Kyle Cavanaugh

You sure seem to have a good understanding masterminds. You obviously took Physics in High School! I've only gotten as far as Chemistry sciences wise, if you exclude Electronics... It really sounds like you want something REALLY special and unique. I don't think too many of us here on the forum are that ambicious (sp? damn meds kill my memory!) to venture that far from that tradition! I think the Birdfish is a cool idea! You could also look at what Steinberger and Parker has done as far as alternative materials and construction goes, but chances are you already have. Don't ask what has happened with the acrylic headstocks on some of those BC Rich guitars though... I came to the same conclusion as that guy and as a cheap and easy solution, actually ran a threaded steel rod down the middle of the body of one my of guitars and had it run into the bolt on neck for contact. Nuts were added to put adjustable tension of the rod, like a truss rod. What it did was keep the center of the body from vibrating and made all the sound waves dissipate to the sides of the body AND to the neck! This made the guitar sound much sweeter, articulate, and it sustained more. I guess you could call it a "Poor Man's Neck-Thru"! (Pics and Tutorial coming soon!) Having one solid piece is more important (even on an electric) than a lot of people think. I know that in theory a guitar as it is, will never be perfect in intonation for playing chords, but when you consider the height of the frets and the fact that you push down on them, you have another factor added. I've been playing for a solid 6 or 7 years, and I noticed that the hand subconciously gives you the right pressure after playing long enough. I guess this is why I like playing with heavier gauge strings, not to mention they seem to stay in tune better for some reason. Of course the thicker sound helps! I played a guitar with an Earvana nut (some high-end LTD) and noticed it lacked something in it's sound, no idea what. Could have just been a crappy set up, though, but it played quick with no buzzing, hmm... I also notice that a Floyd Rose (blocked or non-recessed) tends to have some of the best intonation I've ever heard, next to a Tune-O-Matic that's not wobbly and planted in the guitar well. With this said and done, knowing it's limitations, I'd suggest learning to build your own or try and work with a small-time luthier (some will charge less than you think) to make it a reality. Maybe have metal parts custom-made at a machine shop somewhere if necessary. BTW, I hope this isn't considered hijacking the thread. Good luck! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

I bet if you changed the magnet to an 1/8" Ceramic, making it a Duncan Custom with a few extra winds, you'll get a lot more clarity, but more output at the same time. AlNiCo V would make it much too different of a beast tonewise, IMO. If you listen to the sound clips on the Seymour Duncan website, you probably won't notice much of a difference, but I don't think they did a great job of recording. *Hint* Check their forum out! Tips & Clips! *Hint*

using a normal spaced JB in the neck is pretty nice for cleans! The 59 is more of a gritty sound to it though. A Duncan Custom would match up better with the JB output wise and still kind of have that same sound to it. BTW, regardless of what anyone has said, DC resistance is NOT a good reference for determining output.

Sure! Experiment! I'm assuming you're talking about humbuckers. If so and if you have a trem, the spacing might be off some. I don't know how off an F-spaced in the neck would be! One example is that some people really like the Seymour Duncan JB at the neck (which is fairly high output and designed for the bridge).

Well, for someone that's just starting out, this is something that'd be a little tough to do from scratch! You would want to buy an active preamp with an equalizer. It is possible to do it passively as well. The most complexity on that is calculating the frequency and all the junk. If you're strapped for cash or don't want to deal with batteries, let me know and I can make up a diagram, I just need to know the values of the pots you're using and what frequency bands you want cut. I could design an active one as well.

EMG wasn't around until about 1980, David Gilmour used a stock strat back then. If you want high fidelty and good string definition, while still having balls (plenty in this case!), EMG's ROCK! They are different than anything else out there, really.

Both ways work. The reason the DiMarzio's are made that way is so that only the top coil is used for sensing the strings, electrically, they are still out of phase electrically and they won't cancel out the string sensing because the one isn't sensing. I believe this is done so that the clarity is like that of a single coil, go ahead, try removing the screw polepieces on a PAF type humbucker and see what I mean (I like it a lot, personally!). You would want to increase the number of winds on the air coil as to allow their inductances to be closer (ferromagnetic materials, those containing Iron, Nickel, and\or Cobalt increase inductance a lot!)

If it's not off by too much, I suppose you could pull the fret out, put in some wood filler, resaw, and refret. You may want to consider making or buying a Miter Box to make sure it's right. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_suppl..._Miter_Box.html May I ask what country you're from? I think it's pretty cool how much ethnic diversty we get here!

If it's any consoulation, your woodworking mistakes don't seem to be visable on the outside of the guitar. I just hope there's enough wood there for the bridge to be strong enough! Keep it up! I honestly wonder what Mr. Diddley would think of your guitars!

That was much more pleasing ← Ditto. I think the L500's make it look pretty cool, too!

http://www.geocities.com/mextweak/guitarWHITEY.jpg http://www.geocities.com/mextweak/newguard2.JPG http://www.geocities.com/mextweak/guitarmods2.JPG This is my friend's Ibanez RG 7620 that he decked out to his liking. He's kind of an odd guy, but creative and intelligent (I don't know about bright sometimes LOL). This guitar consists of a duct tape and electrical tape finish (covering up a Charcoal Gray paint job with some good dings in it), a plexiglass pickguard he that he cut with a hacksaw of some sort and painted the back to get the color. He removed the neck pickup and replaced the bridge pickup with a green DiMarzio Evolution he picked up off of E-Bay, completely because of looks, it still sounds stock. He also did the EVH thing and kept it simple by having nothing but a volume knob. He makes good use of it by making swell effects sometimes. He also wrote a bunch of screwed up sayings on it, such as "Satan needs a soda." Of course, rounding out the package is his lucky guitar strap that he rescued from a dumpster, which has coffee stains on it and smells like pot smoke. (not from him) The fingerboard on this thing looks pretty nasty, as he never oils it and he has unusually acidic oils in his skin, and of course he only changes strings 2 or 3 times a year. After a while it becomes good for building up calluses! LOL Well, aside from it having a very grungy look and basically being unsanitary, I think it looks pretty neat and he expressed himself. Of course, his dreadlocks got infested by a mold a few months ago, requiring a pretty good hair cut, and last week he pierced his lip himself, and it doesn't exactly look like he used a sterile needle. Heck, I just had to repierce my ear and it only took me five minutes before school to sterilize, pierce, and put my hoop in! Well, at least it wasn't his tounge! Tell me what you guys think, I'll let him know your compliments. I think we might have a Guitar of the Month on our hands! Guess we'll have to wait and see at the beginning of the month, won't we?

I was already playing the guitar, but the Jazz Band director didn't have faith in my abilities so the jerk made me spend $300 to get one, even though there was already one bassist! At least I made an educated purchase. By the way, I proved him so wrong about my musical abilities, I nearly made him cry! The other guy would turn the volume knob all the way down so it was me they were hearing like he was afraid he'd screw up. Of course, having two bass guitars at once is kind of messed up, "One of These Days" by Pink Floyd is an exception.

never blown one myself, but others in my class do it all the time. Smells like someone put a big scoop of peanut butter on a skillet! Yuck!

You can do it! Just ignore the middle pup altogether (still wire the negative to common) Just read up on how to wire up a telecaster. The thing is though, you need to switch the middle pickup with either the neck or bridge so you get the clean hum canceling effect in the center position. Heck, you could even wire it for two volumes and one tone! If you end out needing help, email me at korinstratkyle@hotmail.com and I can draw up a diagram for you. Tell me EXACTLY how you want it to work and what kind of pickups you have.

That what I thought, too! Really cool! BTW, that game is based off an actual comic that's been long running in Mad Magazine, it's hilarious and clever! I remember playing that game over at my aunt and uncle's house many years back on an NES (I was probably about 8) and downloaded it for my Sega emulator just a week or two ago!

I'd kill to have a guitar like that, but I'd be afraid of the owner using it to defend themselves! Ouch!

+1 What you should be worried about is how dependable the pot is and if it has smooth rotation. Resistance is resistance, but it should have a good tolerance, +/-20% is the least acceptable, I recommend looking for at least +/- 10% if it's for a linear-taper (eg. Les Paul-type tone controls), it's acceptable for audio taper (eg. volume controls, Strat-type tone controls) because the resistance taper is exponential because doubling or dividing a voltage (the volume) in half (controled by the pot) will only make a difference of plus or minus 3 Decibels; that's why 1 Meg, 500K, and 250K pots don't sound terribly different in terms of volume, tone wise it might, especially on a tone control.

What's up with that bridge? I've never seen anything quite like it before! I can't see the details really except that each of the saddles are individual "posts". I just thought of an interesting bridge design using that post method that allows for height adjustment and minimal string friction...

How about running a buffer like this into your computer? http://www.till.com/articles/GuitarPreamp/ 1/4" female (or male) mono in, 1/8" male stereo out. It will make for a real cheap and easy quality direct box if you're experienced with soldering. The problem you're having is that a passive guitar will have a very high impedance, as high as 5 megohms, while the input on the sound card is likely around 10 kiloohms. It gets a lower impedance because the preamp increases gain considerably without voltage loss. If it's something you'd want to try but don't feel comfortable doing yourself, my email's korinastratkyle@hotmail.com, gimme a buzz...

Here you go, just found this. http://guitargeek.com/search/?qt=b&q=iron%20maiden

I recall the early stuff was done with stock '57 Strats I believe, and then around '80 or '81 they had them modified to retrofit DiMarzio Super Distortions in the neck and bridge (maybe Super 2 in the neck?). Later on, the one used a JB in his Charvels. Right now, according to this issue of Guitar World I have, they're using the same set up as the Maiden strat and Marshalls. I don't have it with me, so I can't give you the low down on it. I've played the Iron Maiden Strat and it was pretty nice, especially for the price, but it was before I started listening to Maiden, or even had any decent lead playing ability, so whether it nails them or not, I don't know.

They fit a strat neck pocket, if that helps. If I'm correct, you can put a strat neck in a tele neck pocket without any problems, and the gap will be covered up by the 22nd fret.

Smokin'! No pun intended. Makes me want to try carving guitar bodies myself!

From a distance you seriously can't differ that from a PRS!

I hope all those White Supremisists know what they've gotten themselves into...