Country Rhoads, Take Me Home...

[Duff Beer Man]

I call copy cat.

Did you do something similar? Can you please link the post?

here is a link to my rhoads i am building. i havent taking any pictures in a while or updated, perhaps i will do that today.

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...c=40900&hl=

[Juntunen Guitars]

So are you going to be putting cutaways on this since it's the early version of the Rhoads?

[avengers63]

So are you going to be putting cutaways on this since it's the early version of the Rhoads?

Seems like a good idea.

[avengers63]

I finally decided on the fretboard for the real neck. I found come more canary I forgot I had. This one ended up with some really neat green and orange streaking. Too bad fluorescent lighting blows for pics.

FWIW: I finished up the other neck. Well, almost finished, I have it all done except for buffing the wood to 4000, oiling it, and dressing the frets. I tried for a flat Jackson back this time. I'm looking forward to playing it... whenever I get around to making a body for it. Whenever I get the hardware. Whenever I finish up with the 3 guitars I'm working on, the 2 I have planned, and the 5 cabinetry commissions I took last week. So it'll be sitting there for a while.

[avengers63]

Here's the original neck. It's going to be really pretty when I get it buffed and oiled up.

This is the new neck. Maple & makore base, makore accent stripe in the scarf, and a maple headstock.

[kpcrash]

That Medium Queso does a good job of bringing out the color

It does look really nice so far John.

[avengers63]

neck pocket - tight enough for a bolt-on

not a huge amount of meat on the bottom, so I'll be using a plate instead of ferrules

And my life might have become much easier. Check this out...

That's where I can reach without trying at all. That line between the index and middle is the 17th fret. The end of the heel is midway through the 24th. I'll be able to easily reach everything, which means I'll not have to do any kind of cutaway. YAY!!!!! :D It pays to have huge hands and long fingers.

[Narcissism]

It pays to have huge hands and long fingers.

That's what she said

[avengers63]

I'm trying to decide how best to rout the long, tapered bevels into the body. I decided that long, tapered shims stuck to the side of the body was the answer. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll be stuck with an even bevel all the way around.

It worked, but the geometry was off somewhere as the bevel didn't extend all the way to where I wanted it.

Instead of making new shims, I re-positioned them. The transition is a bit uneven, nut it cleaned up very quickly with a rasp and sandpaper.

[VesQ]

Sorry for interrupt.

What setup did use gluing up body wings ?

[avengers63]

What setup did use gluing up body wings ?

I screwed it together.

Like with any other blank, the side pieces were wider/longer than the final shape. The end at the neck actually came to a (relatively) sharp point that would be 100% waste material. Since the front was waste AND hard to clamp together, I used a couple of screws. The clamping pressure of the screws were a LOT more constant that I'd have been able to get with clamps, considering the angled sides.

The back ends of the wings were pulled together by hooking the arms of the clamp around the points rather than letting the normal clamping pads be the focal point. They stayed on the points a LOT better.

The rest of the body was just additional clamps locked in at weird angles, hoping that they stayed on.

[avengers63]

A month later, I finally did some more work on this thing.

Everything is done on the body except the string ferrules and the bridge recess, and that's ONLY because I don't have the ferrules or the bridge posts/bushings on hand. The body is even grainfilled with sanding sealer and ready to be painted. I suppose I could get it primered while I'm waiting to get the hardware.

As I was typing this out, I realized that I never posted a pic of the new neck - the maple/makore one. Maybe next time.

[Drak]

Why did you bring the output jack in where you did? It will look oddball with a cord plugged in (I think), why couldn't you have brought it in from the backside if you had to use a straight pin jack?

Another question: why did you install a SC pickup on this guitar?

What kind of music do you play that calls for a Rhoads V shaped guitar and the need of a SC pickup in the middle?

That seems like a superfluous addition to me, unless there's a specific reason to have it for your playing style...

As well, with only a standard 3-way toggle shown, how do you intend to actually take advantage of that SC middle pickup to begin with?

My point here is that anyone can cut pickup holes and slap a bunch of pickups in there for any rhyme or reason, just as anyone can install 18 mini-toggles to get every pickup combination under the sun, but most players know that there's only several useful sounds out of any guitar really, and a really good builder looks at the guitar as an entire entity...every piece has a reason to be there, every choice made should have a useful function...what I see here seems to me to be decisions made that have no real reason behind them... unless you can give me the reasons I can't yet see.

I'm not trying to condemn or criticize, I'm trying to get you to think before you leap, I think every decision out a dozen times before I commit...but such was not always the case years ago, it's something I learned along the way.

The output jack location/angle and the (to me) superfluous SC middle pkp bring the rest of the guitar down a notch or so.

Sometimes the simplicity and cleanliness of a build contributes to it's elegance in the end.

For example, the Rhoads I'm building right now, it was mentioned in the thread why don't I modify it to accommodate better upper-end fret access by carving out a little more wood on the treble side.

I really didn't want to do it because it would interfere with the symmetry of the V, which was important to me...but when I looked at that advice closely, it really made perfect sense to me and I'm glad it was brought up, because when you look at the BUILD ITSELF, a Rhoads V with a Floyd and HB's, I mean hell, the thing was MEANT to rock out '80's style, why would I build a guitar meant to scream where I can't access the screamer frets to begin with?

It was excellent advice.

Good decisions. Thought-out decisions. Decisions based on advice from others trying to contribute to my build.

Decisions that contribute to an excellent guitar, not hastily thought-out decisions that would take away from the overall build, and I see some (what looks to me) to be hastily thought-out decisions here that are bringing the build down from where it could have been.

[avengers63]

This isn't the firat time you've accused me of not thinking things through. You aren't privy to my thought process or the countless hours I spend making page after page of notes, which are only made after I've used up a LOT of mental time just thinking about the operations. You should stop.

Just because I don't do something your way does not make it wrong. Not explaining every thought I have in the build thread noes not mean they're not there.

After i made the Westone Dynasty, I decided that I really like the color a s/c adds when it's mated up with a h/b. It's on a 3-position because the s/c will be an "always on" pickup.

The jack placement is where it is because 1) I didn't like it on the inside of the Dynasty lower wing, 2) I really don't like an angled Strat jack on the side of a body, 3) I try not to face-mount a jack because I don't like routing the wood that thin.

I play a lot of different styles. Aside from playing for my own enjoyment, most of my playing is at church in the contemporary service. We cover a LOT of musical ground there, so the instrument I use there need to be pretty versatile. I've been putting together a group to do various covers encompassing an even wider variety of styles, so again, I want most of my instruments to be able to do more than one thing.

The shape of the instrument has nothing to do with what's played on it. You can play jazz on a Strat, metal on a Tele, and country on a LP. They're not genre-specific. Most players know that.

But since you wanted to accuse me of just going for it haphazardly.... you have yet to acknowledge that there's a big crack in the top of the Afterburner, that you made a big error in highlighting it with the black epoxy, or what you plan to do about it. To me, putting black epoxy in a crack seems like you're going about things pretty haphazardly, but I would rather choose to give you the benefit of the doubt. Thanks for the same consideration.

[Drak]

John, there are no 'accusations' being handed out besides your own here.

Why are you so defensive about your work?

You're posting it on the internet after all, you do know that?

I can take as much criticism as anybody cares to dish out, and have for the eight years I've been here on the forum, you certainly wouldn't be the first, and it doesn't bother me, never really has.

Turning the conversation to my work is a defensive counter-posture, to take the spotlight off of your work I assume...again, it doesn't bother me. Talk about my work all you want, it's OK.

I'm not here to impress anyone, I'm not here for self-esteem, I'm not here so 12 year olds can tell me how great I am.

If you want to post on internet forums, than expect replies you may not agree with, and maybe try to find a more mature way to deal with friendly critiques if you plan on posting.

You're really starting to become overly sensitive about your work, which is a sign you may be taking all of this a little too seriously.

Need a break?

[Juntunen Guitars]

Good decisions. Thought-out decisions. Decisions based on advice from others trying to contribute to my build.

Decisions that contribute to an excellent guitar, not hastily thought-out decisions that would take away from the overall build, and I see some (what looks to me) to be hastily thought-out decisions here that are bringing the build down from where it could have been.

I think if you would have left this out and just asked the questions as questions you both could have not had this argument.

[Narcissism]

I always expect your builds to be different from what they seem. I personally don't like the jack location, but apparently you do, which is cool with me.

My RG used to have a single coil in the middle. I took it out when I replaced the pickups with the EMG 81/85 set. Ever since I did that, I've missed having that single coil in there, and I've seriously considered buying EMG's single coil pickup, and installing it in what is now the RG-RR. If I don't like it, i'll install it in the strat build, and put a pickguard on the RG-RR to cover up the single coil cavity.

I donno, headless corvus, country rhoads, dovetail neck joints, curvy bodies, and other outside-the-box ideas in general. Its what I expect from your builds, and I enjoy watching all of them The Westone Dynasty was the only build I lost interest in, because the theme seemed consistent with normal builds.

[avengers63]

I donno, headless corvus, country rhoads, dovetail neck joints, curvy bodies, and other outside-the-box ideas in general. Its what I expect from your builds, and I enjoy watching all of them The Westone Dynasty was the only build I lost interest in, because the theme seemed consistent with normal builds.

Then you're gonna hate what's on tap after this Rhoads & the Firebird is done. It'll be a pure SG copy with little-to-no twists.

[Narcissism]

Well, it seems like SGs are going to be the thing pretty soon here. I have one in the works, the Hand of Doom SG looks like its nearing completion, you're building one, someone just built one out of pine, etc.

The goal for mine is to get it to balance well. I don't really care for the thinness of SGs, so the one I'm building is gonna have some girth to it, and the headstock is going to match the Les Paul that I'm building. I guess they're sort of "Gibson Twins" lol.

[Our Souls inc.]

I donno, headless corvus, country rhoads, dovetail neck joints, curvy bodies, and other outside-the-box ideas in general. Its what I expect from your builds, and I enjoy watching all of them The Westone Dynasty was the only build I lost interest in, because the theme seemed consistent with normal builds.

Then you're gonna hate what's on tap after this Rhoads & the Firebird is done. It'll be a pure SG copy with little-to-no twists.

SG? sweeeet.

[Our Souls inc.]

John - you know I aint makin assumptions but... ( theres always a but )

did you make your templates or by them? The top horn looks too fat or too short or something. Compared to a 2nd Gen RRV , its out of proportion pretty good. I still dig it , it just looks a little stumpy.

[avengers63]

SG? sweeeet.

With some special help from an anonymous benefactor. Reportedly, I have the hardware/pups from a Gibson SG.

[avengers63]

John - you know I aint makin assumptions but... ( theres always a but )

did you make your templates or by them? The top horn looks too fat or too short or something. Compared to a 2nd Gen RRV , its out of proportion pretty good. I still dig it , it just looks a little stumpy.

I got the template from a fellow PGer - Killemall. I got the Gibson V from him as well. If it's out a bit, oh well. Maybe it's a 1st gen RRV.

[Our Souls inc.]

could be camera angle too , it just looks a bit out of sorts... can't put my finger on it tho....

[avengers63]

inlays are in

I took the pics with the original neck 'just because'.