El Dangerouso

Fender was pretty much the first company to mass produce guitars. Straight headstock = less material to make the neck, lower costs. If you notice on Fender's headstock, at least the high E and B have a "keeper". This increases the angle of the string passing over the nut, and increases the tension. The lower strings have more tension naturally because they are thicker and don't need the keeper. (Although I have seen a keeper on the G and D) Also, Fender uses a 25.5" scale length. This longer scale length (compared to PRS = 25" and most Gibsons = 24.75") causes a string to have more tension because a longer string must have increased tension to produce the same pitch (ie the normal tuning standard of A400). Hope this helps!

Ahhh......a semi-theory thread. My absolute favorite; you see theory is my thing. What Jehle and Snork say is almost the same thing. Jehle's "Magic Scale" is a great idea, used not just by Morse, but by Eric Johnson too (check out the "Total Electric Guitar" video - an all time classic). Now we can also say SRV uses this idea too since Dorian = minor pentatonic + two tones. Here's the breakdown: Minor Pentatonic: 1, b3, 4, 5, b7 Major Pentatonic: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 Dorian: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7 - All we have added from MP is the 2, 6! Now, here's something you probably didn't know..... If you play the first "shuffle" progression that like Johnny B. Goode and whatever else uses....you know (without having me tab it out) the one where you play the root fifth interval (two note "power chord" 6th string, 5th fret and 5th string 7th fret) and you slap your pinky on the 5th string, 9th fret to create the shuffle, and then you do the same thing for the D(5th string, 5th fret and 4th string, 7th fret) and then the E (you get the idea) here's what you get in the progression: The A: 1, 5 and then 1,6 so, A and E then A and F# The D: 1, 5 and 1,6 is D and A then D and B The E: 1, 5 and 1,6 E, B and E, C# Now if you play a minor pent solo over this....doh! Do you see what is implied? Through the A and D chords you imply Dorian. Why? the F# in the A chord dealy is the 6th degree of A, and the B of the D chord dealy is the 2nd degree of A + minor pent and you have Dorian. What about the E chord? C# is the 3rd degree, not the b3. This would imply a major tonality. This the the doh! This is not a problem, play the minor pent.....the major/minor tonal ambiguity is a trademark of the blues. If you just played the root-fifths and didn't do the pinky thing, then switched back and forth between Major and Minor pentatonic you would get the same effect. I suppose this is what Snork means by Clapton = major pentatonic. I know for a fact he plays plenty of minor pentatonic along with that major. Hope its not too confusing. There's more to the minor pent + two tones deal. You can get Aeolian (natural minor) and Phrygian the same way. I won't torture you with any more for now. Have fun!

Continuing with the hijack....second the motion for a FAQ.

Wellllll......I'm not a huge Parker fan. I grew up in Fullerton, CA, the birthplace of Fender. I've pretty much played Fender and Ibanez (including a couple I pieced together from parts) all my life. For this one, I thought I might go a little different. I've always liked the look of Parkers, although I have to admit I like the feel of the P series better than the Fly. I will put the Graph Tech Ghost in, so the bridge saddles will have to go to black, another nod to Parker. For the finish....the body will get the cream binding (again just for show, the body is all alder) and the color will be a vintage Fender Copper Tone Metallic, hopefully it will work well with the chrome hardware (pennies and dimes). The headstock will get some Fender neck Amber and a custom decal a la Bill Jehle's tutorial. Can anyone pick out how many tutorials that will total my taking advantage of?

Absolutely, it's my first. Just taking my time. Dead on on the wood and neck: Alder with an old Jackson. Carving ideas partially stolen from the Parker Fly Mojo, as is clearly the general body shape. Thanks for looking.

All, Working on my first. The photos should give you an idea of the progress. Have some more routing to do: binding channel for some purely decorative binding and I think I'll take a 1/2" round to part of the back edge. Looks too thick in its current state. Also, I'll do a JS/Radius job on the heel joint. Comments, suggestions? I apologize for the size of the photos. Did my best! Thanks, El Dangerouso

I may have some ideas for you, but just wanted to make sure about your setup. For your pick-up selector, do you only want to do the LP setup or would you like to involve all three pick-ups (I know a three-way that will allow you to do this). Also are you set on controlling the middle p/u with a seperate volume or do you want to go with a master volume and just a push-pull to turn it on and off?

That makes sense, but wouldn't make a difference with a Floyd I guess, since the strings would be locked in place pre-tuner. (Not that that is the case that started this thread, I'm just playing out another senario.)

For my $.02..... Without this website and the tutorials and people (esp. Brian) on it I would not have had: 1) The motivation and guts to go out and try to build an instrument that I can't buy 2) The knowledge to do it without wasting time and money 3) The excitement in knowing that at the end of the project, I'll have the guitar I've always wanted Credit for all that is headed in one direction and one direction only.... THANKS Brian, it is truly appreciated!

Don't know much about the planet waves; I do like the mention that they do the cutting for you! One less tool to worry about. I have used the Schallers on three guitars, two I built from parts and one I did a replacement on. I swear by them. Too bad you're doing a Tele. Wilkinson, graphite and Schallers are as good as a Floyd!

I made a guitar from parts. Schaller Locking Tuners, graphite nut, Wilkinson trem. Great setup, could not take it out of tune; from quivers to dive bombs, it was rock steady. I suppose, if you wanted some added protection you could put a hipshot on it too. My guess is you could go without the added expense, but if you have the extra bucks, can't hurt.

That might be the sweetest headstock I have ever seen in my lifetime. Congrats! I have to beg you to make me a neck someday!

I think the important thing to remember is that Meg might very well be simply eye candy that provides a vehicle for Jack to call himself a band. As long as the eye candy is good, I'm cool. You can always turn down the volume!

The best diagram I can find is hereThree way toggle for three pickup. It is a leaf switch just like the regular toggle, but has two more contacts added to the outside. I think this combo will work, tell me if I'm wrong: Bridge hot to 1 Middle hot to 3 Neck hot to 6 Jumper from 2 to 4 Hot output to jack on 5

Sorry about that nyjbkim, it was Litchfield Custom that spoke about the graphite converstion kits in the other thread. Should really pay more attention to what I'm doing.

Solid advice, and glad I got it before I started work. Looks like I need to find a piece of rosewood and get out the dremel to cut the nut rout. Or what about the graphite conversion kits nyjbkim spoke of? Is that a better/easier option. My dreams of a chrome nut are shattered...I'm not sure if I can go on......LOL!

I have an old Jackson neck that was fitted with a Floyd Rose nut. I am wanting to convert it to an LSR roller nut. Clearly, the FR was deeper, and I'll need some kind of shimming under the LSR kit (I got the Wilkinson to LSR conversion kit from Fender). The little plastic "keeper" that comes with the kit still doesn't get me back enough height. Save me from the depths of my project hell!

Where might one go about getting one of those conversion kits? I have an old jackson neck I would like to put an LSR roller nut on. The FR being deeper, I need to shim the LSR. Thanks!

I really appreciate it. I was trying to avoid having to cut the slot for the tele switch, although I knew I could get that to work. I did get stew-macs #1228 toggle (looks like a standard toggle, but is really a DPDT on/on/on switch; supposedly the one they use for the three p/u LPs and SGs) because I knew the standard toggle wouldn't work. However, the wiring setup for these included with the switch gave you bridge, bridge+middle, and neck. The end state I was looking for was to be able to select each p/u individually because I wanted to use the middle to act as almost a second bridge (to play Albert Lee type stuff), but not have to sacrifice being able to do the neck/bridge combo (thus the push/pull), with the clean look of two knobs and one toggle. I guess I could always go with the rotary or three minis, but sure would like to stay with the toggle.

My incompetence has backed me into a corner again.... Here's what I've got: Cool Rails, Neck Twang Banger, Middle Duncan Custom, bridge I want to use a toggle switch as a selector. All I want to do is select each pick-up individually. 1 Volume and 1 Tone knob. I also want to use a push/pull on the volume to turn the neck on and off. I guess my biggest hurdle is how to wire the toggle switch. On that, I'm totally at a loss. Would appreciate any help.