black_labb

love the shape, and the cherry neck looks great.

nice set of builds guys. trying to give a bit of constructive criticism on the builds, but thats just from my opinion, and the builds weren't for me (except mine). i didnt vote either because im in it. maikman: nice looking strat. nice and simple design. love the look of the neck from the back. i find that the neck and the body colours are a bit too similar in colour for it to really stand out. the pickguard helps a bit, but something else could really add to it. i like the lack of inlay, but some dots or black blocks would help break up the similarities. either way, congrats on a great build, im just nitpicking on things that i think could improve how i react to it. Strandberg Guitarworks: nice looking guitar. love the wood choices as well. nice pieces of cherry and i love wenge as well. nice sleek build. im not a huge fan of the raised controls, as id like to keep them tucked away, but then again you dont need to worry about hitting the knobs on a strum when using a bass. nice build overall. jammy: nice looking build. nice looking top wood, but doesnt look that much like walnut (not doubting it, just doesnt look that walnut like to me). nice simple looks to show off the timbers. id like to see the neck join smoother with the lower cutaway, as opposed to 2 seperate sections. nice build though, whats the sound like with that single neck pickup on such a long scale? a bit of an odd build as most long scale guitars are used by metal players, but with no bridge pickup you wouldnt satisfy them very well. oz tradie: great build, love the dye and the finish, as well as the timbers. the cutout in the back suits the design well, along with the lovely carving. only complaint is the back seems a bit bare compared to the front. it still looks great, but the single wood type (aside from the veneers) makes the back seem less interesting than the front, even if the wood does look great. capu: looks great. the deep red colour suits the build, very nicely done. the natural binding looks good as well. im not sure im a big fan of the control layout. what is the scheme for the controls anyway? is it a master vol, vol neck, vol bridge and tone? or is one of them a balance with a tone control for each? either way it looks good. looking from the front to the back it looks like a completely different instrument (but still a good looking one). a very well carried out build. black_labb is me!! dawnofzion nice looking build. im not a huge fan of solid colours, but it suits the build. (i dont often like flamed maple much either, im somewhere in the middle). a very well built guitar from the looks of things. i dont like the neck join, isnt much wood around the bolt on, but its not your design and obviouslt it works wee enough. probably easier to play than a strat in the higher registers. superfly nice looking build. good job on the dye and nice timbers. i like the carve, and its a good looking neck. the swirls on the mahogany around the knot look great. some good attention to details. hooglebug nice build. like the unique shape. the carve is great too. im not a fan of the flamed maple with blue dye look, but its very well done. the thing that really draws me to your build is the back of the instrument. the way it is carved, and the contrast between the wenge neck and the mahogany (like the grain on ithe mahogany, its simple and nice). did i mention i love that neck? great job everyone and good luck

sounds like a faulty pot (or just very dirty) id replace it with one of the same value (make sure its log aswell)

higher gauge is actually smaller. but 18 is perfectly fine, so would the others be

looks great, and like others say, an interesting challenge. is that bridge made from wenge? id be a bit worried about those bits sticking up as wenge isnt particularly strong along the grain as it is very coarse grained, but you would know that and i know you have more experience with it than i. i just want to see the bridge finished and strung up.

nicely done, id love to get into cnc stuff, but i dont have the money to spare as im a poor uni student. at some stage ill learn to use cnc, and ill try to get an aluminium neck to pop out the other side, but ill see if that happens.

love the look of that. ive just started a 5 string as well

i like them both, id personally make a bass if you dont have one, but its up to you. i dont think that the tele style headstock goes that well on that bass. makes the neck look too long without a bit of bulk at the end. your opinion, but something to think about.

your questions are a bit vague reguarding what they are about. are you talking about the peavey pickup rewind or the strat pickup rewind? for the amount of turns, 8000 is probably the amount of turns a vintage strat style pickup would have, so to get a bit hotter and a bit less treble maybe add another 1000 or so, say 9000 give or take a few, provided you can fit that into the bobin safely with the gauge of wire you plan on using. im not sure how many you will get as i have only wound my own bobbins. i can guess that the sound you want would be around 9,500 - 10,000 with 43 awg but i dont really know. id give it a go and rewind if nessiasary. remember that more winds (as a general rule) will give higher output, and start rolling off the high frequencies. smaller gauge (43 is smaller than 42, which is standard for strat pups) will tend to roll the highs off a bit, but you can fit more on as its smaller. thats assuming everything is the same aside from the no. of winds. a humbucker will have 5000 turns per bobbin for a vintage style pickup, but you can go higher as always, and the rule from above still applies.

looks good, have you considered using the smaller sized pots? alot of electrical stores have pots that are 16mm or so as opposed to the 24mm pots that are used in guitars usually. using them would make the hidden control idea easier to do. i do like that neck blank, nice looking timbers.

i love the look of the back of that guitar, and ive always wanted to make an all wenge neck like this. im not a huge fan of figured maple, but you still did a great job on the front. it wasnt until i looked at the shot of the back that i really apreciated the build. good job on a great build.

actives will have the least hum. most people believe that they are sterile sounding, but thats really what you want for high gain playing, as the character comes from the overdriven preamp, not the pickups. if the pickup didnt have such a flat frequency response then it would get muddy with all the gain used. it really depends on what you are playing. same reason metal players like basswood, as it gives a flatter frequency response (ie sterile sounding). im generalising alot on the active pickups, im more talking about emg actives. other styles would be designed for a different outcome, but emg's are the most popular. alot of people find that emg actives limit the sound shaping that the instrument can create, as the effects of the pickups overpower the instrument construction and such. wether it is good or bad depends on the situation, but i wouldnt want to put them on one of my builds, as i want to hear what ive made, not what emg has made. i make my own pickups now so thats not a problem

I'll give it a try. I had thought of it awhile ago but the difference in output was so big that I never tryed it. my Warwick bass(passive) shows around -20 to -26 (digital) on the input meter on the comp. bass controls wide open, input knob on comp between 3/4 and full open. the active 5 string shows around -6 to -10 on the comp(digital), bass control wide open, input knob on comp between 1/4 and 1/2 up. up to this point I have been dialing in the comp input for each bass. I have different presets for each bass but the input is not saved with the presets. I just thought that the difference in output was too big and I would lose some tone, but I'll give it a try. the active circuitry should stop you from losing tone. if you dont notice a difference then everyone else sure as hell wont. you are ususally your biggest critic for tone.

i personally go high for pots, as you can get the same resistance by turning the pot. (ie a 1m pot can be turned down from 1m to 0 ohms, where a 250k can only go from 250 k to 0. i find that its nice to have it too bright/loud and actually using the knob at a position thats not full up than being limited to a lower value, their there to be used, not just to be pretty.

sounds like it would be within a preamp (they would be active pickups if im right)

looks good, im supposed to be doing a similar inlay for a friends guitar, but with a big sperm... interesting textures on the guitar.

im not sure if its whats comfusing you, but the glue joint is on the bottom of the neck joint, not on top under the fretboard.

i got some small ones when i got some mags for pickups from a localish place (happens to be about 1 minute from a luthiers supply place that i get fretwire and a few other things from). seem like a great way. small screws can strip, magnets will last for longer if youre always going in and out of the cavity.

thanks geo, most people ive shown them to like the bass more, it tends to be a bit more traditional looking in the shape, but is still quite unique with the neck laminates being the fretboard. ill try and get some photos of the bass up soon.

i think turning the volume down on the actives would work well, maybe a marker to show where it should be.

guitarmaking club!!!! looks good so far, but wish there was a guitarmaking club at my highschool

well if you want to keep the 4 basses, why not turn the volume knob down on the active ones to match the passive one. you could even tape the knobs to keep equal output. being active also means that you wont lose the higher frequencies through the vol pot. no offence, but you seem to be avoiding the simple answers. you shouldnt need 4 instruments to play a gig in most cases. do the guitarist(s) have 4 instruments each for the gig as well? if you are really looking for a reason to upgrade the rig, then upgrade it, but i think most people should play a gig with one instrument that can play all their stuff. having more is just silly imo.

blue could work well as ptu said. id be more tempted to put a brown stain on and then sand back so you have brown instead of black. (you were looking to put a clearcoat over the black grains i think?) amber would probably work ok, but you wouldnt have that white colour of the timber and keep the contrast.

the neck joint was pretty dificult to make, as you cant put 2 boards either side, and one at the back like most people would do to get a good tight fit. i used the idea, but wasa screwing multiple little pieces into a bit of plywood around it. once i got the template i used that to transfer it into another template which i put an angle into to get the 2.5 degree angle i needed for the tunomatic. once that was done it was easy, but i wasted alot of plywood and time getting the first template to be a nice tight fit. reguarding the feel of the neck joint, it feels great. you feel that the limit for where you can comfortably play is where the fret spaces get too small as opposed to things getting in your way

that is the bass that i started half way through this build, as i am teaching my girlfriend to play bass, and didnt have one. its not actually a wood inlay, it is a 1 piece neck in the sense that it has the truss rod installed from the back (like fender one piece necks) but it has multiple laminates (so a 5 piece laminate one piece neck). the centre laminate is zebrano and i stained the frets instead of markers to make it quick to build, but still look good. i love the look of it (its not finished, but has been used for a few months now, i need to finish sanding it and make a few covers). i should have a build thread on it in the near future (once i do the last things on it)