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well since i found myself with little to do today i started thinking about the old stock mahogany body blank i had prepped a while back.... then i remembered i had an iceman template i had not used yet

so a couple of hours later we have this

ice1.jpg

I have a neck from one of my old guitars i might use on it - just not sure it matches well enough yet

ice2.jpg

and not sure if to go string through body or with this guild style tailpiece

ice3.jpg

the neck is a beautiful piece of birdseye maple with mac ebony fretboard and double binding - just wondering if the black bound neck matches the white bound body or not :? i may yet just make a new neck for it

the plan for the body is a black oil top with natural oiled back and sides

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well since i found myself with little to do today i started thinking about the old stock mahogany body blank i had prepped a while back.... then i remembered i had an iceman template i had not used yet

so a couple of hours later we have this

ice1.jpg

I have a neck from one of my old guitars i might use on it - just not sure it matches well enough yet

ice2.jpg

and not sure if to go string through body or with this guild style tailpiece

ice3.jpg

the neck is a beautiful piece of birdseye maple with mac ebony fretboard and double binding - just wondering if the black bound neck matches the white bound body or not :? i may yet just make a new neck for it

the plan for the body is a black oil top with natural oiled back and sides

Excellent iceman... however not a fan of black binding and white binding. I say build another neck and bind it white like the body... or rebind the body black and change the color of the top.

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i do have some black binding - be easy enough to redo that, maybe go for a dark top - but not quite black and make the headstock on the neck match

when i bound the body i was thinking of this sort of look, but with white rather than cream binding - i will need to do a new neck for it if its going to work like that

1.jpg

i did not want to factor in making a new neck just yet as i dont know how much time i have on my hands :D

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Well the body is sweet... I also like the pukko style black top idea. I would say white binding on a matching mahogany set neck would make sense. Also watch the scale length... with a 25.5 you might have to set the neck in to the body enough to balance the guitar.... (so it doesn't feel like a broom!) I know on the old Destroyer II (I own one) it is 24.75.

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not sure i need to worry too much about balance - i was even considering making it baritone if i did a new neck!

the iceman shape isnt far off my vendetta design - certainly as far as strap position goes, never had any balance problems on them. . icemans are longer with a lot more wood behind the bridge so i think it would take a longer scale and still balance

it was started on a whim this morning so i have not thought it all through yet :D

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not sure i need to worry too much about balance - i was even considering making it baritone if i did a new neck!

the iceman shape isnt far off my vendetta design - certainly as far as strap position goes, never had any balance problems on them. . icemans are longer with a lot more wood behind the bridge so i think it would take a longer scale and still balance

it was started on a whim this morning so i have not thought it all through yet :D

I guess I should have clarified... it is not really a weight balance issue I was referring to more a playing position balance. One reason I am testing a shorter scale on my new Destroyer proto is because the last one feels long... like a baritone... like I have to reach way out to play a G chord. It is just a feel thing.

I would love to see it like the LP in the pic... that is classic.

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ah, got ya - i did do a firebird with 25.5" scale neck and that definitely felt a bit long like you describe.... not an issue for me normally but its noticeable when given to someone shorter

(in Michael Palin voice) What are you saying? That I might be shorter? :D

Yes. That is exactly what I meant... it feels awkward for those of us of average height.

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yeah, i just chucked the hardware on - but i think the guild tailpiece looks better a little closer and a little more angled

the original paul stanleys had an angled tailpiece - at least the prototype did :?

considering all options at the moment - most likely a sapelle neck... but i also have a nice piece of very purple purpleheart (from prostheta) and some maple lams which could work well if cut the right way. possibly with a RAD style highlighted scarf - ironic i describe it that way since the neck in the pictures above (made in 2004 iirc) has a wenge veneer in the scarf :D

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yeah, i just chucked the hardware on - but i think the guild tailpiece looks better a little closer and a little more angled

the original paul stanleys had an angled tailpiece - at least the prototype did :?

considering all options at the moment - most likely a sapelle neck... but i also have a nice piece of very purple purpleheart (from prostheta) and some maple lams which could work well if cut the right way. possibly with a RAD style highlighted scarf - ironic i describe it that way since the neck in the pictures above (made in 2004 iirc) has a wenge veneer in the scarf :D

Sounds nice... A sapele/maple/purple/maple/sapele/maple/purple/maple/sapele neck would be a RAD like thing to do (wow was that a 3rd person reference).

I like the sapele idea and am not a fan of a maple neck on something like this. I would keep the lams really thin... I feel like the neck should be light (most of the purpleheart I have is very heavy).

Don't pin that scarf accent thing on me! It is a logical woodworking thing to do... eventually everyone tries it. I can't remember if I did it then saw it here or saw it here then tried it but I don't take any credit for it (I have even given credit to other guys here). I just got silly with it and made stripes... :D

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it wont be multicoloured hardware- i just grabbed the first parts i found that were not still in a packet

the mahogany really is great, absolutely no figure, not even a bit of ribboning. Just completely consistent all the way through. Its a little on the heavy side as it has a lot of mineral in the grain, but great tap tone and the weight will be fine once it has a control cavity and pickup routes added

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Not that you don't know this, but we all let things slip now and then......

The larger the body, the thinner you want it. My 1st Iceman was pushing 2" thick, and it weights a TON. IIRC, Ibanez makes theirs around 1 1/2". Taking the lead from Gibson with the V & Explorer might not be a bad idea: 1 3/8".

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its 1 1/2" - tbh the blank was noticeably heavy and i was a bit worried about doing a iceman body from it, but its already starting to feel much more manageable . It will get a large control cavity and i think it will be just right

although i am rebuilding an explorer i made back in the beginning soon which i stupidly did in 2" thick idigbo - it will get thinned down to 1 3/4" but also hollowed out and a new top added

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There's definitely a lot to be said for sweet plain Mahogany, Wez. Sapele can be awfully distracting, and there's a lot of that flying about at the moment. Do you know what Mahogany that is? Plain looks sweet when mated with a Maple "attention" top or other singular feature.

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had a change of plan - as is the case when i start things suddenly. basically i want this done quick as a bit of a revitalisation of my guitar building

so i have decided i will use the neck shown above, rebind the body in black. humbucker bridge, single coil neck layout and i found a schaller hardtail roller bridge i will use. i did like the gretsch tailpiece but in the positions it looked good it would be quite close to the bridge and the high strings would snag

controls will be volume for each pickup, master tone, 3-way pickup selector and a mini toggle to do something to the humbucker

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There's definitely a lot to be said for sweet plain Mahogany, Wez. Sapele can be awfully distracting, and there's a lot of that flying about at the moment. Do you know what Mahogany that is? Plain looks sweet when mated with a Maple "attention" top or other singular feature.

so plain mahogany it will be - maybe with a darker tint to the top, but not black as originally intended. fairly sure its honduran

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