riffster

I will try to get a pic of what we did on Friday.

We routed out a space on the back that looked rounded like the shape of the tunomatic recess. We then took scrap ebony and hand shaped it on the sander attachment to the drill press until it fit in the routed spot closely. We used epoxy and ebony dust to fill in the gaps then drill for the ferrules. To mark location to drill we used a string spacing ruler so the bass side has more room for error, but it still look great IMO. We did this just to make sure we got it right and it looks great. The black ebony tied in with the black plastic control cavity cover and the gold ferrules. In fact, it might look kinda cool if I inlayed a chunk of ebony to the top of the guitar where the top ferrules are. Then it would be Madagascar ebony fingerboard. black pickups, gold bridge, then Madagascar ebony inlay with gold ferrules. I am pleased with the outcome and look snazzy. I can't work on the guitar this week and I will take a pic next week if I can.

Thanks again everyone

I am probably not going to redrill because I was going to finish the hondo mahog body in tru oil. If I was going to paint it then I would redrill and make them perfect.

I may use ebony or bone for where the ball end of the string will be up against. I know ebony is hard, but I know that bone is also a hard material. Bone is an option, but there may be some ebony scarp laying around that is more easily available.

Nathan

Impede the true tone of the wood?! LOL. I wish I had their ears!

*woops. I automatically thought that they did say that since they have said strange things before!

Thanks for all of the help everybody. I will probably be able to work on the git fiddle on Friday. I am working on it at a luthier frineds house. I will weigh all the options and think it through carefully and then I'll discuss it with my friend.

Again, thanks soooo much!

We are shaping the neck. Hopefully it will be done this summer since college gets in the way.

Oh yeah that bar thingy. I have seen it before, but I am unsure what is is called too.

What else could I use then? Am I restricted to using ferrules? Any other ways?

Yeah, it bothers me alot. This is my first electric though. Still it does not seem like a good excuse, cause i hate excuses. I am leaning on not using rear ferrules, just front, If I can plug them and redrill them, the plugged holes won't seem so obvious because the top ferrules will take up more space.

Nathan

I did it by drill press. I used a brad point first that fit the diameter of the ferrule. The problem is that I was a smidge off and it threw off the next one at least.

As far as the special bit, I have the interchangable pilot bits that fit the 25/64 lip and the vintage style ferrule that is 3/8. I can't wait to use them. Their so cool!

Thanks for the replies and the encouragement.

The Peavey EVH that I have does not have a floating system. The current EVH does not have one either. Thats just off the top of my head.

Thanks for the reply's. I saved the scrap wood and I will be able to use the scrapwood to plug each hole if it doesn't work out. If I am to intimidated to redrill then I suppose I won't install any ferrules on the back and I could wait to do that on my next build.

Thanks for the reply. I have already drilled the main holes that the string will go through in a straight line. This is the one thing that I overlooked and I am afraid that I am going to have to plug some holes. I tried to get the main small string hole as accurate as possible, but a few might be a little offline. I may just have to route a block on the back to plug them all then somehow do something that makes them super accurate.

Has anybody done them in a straight line before?

Hello PG's

On the guitar that I am building with a gotoh tunomatic with a 2 1/16" string spread. I drew a line straight back for the rear ferrules. I only have a little wiggle room before they overlap. The ferrules I am using are 25/64 and can be found at stewmac. What is the best way to make sure that these ferrules don't collide with one another so that I can drill them accurately?

The string spacing is 10.47 and the ferrule dia is 9.92. Any jigs or suggestions? I really don't want to plug any holes!

Nathan

Your weather patterns seem similar as here near St. Louis. Its crazy! Thanks again ihocky for your help.

Thank you very much spoke and ihocky. Glad to hear that there is no issues with 9% moisture content!

Thanks again!

I know it is basic. ideally it should be 6-8 percent, but is 9 percent acceptable? I am looking at buying a nice piece of koa with this moisture content from Hawaii. It was kiln dried to 9 but the seller says it has stabalized to 11-12%? Any thoughts?

Nathan

I would go to my friends house and play on his Teisco after jam sessions. It was a kind of fender jaguar tiesco hybrid thing. It was not top notch quality by any stretch, but I loved its unique personality.

The flame doesn't look perfect. I love it. For some reason I dig imperfect tops. Great shape by the way and color. Lookin forward to the final mock up.

I am sorry to see the birds eye like that. Normally their pics allow you to click on them and look at the other side of the board(s). For some reason they didn't for this one (I just check the site a few minutes ago to see if they still had this one up)

I guess if I decide to purchase from them I will shoot them an email to request a backside pic, because I have thought about it in the past.

shoot. In the future I will just consider the Wilkinson, but I give music man a call and see, but my hopes are not up. Thanks for your reply!

I figured if I wanted to get a hold of the Petrucci trem that I could go through music man and get one. You could through Ibanez so I figured why not? Thanks for telling me about your experience. I am not really a trem abuser per say, but I do like to go nuts every once in a while.

Hello fellow PG's,

Has anyone had any experience with a Petrucci Tremolo? How was it compared to the Wilkinson? I have heard great things about both and I know that the Wilkinson is easier to get your hands on. I like the floating systems, but I don't think I want any double locking trems anymore, I'll just use locking tuners. Any thoughts?

Awesome woods. Where did you get the birdseye fingerboard and the neck blank? Happy building!

Update

Well, we went to fix the neck by drilling a small hole in the neck and then filling it with epoxy. We could not get that far. My friend who helped me build it forgot that he used a larger truss rod and the rod was up against the bottom of the neck. Kind of like when a broken bone is close to breaking out of the skin. We are making a new neck now. I should be playing on it sometime this summer since he has other projects. The electric that were building will also be done this summer.

I always thought that purpleheart held up well, but this convinces me beyond a reasonable doubt. I am so glad this thread was bumped cause it has given me inspiration to actually put a colored transparent finish over a burl. At one time, I thought that was sacrilege. Love the neck. Love the photos. Thanks!