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hey perry it's your mate Lance. Go Aussie Go!

yeah my set up doesn't do much justice. Effects and Electronics Boss Metal Zone $150 Boss Guitar Tuner $125 Boss Compressor/ Sustainer $150 Planet Waves Cables $80 EMG 81 $50 Amp wait for it.... Peavey Rage 158 - 15 watts of brutality! $150 well, it is not quite $1000 on a FX board and $50 on amp but, i have spent hell of a lot more on FX and electronics then a proper amp. since i am now in a band, an amp that can produce 100 watts is needed. but i do not have $3K for a Peavey 5150 so i may have to settle with a Line 6 Spider 2 HD and Cab or an Ibanez Toneblaster HD and Cab. has anyone played on these? if so what do you reckon?

i think it's great that they use a limited amount of colours. because if you are in my situation, you can get stupid people to sell you an 81 when they think they are selling you an 85. and because they thought it was an 85, they sold it to me for really cheap, because they wanted an 81.

if you are on a budget, i would go with Gotoh. for the quality and price that they are, best bang for the buck. Mighty Mite could be decent, but i haven't seen or heard any user review on their products, and i know how extensively Gotoh TOMs are used. as the saying goes "stick to the brands that you know and you won't go wrong." personally i would go for a TonePros TOM, but they cost double that of a Gotoh TOM.

sounds like a cool idea, yet a few things to discuss. i don't know what a graphite guitar is going to sound like, it may sound good since graphite is used for nuts. i don't know where to get enough for a guitar. it will definitely be strong enough, it is used on tennis rackets. but see that's the thing, graphite is just carbon. imagine the process to turn that carbon into a strong substance. like carbon fiber, expensive and time consuming to make. so if you want to do this project there's the problems. expensive and hard to get. plus you may need some decent equipment to shape it. if money is an issue, use the real thing - timber. but if money is not an issue, by all means, make a start. a graphite guitar could be a very interesting project.

you must air dry hardwood before you kiln dry it. i don't know how long you must air dry before you kiln dry, longer the better i guess. if you don't air dry before you kiln dry, the timber will turn to ****. i forget what it is called, but if hardwood timber has been drained of moisture too fast it will shrink, warp and look rotten and will become completely useless and unworkable. i found this out at college, i am going to become a carpenter. if kiln drying timber is not an option for you, you could start working on the timber as soon as it has been air dryed enough to become workable. timber loses it's moisture over decades which means it becomes lighter and sound better through age. i have some pieces of native australian hardwood (silky oak, queensland maple, blackwood) that i have torn out of of old structures. back in the day, carpenters would only build houese out of A grade hardwood; because it was strong and there was so much of it. when they hauled the timber out to the sites, it would have been cut about a week before from virgin forests. so it was green, they did this because it was easier to nail, no nail guns back then. problem with that is, sometimes timber would dry and warp and some parts of the structure where no longer true. anyways, the timber i have must be nearly 50 years old, which means they have been air dryed for nearly 50 years. for the moment the timber is sitting in my room, no plans on its use at the moment.

hey man, you sure you want to use such a beautiful piece of timber for a whole neck? i have heard people use rosewood and ebony as whole necks, i think it's overkill. i mean, that timber is so expensive as it is, and for the tone that you get (in my opinion) it's not worth wasting such a beautiful piece for a tone that isn't that great. now a lot of people will disagree with me, but as the saying goes: "opinions are like arseholes, everyone has them" but in the end, it is your own choice. i would never use Goncalo Alves for a neck, never! if i ever had such a piece, i would only use it for a fretboard and/or neck centre laminates. that's all. sorry i couldn't answer your question.

hi Hyunsu can you give me a brief list of the tools you use? just out of interest. you're a trooper man. i don't know how you juggle a fulltime job, a family and guitar making. you truly have great dedication and you build excellent axes. keep up the outstanding work. keep the pictures going too, i love them.

big leaf or what is known as soft maple isn't used too widely for neck or fretboards, well, to my knowledge anyway. soft maple is perfect for bodies and tops though.

i had this idea as well. but i am not going to use it because my resources aren't low. i think it is a good idea though. i answered your questions in the order of B then A for specific reasons: B.) the piece of walnut will be glued in. (i don't know if there is scientific proof for this but) glue may dampen the tone. because there is a rather small surface area of walnut and poplar marriage (compared to a droptop) the walnut may not resonate the poplar as well, so you may not get a long sustaining round tone. but i am not really sure about this, this is what i think will happen. i would imagaine that when any 2 or more pieces of timber are laminated, the more surface contact of the pieces, the more "sonic energy" or tone you're gong to get out of it. A.) walnut transfers tone better than poplar, because it is harder. but because you aren't using a solid piece of walnut and/or poplar for the body, it will not sound solely like either and you may not get an increase of tone at all. you will get a mixed body tone rather. with this in mind, i say mixed instead of combination because this idea is rather unorthodox. i think a maple top on a guitar adds a combination of tones and because there is a large surface area, this will further increase tone. that's probably why it is done. if your method is put in practice, i think it will still sound good. but it may not increase the tone as such, just make the guitar sound different. in conclusion: because there is a low surface area of walnut to poplar marriage, this method may not be tone effective. i have no practical evidence of this, this is just an hypothesis.

bubinga topped explorer? that is going to be one heavy [in tonage and weight] axe dude. i love bubinga so much. i love it so much i have stocked up on it not to mention it is going to be the centre piece of my axe. infact, i have a piece standing up right next to me as i sit typing here. i adore it! anyway, Titebond is superior. i use it at college for all my woodwork. it bonds so strong so quick, it is a miracle in a bottle. blows PVA out of the water, i will never use PVA again. Hail Titebond.

looks wicked dude! that would be perfect for METAL! \m/

this doesn't help much, but my mother is dutch/indo. don't worry about video, we have PAL here. although our DVDs are Region 4 and in Europe they are Region 2. but multi Region DVD players are cheap as chips. i am not an electrician so you might have to ask someone if our extra 10 volts is going into your electronics will fry your electronics over time. you may need some some kinda step down transformer box. so where about are you moving to in Australia?

hi Dan i live in Brisbane as well, in Forest Lake to be precise. so where are you from? anyway, i had a lot of trouble finiding wood in Brisbane. but if you know where to look properly and if you know they right people you can get very decent wood, even in Brisbane. now you may have found some decent wood already, but i think you should still check out this supplier. i purchased all my wood from a local hardwood supplier that speacialises in Native and Exotic Hardwoods. here are the details: http://www.wattswood.com.au/ Watt's Wood & Mouldings Pty Ltd 81 Pentex Street, Salisbury, 4107. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Telephone 07 3274 4299 - Fax 07 3274 4246 this place does not sell Indian Rosewood, African Ebony or Brazillian Mahogany or any other extremely rare and/or barely legal exotic hardwood. in my opinion the selection is very decent and the prices are very dencent too. plus you cn buy as much or as little as you want. you can nearly get every common Australian hardwood there is for very cheap: Silky Oak, Tasmanian Oak, Tasmanian Blackwood, Queensland Maple, Jarrah, Huon Pine. Here is a list of Exotic wood off the top of my head: Canadian Maple, American Cherry, Sapele, Utile, African Mahogany, White Ash, New Guinea Rosewood. as this is your first guitar (to my knowledge) i think you should experiment and use a wood that is not so commonly used or known as a "tonewood" - why? well in my case it was necessity that led to my final choice which in no time turned into preference. for example, i wanted to use for Brazillian Mahogany for the body of my guitar, but the cheapest quote i got for it in Australia (not even in Brisbane, in NSW) was $120 for a 1000x150x50 plank and it was not even 1/4 cut. so i ended up getting a cheaper alternative. African Utile (same genus as Sapele) another Mahogany species from Africa. (it is different to African Mahogany though - completely different colour and weight to Utile) but from what i can tell, Utile weighs and looks and feels very similar to Brazillian except the grains are interlocked. plus i think i got a better deal in the end because the African Utile piece cost me only $30 plus it is 1/4 cut and it displays 60+ fine growth rings (a very old tree) compared to the thick 30- growth rings (young plantation tree) and it was crown cut. not only that, Brazillian Mahogany cost 4 times more than African Utile. i hope this helps. good luck finding a hardwood for your axe.

no offence, some pretty lame names out there. i think no one wants to tell each other the real names of their guitars.