ESP M-II type "Invaders" Superstrat

[Prostheta]

I've seen that myself in "B" grade boards. Ebony with what look like water marks from drips. It doesn't come out and is a "feature" of the wood. I dislike the throwaround term "B" grade since that means something very specific in wood grading, much like how AA/AAAAA etc. are meaningless compared to proper grades within the wood industry. They're perhaps accepted as a shorthand of sort, but cut directly across the sense of grading terms. I digress.

Veijo is actually very much missed by the Aria Pro II community as he became (more accurately, fell into being) the primary source for repro MB-type pickups. Much the same as myself and the preamp circuit upgrades I make for these basses and guitars. We sent each other a fair amount of business either by direct reference or by virtue of co-existing in the same tight market. It can often get to the point where these market demands run away with themselves beyond capacity to provide, which I believe happened with Veijo. Probably not even the most profitable business to be working in either, given the expensive of tooling and labour!

Veijo made the pickup for my 5-string Aria Pro II-based bass:

....also in the post immediately above that one, you can see flecking as I was discussing in Ebony. That polishes up nicely though.

[Prostheta]

I'll leave this here then.

[mistermikev]

On 7/24/2023 at 9:17 AM, Prostheta said:

I'll leave this here then.

that is a render right??  it looks so good I honestly am not sure if it's an actual picture of a great build or a great render of a great build... one way or another it looks great!

[henrim]

The neck profile looks a tad boxy for my taste Otherwise a sound rendering!

[Prostheta]

Try this. I had a few surfacing issues with the laminates, but that's been resolved.

[Prostheta]

[Prostheta]

The two Mirages are still needing to be painted, which is all dependent on catching a booth at the right time. Otherwise, I did all the design work on the carved top Mirage, which I learnt last week was a production model and maybe not so much of a prototype. Nonetheless, I've never found another one like it ever beyond mine and the one that was photographed for the catalogue, which isn't mine.

 

[Prostheta]

Differences in the carved top model are obviously the pickups and fretwire, plus the binding is tall stuff which was originally masked off and overpainted in the original.

[Prostheta]

@henrim that's probably a better profile update for you

[Bizman62]

Why bother building when you can render? Unless you really need a guitar like that, that is.

[Prostheta]

I'm specialising in desktop product design for manufacturing via CNC, so a guitar is familiar ground for me and is applicable to my degree work in that respect. Rendering is a valid form of product visualisation, whether for testing the aesthetics of materials and colourways, examining surfacing in how it reflects light as gradual or aggressive contours, etc. Similarly, I used a €15k structured light 3D scanner to examine a few tops as a way to discuss appropriate derivation of geometric data.

Of course, I do want a guitar. We all want many many more guitars....I hope?

I didn't mention this at any point, however the entire model is valid internally also. Not quite to the soldering and wiring loom level, but in terms of graduated surfaces inside the cavity to place pots and switches the appropriate distance from the external surface. I don't aim low.

[Prostheta]

Looking forward to some CNC time in the near future. In the meantime, I went full-on and adapted the 24-fret Invaders model back to the original 22-fret SSH.

 

Aside from a few differences here and there, plus a couple of fixes and omissions....this is on the money. I modelled the tremolo using measurements taken from a modern production Schaller Lockmeister which is an OFR without the name or the price tag. Drawn up provisionally for Fishman.

[henrim]

14 hours ago, Prostheta said:

production Schaller Lockmeister

There’s the thing. As much as I like Schaller I have found out that their technical drawings are not always in line with the actual products.

[Prostheta]

I found discrepancies, however the important engineering dimensions were valid. This was one with the newer CNC-cut string blocks with the radiused corners.

[Prostheta]

Here's how I measured out and modelled the current production OFR/Lockmeister anyway.