Circulatrix solid body guitar

Please put your pickup/wiring discussions in the Electronics section; and put discussions about repair issues, including "disappearing" errors in new instruments, in the Repairs section.
Post Reply
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

This is the second instrument I have finished this week. This one was finished yesterday. Initially I was supposed to finish it by May 20th, when the $100 Local Materials Challenge closed, but as I noticed that to be impossible, I lay this project on the side and concentrated on the LP project I finished on Monday. I started a thread in the challenge section and continue it here.
I failed to keep the deadline, but I did keep within the budget by a wide marginal and the instrument is as local as it was possible to build it. The guitar is called “Circulatrix” (= ambulant female performing artist in Latin), I hope it will become one. I figured out how the body should look whilst drowsing on a ferry trip from Helsinki to Tallinn in the spring and the design hasn’t changed much since. The design of the neck was pretty much determined by the size of the blank, but I like it like that. If I build another one, I think the tuners will be in line, not 3L+3R.

All the major pieces of wood are local, harvested and sawn on the property of my in-laws, just 10 minutes from my workshop. The neck wood is birch, at least 52 years old. I got a heap of boards and slabs from my (now ex-) wife’s parents in the early 90’s and I still have some left after building a massive kitchen table and several guitar necks. The birch is a treat. It’s dry as a desert and chimes like a bell when tapped. The body is pine. I got the slab from my brother-in-law. It’s a leftover piece from his house construction. The skunk stripe is a scrap piece of heat treated ash and I think it’s domestic too.

The neck was sprayed 4 times with 2-componennt acrylic clearcoat. The body was first painted black and lacquered, but the stuffs were incompatible and didn’t cure. So I ended up removing the paint and redoing the body in bright red candy finish. First I sprayed the body with filler, then with red glossy paint. The third layer was 100 micron silver flake mixed with clearcoat diluted very thin with thinner. On top of the flake I sprayed a transparent red dye and finished the surface with 4 layers of clear.

The tuners, the bridge and some pieces of hardware are imported, because no one seems to manufacture things like that in Finland, at least not for a $100 challenge. Otherwise I’ve used as much scrap metal produced here and often purchased at scrapyards. The neck attachment plate and the string retainer are made of pieces of scrap steel and the control panel of a piece of aluminium diamond plate. The pot knobs are recycled from an old amplifier.

I have designed the humbucking “Scumbucker” pickups myself and built them from scratch, making most of the parts myself. The coils are made of forbon flatwork sheet and 5 mm steel bar. The magnets are 3 mm thick 5mm neodymium buttons that cost 1.79€ a dozen. I used 24 magnets, as each polepiece got its own magnet. I wound the pickups to a moderate resistance, neck 8kΩ
and bridge 9 kΩ, but since the magnets are very focused and powerful, the output is quite high. They sound like overwound high output humbuckers especially when overdriven. The clean sounds are quite nice, even in single coil mode – if only the tone pot is used to cut the excessive treble. With the tone pot completely rolled off the bridge pickup, split to a single coil, gives a sensation of flossing your ears with barbed wire. Now the pots are 500kΩ and the cap 22nF, maybe 250 kΩ pots and a 47 nF cap might tone the high end down a bit. As humbuckers the pickups have no sound issues.

The guitar is very lightweight, just 2.9 kilos. The pinewood body is very light and the only 19 mm thick neck doesn’t weigh much either. Yet the instrument has a nice long sustain. The strings run through the body over the hardtail bridge and the neck wood is very solid. As ridiculous as it may look, it’s a very fun guitar. I have a gut feeling this one will stay in my model catalogue,
Here are the specs:

Body pine, colour candy red, clear acrylic lacquer finish
Bolt-on one-piece neck birch 25.59 "/ 650 mm scale, skunk stripe heat treated ash, 21 medium jumbo frets, bone nut, single-action truss rod, black plastic dot fret markers, clear acrylic lacquer finish
Pickups NYDE hand wound open coil Scumbuckers - neck 8kΩ, bridge 98kΩ
1 volume 500 kΩ with treble bleed filter, 1 tone 500 kΩ with 22 nF cap, 3-way switch, coil tap on tone pot, aluminium control panel and pot knobs
Strings through body hardtail bridge, NYDE Steelbar string retainer, vintage type tuners, chrome hardware
09-NYDE-Circulatrix-guitar.jpg
02-NYDE-Circulatrix-guitar,-body-front.jpg
The headstock
The headstock
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

The control panel
The control panel
The body with the string retainer
The body with the string retainer
Headstock with tuners
Headstock with tuners
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

Back of body & neck joint
Back of body & neck joint
I recorded some sound clips this morning, both pickups in both humbucker and single coil modes, both clean and overdriven. The files are too big to upload here, so I'll give the links to them instead:

http://maihinnousu.net/s/16997
http://maihinnousu.net/s/16998
http://maihinnousu.net/s/17001
http://maihinnousu.net/s/17002
http://maihinnousu.net/s/16999
http://maihinnousu.net/s/17000
http://maihinnousu.net/s/17003
http://maihinnousu.net/s/17004

The site is in Finnish, but you can hear the clips by clicking the "play" symbol.
User avatar
Mark Swanson
Posts: 1991
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan USA
Contact:

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Mark Swanson »

Nice job! I wondered why you placed the tuners the way you did, they are actually upside down.
  • Mark Swanson, guitarist, MIMForum Staff
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

Thanks. The headstock is small and the tuners rather big. The tuners fit better that way and they work just fine. For cheapo tuners they are really smooth and keep the guitar in tune nicely. I have another set in store.
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

Actually I just checked and the tuners take the same space both ways. I wasn't thinking straight. If the tuners cause problems, I can always move them the other way the next time I change strings.
User avatar
Mark Swanson
Posts: 1991
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan USA
Contact:

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Mark Swanson »

That's true! And don't they turn the opposite way right now? That's what would bug me the most.
In this way of mounting, the round gear is on the side of the worm gear that will pull away from the round gear as the strings tighten up. When the shaft is on the other side, as the tuners wear and the strings pull the shaft forward it will pull it right into the round gear, keeping things tight.
  • Mark Swanson, guitarist, MIMForum Staff
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

I'm sure you're right. Now that the tuners are new, they work fine, but later on the guitar might start slipping out of tune. It's just that the headstock really is so small, that if the tuners were the other way, the upper screw holes of the D and G string tuners would be outside the headstock. I rechecked it and that's why I must have installed them upside down, now that I think of it. I remember swearing at having drilled the tuner holes too high up the headstock. Of course I could have glued an extension to the tip of the headstock, but I liked it as it was. So now I'm living with my little goof-up. It's not killing me. I'm pretty sure I'll build more of these and probably make headstocks with all 6 tuners in line in the future. I'm also convinced I'll wind more "Scumbucker" pickups, they turned out better than I expected. The funny thing is that when I have tried to make something simple and cheap just for fun, I have managed to make the guitars I like the most.
Jim Bonnell
Posts: 232
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Tampa Bay area Fl.

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Jim Bonnell »

Nice job Markku. Very unique design.
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

Thanks, Jim. It's very comfortable and gives a free access to the upper frets.
User avatar
Mark Swanson
Posts: 1991
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:11 am
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan USA
Contact:

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Mark Swanson »

It's a good job all the same. Isn't it amazing how good the handwound pickups seem to work!
  • Mark Swanson, guitarist, MIMForum Staff
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

Thanks, Mark. I'm grateful that I don't really have to invent anything but rather discover things on the sides of a well-trodden path. I'm certain that a vast number of other people have made similar pickups as I have. I wound my first own pickups a year ago and learn more about them all the time. When I first tried these ones out in split mode, I noticed that the G and D strings sounded very faint through the neck pickup. I figured that there was a bad contact with the magnets and the polepieces, probably glue between them. I removed the pickup but didn't unsolder it, unscrewed the coils from the base plate, removed the magnets with pliers, cleaned the polepiece ends and attached new magnets to be sure. Then I reassembled and reinstalled the pickup - and everything was peachy. It took about 20 minutes.
I also have 12.5 mm long 5 mm neodymium rod magnets, but they must be too powerful for guitar pickups. I suppose I can still use them in bass pickups, as bass string vibration is so much stronger that it won't be as easily damped by magnetic pull. I guess I'll just have to wind a set and hear the results.
User avatar
Pete Halliday
Posts: 138
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:50 am
Location: Canton, MI
Contact:

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Pete Halliday »

Markku, how many coats of flake did you use? I am trying my first metal flake finish and am looking for all of the information that I can gather. Thanks.
Markku Nyytäjä
Posts: 301
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:42 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Circulatrix solid body guitar

Post by Markku Nyytäjä »

Pete, I'm sorry for not replying sooner. I didn't notice until today that you had posted a question. I hope the answer still is of some help.

I sprayed three coats of flake. I usually use white primer, but this time I already had sprayed a red topcoat when I got the Idea of a flake finish. I mix 150 millilitres of 2-component clearcoat which I dilute with thinner in a 1:1 ratio, half clear lacquer and half thinner. Then I mix one tablespoon (15 millilitres) of flake with the diluted lacquer. I have spraygun with a 1.7 mm nozzle that I use for metal powders and flake only. For spraying flake I set the air pressure at 6 bar instead of the customary 3.5 bar. I spray from a 30 cm (1 ft) distance and keep the gun swirling to prevent the flake from landing on the bottom of the can. I spray thin coats to prevent the lacquer from running and let it dry 10-15 minutes between coats. I spray new coats until the flake covers the build evenly.

Using the same type of lacquer, Troton sratch resistant 2-component lacquer that cures completely in 16 hours, the transparent tint can be sprayed on the flake after the last coat has dried for 15 minutes. For a transparent colour that lets the flake shimmer through I tint thinner with Stewmac's Color Tone liquid stains and add 20% of clearcoat to it for binder. Again I spray several thin coats of tint with 10-15 minutes' drying between coats until I have the desired tone and transparency. Usually 200 millilitres is an adequate amount of tint for a guitar body, if you spray the neck too, you'll probably need 250-300 ml. Don't scrooge on the tint, what's left over keeps well in sealed jar and you might find it handy having some left if you have to fix a glitch.

On top of the tint I spray up to 7 layers of lacquer and wet sand with 800 and 1200 grit papers between layers. I wet sand the final coat with 800, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit papers. Then I buff it at a moderate speed with a random orbital sander, a sponge buffer and Farécla G3 and G10 polishing compounds, 3 times with G3 and twice with G10. A little rub with carnauba wax and a soft cotton cloth will set your sparkle free. That's a lot of work, but worth it every minute. Good luck for your flake finish project!
Post Reply

Return to “Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars”