psw

if the guitar is turned sideways it looks as if it is the shape of a crow in flight. Hmmm....I don't see it...no matter which way you turn it it looks like a POS to me...and in a stroke of marketing genius, Gibson thought the most appropriate colours for to offer the thing in was anything other than black...clearly had never seen a raven, nor had any conception of good guitar design nor the desires of their customers. I can only imagine that this thing was used in GHI,II,III as one of the few guitars they wouldn't require royalty payments for use as to no one would own up to it...let alone design it! Now there's a good guitar name...the Avenger Kudos...now all you need to find is a guitar design...this clearly being neither guitar nor Crow...and we all know what happened to the actor who played The Crow... Be afraid, very afraid! In my dictionary, the Corvus is latin for Cursed!!!!!!!!! Formica...hmmm, I think reverend might have something to say...book him Dano! pete It's winter over there....pine burns quicker!

Ahhh....as a squier fan of sorts...not all squiers are created equal (and none to original fender specs). Many of the squiers that come in beginner "packs" for instance are often suspect in quality...the high end squiers can be great guitars. Yep...and southbound, right on. Really, a squier can be a great platform for beginning with modding and such whatever the quality...I'd just be cautious about investing too much in it and especially be aware that the higher end replacement parts like necks may not just simply bolt together. But hey, the EVH is a bit of a trashy guitar. I wonder if you wouldn't consider doing your own take on the EVH ethic and create your own design...there are so many of these 'clones' where as you could do your own statement with the paintwork techniques just as easily. But...why worry, just do what you want...the important thing is to take it apart and see what you've got for now! pete

You could mount a bottle opener, a pair of scissors, several knives, a saw blade, a flip out guitar neck...call it a Swiss-Blade...but it would still be a POS ****us! pete

I have a neck and middle JB Noiseless fenders, very similar in design...both middle and neck have the same polarity magnets and resistance, and construction. The leads on the neck are black and white, the leads from the middle green and white...other than that, identical. As these were the forerunner of the SCn's I'd have to assume they would be much the same. The SCn I have is a telecaster neck pickup and I am mightily impressed with it...nothing like the strat pickup and on a tele it might be something to consider to have a similar thing in the neck, strat type in the middle and a tele bridge to maximize the variety. There are sound clips (red) of the tele and some time indications for the pickups in the tele's thread (blue) in the links in my signature. On my tele, the bridge pickup is an original Fender Wide Range Humbucker...some tele fans love them, it has a real bright clang to it and mixes well with the smooth jazz like, but bright sound of the SCn in the neck...and of course silent! pete

Serious nothing...if you hack that body blank into anything remotely resembling a corvus, I will have to attempt to hack into the spam filter so that such things don't corrupt the younger members here! Did I type Corvus...I meant to type ****us...ah, that's better...the spam filter is already starting to recognize this devils work... pete PS...since we seem both to be otherwise "disengaged"...perhaps the two of us could start a company, call it Nosbig and make some decent new designs.

Are you familiar with the Guitar Nuts 2? forum...they are really friendly and helpful and dedicated almost solely to guitar wiring things...more knowledgable than me. There are a few sections there that covers some of it. The main site has some good stuff I believe and a fair bit on shielding and such. People wanting to go completely nuts though...should check out the "secret" site...DGB Studio with 1,000's of schematics for all kinds of combinations of pickups and switch types. Also, factory wirings (not sure about the S1). If the S1 is working to your liking, I wouldn't be fooling with the wiring. It is a 4pdt switch...so the kind of switching power that I use to turn the sustainer on and off and bypass other pickups effectively. However, fender do not sell them individually and the people like the Stratosphere are getting big dollars for them reclaimed from parted out fenders. As a result, I have never had the opportunity to wire with one. The "Uber-Switches" are something I invented myself...I constructed some plates that operate a pair of very small dpdt switches onto a pot that already has a dpdt push pull switch. There is a bit of a cheat, my strat is a mahogany rear routed affair...in order for these things to work, they need to be attached from the rear... There is a thread here somewhere about this still to be completed project...the above wiring probably shows why! The intention was to make a control, similar to that of a car radio I guess...for the sustainer. So the on/off/bypass function is the bottom part, the harmonics by pulling up (as used on my tele) and the drive control pot. It worked so well that I made two more (because I could and spent so long on getting the parts right, I might as well have duplicated them...and added a super switch selector as well. An incredible amount of switching power, more than I could think of using really. One will be used to do a universal series parallel kind of thing, a push pull will perhaps be used to split the HB, another for phase perhaps...and another for adding a piezo element into the electric sound. But even with this, there is still switching power in there...and it all needs to fit in a tiny cavity! You can also see (kind of) the battery solution that I came up with...a discrete cavity behind the tremolo block. There is some aluminium bar there that screws the uber switches in from behind. There is a yellow taped thing nex to the middle switch, this is my sustainer circuit. Between the two ribbon wires looms, you can just see a blue and white trim pot...this is the piezo preamp. I don't have a photo of the front of the guitar handy, but it looks much the same as it did before moding and hte pot holes didn't need to be enlarged for the U-S's. The little black Allen head bolt makes it easy to turn and feel where the switch is...these bolts have replaced screws all over the guitar so it kind of fits, though you don't really see them. I may have gone a bit far though and wired myself into a corner! It did inform the tele project though...so not all was lost! I realize that there is the potential to do a lot more with the DIY sustainer project, and I applaud col and others for there efforts. Mine is sufficient for now for what I do and expect from it (although it would be nice if the battery would last a bit longer, got to replace mine again). For a long time however, my concern has been with some of these other issues, and I still feel a lot has yet to be done with aspects of installation, switching and lo-mod and multipickup guitars. On my strat, the driver is completely "stealth"... this being the ultra thin coil concept (with added LED's that light up the neck pickup/driver through the cream cover) while the tele which came after was not suitable to this kind of thing and uses the 3mm stand alone driver in a compact format. ... Drifting around the topic...my apologies. Yes, AGC is possibly important...part of the tele's problem is that it sustains and increases drive till the strings are banging into the frets. But then, some people like this kind of extreme response from the thing. It's good to see people working on circuitry and some even on driver stuff...I'm sorry I am not able to join you other than a spectator at present. What excites me more these days is the practical application and a successful installation...but I am sure that will come and I'll just have to wait! pete

Ummmm...no you are misunderstanding the principle here... We are not just talking splitting the pickup (by the way, your values for pickups should be Kohms). The idea is to use a cap (and resistor) to short one of the coils to ground...this means you get the bass of both coils and the full output of the other (you might consider this variation for your own splits if they are not satisfying to you. "sounding good" is subjective and also depends on the musical application. Some pickups sound better than others, and very nice tones can be had by splitting one or both pickups but in combination for instance. The biggest mistake is that some people think that splitting a pickup, you might bet a "fender" single coil sound...this is wrong for numbers or reasons. And, you are right it depends on the pickup and the position how it might sound...but by no means can they necessarily be dismissed as "bad"....so what value to make the partial split (which is what this is and the meaning of a tuned split) depends on the effect liked, the pickups and the guitar it is used in. My suggestion of a tuning trimmer inside, or the idea of adding it into the tone control allows for this tuning to taste..."good sound", yes? pete Ps...Ivs, still on the money there! I have used as low as 10nF in tone controls for "special effects" in the tone control department...with the right combination and experimentation, these unusal values can give a nice wah like response in some guitars!

I'm speechless...now I want one (why couldn't gibson do theirs as nice... On the other hand....that's one fine 'bird cage you got there...

I have been excited to try a variation that is eluded to kind of in that book. I like the idea, but I found an idea that uses a normal tone control to add this feature at the extreme end of the tone knobs travel (between 8 and 10). Basically, how it works is to add to split the HB by turning all the treble out of the other coil instead of lifting it or shorting it completely. There are benefits to noise canceling (both coils are still in circuit, so it is still somewhat humbucking) and helps the often weak sound of a split HB (you still get the bass tones of the full HB and a little more power). Still won't sound like a fender, but it could sound really good. I found that hidden in the DBG Studio site that there is something called a "special tone"...basically it works as a normal tone to about 8 on the dial...the rest cuts one coil by applying the pots resistance and the cap. Unfortunately I have not had a chance to actually do it. draw anything or determine values. For this kind of thing though, I would expect small values as Ivs has suggested... I have the book, it's odd that a value isn't given...however, they have a resistor in there to "tune" the circuit to what suits. You might even consider replacing this fixed resistor with a small trim capacitor in the guitar of about 2K and turning that would "tune" the circuit to taste with each pickup. I like the idea of a variable tone control split version. Apparently Peavey tried it on something moons ago and I am sure there are variations with experimentation. This keeps the tone control and adds to it the ability to "boost" treble by way of a coil split at the extreme end...8 would be full HB. There is the benefit of it not adding switches and using existing tone pots. As I say, haven't tried it yet, but there is a project in the works that I hope to make this a feature. pete

Even Gibson looked at the moderne and thought it was crap...later they made it and the market said it was crap...so they made this one...a poor man's moderne, and lo...It Was Crap! ... That looks like a fantastic droop headed maple neck you got there...what a nice explorer you could make from it! Clearly your not going vintage correct on this one...I see you left a bit of the blank still on there so you could photo it on the stand (maybe that's your shape right there, a Devo "potato guitar" tribute)...in fact on the original blank I can see you had your doubts and even as you were drawing it your subconscious added a lower horn...admit it, you are having your doubts, something in your mind is saying...this is wrong! I posted "life sucks, prove me wrong"....eric says "life is 50% what you make of it, 50% how you deal with things out of your control"....and you answer with THIS! I have such a negative attitude at the moment and you are only making it worse...but even in this state I seek a resolution...so see it I can't convince you to make the best or your affliction and help you through your inner demons and live with what you are doing, and me with what I clearly can't control (like eric says!). As your clearly having balance problems, your looking at a head long dive towards the floor...and you refuse to take professional advice and turn this thing around before it's too late. I will make a suggestion that might help you save face, ok! In the can opener lower pointless cutaway, add 3 tuners and string backwards making a 9 string guitar with doubled g,b and e strings. 12 string jangle with six string bass note definition. The rear tuners will add weight to the back end and at least give the impression that the back end cutaway was there for some reason. Then when people see it, you can claim you thought it was a good idea at the time...that you didn't want to waste wood on such an experiment...that you were wrong, but it will be better next time...that you were going for a job in difficult economic times and that you thought a traffic cone guitar would give you the edge when applying for the stop/slow lollypop sign guy's position at the road works...that you thought that such guitars were the work of the devil so you tried to purify the concept with a heavenly sound and by cutting of it's horns...that you thought that if you painted it reflective orange sparkle that people wouldn't notice the shape...that this whole thing was the product of some mix up in medication...that bad guitar design at gibson is a recognized disease and that this was a tribute to the afflicted...that you now realize that global warming is real, look see, my guitar turned orange and melted.... I can see that my words are only encouraging you...but you must realize your doing a bad, bad thing here and hiding it from your loved ones is going to be tricky for many years to come! Formica drop top...now there's a good idea...cause when you are cutting stuff on it, the juices will run off into the sink, neato! But nothing will save you from the abomination you are creating here...next you'll be making a collection of bad failed gibson copies and having to hire a warehouse to put keep them....what's next the RD and you'll be trying to replicate the failed Moog electronics in the things. pete

Hi Chris...I'm Pete from Melbourne, errr...Australia Actually, you might want to add that to your sig, some of us aussies seem to be taking over here at PG! Anyway, welcome aboard...maybe let us on to the kind of project you were thinking of and such. A really good place to get a feel for what PG is about and some of the builders and modders here is to look at the GOTM (guitar of the month) entries...search through a bunch of months, this year there have been some exceptional entries. Also, just browse through a few threads....but you have probably done that. Resize pics (4 pics tops per post) and save to something like photobucket to post to the forum...if you want to do audio, soundclick is an option as well. So...welcome aboard...be aware that the spam filter seems to enjoy censoring a lot of common australian words..hehehe pete

DIY Sustainer

Well, assuming it isn't a bathtub route (a big hole under the pickguard instead of the individual routes) you will need to make space for an HB. Wiring will be easy. He attached the pickup directly to the wood possibly with some foam "spring" under it to adjust the height. Be aware that while Eddie made his guitar look like crap...it is in fact a highly tuned performance machine and a lot of what you might be reading is some folklore. For instance, yes it was made with parts...but these are quality charvel neck and body and the floyd is no cheap knockoff piece of gear either. It was part of his "shtick" to make it look like he was using crappy tools to heighten the appearance (at least in part) that it was just any old crappy no name guitar...in fact, it was never the case. Others can comment on Ed Roman's opinions on stuff, but not a reliable source. Things like his tinkering with the nut and lubes were true I am sure, this guitar evolved...but there is a lot of mythology and mojo surrounding this guitar. The guitar and his playing style caused the development of the fully locking floyd as a solution to a lot of the problems he was initially having. There is a lot about the pickup...apparently half broken and taken directly from his 335. Prior to this guitar, he was using a 335 but the band didn't feel it fitted with their image....and so this guitar was born. In short...you can paint up a strat to give some of the look and vibe no problem....but that doesn't mean it will play like the real thing. $130 in parts back then (he went to the actual factory to get them personally and no doubt got a discount) is a lot more now...check out charvels prices to see what an equivalent neck and body would cost now...or check out the replicas of this guitar are selling for to see perhaps the true costs or "value" that this guitar has. I am saying this to avoid unrealistic expectations or further disappointment down the track if you were to try and upgrade a neck say onely to find it doesn't fit! But, for starters, the look and the vibe is probably enough and as wes says, the posted pic provides all the information necessary really! pete

There are a lot of threads here on this kind of guitar as well as the pin striping, etc. It depends a lot on the strat and what you want to do with it, how close you want it to be to this original or just something that has the look and vibe of it. If you take apart most cheap strats (at least in my experience, don't know about yours) they have a "bathtub route" in there for any kind of pickups...not like this for three single coils. The bridge and the necks may not be compatible, so changing out to a more genuine fender or similar neck does not mean it will necessarily fit in the neck pocket...guitars aren't lego (although, that's an interesting idea, lego guitar anyone?) But hey, go crazy with the paint job and have fun, cig burns optional of course! pete

I love the firebird, so don't get me wrong. Such guitars have flaws, it is a part of why it never really caught on. Changing a firebird, or any other classic design begs the question posed earlier...when does it cease to be a firebird! SG's can have a similar problem for the same reason...the balancing point which is generally the point of the strap button...but seated may involve the lower curved shape and obviously the neck length clear of the body and the length and weight of the headstock. With guitars such as these, they could be seen as endearing quirks perhaps. I am sure J Winter didn't mind holding up the neck a little while playing to get the look and sound of the firebird However, with custom designs, I don't see a reasoning to design such flaws into them...but if you really must have a "shape" or look then the consequences need to be lived with I'd suggest. The firebird does have some potential to be corrected by adding weight to the elongated tail end especially when seated...something like a heavy vibrola back there may help...or maybe some lead weights inserted into holes drilled in to the side of the control cavity as far back as you can (maybe tire balancing weights for instance) and done after the build is complete. I don't think that hollowing out the middle part of the guitar would help other than to compensate for the added weight at the back because the lightening is exactly where it is balancing on the knee or near the fulcrum (if you see the guitar as a lever) and so would have negligible effect. Interestingly...the explorer doesn't suffer quite like this because of it's huge tail fin back there (remember that these designs were created in an era when they thought that fins on cars would make them "go" faster, and that the firebird was designed by a car builder as a response to fenders strat types)...ibanez's Iceman which is also derivative in many respects fixed the flaw with more neck reinforcement similar to a single cut forcing the strap button further forward. The too designed a very long body even though they dispensed with things like the explorers rear "fin". pete PS...i recently saw the DVD of ZZ Top "live from texas" and there was an interview with the maker of some of the custom guitars. The main guitar for the show was a telecaster (it had fender on it, but was a custom maker's like most of their stuff). They revealed that the thing was very light as both the body and the neck were extensively hollowed out!!!!

I wanted to play around with PIC programming and such, but learning curve and motivation...and life being too short and complex as time goes on prohibits. I thought that the thing it could really help with would be potential switching problems...and potentially open up other areas of exploration not necessarily sustainer related. They may have some use for complex fequency dependent phase shifting perhaps, or maybe some neat filtery kinds of effects...but the pic is only the brain, it still needs circuitry to control. Stepping back a little, I personally decided to try and go the opposite direction to sustainiac and things like the Moog...hence my different perspective. Way back (probably about the 30 ish pages) we tried to work out a list of ideals and goals to work towards. The end result was things like low or no permanent mod, less complexity, small size, cost, ability to convert an existing instrument without compromising it, stealthy...I forget the whole list. This may help in understanding my personal abandoning of the Hex things (that very quickly become extremely complex, the interaction of the magnetic fields and separate hex signals or processing is some of the more obvious factors)...despite some successes in it and being "married" to the idea. If you look at things like the pickup driver and my more recent tele driver...these fulfilled almost all the criteria that was set way back them and motivated their development. On those criteria, while performance may not be "equal" to the commercial units, they surpass them on the criteria set back then. The tele driver for instance, surface mounts...except for the rewiring and the hole for the mini toggle on of switch...it has no mods and is reversible. The driver can be seen, but is small and unobtrusive...in the new ultra thin pickup conversions for strats, it is literally invisible and adds no extra magnetic pull and lowers the cost as well! So...this might help people put into context where I am coming from and my comments. There is nothing wrong with pushing things in different directions, hex designs or multi coil drivers, etc. However, as soon as you remove the neck pickup to put a driver in there, you are diminishing the performance of the stock instrument. The hex things became quickly apparent that even if I did crack it...it would be well out of the realms of DIY and was becoming very costly to experiment with. ... Some of the more recent experiments were in control systems. I tried to work out ways to make unobtrusive controls that would operate the sustainer. One of these are what the GuitarNuts2 forum dubbed Uber-switches...hehehe... Someone like Donovan may be interested in this idea. These are converted push pull pots. They combine the dpdt push pull function and a 4pdt switch (equivalent to an S1 switch or the kind of switch power required to turn on the sustainer as it stands) and a pot. I even transplanted the guts of a 1k pot into the push pull to get the value required for my circuits drive control. The result is something fairly stealthy and low mod...certainly no drilling into the front of the guitar! Of course this is not limited to sustainer control. On my strat (still to be rewired because of the complexity) I have three of these things! The middle control is the sustainer, pot for drive, pull for harmonic and twist the bass (like a car radio thing) to turn it on and off. I still have the equivilent of two S1 switches and two dpdt push pulls in there and two pots! So, the wiring is intended to have a series parralel thing to switch between a strat and brian may like series wiring. I also can add coil splits to the bridge HB and perhaps even phase switching as well. I even have switching let over to add a piezo in there...and all of it virtually "invisible"... So, you can see how I branched off in more recent times but that the "criteria" that I set myself was in focus throughout and succeeded in one way at an approximation of most of those goals! But other's might have different criteria than mine. I would encourage people to do such a list and really soul search this question though when branching out to keep focus. I certainly feel that I had some "lost years" for not doing it, and if you wanted to be come a sustainer thread "historian" I think you can see where I finally started to see the light...hahaha...though I somehow don't think I admitted it at the time! pete

Hmmm Yes...thank goodness for metric...so, the bridge here is 2mm shorter which is generally done (you have more than 2mm travel in the saddles. When you fret a note, you push down on the string bending it a little, the saddles are moved adjusting the scale length to compensate for each strings deflection. SO, this is typical! The scale length helps with these tuned down things, like a bass has generally a longer length and thicker strings to get a reasonable tension on them. So, tuning all the way down to C with normal strings, they will be flapping about like rubber bands. Thicker strings helps, but that and a longer scale length as people were discussing for these low tunings really helps keep a decent tension on them. However, you are working with a standard neck...so go with what you have and disregard the rest. Use heavier strings and intonate according to the gauge. ... As for the neck pickup thing...there is obviously some debate and "mojo" about. As you don't have a lot of choice with this build, I wouldn't be to concerned and the bridge pickup tends to get more use anyway...well typically! But...to fuel the fire perhaps... The bridge pickup is always near the end point of the string (the bridge) and as you get towards the fixed end, the harmonics (nodes and modes of string vibration) tend to be more complex (lot's more of the harmonic series is present in the tone). This is why it is easier to get harmonics and such with the bridge pickup, and it has a brighter tone when used. The strings though are near a fixed point and so have less physical movement, hence the bridge pickup is often more powerful to compensate for balance with other pickups like the neck. However, the nodes change with the decreasing scale length caused by fretting notes. So, a note played up at the highest frets, puts the "fixed point" (like the bridge permanently is) right up at the neck pickup. Some players feel that playing at higher frets it is advantageous to switch to the neck pickup. But these are ratio's, even playing at higher frets, the bridge pickup will always be close to the fixed point and will have this more complex harmonic characteristics. The distance between the pickups will create the tonal variation between them...so a neck pickup tends to have a smoother rounder, fundamental mode sound (except at the higher frets, see above)...the further away from the fixed point the better. As rhythm (as indicated on the LP's switch plate for the neck pickup) generally involves fretting notes lower down the neck...the further away "the better"...particularly for tonal variation. But, I suspect it does not matter all that much generally to most people. There are other reasons that makers such as PRS converted back to 22 frets (neck joint stability, neck from body, looks, etc) as much as any mode, nodes or shmodes mojos! Where I have found these things really matter is in the combined pickup selection. We are talking ratio's here, so there are cancellation and reinforcement issues with sampling the vibrations at different parts of the strings. These will vary with fretting, but will still be a factor. The middle/bridge or neck sound on a strat is not "out of phase" electronically, but the placement makes it sound a bit like that. The closer the pickups get to each other and in combination, the more this effect is apparent. With big old HB's (not a feature on strats) the distance between is even less really and the sampling area bigger. This is where there is some truth in the "mojo"...when combining close HB pickups as on a 24 fret guitar, these notched tones can be for less attractive. If this was a majorly concern though, you'd be thinking less frets (21 perhaps) smaller pickups (say single coils) and a longer scale length to play with...but then you'd be thinking like Leo and have come up with a stratocaster...hahahaha...clearly not what you want I suppose! ... Anyway...make of that as you will...with this project you don't have a whole lot of options as the scale length and so bridge placement and such are already a given if you want it to play in tune! Of course, many just simply forgo a neck pickup entirely! pete

Sigh....maybe they'll reissue it. I just picked up a new Stylophone... Hahahahaa... It sent Godley and Creame broke...it's a great instructive story to would be innovators. Even if you got one, you'd never find replacement rotating picks... It reminds me though that at the time my tinkering brain thought...hmm, I could do that! So, they had an electric toothbrush that has a side to side action...i may have pinched a housemtes....cut a groove in the head and inserted an ordinary pick...sounded like dick dale on speeed!!!! However, the motor in the tooth brush gave off an electric signal roughly of the note G that was transferred to the pickups no matter how you held the thing. This is a "problem" with anything that has motors and such in them around guitar pickups. There is an obscure school of guitar playing though (popular with loopers) that exploits this kind of thing by using various mechanical toys. I saw one looper that did all kinds of crazy things...including running a tiny toy car down driving down the length of the strings...hahhaa Steve Stevens got a lot of his ray gun like effects on Billy Idol's records by the use of toys pete

Hmmm...But surely it is the front strap button that is the balancing point and the issue. In a strat or LP this is approaching the 12th fret. Moving the button further back may shift the guitar further to the left, but to me is would seem to make it worse? Or have i got that wrong. The firebird is a great guitar, the eagle beak headstock is one of it's coolest features in my opinion...the balance typically not so great. Bigsbys being aluminium don't add that much weight back there, but perhaps that's why a real firebird used to hanve those big old long ornate steel side action gibson temolos on there (also one of the "cool features of an original (not so great as a tremolo though)) You might consider making a fake tailpiece kind of thing to get that weight and the look... pete alternatively, you could try attaching a helium balloon to the headstock at gigs to keep the neck up!

STOP...right now John, think about what you are doing...have you considered what your children will find after you're gone....is reviving the Corvus really something you what them to have to live with...OH THE SHAME...OHHHH, THE HUMANITY... have you know shame! At least if it is orange, it can be used as a safety cone in the street...except that the design wont stand up on it's own...damn the design has nothing going for it does it now! pete Doing a bit of a calculation...if the strings cost say $10...if you string up a DIY corvus, I'd say you might have something valued at $5 tops...maybe, less a disposal fee! It reminds me of a monty python sketch...john cleese passes an antique shop every day, and in the window is a little china figurine of a boy and his dog or something....eventually he can't help himself...he goes in and asks how much, they say 30 pounds and he buys it politely...then immediately breaks it over the counter...then points to another object of interest. Only with prolonged exposure would someone want this, and only because it's winter over there and firewood is probably in high demand. (Just in case, I should point out that I have seen and tried a corvus once...in the back of the music swap shop, hiding. I couldn't believe it when I saw it...but you know it was going cheap and unloved...and I suspect that 20 years later, it may well still be in there...writing that i now realize I'm cheap and unloved also...Which Only Proves My Point!)

Yes...we seemed to be having some translation problems...but even with a translator it started to sound weird...a lot of bravado. To the extent even that he posted a circuit, then pointed out that it was full of errors and not actually what he had done. Some interesting drivers as I recall with tin can magnetic sheilding. No audio was presented and he disappeared without trace...as seems often the case! But who knows, perhaps it was perfect and he didn't need to do an more with it. Well, you might want to consider eddy currents in any metal, it might not be magnetic, but it is conductive. I have even read that sustainiac strongly advises against such metal pickguards with their more evolved and much envied systems. Really with proper preparation, and with not that much practice...it should take 10 minutes to wind a coil as shown in my extensive pictorial on it (bear in mind that this was the first installed version and it took perhaps 15 minutes, but only because I was taking pics at the same time!) All extensive changes to the basic design, and any flaws in the coil will show up in performance. You don't want to clamp things tight, you want to squeeze the air out, wrap it in tape and hold it there till it is set enough. I am sure it shows that the sides are pushed in every now and again with an ice cream stick or similar just to be sure. The finished coil is protected with tape to hold it in place even though the glue may not be fully set after clamping... Preparation is the key...no use thinking of these things after you get gule everywhere. How you were able to get something an inch tall when you are winding on a 3mm deep bobbin or blocked up coil I don't know. However, you are free to try your own ways, if it produces a similar result it will probably work...but if you want an "easy" way...follow the instructions before deviating to such extents...and don't be surprised if it doesn't work as expected and then suggest that the device doesn't or couldn't work as I have presented. It's worked for me, it's worked for others...in fact I have had emails of thanks from a couple of people who did the whole thing successfully without ever joining PG, contributing to the threads and with complete success simply by following these guidelines... 0.2mm wire, 3mm depth coil, glue potted neat and non-aerated windings around a magnetized steel core or something equivalent...and a stable non-loading amplifier. ... Good luck with the Hex circuit...how are the drivers going? pete

Hmmm....I've kept unusually queit on this on.... good call Mattia, on all points! Really, some things are left to the irrational world of dreams. I am surprised at the desire to have the notes written on a fret board...everyone should aspire to be a bit more than that, it's not that hard to learn a sequence along a string, it's the same sequence, 12 notes...two of the strings are generally identical! A classical player wouldn't be seen dead with dots on the board, let alone number or dots...sheeesh! ok... So...on a few other "innovative ideas"...can anyone say Charlie Hunter 8 strings stereo, bass and organ by one man, no bass player just sax and drums and a multi scale, fan fretted, 8 string guitar with separate outs for the bass and guitar strings...both coils of a precision bass pickup on the bass strings (so full power and humbucking) and separate pickups for the higher strings through some organ like effects... True...he has some weird inlays, so clearly not a great musician yet! However, if the organ bass thing doesn't rock your socks check out the other videos like "if 6 were 9" for some hendrixy stuff and bass! Notice too that although he is playing both bass and guitar and has inlays...he rarely looks at them!!!!!! ... Almost everything has been "done" before, but few have survived if it isn't of any real genuine use. The new steinbeger has a permanent rolling capo...the trans trem allowed locking into various tunings before that...the hipshot trillogy allows multiple tunings for every string with leavers... How many artists have made this a real feature of their music, let alone their instruments. Still...strive we seem condemned to do to innovate...I've spent my whole life pursuing better mousetraps! pete

hehehe...OHHHH, THE HORROR!!! Have you not considered the many design flaws in this thing...like the way it is supposed to hang from a strap, or the supposedly compact design yes the elongated head...sheeeeesh! Quick, put some tape around it....it's a crime scene! ... If you are short of ideas...you might want to investigate the mythical missing "moderne" series electric...the well known ones being the "V" the "Explorer" and the prototyped and reissued "moderne" (some of which seems to have influenced this "thing")..the missing one being the "lightning bolt" The lightning bolt has an interesting and amusing story...Rick whatshisname from cheap trick got one apparently in some scam... Basically it is a V but with one half literally reversed into a kind of Z kind of shape...if you can imagine that...build it! But please, no Corvus! pete

YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS!!!!!!!! ... So...voted as one of the worst examples of design and a complete flop in the market place...you are going to resurrect it? WHY! Honestly, it was a shocker to play and pointless in intent. I could go on about the many bad things about it from just a practical purpose, but unless you sharpen up that back edge, it's no good even as a can opener. Oh...and on that...since this was designed, they have these nifty ring pull cans now that make the whole thing obsolete anyway...if building it as some sick joke, I insist you add this "innovation" the back cavity cover! pete PS...if painting it orange, make sure it is safety orange so that people will know to keep well away!

That's an excellent idea! Seriously, a lot of people, metal or otherwise have distinguishing "trademark" looks (regardless of guitar shape)...maybe fake F-holes (gilbert) or plaid (sareceno) or black and white (schenker) and perhaps yours is a vivid color like lime green or yellow. With stock black, dressed in black...who cares what shape it is I imagine...what about blackboard black...and you write special messages in chalk on the thing...or go futuristic and make it a white board and go crazy with markers just before the gig! Clearly...I'm not a "metal" kind of guy....but the kind of look or style you are aiming for might give you a clue...I mean, there is the EVH "frankinstein guitar" attitude (don't care what it looks like, as long as it does the job) to some high tech machine that has to look immaculate. I mean, if you wanted to be really different, you could go all giger-esque...so brainstorming here...a black guitar that looks like parts of it has been shot away to reveal internal chrome piping would kind of look cool, don't know where that came from...hahahaha pete