Tuesday 10 November 2020

We got BRANDED! Also new episodes...

 

As a very lucky man, with very nice friends, I was given some logos to feature on my various channels.


Cool huh?

I also shortened the channel name. It makes slightly less sense now but it also isn't too long as it was before. 

New episodes - Episode 5



and Episode 6


As well as these I took to doing a little live streaming! Like a proper YouTuber!
This first one was done on the spur of the moment with ZERO prep or planning. I literally sat at my pc for the evening and thought "I know what would be fun!" and did it! It went really well, the quality is a little on the shaky side, a few issues here and there, but on the whole it was great fun and well received. 




I enjoyed it soooo much I decided to do another one the very next week! 

This one I planned and prepared. That had two effects. First, the quality of the videos was far higher, I had fancy cams setup with a stream deck type control tablet. It went well and I am pleased with it. The other effect was I spent far too much time preparing for it, which ate into my build time and ultimately meant the regular video episode would be late. 

But I had friends pop into voice chat with me and that was great fun. 



I will do live streams again in the future but they will only be unplanned events that I decide to do on the hoof.

Right, time to go. Enjoy!




Friday 23 October 2020

BRAND NEW PROJECT (I started a month ago)


I should really update this more often. But life can be busy!

Anyway.

The pinball build started well. Mostly have built the cabinet so far, with small amounts of work going into the inside gubbins. If you want to catch up the videos start here:


That's episode one. In which I mostly chop big bits of wood up and make smaller bits of wood. Extremely precise bits of wood. I am getting better at the woodwork side of this. Also, I think I might be getting better at the videos. Although I'm not sure if I am primetime. In fact, I know that isn't the case, my videos are long and detailed in all the wrong ways. But I put them up for the sake of posterity, not to win any popularity competitions. And it makes me smile when I get nice feedback, also makes me smile when I get negative feedback - seriously. The last time someone said something a little snarky I managed to use it on Twitter to bag a whole load of followers! Laughed my ass right off.

There are three more videos in the series so far. 





I might have to stop featuring myself in the thumbnails. It's like I'm trying to put people off on purpose.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think! Good or bad! Even if you are from the future!


Tuesday 15 September 2020

PROJECT TERRYCADE PARTS MANY!


 Well, I went and finished the project and forgot to update this blog! In fact, I forgot to update it for about four episodes...

Not really much to add here. I really enjoyed making this cab, and at the same time, I'm pleased to be moving onto the next thing - which brings me to!

The next thing!

Which will be a pinball table. Not a full size one, I don't have room and this will be for me to keep (till I get bored and sell it). Kinda pinball 75% size. But it will be very cool. There will be three (count em) screens: playfield 27" IPS, backglass 19" 5:4 IPS, and a 10" topper screen. There will be 2.1 speakers with the bass speaker sitting down in the bowels of the machine. Along with those, there will be 4 "exciters" attached to the sides of the cabinet. These turn the wood of the cabinet into speakers and help simulate Surround Sound Feedback. Apparently, it is mindblowing.

Anyway, all that's in the future (the near future, almost ready to start!)

For now I will give you the playlist for PROJECT TERRYCADE and all its seven parts.

PROJECT TERRYCADE PLAYLIST

I hope you enjoy it!

Saturday 25 July 2020

PROJECT TERRYCADE: Parts TWO AND THREE!

I'm spoiling you here! Two episodes! Ok, not so much spoiling you as haven't had time to post on here for a while and forgot to post last time I released a video. 

I just wanted to quickly talk about my evolving style of presentation. This is all reasonably new to me, I've done some podcast hosting (READY PLAYER TWO!) and streamed a fair amount, so I'm not a stranger to showing off. But it's a different thing narrating a video. 

I started out just chatting over the video, almost a running commentary, and that's pretty simple and easy to do. I just don't think it works very well. In episode three I have made a change and scripted it. I watch the video taking notes and pausing to write a script. Then I recorded the script while it's all fresh in my mind and I can still keep relevant emotion going through it.

I'm not the worlds most natural narrator but I'm happier with the results. 

Anyway - episode Two is one of the most critical stages. Getting the battens in the right place will save (and did) a lot of pain and time later. With these fixed accurately all the joining parts will fall into place when it comes to assembly (assuming the parts are all cut to size and shape!)


Episode Three is a more detailed look at getting all of the parts that will need work sorted before it's all assembled. I see this stuff time and again on build videos done when the case is complete. Cutting holes and drilling out bits for power sockets and the like, even routing the t-slots. Make a mistake with the router (and this is exactly what I did in this video) and you have to rip a board out and repair it. It's tough to work out everything you need to do before you pull the trigger, and as a side note I have assembled the cabinet and forgotten to drill out one hole, but planning ahead really saves a lot of time. This is the main reason I plan out everything in Sketchup first.


Should be another episode up within a few days. Fingers crossed!

Sunday 12 July 2020

FLYING APART V

October 2013. The height of my guitar obsession.

I already had a few hanging on my wall. And it's not like I'm particularly gifted playing them, I just love to look at some of them. And I have a thing for Hohner guitars. Hohner went through a period of making really nice guitars with unique details. And the quality during this period is pretty decent. For the most part...

I spotted this little darling on Gumtree and snapped it up for, if my memory serves, around £50. The first picture is on my kitchen floor and the first good look I had of it. I have to say, that first impression was not good. It was in a sorry state.



The flying bridge (not a Floyd Rose, this is a rip-off and a bad one at that) had collapsed into itself and I knew getting a replacement to fit in the void would be close to impossible. I would need to be creative.



A Hohner Professional HGV. When I bought it a quick google search came up with a few hits, but try searching now. It's a very rare guitar. Not especially valuable, but very rare. Oh, HGV stands, rather imaginatively for - Hohner Guitar V. 


One thing that confused me on the images I did find in my google search research, was that the other examples had two sets of pickups. Mine seemed to have just the one. And then I took a closer look. You can clearly see here where the bodies are buried.


This white(ish) cover is not standard. It's a piece of thin ply painted with what feels like Dulux matt emulsion.


The remaining pickup is a sorry looking thing. The plastic is cracked and perished, and the metal coil tops are corroded. This would need replacing. £50 was starting to look expensive.


Seeing how much wasn't standard on the surface I knew that I could not trust that the electrics were all original. I began to take pics to document them in case I needed to put them back how they were.


I removed the neck and now you can check out this custom paint job. This is some random green crap out of a rattle spray can. And the pickup cavity is clearly trying to eject whatever has been stuffed inside. It all might look bad in these pictures but I assure you it was worse than it appears.


A very light gouge with a screwdriver and it burst open like a rotten potato. You can see where I had begun to sand it and seen the edge of the filler.



And here is forensic evidence that this custom paint job was done by a neanderthal with a rattlecan and car filler. The filling is fibreglass based and is still wet. It also stank. Joy.


Fortunately it almost all came out in one lump.


My plan was to convert this from a floating bridge guitar to a hardtail. I, at the time, was very short on advanced woodworking tools (oh wow I would love another crack at this project now!) and luthier skills (still short on those!). With this in mind, I decided the best course of action, with the highest chance of a decent outcome, would be to fill the bridge cavity and work from there. The first thing was to strip off this disgusting paint. I started with a sander, this was very slow going though.



And then I hit it with paint stripper. 


It melted away like nazi faces watching the Ark. I could literally wipe it off with a cloth. 


A lot of sanding later I revealed what is a decent, if not premium, piece of maple. A lot of guitars in this era were made from all kinds of random types of wood. A friend of mine has one made from plywood, its a lovely guitar though!


There is still a greenish tinge and a few dings.


The screw holes would not be a problem as they would be covered. 



It really is a lovely piece of timber.



The back shows a knot or two. They are not as visible on the front.






Having sanded the body down to a finish I felt happy with I turned to the cavity. I sourced a piece of maple and cut it to size and shape. 


I also took a router to the cavity to give it more of a regular shape to make fitting the block easier.


I spent literally days sanding this block into the right shape. Sanding maple is tough. The dust is like talcum powder and it is hard as rock. 


There was a hidden surprise in the block. It wouldn't matter though as it didn't reach the surface. 


My plan was to keep sanding, little by little, till it slotted perfectly into the cavity with no crack around. I needed good solid contact with the surrounding wood to maintain good tone.


On and on I sanded. 


Day after day.


It was sooo close. So close I could almost just push it in and it would be done. All the hard work would be rewarded with a perfect fit. Soon after this picture, I'd almost got it stuck and decided this was enough. So I loaded the cavity up with wood glue, laid it on a foam mat outside my back door (it was freezing outside) and gave it a tap with a rubber mallet. It was almost there. Just a little more. Another tap. Nearly. So close. One... More... Tap...


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I could have cried. I thought I had killed it.


I carried on anyway, clamping the block in the void first, then sanding the edge off that so the wing could be glued back on. I drilled through the pickup cavity into the broken part and glued a strong dowel in place. I clamped it up and, disgusted with myself, left it to dry.


And it came out pretty good. The knot in the repair block was visible as I had forgotten that I would be sanding the top off that block down to the level of the flaw. But it wasn't coming out now!





The crack is visible, especially here at the back, and you can certainly feel it. If I did it again now I am sure I could have done it so it was almost invisible. But it's done, and I kind of like it the way it is.


And so I carried on. One corner of this pickup cavity had collapsed. I used a two-part wood filler to rebuild it. I had also given the guitar its final finish of linseed oil and wax. 


It turned out better than the bridge hole job!


Here is the hardtail bridge screwed into place ready to mark the holes to drill through to the back. I have no idea how I managed this accurately with the tools I had at the time. Luck played a major part I think.
The wood doesn't quite match and the grain runs the wrong way, but it still looks good. I may one day make a cover that goes around the pickups and the bridge that hides the repaired hole. Maybe.


The pickup screw hole repaired very nicely.


A pair of Entwistle HDN pickups look superb in this. New wiring too. 


The holes for the guitar strings. So lucky.


The cover that it came with is just a holder till I could work something else out.



I bought some scratch guard material. This is laminated with a white layer in between two black layers. It didn't look great so I scrapped it. Again, with the tools I have now I could have made this work.


Wiring guitars is pretty simple. Google a guide is the way I went.




A three-way selector switch, plus both the volume and tone are push-pull knobs, don't ask me what they do. This was another attempt at a cover. I hated this too.





In the end, I decided to make one from very nice quality plywood to try to match the guitar. Made a mockup with cheap hardwood ply which is what you see here. I ordered some very fine, maple topped, plywood that cost a fair amount. That arrived and has been waiting for me to finish it ever since. It still sits here next to my desk and one day I will make a pickguard cover that will finally finish this guitar.

One day.