Liam M

Hey Guys, I noticed few of you sharing circuit diagrams on here, and a lot of you were drawing scanning them. I think you guys might want to bookmark this page. It's an in browser circuit designer and simulator, just click the link and it should open in a second or two. It's not without its bugs (Closing you browser and reopening it I found fixes 99% of them), and it's missing a few useful components (mainly DPDT switches and potentiometers so far) but I've found it useful, and it also has a (rather primitive) save mechanism. Either way it's fun to mess around with. Anyway, that link again is: http://www.falstad.com/circuit/ If you do try it and have any questions about using it, check out the instructions, or just post em here and I'll see if I can help. Regards, Liam M. EDIT: Woops, just noticed I posted this in the wrong section, it should have been in "Electronic Tutorials & Reference". Oh well.

Thanks Alex. That cleared up quite a lot. I think I'll just stick with the two screws, it would seam I'd prefer a potentially loose nut to a weakened headstock, and my neck is pretty thin. Thanks for your help!

Hi guys, I'm making some major progress, and I've profiled the neck of my guitar, its just about ready for a fretboard and a few finishing touches! Anyway, as far as the nut goes, I'm slightly puzzled, and need a bit of expert advice. My guitar uses a Floyd Rose bridge, and as such a locking nut. You'll notice on allot of locking systems, the nut is kept in place by two bolts that go the entire way through the neck (Ibanez RG's are a good example). On other necks, I've see people use two small screws instead, rather that drill through the entire neck. My question is this: Is there any advantage to using the bolt through method, over a few small screws? Thanks for any help, Liam.

Awesome! Thanks for your great reply Mattia! With all that resolved, I can set about getting some more work done, and hopefully have the neck all ready before the fretboard arrives. One last question: I have a few glues available to me, PVA woodworking glue (not the water resistant kind), contact cement, and I think I have some 2 part epoxy somewhere. Will PVA do the job for gluing the rods in, or should I use one of the more permanent choices? Will this be something which will ever need to be removed (I'd think not, because if the rods go, I'd say the neck is in a few pieces), or should I just plan for the unlikely? Thanks for all your help, Liam M.

Hi guys, I'm making some real progress on my project, and recently picked up some carbon fiber rods I ordered. They are rectangular in shape, being of end dimensions 9x3mm. Before I cut anything, I need some advice on how to place these things! first off, should I lay them flat, or on end? obviously laying them on end (as in, on the shorter side), gives them far more tensile strength, so this is the way I would think it should be done. is this correct? Second of all, should I lay them straight, parralel to the truss rod, or would I be better of fanning them inwards towards the truss rod, more closely following the taper of the neck? Finally, because of the length they are, they cant cover the entire length of the neck, from heel through the nut. My neck is very close to an Ibanez wizard II neck in dimensions, so its pretty thin, and has a scarf joined angled headstock. My question is this: Should I mount the rods so they they go under the nut, tapering off at the base of the headstock, or just stop short of the nut all together ? Would going under the nut actually reinforce the headstock at all? A friend of mine casually suggested this to me, and my thinking was that, due to the angle of the headstock, it wouldn't be under the same kind of stress as the rest of the neck. But I figure you guys would know a lot more about this than me! So, what do you guys think?

He probably used this guy, or he magic marker'd em' on himself.

Hey, Me again with another strange question. Seeing as I'm not confident enough to construct my own neck from scratch, It is my intention to use a factory built one. I found a guy in my area selling an old Ibanez neck; few dings, dead straight, truss rod is good, and it's cheap (he just doesn't want it lying around anymore). Only one problem: For the Jem inspired build I'm doing, it's approximately 20mm too short! Furthermore, this puts it just under long enough to incorporate 24 frets. So, heres what I was wondering: Can I make the neck longer? My thoughts were to increase the length of the neck by attatching a block of maple to the heel end of the guitar, possibly via a scarf joint, and then continuing the contour of the neck up to the new heel end of the neck. Is this a bad Idea? If so, is a scarf joint the way to go, or should I use another type of join? My reasoning with the scarf joint is to both hide the old, now visible neck mounting holes and add strength to the join. I've seen it done somewhere before on the internet (although without the scarf join), and its a pretty straight forward procedure, but I'd like to know if this is a bad idea before I buy the neck. Thanks in advance for any advice, Liam M.

At around 5:55 of this one, you can witness the awesome electronics(?) cavity he's added. I'm guessing he used a phillips head to gouge that, yeuch. You'd hope that the average joe is smart enough to realise how completely wrong that thing is, but considering it's on youtube... And we get stuff like this: "Holy ****... man, you are f****** TALENTED. That's simply amazing. Great work, I always have respect for creative guys like you who think WAY outside the box." - Muaguana I'd say he'll probably make a sale.

Hi guys, Well I've just about finished up my CAD body plans (I'll make them available when im done - but I use a program called Pro/ENGINEER, which you may not be familiar with, so I'll try and make AutoCAD compatible drawings for you guys), and as far as I can tell, theyre very accurate. However, while my drawing originally started as a left handed Jem copy, I've dropped the monkey grip but decided to stick with the lions claw. This is where I hit a slight hitch; All of the plans and photo's I have seen, show a distinct difference between the tromolo rout for an Ibanez Edge system Vs. an Original Floyd Rose system (what I intend to use). This can be seen here, and here (note the position of the cavity which connects the bridge and rear cavity tremolo routs). My concern is this: Will installing a lions claw, as per the Jem777 blueprints (second link, the plans are old, but It is the same on all the Ibanez Cavities I have seen), with the differering position of the cavity lead to incorrect operation? Is this possible, and has anyone tried it before? Also, assuming this is possible and has been done, How long should I make the lions claw and with respect to what position? I could just buy the Tremolo now and measure it, but I'd really like to just get the sheets done before I order anything. It just seams like the smart thing to do (to me anyway), so I can order each piece and make corrections to the 'finished' drawings as necessary (Hopefully not necessary ) and not get ahead of myself. Anyway, I appreciate any advice you've got, If theres anything I've said thats a bit vague, just ask, and thanks in advance for any help you can give. -Liam M.

Hi there guys, I'm working on my first guitar project, and I've chosen to use White Korina (or White Limba) as my body wood. My school has a CNC router, and being a fairly motivated technical drawing student and on good terms with the engineering faculty, I can arrange to have my body routed using it, rather than via more error prone methods. My question is this: having never routed a guitar body, are there any special issues I should be aware of when routing a guitar body with a CNC router, such as certian things I shouldn't rout (the binding channel around the perimeter of the body is of particular concern)? And more specifically, are there any issues i should be aware of when routing with White Korina (White Limba)? I must admit, I'd be pretty crushed if I perfected the routing over some runs using scrappy pieces of hardwood, only to then wreck the real deal . Thanks for your help, Liam M.

Hi there, I'm new to this site, and thought I'd give the obligatory first post. I'm a 16 y/o player from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, from the land of oz, who is currently planning out their first custom guitar, partly because I love both music and enginnering, and partly because I'm left handed and sick of playing black guitars . I came across this site some time ago and found it to be a fantastic resource, however failed to notice the forums. I look forward to meeting you all and contributing to this fantastic site. Liam M. Edit: Found the information I needed about donating. I managed to find this thread.