TemjinStrife

Jeannie's Pickguards on eBay will custom cut a pickguard out of a range of materials and finishes... you can even send them your pickguard (or a copy/scan of it) and they'll do a direct copy. Depending on material, they usually charge $20-40. Also, if you want aluminum, diamond plate, or other metallic finishes, Sharp Concepts has a "make your own pickguard" auction up every week on eBay... if you're willing to wait a bit, you can get a custom aluminum plate in a variety of finishes and textures for $50 shipped.

IIRC, he had a struggle with cancer that has kept him from touring and recording much over the last decade or so....

So thats where his killer tone comes from! [/obligatory bad joke] I think its Hugh Manson... Charles Manson was famous for something slightly different :D Indeed, there are far too many mansons. Charles, Marilyn, Hugh... it was one of the three...

Is it possible to do this with a spoke adjuster rod?

Great link. Does bending on a fanned-fret instrument (for argument's sake, use the 26.5"-25.5" fan seven string idea) feel "strange"?

On a slightly more serious note, Charles Manson (the guy who makes Matt Bellamy's guitars) claims that steel saddles and bridge plates produce top and bottom, while brass produces middle, and "there's no comparison sustain-wise" in that steel is better. I also dislike brass nuts for the most part because string windings can wear gouges into them pretty easily. GFS likes to think that lightweight aluminum wraparound bridges are more resonant and "alive"-sounding than their heavier PRS alloy counterparts. But, to each his own. Frankly, I'd go with plated or stainless steel for durability myself. God knows there's enough stress on some bridge styles to cause them to de-arch in the middle...

You can get a Spirit strat- or broomstick-style Steinberger for $200-300 off of Ebay these days, great little axes. Just invest in some extra sets of double-ball strings or an adapter. Also, I was able to pick up an OLP MM1 for $150, but that deal may well be gone.

If it's definition you want, a Jazz you should get (for the neck position at least, imo) I've got one that's been on an all-mahogany Jackson SLSMG soloist and turned it into an amazing fluid solo/clean machine, and now it's on an OLP MM1 and has some unbelievable clarity and punch. It's somewhat middle- to low-output for a humbucker, but it makes up for it with some real sparkle... it does a great "woman tone" style wail and you can do some pretty complex chords at high gain and still hear every note. YMMV of course, but that's my experience with it. Also, remember that SD has a "pickup swap" policy where you can swap your pickup within a certain amount of time for another one as long as the original's not damaged or had the leads shortened too much. This way you can audition some pickups and swap if one isn't your sound.

Well, it looks like a standard truss rod is 18" in length, for a normal scale. I don't really know what you based calculations off of, though...

LOL, I'm in the same boat. 26.5" to 27.5" scale seven-string, trying to determine truss rod length. All else fails you can cut a traditional rod to size, but I'd prefer a dual-action or U-channel rod. Let me know what you find out!

Thanks... I've had Mr. Hiscock's book for a while actually and have read through it several times. I've done quite a bit of research myself, I was just curious as to what others thought about these design questions. Also, that's a good point regarding truss rods. For a 26.5/27.5" scale 22-fret guitar, the "active" neck length would be around 20". Stew-Mac's Spoke Nut Hot Rod comes in 18" and 24" lengths... would the 18" work even though it wouldn't extend the full length of the neck? Or, would I be better off with a "Hot Rod" design that didn't extend all the way into the body and adjusted at the peghead? I suppose if all else failed, a traditional truss rod could be cut to length, threaded, and set up for peghead adjusting. If it matters, I'm planning on using carbon fiber rods to reinforce the neck, as extra stability is always appreciated. Thanks everyone for your ideas!

Hey, this is my first post here, been a longtime lurker. My previous guitar-building experience was my so-called eBay guitar, which I built from a prefinished NOS Kramer body, Jackson neck, EMG pickups, and GFS locking trem all netted for a song via ebay. For my second project, I'm looking at something a little more involved. My father is a fairly skilled woodworker and I've built tables and the like, but he doesn't know much about guitars themselves and while I know quite a bit about building and repairing six-strings, I'm a little unsure of where to start because I'd like to build a seven-string guitar. I'm looking at a harder-edged Explorer-style body, fairly similar to the old ESP ones before they became all dagger-ish. Construction would probably be neck-through or set, with a quartersawn maple neck (or laminates, depending on local availability) and chambered mahogany or maple wings/body, with a top of some to-be-determined attractive wood, probably maple or walnut depending on which strikes my fancy and is readily available. I've done some research, and I'm interested in people's opinions on the following: -Scale length: do I go for a Schecter-style 26.5" scale length for extra low-B tension, or is a 25.5" scale generally okay for seven-strings, even if I'm looking at dropping the low B to an A? The extra string tension on other strings won't bother me much (I play 11s and 12s normally) and adjusting to the new scale length shouldn't be too bad either. However, this would require building my own neck, since buying a seven-string neck with 22 frets would be ridiculously expensive at this scale length. I can get a pre-slotted fretboard fairly easily, but no neck... and I'm frankly worried about stability issues with a homemade neck... are they very touchy to make? -Neck-heaviness: Seven-strings can be notoriously neck-heavy even with extended-horn Superstrat designs. The Explorer design has no upper horn... am I looking at a recipe for guaranteed headstock dive? If so, at least the back point will provide an elbow rest for keeping the neck at a good angle... -Body Carving: I have a Jackson SLSMG Soloist, which is a very light and comfortable guitar to play, tapering from about 1 3/4" at the middle to around 3/4" at the edges. Would this sort of a carve be dangerous structurally on an Explorer-style body, with the extended points? -Pickups: I am looking for a versatile seven-string that can do things other than just metal. I'd prefer pickups that clean up nicely in addition to being able to do crunch/metal with some decent definition... the SD JB-7 and Jazz-7 pairing looks very tempting, does anyone have experiences with these? -Hardware: TOM or flat-mount bridge? How hard is it to make a neck-through guitar with a neck angle? Are there any structural issues related to these? Thanks for your help, I'm really starting to get into this whole planning thing, and am interested in seeing what others would recommend based on their own experiences.