Dark Lord of the Sith type build ;)

[Omzig]

So Ive had a headless hipshot bridge kicking about for over 2 years i guess,i got my bro to pick it up from the otherside of the pond while on a trip out that away (saved me silly postage costs)

while in lockdown i started to mess with some headless designs,do copies and mods of a few just for learning and fun and to kill some time,kinda decided i like this one enough to start a build based on it....Steinberger+RG i think id call it

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Atm im trying to decide what wood combo i should throw together for it,i have a combo of african woods at hand that seem to sit together well (not in a "tonewood" can'o'worms kinda way lol )

R-L Idigbo (1 pc body blank) Wenge (neckblank) Ovangkol (FB) Black Limba (2 pc bb)

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The Wenge is 32mm thick so i would beable to pull a slab neck/board out of it....im thinking of keeping it as a just a simple idigbo/wenge build...but that Ovangkol FB is pretty sexy aswell.

Hummm,what you guys think ? time to grab some top down pics and make some PS mockups.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Looks like it'll be nice and light weight. Perhaps call it the "Skywalker".

 

[Bobo]

I like it. I'd use the black limba and wenge neck/fb. I think I'd like the contrast between the fb and body.

 

[JimF]

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Love that design, its like a prettier Kiesel Vader! Is this programme Fusion360?

 

[Omzig]

Looks like it'll be nice and light weight. Perhaps call it the "Skywalker".

Super idea...now i have to add Blue side LED's!

I like it. I'd use the black limba and wenge neck/fb. I think I'd like the contrast between the fb and body.

Yep i think i'll be going this route thanks for the feedback So after deciding to use's these 2mm Blue LED's as side markers as insipred by MaxOfMetal above

I dug out this Wenge board that has a much tighter grain,quick mockup leaves me something looking kinda like this....i go'er i think.

Love that design, its like a prettier Kiesel Vader! Is this programme Fusion360?

Slam the GM4T and an RG550 together & it pretty much turns out you end up with a vader lol (this might have a bit of a fatter ass)

Design Progy is Rhino,I really tried to like fusion360 but much like 3dmax it was birthed from the 3d nav/interface just does not work for me...Rhino is about the only one ive used sofar that reminds me of QE4 and the old Unreal Ed i wasted way to many hours in building gaming levels many moons ago....i got a copy off of evilbay,no sure if it's 100% legit but it came on a usb stick and shows as activated and update,so if it's doggy im not sure why it's still working ! (no doubt i'll start it tomorrow and it will get nuked)

Progress will start after i reroof my workshop and get another body milled for someone else's project

 

[JimF]

That looks fantastic with that wood sample in it!
I need to get to grips with a design programme like that. I picked up a CAD based 2d programme pretty quickly in a temp job at a laser cutting firm, I was only an estimator but half of the time it was quicker to draw the components myself rather then submitting them to the drawing office! Turns out the in-house programme I was using was some awful bastardised CAD ripoff and left me with unintentional bad habits!

 

[Omzig]

So 2mm tower LED's have arrived and i think they should work out well.

I have a few options/ideas for installing/routing the pockets for them.

First i tried half of today would be a 50-50 pocket routed into both the fretboard and neck and then closed together so they sit on the joint between fb/neck,might be a bit of a pain in the ass to get right as if im out even 0.25mm it will suck..

2nd method would be to route a longer channel into just the Freatboard wood then drill out the 2mm for the tower section from the edge in and slot the LED in and push up to sit flush

3rd option is to route the full depth of the led with a channel like in the above pic and then dust/CA fill the underside which glues to the neck,should be easy to hide on wenge...Humm i'll give all 3 a try on monday and post the results.

 

[Extrafunk]

If it's not too late, don't use blue leds!

It's a little longer explanation, but basically your eye is not very sensitive at that wavelength of light and it's nigh on impossible to judge distances. Green or amber is a much, much better choice...

Source: I work with lighting as my day job.

 

[Omzig]

If it's not too late, don't use blue leds!

It's a little longer explanation, but basically your eye is not very sensitive at that wavelength of light and it's nigh on impossible to judge distances. Green or amber is a much, much better choice...

Source: I work with lighting as my day job.

Wow well it's always nice to learn something new everyday many thanks for the post.

I was going for the blue to channel maxofmetal's skywaker suggestion (+ im a massive fan of the org starwars trilogy...the rest...err no so much)

But i guess green would also work within the theme if i go ROTJ

I'll throw some green on order and see how they look,i don't gig at all these days so no need to worry about darken stages for me...


So been spending a bit of time looking at a string retainer option,I can't find anyone who has a hipshot LP retainner instock (+ i think there stupid money) ....ive used the single string options before and i got to say i really dont like them much

So the idea im playing with atm it to make up a solid brass retainer like the one in the top right of this pic

And then insert it directly into the head (less) stock section after the srings and have the fretboard wood extend right over the top but holed and slotted in the wood to give this kind of look after the zero fret

Brass bit's are on order & i will kick up a test once they arrive....

Did a test route (or 2) for the bridge,first was out by about 4mm (because i didnt read the min/max intonation settings in the hipshot pdf......) 2nd came out great.

Hope to get the body cnc'ed next week, almost forgot to post this but i decided to KISS for the led slots and just use a simple block route out and drill in from the side,but looking at the layout in rhino on the 12th and 24th im going to have to go vert for the slots so i can get both led's inplace,a small goove in the outside scrap of my fretboard blank with a 2mm ball end should give me a nicely centered & correct depth goove to drill in from....

laters.

 

[Bobo]

Looking cool Omzig. How will you go about machining the brass? And is the 2nd trilogy all that bad? I mean yeah, initially it was kind of a let down, but maybe after a few more watches (for me at least), I came to respect the story more even if the story telling method wasn't up to my expectations.

Now back on track...have you given much thought on pickups yet?

 

[Omzig]

Looking cool Omzig. How will you go about machining the brass? And is the 2nd trilogy all that bad? I mean yeah, initially it was kind of a let down, but maybe after a few more watches (for me at least), I came to respect the story more even if the story telling method wasn't up to my expectations.

Now back on track...have you given much thought on pickups yet?

Hey Bobo

I'll be machining the brass on my CNC setup (workbee clone) Ive done a few small tests cut's & hole profiling on some scrap blocks i had kicking about and the came out great.

So this was kinda my orginal idea for placing a retainer block under a wooden cap (i was lazy and c & v'ed the string gaps i'll reduce each gab in relation to it's string thickness on the final)

But after doing the brass milling test's ive decide to just mill the whole thing in brass and then use some patina solution to blacken it and lacquer it to protect the surface from chips.


As for Pup's, no thoughts yet but as you ask i think i have a dimarzio sd kicking around here somewhere and i'll prob grab a IG jailrail II for the neck...or maybe just go rail crazy a slap a quadrail in the bridge aswell and go dpd switch split mad!

back off track...

2nd trilogy....humm i watched it again a few years back and dam some of the dialog and delivery is bad..........Oh annie......& dont get me started on jarjar lol.....Story wise i do like the way that palpatine's machinations play out, but i i think it could/should have been a bit grittier/darker,as for the off shoots,i dont mind Rouge one (i like the way it sets up epIV) but the only person in it i gave a shit about was the ex imp droid Solo wasn't to bad,i know ppl really slatted it but i did'nt really have high expections for it so i wasn't let down much,Mando was pretty good and i think it has way more of the org SW vibe, be interesting to see how they tie stuff in.

I've done ep's VII-IX once each can't bring myself to re-watch them,way to much man hating/wokeness/box ticking for me

 

[Slaeyer]

Yep i think i'll be going this route thanks for the feedback So after deciding to use's these 2mm Blue LED's as side markers as insipred by MaxOfMetal above

I've also wanted to go with LEDS for long, but found that going with optical fiber and placing a larger LED below the neck pickup was easier for me. So that might also be worth considering. I usually rout a small channel into the FB for the optical fiber.
Only things you have to be careful about is that those optical fibers can be damaged quite easily (bent too much, gets brittle when using super glue, et cetera).
Besides that they worked like a charm and there was no need to place a led, as I've always been afraid what to do when the LED breaks

 

[Omzig]

I've also wanted to go with LEDS for long,

Thx for the suggestion I have tried FO in the pst (before i had cnc) and threw it out after much frustration and just used glow powder/CA...i just checked the 2mm FO cable prices here in the UK and it's expensive (dirt cheap from china but im not ordering from there atm...),maybe i'll try it on the next build but as all the mill layout work is ready to go for this one i'll stick with the LED's

So spent some time cleaning up the retainer design,here's the 2nd test in limba and what i think the final brass design will be,i think the double lock will work better,this will also be tapped in the underside in 3 places and will be bolted to the neck ala old style floyd nuts and will have string runouts from the rear of the back slots.

Brass bar and patina solution are in the postal pipe so once they arrive i'll post progress pics.

 

[Omzig]

Ok i think this in brass will work.

Waitting on the post "person"

 

[Omzig]

So got the brass and a fe broken bits later got the slots and grub holes CNC'ed

Didn't get chance to cut out and tap yet,should have a few hours in the morning to get to it i hope

 

[Omzig]

So got this out of its slab

A few of the hole tapping's didn't really go to plan......don't ask lol

so i guess i'll be cutting a second proto tomorrow and reordering/joining/deepening some of the cuts as the tap didn't take the excess between holes/channels as i expected and i've also ordered some new m3/m4 taps as the ones ive got are a bit shit...or so i just found out

 

[Omzig]

So someone asked me what i fucked up on the tapping....well i managed to distend the surface of the unit by over tapping the rear holes, to try and rescue it i drilled though the face on both sides and retapped to m5 but as you can see this distened the edges into the side string slots so toast, i could have just cut a cover for it and OOSOOM'ed as it does work 100% it but for the hour or so to cut a second i rather redo the work,while cutting the 2nd i used the first to test the blacking/patina solution,which came out pretty cool but the acetone i used didn't clean it up 100% (checking the lable it seems it has 10% water in it as you cant buy 100% off the street in the UK now because a few years ago some fuck heads started to throw it in ppl's faces....),still was a good test,this has a bit of a fallout vibe,would look cool applied to a full brass coated body.

So second cut in brass...on the right, i deepen the holes and widened the slots and ran them straight out the back (ala status hardware) + i reduced the rear mounting holes to 2.5mm for future m3 taps...and order some proper bottoming tap cutters....

Laters.

 

[Mr_Mar10]

Looking good Stevo, awesome skills

 

[Omzig]

Looking good Stevo, awesome skills

Hey Marty nice to see you dropping by thx for the feedback (dont take what i do as skill it's more akin to bumping into stuff in the dark lol) .....Where's that BM SG build log

btw if you'ed emailed me in the past week or few i have an issue with yahoo's spam filter ,any thing with multi re:'s & it seems to keeps binning messages as spam and there web mail portal wants me to sign my life away in cookies to use it and thet really hate my my ad bloacker's,Time to ditch sky/yahoo for email i think....seems even if your paying for a product your still the product....

So while i wait for the new taps to arrive i thought id run a full board/side placement test on the LED's, Just a quick note...if your going to route side dot markers with a cnc make sure you have no bow in your FB blank (or if you do clamp it out)...

2nd test (this time with a straight edge board) cnc'ed the side dots to 2mm-5mm deep then later pillar drilled down in to the led bed slots..no way I could ever get/got 13 side dot markers inplace with no more that 0.2mm driff from 1st to the 24th marker...

Going to do the full solder up over the weekend,as i should beable to just pop them out and slot them back into the final wenge board once it's cut.

 

[Omzig]

Ok managed to tap the 2nd without messing up any of the treads! got it petina'ed and first coat of lacquer on

Ok now that's done and dosn't look half bad i think it's time to move onto some wood.....