Gibson Ripper rescue

[neepheid]

I had a nasty bit of damage on the rear of the lower horn to fix. Wood was actually split in a couple of places. I have no idea how people achieve these things. Anyway, I tried to fix it by making a paste with some dust from my sanding and glue. It worked OK in the sense that it's solid but the filler ended up way darker than the wood. Oh well, it's at the back

[Highlander]

My daughter suggested peroxide - I might try that on something else I'm thinking about...

[neepheid]

My daughter suggested peroxide - I might try that on something else I'm thinking about...

Ach, the more I look at it, the more I see it as a war wound, a reminder of a previous life, and I think that's a good thing.

A small update - moving up the grades, it's now sanded all over at 180 grit and starting to feel smooth.  Also the 4 way switch arrived, and of course it's different to the original ones.  A bit of detective work with a multimeter to check how the switch worked (it was pretty obvious really), a translation table was created then I rejigged the switch part of the schematic to suit this new switch.



Position 1: A -> 1, B -> 5, C -> 9
Position 2: A -> 2, B -> 6, C -> 10
Position 3: A -> 3, B -> 7, C -> 11
Position 4: A -> 4, B -> 8, C -> 12

A is wired to ground, B takes the (reversed) hot of the bridge pickup, C is final output to the volume pot. X means no connection.

Position 1 should give both in series
Position 2 should be bridge pickup only
Position 3 should be both in parallel
Position 4 should be neck only.

[neepheid]

I could wait long enough for an actual "THE RIPPER" truss rod cover, so I think I'll make one, as a stop gap at least.  I had good results with my Victory printing it onto waterslide transfer paper, applying it to the top of a blank TRC and lacquering over the top, but I have learned that I should use an inkjet rather than a laser if I want it to be nice and black.  In the end I found a Victory Artist TRC.

Anyhoo, could someone with a Ripper do me a favour and take a nice big closeup pic of their truss rod cover for me?  I've been searching, but I haven't found one detailed enough to work with.

[Denis]

I could do that tonight. Would it help if I scanned it an emailed it?
There are two variations of the text on Ripper TRCs, by the way. I scored one off eBay a while back for my '73 and the text is a different size than that text on my 1980.

[neepheid]

I could do that tonight. Would it help if I scanned it an emailed it?
There are two variations of the text on Ripper TRCs, by the way. I scored one off eBay a while back for my '73 and the text is a different size than that text on my 1980.

That would be fantastic, thanks!  I think I'm going to make a 2 ply one, so I think the later one will apply.  Cheers

[neepheid]

Did the 240 grit tonight.  Mmm, smooth.

[Highlander]

I mislaid my TRC for the RD years back and have often thought of doing something "different" than it had - could be an option for you...? "THE NEEPER"...?

I like the idea of "war wounds" too...

[Denis]

The TRC on the right is from my 1980 and is 2-ply. The one on the left is the one I bought for my '73 (I don't know what year it is actually from. Note the differences in font sizes, TRC shape and that the early one is 3-ply.

[neepheid]

Thanks a lot for this, am now trying to vectorise it and sharpen up those edges that time have rounded off

Is the one on the left etched into the cover and the right hand one silkscreened?  Looks like it.  It's definitely the one on the right I'm after, cheers.

[Denis]

Happy to help!
Both are etched but the early one was done with a finer tip than the '80. It's also dirtier. 
I knew the two were different but I was surprised how much different they were.

[neepheid]

Vectorising proved to be a bit of a task so instead I put some of my wasted youth designing ASCII art and sprites to good use and instead proceeded thus:

1. Initial crop of photo:



2. Straightened, busted down to 1 bit (black/white) and tidied up:



3.  Doubled, curves interpolated, doubled again, curves interpolated again, a little blur applied then scaled back down to 25% for comparison with initial scan:



What do you reckon?  Once it's printed it's only going to be less than 2 inches across after all.

[Denis]

The third will probably turn out well. Since the etching "bits" or whatever they use can't make a perfect 90º corner, the ascenders and descenders of the letters will probably turn out to be semi-round, which should match the originals.

I completely forgot to measure the length and height of letters. I can do that tonight if you'd like.

[neepheid]

The third will probably turn out well. Since the etching "bits" or whatever they use can't make a perfect 90º corner, the ascenders and descenders of the letters will probably turn out to be semi-round, which should match the originals.

I completely forgot to measure the length and height of letters. I can do that tonight if you'd like.

Good point about the radius of whatever was used to etch the logos.  I did it again and actually radiused all the external corners of the letters at the x4 magnification then reduced it back down again.  I thought I'd taken quite a lot away at 4x magnification but it's ended up pretty subtle, half the time I'm thinking I'm convincing myself that it's changed because I know I made a change but if you zoom it up there's a single grey pixel in each corner

Yes, some measurements would be very handy.  Overall width and height of the whole thing ought to be sufficient, cheers

[neepheid]

A pair of scissors, some sticky tape and and old, broken TRC I had lying around...



If anything I think the writing is slightly too big, which is a good thing.