guitar2005 Posted February 23, 2008 Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 (edited) I'm not questioning the quality of the completed work, just the amount of man hours it took to accomplish it. In a working shop there would be no way to make money doing the job the way it was done here. However, for a first time project, chalk it up to a learning experience. Agreed. I don't think that his hours are being paid tho. ... and I didn't realize he did the job twice (took the first cap off, to put a second one on). If it were me, I would have left that body exactly the way is was and made a new one from scratch... but that's just me. Edited February 23, 2008 by guitar2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdstone Posted February 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 I'm not questioning the quality of the completed work, just the amount of man hours it took to accomplish it. In a working shop there would be no way to make money doing the job the way it was done here. However, for a first time project, chalk it up to a learning experience. Agreed. I don't think that his hours are being paid tho. ... and I didn't realize he did the job twice (took the first cap off, to put a second one on). If it were me, I would have left that body exactly the way is was and made a new one from scratch... but that's just me. Relax guys , this is a hobby for me so the time is no drama. As far as cost go I have spent an extra $20 ($18US), the paint I have left over from the first time. As far as planing went it was an experiment that didn`t work but thats ok.As guitar 2005 said ,"run it through a thicknesser , glue a top on ,band saw the rough shape and then run a router around the body with a guide on it, last thing do the forarm contour and Done. Not including gluing time ,1 1/2hours . I have changed the top config from scratch plate 3 pup guiter to no scratch plate 2 pup so the rear now has the control access. I have had it together playing and its great, much better. Its lighter , has more snap to the attack and because I improved the neck angle the action is as good as I have ever seen, in fact I will have to raise it a bit as super low action to me feels a bit weird,like you dont push the strings down. As far as the locking floyd goes I was trying to find a way out of needing an allen key. This guitar gets played in standard tuning and drop D and drop A so its a hassel. But apart from fitting a kahler behind the nut cam lock or weilding a short allen key into the floyd nut it looks like I am stuck with it. From where I live the Dtuner is too expensive. The advantages of the floyd nut exceed the disadvantages so it goes back on. Making the ali nut and then modding it for the grapthech nut took more time than the recap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black_labb Posted February 24, 2008 Report Share Posted February 24, 2008 interesting modding going on here, good job. the auminium would wear down as the surface corrodes and creates a protective layer, but this protective layer rubbs off easily, which is what is happening. good to hear that you got another one working well. nice looking mods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted February 24, 2008 Report Share Posted February 24, 2008 Body is purple heart , no wonder why its so heavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted February 24, 2008 Report Share Posted February 24, 2008 (edited) As far as the locking floyd goes I was trying to find a way out of needing an allen key. This guitar gets played in standard tuning and drop D and drop A so its a hassel. But apart from fitting a kahler behind the nut cam lock or weilding a short allen key into the floyd nut it looks like I am stuck with it. From where I live the Dtuner is too expensive. The advantages of the floyd nut exceed the disadvantages so it goes back on. Making the ali nut and then modding it for the grapthech nut took more time than the recap. Finding the stupid allen key is a hassle, I agree, but you can get one of these: https://store.ibanez.com/store/comersus_lis...p?idCategory=42 Problem solved. I'm sure there are other places where you can get the holders. Edited February 24, 2008 by guitar2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdstone Posted February 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 I have been pondering the bridge pup for a while and I was getting confused with all the options, medium power ,high power ,scatter wound boutique ,cheep chineese ,Duncan ,dimarzio ect ect in the end if its well made it proberbly won`t make a huge amount of differance when the gain gets turned up SO looking around at what I have in the box of bits I came up with this. The first is Two ibanez blazer pups with differing mag polarity , so I wired them up and now I have a 15K ohm pup I hooked it up to a test guitar and it has promise. So its got me thinking a bit more and I came up with this, The second ;Two fender mex(I think) pups also different mag polarity. I put them on a brass base plate as I have has success putting base plates on single pups. Rear view [ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted February 25, 2008 Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 I like this thread. thirdstone's attitude is "it was a piece of crap guitar, and I'm just gonna run some experiments on it and see if I can make it better." It's true that he's not following the "measure twice, cut once" philosophy, but in the context of this particular guitar, I think it's working out great. Wonder how those "singles made into humbucker" pickups sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdstone Posted February 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 Thanks Greg you are pretty spot on, its never going to be guitar of the month. However it will play and sound great, I wont stop untill it does. The aim is to make a workhorse that does`nt matter if it gets scratched or dented , in fact I know it will get bashed around. Thats what happens when you give it to a 15 year old . More mods ; I reground the The Floyd rose pivot points, one end has had the knife edge flattened. This stops any binding that can happen with the standard setup. i think that latter floyds have this although Iam not sure as i havn'nt looked. The floyd has no individual saddle hight adjustment so to account for this I fit a thin piece of feeler guage under the middle saddles. feeler guage The fret board has a 12" rad so its not as flat as some ie 16". Now the bit thats the coolest is the brass block that I got from Monster Guitars . I fitted a steel block from Callaham guitars to my strat and it made a small but noticable differance. This should help more as the block is significantly heavier than the standard block. Its made from bell brass. I find thats there is no one thing that makes a huge differance but every small improvement adds up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdstone Posted February 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 I like this thread. thirdstone's attitude is "it was a piece of crap guitar, and I'm just gonna run some experiments on it and see if I can make it better." It's true that he's not following the "measure twice, cut once" philosophy, but in the context of this particular guitar, I think it's working out great. Wonder how those "singles made into humbucker" pickups sound. Well the fender single coils sound pretty good as far as I can tell at the moment. I only have them in a test guitar but so far my observations are this, The Ibanez coils in series are milder more mid biased they don't sound bad just a bit neutral.Compaired to a Les paul with fralins they are clearer with a bit more high end . The fralins definitely has more bottom end and are darker but less volume .I know from experiance that the Fralins sound a bit too dark at low volumes but cranked they open up into classic AC DC. The strat single coils are, compaired to the others much brighter with lots of midrange growl. A bit like a tele on steroids. Only down side is that they might be too bright as the bottom end is weak in comparison to the Fralins. They actualy sound quite good with lots of gain sort of like having a treble boster kicked in. I have a MI audio boost and buff stomp box which has a treble boost function boost and buff so the comparison is quite good. Its worth continuing at this stage. I may, in the end get a SD Jeff Beck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdstone Posted March 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2008 Its been a while but its finished now. I ended up buying a pickup from Vintage Vibe HSP model Its pretty good service from Pete at VV, after I had Emailed the order he replied asking the type of guitar , woods and other pup fitments music styles ect. I had initialy ordered a very high output pup but he suggested a different wind based on the info I gave him. He went away and wound one for my spec. All for the price of a Duncan. Pretty cool I thought. Pete`s pups are a work of art , check out the shielding on this. covers removed Bottom View The sound of the guitar is pretty IN YOUR FACE which was the aim ,it just loves distortion, the down side is that there is very little compression , its not smooth. Not for Jazz. The neck pup sounds good on this guitar , I have never been happy with it on other normal strats as it was too dark sounding but this body suits it. The controls are Volume 500Kohm for bridge and 250Kohm for neck pup Volume and kill switch. 3 way selector Neck/both/bridge. Back View So there we have it, The makeover was well worth it and the costs although higher than I anticipated was worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Posted March 13, 2008 Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 You know that a few well known guitars went thru this kind of process,and now their guitars are being cloned at $25,000.00 plus a pop.Just a few are EVH'S ,Jimmy H.,SRV,etc. to name a few.They don't care how it looks ...but how it plays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted March 13, 2008 Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 looks pretty cool... i had some vintge vibe pickups a few years back and was very happy with them even with the non-traditional construction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdstone Posted March 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 One side observation; I was able to play this with zero finnish and now with a coat of paint.It was clearly more "lively unfinnished. From this observation I can honestly say the finnish affected the sound to the detrement,kind of mutes the treble freqs a bit. This is where I think good vintage instruments get their little bit of magic. As the guitar ages the finnish hardens and thins especialy the nitro type. Intresting is the recent development of "thin finnishes" by fender and PRS. The paint on this was no thicker than normal , about 4 sesions of about 3 coats each time with a light scuff sand with 600 grit dry inbetween. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestvic Posted November 10, 2008 Report Share Posted November 10, 2008 Its been a while but its finished now. I ended up buying a pickup from Vintage Vibe HSP model Its pretty good service from Pete at VV, after I had Emailed the order he replied asking the type of guitar , woods and other pup fitments music styles ect. I had initialy ordered a very high output pup but he suggested a different wind based on the info I gave him. He went away and wound one for my spec. All for the price of a Duncan. Pretty cool I thought. Pete`s pups are a work of art , check out the shielding on this. covers removed Bottom View The sound of the guitar is pretty IN YOUR FACE which was the aim ,it just loves distortion, the down side is that there is very little compression , its not smooth. Not for Jazz. The neck pup sounds good on this guitar , I have never been happy with it on other normal strats as it was too dark sounding but this body suits it. The controls are Volume 500Kohm for bridge and 250Kohm for neck pup Volume and kill switch. 3 way selector Neck/both/bridge. Back View So there we have it, The makeover was well worth it and the costs although higher than I anticipated was worth it. Dude that looks amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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