Blackdog

Hi Mattia, sorry I forgot to mention that. These are full size Grover locking rotomatics from StewMac.

Thanks, Yes, I took a lot of care as everything was being done for the first time. Still there were some mistakes, and the guitar is not perfect, but for my first build I think it came out quite well. Unfortunately I'm not set up to make sound samples at this time. I should be able to do that soon, I might post something in a week or two so you can all tell that even with the very limited experience, I'm better at building than at playing the things... But 3 P90s are not quite common, so I think it'll still be interesting for many people to hear the different voices. Regarding the tuners I have mixed feelings now. I bought two sets of these because I thought it was a clever implementation, and indeed it is. It’s a cam locking mechanism that works pretty much like the old PRS winged tuners, in a much slickier package. But there are disadvantages: the posts are almost absurdly tall. This obviously means a significantly shallower string break angle at the nut. This is not necessarily bad. There’s a positive effect in the ringing of the strings with shallower break angles at the nut and/or at the bridge. The open string ringing is impressive, and a good part of it might be due to this effect. They are also heavy, but tolerable with the wooden buttons. BTW, the replacement buttons made for Schaller M6 tuners fit. They have a tendency to break the string at the post when tuning/detuning. This is a major PITA for setup, but once that’s done they are really easy for string changes and they perform smoothly. So for these reasons I’m going to keep them in this guitar. Anyway I think that I’ll switch to Sperzels for the second build. I will NEED a lighter set of tuners. I still have an unused set, so maybe I’ll design a thicker headstock to accommodate these better the next time.

Thanks a lot guys for the nice words, I'm flattered. Specially when the praise comes from some very experienced builders. I've seen some of the beauties you make and really makes me want to learn more and get better in this craft. P90s rule, dude !! Seriously (and more according to my age) there's something about P90s on a mahogany slab that I simply love. For me it's close to the perfect pickup, with the crispness and dynamics of a single coil and the guts of a bucker. Short of insanely high gain, it can do anything. I have been curious about the possibilities of 3 P90s in Strat switching configuration for quite some time, and this was the perfect opportunity to try it. It really makes for a tremendously versatile guitar, many very disctinct voices. I was a little worried about the 3 pickups. e.g. I could never play confortably a 3-humbucker LP Custom. In this one the third pickup is allways a bit in the way for picking, but not nearly as bad as 3 humbuckers would be. And Doug, breaking a bottle of champagne against something and waste it would be a shame !! Save it for when you finish yours (the Alien Letter PRS, w/p90s too !!!) and I'll open one here and we can have a virtual toast !!! Thanks again, it's been a highly enjoyable experience. Now to start the second (and third) build(s) !!! BTW, due to popular demand !! I'll enter the guitar in GOTM, but is December already closed ??

There are in fact many ways to mount them. Those are not necessarily the wrong screw type, but they look short and the head is too big. Along the years many methods have been used for mounting their P90s, but what you should will also depend on the depth of your cavity. But generally speaking: You could use wood screws, like those proposed above, directly into the wood. This is by far the simplest, but not the one I like the best. Hamer uses this method on their LP Special type models. Gibson used this method in the 50s LPs. You could use the normal pickup height adjustment screws (with the small round head and the long variety). But you need to screw them into something. For this you could make some mounting bracket with the proper threaded holes, similar to the ones I made here: A similar approach was used by Gibson in the late 60s and early 70s with pieces made of aluminum. I used brass instead. The most professional looking and expensive way would be to get some of these. Parts-is-Parts used to stock these. These were used by Gibson in the late 70s for the LP Deluxe/Pro, and can accomodate P90s or Minihums. Finally, I wouldn't use the spongy thing. Use springs threaded in the screws instead. The spongy thing will eventually become bland and cease to push the pickup up. It may even rot in the cavity. Springs will last forever. Good luck.

So our first build is now finished. More pics: Full Body Back Headstock Inlay detail 12th fret inlay Flamed neck And it plays and sounds amazing too !!! This has been a great experience, all in all it took 4 months (since July 27th). A few mistakes along the road, all happily resolved in the end. So we've learned a lot. So I guess we're ready for the next challenge and the oportunity to make new mistakes and learn new things. But this first one will surely be always special. Thanks to all for the patience, support and help !!! See you around.

Thanks a lot for the compliments !! I think I'm blushing... The next two (why settle for just one ??) are actually pretty well defined already. The plan is to build them more or less concurrently: #2: Doublecut LP Special style, deep-carved flamed maple top on honduras mahogany (the "original" body blank). Indian RW neck, maple bound RW FB 25" scale, 2 HBs and tremolo. #3 is for my son, he wants something LP-ish, so: Singlecut with LP contour, deep-carved flamed maple top on chambered mahogany body. Mahogany neck, maple bound RW FB Gibson scale, 2 HBs, TOM+tailpiece, and LP style control arrangement. It has been finished already, as a matter of fact I'm concluding the assembly and setup now. I do not have access to spraying equipment, so I needed someting wiped-on or in spray cans. I wanted some kind of oil-finish look. I considered the basic options like Danish Oil, and Shellac. But decided to go with Setch's advice and used Rustin's Plastic Coating, thinned down and wiped-on. It ended up really well. Here is a pic of the guitar after 3 coats of PC. The fretboard figuring really popped up when it had some finish on it !!! Same thing with the flamed neck. The staining and sanding really paid off. The glossiness of the finish was knocked down to matte with steel wool and brought back to satin with some energic dry cotton cloth rubbing/polishing. I really like the results, will post final pictures of this instrument soon.

Right, the tone should mellow quite a bit when wired. We'll knock off the PRS Mc Soapy for the wiring. Your guitar is coming along very well too !! Looking forward to see it finished, that maple top will look amazing in blue. Nothing quite like a nice blue PRS. Don't worry too much about the brightness yet. When I first wired mine it was a little too bright too, then I discovered I had a broken (open) tone pot. Properly wired with a 500KA volume and a 500KA+.02uF tone, the harshness completely disappeared. If after adding the controls you still find it too bright the best solution is to shunt the output with a 470K resistor in parallel. PRS does this on the Hollowboy and is subtle and effective. BTW: I prefer the "alien letter" TRC to the "dK"one. Not only matched the "design feature" on the back, it also looks intriguing. you can always explain to people that it is just a transliteration of "dK" in Ganimedian...

That is an interesting point you make here. I never thought of bowing. However in a TOM configuration (with a separate tailpiece) there's a considerable string down pressure that is not there in a wraparound (with the strings anchored to the same piece). It's more of a torsion force. If there is any bowing is probably going to be the piece deforming and leaning forward, I guess. That is definitely a good idea for a new design, but I'm not working on a new design, I simply thought that something like this would look cool in ebony or rosewood. I still think it might be worth a try. Thanks for the feedback guys.

Lot's of interesting discussion on the subject here. Thanks for the feedback, obviously it is an interesting idea after all. Of course the challenge would be to do a drop-in replacement for an aluminum wraparound. It's got to be practical, so using the existing posts for adjusting action and set screws for intonation should be the way to go. I still don't get the feeling that an ebony piece would be much more fragile than aluminum. In terms of string anchoring it is not much weaker than some ebony tailpieces used on jazz-styled guitars. Myka latest example (the 335-ish spruce topped hollowbody) comes to mind. Wouldn't having the grain of the ebony running perpendicular to the strings make for a strong enough piece ?? Locking posts or at least tight fitting "ears" to distribute the torsion forces over a surface as large as possible are probably a must. I think I'm going to give it a try. It will be a two-piece thing, with a base piece anchored to the studs and providing the string anchoring and a top piece providing the intonation edge and fretboard arch glued on top. This should also add some strenght to the final piece and will be a lot easier to make. Is it unerstandable ?? I'm in the middle of a very interesting meeting at work right now, otherwise I would make a sketch to illustrate the idea... An additional question would be: How do you ground the strings with a wooden bridge/tailpiece ?? Obvious answer is "you don't", so does it make a difference in hum/noise levels ??

Looking good !! Mahogany looks terrific in natural. May I ask why you used a separate top of the same wood as the body ??

While the finish on my first build cures I'm thinking on doing crazy things. Like maybe a PRS style wraparound bridge carved from wood ?? My idea is to pretty much replicate this one-piece aluminum fixed-intonation bridge in some hardwood, but still use the normal metal posts to anchor it to the body and set screws to adjust overall intonation. Do you think it might work ?? I can make it out of ebony (but I would have to glue two pieces together to get the required thickness), out of indian rosewood (one piece) or out of flamed maple (one piece). What would you use ?? I'm inclined to say rosewood as one piece would be preferrable and goes better with the cosmetics of the guitar. Comments ??

PRS tops are much thicker than 1/2" I would say about 3/4" (19mm) at the highest point. For a deep carving like a PRS you need about 1/2" (13mm) for the carving itself (I used 13mm for my build), and add something between 3/16" to 1/4" (5 to 6mm) for a faux binding to make sense. For my next build (carved top, faux binding) I got a 19mm top. 0.69" (17.5mm) is doable, but probably too close a call. Now 1" is more than enough, but maybe too much: you'll want to concentrate your efforts in the carving, not into converting 5mm of maple into sawdust to get it where you need it. Believe me, it's a lot of work. Maybe you can ask the supplier to thickness it down to 3/4" before shipping ?? I know the german provider I bought from will do that upon request.

For free, of course !!!

The headstock veneer was already there when I got this neck blank. Does anybody know (or care to guess) what type of wood is this ?? Thanks for the enlightening.

I think you're sounding more arrogant than selfish. But then it might be just me, english not being my first language.... Good advice has been given here, and you seem to have no need to take any of it with humility, so now surprise us with your ultimate amp design. One combining high wattage tube technology and some cutting edge digital processing (ah, and Celestion speakers). Let me tell you that's a lot of expertise we're talking about. Maybe you really are an expert in these fields and just your attitude is slightly off, I really wish you the best of lucks.

You can't go wrong with Zhangbuckers. Great guy to deal with. Great pickups. Great prices.

Tell you what, we have a luthier near to where I work. I'll take them both in with me and ask him to verify the wood for me. I'm no expert on these things but he will know. I think I've seen those necks for sale in the bay. The subject has been discussed over at the LP Forum. These are 3-piece maple necks. Gibson used necks like these on LPs from sometime 1976 to about 1982. They could well be legit NOS rough Gibson necks from that period or replacement necks made for Gibson at the time. You probably know this already, but the 59 LP used one-piece mahogany necks and the tenon was much longer at the time. That said, these are still going to be perfectly adequate necks for a good LP build. Just expect a relatively snappier/brighter sound out of it. Another comment/opinion on your build: I would not put Gibson on the headstock. I know you do not intend to fool anyone, but it's still not correct. I don't have anything against building copies, lookalikes, inspired-by, etc. (I built one myself), but try at least to add some original/personal touch to it and you'll feel proud you did. I know for sure that after all the work involved in buillding my PRS-heavily-inspired baby, there's no way I'm putting on the headstock anyone's name but MINE !!! (both to make ME proud and not to embarrass uncle Paul Reed.... ) Best of lucks with your build !!!

Congratulations !!!!

Looks really great !! I specially like the carving of the back, on the neck side.

I love your work. That's a superb guitar !! BTW how does it balance ?? Is it neck heavy ?? Eventually I'd like to build something with approx that form factor and also semihollow, but thought that a rosewood neck would be too heavy for the project.

Thank you guys for the comments and congratulations. This project is really making me proud. Some more detailed work has been done during the week: The frets have been leveled, recrowned and mirror polished. Not only the 12th fret was high, but it was the worse. The relief has been set, action tweaked and intonation adjusted. The action adjustment range is a tad marginal. With the bridge all the way down the action is just a bit below what I normally use. I might try to route a shallow (about 2mm) recess where the lower collars of the bridge posts touch the body. The inserts are a healthy couple of mm into the top already. This small recess will give me a little more range and peace of mind. The nut (graphtech) was shaped and cut, still need to glue it in place. I shaped it Gibson style, I prefer the strings to just sit on the nut instead of running inside a deep channel like on the PRS. The electronics have been completely wired. The neck and mid pickups are Gibson P90s (the mid is RW/RP), and the bridge is a custom wound hot P90 made by LP Forum member Zhangliqun (highly recommended). The switching is fairly standard, 6-way rotary, volume, tone. The variation of voices is amazing. From the classic LP Special P90-on-mahogany sound to fat quacky strat-type sounds. I always wondered what P90s in a Strat wiring would sound like, now I'm impressed. The tuners I'm far less impressed with. These are fullsize locking rotomatics. The locking idea and implementation is good, really easy to string up, but the posts are too tall (breaking angle on the nut suffers and overall it looks disproportioned). With all the tuning/detuning involved in a setup I had to replace the high E (twice), the D and the A strings !! The tuners have a tendency to break the strings at the post. And they are too damn heavy, even with the wooden buttons. In my guitar the body isn't exactly feather light, and it still balances very well, but I doubt I'll use these tuners again. I might even replace them for the more-vintage looking (and quite lighter) Deluxe/tulip types. Then there's the playability. The neck feels just a tad too substantial. Front to back the depth is in line with a LP59, and just a tad thicker than a PRS wide-fat. I may try to shave it a little, specially on the shoulders. That should improve the feel just that little bit. But other than that (I do like fat necks anyway) the relief is close to none, action is perfect for me and there's no string buzz anywhere. Notes ring loud and clear (and they do ring like a bell !!), no dead spots anywhere and even step-and-a-half bendings ring perfectly without any note choking. It really plays like a dream and rings like a piano. Summarizing: I have the fortune of owning a few really good professional grade electric guitars. This one I made is easily one of the best playing and sounding among them all. Three months ago I was wondering if I could build at least a decent guitar body at home, now I'm playing this amazing instrument that I made all by myself. I'm so happy and proud that I had to share my feelings and impressions with the people of this Forum who greatly helped this dream become a reality. Inlay Body Inlay 12th fret Inlay TRC Now I just need to apply a discreet finish and my 1st build will be a complete success. (BTW: The commissioned neck was a fortunate failure. The guys that were going to build it said they would have it in 8 weeks when they quoted me. After 8 weeks they said they needed at least 4 more. At that point they said they still needed "a few more weeks"... I paid them a visit. They hadn't even started !!! I cancelled the order. I don't need it anymore, now I know I can make my own necks. )

I would like to express my surprise when after the accident you had with the carving of your neck you were able to produce a new carved neck in a matter of hours !!! That was fast !!! Anyway, very nice headstock design. Is it based on an existing one or is it all yours. I would love to do something 3-D on my headstocks, but my current design is on the small side and I couldn't come up with anything interesting that would not make it look smaller.

I have a Hollowbody II and a McCarty and the top is equally angled on both. I would assume that the Archtop is angled too.

Some significant progress has been made during a very productive weekend. I finished the ends of the frets on friday. Still, before attaching the neck to the body I had to enlarge the "dishes" for the controls on the top. The existing dishes had been made with a large cove bit in one go, they looked nice but were too small and ended up completely hidden by the knobs. Following black_labb's suggestion I got a round nose router bit with a top bearing. So I built a template for a bigger "dish" for the top controls and was much more pleased with the results. Then, after rechecking the alignment of the neck in the pocket one more time, it got hold of the old Titebond and boldly faced the Moment of Truth. The following morning things were looking promising already. After a long day I could actually put things together yesterday. I measured and remeasured and finally drilled the holes for the bridge. I manufactured some attachments to mount the P90s and tried a test fit. And using a cheap precut plastic nut I put a set of strings and tuned more or less to pitch. Since it was kind of late I thought it was probably a good idea to leave the neck under nominal string tension for some time before doing any serious evaluation of things. So from my first impressions: Strings align well, and the bridge seems to be in the proper position. I definitely have a problem with a few tall frets (the 12th definitely, and maybe also the 17th). But it was time to stop for the day. But even though the pickups are not even wired, the nut is too tall and not the one that goes there and no action/relief/intonation or anything has been adjusted yet, it pretty much looks like a guitar already !!! Another...

Just a suggestion, this is what I did and worked for me. Project the sides of the neck to the bridge area and use that to center the bridge. Hold a longish and straight piece of wood or a straight edge firmly against the sides of the neck and making sure one end extends well into the bridge area. Draw a couple of lines on the top, these represent the theoretical extension of the sides of the neck at the bridge location. If your neck is well aligned with the centerline of the body, these lines would be at the same distance of the centerline. But if they're not exactly aligned you'll want to make sure the string geometry is correct, even if it is slightly off the body centerline.