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Post by bryanbradfield on Oct 13, 2017 1:27:24 GMT
How much do you want the action raised by? Is there a deep enough slot in the existing biscuit to enable you to slip a shim in under the existing saddle to reach the new action you seek?
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Post by bryanbradfield on Sept 17, 2017 19:02:59 GMT
Hopefully my dobro neck stick photos did not misinform anyone. My purpose was to show the simplicity of the open-sided mortise and tenon joint. I built a duplicate neck using a router to cut the mortise in the neck. Of course, the entire neck stick forms the tenon.
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Post by bryanbradfield on Sept 16, 2017 16:23:10 GMT
Michael, I was confirming your earlier opinions, and included some opinions of my own.
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Post by bryanbradfield on Sept 16, 2017 16:12:25 GMT
From what I recall of my changing tunings in the 1960s and 1970s is that I would more frequently break strings. I suspect that I always had dead strings on my instruments, being extremely thrifty.
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Post by bryanbradfield on Sept 16, 2017 16:08:45 GMT
It's not a Brasher. One clue is that Brashers did not have 14 fret necks as far as I know. The tuning keys look modern/Asian to me. The cover-plate array looks like a well modified metal bowl, plated after cutting. The body finish appears a bit amateurish. On the whole, it has to be in hand to really judge it. It is definitely unique.
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Post by bryanbradfield on Sept 16, 2017 15:56:36 GMT
Here are a couple of photos of a 1930s Regal dobro neck with a neck-stick. The fretboard has been removed. This neck is for a spider-type cone instrument. Attachments:
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Post by bryanbradfield on Jun 1, 2017 17:32:19 GMT
A luthier friend of mine made some round inserts for a dobro. Picture a drinking straw with an oblique or 45 degree angle cut into it for the inside of the dobro. His intent was to swivel the insert so that the internal oblique cuts would pick up sound from different directions in the interior. I did not play with the inserts while test driving it. Neither he nor the subsequent owner reported any advantages to the inserts.
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Post by bryanbradfield on Jun 1, 2017 16:48:51 GMT
Some dobro players (spider-web cone)report finding that removing the screen inserts creates more bass response and that the bass tones come from underneath the cone, through the body, and out the 2 sound holes. I haven’t tried it. I’m not looking for micro-tweaks.
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Post by bryanbradfield on Jun 1, 2017 16:25:57 GMT
duece, I like your attitude. You desire a good sounding but different tone. When I started out many decades ago, it seemed that the goal was to sound just like “the artist of the moment”. I know that’s where I was heading. It is refreshing to hear from an open minded musician. Now that I’ve said that, it sounds like I’m trashing almost everyone else, but I’m sure you know that I’m not picking sides here. As my recent posts might indicate, I’m not always as traditional-minded as I used to be.
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Post by bryanbradfield on May 10, 2017 16:10:46 GMT
There needs to be an inner ledge beneath the top for the cone to rest on. I used card stock to fabricate a test ledge for the inside of the guitar. I found that I had to create it in 2 pieces in order to get it into the body. This piece rests close to the tail block and at the other end rests close to a ladder brace between cone opening and neck block. The sides of the ledge are pretty close to the kerfing at the rims. I used a good grade of 5/16" 5 ply plywood. I made the joining edges quite oblique to increase gluing surface on the ledge edges. If I had needed more depth I would have shimmed the ledge away from the underside of the top rather than shimming the cover plate up from the outside of the top. The hole in the top was opened a bit to allow a dobro cone to enter the body. The plywood ledge was glued in over-sized in the centre and then opened up with a hand held sanding drum to provide enough of a ledge for the dobro cone to rest on. For both of these openings, now is the time to compensate for past egging. I added an additional thin piece of wood to tail block as I wanted to insert a long electric jack through there, and felt the extra tail block added additional support for that. I also added a long piece of wood from the tail block into the inner body to help prevent further egging of the body. I had to extend the cover plate holes outward just a bit due to the increased diameter of the resonator opening.
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Post by bryanbradfield on May 10, 2017 14:06:52 GMT
The small holes in the body and heel do indeed appear to be attempts to pull the neck back into alignment by tugging on the end of the heel. A long screw driver should be able to poke through the sound well hole to drive the screw from the inside of the body. On the down side, that would possibly create a huge surprise for the next repair person.
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Post by bryanbradfield on May 10, 2017 14:01:54 GMT
In my 1930s Regal, the neck stick did angle into the neck. You suggest that what appears to be a crack may instead be a wedge.
If wood filler has not fouled the interfaces, Titebond may seal the space, but if that is a wedge, how well surfaced are the mating faces?
A dowel through the rear of the heel seems to make repair sense. Consider starting up towards the point at the top of the heel, and angling down into the neck stick so that the dowel intersects about where the heel and neck stick join, approximately where the “crack” shows, and then into the neck stick. I would want that assembly to be well clamped into a tight completed attitude before drilling. Really think about how the dowel will hold everything together prior to committing.
I just recalled that my earlier neck stick adventure did not really involve a repair, but rather a new build. I carved a new neck and neck stick, mated them, drilled the anti-pivot dowel holes, added dowels, and then re-glued the original fret board.
So messing up neck work merely enables you to build a new neck and put your own name on the headstock. For me that resulted in confused looks at festivals, in the days before boutique instruments were common.
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Post by bryanbradfield on May 10, 2017 3:43:49 GMT
I think that the small crack seen on the outside of the neck stick is only the tip of the iceberg. I think that crack goes toward the end of the unseen portion of the neck stick, and there is some glue separation in there as well. Why anyone would mix wood filler into the fix is beyond my comprehension and further on the negative side, the filler has probably partially fouled some of the previously attempted repair. Judicious wriggling of the neck stick / neck juncture should give some clues. I don’t think that simple glue injection will be satisfactory. Depending on the neck stick wriggling experimentation, I would initially think about a dowel drilled and glued obliquely into the area across the break. How do you feel about removing the fretboard to insert a dowel from that direction. Actually, if you go that far, a replacement neck stick is not that far away. A failed previous repair attempt makes a subsequent repair attempt EXTREMELY difficult. I had a neck stick glue failure. I removed the old stick and fabricated a new one with the same tenon joint. I drilled and glued dowels vertically on both sides of the joint from fretboard side down towards the heel to lock the joint and prevent pivoting. I got that idea from one of Irving Sloane’s books. Thirty-five years later, it is still fine.
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Post by bryanbradfield on May 4, 2017 16:02:55 GMT
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Post by bryanbradfield on May 4, 2017 15:40:26 GMT
Moved to Notecannons.
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