black_labb

if you think about it, a truss rod that fiocus's the pressure near the nut, it would make a better match to the strings as that is pressure on the nut. idont think that makes it any better though

technically a flat truss rod would work, as when the strings pull the neck out, the truss rod would then be curved, but the curve would be so minimal and the truss rod would have to be tightened alot more than you would want to. that makes for another useless post to get my mind off things i need to keep my mind on

heavier gauge strings will be the same height, if not higher. the reason being that the bottom of the string goes to the same base of the nut slot, which obviously doesnt change. the top will be further away. the reason i say it may be higher, is the larger gauge string may be too large for the hole, and sit slightly above the normal slot.

matia made me want to elaborate a bit i agree that sustain is pointless in chasing using wood types, i believe its something to look for when buying a guitar as it shows that things are correctly adjusted and the neck is firmly fixed as well as the bridge being well attached and high quality. things that i didnt mention, and mattia didnt completely go into is the way some woods dampen some vibrations due to the oiliness of the wood. think a cardboard guitar. theres a big difference in its sustain when its wet compared to dry. thats what oils in wood do, but not quite so severe. it would effect the harmonics more so than the fundamental note, but still effecting the fundamental to a small extent. also consider that a wet cardboard guitar/oily wood guitar will be heavier than a dry cardboard/oilfree wood guitar. id say that the stiffness of the wood effects the fundamental note's sustain, where the internal resonance and dampening effects the harmonics alot. i dont think weight has a big part of sustain, but people always say that ebony doesnt sustain well, and it has more of a percussive sound. id say this is a result of too much stiffness and too little internal dampening, making it resist the strings vibrations by not vibrating itself. keep in mind that too much isnt nessisarily a bad thing, just a different result. basically ive described what creates different wood tones. warm sounding woods basically have a higher internal dampening to stiffness ratio. speaking of les pauls, they have a maple top, increasing the stiffness and reducing the internal dampening of that section of the stucture (maple is stiff and bright sounding, suggesting low internal dampening). they have mahogany necks, which isnt particularly stiff, but les pauls have fairly thick necks, and the mahogany is quarter sawn increasing the stiffness. being mahogany, it has a higher internal dampening than maple, so it is not so bright, but has a fairly stiff neck, allowing the fundamental frequency to resonate for a while, which supports the idea that a les paul has alot of sustain, and is quite warm sounding. the electronics have alot to do with the tone coming through, and even the magnets on single coils effect the sustain by pulling at the strings more than humbuckers (the pull from alnico poles is stronger than the pull of slugs/poles magnetised by a alnico or ceramic magnet. i think i got well and truly off topic here, but atleast it has preoccupied me with something other than an uni assignment i left too late.

the harder and stiffer the wood the longer it will sustain. the specifics of the wood dictate which frequencies sustain the most (as well as the design an many other things).

thats a fair statement. the marketing then decided to say it helped the sound, which is does, because a bridge falling out usually doesnt do much for the tone, it just doesnt improve over normal solidbodies.

what are those sound tubes supposed to do? they really should realise that the reason electric guitars are effected by the woods used are how the woods dampen/dont dampen some frequencies more than other, not how the vibration is transferred into the body for it to vibrate.

Yeah, I think I will adjust it. However, I want to keep the offset tuners. "Offset-ness" is sort of a theme of the guitar. i know what you mean about the offsetness, the solidbody im just about to finish has the same idea.

the high e string does look a bit too sharp of an angle, you could move all the high note tuners in a bit and straighten them all out a bit. might change the look of the headstock a bit though.

i dont like the comparisons with plywood as plywood is (or usually) constructed with perpendicular grain directions on side by side pieces, which is the main problem with plywood as a tonewood. other than that it probably wouldnt be that bad if they used decent timber(ie not full of knots like the plywood i just bought to make templates from)

personally id use them as a top on another piece of wood, but doing like you plan is just fine in my opinion. for my first guitar i was going to try and get 2 pieces like that to avoid using a router, until i realised i could borrow one from my girlfriends dad who had one.

i was going to vote, but couldnt decide, so ill leave it (aswell as the fact that i forfitted my vote by viewing the results) as everyone has said, these are really great guitars, they're all well thought out and executed.

i like this build, simple and nice. only criticism is i doubt you can reach the high frets, but it looks great like that anyway due to the nice colour in the fretboard.

basically it could work a bit. it would not be great, and you would have to do as short strokes as possible, making it take a very long time. it would work perfectly if your stronkes are 0 mm long, but that is the hard part. i wouldnt bother myself.

could you not design the shape to have the knot in a control cavity or something similar?

try putting some loctite on the bearing to shaft contact. should rettymuch lock it in place.

i like it so far, im hanging out for the walnut neck before i make too much of a judgement. it does sound good though.

i assume that there is a section on the screws for the unit to pivot on that doesnt get screwed into the wood. so id say you would tighten it firmly, as anything less would start to effect sustain, and even pull the bridge out of place from the string tension. having said that ive never used any trem style bridges so id wait for someone else to chime in.

i did mine by cutting it very inacurately (had plenty of extra length on my piece, so that wasnt too much of an issue. then i put 2 pieces of malamine, flat side down on a flat surface. then i put the roughly sawn piece between them and angled it aproximately the right angle. i clamped it there loosely and then checked that all the sides were paralell (as my cut was nowhere near paralell. once that was done, i adjusted the board to be the right angle using trigenometry and then put a few more clamps on to hold it firmly in place. then i used these pieces of malamine as rails to run the router upon. that gave me the right angle and a flat surface. i did the same with the other piece then glued them up. i dont have a plane or many tools, i make jigs for the router instead. im not a big woodworker, i see myself more as a designer, that and the fact that i am a somewhat poor uni student means that i try to make the most of the tools i have, and the router is an extremely versatile tool. at some stage ill start a topic on the jigs and things ive made. i blame them for how long this build has taken, but the next builds will take alot less time, as ill already have these things made.

that is wrong, you are pushing from the side, without evening it out on the other side with an equal force. a drill has equal forces on all sides that even it out, making it just a resistance to turning, as opposed to a sideload. when there is just a single point touching it pushes it to the side. sorry to be so blunt but i didnt want people misunderstanding the situation and assuming that there is no difference to normal drill use.

what i did for my build is put masking tape over the frets. just get a sharp blade of some sort and cut it into the strips in the right places. push the blade towards the point where the frets meet the wood, or slightly on the frets. doesnt take too long, and you can peel it off when its mostly dry, but not dry enough that it becomes brittle and chips on the fretboard.

i love the doublecut shape, i have plans for a 12 string lp doublecutish shape neckthrough. i really like the look of yours though. making me consider ways to keep the normal sized headstock to keep those great proportions you have on that guitar.

http://www.northwoodtools.com.au/defaultmain.asp?c=261832 you can order a template following bit here, otherwise you can buy a bearingof the correct size to go on the shank of one of your bits and loc tite it in position. i did that for 2 small bits and have bought a big bit from northwood to use for body shapes, the smaller ones are to use for cavities (such a neck slot) before that i used a large template as someone mentioned and routed things beforei cut the shape out.

i am an engineering student and i use solidworks, which is standard for many things. im sure they would have software to convert solidworks files into the cam file needed, but this will involve some programming, usually by someone working there. (which is the commands the machine will run from). solidworks is quite expensive, but like everything these days, cracked copies are floating around the net to be downloaded. solidworks would be great if you are looking to make a bridge or something similar, making a body would end up being a big waste of money in my opinion as there is alot of cost in the programming and such before the thing is actually made, and they arent hard to make after making a few templates. even for the bridge, its not going to be worth it unless you get alot made, as the time it takes to program, a few could be made on a cheaper machine with someone reasonably skilled operating it. i think making a body with a carved top would take a while in solidworks, a i cant think how you would create the carved effect, unless you just did alot of steps and then sanded or chiseled them out.

another thing to consider, is a drill isnt meant to take the sideloads from the chisels, so make sure you can afford another drill, but if you have a spare... you are only making knobs so taking your time to do things a bit more slowly isnt a big problem