Hi!
Dmitry Sushkov here and I proudly present the Wahlgaard mk. II - a 9 strings electric guitar made for Ragne Wahlquist of Heavy Load band, Swedish heavy metal pioneers.
The purpose of second build is some design and functional improvements after playing some concerts with first one, which I posted here some time ago. Main improvement is shorter scale for better behavior of first .007" string, originally supposed to tune in Ab. But we're also updated the look with more inlays and new custom designed top lock. This build took me whole year 2019. Most of the time was spent on inlay job, my favorite part.
About me. I'm building custom guitars since 1999, I don't remember exact numbers but I can say I have built about 150 guitars in total which are living all around the world now. The Wahlgaard II is my 5-th guitar built in my own small shop in Prague.
Here is the link to build progress thread
And here are the specs:
Guitar construction: Headless, 9 Strings, double cutaway, special archtop design, set-neck
Body material: Korina
Top material: 16 mm American black walnut bookmatched top
Body construction: LP style archtop front with back comfort contours and bridge tuning pegs cavity
Neck construction: 3 piece with carbon stripes (total 5 parts), no headstock
Neck angle: 3 degrees to body
Neck material: Korina, 3 parts
Neck reinforcement stripes: carbon fiber
Truss rod: Double-action 500 mm, adjustable nut under string holder
Fretboard material: Ebony 85mm width
Fretboard radius: 20” (508mm)
Fretboard width at nut: 66 mm
Nut: Black TUSQ (Hipshot)
Fret marker inlays: Black ravens, walnut leaves, sword and Wahlquist symbol
Frets: 20x2.5 mm + 9x2mm SINTOMS Stainless steel frets
Scale length: 671 mm
Neck thickness: 1 fret = 20 mm, 12 fret = 22 mm
Strings: First string (.007) is a special type of string from Octave plus The other strings are Ernie Ball 9-String 28" Scale
string No size tuning
first .007 Ab
second .009 Eb
third .012 Bb
fourth .016 Gb
fifth .024 Db
sixth .034 Ab
seventh .042 Eb
eighth .056 Bb
ninth .080 F
String spacing on nut: Equal string spacing calculated as 6,361 mm, standard 4 mm from string to edge
String spacing on bridge: 10,4 mm
Bridge: 9 individual Mera Submarine III (rev. 2) Gold plated
Top-lock: 9-string custom made solid locking nut, gold plated
Controls: 3 pots V+V+T
Active electronics: JFET high quality low power adjustable preamp to boost volume by 2-6dB
Pickup selector switch: 3-way 4PDT switch
Additional active/passive control switch: 3-way 4PDT switch
Neck pickup: Custom made vinatage PAF inspired 9-string pickup without covers bobbins both creme, including creme pickup ring
Bridge pickup: Custom made vinatage PAF inspired 9-string pickup without covers creme/black bobbins, including creme pickup ring
Pot knobs: Metal regular sized dome knobs GOLD
Output jack: Gold switchcraft long threaded barrel jack
Strap buttons: Gold Schaller Strap Locks
Body art: Customer's signature on the lower part
Body binding: Mother of Pearl stripe
Finish: Modern high-gloss polyester
Case: Molded plastic hard case with custom interior
Some sound clips:
And some completed pics: