jammy

It's looking great!

A little more info on the neck joint? Looks interesting...

Re: hardware, give me Gotoh over Schaller any day.

+1

I've had mine for a couple of months now - it's an absolute joy to use.

Get the blade out and get it properly sharpened up and you're in for a treat!

I just had a random thought. There a few bits and pieces I'm thinking of ordering from the States, and it's the shipping cost that's putting me off.

Is there anyone in the UK in the same position? What about combining orders and sharing the shipping costs? I am in the North West near Preston, but I could mail you your stuff easily enough.

Any interest?

Denis

LMI's shipping is totally reasonable too actually, and super quick.

How large of an order are you placing? There's a couple of bits and bobs I suppose I could tag on...

I suppose I mayswell wack in my latest guitar; DMG002E - long scale singlecut

27" scale

Mahogany neck through and wings

Walnut top

p90 neck pickup

Graphtech ghost saddles/preamp

Also check out Russell Malone playing this guitar at the 2008 Jazz on a Winter's weekend festival

I had the guitar finished in time for a jazz festival that I was displaying some instruments at, and it all went great! Russell Malone was headlining one of the nights at the festival, and dropped by my stand to play some of the instruments

Here's a picture of the finished singlecut taken in the evening sunshine...

And check out my youtube page to see Russell malone playing both this guitar, and my baritone acoustic... http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatterGuitars

and get mad and or confused if it doesn't fit.

I don't know why that made me laugh, but it really did! or

Anyway, I'll agree with the other guys. A perfect opportunity to have a go at some proper repair work

I'd vote for the slots being too shallow as well...

Nice way to check this is get a small section (5cm) of your fretwire and put about a 45 degree backwards bend in it about 5-10 mm from the end. On this small straight section, file off the fret tangs. This should now easily slide in to the fret slots and will allow you to check every part of every slot carefully...

An absolute beauty! Congratulations

GOTM!

I don't know if you noticed, but the guitar also has a graphtech piezo pickup system - a blend of the 2 creates some great tones.

It's only had a couple of coats at the mo, but I thought I mayswell post a pic or 2! I'll be back in the booth tomorrow.

Pic2

Great post Mattia, thanks!

And cheers to everyone else...now to research the options

I'm starting plans for a new instrument and I'm currently on the hunt for some lightweight machine heads for it.

So far I've found the hipshot non-lockers, which seem to be made on a similar vein to their superlight bass heads. Are there any other units I should be considering? Quality is more important than price.

The edge sander will not make a "perfect" straight edge...I use mine to get close,but there is too much variation in the movement of the paper to be nearly accurate enough.

I use a long,flat sanding block by hand for the final taper...and THAT is really,really straight.I feel that is the one part of my guitar building that I have become as close to perfect as possible,is the neck.

Mine seems to make a perfect straight edge - I can get wood so flat it'll stick to the cast iron table of the machine from suction with my sander.

Edge sander? Interesting... It makes the edge straight enough along it's length?

Yeah Wes I've tried that before... works good.

Yeah, really straight. My edge sander is similar to the one below..makes a nice quick job of it

I taper my boards on my edge sander. Does a great job!

I use the same method - it's one of my favorite parts of building!

I've knocked up a shooting board though, with a stop to rest the wood against.

27" scale, mahog with a walnut top.

Graphtech ghost saddles, p90 neck pickup etc etc....

The next couple of days I'll finish shaping/sanding then it's in to the booth Tuesday.

I'm installing my first ghost system at the mo (with the pre amp), and I've hit a bit of a snag...

My question regards the jack socket wiring, as I plan to use a barrel style stereo jack (with 3 connectors) rather than the supplied unit with 4. The guitar will be used with a mono lead in to a single amplifier.

Is there a way to wire the pre-amp with one of these style jack sockets so it switches battery power in and out when plugging/un plugging the guitar?

My thoughts would be hard wire the amp on (what wire connections would be made to do this?) then switch the earth of the battery on/off using the jack socket as in the installation of active pickups.

The pre amp is apparently fet switched on an off when the plug is insterted (broken connections on a switched jack) so I'm not totally convinced I can hard wire it on, and removing it's power will "reset" it into it's off state.

hmm...

Anyone?

I use a full thickness mold (or as near as dammit). They're made up of stacked MDF, and around 1/3 of it's thickness is removable (screwed on rather than glued like the other joints)

This allows me to have the sides fully supported when bending (and allows me to ensure the side is perfectly bend across it's whole height), but then remove some thickness to do jobs like glueing on linings etc...

http://www.darkmatterguitars.com/siteimage...g/241007/01.jpg

That image shows one of my guitars in it's mold (at 2/3 full thickness). Note the screw holes to attach the final ring of MDF to take it up to full height.

I first thickness the top until it feels flexible enough, brace it, and install it.

I then thin the top's edges around the lower bout to "open up" the tone a little. I makes a noticeable difference!

Unfortunately both procedures are done to what feels/sounds right to me, so I can't really give you any figures I'm afraid

Yes, me!

Check my website for piccies... www.darkmatterguitars.com

I've also befriended you on Facebook

Where are these pictures?

More than you're ever likely to need for spraying. So, yeah, good stuff!

Sounds perfect. The less time the thing's actually running when I'm spraying the better!

Cheers for all your help

I'm not sure if they're still made (Infact, I would presume they're not) but mine's an ELU.

The chances of me using other tools with this thing are pretty minimal if I'm honest. The spray booth will be a shed about 40 feet from my main workshop, and that's where the compressor will live. I wouldn't want to rule it out totally, but I can't see it happening really.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/...mpressors-elect

how does that look to you chaps? I'm tempted by a Clarke as they often send me "vat free" offers and such things