avengers63

The Moderne is the urban myth of the guitar world. I'm sure that, as hardcore as Gibson is with heritage & history, if they had even proof that a prototype was made, much less exists, they'd come forward with it.

There's an SG in the works. The body has been routed to template, neck blank scarfed and ready to go, dye color matched & tested, and all the hardware is on-hand. It's waiting for the Super-Thin, Iceman, and Mockingbird to be done before I do any serious work to it.

Or maybe just make it from some basic woods like a mahogany body, ash neck, and rosewood fretboard. Then paint the body green or something simple like that. Really, there's nothing you can do to make a Corvus look bad. It's like the VW Beetle of the guitar world.

Man... there's one thing I ain't NEVER doing again, and that's a crackle finish. That was the biggest PIA that I've ever come across. It look skiller, but it just isn't worth the unbelievable effort that went into it. For a top, I have some spalted birch I could bookmatch......

I have some black hardware I got cheap, as well as some pups, so I'm thinking about another Corvus. I got my hands on 3 pups from a Gibson Marauder, so that's a distinct possibility there. At least it'd be in the same family, even if it's that branch that nobody wants to invite to Thanksgiving. Y'all know me - the more silly it is, the more it amuses me. Neither the Corvis nor the Marauder were a high-end instrument, so imagine it being blinged out with some nice wood for the top, maybe a carve, multi-layer binding, a decked-out neck....

No pics to post, but the inlays are made, headplate glued on, bound, and blackened, and the fretboard is in the clamps.

Yea, I've always thought that was an odd irony. TVJs make no effort to hide that they're copies of Gretsch pups, but Gretsch must agree that TVJ makes them better than the originals. It just seems unusual for a company to admit "you do us better than we do."

We all know it's 100% personal opinion, so all different answers are to be expected. All we can go off of is out personal experiences. The tele set I got from BL is wonderful. The Gretsch HBs I have kick all kinds of a$$. The DiMarzios I have are decent. But the hands down best set I have is the blade strat set I got from R.A.D. Coming in a close second is the set of 3 mini-HBs I got from him. But back to the P-90 question... I have a pair of Gibson P-90s, and they're great. I don't really have any others to compare them to, but I can say that these are pretty nice.

Bill f'ing Lawrence website end of line

Beginning process of making the inlays. One down! It's the back of the 1st fret inlay. It's flat & even, and so it looks much better than the front at this stage. They're coming in at 1/4", which is just a hair taller than the fretboard.

Neither does Leo Fender........... ...or Paul Reed Smith.

I managed to get the faceplate on tonight, as well as shim out the edges of the ebony fretboard, so tomorrow should be pretty action-filled for the neck. I landed a cheap 3-pack of pre-slotted ebony fretboards @25.5", all 22 fret. The nut was too narrow though, so I have to add some width with another piece of ebony I ended up getting for FREE. All are a consistent near-black with slight brown streaks that disappear when wet, so the shims will be all-but-invisible. The headplate ended up being walnut. It'll get dyed black, just like the sapele body base. I'm considering adding cream binding to the headstock & fretboard. I'm not sure yet. The body will have a faux binding from the edges of the top. The maple top is getting dyed, but I can scrape the edges clean for a crisp faux binding look. Cream on the headstock & fretboard would blend in nicely, but I'm just not sure if I want to go that far yet.

I finally got the body all re-glued and ready for the next step: neck pocket, pickup, and trem routing. Unfortunately, I have top have the neck a little more done before I can get there. The headstock wings are in the clamps. Tomorrow should see a faceplate. After that, some serious action can start.

I won't say anything bad about Ed Roman's quality. Even without having played one, I'm sure they're a fine instrument. I just get tired of his self-aggrandizement and endless hyperbole.

I thoroughly and wholeheartedly advise AGAINST using a darker-colored wood for the body unless the plan is to paint it. If you DO choose to use a darker hue, don't use purpleheart anywhere. It will compete visually with the bloodwood too much. Darker hues will blend in too much with the bloodwood. There won't be enough contrast for it to be visually interesting. To balance tonally with the BW, I'd suggest white limba. The purpleheart is an eye-grabber, so the attention is drawn to it. Visually, purple and red don't compliment each other very well, so it's not a good match there either. For the fretboard, ebony is always a great choice. An orange-ish rosewood would probably darken over time, and a rosewood fretboard is almost a visual neutral when viewed on a guitar, so that would be fine too.

Except that Ed Roman is a self-serving spin doctor doing whatever he can to say how great his stuff is compared to everyone else.

I know I mentioned it,but after the final sanding and everything,the body now stands at 15/16" thick at the edges,and 1 3/16" at the thickest part of the carve,officially making this (IMO) a super thin carved top. I think I'd have to agree with that one. FWIW: My body ended up 15/16 with a set neck, no carve. We'll see how it goes.

I'm not afraid of the imagery. Fear implies it holds some sort of power, which it does not. I just don't like it. It represents the opposite of what I put my faith in, and therefore is not to my liking. A zombie samurai with pulled back lips, bloody teeth, and the wild eyes might be cool. If you're looking for a bubinga body without the weight, why not dive into my super-thin experiment? It's pretty close to being able to be a guitar. I'm waiting for RAD to have the time to play around with an almost-surface-mount modern HB design. After that, it'll be ready to go. We're hoping to have a finished product in January.

nice color variation chechen and canary can have some nice variations too

no You'll always see where it was glued together with a scarf. A lot of people use it as an excuse to put in some extra decoration. It's the same mentality as the Arts & Crafts movement in woodworking: highlight the joinery instead of trying to hide it. Titebond. Ebony isn't oily or resinous like some rosewoods are, so there is no extra prep necessary.

Not that my opinion matters at all since we clearly have radically different tastes, but.... Personally, I think the horns look stupid. The Samurai top knot would be a LOT cooler. Then again, I really dislike anything resembling demonic/Satanistic appearances.

I play rhythm almost exclusively at church. Something shaped like this wouldn't be completely useless for me. Hmmmmm.... Maybe something with a huge chamber, spruce top, and the rest of the accoutrements to imitate the looks of an acoustic.

in the future, please separate your thoughts into paragraphs instead of one lump mass

http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2010/12/mathia...and-walnut.html The shape is OK, but hollowing out the back of the body is just brilliant.

Sapele is a good choice to balance with the brightness. Sapele is SUPER dark - darker than mahogany. Even with the chambering, I might be concerned about PH top. It's as heavy as bloodwood. I'd still go for white limba and no top. Then again, I love high contrast.