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I got my mahogany wing sets from the local "Exotic Woods" run by Gidwani... They're less than 50 bux I think...

Yessir... still arranging it all out! Mainly I'm trying to find a suitable top... I kinda like the really 'wacky' unpredictable types - the camphour is like that but I was lookin at some walnut or spalted stuffs... I also gotta round up the money for another damn LoPro7 - suckers are expensive! For jack holes, I find it really easy to use those 'pin' jacks... plus they're shielded and nicer. I just use a forstner bit for the seen recess and any ol bit to go right to the cavity. On the "Inferno" guitar I built, I made the jack angle so that it cant be pulled out and is out of the way by shifting it up a little bit. I should do a closeup of it one of these days. Phil

WOW! Figured maple is popular for a reason!

Damnit... why didn't I think of routing PU wire slot in neck first!!! I'm stealin that one! The 12" long bits are nice if you can aim em properly but I'll be damned if I get one perfect yet! Phil

I am also talking to doug at soulmate to make me up a neck for the next build I'm throwing together. I'm still looking for a decent top billet --- hopefully I can find something; otherwise I'll pick up a 5A curly maple top or something. I'm scheduling to start this at the end of the year... depends on what kinda drying needs done. If anyone knows where to pick up some 'non-standard' top billets, let me know! I'm gonna head out to exotic woods this week and see what he's got over there. Thanks! Phil

I don't have any tuning issues - I've been playing it everyday since I built it - again only time will tell! I will post any issues that come up in the 'revisions' section and actual results can be documented. When I said the stock KEs are not on the same pivot line this came from 0.001" accuracy measurements from a stock bridge. I don't know if this is due to Ibanez' manufacturing tolerances? The measured difference was 10th. I machined out another 30-40 tho for the total 0.050" difference. This is only ~3/64" or about 1.2mm. If I end up finding problems later on, I can simple remachine some new KE's and one of the studs and I'm back to normal! No biggie! If I didn't try things out for myself and see their results in real applications, I would never gain any practical knowledge. My point of view was simply that the amount I removed is near-neglegible and that there already exists a great deal of friction-imbalance between KEs --- even on a stock setup . There is only friction (that results in wear) when the trem is being moved. Since during movement the strings detune at different rates, one side of the trem will have more force than the other.maybe this is why ibanez decided to put the rounded K.E. on the high string side of the bridge to add more SA to the joint where more force exists during dives. In your drawing the second stud contact point does NOT shift like you've shown. The K.E. is still locked into the "V" - the change that occurs is the entire bridge shifts its camber when the bar is applied.... think of it using this example: Take your left hand... Extend your index and middle fingers (the rounded KE) and tuck back your little and ring fingers (the flat KE). Take your other hand and extend out your thumb and index fingers and make 'human studs' now place the thumb stud against the inside of the middle/index fingers and the RH index finger against the outside of the palm/ring/little fingers.... Now do a 'dive' and see how the rounded KE does not need to shift up and down for it to still pivot- instead the entire bridge assy will move at an angle off the guitars centerline. I assure you that the rounded KE does not shift up and down on the stud like illustrated at all! In reality the angle change is so small it is not noticeable on the guitar. Thanks! Phil

Q&A: Waterjet: I don't own the machine, I access it up at my work - but that machine is SOOO handy to have. It's quick and can cut pretty much anything with ease! Camphour: The camphour holds paint and stain very well... it's a little dark so staining has to be deep but for a burl it takes stain and paint very well! I had a few troublespots with some little knotty areas but was able to mostly position them off the guitar. This type of wood I think requires filler, like mahogany, esp. with all the little oddities over it. One thing I want to optimize with this wood is getting the bookmatch closer... Since burls can get VERY hairy during drying, it is easy to loose closeness in match due to material loss after getting them milled flat. I didn't realize how wet it would actually be inside after sitting for so long but I think ideally, one would not cut the wood in half until it was totally dry as a whole - unfortunately this could take years! This is why I'm starting to hunt down all sorts of top billets for any future builds that may come up. Pivot Q: Since material was removed from the rounded K.E. , the opposite stud had to be repositioned in order to keep the bridge perpendicular in the body cavity at rest. Another thing I noticed was that the actual K.E.s 'out of the box' were NOT on the same pivot line when I measured off the actual bridge for dimensioning. But you are correct in stating that a pivot cannot be on 2 axis and still keep the bridge at the same angle (or distance to the nut IOW) through it's travel. I don't find this an issue since the strings do not loosen in relative tune anyways (the looser strings will flap out first, etc...). In either case, I only took appx 50 thou off the rounded K.E. As far as friction is concerned, I don't think 50th will affect anything major but I will find out after a few years I suppose? The K.E. shapes also cause an imbalance in wear since the upper is flat and the lower is rounded and has more contact area to the pivot. Also, guitar strings are not the same tension and when doing dives on the trem, the tension of the lower strings drops (to 0) much faster than the high strings so I think any sort of friction-balance issue is a mute point for this type of setup? What do you think? I also wanted to do an experiment by changing the K.E.s with each-other so that the dive or raise was more 'evened out' since you could make the change in distance to the nut greater on the high string side. This would help esp. for me in the 7 string world where a trem dive will flap the B so loose it will contact the other strings yet still have a lot more to go on the highs, which would open up more pitch shift range for the rest of the strings. The change wouldn't be significant by any means since you can only remove so much K.E. material but figured it couldn't hurt to experiment. BTW, the process is reversible if I wanted to take the time to re-machine some pivot studs and repl. the K.E.s. I will be building another one or 2 of these and will see if I can distinguish changes in trem feel/wear/ability, etc... I simply like to experiment - since it's mine I don't mind one bit if I can gain a little knowledge! Thanks for the replies and the Q's! Phil

I just finished this sucker. I tried to document as much as possible. Follow the link for the build: http://www.prazision.com/proj_audio_7str.html Hope you enjoy! Phil