrough but the editing on that isn't done yet...
But in the meantime you can check out our new music video we did yesterday

Granite surface plate for fret leveling? Seems like a good idea if you have a flat fretboard. Do you?

I don't but I rocked the fretboard back and forth during sanding the frets. I can imagine that there are strange geometric errors when I level a compund radius like that but that I'll see when I assemble the guitar. I can always go back and sand some frets down a little.

 

[IGC]

We also did a regular playthrough but the editing on that isn't done yet...
But in the meantime you can check out our new music video we did yesterday



I don't but I rocked the fretboard back and forth during sanding the frets. I can imagine that there are strange geometric errors when I level a compund radius like that but that I'll see when I assemble the guitar. I can always go back and sand some frets down a little.

Ok cool, I was thinking you would be utilising that method with the granite, seems a little difficult to control and see what you'r doing, all par for the course with this project, your an ambitious guy!

Symphony basses have flat fretboards. I think radii are more for the picking hands string to string transitioning ease, but don't quote me - I havn't done the research.

Again, good vid / production quality, diggin, looks like fun. Who owns the wall of Marshalls?