perhellion

Seriously, this obsession with duplicating somebody's recorded (meaning compressed, EQ'D, and otherwise enhanced) guitar tone is not healthy! 

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I get the "why duplicate somebody else" part --- get your own sound, EVH already got that sound, BUT I've always wondered why (assume for discussion here, you are EVH) you couldn't duplicate the compressed, EQ, enhanced tone for yourself. If you (as EVH) played "I'm the One" and wanted the sound coming from your speakers to be the sound of VH1, would this be possible?

fine tuning TOM and a lock nut -- See old Skid Row videos. This is how Dave Sabo's LP Jr. (the real Gibson one) was set up. BB King's sig Lucilles use the fine tuner tailpiece with a seperate TOM bridge, no locking nut though. Original Floyds are a 10" radius. So many companies have used original, "good" and "bad" copies, I'm sure about any radius is available. The Iron Maiden Strat has the "vintage" 7.25" radius and a Floyd, and on the other extreme, lots of "pointy" guitar were 16" (a few 17" -Heartfield (Fender) Talon).

Finally, you can always use a locking nut as a non-locker -- just completely back out the allen screws and remove the little clamp pieces.

I read about some people that have made carbon fibre bicycle frames, and you could make the body from a mold to have it hollow from the beginning. One frame was made like you said, though. Basically a foam frame covered it cloth/resin. One note of warning -- when beginning the layup of the cloth/resin, go really thin/low number of layers at first. This guy found that heavy layers at first would actually generate enough heat to partially melt the styrofoam, distorting the frame shape.

So when the push/pull pot puts the inductor in series, does turning the knob do anything?

From the response, I can clarify my question. I understand what happens on "push" - tone control and on "pull" - notch filter -- but I don't get how this happens. I thought push/pull pots were just a pot plus a two-way switch. Is the switch simply controlling whether or not the inductor is being used?

Headless hardware from Brian -- I'd like to see some closeups of the bridge/tailpiece (or whatever it would be called in this application)

I agree, with all the Varitone questions, this should be pinned.

I don't understand what the push/pull pot is changing (or how exactly is it different than just a tone pot?).

And Lovecraft, exactly where does the 10 meg resistor go?

Depends on how old the Wizard neck is. The older ones are 22 fret necks with a 24 fret fingerboard. They bolt right where most 22 fret necks go, and you can either move the neck pickup back toward the bridge, or you could just cut the last two frets (and the extended fretboard) off. At some point, I believe Ibanez changed to a 24 fret neck (like a Kramer 24 fret neck). On these, the heel would be longer, so some router surgery would be required for proper intonation.

Deep Purple? I like them, but I'm not really that into them. Why? Although I would have liked to see them with Steve Morse. I have seen him at a guitar clinic, and impressed is an understatement.

Finally, after all the threads, bodies made of pine. I like the look, and I would really like to hear more about the sound and the strength of the wood.

I'm siding with the seller. If you see an item up for sale on ebay, you can't assume the seller is an expert on the item. Sure, in this case, the seller is now posting on a guitar board, so he obviously knows something about guitars. But, just looking at the ad, seller could just be selling random things from his attic. I ran into this with a Star Wars fanatic -- he made complaints I had never thought of, because to him, the item was a collectable, to me, it was clutter. Point is, I'm not a toy expert. People buy on ebay looking for bargains. There are plenty of ways to buy a guaranteed good neck, or a certain perfect toy, they just cost more.

And -- poor pictures and low feedback number = buyer beware.

The only flat fretboard I know of in the electric world was a guitarist for Dio (I think his name was Rowan Robertson - he was 17 when he played for Dio). He had a Jackson made with a flat board.

I don't know about Jackson, but guitar companies (like Fender) for example will sometimes send you a replacement logo provided it is a real Jackson product and you give the serial number.

Yeah, I like that bass. I certainly didn't mean it had to be a "Klein-clone"

Any others?

Amazing. All these custom crafters here, and no "built for comfort" designs

An entry for GOTM about two months ago was a travel guitar with a mandoin-shaped body. It used a regular lock nut and a TOM with fine tuners. The fine tuners evidently have enough range if you pull the string with pliers to create some tension as you lock the nut.

And please look at my thread below on "ergonomic ala klein" -- they are headless also.

Anyone have any experience/ advice on building an ergonomic guitar, ala Klein? Or, any comments from real Klein owners? For the record, I don't like the look, but everyone seems to rave about the playability.

I saw some pics (he also has a website) of recent John Mayall playing a Squier Bullet that has as little body as possible. Basically, the body is just a rectangle with room for bridge, pickups, controls. It is probably as small as the small Steinberger bodies. The question -- appears to be a full Strat (or Squier) headstock. Anyone have any idea how this would not be way neck heavy? To me, even those Fernandes Nomads with a stumpy headstock don't balance well.

Yeah, your router method is a bit tricky with only the body's thickness to balance the router on. You'll find things can go wrong fast with a router. (Drill press is way slower and less dangerous -- at least for me.)

This method should work, but the wood will of course split if you go too thin. The router will be limited in depth. I think you could remove the same amount of wood by drilling with a forstner bit deeper and leaving the sides (or top and bottom of the guitar body) a bit thicker.

As to all the scale length/body size comments, all the real Nuno's look like that. If you've never played one, the body is tiny. I was amazed how small it was when I first played one.

This one actually looks more like Nuno's original guitar, which was built from parts (I think Warmoth neck, Schecter body). His phrase was the body had been "shaved down" from a full-size body. I always wondered exactly how it was "shaved down".

My personal favorite guitar of his was "N3" -- same unfinished small body, but it had a maple fretboard. In an Extreme video, maybe "Kid Ego"

"I don't quite get whay you're saying. You want to fill the grain but have it open? "

I get the idea from the guitarfrenzy post. The black dye/epoxy mix partially fills in pores and grain, then is sanded. At this point, the top (non-grainy? wood) surface would be bare wood, and therefore might take an oil finish.

I don't have any pics, but Billy Duffy from the Cult had a Les Paul that had a whitewashed finish. Pretty plain maple, but still cool. Probably easy to search for, he may even have his own site.

Fender4me, I'm in Raleigh. What (or where on this site) is the epoxy filler method. I've seen epoxy used to harden a fretless bass fretboard, but that covers the wood with a glassy surface. If you could fill the grain but still have a more open, oil-like finish, I'd like to ssee it.

One more oak tibit - George Lynch had ESP make an oak bodied guitar. I never heard any more about it, so it probably wasn't as bright as the maple bodies he prefers, but it must have been fine structurally.

You can usually find all kinds of scraps at a carpentry shop, or especially a job site. Might be tough to find ash, but I recently went by a restaurant that was nearly finished (they were building the bar area, installing molding, etc.) and there was a stack of scraps that they probably just threw away.

As far as mixing woods, I see no problem.

As far as oak (to the firewood oak guy, where in Raleigh are you?) many people badmouth oak as a tone wood, but who knows. Brian May has always had a great tone, and his Red Special is made from an oak mantlepiece. The "red" wood that you see is just a veneer. Probably (from the time period) a thicker veneer than today (maybe 1/8 or 1/16"), but most of the body wood is oak. I think it is chambered, but Brian and his dad just made up the design and the chambers, it's not like they had prior instrument building experience.