Justin's guitar

[pauliemc]

Lookin realy good Scotty. I like the colour on the back in particular.

Thanks Paulie. Wow it's been a while....business must be smokin' over there. Plus baby Mac surely claims his share of Dad's time. You teach him how to finsih sand yet?

I should have known you'd notice the back, seein' as how contouring and coloring the back is one of your trademarks as well.

Scott i always love your attention to details like the recessed strap buttons.

Thanks Tim. I'm glad you're watching.

SR

Actually business sucks just now. im finishin up a load of gitirs for a guy who has turned out to be a real pain in the ass, takin up all of the workshop time & just making it a joyless affair.

took a bit of work on the side for "the man" to help raise some cash for a CNC, but now the car is actin up - so that will be that fer the CNC for a while again. I think gods tryin to tell me something. I rekon he wants me to kees to the funky oddball builds & stay away from standards as much as possible.

[ScottR]

I rekon he wants me to kees to the funky oddball builds & stay away from standards as much as possible.

That's the way I'd read that too......

SR

[ScottR]

Stunning build Scott , there's not one thing I'd change on her from woods to colour amazing.

Thanks man, that means a lot.

......so holy crap dude--that avatar springs up out of nowhere! When were you planning to share that beauty with us?

SR

Haha ... I think I'll take you up on that comment you made in GOTM and stick up a tread on the build of the guitar in my avatar.....

And I see you did just that. Very cool build man. What a smart move listening to your wife turned out to be.

SR

[ScottR]

Speaking of GOTM, we should just reserve a spot for this guitar on a future GOTM since now.

Wow! I missed this post - the thread rolled a page over while I was gone. Thanks for that vote of confidence Luis.

SR

[pauliemc]

Now, I may be lettin my inner idiot loose here, but I just spotted that there word under your avatar of bear, it says Moderator

When the hell did that happen ?

BTW, I agree with the GOTM proposal, Just let me know what month your entering so I can make sure i dont put King Mojo against you & get hammered again

[ScottR]

Now, I may be lettin my inner idiot loose here, but I just spotted that there word under your avatar of bear, it says Moderator

When the hell did that happen ?

BTW, I agree with the GOTM proposal, Just let me know what month your entering so I can make sure i dont put King Mojo against you & get hammered again

That happened back at the end of February or the first of March. RAD, VanKirk, and I got added to the crew. There has been remarkably little to do along those lines though. All the hot heads seem have gone elsewhere or no longer have strongly held radical opinions. I'd love to see a long conversation on voodoo or mojo with 6 or 8 guys pitching their own particular versions......maybe we'd find ourselves in a nice snappy debate.

Just for fun.

Been a while since we've seen King Mojo. have you gone back to keeping all the good stuff for yourself?

SR

[Menapia]

Stunning build Scott , there's not one thing I'd change on her from woods to colour amazing.

Thanks man, that means a lot.

......so holy crap dude--that avatar springs up out of nowhere! When were you planning to share that beauty with us?

SR

Haha ... I think I'll take you up on that comment you made in GOTM and stick up a tread on the build of the guitar in my avatar.....

And I see you did just that. Very cool build man. What a smart move listening to your wife turned out to be.

SR

Haha ,Only saw this now Scott ,And ya it's always a smart move listening to the wife....

And I'm with Paulie , let us know when yer planning to enter this one into gotm.....don't want to embarrass myself.

[pauliemc]

Na man. Im still sharin d luv wen i can. There are 2 mojos gone out to customers already. But one particular client was bein a right tool. Couldnt let anyone know i was building for him. No piks. No build threads. No nuthin. Including no payment - unfortunitly for me. So look out law suit here we come

Anyway. My own mojo is nearly done so ill be puttin it up soon. It wont do well but i dig d crap outa it so what the hell

[pauliemc]

As to the ranting mojo nut jobs. Ill try get it goin.

I was asked recently to build a single cut for a guy. He wanted a big stong sound but still wanted a light guitar. No thicker than a strat and light as my alphas. So i recomended a cedar body with a maple top and a big round wallnut neck. I mean big. 47mm accross the nut. 23mm at the first fret and 27 at the body. In my own opinion a big neck adds to your tone. No offence to ibanez but gimmy a big lump fer a neck evry time. Its one area where i believe removing mass actually kills tone

[Tim37]

dude not to hijack the thread but that sounds like it would be a awesome guitar. toss some big ole p90's in there and a bigsby it would be sweet.

[ScottR]

dude not to hijack the thread but that sounds like it would be a awesome guitar. toss some big ole p90's in there and a bigsby it would be sweet.

It's virtually impossible to highjack one of my threads-all subjects and opinions are welcome, encouraged even. And I gotta say,I agree with the P90s, Bigsby, and awesomeness of that guitar.

Na man. Im still sharin d luv wen i can. There are 2 mojos gone out to customers already. But one particular client was bein a right tool. Couldnt let anyone know i was building for him. No piks. No build threads. No nuthin. Including no payment - unfortunitly for me. So look out law suit here we come

Anyway. My own mojo is nearly done so ill be puttin it up soon. It wont do well but i dig d crap outa it so what the hell

Well that sucks rocks. Was this the jackarse with the 40 guitar order?

As to the ranting mojo nut jobs. Ill try get it goin.

I was asked recently to build a single cut for a guy. He wanted a big stong sound but still wanted a light guitar. No thicker than a strat and light as my alphas. So i recomended a cedar body with a maple top and a big round wallnut neck. I mean big. 47mm accross the nut. 23mm at the first fret and 27 at the body. In my own opinion a big neck adds to your tone. No offence to ibanez but gimmy a big lump fer a neck evry time. Its one area where i believe removing mass actually kills tone

That's a big neck. I love the idea of the width, but I'm more comfortable with something a little thinner--not Wizard thin, but maybe 17-18mm at first fret. But I've got short fingers.

The first guitar I built caught a lot of grief for the neck thickness when I took it in to a guitar shop. But the girl that played it the most had small girlly hands and wrist problems and she thought it felt great. After building a few more, I went back and took some off of that neck. It did feel better to me but that guitar always got comments on its sound....and that was before I recarved the neck. On the other hand not so many have heard it after the recarve. It is the one Justin is playing ...... till this one is ready.

So you saying the added mass in the neck improves tone. Would you say it's because the extra mass reduces the amount the neck can vibrate? Or the extra mass allows the opportunity for more resonation, assuming the timber used resonates well?

Or maybe it's just pure voodoo--no understandable reason--it's just so. Or maybe it's simply that shape feels best to you, and you make better sounding music on a guitar that feels better?

RAD's been imbedding spiders and bugs in his finish for mojo lately. I'm thinking that ripping some floor boards out of a 100 year old roadhouse,that's been soaked in beer and bourbon, with ground in sweat and ash, sliced thin and used for neck lams or stringers would add a good dose of mojo.

SR

[Prostheta]

The way I see it, is that a thinner flexible neck acts like a shock absorber. The strings sounding energy is sapped and weakened. Stiff laminates help thin necks regain musicality in my experience. Thick or thin and resilient.

[ScottR]

I have to say that the liveliest feeling necks I've built and played have been one piece jatoba which is about as stiff as a telephone pole. The one laminated neck I made has different body woods and much different pups, so i cannot really say how much affect the neck played in the tone. They all have great tone though. This one also has a laminated neck and different wood combination and a pup set chosen specifically for its tone. I expect it to sound great too.

Mahogany, limba, Spanish cedar are all prized as neck woods but not because they are exceptionally stiff, more so because of their resonance. How does that fit into the theory?

Physics tells me stiffness is more desirable, but there are a ton of mahogany necks out there.

SR

[Prostheta]

It's never going to be "solved". You've just got to get familiar with the woods and develop a feel for what is right and what works well.

Mahoganies are a mixed bag. I love Honduran and Khaya, but Sapele is perhaps a little less predictable in terms of stability. The trees just don't grow as straight. Just means more hunting for good stock. In terms of tonal qualities as part of a system, Mahogany is a slow but sweet wood. The attack is "rounded off" somewhat. My analogy was an extremely blunt and imprecise one. A more flexible (more accurately, "less stiff") neck is to a degree a factor of its thickness also. I dislike going thin with Mahogany. It just seems to lose its positive qualities. Thicker necks like big Gibson profiles work really well. The lightness of the wood (Khaya especially) makes for an airy neck that is light in the hand (if the instrument is a diver like an Explorer). Thin Mahogany necks become rubber flapping sticks. They go downhill quickly. That said, laminating it up with other woods for thinner profiles seems to get you the best of both worlds in many cases. Wengé and Honduran Mahogany are nice together. Wengé gives detail to the low fundamentals and overtones which the Mahogany seems to give it character and smoothness.

I'm not the best person to emote the qualities of woods. I'll never be a wine critic and I certainly can't write a hockey match summary. Laminating up a neck is like the choices made when making a cocktail or phrasing a chord. A lot has to be said about the choice of fingerboard at this stage, plus its thickness. They can vary by a large fraction, and given that they directly seat the fretwork....

[Prostheta]

I've found Birch to be interesting. It's quite left of centre. Not the same as Maple by any stretch of the imagination. It has the same problems as Sapele in its stability because of the size and odd shape of many Birch trees. Having made a bass from 100% Birch I can say that it is an interesting addition to the palette. Perhaps one that would benefit from finding a good bedfellow to laminate it up with. I've been thinking of Bubinga or other warmer/stiffer wood. Wenge is too dry.

Of course, this is all subjective. You might feel completely different about these woods and combinations. The fact is, there's a lot of fun to be had learning what banging these things together produces.

[ScottR]

The fact is, there's a lot of fun to be had learning what banging these things together produces.

Exactly.

I have a hard time saying one choice sounds better or worse than another, they just sound different from one another. Certainly some can be deader than others, and those may justifiably be classified as a less than desirable combination. There is still likely a use for even those. To quote Orgmorg again, they'll all sound like guitars. It's okay if one has a different tone from another. Most players have a number of guitars so they can have a number of tones available.

Or that's the excuse they've adopted to explain away a case of raging GAS.

SR

[pauliemc]

ha ha ha I love these arguments. its just opinion vs opinion all the way & you will never come to a conclusion that will satisfy everybody.

Personally, I have found that a more ridged or stiff system tends to give superior tone & playability. & no I am not saying that a trem ruins tone by adding stretchy springs before anyone jumps on that one. I mean you need a neck & body that have very little movement - if any at all.

I have always found that guitars I replaced necks on because they had what I call "disco necks" - moving about a lot, always needing the truss adjusted etc. etc. sounded better with the new stiffer neck.

Similarly, Ibanez & Jacksons I have made thicker necks for seem to benefit from having additional mass in their new necks. Although this may have a lot to do with the new neck being more ridged than the original also.

Regardless, discounting the individual species of timbers used. I believe that a more ridgid neck/body system is always going to give better tone, playability & sustain. the fact that it may be laminated or is a single piece has its own pros & cons that only add to the complexity of the arguement & complicate things. So I wont get into that.

But I do think that more neck is the way to go, I dont feel that a 17(nut)-19mm(body) thick neck is doing the guitar justice tonaly. My minimum is 20-22mm, with a preferance for 22.5-25mm on my electrics with a 44mm wide nut as standard.

My acoustics have a 23.5-27mm neck with a 47mm wide nut.

A customer explained it like this to his friend "what would you rather be swinging in a fight, a pool cue or a baseball bat ?" sometimes bigger is better.

[pauliemc]

Na man. Im still sharin d luv wen i can. There are 2 mojos gone out to customers already. But one particular client was bein a right tool. Couldnt let anyone know i was building for him. No piks. No build threads. No nuthin. Including no payment - unfortunitly for me. So look out law suit here we come

Anyway. My own mojo is nearly done so ill be puttin it up soon. It wont do well but i dig d crap outa it so what the hell

Well that sucks rocks. Was this the jackarse with the 40 guitar order?

Indeed it is.

This is a second order, 17 guitars, a mix of electric & acoustics. But he tried to jack me on the final payment, Said he would not pay up untill they had been sold on in his store. That's not how I normaly do things & was not in the contract so I held back the last few guitars.

When the deal looked like it was falling thru I agreed to refund him his payment minus an amount that constitutes a non refundable deposit once he has sent the guitars back to me in good condition.

then he hits me with a Fookin Invoice for work done by his own people. this is because he has been rebranding most of them as his own custom shops work & had the cheek to invoice me for replacing the headstock veneers & logos. Dude is realy trying my patience.

[ScottR]

Na man. Im still sharin d luv wen i can. There are 2 mojos gone out to customers already. But one particular client was bein a right tool. Couldnt let anyone know i was building for him. No piks. No build threads. No nuthin. Including no payment - unfortunitly for me. So look out law suit here we come

Anyway. My own mojo is nearly done so ill be puttin it up soon. It wont do well but i dig d crap outa it so what the hell

Well that sucks rocks. Was this the jackarse with the 40 guitar order?

Indeed it is.

This is a second order, 17 guitars, a mix of electric & acoustics. But he tried to jack me on the final payment, Said he would not pay up untill they had been sold on in his store. That's not how I normaly do things & was not in the contract so I held back the last few guitars.

When the deal looked like it was falling thru I agreed to refund him his payment minus an amount that constitutes a non refundable deposit once he has sent the guitars back to me in good condition.

then he hits me with a Fookin Invoice for work done by his own people. this is because he has been rebranding most of them as his own custom shops work & had the cheek to invoice me for replacing the headstock veneers & logos. Dude is realy trying my patience.

I wouldn't consider the rebranded ones he returned as in "good condition". They are certainly not in the condition you sold them in. You should return those along with his invoice....accompanied by a lawyer, a baseball bat and a pool cue.

SR

[Prostheta]

Couldn't agree more. He's stiffing you and then some.

[Workingman]

Dud needs to take a long walk off a short pier.

[ScottR]

Well Paulie, I measured this one at the first fret and it should merit your approval as it currently sits at 21mm. I left the fretboard a wee bit thick, whitch ought to add to the stiffness of the neck seeing as how it is ebony.

Last week I added a little more black tint just at the edge of the burst to help define it a bit more and I finished spraying the clear.

Damn, my garage looks like a tornado tore through it by the time I get to the end of a build.

SR

[ScottR]

I find it fascinating what changing light and viewing angle does to the colors and the quilt and transparent burst. If you look straight into the quilt it is highly defined and three dimensional. Where the top and bottom edges fall away due to the carve the quilt looks soft and cloud like. Tilt the guitar till you are looking straight into the carved surface and it becomes very crisp and clear and the rest of the body looks like storm clouds at sunset. At some light angles the edges of the burst are nearly black and at other angles the black disappears and you just have the deep reddish fade.

That's pretty fun!

So this weekend I went over the frets again since I always manage to knick one or two during body shaping......and it never hurts to go over the frets again and again even. I also think it's a good idea to break the surface of nitro after it's cured for several days. It helps the outgassing. There are conditions in which the surface can cure too hard too fast and trap solvents under the skin. So this will help with that issue and I get to know the tops off the orange peel. I always have some orange peel. And I figure any lacquer I've sanded away is lacquer that I don't have to wait on to cure. So I started leveling with micromesh 1500 and 1800. The lacquer is going to keep shrinking and sinking for a few more weeks, so don't bother going to a completly leveled surface. You're going to have to do it again in a few weeks.

SR

[ScottR]

I always think the matte finish look at this stage is cool. But as the finishing progresses it gets shinier and the shinier it gets the more I like that. By the time it hits full polish the matte look never stands a chance.

SR

[pauliemc]

Dude has been offered a way out.

I will split the shipping costs on the guitars being returned, & the 3 white mojos are to be given to a client of mine (effectivly sold) who will allow me repair the damage (headstock veneers) when he is in dublin for a gig in the near future.

Thats it - no invoices will be honoured.

Take it or let the solicitor handle it.