demonx Posted April 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 After clear and in the sunlight: (not yet cut and polished) Had a few solvent pops in the top section. Most likely I needed to wait a day before I cleared it. Bugger... Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Love the double carve on the back. The airbrush work is clean and comes together well. I like it ,it looks very pro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 The clear did brought a lot of the colors back, looks good, but I somehow liked the more darker sinister look before the clear went on. Nevertheless a very good job for the first bio-mech job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted April 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Love the double carve on the back. Yeah, I thought I was being real clever until I went to add a control cavity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Love the double carve on the back. Yeah, I thought I was being real clever until I went to add a control cavity Whats the problem? add three interior pillars to the cavity and make the cover rest on those.......... Unless its something I can't make out from the pics.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted April 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 It's all sorted now, just took a while to position a template in the space that was left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Love the double carve on the back. Yeah, I thought I was being real clever until I went to add a control cavity So I know you are a veteran and don't need me to say this but I am going to cause I feel like it (and it will help others). Do all your routing while the guitar is flat and square. Carves go last. Ask me how I learned this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Love the double carve on the back. Yeah, I thought I was being real clever until I went to add a control cavity So I know you are a veteran and don't need me to say this but I am going to cause I feel like it (and it will help others). Do all your routing while the guitar is flat and square. Carves go last. Ask me how I learned this Putting my hand up, I learnt the hard way too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted April 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 Fretwork - done Cut and polish - done Floyd in - done Pickups lined up - done - RAD's pickups by the way, they look pretty good. Electronics - SHITE.. I've run out of pots and caps! Knobs just sitting there for the pic. Another boo boo - I bought a quarter sheet of black perspex the other day to make cavity covers, nice thick ones. I cut into it, shaped the cavity cover, peeled back the paper and found out its clear black not solid black! Guess it's too late to take it back now I've hacked into it. I'm going to have to make sure my electronics cavities are super neat from now on! No hiding stuff! Heres as it sits now: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pukko Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 Another boo boo - I bought a quarter sheet of black perspex the other day to make cavity covers, nice thick ones. I cut into it, shaped the cavity cover, peeled back the paper and found out its clear black not solid black! Guess it's too late to take it back now I've hacked into it. I'm going to have to make sure my electronics cavities are super neat from now on! No hiding stuff! Paint the back of the cover, use that metal grate pattern! Or is the cover too dark to do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmth Builder Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 Paint job looks great! Stick a red LED in the electronics cavity, shining through the black plate would carry on the industrial look nicely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 Pickups lined up - done - RAD's pickups by the way, they look pretty good. If those are the 'warhammer' pups, be prepared to be thrilled ! I just got mine in and did some studio sound tests with it and a Duncan Invader. Rad's Warhammer has a higher output, less harsh highs and much more middy growl. The Duncan has a good tone too, but the Warhammer just has a very precise yet chunky drive to it. I like the "metal grate" idea on the cavity cover ,too. Maybe a "top secret" type sticker on the inside or something fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted April 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 Pickups lined up - done - RAD's pickups by the way, they look pretty good. If those are the 'warhammer' pups, be prepared to be thrilled ! No - they're the Destroyers, he hadn't quite nailed down the Warhammer model at the time I ordered these. I just got mine in and did some studio sound tests with it and a Duncan Invader. To make a real comparison you should have compared them to some decent pickups... Invaders don't come even close to "good" category and they'll make anything compared to them sound brilliant! (Not saying anything against RADS pickups, I haven't heard them yet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 That depends entirely on what you use them in and how you set them up.I recently used an Invader at the bridge of my single cut bubinga guitar,and I split the coils and hooked everything up to mini switches and covered the pups with a plain black cover,and the end result was that all of the extra wiring and covers took away the shrill brittleness but it still had plenty of balls. Normally I prefer the JB at the bridge,and what I got was a slightly hotter JB tone.Invaders are best if you tone them down with extra controls and switches.Also they work well with basswood,since basswood is so damn bland IMO anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 To make a real comparison you should have compared them to some decent pickups... Invaders don't come even close to "good" category and they'll make anything compared to them sound brilliant! Not even close to good, huh ? Seems that millions of paying customers disagree with you, including myself. A company doesnt make and sell as many $80 pups as the invader if they sounded like bunk. At 16.7K, its a pretty hot pickup as far as output goes, which is what the warhammer is, high output. I have a Dimarzio X2N but its in a different guitar, so the comparison wouldn't be fair. Since we seem to have different ideas of a good pickup, whats your suggestion ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 I'm with him also, the Invader is not a good sounding pup. And Wes hit the nail in the head, it needs to be tamed down to get a good sound out of them. SD will continue to sell those well, because just as when I was starting to mod guitars when I was in my teens, most young players look for the loudest pick up available, and that is what they go with. Only in my 30's when I began to build guitars and joined here, I begin to realize the difference a good pick up gives to the sound. Just as important as the type of wood you use, the strings and everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted April 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 Pickups as with everything else are subjective. My personal choice is bareknuckle pickups. They are twice the price of a Duncan or dimarzio, but they are twice the pickup. I like the painkiller and aftermath models. Their mothers milk single coil is amazing for clean tones. I've just ordered a lundgren M8 to try. It's a $300 pickup. They are meant to be awesome so I'm keen to find out what all the talk about them is for myself. I've bought RADs destroyer and a destroyer single to try in my current build. Im keeping an open mind. You mentioned a X2N. I think they are a good pickup if you're shopping in the cheap range, but you play a bareknuckle straight after a X2N and youll find the X2N lacks. I'd still recommend it for a budget build over an EMG though. I have all these pickups hanging in demo guitars built by me in my guitar room. EVERYONE gravitates towards the bateknuckles. Even die hard EMG long time dedicated one track minded people ask about the bareknuckles after playing them. They are that much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) Millions of paying customers just goes to show the efficiency and pervasive influence of Seymour Duncan, etc's marketing power. Take a pickup that just looks a little different to "normal" pickups, slap the signature of a dead guitarist who never actually used that pickup on it, let marketing do their brainwashing and there's your million sales. Right there. The same applies to the Invader. Hex poles make it look different, plus the backstory about Master Of Puppets and a load of marketing influence piled on top does the work. As you can tell, I don't 100% believe all the hyperbole. I had a few Invaders in my time in various instruments and they really needed some work to make them usable. Same with the Dimebucker. Fisher-Price toys for over-privileged guitarists who think gear will solve their playing problems and make them sound like X. Not to say that all of SD's product range is overmarketed rubbish, as they make many fine products. I'm sure that pushing toy pickups onto the kids with a reasonable mark-up isn't hurting their bottom line though. That is all. Oh, I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on Lundgrens in comparison to those you already mentioned Allan. "Meant" to be awesome just screams for some qualification. Edited April 9, 2012 by Prostheta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted April 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 Just finished wiring and setting up this beast today. In all honesty it's the smoothest/fastest neck I've ever made. Super low action, maybe a little too low, super thin neck, maybe a little too thin! But it plays so damn well that it is just awesome. I hate the gfx, there's elements of it I like, but as a whole it looks bloody terrible. In all fairness to myself I'm not an airbrush artist by any stretch of the word but I gave it a bash... If it doesn't sell after a while (I'm actually reducing the price due to the gfx, not adding to the price) I'll sand it back and repaint it solid black. The transparent cavity cover turned out to look great. It's dark enough that at a glance looks solid, but if you look at it you can see the wires and capacitor etc. Made me concious to solder neatly and position the wires in an orderly fashion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted May 1, 2012 Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 Turned out great, I like the "ghost" look of the controls cavity. Looking at it now, it reminds me of the Marvel comics Dr. Octopus... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted May 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 Thanks Maiden. I posted pics of this guitar the night I finished it and I'm happy report I've already taken a deposit on it. So it's sold Payment Pending. Don't wanna count my chickens but the guy seems pretty keen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted May 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 Heres a hack job mobile phone video of the Bio 1 guitar and RADS pickups (dont blame rads pickups for the sound - its a mobile phone video! First half is a gain channel, second half is clean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXx3FYEjFaI&feature=plcp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygtr Posted May 25, 2012 Report Share Posted May 25, 2012 Despite the sound quality those pickups sound great! Articulate and with great definition. Would love to hear more with a better mic if possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted May 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2012 Despite the sound quality those pickups sound great! Articulate and with great definition. Would love to hear more with a better mic if possible. The humbucker sounds (in my opinion) very much like an old Dimarzio Super Distortion. In fact I plugged a 80's BC Rich with a factory super distortion installed after this guitar and the pickup sounds very similar. Great for neo classical, solo work and thrash metal. Contact RAD if you wanna try a set, these are his Destroyer model and they are reasonably priced: guitarlogistics@gmail.com 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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