rogerabjet

Hi guys - presenting 'Scarab'. Solid body mahogony electric guitar with Kent Armstrong P90 and PAF pickups. The fretboard is ebony with sterling silver inlay, bound in maple. There's Zebrano veneer on the headstock, and it's got the Steinberger tuners that I love - still not sure why! Tonepros locking hardware, and a blend pot setup allowing for a lot of tonal variation. Hope you guys like it! The design and finish on the body is beetle-esque - it's pearlescent green and purple metallic finish, changing colour in different light angles. The sterling silver inlay is in what I call a 'constellation' design. The body shape is supposed to be a combination of feminine and insectoid - it's to represent Nuit, the Egyptian Goddess who gave birth to the stars - represented by the fretboard inlay. The body shape evokes a scarab beetle - the symbol of the gods. The Zebrano headstock brings a slightly more natural timber feel to the guitar, also evoking the reed or papyrus that the egyptians used as a writing material. The guitar plays not unlike a 70s Les Paul - heavy but responsive. It has incredible sustain (way more than any guitar I've built before), so it's got a lot of playability. It's a fun guitar - great sound from the Kent Armstrongs, and great fun to play. Hope you guys like it.

Hi guys, this may be me being very poor at searching the internet, but does anyone out there know of any references for making a splayed fret or offset fretboard? Not sure if that's how it's described exactly, but when the frets angle offset to the bridge and nut on a fretboard. I'm guessing that this fretboard style implies at least an adjusted scale length or perhaps a different manner of playing, but it was something I'd love to experiment with. If any here on the forums know of any resources, I'd be very grateful for the link! Thanks, rogerabjet

The Surf Guitar Hello everyone - here's my first guitar. Ever. Please be gentle. (I realize I have no chance of winning with this entry, mainly cos I absolutely love pukko's guitar, but I thought it might at least spark some lively conversation/debate.) Obviously, it is a surfboard guitar, which was commissioned by an art gallery in Dublin, to be painted by the artist Tom Byrne, as part of his summer gallery show. It was commissioned as a surfboard shape in order to reflect the aquatic and seascape style in which he paints. A few minor bits; the neck join is cut into the fretboard, a special request by the gallery in order to maintain the full surfboard shape, and as such, it has two unusable 'semi-frets', so in reality, it's a 15 fret guitar, that is half guitar, half art piece. The finish is entirely the artist's work - i take no credit for that, and it is quite a textured, almost rough painting, with several lacquer layers to protect the texture of the finished painting on top of the guitar. It is a maple body, with a center strip of mahogany, similar to the construction of a real surfboard, partially to help strengthen the neck join (which as you can see, is unorthodox, to say the least!) The body is an anotomically correct replica of a Proctor Levee surfboard, and the headstock is again, an anotomically correct representation of a BZ Flybat bodyboard. If anyone's interested in looking at the boards themselves, I'll include the links at the bottom of the page. Also, if anyone wants to see the only surfboard guitar that I have found that pre-dates mine, please have a look at http://www.rabjet.com/index.php?page=surfguitar - it's even crazier than mine! If anyone else can find pictures of surfboard guitars - I'd love to see 'em! Anyway, enough - here are the specs: Kent Armstrong Gibson P90 Humbucker retrofit Steinberger gearless tuners Tonepros locking Tune-o-matic Bridge and Tailpiece Double pot wiring Vintage Bone Nut p.s. I'm not a surfer. The guy who commissioned it is... To see the boards, go to: http://www.proctorsurf.com/store/site/prod...C959A5F594EA48B and http://www.bzproboards.com/flash.html

Wow - thanks man - it's certainly going to give me a couple of directions to explore over the next couple of days...like i said - i'll post some images tomorrow, or maybe this evening, and see how it all looks...

Thanks for the help guys - a little more info, and a pic of progress to follow tomorrow...the piece is being made as a functional guitar (to a point....ba dum tshshshsh), but will be primarily an art piece. I've explained the loss of function to the guy who commissioned it (an art gallery owner, and guitarist), and he's happy with it. Leaving the frets alone as far as the 17th or even 19th fret gives 2 minor and a major pentatonic - I'll admit, I wouldn't want that limit on my guitar (I recently cut a 26 fret fretboard, unused as yet...), but so many 'guitarists' hardly ever go beyond the 17th fret. I'll get a picture in tomorrow - maybe some more ideas. Deadline for this bad boy is th 27th of July, so my hands are raw already... I am starting to like the idea of the extension bolt though...

Hi guys - just a quick question I was hoping might generate some interest. I have a deadline on an unfinished guitar for paint in 15 days, and it's a surfboard guitar. It'll show up as an entrant in guitar of the month whenever it's painted, but for now it's under construction. The body is shaped like a surfboard, and the headstock is shaped like a bodyboard. Unfortunately, the artist painting it wants the surfboard shape to be unaltared, so I have to join the neck from the underside, having cut a pointed cavity into the surface of the fretboard. Has anyone here done this before? I'm fairly confident that the join cavity size is large enough to provide strength, but I'll have 2 parts of unplayable frets above the 19th fret (the last uncut fret once the join is made....) Does this sound ridiculous? Any advice would be appreciated! Roger