A_M

Couldn't you tweak your previously posted head design to get it to work by rotating the sides inward a bit and then rescaling one side (making it assymetric) to better work for a 4&3 design? Something like this, although it probably would need some rescaling to fit the tuners and could be made to look better, but you get the idea.

The Swedish word björk is Birch in English, and I've sometimes seen it used where maple is otherwise commonly used. Ruokangas Guitars use figured arctic birch for tops. I've always thought it'd look cool with Masur (type of figuring) Birch used as a top or headstock overlay, but I've never seen it done before.

If you don't mind the weight and price I think an all macassar ebony or a ziricote neck would be really cool.

Ok, I've never actually wired up a guitar (haven't come that far with my current project) but just by mentally tracing the path from ground to switch/vol control in that 5-way rotary diagram this is what I think: The rotary switch is divided into 4 sections (two on each half), and on a 6-way rotary there'd just be an additional lug in each section. As far as I can see all you'd have to do for each section (imaging them numbered 1-4 from top to bottom, where section 3 isn't used) is this: section 1: connect lug 6 to ground (just as lug 2 & 3) section 2: connect lug 6 to ground (just like lug 5) section 4: connect lug 6 to switch or vol control Again I'm no expert at all (I'm sure those who are will correct me if I'm wrong), but as far as I can see it's just that simple.

Now I'm certainly no guitar wiring expert but I have a basic understanding of maths and electronics. And if my maths serve me right you'd need a -1.5MOhms resistor placed in parallel with the pot for the desired effect. Sadly enough, I've never been able to find any components with negative resistance. Finding a 500k pot and a 750k resistor might be easier... AFAICS two resistors in parallel can never be equivilant of a resistance above the lowest value of the individual resistors. And wiring a resistor in series will as Maiden69 says result in an unwanted shift of the pots range.

Stringed instruments with different scale lengths for each string have existed long before Novax's patent, and I'm fairly certain it is possible to make multi-scale fretboard instruments that work and look much like the Fanned Fret system without infringing on the patent. There was a long and heated discussion about this on the MIMForum but I can't find it now. A multi-scale 5-string bass was also recently posted over there, and it supposedly does not rely on the Fanned Fret concept.

Love the neck, burl and body design. I just have one suggestion on how to make the body (at least to me) more aesthetically pleasing: The way your horns are cut in a kind of curved manner is nice, but when seeing these two curved "cut lines" my mind tries to join the two lines together - which isn't possible with a single simple (non-S-shaped) line following the curvature of the two "cut lines". This, to me, gives a slight feeling that the horns have been somewhat disjointed (the lower horn looks like it should be further up the neck, or the other way around). Although your design is really cool, and most likeley very few would think of what I just mentioned, I would personally trim the horns so that both of the cut edges follow the same smooth curve. Here's an example: Your design on top, where my "mental line" doesn't quite match up with the horns, and below an example where both horns have been cut by the same curve. The cut could probably have been made even better (perhaps with more curvature to the cut line) but I think you get the idea. Just my 0.02 SEK...

A guy named John Catto made an awesome Metal Top LP Style Guitar (pics here) and I believe there was a thread over at the MIMForum dedicated to it were some of the process was discussed.

Another p/w/p vote here. Also, a question about something I've thought about before. I've always thought it would look cool to split the center laminate of a three piece neck vertically, and cut the truss rod slot out of the lower piece, then glue them together again. And then glue on the outer pieces to hide the seam. I'd then use the whole thing w/o a separate fingerboard. So do you more experienced builder think it would somehow be a bad idea to use a laminate for a fretboard like that? I personally think a padouk/wenge/padouk neck built like that without a separate fingerboard would look awesome, but perhaps better suited for a custom designed neck-thru than a JEM.

Some inspiration perhaps? Koll Custom RE 7/6

Alarung, could it be that it's right for the high E and B strings and not the rest is that they are plain steel ("PL"), whereas your input for the other strings are "PB", which tells the applet to assume the strings are phosphor bronze wound. Whereas I believe the D'Addario XL's are nickel plated steel? Don't take my word for it though, I'm certainly no expert and that website clearly states "The results of this calculator are not guaranteed to be correct!"

here --> http://www.pacificsites.net/~dog/StringTensionApplet.html

i think if you get it to work, your gonna have major problems on a 7 string thats tuned to A, much less G that isnt a baritone. and a 7 baritone is a large guitar. Oops, it seems I neglected to mention that I'm planning for a 27" scale length. Which according to the online string tension calculator I used would give me approximately the same tensions tuned a whole step down as a 25.5" scale guitar would tuned to standard pitch, using the same guage strings.

I finally got the package with wood for my guitar project (my first) last week, and I've been cleaning up the garage and building a simple workbench so I should be able to get started soon. Anyways, while otherwise pleased with the wood I had a big *doh!*-moment when I realized that due to a miscalculation on my part my neck blank is rougly an inch too short for my current headstock design. My neck blank is thick enough to cut the neck+headstock from this single piece (which is what I initially was planning to do) but if I instead opted for a scarf joint for the headstock the neck blank will probably be long enough. I could otherwise easily fix this by making a new headstock design with a different tuner arrangement, which is what I'm probably gonna do - unless you guys think, for stability reasons, using a scarf joint for the headstock is worth the extra work and risk of having the result not looking quite as good? I'm also wondering if any of you guys have had any experience with D-Tuners, particularly the Hipshot Guitar Xtender keys? Anyone know if they can be used for a seven-string guitar? I've been playing a little with the idea of using one for this guitar - which will be a seven-string meant to be tuned a whole step below standard (ADGCFAD low->high). The lever would then drop the low A string to a G. Think that would be a possible?

The walnut that the Lumberlady sells, juglans australis (some kind of South American Walnut), is supposedly very dark - almost black. I've ordered some for the body of my first guitar but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't personally comment on its looks. http://yumahardwoods.homestead.com/walnut.html