El Dangerouso

Sweet tea! For those of you who aren't familiar, ice tea with plenty o' sugar!

Hey, I've used both the Stewmac template and the SC mounting ring, and was fine. There isn't a ton of space for the mounting ring screws, but they DO clear. The rings also DO cover the route, but it isn't by a whole lot. I used a regular 1/2" pattern following bit to do my routing.

Had to vote other. Shred baby, shred!

Electronics wise, I would highly recommend the Seymour JB Junior for the bridge. It is the greatest single-coil size bridge-position P/U I have ever heard. Had one on the Iron Maiden Signature strat. Great, just great sounding.

I like that quilt on top. Change the black pickguard to a mirror, and with chrome hardware you've got a killer! Of course, the only thing that really matters is what you like best (unless you're building for someone else). You could even get the best of 1 and 2 and do a translucent "burst". Opaque purple on the edges and translucent on top and back. Again, do what you like best. I'm totally biased. I love strats, quilt and mirror pickguards.

The University of California at Berkeley is a great school. Sometimes folks also refer to it as Cal. I am sure there are many fine musicians in the San Fransico Bay area (Satch included). I have just always been more impressed with teachers who have studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Sorry, couldn't pass that one up.

Killer guitar. Real attention to detail. I'm sure it's an incredible player. That finish just totally rocks! Love the paint and the skull inlays just totally complete the theme. Killer.

I think your design is VERY cool. Ibanez on top, LP on the bottom. It's kind of like a mullet, business in the front, party in the back! Best of luck with the project and PLEASE keep us updated.

I see this question has sparked some discussion. First, to answer your original question, I think someone should have found out what music you like to play most. That would most certainly drive the "what scale to learn" question. That aside, the general discussion seems to be on track. The major/minor pentatonic scales have the same five "box" positions (fingerings). They are only two notes per string and pretty easy to memorize. Learning these patterns will also help your right hand as the two note per string pattern lends itself to pure alternate picking. These two scales musical value is all out of proportion to the difficulty to learn. They are everywhere, in pretty much every style of music. If you learn the fingerings for one, you learn the fingerings for both, and can solo in ANY major or minor key. Naturally, as discussed before, the tonal center will change between major/minor for the same fingerings, but it's pretty easy to get past the intellectual hurdle, and I don't think this is more confusing in the long run. It actually can open quite a few creative doors. If you want tab on the fingerings and some lesson-type stuff to get you started on pentatonics, please PM me. I would be glad to help.

Your index finger stays on the 1st string, 1st fret. You can use that to "anchor" your hand. You can even leave it on the 2nd string, 1st fret. It won't make a difference as you will fret the D on the 2nd string, 3rd fret. All you really have to do is invert your second and third fingers and transpose them one string higher. Too easy. For practice, I would just make the chord changes without strumming. Look at your left hand while you do. Once you are comfortable with making the change, add the strumming back in. Guitar playing is really just an advanced version of patting your head and rubbing your stomach. If you take away one or the other of those, it gets pretty easy. Once you're solid with that one, add the other back in.

They are also using some pretty hefty strings, I'm sure. Tuned down that far, a really light set, like 9-42 or 46 will be basically slop.

I think the lower horn is fine too. I would kill off the cut by the rear strap button. I think it really kicks that you'll be doing an 8 string. I might be interested based on price/options. Very Charlie Hunteresque. Cool!

My name is Tobin, and I have also never built an entire guitar from scratch. EDIT: THIS HAS NOW CHANGED, SEE BELOW. I have assembled two from aftermarket parts and I have built one from scratch SEE IT HERE. Building has been just an outgrowth of my playing. I could never find the "perfect" guitar that could handle my favorite styles in one package. (style-wise I love shred, fusion, "hot" country, flatpicking bluegrass, progressive metal, thrash) I always thought the strat or super strats came closest, but still no cigar. Plus, I grew up in Fullerton, CA, the city where Fender was founded, so I'm a little biased toward the strat. Although I am a newbie builder at best, my playing in pretty solid. I took my first lesson in '88, and continued to take them ever since. I passed the AP Music Theory exam (with a "4"; for those that didn't need to take these, I'm jealous, and the scale is 1-5 with "3" considered passing) my senior year in high school, having taken only guitar lessons of a non-classical sort. Needless to say, my first teacher was incredible. I have studied composition, but guitar has been my only instrument, so maybe that "hampered" me from doing ochestral compositions. I think it just makes my playing/writing of guitar that much better, and I don't care that I really never bothered with anything else. I welcome any "theory type" questions (weird scales, chords, what to play with what, etc.) and try and answer the ones I do see in the Player's Corner and elsewhere. I don't get a chance to record my music near as much as I might like (work gets in the way), I am however, trying to finish off some stuff in the digital world and get it posted. I'll link it here once I do. Personal Background: I'm 30, live in DFW, TX and work as a quality guy in food manufacturing (we make the seasoning you eat on the Nacho and Cool Ranch Doritos, among other things). I have a B.S. in Physics w/minor in Civil Eng. from West Point and an M.S. in Engineering Management from U of Missouri.

I voted Mozart because you asked for greatest. Arnold Schoenberg would be a close second in my weak opinion. If you had asked for favorite, I would have voted Paganini, the first known "shredder"!

Dave, I think the only one I can help you out on is #3. The best stuff to work with in the blue 3M pinstriping tape. I get mine from a custom auto paint place just down the street. Hopefully, you've got something like that in your neck of the woods. It's really easy to do pretty extreme curves with it, you won't have to do any cutting. You can then fill in with regular blue 3M 1/2 or 3/4" masking tape. For your application, I wouldn't use the frisket either. Hope that helps, ED

OK....had a bad weekend. This week I got my frisket and started on the "black album" flames for my project. When I drew the flames on the frisket, I used a black, alchohol soluable marker. Put the frisket on, put about four coats of the satin nitro on, a coat in the morning before I left for work, and one at night after I came home for two days, let dry for two days, took the frisket off, and there they were. Little black dashes everywhere along the edge of the flames where the pen had solvasized(sp?) and was now trapped deep in the nitro. Tried to scape, but they were deep; I ended up going through the color into the primer in some places. A few hours earlier, all that was between me and finishing the guitar was a few coats of gloss, and it was now ruined. I have stripped the top back to bare wood (the rest of the body is masked) and have redone the sand and seal and reprimed. I have to drive out to the reranch at lunch and get some more copper tone metallic (I pretty much used the whole can doing the body the first time), and start the color coats again. I now know how Drak felt with the maple top that wouldn't dye right. I almost threw the body against the wall and then thought about slicing it in half with the table saw. My wife put me in time out and saved me from myself by taking me out of the garage and into the house, giving me a coke and talking to me until I calmed down. I'm still pissed, but I have a little perspective. Not ALL of my work is worthless on it, but I'm still weeks away from playing it. Oh, well. The "black album" flames were the effect I was going for; it was just a helluva way to get a preview. I have learned this: Take the rubbing alchohol to the frisket to rid it of the pen BEFORE you apply it to the body.

You can buy a 24 fret 25" scale neck thru from Carvin. Obviously, not exactly up to strat specs, but you won't have to worry about quality problems from someone else or yourself if you don't feel you're up to building a neck yourself.

Second that. I use the Veritas spokeshave from Woodcraft. I can only say good things about it. Not a five buck item though.

I thought my '93 Strat Plus and my '96 American Standard Strat are both 1 5/8", as is the Mighty Mite replacement neck I used on one I built from parts. All the new models appear to be 1 11/16". Maybe I just can't measure!

I think neck thickness plays a bigger role for me, but as far as the nut goes, I've played strats for so long, anything other than 1 5/8" feels wrong.

I've got a neck with that inlay pattern, and I've never had a problem playability wise. It is definitely one way to open up the fretboard and see that nice birdseye. In fact, since that setup is less common, I think it's cooler than the standard down-the-center deal. Go for it, it will add to the character/uniqueness without hurting playability one bit.

30. My vote is heavy. No it's not "death" metal, I guess if you were going for labels, I'd say thrash. Heavy, speedy, tight. Good stuff. Keep working those lead chops; I'm now expecting some Hammet-inspired leadwork for the next round of posts. Oh, and FINISH the tune. These teasers are like Hersey's Kisses, one or two are never enough!

Nice, some old school stuff, I wish there was more of that around today. Do I detect a slight Prong influence there?

Ayast ye landlubbers, Reason pirates win: Guns. "Just like a stinkin' ninja pig to bring a knife to a gun fight!" - with apologies to the Untouchables For further proof I refer you to The Last Samurai. As I remember samurai kick ninja ass, guys with guns kick samurai ass. Pirates=guys with guns. So Sorry, Charlie; Pirates win!

Thanks, I totally understand. I kind of like the solid colors better, and I especially chose it for my first to mayber cover some of my woodworking sins. I do certainly love the look of a nice figured maple top, though. Seems like most folks on project guitar go after the finishes that can show off their woodwork. I don't blame 'em, there are some incredible looking woods on well-crafted guitars that I've seen. Best of luck with yours, it looks like it's coming along really well. I especially applaud you for your patience in building a full mock-up/rehearsal. I plan on doing a practice run for this finish on some scrap. It'll give me some peace of mind when I move on to the final job. ED