Drak

While I agree with this, the whole concept from the beginning was to introduce the four basic colors to the body. But in a way that didn't directly mimic the original idea or theme. The pure black/white thing was just a 'pause' point until I figured out how to implement them to my satisfaction. You have to be willing to try things and fail at it, all successful people experience failure, sometimes time and time again. But they don't let it curb their ambition to take risks. Taking risks and failure are always part of the backstory of any success. That's one thing I've always liked about building for myself. That I can throw something (promising) straight off the cliff's edge and see whether it grows wings and flies or dies in a fiery crash-landing. Both resolutions are OK, its the experience and taking the risk that oxygenates the blood in the end. Not always hedging your bets for a 'safe' landing. Sometimes safe is just boring or repetative.

My Khruangbin board. I use a Neunaber WET verb where he uses an EHX Holy Grail. The padded 'footie' knobs idea on the WET (and the Gila) I got from him (Mark). The Obscura has a 'hold repeat' function that simulates the way he uses his Strymon El Cap. I got turned on to Khun Narin through Mark (Speer), and I use the Gilamondo's 'hold' function to dial in and replicate that heavily midranged overhead horns sound. The 'hold' function 'stops and parks' the phaser wave wherever you want it along the dial and works dead perfect to replicate that overhead PA sound. Sticking the vibe and the OD in there doubles the board for Trower. Khun Narin (Live at Party) Mark Speer Rig Rundown

So...the colored arrows weren't working for me over time. It was a kinda cool idea, and glad I implemented it and gave it a shot. But the novelty wore off and I didn't see the lasting longevity in it. I.e., ...I would not be loving it in years to come.. So this is a mockup in Paint, tho I just got done shooting it to look exactly like this, front and back. Welcome to the new look.

Thinking about it a little more... The removable back plate idea is stalling with me a little. There would have to be a rational, reasonable justifiable reason why that idea should be implemented. Instead of, I guess, a control cavity. If I understood the reason behind it better, I might get on board with it. But I can angle-grind a belly cut in about 1/2 hour and its done. So an entire back-of-the-guitar contour would take a couple of hours, but then that part is done and over. Even with integrating and grinding a bevel on the control cover, like @ScottR just did on his new build. A thin removable (wooden) backplate, I think, would distort and warp over time, and maybe not that long a time. I see future issues and problems with this, besides the pre-planning and work involved to execute it. Maybe I'm just missing part of the concept... Even a material that doesn't distort and warp, there's a fair amount of trouble, so I would want to know what the payoff is to justify it.

The way I understood it, the entire back of the guitar IS a belly carve...actually a full torso carve if I understood it correctly. So the guitar 'custom fits' into the torso of the person, like a glove fits a hand. And the back plate was going to be separately formed and molded to that 'full torso carve' shape, so it could be removed (screws, magnets, etc.) I don't see any feedback issues, as the top is solid, and the top is what vibrates to create the howl of feedback. Unless I misunderstood something there... If possible, I would just make the entire (removable) back plate out of carbon fiber, why not? I would think, over the years, with two separate pieces of wood, the possibility of deforming and gaps would be present. With an entire piece of carbon fiber, that would hold it's shape over the long haul better than two separate pieces of wood would.

Thanks. If they're on a board, that means I fully adore them and they're very useful and up to the task. I don't keep anything I don't like or doesn't work. I have 4 specifically targeted running boards at the moment and refuse to build any more, enough is enough. (I might be reaching that point with guitars too, I'm pretty well satiated with the herd at this point.) I have a Gilmour board, an Ambient board, a Trower/Khruangbin board, and this one, the 'heavy hitter', which started out as a The War on Drugs' board. The lower row (and the end of the upper row) is still pretty much intact as a leftover from Granduciel's TWOD board, which is why its so large. The (white) Mooer delay is my 'Eddie Echoplex' set to one repeat, the Crunchbox is the 'Marshall', and the Tight Metal is the '5150'. I have a reasonable amount of pedals doing benchwarming, not on boards, some of which are highly rated by the masses. So if you see something on my boards, it beat out something else that's benchwarming. And I'm done with pedals, have been for a few years now, I have everything I could possibly want/need and am satisfied with them all. The years I wasn't here, I had stopped building guitars to an extent and was very caught up in making pedalboards and a rack system, but they're done and that's over now. It's always good to be able to bring things to a conclusion and just use the stuff.

Oh, compared to most people here, I rate as a reasonably good shoe shiner most days, but Thank You, I admire your builds as well.

I wouldn't listen to a damn thing I say about Floyds, I'm kinda dusty on that topic. I navigated to the Schaller OFR's (for my builds) a long time ago and just kind of stayed put there, I haven't played many others TBH. It's not on the guitar yet, so that was my observation just from a parts quality/build standpoint. And I bought it from a recommendation from someone who's 'in that game' a lot more than I am lately. That was actually part of my thought process in building these, to get my Floyd techniques dusted off and spit-shined up a bit. I did reconfigure one of my boards for the Floyds last week, it should cover everything from VH to Satch, Vai, Timmons, Dimebag, Stoner, etc. Both the Triskellion and the Polymoon will take an expression pedal, I have it hooked to the Triskellion right now, but that could change. Triskellion w/ Expression Pedal A funny note about the Tight Metal, I bought that used from someone on a forum many years ago. It actually is the prototype for the Tight Metal Pro which came out after he (I guess) perfected the mods on this one, with additions that now come stock on the TMP. You can't see them from this angle but this is basically a TMP in a smallbox, and signed/dated on the bottom by James Brown himself

Well it Looks like it has fought and won many a battle.

Deleted due to second instance of First Person thread swerving.

Deleted due to First Person thread swerving.

So that didn't take any time at all, I totally breezed through the back in half an hour. Like cake. Had everything ready from yesterday. Paints already mixed, tape pieces already cut and saved from yesterday, weather is good, knew the routine. I questioned whether to add some green to the back as there is green coming to the front. And I decided no, its good and proper as it sits (know when enough is enough and learn When to Stop). So the background is now done, just clearcoats. It is what it is, for better or worse. I decided to leave the bit of red on the neck pocket. When viewed from the back, that little bit helps the brain connect the red on the neck to the body, so that stays. The real colorburst and primary theme is on the pickguard assembly anyway, this is all supporting cast material. Chrome Floyd/hardware, not gold this time. Hey, what's that sitting on the desk? Could it be a 360 Abralon pad? Why...I think it might be!

I Am a Cat, in real life, I was told that by someone long ago. Whenever I go to functions and I want to leave, or feel like leaving, I just leave, period. I've done that my entire life (since I could drive and had my own car, anyway). I never spend an hour on goodbyes, I literally just leave, just like a cat. I always hear about it the next day, 'Where did you go, I turned around and you just disappeared!' Which is when I was told I was just like a cat like that. Dog people spend an hour on goodbyes and don't leave for an hour after they have decided to leave. If I'm with a dog person, drives me absolutely crazy.

Wellsir, I stand corrected, there it is (with a Floyd nut, but I'm just f-ing with you) And birdsyeyes, which I never knew about. Carry On!

I would prefer to think of healthy, nutritionally-fed puppies.

I looked at it with a scrutinizing eye and I agree with Biz, it looks 'just' a bit 'too' dirty. But we'll wait and see how you wrap it up. I'm imagining the story, that it never got painted beyond this stage and Eddie played it regularly, so I totally get that. But I don't think Eddie would have let it get that 'dirty'. So let me say this: to me, it looks more 'dirty', than 'worn', if that makes sense. I'm differentiating between 'dirty' and 'worn' now. However, your abilities are top shelf, it looks completely authentically 'dirty', it looks completely authentic. The 5 burns in the neck are really bugging me and if anything looks 'faked', or overbaked, its that. Can you show me or link to a pic of the actual headstock burns?

I found that pic rather humorous. If I didn't (generally) clean up my bench before taking pics, there would Always be a 360 grit Abralon pad in my pics. To quote a phrase: "I put that shit on everything". I probably use the 360 Abralon nearly every day if I'm doing any kind of shooting or finishing work. I have the full set going up to 4000, but the 360 is my primary go-to for so many functions. It's always present, its always out, very nearby nearly all the time. F-ing love those things.

The (gold) Gotoh GE-1996-T Floyd came in yesterday, I'm really impressed with it, ...and I don't impress easily. I thought the Schaller OFR was the gold standard for Floyds, but apparently things have changed. This thing is Amazing. I ordered everything I needed to finish this up. The trem, locking nut, tuners, retainer bar, its all here now. Still have to cut the locking nut shelf and re-drill for the larger trem studs and this thing is on the way to finished.

Had to Google that. "The BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food Diet) is an alternative raw diet designed to provide puppies with a modified homemade diet that consists of raw muscle meat and bones, as well as vegetables and fruits while eliminating all processed foods."

You can see with the neck attached (sort of) how the red curves around from one side of the body and comes up the other side of the neck. I love that. I love it. I slapped the original pickguard on it for reference, but this isn't what's going on it, tho I 'could' use it as a second, it 'does' work. What's coming is going to be much mo' bettah.

So I decided to go active on this one too. I've had an EMG VMC control (Google it) in the drawer for years. It's called a Variable Mids Control (duh), but you may as well call it a parametric EQ. It has two ganged pots, and boosts or cuts selected frequencies between 100hz and 1khz. One pot selects the frequency, the other either boosts or cuts that frequency. I always like boosting around the 800hz area, so it should be great. I had to re-configure the pickguard for 3 knobs as if I have a choice I only ever use vol/tone. But also, its not the mega-5-knob setup that I usually do for an EMG build, just one additional (dual-ganged) pot. Just have to figure if I feel like cutting out a hole for a battery box or stuff it under the guard.

When I said Sonic Crayon, I wasn't f-ing kidding, eh? Second pic I took to show what happens in color blocking all the time, especially on bends and corners. The little nigglies that always need to be attended to. This is a typical razor blade cleanup thing, 5 minutes maybe, you'll never see it. I stopped there for the day, I'll pick it back up and continue the line on the back another day. There's enough red (already) and green (coming) to satisfy the scheme, I didn't need any more of either of them, so yellow and blue are the accent colors. I had to get some yellow next to the red in total hero-worship Ode to Adrien and Paul. All the colors are bouncing off of each other just like I wanted everything to w/o looking like an Adrien copycat. But yet, the basic theme/idea is definitely there. Cheers fellas.

Love the Birdseye neck, unexpected. I wouldn't have done the burns on both sides, just on the upper side. I used to do that, and to stick a cigarette on the underside wouldn't make sense (in the real world) to me. Maybe he did it, I don't know, but it would seem odd for a smoker to do that. PS, it's 11:00, do you know where your women and children are?

The first merrymakers are arriving, the Big Ticket headliners still en route, stuck in traffic. Still developing the background. The deftness required to pull the tape only entrusted to the Left Hand fingers, of course. While the neanderthal-like functions of taking pics relegated to the lobotomized right hand fingers. And Mr. Floyd has resumed his natural appearance again.

Some Belew song titles: Big Electric Cat, Sexy Rhino, Elephant Talk, Ballet for a Blue Whale. UmmHmm...