Matt

ok well im making a mahogany body with maple top, and i want to lighten it. then ther will be two smallish vents (like the ones on the BMW Z3) on each side about where the waist of the guitar is, simply to look good. What would this do?

has no-one got any ideas?

Hi, Im thinking of putting in tone chambers into my electric guitar, does it matter how big you make them or what size they are? Also do vents affect them and does their size and style matter also? Cheers Matt

OK well if people dont know, ive been looking into making an all graphite guitar! so can anyone help me with some questions? Do i need a truss rod in the neck? and what truss rods are the shallowest, and that dont need any complicated routing? Would it affect it, if the neck was made up of two or three bits scarf-jointed or something like that together, in a line as i dont have any pieces long enough at the moment for a full length neck. where could i get some chrome or chrome plated metal for the binding? Matt

does anyone know how i might be able to finish a solid graphite guitar or what would be a suitable finish to use? also whether epoxy resin is a suitable glue? ve done tests and it seems alright?

Thanks alot guys that was really helpfull. Well ive managed to get a slab easily big enough for the body from the tech guy at the workshop, now i just need a bit for the neck-thru. Graphite is heavy so i will put chambers in. Do they have to be a specific size? and if it was semi-hollow, do the holes through the top need to be a certain shape or size? Im looking at ways in which to finish it. I tried a bit of polish and it gave a nive dark matt finish. Graphite apart form being brittle and creates alot of dust, is soft and so i think machining it will be a breaze. (sanding should be lightspeed!) I JUST DONT WANT TO DROP IT WHEN ITS FINISHED!!!!! Matt

Hi guys, Had an idea of an all graphite guitar for my nect project, but i dont know anything about it. Does anyone know what it might sound like and where i could get it from (I live in England) and would it be strong enough? Is this a rad or bad idea? Matt

Thanks alot guys, Well I dont have alot of knoledge on these, I knew someone who had one and he said it sounded awesome. I really liked the idea of it being able to drive power amps and have its own jack for headphones and suchlike. What are the matchless things like? i havn't herd of them before.

Cheers guys, well ive got a whole school workshop to my disposal, and any ideas on what the sliding PU is like? What about graphite?

Hey we havn't herd much of late, hows it going, plus I thought it would be a good idea to put a post so its still in peoples minds Matt

Hi all, These are probably far too complicated projects for me just yet, but so far I havn't come across anything I cant do or fix, so im willing to give them a bash. Basically I want to make my own JD Crybaby from Hell and Mesa Boogie V-Twin, why? because I like doing it and mainly because I cant afford £400 for the lot. Has anyone got any input on the difficulty of the projos and also what the cost might be. Im slightly worried about the power transformers or supplies in the V-Twin as I havn't done mains or tube stuff before. And Im not sure about anything for the CB from Hell, I could do a normal JD crybaby, but I was wondering how to get the other features? Thanks alot for your time. Matt

Hi all, OK well ive just finished my first guitar and it sounds great. Now I have to make a second for an A-Level project, BUT it has to be innovative in some way, or just slightly different from any other. My ideas: Have either 1 or two pickups in a large pickup cavity, that can be moved forward or back to change the tone. with a large EMG style cover covering them. Have a guitar made out of something cool like carbon fibre, but dont know where to get or how expensive it would be. Could anyone please give any imput on what they think and what they would like in a perfect guitar that hasn't been taken advantage of fully yet. Thanks alot. Matt

Try www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk they have distributers most places tho. I had a Miricle Man made slightly custom made. If you talk to him he is EXREMELY helpful and knowledgeable!!!!!!!!!! he can wind exactly what you want and if you dont like it then you can send it back to be replaced. They do quite a range and I have to say Im VERY pleased with the miricle man- great harmonics, great tone and high output. I had a Kent Armstrong Motherbucker before and that was Hot!! 27.5k!!! but it was a sounded to cold compared to the MM, and didnt have as good harmonics. Even so check out there whole range, plus their all scatterwound. Matt PS this is to anyone wanting PU's

Yea I know where to get them, as I was thinking about getting one. Go to www.wdmusicproducts.co.uk or .com. its about £50 I think

Hi im looking into trying to get the best effect on my guitar which is made out of birdseye maple, i herd of translucent laquer, would this work in helping to bring out the figuring? Matt

Dude, not being sour or anything, but psw is obviously very busy, Im not sure if he has alot of time on his hands and cant give you too much advice. Ive been researching pickups and pickup winding for about 5 mounths solid, and i still have alot to learn. my advice is to really look into this stuff by reading other peoples threads first, and then re-read them once you understand something a bit more. It will all fall into place eventually . heres the thread that i started and heres a reply i got on how to build a sustainer. "I just had to reply... I'm sure fernandez's is much cooler, but I have a home made jobby in my guitar. It took one day to build. First I ripped the wire off a junker ceramic magnet single coil. R.G. pointed out that if you used alnico, the strong magnetic field will unmagnetize it. I bought some magnet wire from radio shack, pretty heavy guage...28 guage maybe? I measured the spool and total it had 20 ohms, so I wound about half onto my bobbin making a 9 ohm coil. About what a speakers ohm's are! The coil has to run alot of current to get the strings to move! The driver I built using a lm386 headphone IC. You can get that at radio shack too, But the radio shack book's circuit oscillates because it doesn't have compensation.... So go to : runoffgroove.com and start by building a "little gem" with that lm386!(he has the needed compensation!). In order to get the octave effect that fernandez has, just instal a dpdt "invert" switch between the headphone amp and the coil. Think of it like a positive and negative feedback switch... The harmonics effect is gotten by negating the fundamental.... And getting really SICK with the magnetic field. the coil will have alot of power and the wires will want to vibrate, so try to wind it tight... and maybe glue it. I had to pot mine twice because I could hear the wires vibrating. And my anger almost shattered my molars.... And another thing...The new load is highly inductave, so the compensation thing is key... in the little gems amp thing, it is a resistor and a cap across the output. You might have to play with it. maybe if you added a small series resistor with the coil... just to chill the load a bit, that might help. It is fun and pretty easy. there are like 30 turns on the coil, and building a headphone amp is a real good beginning soldering project.( except do watch out for that bastard inductive load!) Good luck! -eth OHHHH! By the way build it outside of the guitar first... solder a temporary jack to it and use the coil with your right hand while you fret with your left hand. And you will want to use the invert switch no matter what, because the phase will be any bodies guess! PS. sorry psw if this is a bit off the subject of your hex driver. Matt

Plus the amp thing in the circuit is supposed to have compensation for this!

well a driver is just a pickup coil, except you put current through it, not using it to create a signal. I know what posistio ur in because i was in that position - correction, i still am.! -Ok what you do is get some thickish wire as i said and wind it around a pickup bobbin to something like 9 ohms, ( a good idea is to get a scrap ceramic single coil, and take off the existing coils. - with the amount of current going through it, they'll melt!!). -Once you have wound the pickup, make sure u pot it gud'n proper like with epoxy, otherwise the actuall coils will vibrate inside!! THIS IS THE DRIVER!!!!! -Then go to www.runoffgroove.com and build the 'little gem'. This is used as the amp to produce the signal. OK from now im not to sure how it goes together, but it sumthing like, put the wires from the bridge PU into the input of the sustainer, and then put the sustainer/DRIVER in the NECK position, and wire to the output of the circuit. In order to get the octave effect that fernandez has, just install a dpdt "invert" switch between the headphone amp and the coil. Think of it like a positive and negative feedback switch... The harmonics effect is gotten by negating the fundamental.... And getting really SICK with the magnetic field. Hey dude if you build this, could you tell me how it goes as im thinking about making it, (i havn't tried it yet!! -but it is supposed to work fairly well) good luck Matt

Hey monkey if you want to try to build a sustainer then i suggest u look up my thread on electonics on how to build a fairly simple one. it consists of a 'little gem' circuit as the amp, and a coil wound to 9 ohms with a thick guage wire such as AWG 23. its fairly simple but gives an idea of how the fernandez one works, plus if u use a swith then u can get the harmonic effct but im not sure how to do it. hope it helps, i might build one soon if it goes well. Matt. PS this is no where near the complicity of psw's but it might help you to add some ideas to his project.

Hi guys, im in the middle of making my guitar and i have now put the frets on the fretboard, but how to i make them flush with the board and nice and rounded without dinking the fret board? Cheers Matt

To be quite honest, flames are not that hard to draw. just try a few sketches and you might be surprised at how you do! Im not great at art, but i have decent confidence in drawing them. you just need to be flowing and smooth, the only thing im worried about it painting them(i.e. the way they change from red-orange-yellow-white-yellow) Matt

Thanks alot, ill have a look at that.

Hi, on my next project i was thinking of making the neck and body out of curly or flame maple. Ive seen black finish flame maple tops and they can look awesome! What i was wondering would be how to colour the wood into a black smoke effect with dark black and silvery/grey patches just like you see in a billowing cloud of smoke. I was thinking that it would have to be lightly stained a grey sort of colour first, then rubbed down and a black stain or finish applied to get the effect. so you get the holographic effect that you get with maple but in a smokey colour and effect. Has anyone got any ideas? It would be to go on a custom flying V, and so look really cool. Matt

...erm well from what I found and of what ansil sent me, he used one half of a X2N coil and then 5V 6 reed relay coils with nails through them and rare earth magnets on the bottom. they each had their own trim pots. He said it was great, but i havn't tried it yet, and i dont know if you need a preamp? I would have thought that the X2N would have overpowered it? Anyway hope this helps, i haven't got the time to experiment so any thoughts would be appreciated. Matt

WOW!! psw you GOD, this was exactly the constructive feedback i wanted. In sense what you were talking about was exactly what i was thinking. The Dimebucker was really just an example i was useing that i thought alot of people could relate to. See this is exactly what i think is wrong... I mean fair play to the people who devote their time in trying to recreate a 'vintage' sound, and all due respect. But just because two big companies produce some good products, i dont see why that has to be the dataum for everyone else?! My view is that we should be trying to look at as many different designs and alternatives as possible in hope to better a 50 year old design. I mean 50 BL**DY years and we still have the same basic design!!! ( not to say it isn't already a good design ). anyway thanks alot, ill check out that magnetic design thingy, -it sounds like exactly what i need. Matt P.S.(W. -ha ha... sorry no disrespect! -couldn't resist) im following youre sustainer thread with much interest, good to see an actuall picture of it, but where exactly is it gonna be placed?