Myka Guitars

I second the idea of a slightly hotter bridge pickup (15% is standard on custom wound pickups as far as I know). I have built 2 P90 eqipeed guitars so far and I love them. The first had a mhaogany body/neck, a koa top, and ebony board. The other 1 had black limba bodies, maple tops, bolivian rosewood neck, and an ebony board. Both guitars had Rio Grande P90s in them; a Bluesbar bridge, a Jazzbar neck, and a RWRP Jazzbar mid pickup. What I like about P90s is their clarity and bite. A little more volume and you can get them to growl which is awesome. Add some high gain to the situation and you have raw rock and roll. On the clean side of things you can get some great chimy chord tones with wonderful harmonics and note bloom (a lot depends on the guitar for that but the pickups help too). Roll bak the tone and you can get some great jazz tones as well. Both of these guitars I thought of as more blues jazz guitars than anything else but you could get some great rock tones as well. I like having three pickups to play with. The mid pickup solo is one of my favorites (Hum/P90/Hum would be a great combo). Being able to use the bridge/mid, mid/neck, and bridge/neck cmbos really opens up some tonal territory. The way I wired the guitar the b/m and m/n postions were series/parallel switchable which makes for even more fun. You can get some great fat humbucker-ish tones out of those settings. I used a master volume and master tone on both guitars. What I would recommend for a two pickup setup would be a simple volume and tone with a 3-way (you can still use 2 vols and 2 tones with a 3-way too). OR to use that push/pull switch you can go with 2 volumes and 2 tones and have a series/parallel switch so you can get some of that humbucker type crunch and power. The 2 volumes will act as the pickup selector and enable you to blend the tones of the pickups together. A very simple wiring would be 1 vol, 1 tone, a 3-way, and the push/pull series/parallel swicth. You can go a long way with that. I also second the notion that the mahogany guitar is closest to the true Gibson tone, that and a 24-3/4" scale. Both my guitars were 25" scale for a touch more clarity (less muddiness). I like mud sometimes buit I wanted to try something different (you can still get mud by rolling the tone back a bit). The black limba/maple/rosewood guitar sounds a bit more chimy and musical to me. Again, less of that mahogany mud. I just recently built a humbucker guitar with a mahogany/maple body but with a black limba neck. It has some mud and some sparkle. The neck is a huge factor, I think. The maple neck will certainly add some brightness and halp round out the tone of the mahogany body. I like this idea. I don't think I would go longer than 25" scalel length though or you might end up with a super bright guitar. But then again maybe not. Tap the piece. If it has more thunk than ping you are probably OK. If it really pings I would go with 25" or less.

If you live in Portland Oregon (I did for 1-1/2 years) they carry it at Crosscut Lumber in the industrial section of town (NW). It is a retail shop so you can pick through, which you definitely need to do. If you don't live in Portland, OR then there are a couple places that will mail it to you: Gilmer Wood Company on the West Coast and Gallery Hardwoods on the East Coast

Not only do people hear at different levels of subtlety but one of the most influencial parts of the tone chain is rarely brought into the discussion. That is that most amplifiers color the sound of the guitar so much that they do sound (nearly) the same. Not that many people will go out and buy the most articulate, transparent amplifier they can get because (controversy coming...) tube amps are expensive. A lot of the newer amps have digital modelling and effects built right in. This makes almost any guitar sound the same. And this is what people are hearing. That and the overprocessed music industry's mass market recordings (that's for another discussion). I did a test with a friend's solid state Marshall amp with built in chorus and distortion and my Fender tube amp. While we could hear the difference plain as day through my Fender tube amp you could barely hear any difference at all through his Marshall solid state amp. Hardly any of the guitar's color was there at all. Not to dismiss the solid state amps out there that do a great job of clearly and unobtrusively amplifying a guitar's tone, it's just that a lot of the newer (and more acce$$ible) amps have built in effect circuitry. They aren't going for total clarity. And it's no wonder. The same companies building the cheap lifeless guitars are putting out these digital effected amps to try to make their guitars sound better. It is almost impossible to prove this point in the current mass produced, monotone guitar and amp market. I see and hear the evidence every day. That's enough for me and my clients. That's why they are buying custom.

Thanks! It's fixed now. I used waterbased aniline dye, just straight blue. I used two batches of dye. One was mixed weaker than recommended (1/2) one was mixed stronger (2X). 1. I applied the stronger dye first and saurated the top completely. 2. Let dry and sanded back until just the deepest parts of the grain were showing. 3. The next step you do in one step (don't let it dry): Applied the weaker dye all over the top evenly. Applied the weaker dye around the edges to give it a slight darker border. Wipe with a damp rag in the middle to blend the dye rubbing more dye out in the middle to lighten it up a bit and accentuate the dark edge. 4. Repeat the steps in step 3 until you get what you want. The damp rag trick works wonders for smoothing out dye over edges and blending colors (on mutli color projects), as well as removing dye in a controlled way to lighten an area up. Hope this helps. ~David

I just finished up another solidbody and I though I would share it. Here is a link to the gallery. This is a really interesting guitar with a mahogany body and black limba neck. Usually if the necks are of a different wood than the body it is more dense and harder than the body wood (maple on ash, rosewood necks, etc). This one goes the other way by using a less dense wood. This is in keeping with acoustic guitar design all the way and the result is pretty nice. I don't know how much better this approach is as I love the rosewood necked guitars I have built but it does offer another way of tweaking the tone. The idea was to try and add a little sparkle to the dark mahogany tone without completely overpowering it. One thing you might notice is the heavier neck heel (or that there is a neck heel at all). This was a specific request from my client based on the idea that the heel adds necessary mass which is a part of a good tone recipe floating around. I don't believe or disbelieve it as both sound good to me. I like the heavier heel too just not as much. Anyway this guitar really sings. It has a great voice that can cut through without sounding shrill and piercing. The tone is very warm and musical. Hope you enjoy the pics! ~David

Thanks Jehle! I was thinking the same thing when I built the first hollowbody. It is a cool type of guitar to build and play. I highly recommend it if for anything else just to experiment further with archtop construction. It answers a lot of questions without getting too far out there in uncharted waters. Let us know when you start one. ~David

The last body just sold. Thanks to all! I hope you enjoy these as much as I almost did ~David

There is still one LP left available, now in eBay: LP #2 If any of you win this just mention Project Guitar for the 15% discount when you are checking out. ~David

Thanks Drak. You are the first to bid on these. So the archtop and LP #1 are sold!

I have the 2 LPs at $160 each ($135 for PG members). Here is the regular spec'd LP: LP #2

Jehle, It hasn't changed my approach or enthusiasm at all. It took me years to realize that all I wanted to do was build guitars. I love this work. It's my art. Even though these two new guitars were built in the same way as the first guitar each one has its own unique voice. I used similar woods but one top was an 8yrs air dried tight grained spruce top, the other was 3yrs old spruce with wide grain. Each piece of lacewood had its own mid range punch, etc. It is really still very much a thrill to me to build these guitars. Actually building a 2nd and 3rd version of the (almost) exact gutiar was a great learning experience. They all sound different. They sound like the small bodies archtop that they are but each one has certain tonal aspects that makes it unique. I have been fortunate to have very understanding and flexible clients who give me room to experiment and improve where I feel it needs it. I am very thankful for this since it allows me to grow and explore. This approach keeps it fresh for me. These were very fun projects for me but you know I can't wait to finish the other 3 I started along with these (#019, #020, and #021)! I will get back to them next week and I am very excited as these will really show me the potential of this design. I'll certainly keep the forum up to date as soon as I have more to share. ~David

All of the bodies have been sold. They all went to ProjectGuitar members too! Can't wait to see the finished guitars.... ~David

Setch this is too cool! That is one sweet LP. Love the extended tutorial as well. It is always good to get another perspective on building guitars. Thanks! ~David

Thanks! It's a lot of fun. I am just thankful that I get to do this for a living (most of the time at least). I love it.

That is awesome! Can't wait to see finished pics. Very cool work.

Here is a company that sells over 30,000 styles of eyelets: Stimpson Co

Lacewood is strong enough if you use a truss rod. I can't remember where I saw them but there were some basses with lacewood necks out there. I would imagine that you could strengthen it up using carbon fiber too. It is a pretty strong and stable wood. If I can find links to the basses I'll post them here.

Mike, glad the advice worked out for you on that neck! Maiden69, the 3-P90 guitar had the black and blue treatment. #023 was just blue. Both were applied then sanded back then applied again for the depth of figuring to pop out. A great technique that allows for intense effects. I have been using an ebony (or rosewood) piece for the ferrels on these guitars. This way I can make them to my own spacings and not have the ferrels get too cluttered. Here you can see the block from the back of the guitar: ebony ferrel block. From the top I use brass, silver, or whatever. I want to get some longer pieces of stainless with flared ends that would go all the way through the guitar. I can't find it though. I cut all the inlays by hand so I do end up changing the logo inlay a lot. SOmetimes I go with the feel of the other inlays on the guitar and sometimes I just make a slight change in size or shape. The symbol was one my grandfather came up with and it is pretty versatile. You can change it and still recognize it.

If you want a great plan of action get a good book on the subject. William Cumpiano's book Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology is one of the best. It will answer all of your questions. Perhaps you could just show it to your shop teacher. I built my first guitar in shop class. I refused to make the birdhouse.

No kidding! I have been busy lately (in the shop fortunately). I try to stop by here as much as I can. I don't have my computer in the shop anymore so that limits things a bit. I do have some pics of the latest guitar: guitar #023. I have also finished up 3 other instruments; a pair of hollowbodies: guitars #017 and 018 and a solidbody: guitar #016 It has been a good summer indeed (that is to say I had enough orders to avoid getting a real job). I have a few more in progress that will be done (hopefully) soon. All the pics are on my website in the work in progress section of the gallery page. It looks like things are getting busy around here too. There are a lot of new guitars and new memebers too. This is one of the busiest forums. It's great!

Hitone, when I am going to dye an area and want to keep the binding, or the top, clear I will mask off the area to be dyed and seal the parts that I do not want dyed first. Then when you put the dye on it won't affect the sealed parts. Here is a pic of masked off binding: masking. Once masked I'll brush on lacquer to seal the binding before dyeing the back and top. I just finished dyeing a guitar that had clear on the back and neck with a fax maple binding. The top was to be blue. I masked off the top leaving 1/8" around the perimeter for the faux binding. Then I sprayed the guitar. Once sprayed I removed the masking and was able to dye the top without worrying about coloring the back, neck, or binding. Hope this helps. ~David

Well since there is only one category that covers complete builds from raw lumber to the finished product and that is the master category I voted that way. Having 16 years experience building from scratch I still feel that I am learning and evolving as a luthier so I wouldn't call myself a master. I don't think most builders would except the exceptionally gifted or the totally arrogant. I feel I build pro quality guitars but I have yet to build anything flawless. That takes a few decades (if it ever really happens). Interesting results though. The 'masters' have a lot of work to do on this forum!

You should be able to use your jointer and flatten one side. Set it for a really light cut (1/64") and take as many passes as needed to flatten it. Then send it through your planer to make it an even thickness (again 1/64" passes). Don't worry if you do not hit the entire surface just make sure you flatten the fingerbaord area and plane the heel area. The reast of the board will be cut away and shaped. Hope this helps.

You certainly can use carbon fiber reinforcement. I do in my necks and I really like what it does in terms of stability. Tonally it is fairly transparent but it does add increases stiffness which seems to increase the resonance of the piece as well. The coolest extra benefit is the elimination of dead spots in the neck. Now to keep on topic... You know I wasn't thinking so much about maples when I first answered the question. I was mostly answering the general quartersawn wood question. Maples are gernally the exception to the rule beacuse the quilting figure is more intense when flatsawn. There may be other woods as well. For example I recently purchased an Indian Rosewood piece that I cut fingerboards out of. The figuring is intense flatsawn and I cut a couple that way just in case I decided to use one. The quartersawn cut is also beautiful but in a different way. If I do use it you can be sure that the neck wood is dead on quartersawn and I will use carbon fiber too. Sometimes I make my fingerbaords so thin that they don't add much to the strength of the neck. This is the way I would use flatsawn fingerboards since the neck is then made a bit thicker instead. I built an acoustic guitar of all quilted maple that was definitely flatsawn. It was beautiful but I had some problems with it warping in the back and sides during the construction and also after it went under string tenstion. Not to say that I wouldn't use it again. I would (it was beautiful, sounded great, and my client insisted on it). It was just the most unstable acoustic guitar I have ever built and the only difference is the flatsawn wood.

Another take on this is the structural aspect of the wood. Quartersawn wood is more stable and has consistent grain pattern that helps to stiffen the neck. While I can't argue that flatsawn wood is more attractive than quartersawn (or vice-versa) I do have many pieces of quartersawn fingerboard material that is just plain gorgeous. In a manufaturing setting flatsawn woods may be more or less unavoidable but I build my guitars one at atime and I always use quartersawn woods for my fretboards unless otherwise specified by my clients (and not being able to talk them out of it). I really don't know where you get the idea that quartersawn wood is less valuable since it is almost a requirement for guitar building. When building fine, custom instruments the difference in between a flatsawn piece and a far more superior quartersawn piece is rarely discussed in terms of price. Most of my clients would not dream of using anything but quartersawn wood for the fingerboard (and neck, soundboard, back and sides, etc). Why would they? Here is a decent article to look at: What is quartersawn wood?