frank falbo

Yeah, the Tonepros studs pretty much negate the issue of how far back the bridge sits on the studs, from a sonic standpoint. Man, you're taking this way too hard, Matt. The 7-string I'm hopefully entering in December is the pinnacle of design for me. The shape is pretty original, and I put more time into it than any other build, getting the carve just right, etc. The sounds and feel are perfect for me. My whole heart and soul are poured into it. And I still fully expect to get my clock cleaned by some Drak tele or Ormsby soloist. Not to mention the Leviathan that's already in there. I'm sure someone will say my horn is too long, or they don't like the way the pickup is angled, or whatever. Or "why isn't there a pickguard?" LOL. It's no big deal. Everyone has their thing. And amidst all the battling and vote-splitting, December is going to be a wild card anyway.

RIGHT! That's what I'm saying. What a perfect time for guys like us to enter. No loss of self esteem. And if Drak, Perry, and LGM enter multiple guitars, they do indeed split their own vote, so maybe we'll have a shot. They'll each be eachothers' Ross Perot.

Actually all the December heat works quite well for me. I was planning on entering a solid quilt 7-string that's almost complete. With all the other talent in there, I will feel really good about losing in a landslide. You know, like the Astros probably feel like "well we lost, but at least we lost to the best!" And Matt, I hope I made it clear that your guitar is awesome too. Like Fryovanni, the stuff I mentioned was really minor, but contributed to the vote because it was so tight this month (and this year) Since Drak was calling out the "non-Matt" voters, I thought I'd share some specifics to back up my "non-Matt" vote. Although they're minor. The "gangly" reference was in how to my eyes, the cutaways don't flow into eachother, or lead the eye to the waistline smoothly. I think the new Carvin carvetops have the same issue. But I mean, that's the way you drew it, so it is perfect for you. Heck there're some guitars I think are hideous, and they sell lots of them. So everyone's different. It's just like Drak was saying about his entries. In another group, a different month, it's a winner.

I just don't think Matt's guitar is on par with some of the others. Flawless? Maybe, although I would have liked to see the bridge studs placed back farther so the bridge had more meat on the studs. The saddles are pulled back pretty far, too. The shape is just a little off to me. It's a little gangly. But it's certainly something to be proud of. Just not a vote getter in this group. It's really a toss up between the rest. I love the RW neck LP. That's almost exactly how I'd make a Les Paul for myself, with good woods and a dramatically improved neck joint. The Swede makes a fine guitar, too. Perhaps not as dazzling as the rest, but that's not his fault. Perry finally did something that I can say is worthy of a vote. In the past I always witheld my vote from Perry because I judged him against himself. So a typical superstrat with fancy woods wasn't enough from him. His recent entries were very "Jackson custom shop" influenced. I'm sure they're better, and I'd rather have an Ormsby than a Jackson any day, but since he's won G'sOTM in the past, I want something new from him. So this month he delivered, by showing his first airbrush guitar. He gets mega extra points for trying something for the first time AND having it come out perfect. I know someone has talent when their first attempts at things are 100% successes. And I'll be darned, it still looks like something right out of the Jackson catalog. If Mattia hadn't found worm holes in his top, my vote would have gone to Perry. That inlay is great, and the spirit of the guitar is great. It represents overcoming obstacles. It represents taking life's tragedies and not just living with them, but turning them into triumphs. It repres...Oh whatever it's a cool guitar. Even though some of the execution doesn't match Perry's, I had to vote like I always do, on the whole thing. Like if Perry made that guitar, it would've had a cleaner body binding line, without the angles and such. But I don't hold the cavity covers against mattia. I personally don't like flame maple as a back cover. And I don't like the angle that narrows it either. I prefer a straight rectangle. But he can just as easily put a plastic strat cover on later.

Yes you can, and it was equally true when soapbar said it.

*sigh* It's the high pass filter. Don't "just get a circuit for yourself." Or do, I don't care. But what he's doing is simply turning the volume knob down which reduces the gain to the amplifier. The reason the sound cleans up so well is because the pot is modified with the high pass filter cap (which I told you to search) and it's standard on lots of Ibanez guitars, including the Jems. When you turn the guitar's volume knob down it attenuates the highs quicker than lows. The cap allows the highs to pass through, essentially making the volume knob double as a bass rolloff. That, in conjunction with the pickup selection, is how you, or anyone else can develop a technique whereby you seem to fade between clean and dirty with just the gradual turn of your guitar's volume knob. But no, I'm sure there's something in there none of us know about, and you should probably search all around until you can buy it. Or, send me some money. I do believe I have one of tho.....I better stop. It's not a flame post, really. Just learn to start trusting us more.

You're probably just hearing the high pass filter. It's a cap across the two hot tabs on the pot. Search that, and you'll come up with some stuff.

Also on the stacks, like the HS and IBZUSA, your second coil is directly underneath the main coil. That does introduce phase cancellation in the audio realm, regardless of what it's doing electrically. That's why Dimarzio only sends the magnets through the top coil, and they install that cool metal "U" shield around the top coil. It shields the top coil, but also directs the magnetic field more efficiently around the top coil. But if you've ever wired the stack up incorrectly as a single, you can still hear an audible sound, about 1/3rd to 1/2 the output of the top coil when it's wired alone. The magnetic field is definitely passing through the bottom coil, even though the magnets are not. The effective magnetic field extends about 1/4" around. So perhaps if the Dimarzio stacks were made with a 1/4" spacer between the coils, then you'd only be left with the electrical variation, and not the audio one as well. But then the pickup would be pretty tall. But the stacks would make a perfect experiment for this one. First, install some stacks. Then, disassemble one and use the bottom coil as the dummy coil somewhere else in the guitar. That way you'd have the perfect mirror image coil for your test. (well, within manufacturing tolerances anyway) You could toggle between them and see how much different it is when the dummy coil is totally out of magnetic range, vs. right under the hot coil.

That's not exactly true. The high E should require little or no intonation adjustment, and can be placed at the mathematical location so long as it's at the far front of it's travel. The Stew Mac calculator is telling you where to put the screw holes (or stud holes) for the particular bridges. And the first one (Tele) is farther back because the saddles can go farther forward than the screws.

Right. Garehanman was only considering potting to mean within the coil wires. But since the cover is metal against metal, it can develop a feedback loop against one or more of the poles, or completely on it's own. It's got nothing to do with the initial pickup potting. Also I'll usually use a spring clamp to smash the cover down as far as it will go (regardless of what you're doing with the potting situation) and solder it with the clamp on it. You don't want any air gap between the coils and the cover, because then in reality your pickup is even farther away from the strings than you think. Plus, the screw poles have to come ut farther, which makes that coil even stronger than the slug coil by that much distance. The slug coil is already the weaker coil when a cover is applied.

Southpa is right, although I think he meant that the mounting holes in the body were too big. If the holes in the neck are too big then the screws would strip. I usually make my body holes so that the first two just barely slip through. Then when the neck is firmly planted, the second two holes are small enough that the screw actually bites both the body and neck. The body hole is still a little bigger so the bite isn't as substantial, but it's enough that you can't push the screw through the hole. It has to thread. And many times I'll let the screws thread in all four holes, using a clamp to lock the neck in place for the initial threading. Cleaning or de-glossing the pocket is a good idea, but sometimes the neck and/or body aren't perfectly flat. In that case, the neck is pivoting because it's only making good contact in a few places, or perhaps just in the center. De-glossing won't help that, but a re-route of the pocket, and re-planing of the neck will. That's when you take it back to your builder. Really all of this stuff should be taken care of by the builder, as was said already.

I think it's great the way it is now. (2nd generation) And here's your headstock: Take the horns, and shrink them down so they're roughly the size of the top of a PRS style 3x3 headstock. Then bring the waist out a little so it's basically a wide PRS style headstock, but the top of it is cut exactly like your treble and bass horns, with a very large scoop out of the middle. I can't really make it right now, but I hope you understand what I'm saying.

That's so funny, because I wrote a song with some lead lines like that in between the choruses and verses. And that's the LAST type of sound I wanted for it. And when I was recording, I tried a few different things. To make a long story short, I got that steak sizzlin square wave on the top end of the notes. The only problem is I didn't want that at all. It just mysteriously appeared, and although it was a little hidden, it came out even more after mastering. So I think what we've discovered is, that sound can rear it's head out of anywhere, whether you want it or not. If I can find a way, I'll package up the essence and send it to you, cause I don't want it! Or...Hmmm..maybe it just travels around, one guitarist at a time. Maybe you have it now. In any event, I have to re-record those darn solo tracks.

I realize this P-90 cancellation story is over, but no one mentioned that if the middle P-90 was reverse polarity from either of the other two pickups, then the pickguard could have been magnetized "north" while the P-90 was magnetized "south". With the pole pieces coming through like that, you had a south magnet poles with north magnetism all around them. You may have been simply cancelling out your magnetic field. Even if the neck and bridge were RP from eachother, they are far enough away, and protruding enough to be far less affected. And the large holes took the magnetic guard over 1/4" away from the magnet source on all sides. While the P-90 was in almost direct contact with the guard. Or it's posible that the whole guard was sucking the magnetic power from the P-90, weakening it and spreading it out so far that it would give you almost nothing due to phase cancellations and the overall reduction in pull.

S's have always been Mahogany, so I'd confirm that it's basswood if I were you. Also I'd try to confirm that it's a N. Hollywood custom, and not just a custom job. It looks fraudulent. Why would N. Hollywood put a vine inlay in there AND the abalone ovals too? It's most likely a vine inlay job on a regular 540S that has no other custom features whatsoever. Clearly the vine inlay was added after the neck was made in Japan. Now maybe they made the body here out of basswood as a custom of sorts, and maybe it's worth the money, but a typical Japanese "S" guitar is a great guitar, that's worth anywhere from $300-$500, more if there are fancy features. Sometimes they called them 540S, sometimes S540. There's no real meaningful difference between the name change. That's about it. EDIT: The North Hollywood neckplate came on lots of guitars. It's like the Bensalem PA neckplate. It doesn't mean it was made there, just shipped there.

I don't know what your gloss will be, because you were talking about minwax stuff and whatever in the progress thread. But for me, when I have a piece like that, I want to get a super thin washcoat of something that's really glitzy. Usually that's nitro for me. But then you need to be sure it's compatible with your topcoat. Basically I'm saying the same thing as mattia. I'm just adding that a super-thin washcoat first will make certain the gloss penetrates deep. (as deeply as that stain was penetrating) Thicker finishes will just rest on top. You want the gloss coat to basically be as though the guitar is under water. So anything that is too thick to penetrate will decrease that effect you have when the body is wet. Like if you took plastic wrap and covered the top with it, it would be shiny but really look no different than when it's dry. And don't be tempted to add more amber stain because it lightens when it dries. How it looks wet is how it will look under the gloss. And it looks perfect right now! With that guitar, anything you do will be gorgeous.

That's just a brass tube, and still requires a set screw. Which is fine, but if I were using a set screw then I'd cut the hole to the perfect size and have the set screw press against the pot directly. That's how I've done it in the past. I've simply threaded the wood and used an allen bolt. It works fine. If you're really scared about the threads you can soak the threads with superglue and then re-run the tap. If the wood is good they'll hold just fine. You could also get a nylon or plastic bushing that's just the right size. Then glue it in, and let the knurls cut their own paths. Or heat the pot shaft with a soldering iron, attempting to let the shaft melt it's own grooves. But that's all if you must have a press-fit. I'd rather use an allen bolt. With the allen bolt you can still drill the hole just small enough that the knob has to be lightly pressed into place. Or use the brass bushings (or plain brass tube) and drill and tap it right along with the knob itself. That way you have a little bit of metal thread, along with the metal surrounding the pot.

The only reason someone wouldn't be able to make a Wizard proile is if their truss rod channel was too deep. The Wizard pushes the envelope to "dangerously thin" and should have structural enhancements when possible. As for the actual feel of the neck, it's hard to find two Wizards exactly alike anyway. They're hand sanded after the CNC cuts them, so there will always be some variation. But there are huge differences from the original '87's until now. The original were more "V" shaped, for a more "cupped" feel while some of the later versions became more squared off ("D" profile). With a lot of "C" variations in between. So whoever builds your neck, don't expect it to feel exactly like yours unless you send them yours for a custom carve. Otherwise you can just assume it's probably the same as SOME Wizards out there, but not all. Vintage fretwire will make the neck feel even thinner overall, because your fret top-to-back thickness will be further reduced. If you haven't tried vintage wire on a Wizard yet, my advice would be to opt for a neck slightly thicker than a real Wizard. I mean, you could lose 1/64" in fret height from vintage to full jumbo fretwire.

When they're all in line, the center two are usually the hots. The switch is split right in half, not unlike the traditional wafer switch. So it's kind of like this: 1/2/3/H H/1/2/3

Mixing is okay, so long as the ohms match. In my "glory days" I had two stacks, each consisting of a 1x15, a 2x12, and a 2x10. They weren't stereo L/R, they were stereo with L=15's and 10's, R=12's. That way I could also adjust the balance between cabs per program to focus on the fat vintage 12's mids, or the more hi-fi 10/15 combination. I still use that setup in the studio. It's fantastic if you're wise to your phase relationships. I know you've decided what to do already, but for the sake of future searches, I'd recommend a seperate single 15" cab under a 2x12. If you want the hugest sound possible, use a passive crossover network to cut below 150hz on the 12's and above 4-5Khz on the 15. You'll be blown away. I do that stuff all the time with my combinations. For a vintage sound I usually run them all full range with most of the emphasis on the 12's. But man when you need it, that 15 can just pound away like no 4x12 can. There are many grades to MDF. I don't know if there's an "official rating" or anything, but hardware store MDF for home projects is likely very different from cabinet grade MDF. And I have no idea what would make a good sounding cab. I would reinforce your corners and edge joints with MDF. Once structural integrity is breached with MDF, it pretty much turns to powder.

It's good, but for me it's too busy. I don't know what it's going on, or whether you'll have binding or purfling or whatever, but it's just a little busy for me. Maybe a little longer, and with the bottom hole a little smaller it would look more pleasing. But don't take my (or any of our) opinion too seriously because you know what the finished product is going to look like, and you have a vision for it. So sometimes "too fancy" is exactly what the guitar needs!

Yes, epoxy is probably the best suited method. Besides Corian looking really cool in different patterns, I'd rather see a guitar with a wooden top and a Corian back. Hmmm, that gives me an idea...

Yes it will, but unfortunately for us, the lacquer will not help your spelling and grammar errors.

I've seen it plenty of times, most recently on stripped Ibanez bodies. On the Ibanez bodies you don't get so lucky, though, because many times they are 3-piece bodies and only one of the pieces has the flame. If there's more figure on the outsides, I would cut it in half down the center, then split it and bookmatch it so the heartwood ends up on the outside, and you get two tops out of it. Better yet, split it and bookmatch it as I said, but have a top and back that you can hollow out before you laminate it. Then the figure will be in the center, bookmatched with a center line, and the grain should line up fairly well front to back too. (see the recent Maxxas thread about how cool a clamshell hollowbody can be)

It's kind of like a resonant peak that jumps out of the body whenever sympathetic notes are played. Think of it as the opposite of dead spots. At least that's the way I've heard it. If you go into a bathroom and start singing notes low to high, you'll find several that resonate annoyingly. When you find some big ones they'll resonate your whole head. Actually (off topic) I've always thought bathrooms should be designed with acoustics in mind, and they're clearly not. But any cloth or foam baffles would mold up. So you'd have to do it with the shape of the room, and various dividers or phony rafters or something.