MzI

Actually the king V and esp Dv8/v-350 are rather different. the esp version is a decent bit larger, wider and longer, then the jackson version. Personally Im all about the Gibson V, 67 and 59, but between the jackson and esp I like the jackson hence the reason why im building one

MzI

I wonder if, you could use a piezo system similar to how gibson did the les paul acoustics with no sound hole. That may keep your nice clean look. My only question after would be because im not familiar with that system is how it would sound through an amp with distortion.

MzI

I think that a tele bridge would cover up too much of the middle burl/nuclear explosion that you have going on there. I personally would try and stay on the minimal side and go with either a wrap around tailpiece or tune-o-matic with strings thru

MzI

good renderings are gonna cost you a minimum of 3500 usd for a program like 3dsmax8/9 or maya and with those programs there is a huge learning curve that will take you a very long time to get decent renderings with it unless you have someone teaching you the program. On top of that you are going to need autocad to start with and currently thats going for 3500 also, so now for two programs your looking at 7000 when sketchup is free and you can actually draw plans and do decent renderings you just hafta know how to use the program.

MzI

google sketchup is free and probably the easiest program to learn

MzI

I had to go with Doug's guitar. It just jumps out and hits you in the face. Amazing work as always.

MzI

Awesome stuff, could you explain your fret slotting jig, im a bit stumped on how to set one up like that.

MzI

I personally play metal, from MetallicA to Slayer to Megadeth and Lamb of God. I also dable in classical but all of my guitars are set up so that I can play just about anything with them and get a decent tone. Part of that too is the amp im using, which is a Mesa Single Recto through a Marshall 4x12.

MzI

you must have some problems then cuz I can see em just fine. Try clicking the links.

hmm the sound its a mix of lots of highs and lots of lows basically its a nice balance.

MzI

Id say its in the 10 lb range. It doesnt feel that heavy though because of the actual shape of the body. The soloist I made that also had a solid purple heart body, was heavier, probably 11-12lbs and thats a much smaller compact guitar. The main reason it was heavier was because of the piece of wood I used.

There is no toner in the finish. Just an epoxy grain fill, which, using clear or yellow translucent epoxy makes the grain turn black and gives it a cool effect. Then clear over the top. Ive tried staining purple heart with black dye and it doesnt do anything other then make the purple pop more then it already does with clear on it.

MzI

PS no its not too heavy my 7 lb Gibson Flying V's are a bit light for my taste.

This one took me quite a while to complete, a good year and a half.

As you can see a couple parts here and there are missing but its playable and screams quite well.

Specs:

Purple Heart Body

Purple Heart and Black Walnut Neck thru, 3 piece w/ scarf joint

22 fret Bolivian Rosewood Fretboard

Clear 2 part poly finish w/ finishing wax on the neck

Grover Tuners

Duncan Distortion Pickups

3 way vol vol tone

Gibson ABR-1 bridge w/ V string thru tail piece like the originals

Black pickguard from WD (dont ever buy a custom pickguard from them complete ripoff)

Bone Nut

etc

Links

Headstock

Body Front

Whole back

Headstock Back

Body Back

Mike

Ive run 81s in both positions in an alder guitar, and an 81b 60n in a solid maple guitar. The 60 worked great in the maple evens it out a bit. 81s in alder suck for the neck position and are kinda thin in the bridge it would probably be good with an 85 in the bridge though.

MzI

Mahogany, mahogany with maple top, solid maple, if you use alder dont use emg pickups the sound is incredibly thin, a lighter piece of purple heart works quite well with duncan distortion pickups.

For necks, either maple or mahogany works, I personally like to use maple because it adds brightness to the tone when down tuning

Fretboards, that really doesnt matter much generally rosewood and ebony.

Pickup selection is highly important too, generally youll want higher output pickups such as actives or duncan jb, distortion, full shred, etc. Gibson also has good metal pickups like 500t and dirtyfingers. And I have no clue about dimarzios never played em. Ones you want to stay away from are the lower output pickups like 59s and pafs. Also you can never go wrong with a duncan jazz in the neck for clean tones.

MzI

Plain purple heart really isnt that expensive, I wouldnt waste the time if the piece is fairly thin.

MzI

Another way to save wood is to have the grain running parallel to the outside edges of the wings. That way you have the length from the wing tips to the heel and a whole lot less wasted wood. Look at the Gibson 59 Flying V's to see what I am talking about.

MzI

Go to the jackson website and click on the enlarged pictures. They are almost dead on straight shots which work quite well for scaling up. Also you have all the dimensions to figure out parts and pieces to use as a guide to scale it.

MzI

Hey man I think you have been stealing my ideas a little bit too much. Just kidding looks good heres some of my similar wood combinations.

MzI

59 V

Flamed Maple top with 1/8" purple heart layer all on top of a mahogany back.

purple soloist back

That one has the purple heart and flamed maple neck in it which looks incredible.

What type of star shape, like one of the old charvel star's from the 80's? I have a drawing of a star that all I did was take an explorer drawing and cut the bottom out to make the star.

MzI

I am currently using Autocad 2007 to view my files that I draw up.

Really the best way is to give Kinkos a pdf file. You can plot out of autocad to a file and save the file as a pdf just make sure its saved 1:1 scale as mentioned above.

MzI

Id recommend that you dont use the minwax poly, the gloss atleast. I used it on my last build as I didnt have my spray equipment at school and I wanted the guitar done. The problem with the poly is that it is extremely soft, it scratches really easy, and on top of that it shrinks really badly. That doesnt include all the buff thrus that I had. With that being said, the satin poly works wonders on necks where your only putting one or two coats on.

MzI

Two coats of clear is far from enough, especially if you have no grain filler. I personally use two part epoxy as a grain filler which gives me a very good class like base in which to clear over. I generally spray atleast 10 coats so that I dont sand through the finish or buff through it. Id recommend experimenting on scrap wood before you even think about finishing your guitar that way you can save material along with time trying to fix and screw ups.

Gluck

MzI

Napa carries Martin Senour brand. Not super high end PPG stuff but it gets the job done on a lower budget.

MzI

Ive heard of a couple of those brands, never used any of them though. Right now I am using woodcraft bits, whiteside, and magnate. I have chipped and destroyed a carbide pattern bit from woodcraft, only because I was trying to route 1 1/2" of solid purple heart, not a good idea. The whiteside I have a bit for doing binding channels, it does exactly what it is supposed to with no problems. The magnate bits, great router bits and fairly cheap. Ive put them through hell on the cnc machine and have had no problems whatsoever. The only problem I did have with them was the shipping time it took to get the bits, because they are based in Cali, it took like 5 days to get a bit when I was in RI, really not that big of a deal though. There website is Magnate.net but you can also find them on amazon.com

MzI

The mill I was using was either 30k or 35k and it had an XYZ travel of 5'x12'x5" which is more then enough to do alot of guitars at once. I did see a price on the TechnoIsel website for a single guitar size CNC machine, its was around 11k which is not crazy expensive. The bigger problem I find is the Mastercam software. That runs about 30k alone unless you happen to find a copy of it.

MzI

The bass I milled was supposed to take 3 hours ended up only taking 2 hours because it decided it wanted to pick up the bit to drop it into the table and make a mess. I think the best way to cut down on mill time would be to increase the step over and do a little light sanding on the carve after its out of the mill. I also ran my path as a finish path instead of a rough cut which helped cut down on time too.

MzI