GregP

Who knows? Everybody's entitled. I'm a bright-eyed newbie still, and a pretty vocal one, unfortunately. At this time of night, there aren't a bunch of people on, so when I click "View New Posts" and there's something to respond to, I usually do. I try to be a bit useful with most of my posts, but I'm sure that between me and some of the other newbies, you're getting a bit tired of answering the same old questions. I haven't noticed you being particularly caustic, but if you're getting burned out, just stick to answering the questions you actually FEEL like answering. It's all voluntary information, and if you're not in the mood to volunteer some knowledge one night or another, you shouldn't pressure yourself to do so. Greg

I'm pretty much a numpty about this stuff so far... so although I could just as easily phone a paint shop tomorrow and get them going "you want to do what?" I'll just ask here-- That recent Vintage Fender article posted around here made me really think that acrylic will be the way to go when I get around to it... is that stuff readily available for consumers at auto shops, or is it a specialty item? All I need is black and clear... but when I went to Parts Source recently, the sales associate was like "huh? You want WHAT kind of paint?" But at that time I was asking after nitrocellulose. Greg.

This'll be a fun project. Depending on the kind of finish you want to do, you could do something like adding a veneer/drop top... whatever it's called where it's 1/4" thick so that you can still sand down to get nice figure showing. I wouldn't even want to guess as to the other mods you'd have to make to accomodate that extra thickness, but I'm sure it's all within the realm of do-ability. The bevelled/rounded edges will make an interesting look if you decide to add a veneer, since it won't go right to the outline of the guitar. Could be nice, could be dodgy! I dunno! Personally, I'm a big fan of solid or barely-transluscent finishes. It looked pretty nice to begin with, in my books, but I can understand why you'd want to do a refinish... and if nothing else, it makes for an interesting project! Is the reddish coloration just some of the leftover finish? I see a bit of lightness in the lower left, which implies that a bit more sanding will get you down to a lighter colour. At that point in time, your options for colours opens up if you want to go with transluscent. A nice deep blue would be spiffy. The only personal experience I have is refinishing a Strat with a black/green faux marble. I would recommend avoiding this at all costs. Welcome to the forum... I'm sure other more experienced members will be much more useful.

Man there are a lot of pedantic people on this forum. <grin> I wonder what a titanium neck would sound like....

Not a pro, just something I stumbled across when I was wondering the same thing-- Whoever had answered the question indicated that 0.090 was sort of the 'standard', but that a first-timer might have more luck with 0.060, which will be easier to work. Obviously the aesthetics of the different widths will affect your decision, too, but I'm going with the recommendation of 0.060, myself. Greg

Heh! I had the same thoughts, when I discovered those tuners. I also wrote them an e-mail, suggesting a cosmetic makeover would get them more clients; however, they politely informed me that there was no further development planned for the tuners' design. Shame! There's no real reason it wouldn't work, though you'd have to be pretty meticulous about the string path if you wanted it to look decent, and probably drill the holes at an angle. Perhaps if you contacted LSR, they could put you in touch with a client who had done an installation on the reverse side. Greg.

my necks with carbon rods still adjust quite well Agreed! I meant that you probably wouldn't want to go for anything much stiffer than the carbon.

I have no practical experience with any of those woods... but in a way, it seems like a variation on a classic (ie. good) combo. Korina is a bit porous and resonates well, and walnut is fairly hard, to provide a bit of bite; ditto for the ebony fretboard. Sounds a bit like maple over walnut with an ebony fingerboard... how can you go wrong? Many people prefer korina over mahogany, ebony is a classic fingerboard, and apparently walnut is nice to work, and looks nice besides, if you care to do a natural finish. Sounds like a winner!

I would think that the danger of stiffening TOO much would be that it would make truss rod adjustments difficult or impossible. Whatever you put in there should have SOME amount of flex to it.

Why is chrome hardware the obvious choice? Either black or gold could look spiffy, too. Way expensive, but if it turns out well, it'll be one of those projects that could end up a showpiece. Greg.

Good lord, that's a sweet-looking guitar! Off to check out the website...!

It's kind of out-of-tuney! Could be rather useful for certain kinds of songs, but it's not particularly smooth or consistent; also, I think we've MOSTLY been talking about single-note vibrato, though I guess nobody really said anything about single notes. Greg

Welcome to the forum. Using This Fret Calculator, you can find out how far the 23rd fret is from the nut, then give yourself a bit of extra. Cheers, Greg

If there's one pick I hate, it's the stubby. Bleah! If there was ever a barrier between your fingers and the guitar, it's a 2mm thick piece of rigid plastic. <shudder> Standard 1.14mm picks ('hard') are about as thick as I care for. Greg.

Remind me to buy a guitar from Hyunsu in 5 years. By then he will have crammed the average man's 50 years of practice in. ;-)

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Sounds great!

Sweet baby Jingles... that's an involved question... you're likely going to get more luck more quickly with some selective Google searches than waiting for an exhaustive response from somebody here, who'll be speaking from a mixture of personal bias and personal experience. I don't know anything about koa, so I can't really answer any of that. Greg.

Good advice, especially if you do a lot of bending, too. I do it the B.B. King way a lot of the time, too, though, and I feel there's more natural 'rhythm' that way-- Hold the note with just the forefinger, and let the rest of your fingers fan out-- don't force it and make yourself uncomfortable, but they should be fairly extended for this technique to work. Then, instead of thinking about wiggling the string itself around I just shake my hand. I never concentrate on how much I'm moving the string, because if you're putting that much 'thought' into it, you're bound to get uneven vibrato. The extended fingers give your hand some 'leverage' to throw around for a nice, natural (usually fast, though) vibrato. For that really slow wavery stuff, you're usually better off with weezerboy's type of grip, though I'll still do slow one-finger vibrato sometimes. Greg.

Allegedly quite good. I haven't tried them, but because I keep mentioning them to people, I think I'll get a set for my next project, unless something comes along cheap again like last time. ;-)

All the more reason to get Tracktion! <laff>

I don't know the song... But you can always take a standard drum sound and process it... try a bit of distortion, a high-pass EQ, or any number of different filters. If I hear the song, I'll let you know. Greg.

The singing monk rules. Brother Gregory!

Well, I dunno about Gotoh, but if they use the same sized bushings (which they should, I'd imagine) as the Tonepros ones, the spec sheet someone directed me to yesterday shows that they are 6.976/16ths, or just microscopically smaller than a 7/16th. I dunno why they're that particular size, and even in metric there are no drill bits that are an exact match...? 10.9 mm is what I get (without actually sitting down and making sure my math is right). Unless you're obsessive-compulsive about the perfection of the hole, though, I don't see why you don't just drill one that's barely smaller using the 13/32nds one, and then stick some sandpaper around a bit of dowel or similar and sand it out the fraction of a fraction of an inch it needs. Greg.

Yes! That's a good explanation for why you didn't glue on the wings first.