crimson guitars

I find guitar building in general takes over, but you're right, a nice full-stop to each day is a good thing to find.. I'm still searching for mine!

Akk! I knew I couldn't be the only one for long.. seriously though I used to do the diary every night but it ended up taking over my life!! I now update the full Crimson Guitars workshop diary once or twice a week and for the people who want the daily experience I load the photo's up to twitter, facebook etc throughout the day.. I couldn't live without my smartphone! Have fun with it all.. and get some sleep!

sims custom shop in the UK offer chroming.. But even on Matt Bellamy's guitars they can't guarantee a perfect finish.. What can you do? Personally I'd go with the paint option or build a metal guitar to be chromed, at least the results are predictable!

alcohol does raise the grain a bit and dries really quickly, oils do as well but they don't evaporate like water and alcohol so you end up with finish where you don't want any.. I always lightly mist the wood and dry sand it before staining.. This method goes back to stradivarious and furthur so don't knock it, it works!!

Definitely one of those finishes that a customer would only ask for once in a very long time but very very impressive looking!

I can see why you'd think the freless section should be level with the fretted, but I'm not convinced.. the player of such an idiosyncratic guitar will expect it to feel a little different than standard and that's all it would be.. a little different? No? If you radiused the 'board using a flatter radius on the fretless side you'd also come up with a similar effect of smothing over the cross-over between fretted and fretless..?

I've just had a customer ask me to get one on their new custom, she has three already and can't believe the quality and tone.. I'll let you know once the beasties built..

I've just been asked to build a custom 8 string fretted/fretless hybrid bass, difference is he only want the frets to go accross half the fingerboard width ways.. this will mean on the treble strings we'll be able to have a suitable action for fretless playing.. in your case this would probablt be the safesr route.. removing the original frets shouldn't be too hard and then add new fret wire over just half the fingerboard.. fill the rest of the slot with maple or epoxy and you're singing.. and if you dont like it it's not a permanent mod.. refrets after all are more common than any other repair! Here's a link to the 7 string bass that the new eight string will be based on.. except for the fretting thing of course! 05Ric Signature Bass

Making super thin necks doesn't really need all this carbon fibre stuff etc.. a low profile two-way truss rod.. allpartsuk are a great suppler, and multi-laminate contruction are all you need. Ibanez tend to use three 20mm sections of maple with a thin veneer between them.. I once made five necks with different headstock joints and the only one that survived me jumping on it was the multi-laminate.. the 15 degree angled headstock bent flat to the floor and then bent right back again.. this was made out of three mahogany strips with maple stringers.. Have fun..

Just to chuck in my two cents worth, I build Robert Fripps (King Crimson etc) signature guitars and the only trem system he will use is the Kahler.. 2200 for preference but that's mainly just because that is what he saw first! He's a difficult man to please, as you would be if you'd been playing pro for 40 odd years, and he really knows his stuff! Here's a link to pics of his Slimline Signature Model.. oh, on the neck angle thing, I think it works both ways but have ended up recessing a few in flat top guitars, just to get the right sort of feel for the customer really..

I've been wiring guitars for over six years and have never bothered to stick the wires through the holes in the tabs.. as long as you tin (melt a little solder on before trying to actually attach the wire) the tabs and the wire first you'll get a joint that will last for years! Tinning the wires and tabs etc also help to avoid using too much heat on any delicate bits.. especially the capacitors as you can blow these out quite easily..