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NoQuattro

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Everything posted by NoQuattro

  1. Such a contrast between the body and that black background that it looks like a Solidworks 3D rendering. It doesn't even look real.
  2. When drilling holes for ferrules and routing out pickup cavaties, is it better to - A. Drill/rout the body, glue the veneer, then cut the holes/routs into the veneer with an X-acto and Dremel B. Glue the veneer, then do all the routing and drilling I'm looking for minimal chipping and mishaps. It seems to me that you could really do it either way, but I would think that gluing the veneer first would be the best choice and would end up being the cleanest. I'm just concerned about the edges of the veneer around the holes and cavaties.
  3. Looking good! I was always kind of spooked about making a neck from scratch but your pics and results have convinced me to make my next build 100% from scratch instead of buying a neck. The fretwork looks great. I like the documentation of making the neck template and routing it out from the body blank. That's the step I'm at right now and am anxious to get to business. I appreciate the picture showing how you tilted your neck template to get the proper neck angle. I've been pulling my hair out figuring out how to rout a slight angle into the pocket and this simple solution slaps me in the face. Very exciting because I now can go with the original string-thru design I had conceived instead of a plain-jane hardtail Strat bridge. The neck inserts are also a good tip; I disassembled my cheapy Epiphone strat clone to discover that the neck is held on with just wood screws without inserts. I was going to do the same until I saw the inserts in your build. Keep up the work, it's pretty inspiring so far.
  4. I'm liking the way this guitar looks. The neck doesn't look like it's overdone at all. Seems to have a good balance of woods. That bubinga has some really cool grain on it too! The fretboard grain is awesome. I'm going to have to build myself a Rhoads one day.
  5. Looks good. I've heard from a lot of guys that the chambered LP has a nice, singing quality to it and good sustain. Some of the LP purists say that a chambered LP is no LP at all. The weight savings are huge, and that's one nice advantage. I'm curious to how it will sound compared to a regular solidbody LP. I haven't played a chambered one yet but I'm anxious to.
  6. Such a difficult question, there are so many great tones out there. Some of my favorites - Randy Rhoads - Flying High Again. That first chord just comes out and hits you in the face. It's totally searing. Great song, killer tone. SRV - Little Wing. The cleans are so crystal clear when he rolls back on the volume, but when the guitar is wide open it has this really lovely, warm tube sound coupled with his amazing playing on that track. David Gilmour - Time. I really like his tone in this solo, sounds violin-like at times. Zakk Wylde - No More Tears. Killer rhythm and lead tone, and those pinch harmonics in the verse really jump out at you. His tone nowadays has a little too much going on for me, I much preferred his tone on this song/album. Jimmy Page - Since I've Been Loving You. The lead tone is so small, it sounds like it's coming from a 3" speaker but it still kills and fits the song perfectly. Neil Young - Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black). The absolute heaviest, most distorted tone I've ever heard. Always on the edge of feedback or the amp exploding. The first time I heard this song, it totally took my head off. Billy Gibbons - Just Got Paid. One of my favorite intro riffs of all time. Real greasy, bluesy tone on his intro. Come to think of it, anything with Billy Gibbons is pretty much guaranteed to have superb tone. Jake E. Lee - Shot In the Dark. I really like his lead tone on this song. Plus, the fills he plays during the chorus are really complimented by his rhythm tone. Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky. I think this is quintessential fuzz tone. And many, many more.
  7. Yeah, I guess I'll just go bolt on for this one. The next one will be a neck through, I would say. I was unaware that Warmoth dipped their necks in any sealer as they advertise them as unfinished - especially the Maple ones. They are pretty adamant about telling you that they'll void your warranty if you leave it raw and just oil it. Undecided what finish, if any, I'll do on the neck.
  8. Chops - the design is a massaged Strat style, one off body. 25.5 scale Warmoth neck, all maple from neck to body to veneer. Doug - I looked at your site and can see how the set necks are definitely different from gluing in a bolt-on. I think I'll just do a bolt-on for this first one with something similar to the all access neck joint. As I do more builds (made the mistake of playing a Tele yesterday...need one now) and gain experience, tips, and tricks, I'll do set necks or neck-thrus. I'll start a build thread soon once I get some more pics and a little further in to the process.
  9. Doug, could you explain what you feel the difference between gluing in a bolt-on neck versus a having a set neck is? I was under the impression that a set neck was, basically, a bolt-on neck that has been permanently glued into place. Is it the tenon size? Presence of some kind of tounge-and-groove? My neck pocket is going to be roughly 3.5" by 2.25" with a depth of .75".
  10. Good tip about supporting the body unglued. Thanks, chops.
  11. Exactly. Geo, the neck tenon is perfectly flat and the sides will be perpendicular. This tenon looks like any other Strat tenon I've seen. I haven't routed the neck pocket yet, as I've just planed the body on both sides. Routing comes next. When gluing this joint, should I go with Titebond or should I use epoxy?
  12. That's the kinda heel I'm after. Fortunately, my neck has no holes drilled in it so the possibilities are endless. It just seems to me that a carefully routed neck pocket, some Titebond, and clamping for 24+ hours would hold just as well as 4 screws. I'm going for aesthetics, here.
  13. I would assume that, when doing a set-neck, you would like to have the tenon extend into the body a reasonable distance, probably at least 4 or 5 inches. The reason I ask is because my pre-made neck is designed to be a bolt in, and if I glue the neck into the neck pocket I fear it might not be strong enough. This is a standard sized Strat neck pocket we're talking about. On the other side of the token, I've thought that if the neck were properly glued it, it would be as strong if not stronger than 4 screws/bolts. I would like to have a sculpted heel, so the body of the guitar would definitely be less meaty in the heel area. The most important thing to be seems to be that the neck will fit tightly into the pocket before gluing to ensure that the wood is making good contact in there and the glue has a great chance of getting into the pores and setting up really nice. Solid maple body and neck. Thoughts?
  14. Right. I kinda alluded to that at the end of my post when talking about how it was to be mounted on studs. I guess I'll need to determine the height from the bottom of the bridge to where the string rests in the middle saddles, then add the distance that the posts will create when screwed into the body. I suppose I could drive the mounts down to where the bridge is resting on the body if it needed to be that low. I'll start drawing out the neck to scale like the Ornsby diagram and see what I come up with. As a side question, I see that the Hipshot bridge is radiused. My fretboard has a compound radius. Would this present any difficulties versus having a totally flat bridge where all the strings come off the saddles at the same height?
  15. Hey all, I've played guitar for about 10 years now and am about to embark on my first build. I'm pretty excited about it, and I've assembled everything I need (wood-wise) to get to work. My first guitar was an Epiphone knockoff of a Strat. Not a bad first guitar, I still have it but haven't played it in a very long time. About 3 years ago, I got my dream guitar. It's a 2005 custom shop Gibson Les Paul Custom. Alpine white, mellowing to a nice cream color. Based on that guitar, you could probably guess that I have an affinity for the playing of Randy Rhoads. Anyhow, on to the build details. The body is made from three pieces of rock maple, planed on the edges and glued together. It's been clamped and drying for about 12 hours now, another 12+ to go to fully cure it. The top will be covered in a bookmatched quilted maple veneer. Two humbuckers, and two stacked knobs for volume/tone. My neck was purchased from Warmoth - maple with maple fingerboard, Warmoth headstock, no fret markers for a sleek look. I've had this neck for 7 years going on 8 now. I looked at the forlorn box it has been in for nearly a decade and decided that I was going to finally do this. I prefer hardtail guitars, and this one will be no exception. While doing some internet window shopping for the hardware that I want to use, I came across the Hipshot Baby Grand bridge. I feel that this will fit in very well, stylistically, to the body I am making. It's a classy, kinda jazzy-looking bridge that I really like. My question is this - the Baby Grand is a Gibson-style bridge, but it's not curved on the bottom like the standard Tune-o-Matic and stop tailpiece. It's totally flat on the bottom, the specs are below... So, how will I determine if I need to have neck angle (a la the Gibson) or no neck angle at all (Strat, etc.)? It seems to me that, since the bridge is flat on the bottom and my guitar will be a flat top, I won't need to have any neck angle. The only thing making me question this logic is that the bridge is Gibson style, mounted on studs, meaning it will be higher than your run-of-the-mill hardtail Fender style bridge...so if I didn't have any neck angle, the action would be much too high to be comfortable.
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