Keegan

Are you selling any non-production fixed bridges?

And when will the string locks be available?

Interesting. Thanks for the teaching =P

This guy is as accurate as a machine, it's crazy. I suppose that's what happens when you make hundreds of guitars.

I don't think so, well, at least not as well as right up next to each other. From what I understand it happens because of the way the magnetic fields interact, and the field would be way weaker that far away.

That's not to say it isn't still useful, because of the extra output. The most common switching mod for a Tele is to put the bridge and neck in series in the 4th position of a 4-way switch.

It weighs only a third of a Floyd, that's the ergonomic aspect I believe.

The other thing that it does that a Floyd doesn't is look freakin' cool.

Diet Hansen's...the stuff is like flavored water, except fizzy. Keep up my soda habit without killing my brain, getting fat, or getting hooked on caffeine.

Yes, if some are RWRP. You can take two pretty closely matched coils, one RWRP, one normal, wire them in series(hot of one coil to the ground of the other, then the remaining hot and ground to the controls), and you have a humbucker. The tone out of it probably isn't going to be as good as a real humbucker, and it won't mount in a humbucker route, but it'll be more powerful and will buck hum(maybe, if they're spec'd close enough). Try to use lower output coils too, otherwise it'll be excessively muddy.

Here we go

Now it goes from sort of a rosewood look

All the way to bright orange

This side was already pretty browned from sitting in the sun in the garage.

After I let it cure for a few days I'll try out the poly.

This body is huge. 6lb 3oz as it is. It's this walnut, it's like lead, heavy as hell and soft(fingernail into it is like a knife into butter). The padouk on the other hand is pretty hard, about as hard with oil as my mahogany LP is with lacquer.

"I have always maintained that I was guided by divine powers[to build guitars]."

Don't worry, I love the padouk too and don't want to cover it up.

I didn't realize there'd be such an uproar. I don't like the usual clear laquer over natural wood, I think it looks bland, but I also think solid colors are boring, so I chose to go inbetween and both color and clear finish it by using stains and a clearer topcoat. I've always liked stained/dyed wood more. Plus I like dark red on guitars, and just a plain finish over the walnut was too yellow.

I don't think I'm going to end up staining the padouk though. The grain in the padouk has a sort of holographic effect in it that the stain removes some of. So far it has the most depth with poly over oil.

The walnut is really unevenly colored and kind of green, and the finish without stain turns it into an atrocious yellow/green that's far too light.

So so far the plan is 1-2 coats of stain on the back, 2-3 coats of oil on the whole thing, and maybe a coat of poly over that for hardness. I'm testing different polys to see if I like any of them.

I have to ask you something, Avenger, WHY IN THE HELL DID YOU PUT A COUNTERTOP ON A GUITAR?!

Because you liked it, obviously, and I like this kind of finish.

F, but if the guitar isn't going to be pointy, round the edges just a little more, like this:

Maybe bring the right edge out just a few millimeters too, it's looking a little skinny to my eyes.

The easiest way is to stand with the guitar in playing position with your speaker cabinet behind you and to your left, play like you're really getting into it, then go in for a solo up on the high frets and turn sharply to your left and bend your knees a little. The neck should come clean off if you did it right.

I second the Jazzmaster/Jaguar, especially in walnut

Though Fender sucks at making guitars, honestly. It wouldn't take much for them to step up the quality just a bit and make their guitars wayy better.

I like my own version of the LP. A neck that won't snap off and rounded edges so that it doesn't stab you in the ribs.

And of course, our good friend the Tele

Your design looks awesome, Avenger

Sacrifices? He probably paid 5 whole dollars for that fancy NOS Russian capacitor. That shows a dedication to quality that you rarely see these days, with these silly "precision" and "hi-fi" electronics.

The open cavity is a feature, it lets the pots breathe, therefore letting more "free tone" from the atmosphere into the guitar. Or maybe just dust and air in that will corrode the pots, it could go either way really.

Test finish so far:

Waiting on a plate for the router so that I can use the inlay bushing set for the pickup and control cavity. The ball bearing router bit would be too much of a pain in the ass(and was for the neck, and forced me to take fewer passes than I was really comfortable with with that tiny little 3/8" bit from stewmac).

Test fitted the neck off my old strat. It's snug and perfectly on-center. And the wood inserts I'm using to attach the neck are working well(though a pain to put into maple, I'm glad the neck will be softer)

You're a guitar-making machine, John.

Bleached lacewood is officially the new flame maple.

Cool. Alright, here's the pickguard at 1:1 scale, so you should be able to just print it(make sure scaling is off) and it'll be the exact size. If you want to double check that it printed correctly, the two top holes should be 124mm from each other.

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p270/xS...y/Guitar041.jpg

If it has a P-100 in the bridge and a junior pickguard, how is it melody maker? Wouldn't that be a Junior? Except that you're cutting the body 1/4" thinner.

I have a Junior if you want that pickguard. Gimme a minute and I'll upload the tracing I have.

Do you have enough walnut/goncalo to make a Goncalo cap and walnut back? Or make it Goncalo on front and back with walnut inbetween(3/8", 3/4", 3/8") and then do a 3/8" roundover to give you a clean line where the Goncalo meets the walnut. That way you'd have enough to potentially make two guitars, assuming you're starting with 1-3/4" of each, and then you don't waste any wood.

Hmm, I'll have to wait until I get the neck to figure out where to put the bolt. It'll be a Warmoth neck, so I have to watch out for the truss rod adjustment mechanism.

Goncalo is closely related to zebrawood, and warmoth says zebrawood is really bright like maple, so I'm guessing just a little darker than maple.

You can run it through a preamp into the Line-In on your PC, record your amp with a microphone, or use a USB interface.

Without a microphone though, you'll need some sort of amp modelling software, not just for the sake of the sound but for amplification.

The cheapest way is probably the entry-level Line 6 interface, as it comes with some software. Next up would be a tube preamp(ART sells a nice one for pretty cheap) or entry-level USB interface(like the M-Audio JamLab) with software like Flying Haggis(I believe is the cheapest decent amp modeler, not sure) and some program to record.

A microphone will give you the best potential sound, and is probably the best option if you already have a rig with your sounds set up and want it to sound how it does from your amp. You'll need one that can survive the sound level without distorting though.

If you just need something quick and dirty you can play into a cheap computer microphone with your guitar unplugged, or into a digital tape recorder, if you're just trying to get ideas down.

Yo dawg, we herd you like whining so we put a crybaby in your crybaby so you can complain while you sustain.

Yeah, I'm already using ferrules. Hmm, I hadn't thought of just moving it. That seems glaringly obvious now.

Also decided on a finish, Danish oil over some walnut stain.