GregP

it could be done, but I expect that the pedal is the optimal way to control a whammy. Besides that, if the whammy craps out or you decide you're not really using it... whammy still in your guitar.

Lots of threads seem to pop up about embedding effects directly into guitars, but I'm not really for it. Seems like a waste of time and energy to me, plus too great of a commitment to a particular effect.

But that's STRICTLY personal opinion.

I'm with you.

I have a Yamaha "tele", and the belly carve is nice to have. The Yamaha uses pointier bout like a strat and a partial strat-like pickguard (knobs on bare wood, though), but I like your truer "tele" approach.

+1 to keeping the tele control plate for the real deal. To really do an "attention to details" thing, I'd do a custom scratchplate that mirrors the one you're already using in every regard except one-- shape the cutaway to blend more seamlessly with the rounder tele shape.

Not sure how much it costs to have custom work done, or if you'd just do it yourself, but I know that services and materials are available out there somewhere.

Either way-- looks great! Pretty rare to see those 2 styles blended quite so perfectly!

1 vote for cream here.

excellent point.

+1 to the disabling cab emulation. I don't know enough about impedance as it pertains to this particular situation, but if you can run fx (low-z..) into an amp, you should be able to run a Pod. It's just an effects unit, after all. Which brings us back to the cabinet emulator, which is probably the problem. If the 2.0 is at all like the XT, you can not only disable the cab, but in "no cab" mode, you'll have to turn down a wet/dry control for the "room" noise. Try to get rid of all emulated rooms/cabs.

Only if the depth of the hole is equal to or less than the depth of one of the "steps". You could just use a 3/4" drill bit if 3/4" is what you need, no? Even without a drill press and clamps (which I'd recommend), the bit usually wants to more or less centre when drilling into a smaller hole. But, well, I'd use a press and clamps.

Which spring claw thing do you need a long drillbit for? Aren't they usually just located with a single screw? I haven't owned a trem-equipped guitar in some time, so I'm forgetting!

If it's true bypass, that might be the very cause of the tone suckage. Without the preamp stage staying inline with the signal, you might be inadvertently running the signal through a too-long length of cable.

Also not true.

EMG's particular active technology is not only well-shielded, but use the preamp to boost a signal that is much lower to begin with and may or may not have a different shape to the coil. AFAIK, other manufacturers (including Guitarheads) basically put a preamp on top of a normal single coil. No doubt, amplifying a standard single coil before amplifying it will make it noisy indeed.

"Active" does not automatically imply "quiet". It's just that EMG's particular active technology is the most well-known and has set the standard in the field; and it is known to be quiet.

Aren't tone zones and virtuals humbuckers (of 2 opposite output ranges, no less)? Isn't a phat cat a single-coil p-90 like pickup in a humbucker-sized housing? Those are at odds with what you're looking for!

A p90 stack sounds about right. Similar thing to the p-100 already recommended, but made by a diff. company, that's all.

No, I wouldn't want to imply that right out of a CNC machine it would be perfect or inferior, either. I'm well aware of the tolerances in CNC machines not being 100% perfect.

But since there are surely other computer-controlled processes, I'm just saying that I don't know how you'd get that 99.999% flat surface by hand.

I must be thick, but how can 'hand crafting' result in a completely flat plane? I'm not doubting it, I just would in all non-sarcastic sincerity like to know. Is it about sourcing naturally-occurring materials that are naturally flat? How the heck is it done? I always assumed that some sort of computer guidance would be able to produce a much more perfectly flat surface than a person's bare hands.

P-90s are great, but I can't handle the noise anymore. P-100s (or similar) for me, next.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

I dunno, man. Knopfler, Gilmour, and a Vince Gill, and a lot of other players get a lot of soul, clean blues, low distortion, and "fat" out of actives. They're not only for healthy doses of distortion on rock and metal, though of course that's one of their favourite playgrounds.

Really? I love the idea of Trem King and other trems that stay neutral, but I would think something like the detent would prevent the Trem King from doing much of a flutter.

A tele's just not a tele without a top-hat switch tip.

Actually, that's not quite true, plus I'm just joshin.

That's one serious piece of wood! Nice guitar! It seems so nekkid without a pickguard, but it's still a beaut.

Awesome so far. The cutaways are a bit too 'sharp' for my tastes-- blunt off the points just a smidge and it would be 100% up my alley.

Looking forward to seeing more!

I don't get it.

Are you using a 25" scale neck or a 25.5" scale neck? The distance between frets can't be compensated for... a scale length is a scale length! If you have a 25.5" scale neck, you have no choice.

awesome!

One further question.

First off, I am going with Doug at SoulMate. Second, I am also thinking of going with a 24.75" scale Mahogany neck w/ Maple laminate stripes. If I go with a Mahogany body and the shorter scale, would I need to worry about that sounding muddy with a Mahogany neck w/ Maple laminates at moderate to fairly high levels of gain (thinking Alice in Chains or Pantera at the most distorted), or should I consider a going with either a Maple neck w/ laminates or a longer scale? Or does it really matter? I realize LPs and Gibson Flying V's are used in all sorts of music, but would be interested in hearing any dissenting opinions as most music in that vein does not seem to be made with that composition of guitar and when it does often active pickups are incorporated.

-Cheers

Shorter-scale guitars don't automatically sound "muddy". You've been reading too many tone voodoo articles somewhere. ;-)

If you want to use a 24.75" scale, go for it. Plenty of high-gain players use Gibsons with passive pickups. You're thinking too hard.

Hey scab, just a heads-up that Frank doesn't pop in here all that regularly, though you might luck out! Once he gets the pickups, they're bound to come with a wiring diagram of some sort, from which people around here could probably give him advice. My suspicion (and it's ONLY a suspicion) is that it'll be wired like a 4-conductor humbucker. Since there's already the P90 for single coil, I doubt they'd bother giving a "split" version of the humbucker portion. That would mean that he could look up virtually any diagram that uses 4-conductor humbucker tricks (and there are tonnes!) to do what he wants to do.

Yeah, it's red strats for me, too. <shudder>

Super awesome-tacular!

Must be one heckuva girlfriend.