A_M

Cool, but personally I think Doug Rowell (who carved that guitar) has done many much cooler guitars: LINK

Thanks a lot for your help! Have WDMusic always sold the 7-string TonePros tune-o-matics? I must've been blind then because I could've sweared I've checked that website several times before without seeing 'em. I didn't think the polepiece spacing thing would be an issue but it's always nice to hear the same thing from someone else. And I'll have to see if I can contact Graph Tech again; I've sent them two e-mails before asking about this but never got an answer. Maybe they've blocked hotmail addresses or something... I'll try again sending from a different e-mail address or via their online form in their FAQ.

OK, I've been planning on making my own guitar (7-string les paul-esque electric) for quite some time and now I've finally ordered the wood for this project. I want to start ordering hardware and other parts in the relatively near future but am not sure what bridge to get and where to get it from, and have some other questions related to this too. I want to use a seven string tune-o-matic style bridge for this. Has anyone here used such bridges for your guitars, and if so; which one, where did you get it from, and what did you think of it? I haven't seen many sources for such bridges online. I've seen Allparts has one (which Universaljems sells) but judging from the tiny photo of it at universaljems.com (the only photo I've seen of it) it looks a bit different from the usual tune-o-matics I've seen. Then there's this one that guitarpartsdepot.com sells. Anyone bought stuff from that website? Finally I'm pretty sure TonePros builds 7-string tune-o-matics but I don't know if one can by them anywhere. Anyone know? I guess the string spacing on TOMs is slightly narrower than on most other 7-string bridges too, yet the 7-string Dimarzio pickups are F-spaced only - will they work fine with a tune-o-matic style bridge anyway? Finally, if I were to want to have piezo pickups, does anyone know if and where one can get piezo loaded saddles for 7-string TOM bridges? I haven't decided on this, just pondering the possibility... / Andreas Mattsson

I still don't get it. Why exactly does the zero-fret have to be higher than the others? Placing a capo at the nth fret of a guitar (or even just fretting a string with your finger there) effectively turns that fret into a zero fret, yet we don't have problems with that fret being too low? I'm just a newbie (still waiting on the wood for my first guitar) but the only reason I can think of for having a higher zero fret is not having to replace it as soon...

Hmmm... Not too shabby! Not really my cup o' tea though... If it were up to me I'd make the body a little bit more asymmetric and make the lower cutaway a wee bit deeper and horn a little thinner. I took the liberty of modifying a bit in PSP; hope you don't mind? Not necessarily better but more to my taste...

Prices for stock necks and custom necks are listed here: http://yumahardwoods.homestead.com/guitarneck.html I had to pay a bit more for mine though due to larger than average dimensions (7-string, 27" scale length, through-neck and thicker-than-average body). Not exactly cheap but being a n00b with limited access to tools (and limited woodworking experience) I value the ability to get a glued up, planed and whatnot blank fairly high. My neck's gonna be a five-piece with jarrah in the center, then thinner strips of argentine walnut (darker than your average north american black walnut), and bubinga on the outside.

Same pic slightly bigger:

I recently ordered a custom laminated neck blank (nice as I too lack planer/jointer) for my first guitar project ever from lumberlady.com. I chose the slower of the shipping options though so it can take a while til I get my wood. Anyone here have any previous experience of ordering wood for guitar projects from them? Anyhow, the lady who runs the business has been immensly helpful when answering my e-mails (and several times taking less time to answer then it took for me to write my initial e-mails ).

Interesting. I too have been thinking about some time building fuzz effects into a guitar, but was rather considering one of the variations on the Bazz Fuss effect. They seem simple enough even for me to put one together, perhaps this could be an option for you? (you wouldn't have the problem of finding space for 5 knobs on your guitar either)