Lacewood "Steinberger P Body" project

[jonbondy]

I've completed a lacewood clone of a Steinberger "P" body guitar. Moses neck, Steinberger Trans Trem, Roland GK-2A pickup. I decided not to have regular guitar pickups so as to create a minimalist guitar, with as much wood grain as possible. Aluminum plate on the back is temporary.

Check out the following links to LARGE pictures:

full guitar from front: www.jonbondy.com/DSC02444a.jpg

guitar body from front: www.jonbondy.com/DSC02444b.jpg

guitar body from side: www.jonbondy.com/DSC02445a.jpg

guitar body from back: www.jonbondy.com/DSC02446a.jpg

Jon

[canuckguitarist]

thats awesome! Where did you buy that roland p-up???

[Jehle]

I love the Roland only pickup. That's neat!

[Brian]

That grain is sooooooooo cool looking

[jbkim]

Hey jonbondy, I'm the one from the steinberger list that pointed you to projectguitar.com. How about posting a sound clip?

[DividedByJames]

nice! I've always liked lacewood cuz it looks very reptile-like.

Are those push-in type knobs or buttons? Did you disassemble a GK pickup and just install it or snag one from a Roland ready strat?

[jonbondy]

Canuck:

Roland sells the GK-2A in two configurations. One is an add-on, to be slapped onto a guitar: that's the one you see most often on eBay. The other is a kit of parts that you can wire into a new guitar. I found the latter at a local guitar store. They'd had it in stock so long that they sold it to me for $150, rather than the $225 list price they normally sell it for. You have to be comfortable with electronics to go this route, but it worked out fine.

Jehle:

Yeah, the lack of regular pickups results in a very mimalist, clean design, that shows the most possible wood. That was the idea.

Brian:

Yeah, that was the whole idea: pretty AND a nice guitar!

nyjbkim:

Thanks for turning me onto this site! The guitar sounds just like any other Roland VG-88 guitar: nothing especially different than any other.

James:

The two black dots are the pushbuttons that come with the Roland kit. They're momentary contact buttons, that allow you to tell the VG-88 to go Up or Down by one stored voice. The only problem with them is that they are VERY easy to push, and sometimes when I end a run with a flourish, I accidentally hit one of them. Next time, I'll use a momentary contact toggle, and put it further down on the body. So far, this is the only problem I've had with the guitar. As explained above, Roland sells a kit of parts for installation in custom guitars. It sells for the same as the add-on pickup, but is much more difficult to find on eBay at a reasonable price. There are plans out on the net for taking the add-on pickup, disassembling it, and using it like this, but I didn't take that approach.

Jon

jbondy at sover dot net

[jbkim]

nyjbkim:

Thanks for turning me onto this site!  The guitar sounds just like any other Roland VG-88 guitar: nothing especially different than any other.

Hey, no problem... the more, the merrier. Yeah, but it'd give you a chance to show-off, er, showcase your playing . Actually, my exposure to the Roland synths is from the 80's. I'm curious as to how the modern incarnation sound (better tracking, etc.)

[Saber]

They're momentary contact buttons, that allow you to tell the VG-88 to go Up or Down by one stored voice... Next time, I'll use a momentary contact toggle, and put it further down on the body.

On my guitar, I replaced the 2 buttons by 1 toggle switch that has a spring-return to the center. For the other toggle that switches between conventional guitar and synth, I got a switch that's identical in appearance. The kit you're talking about wasn't availabe when I installed it so I used the guts of the outboard model.

[jonbondy]

Actually, my exposure to the Roland synths is from the 80's. I'm curious as to how the modern incarnation sound (better tracking, etc.)

There is no tracking delay because there is no tracking. The VG series of sound effects boxes are not really MIDI or synthesizers. Rather, they're six channel audio devices (one channel per string) with digital signal processing (DSP) performed on all of the channels in parallel. The VG-88 has distortion, sustain, echo, all of the same kinds of effects as you would find on, say, a Line6 POD, including pickup, amp, speaker, cabinet, and microphone simulators. It's not perfect, but tracking delay is not an issue at all.

Jon

[jonbondy]

They're momentary contact buttons, that allow you to tell the VG-88 to go Up or Down by one stored voice... Next time, I'll use a momentary contact toggle, and put it further down on the body.

On my guitar, I replaced the 2 buttons by 1 toggle switch that has a spring-return to the center. For the other toggle that switches between conventional guitar and synth, I got a switch that's identical in appearance. The kit you're talking about wasn't availabe when I installed it so I used the guts of the outboard model:

This is exactly what I intend to do with my next guitar. I'm not sure whether I'll rip the current guitar apart, or try to get another pickup kit. The internal kits are not easy to find at a reasonable price. I've seen articles on the web about how to convert the external pickup into an internal one, but they're not very satisfactory. How difficult was the conversion from external pickup to internal?

Jon

[Saber]

How difficult was the conversion from external pickup to internal?

Well... that depends on how comfortable you are with electronics. First, I had to get the pickup cable through a small hole above the guitar's control cavity so not only did the p.c. board connector have to be removed from the cable but I also needed to reverse the order of the six pickup segment wires because the pickup is designed to be oriented with the cable going upward past the lo-E string. All I did was cut the cable and re-splice the six wires in reverse order inside the control cavity.

To replace the guitar's 1/4 inch jack with the GK-2's jack, I had to do a bit of routing with a dremel from the inside of the control cavity, but it's hard to explain exactly how I attached the jack without photos, and I'm not really willing to take it all apart just to take photos. I had to solder small flexible wires from the p.c. board to each pin of the jack and to the pot and switches.

At the moment, the GK-2 p.c. board is just more or less suspended in the control cavity by the connecting wires with no danger of shorting anywhere, but I've been thinking of replacing this improvised installation with a real internal kit to make it a bit neater.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

Looks killer man. I am doin a green lacewood top, and it looks like snakeskin. My lacewood is a bit tighter, tho. I will post pics...as soon as the film gets developed.

[jonbondy]

How difficult was the conversion from external pickup to internal?

Well... that depends on how comfortable you are with electronics. ... I cut the cable and re-spliced the six wires in reverse order inside the control cavity.

To replace the guitar's 1/4 inch jack with the GK-2's jack ... I had to solder small flexible wires from the p.c. board to each pin of the jack and to the pot and switches.

At the moment, the GK-2 p.c. board is suspended in the control cavity by the connecting wires. I've been thinking of replacing this improvised installation with a real internal kit to make it a bit neater.

I'm totally comfortable with electronics: I've been home brewing my own sound effects for decades.

I understand the problem with the pickup cable: the kit I used was better in this regard, but there still was a connector, and it was fairly large. I had to route a larger hole than I would have liked in order to get the thing installed, but at least the cable exits down, rather than out the end.

BTW, I didn't have to reverse the 6 pickup wires, because the VG-88 has a setup parameter to allow you to reverse them automatically.

The problem I see has to do with the multi-pin DIN connector. It is attached to the PC board in such a way that it does not seem possible to use that connector without doing some major surgery on the PC board. I guess you were more willing to do that surgery than I am. It's not that I'm incapable of doing it; it's more about making sure that what I end up with is reliable.

If you have a working guitar, I'd not bother with the internal kit.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

I have the Rolands in stock....

GK2AH $198

GK2a KIT $219.99

I also have the VG88 V ($716.40) and GR33 ($595.99) on order

If I am not supposed to post prices, please edit this post and PM me for pricing.

[darren wilson]

That's so cool. I've thought about getting one of the cheaper MusicYo Steinbergers and making an Ibanez Radius/JS-style body for it. Are the routs tricky to do?

[jbkim]

That's so cool. I've thought about getting one of the cheaper MusicYo Steinbergers and making an Ibanez Radius/JS-style body for it. Are the routs tricky to do?

Hmm... I wonder if it be "easier" to use the existing body, of (I'm assuming) the Steinberger GU series, and carve the Radius-type contours into it. What routes are you talking about? For a headless design or for the Roland electronics?

[darren wilson]

Hmm... I wonder if it be "easier" to use the existing body, of (I'm assuming) the Steinberger GU series, and carve the Radius-type contours into it. What routes are you talking about? For a headless design or for the Roland electronics?

Yeah, i thought about doing that, too, but would like to use exotic woods. I was specifically meaning the routs for the bridge. I don't think i've ever seen a Steinberger with the bridge removed.

[jbkim]

Ah, the bridge. It'd be for an R-trem. I don't think it'd be any more difficult than a floyd (or whatever.) You can get a diagram with dimension from the SteinbergerWorld yahoo group. It's "members only" (no, you don't need the jacket ) under "Files" then "RtremD1.gif" I'd post it so you wouldn't have to join the group but I don't know about copyright, yada, yada. I suppose you can join, get all the info you can, then "un-join" . More info at the Steinberger World mother site.

Edit: On second thought, the routing would be easier than a floyd since it's only on the top... more like a kahler's I suppose.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

Id say go all the way and do a transtrem.

[jbkim]

Id say go all the way and do a transtrem.

Hmm... those are about $700... plus good luck finding one. MusicYo is having problems with the supplier (read, don't expect any new ones soon.) But on the other hand Ned Steinberger is designing a new T-trem (cheaper too... to obsolete the S-trem.)

BTW, those R-trems aren't that bad! When MusicYo has them in stock, they're only $90. That plus a $55 headpiece from LangleyGuitars and you've good a darn good headless trem alternative to the ABM system (or even the speedloader?). They stay in tune as well as floyds, in my experience.

Edit: Oh, I should add that it's been stated on the steinbergerworld list that a T-trem's transposing feature would probably not work well without a graphite neck (which the GU series do not have.) A wooden neck would probably not be "stable" enough.