I decided to put a copper nut on this one to match the fret markers and cooper rivets. It's not so easy to work. For a soft metal it is surprisingly slippery. Finished it off with fine steel wool rather than giving it the fully polished treatment.
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That licence plate would look fantastic on any instrument (and not bad on a car for that matter). I can quite understand why they go for a lot of money.
Hi Mark.
More by luck than judgement the tuners are all fairly straight on to the string slots. The middle string is almost dead in line. I tend to tighten that one up first which then puts some pressure on the nut and then bring the others up.
John, I'm impressed that strong tension holds it so neatly - says a lot about the accuracy and neatness of your work. I agree with you in that I don't like to glue things unless I have to - ideally I like to make things so they can be taken apart easily for maintenance and adjustment.
Hi Bob. Will do. I had a mooch through the videos and the licence plate ones sound quite different from the cone type resos. Having said that, a copper plate may well sound different from one with whatever metal they use for the normal ones. I remember my dad saying that in his day (which meant "a long time ago") they would put copper tail pipes on cars to make them sound hotter. This worked because copper is particularly resonant. I always meant to make a set of copper wind chimes. Might do that some time.
I use a special glue called "String Tension". So far I haven't glued anything in that I didn't really need to, mainly because I'm never confident that I won't need to take if off and change it again. If I were to glue it I would probably use wood glue (Titebond) so that it could still be dislodged easily.
Hi Bob.
Are you not going to do one? If you do I'm sure you will be way ahead of me. I am really quite slow (sometimes it feels as if I am groping around in the dark trying to find how to do this). I also have quite a list of instruments that I want to make. I am working on a four string but after that I want to do a bass and then a couple of strummers along the lines of the A stick strummers that Jay makes. Does a licence plate reso sound like one with a cone or is there a noticeably different sound (given the understanding that they all sound different anyway). Having said that, now that you have planted the seed in my head, who knows ;-)
I did a google images search for copper license plates and they do look good. I can imagine that they would be an enhancement to either a nice car or a guitar. However, nothing comes up in a search of this site. Do you know if anyone has put up photos of such an instrument? I assume that they are hard to come by.
Hi Brian.
Brass for the bridge and nut should look good. Although it is harder than copper it seems easier to work. As far as the shellac finish is concerned I am no expert on that (as with so many things). You might do better asking on one of the making groups such as Building a Cigar Box Guitar 101 or Intermediate building tips and tricks.
As far as french polishing is concerned, there is a lot of information around. I saw some comprehensive looking videos on YouTube such as this one. Hope this helps.
Does anyone have any suggestions about how to polish or rub out a Shellac finish, I have about 4 coats of shellac on my guitar components and would like to get the same effect as polished lacquer but I am not to good at that yet, I have read about using 0000 steel wool but not sure what the process is...do I use a polishing compound after the steel wool? or a paste wax?...any help would be appreciated, thanks all~
Thanks for the helpful hints John, I am at a point of trying to decide what to do for a bridge and nut on my current project guitar so I think I will try it again with some brass.
Hi Mark. Thanks for leaving the comment. One suggestion that I haven't tried is to put chalk on the file to stop it clogging. This is supposed to work with aluminium too but again I can't confirm this yet.
Hi Brian. In case it helps I will go through what I did. After sawing to the basic size some surfaces were machined. Then the final shape was made by filing. I used quite coarse files but in line with the long side. I used a single cut file for most of this. It also doesn't seem to clog as easily. Once the shape was about right I used abrasive paper (medium to fine) placed on the table to keep it fairly flat. I finished off with fine steel wool. You get a slightly better finish by putting a little oil on the steel wool or on the work. Hope this is of some help.
I have some solid brass pieces and have not been real successful yet in producing a nice polished piece like you've shown here, I have tried metal files, sand paper, grinder, etc. biggest problem is my lack of patience sometimes, but squaring up a small piece and doing the last bit of fine work to it is where I have issues. Yours looks great.
Comments
Hi Bob.
That licence plate would look fantastic on any instrument (and not bad on a car for that matter). I can quite understand why they go for a lot of money.
Hi Mark.
More by luck than judgement the tuners are all fairly straight on to the string slots. The middle string is almost dead in line. I tend to tighten that one up first which then puts some pressure on the nut and then bring the others up.
Hi Mark.
I use a special glue called "String Tension". So far I haven't glued anything in that I didn't really need to, mainly because I'm never confident that I won't need to take if off and change it again. If I were to glue it I would probably use wood glue (Titebond) so that it could still be dislodged easily.
Hi Bob.
Are you not going to do one? If you do I'm sure you will be way ahead of me. I am really quite slow (sometimes it feels as if I am groping around in the dark trying to find how to do this). I also have quite a list of instruments that I want to make. I am working on a four string but after that I want to do a bass and then a couple of strummers along the lines of the A stick strummers that Jay makes. Does a licence plate reso sound like one with a cone or is there a noticeably different sound (given the understanding that they all sound different anyway). Having said that, now that you have planted the seed in my head, who knows ;-)
Hi Bob.
I did a google images search for copper license plates and they do look good. I can imagine that they would be an enhancement to either a nice car or a guitar. However, nothing comes up in a search of this site. Do you know if anyone has put up photos of such an instrument? I assume that they are hard to come by.
Hi Brian.
Brass for the bridge and nut should look good. Although it is harder than copper it seems easier to work. As far as the shellac finish is concerned I am no expert on that (as with so many things). You might do better asking on one of the making groups such as Building a Cigar Box Guitar 101 or Intermediate building tips and tricks.
As far as french polishing is concerned, there is a lot of information around. I saw some comprehensive looking videos on YouTube such as this one. Hope this helps.
Hi Mark. Thanks for leaving the comment. One suggestion that I haven't tried is to put chalk on the file to stop it clogging. This is supposed to work with aluminium too but again I can't confirm this yet.
Hi Brian. In case it helps I will go through what I did. After sawing to the basic size some surfaces were machined. Then the final shape was made by filing. I used quite coarse files but in line with the long side. I used a single cut file for most of this. It also doesn't seem to clog as easily. Once the shape was about right I used abrasive paper (medium to fine) placed on the table to keep it fairly flat. I finished off with fine steel wool. You get a slightly better finish by putting a little oil on the steel wool or on the work. Hope this is of some help.
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