slipperywombat

This site has been a haven for amateur guitar builders. Not "new talent" or people enterprising their new line of guitars. Just people who are interested in building musical instruments. I don't come on to this forum with the intent of meeting up with the Jaros guys or selling a prospect to Guitar Center, I come here looking to find comradery with fellow new guitar builders. I want to ask my idiot questions and get my idiot answers. You saw the response to even the simplest laser ruled drill press work, people were shocked and impressed that anyone had access to that level of technology. Most readers here are amateurs, they are here to learn. As far as the rules issues go, I understand limiting language and avatar pictures, but the silly flood rule, for example, doesn't serve any purpose for the regular members. If your worried about folks posting too often, just accept that as a necessary sacrifice that comes with having a active and bustling forum. These issues ARE important. Don't believe me? You just lost 2 experienced, active, friendly, helpful people who LOVED this forum over them.

When the mods are shutting down topics about forum rules so quickly, it's time to leave. People are having decent, friendly discussion about improving the quality of the forums and then *boom* "Thread Locked". Wake up. If this is how the leaders respond to members trying to improve the quality of communication, then *boom* New Leaders.

I realize that I'm relatively new poster, but there I'd really like to put in my 2 cents. In all honesty, people have got to be willing to sort through some garbage to get to the real meat of a topic, for pete's sake, this is a public forum. Believe it or not, everyone gets to talk. It's like going to a meeting and before you even walk in, declaring that you only want to hear the most meaningful part of the conversation. It doesn't work like that. If what you're looking for is pure information, read an encyclopedia. This is human interaction we're talking about here. As for discussions about the parade of noobs and their retarded responses, of course that's not ideal, but that's the kind of thing you put up with in an open forum. They'll build, they'll learn, that's how a good crop of guitar builders is developed. Idiots with ideas become ingenuitive builders with enough time. Help them, have conversations. They need it more than a luthier with 25 years of experience.

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out. Is there a particular brand or seller that is known for better quality with these things?

Where can I buy an LP style neck? Every place I go to buy one only has the fender-type radius available, which is not what I want. Even looking through the piles of stuff on Warmoth, it's hard to tell wheather what I want is actually available. I should probably mention that I'm looking for a bolt-on, rather than a through body. Incidentally, I should probaly throw in there that I don't know precisely which neck of theirs that I want. The neck on my friends ~3 year old Epi SG is noticibily thicker at the nut end than the one on my newer LP Studio, and I'm looking for something more similar to mine.

Another thing you can do to get measurements is just take the measurements from a guitar that's available. I went down and grabbed a PRS off the wall of Guitar Center and took a tape measure to it, and they didn't seem to mind. When I told them why i was taking measurements, they got even more interested and one of the sales guys actually helped me line the measurements up while I wrote down numbers.

Mmmm... this could be fun! Is it just the pic, or is the rear actually a bunch wider than the gibson after which it is modeled? In regards to the Carvin neck... don't they come with a strat-like headstock? How's that going to look?

Worked fine for me. Maiden: It's an Autocad file... are you trying to view with something else?

I know it's not 100% on topic, but what exactly do you do with plywood in an airplane? Spare me the comments about the armrests for the chubby folks...

Also meant to say, for heavy woods: wenge, bubinga, purple heart, all very heavy.

My experience with oak is that it's not the greatest wood to work with as far as musical instruments go. It is indeed back-breakingly heavy, but I don't hear the tone out of it that you would expect. Oak drums, for example, sound like absolute piss to me, when compared to maple or even mahogany drums (mahogany is the cheap stuff in the drum world).

Whoops, just noticed that the spiderman guitar has it's own thread now... too lazy to edit/move. I like the batman guitar better anyhow.

Batman: This is going to be a sweet looking axe if it's done right. I've been thinking about this thing way too much! The newer look of the curves is definetely doing it for me, very very nice. Definitely some potential for an amazing guitar here, I think. For wood: Consider doing a multi-piece body, it's going to be very tricky to get your hands on wood of that size. Have you considered alternate hardware for the axe? Possibly one of those larger gold delta-style tailpieces that are seen on some other Vee-style guitars? Did I see you mention LED's a few pages back? Be sure to use those in moderation, as they can really make an otherwise classy guitar seem gaudy. Tasteful positioning determines wheather a guitar will be show-worthy or door stop material... Spiderman: If you're going to do this guitar, pulling no punches for practicality, do it, but be aware that people are saying things for a reason. From my perspective, you're going to have a lot of issues trying to do the routing precisely, additionally, it's going to be tricky to get all the spots in the contour finished decently. Thirdly, you're going to have a really good time doing all the wiring and finding good spots for the switches. Finally, I think can't imagine it sounding very good with so little wood near the pickups. Depending on which of these things are issues (if any) I would seriously consider revising the design. While it is a spiderman tribute, it's important to remember that at it's most basic level, it IS a guitar, a musical instrument, and I can see your enjoyment of it decreasing greatly if were difficult to play.

I also couldn't see the pics from the first page, and going to the LGM site, I didn't see anything new. About the later pics, the guitar design is beautiful: stunning curves, beautiful inlay, high quality construction etc. I have to admit that red sparkle isn't the direction I would have taken that, but it works! That inlay is some sort of wonderful! Wow.

For a spiderman guitar, I know it sounds a little generic, but I'm thinking something more like an LP or SG, only with the "Web" design that's actually on Spiderman's costume ,if you catch my meaning. This would mostly be a paint job, I suppose. For actually body changes, my theory is find a classic and adapt some changes, rather than go for something that's completely out in left field, espeically if you're actually planning on making it. This ensures at least SOME level of basic playability. It's also largely why I enjoy the way the Batman guitar is based on the Vee. At any rate, I'd really like to see the Spiderman guitar come to fruition, so let's continue to work through some design concepts.

Yeah, I think the spider guitar is going downhill. I enjoy spiderman, and I think the idea is do-able, but there's definitely a distinct lack of "Wow" factor there. "The Design" hasn't come up here. As for the Batman guitar... I'm more a fan on the body styles where the points on the back of the body were coming straight back. It should look... like a cape, you know. Maybe incorporate a little bit of asymmetry.

As soon as I saw your base ideas, that was flying to my brain! If you end up building this, I am SO psyched to see the result. <-----I love Batman, I love guitars, It's perfect!

This is what I came up with off the top of my head. Man, this could be FUN.

I LOVE the idea of the batman-type guitar! Very unique. For the headstock, howabout kinda taking the LP headstock shape, and then raising up the two side points, as in your second headstock design? For the body design, what aboutmaking the points on the ends longer, and then going shorter in the middle, to make it look a little sleeker? You're giving me all these great ideas for guitar designs!

Don't forget that (sometimes) the fact that it HASN'T been modified or repaired can drive a few dollars into a guitar. For example: Every fender pre 1970.

Grover's lockers don't have those big gear dealies on the back, they automatically lock as you tighten, if that's what you mean by "Traditional".

If you disregard the money aspect, how to tuners stack up? There seems to be a lot of talk on the net about stability in tuners, and I've heard basically every brand bashed in this area. When talking about decent brands, which ones are truly good? Kluson? Gotoh? Schaller?

There are TOM's that are low profile enough to work without a neck angle, so don't let that stop you. Though I haven't done it, I have a friend who built his own guitar using a flat neck and a tune-o, so I know it can be done!

I would definitely do the coil tapping, that can add so much diversity to the sound of a guitar. Plus, 7 string chords on a single coil sound really unique. For the look: I tend to not like the monkey grip, but doing some small shaping changes to the body would give it a lot more personality. I can't tell exactly which model of trem is on there from the picture, but upgrading that is often a fairly cheap way to improve... basically everything about the guitar; sustain, tone, tuning stability etc.

The truss rod doesn't go into the body. At least that's the case on bolt-ons, I'm not sure precisely where the stopping point for the rod is on a neck through, if that's what you need to know. Nut to bridge, rather than tailpiece. Edge of nut. Technically, the distance should probably be from the peak of the groove in the nut slot, but that's why we have adjustable bridge saddles! EDIT I suppose I should have mentioned too, that yes, these questions have been answered before, but I understand that it can be tricky to sort out the good info after doing a search for "Truss Rod". Good luck building.