Bryan316

Middle fingers. Machine gun shells flying. Predator fonts from his wrist computer, glowing red!!!

I wouldn't even use push pins. I'd go buy a box of sewing pins, with the small plastic balls at the heads of the pins, and push the pin through the pattern so only the pin itself is underneath the pattern. If you use heavy backingboard, it'll be rigid and stable, then just poke the pins through the top down to the wood. Let the pin points contact the wood. Oh yeah, and definitely do a few test runs. Just glue some 2x4's together, saw out the general shape of your body, then practice the burst. See how far away you should be holding your sprayer. What angle. How many passes. How high or low the pattern should hover above the body.

I recommend glueing up the neck, then dyeing the wood. You can dye the whole back of the neck, or burst it so it transitions to a bare color neck. But unless you have two scraps of the same woods as the neck and body woods, and can dye THEN glue, I wouldn't go that route. This deserves a serious test to make sure you can glue over your stains.

Shu'up. Beer was involved. The more I drink, the more strings it appears to have. "HEY Yoush guysh, thek out thish 14 tring mudda mudda! YEAAAASH!!!!" *burp*

LOL LOL LOL It's spelled "f-u-n-g-o-u-s" but it's actually pronounced "throat warbler mangrove."

I've actually quit using strap buttons. Eye bolts for me now, baby! more METAL! Zakk Wylde has his axes hung with eye bolts and small carabiner clips. Tell ya what... VERY sturdy. And it's easy to take your strap off completely when packing things away. But the eyebolts I used had really heavy screw threads, almost look like lag screws for deck work! Got 2" long screws, and buried them into the body. If they ever fail me, it's cuz a whole chunk of the body fractures off! HAHA!!! As for your headstock design, mine is kindasorta similar, except I was doing it to reflect the shapes of the horns on my body, and I'm making the tuners blend into the flow of the lines. It's funny how very similar the two designs are, when I just did mine blindly as I copied my horns' shape and then made it fit as a headstock. Metal minds think alike!! \m/ \m/ I just found the small schematics of the Gotoh sealed tuners, so I drew them up into my CAD layout. Turns out, to keep the lines I intended, gotta make my headstock larger. Not so sure if I wanna do that... already had many reasons to hate basses with terrible neck dive, like Spectors and Thunderbirds.

I'm in the same boat, here. Carvin neck, ebony board already fretted. I'm debating how to make a rig. My idea, is to clamp the neck to my table perfectly level, and weld up a plate of steel at a slight downward angle, to put inlays on the top edge of the fretboard. Thinking like Billy Sheehan's custom basses with the long dots that protrude to the edge of the fretboard. So I don't want my template exactly level to the board, but parallel with the board close to the edge. Maybe a 2 to 3-degree tilt overall.

Currently putting in a Stu-Mac order, and those micromesh pads were the first item added!!! GAWD that neck is glorious.

Ready for a terrible idea? Purpleheart pickup rings. DOOO EEEEET!!! Oh, and yeah, that fretboard is magnificent. It just screams out at the world!

Do you have access to milling or CNC gear? Cuz a block of UHMW (Ultra-high molecular weight) polyurethane and a ball-nose router bit, and you could make a smooth casting mold in no time. Sorry.... you're from the UK. MOULD. The idea came to me as I was just looking through guitar bodies with different swirl paintjobs. My brother wants to try to dip a guitar, and the current idea is seeing how a flourescent orange would work with a deep red and a dark gray, almost black. Then I thought, "Why the heck can't you make plastic parts this way, but using colored epoxies and swirling them shortly in a bowl? As you can tell, I've got lots of ideas. You'll find they're all HORRIBLE ideas, heh heh heh! Can you say, diamond-plated aluminum fretboard? \m/ \m/

Cool. Just wanna make sure he's good to go, and doesn't have someone arguing with him in the future.

They look sharp so far, bro. I'd certainly use them. Howzabout this... use black bobbins, but paint the pole tips golden? Then wrap these rings around them. Also, another idea I've seen on other products. Make a mold in the shape of a pickup ring. Mix up two batches of epoxy resin. Color one golden, color one solid black. Pour both resins together into the mold, creating a marble-ized black-yellow mix that swirls like a bowling ball's finish. ???

I really like your front horns better than that photo you just posted. That bass is ugly, yours is definitely more refined and flows more naturally. That golden one seems forced, stiff, and angular. Now... I'm not here to rain on your parade or criticize you for this, but my brother noticed a distinct similarity. I'm pointing this out, because I don't wanna see you get into too much trouble over this, nor start any unwarranted arguments: This is an 8-string axe by Ran Guitars. Notice the headstock. Now... I personally don't care! And dead-honest truth, the headstock I have planned looks enough like this one to make me want to adjust a few things on my design. But the similarity between yours and this Ran axe, is going to draw attention. Please understand, I don't give a damn, here! I'm just serving as a warning, here. I see plenty of people on here that make replicas of plenty of big-name corporate guitars. There's plenty of people here building their own version of a P-bass, a flying V, a Les Paul, a Strat, all the classics. And I'm fine with that! Cuz to be dead honest, I'll never touch a Fender or a Gibson or a Rick, because there are better builders out there, making finer guitars with less problems and better cosmetic excellence than the Big Names could ever produce these days. I don't care if you rip off an old classic. Doesn't matter these days. But... as my discussion went, I don't wanna see a small shop with a single guy working his ass off, get into issues with other builders. And I try to make conscious efforts to help the little guys, cuz they're the ones who deserve the help. So, in closing of my gigantic speech here, heh heh, I'm just bringing this issue up so that you don't get into hot water over something as trivial as another guy's headstock shape. It's cool you're giving a nod to another guy's design! It shows respect and as they say, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right? That's cool as hell by me. Enough of my rambling now. Your design is damn cool, and with some tweaks, you'll refine it and make it an excellent product. Oh, and don't forget to use some REALLY long strap button screws. Please, from experience with very sharp horns and how screws behave with them, go get some really long screws that fit snugly into your strap buttons, and pilot-hole deep into that upper horn to assure the end doesn't fracture away and ruin everything for you. I'm talking 2" long screws or longer if you can manage it. Make sure that anchor goes in as deep as you can get it. Sometimes, depending on the style, you can drill out your strap button to allow a fatter, stronger screw through it. I'd also recommend that. Make that front button as strong and reliable as you can. Right now, I can't stand how my upper horn is slowly chipping away as the screw puts a side load against the wood. It looks horrible, and proves why this body was a 2nd prototype, and NOT a finished design. Learn a little from mistakes, and learn a lot from others' mistakes!!!

Not sure.... still got the scrap I did it to, so I could just take another pic maybe tomorrow. Tonight, I have to castrate a cell phone salesman with a dull 2x4 covered in lemon juice. Blatantly, forcefully lied to me, and I didn't obey ANY of the warning signs at the time. When a salesman says, "Oh no, there shouldn't be any extra charges," you should pay heavy, focused attention to his use of the word 'SHOULDN'T'. There will be blood, oh yes...

Hmmm. Simple, efficient, elegant. Not gawdy, not too far from traditional, definitely going to be comfy and easy to play. The Zebrawood top... are you planning any colored stain ideas? Any color scheme? Got an idea, follow me on a journey of absuredness and extreme difficulty... get a clearcoat with a fine metallic in it. To give the whole top a clear but shiny and metallic coat over that awesome grain, then sunburst to black. All chrome hardware. Hmm?

OH NOOOOOOO...... NO NO NO NO... why oh WHY did you show me this??? Pro.... Private Message me, email me, call me, dude, we gotta TALK. I dunno, I may have to get a second job to afford it, but we gotta TALK.... *checks bank accounts online*

Here's my suggestion, and YES, I have a reason for it! You're gonna bash your knee on it. Over and over and over. Trust me on this one, you've got the bottom of your bass waaaay low in a similar way as the BC Rich Ignitor: I know, I know... you wanna keep that rhomboid outline. But having the bottom of that bass THAT low down there is just gonna beat your knee up. And if you take a large step, it'll knock your bass crooked and you'll miss a few notes. Yes, a wicked-awesome shape with originality is a great achievement. No, a good looking bass that is uncomfortable to play ain't gonna justify the shape and design. I'm not suggesting to chop away too much, just enough that it won't make it uncomfortable to play, and (by the way) will fit inside a regularly available guitar case like a Jackon King V case with its foam reshaped for your body style. Cuz trust me, that design ain't going in no gig bag! Remember to make sure you'll be able to find a case to fit it. Making guitar cases SUCKS compared to making guitars!

Please don't take my "evil" comments as a lowly opinion! I think this design is wicked AND traditional, blending some very original ideas with old-world designs to get your violin-inspired sculpture. It's just that those horns carved that way resemble viking horns or perhaps a sabertooth tiger's fangs. At least nobody's comparing it to baby food!!! LOL It's a great design. Ambitious, and innovative. You'll do well with this once it's all finished. Would you do a bass like this? It reminds me a lot of the Warwick Vampyre:

Sumbitch! Just as pointy and evil as my ideas!!! Seriously, there's a lot of sculpting ideas in there that are similar to my build, but in different ways. Very slick, very METAL. We should start up a team and just make Pointy Evil Guitars! BC Rich has gotten stale and common now, time to scare people once again!

I had issues with the top horn of my current project. Then I paid attention to one of my friends' guitars, and while his horn LOOKED pointy, it was a nice optical illusion, because the front surface of the horn was tapered with a contour line. Then, the face surface of the horn was flattened maybe 1/2" wide. It allowed for the strap button to mount perfectly tight and snug. Also, scrap the standard screw that came with your strap button. Got to a good hardware store with that strap button, and find a much longer screw that fits into your button and mounts flushed or recessed. The longer the screw, the greater the holding power and less risk of tear-out. I've replaced every strap button on every bass I've ever owned and every guitar I ever repaired. Standard wood screws (stainless are a bit more money, but are bulletproof) are easy to find in really nice lengths, just redrill the hole a bit deeper and crank it in there. Also, the longer screws don't flex as much, reducing how much the finish chips at the hole edge. Yes, after many years that hole will look all chipped up undeneath the felt of the strap button. It sucks.

I still believe, good builders should keep a display model for people to play and feel and hear. That way, you can show it to them as "Everything I can offer" as a demo unit. Then customers can say, I really like this or that, and then you shmooze them into writing up a sales order! Besides... it looks STUNNING and will catch eyes if you ever take it to a show or a store or even gigs for your band friends to jam on back stage. Others will see it and say OOH I WANNA PLAY TOO! It's a stunning example of all your skills, and should definitely be shown off. I say you finish it, and keep it as your display to show off.

HAHAHA! It's no frearm remover, it's quite comfy and after 5 minutes, you no longer pay attention to it. Tell ya what, it's even comfier than a flat-cornered, square-edged Ibanez or a really really clean gloss finish which makes your sweaty forearm stick like glue. The texture "feels" like it would be rough, but it actually reduces surface tension and your arm slips across it easier. Worst part about making an idea work well, is everyone wants to copy it. A friend from another band is stripping his bass and wants to take it to the same shop my brother did his at. Oh! And here's something I tried with the wood blank screwed to the neck pocket... I poured some red paint over the bumps and then wiped the top surface, to make it look black and red, kinda like lava slowly cooling and still hot underneath. We didn't want to do this body, but if I ever do up one of my basses, I'll definitely try it. Do a red coat, then maybe a very thinned yellow over it and really get some burning glowing effect. I'll get some pics of lava cooling on the Hawaiian islands for reference before I try it. And if we ever get swirling paintjobs figured out, we'll try this!

Hmmm... never even thought of the idea of people thinking I wasn't actually playing. STOP RUINING ALL MY FUN!!! The A/B routine we went through was cuz so many people doubted how well cordless-phone technology could work for a musical, full-frequency transmission. The best part, is it truly does have tonal integrity all the way down to 10 Hz so bass players will really love their low end with this system. The X2 is my only logical AND practical upgrade for my rig. I don't need anything else, but I definitely WANT a new wireless system! I've still got my pine-board test body. I can try to route that body for pickups, control cavity, and then wireless pocket and battery holders. We'll see if I can make everything fit in the dummy body first, THEN go nuts on the actual white ash body.

Hey Prostheta, you ain't by any chance trying to pull this off? Heh heh heh...

That reflected grass photo is KILLER! Somebody care to post a link to these micromesh pads? I think I need to do some research! Stat!!!