Brian

Posted for member Ali Kat

The Ali Kat Rockabilly Kustom

For nearly 30 years I have been involved with the Rockabilly and Rock N Roll scene, both as a Rockabilly DJ and a Photographer. By trade I am a sheet metal worker, working in all metals, I have many welding codes including Nuclear welding to 100% x ray standard.I have always wanted to make an all aluminium double bass, and finally got to do so in September this year and just recently finished a second oriental themed double bass. However the Key instrument in any Rockabilly band has to be the Guitar, and those Kool Rockabilly , Brian Setzer riffs we all wish we could play. So not satisfied with just making the bass, I wanted to make a guitar that said Rockabilly both in looks and in sound, and I believe I have achieved that, and to see it being played (as i don`t play) is really something, a proud moment each time some one plays it. Hope you enjoy looking at is as much as I do.. you can hear and see it being played on www.alikat.com.au

The Body has been cut, welded and sanded by hand from 2mm Aluminium, The effect has been done with a sander, then a coloured lacquer added before clear coating. and finally pinstriped by hand, another symbol of the rockabilly kustom kulture scene. As is the 1950s pin up pick guard.The neck is maple, with a Rosewood Fingerboard. 624mm scale length. 22 Frets. Medium fretwire used.

The pickups are GPA Memphis Specials.(Made by Guitar Parts Australia) NOT GFS Memphis pickups. They are alnico V pickups. Neck pickup is7.93K Ohms and bridge pickup is 8.48K. The pots are 500k Ohm GPA pots. Bridge and Tailpiece have been sourced through GPA.

I have experimented with light and medium strings, the light strings produced the best acoustic nlues sound, so good I am in the process of finishing an Ali Kat Acoustic Blues guitar.

Posted for Ragasguitars

Title: Razor Neck

Specs:

Patent Pending Ragas Razor Neck and Fretboard, the World’s thinnest guitar neck

Full Scalloped 24 fret stainless steel fretboard and Frets

Sapele neck through ultra thin neck, .625” thickness including the fret height, with dual action adjustability

Sapele Body

EMG 85-81 humbucker set

Kahler tremolo

Steinberger Gearless Tuners

Recessed input jack and strap locks

One thought is to shut the forum down for an hour or so, migrate the regular members to a different level of membership and reset the newbie's which have all the advantages of a regular member into a class that can't us the PM system...........then fire the forum back up and hope for the best.

I think that is the best option,Brian...it is probably also the biggest PITA for you to set in motion,but once it's done it solves the problem once and for all.

There is alot of PM camaraderie amongst the older members and I think it would be a shame to lose that.

That is what will happen and yes doing it right is going to be a PITA I'll announce the time later, still doing research on moving oh about 18,000 people and all of their post's to a different group without upsetting the set-up and software plus all the archived post's...................................................

You think it is annoying? Maybe I should forward the 30-40 emails I get each and everyday about the problem this past month to you ok rant machine off

It is not a simple few clicks of the mouse, I'm going to have to shut down the forum and make major changes.

Yes doing it may end up being easy but one mishap and there is no backing up once some changes are made.......

Hopefully all will go well and smooth..................................

There is so much you could, should and dont do its really getting old..This is my last post on the matter as it is starting to bore and annoy me, really just fix it and give us a break already..

Thanks.

My frustration is not directed at you..Hopefully you understand that. In fact you seem to be the only one involved since it started..

Momo's post from the GOTM moved to it's own thread..........

How's about a Tung Oil finish?

Hand rubbed and your good to go but you do have to keep up the maintainence on it from time to time.

Are you considering the option of selling fingerboard blanks with unradiused slots to cover the majority of scale lengths and string numbers? I would sell saws, also :-D

Nope, complete fret slot systems that are priced so the average home luthier could afford one

Measuring the width of an Ibanez RG7 string guitar which has a 430mm radius (16.9291338583" to be exact) at the 12th fret and also the depth of the fret tang slot on the side you come up with a neck that is 2-5/16" wide with a fret slot that is 1/16" deep on the outside edge.

Measuring the width of a Fender Tele 6 string guitar which has a 7.25" radius at the 12th fret and also the depth of the fret tang slot on the side you come up with a neck that is 2-1/16" wide with a fret slot that is 1/16" deep on the outside edge.

Even though the difference in width between these two necks is a full 1/4" all the way down their length...........

If you draw out a cross section of both of these necks at any fret slot, you will see the depth of the 6 string with a 7.25" radius in the center of the neck is 7/64" and the depth of a 7 string with almost a 17" radius is 8/64" in the center of the neck.

Seems to me 1/64" or .015625" isn't that much of a difference to worry about when slotting is it?

If you look at the difference of tang lengths from Stew Mac fret wire (which actually has the widest range of lengths from anyone I can find) you will see the shortest being .048" and the deepest being .074" which is a difference of only .026" or in easy terms less than 3/100ths of an inch.

I'm posting this to find out if anyone has a standard depth they use while slotting a fresh finger board for any given radius.

One other thing I would like to find out is which do you prefer a 1/4" thick blank or a 5/16" thick blank?

I know they neck and trem are both supposed to have a 16" radius,

RG 570's have a 430mm radius which works out to almost 17" (16.9291338583" to be exact). As long as the base plate of the trem your looking at is flat and not stepped up for the middle saddles your ok, otherwise I would look for something else that can handle the flatter finger board.

If your going to enter the contest with multiple entry's chances are while overall you could score a total combined number of vote's to win, that doesn't get the winners spot........... I'm leaning towards a limit......

For many members just finishing their first guitar is a challenge to begin with........Should there be more contest's each with different rules such as one for Pro's, one for First Timers and a third for the rest of us?

If somebody enter's a store bought guitar which they do nothing to (no part in design or building), I doubt they stand a chance on the voting poll so I wouldn't worry about it

But! What if they did.........hasn't happened yet but unless there is a rule it doesn't mean it couldn't happen

If you post a guitar which you have designed from top to bottom but had no hand in the actual building it show's your dedication to having your own personal project finished, hence your Project Guitar. I could only speculate that the reason you did not build it yourself is a simple matter of not having the proper tools or work space since not everybody does. Doesn't mean you would get my vote unless it was totally to my liking but then again nobody ever get's my vote because I leave that up to the rest of the forum membership. (my own personal thought on the current guitar questioned in this month's entry thread).

Would changing the rule's from something as simple as they are to more complex eliminate creativity or spawn it?

If they were changed what change's would you make?

Let's keep this going...........

You can also use an Artist Fixative from a spray can to seal the body before she does the graphic. This will put a barier between the dye and paint. When it comes to clean up with acrylics in case of a problem she already know's water works best on a damp cloth.

As for the clear top coat I would recommend that you prep a small board (using your dye and fixative) she can use as a pallet for her paints. After she is finished with the art work, wipe the excess paint away but leave enough on the pallet to use it as a test board for spraying your top coat on to see how it will react.

Do the test coat only on a small square (cut a hole in a piece of cardboard or what ever to spray it on, That way if you have to make any adjustments due to a problem you will still have a test area to try again on.

That's what I would try anyway, I love acrylics but I usualy use them on bare wood or canvas...

Thanks Bro

Updated to this point.............