ragman

The new guitar for Mr.Fastfinger is ready. It is called "Qian".

Mika visited me and tested the guitar in any detaills with different amps and in context with a band. He was amazed by the guitar and Mr.Fastfinger will use this guitar in the future. You can hear some soundfiles on his site very soon, but now here are pictures of the guitar.

http://www.benreuters.de/pics/qian/qian_ganz.jpg

http://www.benreuters.de/pics/qian/qian_back.jpg

http://www.benreuters.de/pics/qian/detaill_1.jpg

http://www.benreuters.de/pics/qian/detaill_2.jpg

http://www.benreuters.de/pics/qian/detaill_4.jpg

http://www.benreuters.de/pics/qian/detaill_5.jpg

Ben

__________________

watch out: www.benreuters.de

Thanks for the nice words.

The sound of this bass is very nice in my opinion. I use electronics of Noll, a german company, which makes nice active circuits. You can choose between the passive mode by pulling the volume knob a little bit and the active mode. In the passive mode you can already feel the attack of it, the tone is very clear. And when you are in active mode, you can equalize your sound with the knobs. If you give more bass and treble to the sound it is really growling. But you can also realize some funky sounds with the right adjustment. The pickups are also from a german company, rough crystals. They are controlled with a balance knob. Perhaps the picture helps:

The single string bridges are nice. You can adjust your own string spacing. I like that very much. This bass has a little narrower spacing than ordinary 4 strings.

OK, I am back with the final result. I sanded the whole body, so that I could take epoxy-resin and stabilize the wood with it, it works great, thank you for that hint. Furthermore I made a new sunburst with a two-component-lacquer. Well i am so happy to post the new result. Here are the pictures:

body-front

body-front2

back

body_back

Because you cant see the pictures from the past, here is a link to a short documentation of "zero".

docu

Thank you for your interest.

regards

ben

It ´s been awhile since I started this bass-project, but finally I have finished the bass. I sprayed very many aerosol-cans on this bass, because the lacquer soaks into the spalted maple very much. Well here you can see the body after a few clear coats:

body1

But here you can see a little mistake, I drilled through the body, because that spalted maple has a very soft consistence:

body2

Ok, I did not want to accept this and had to find a solution by making a sunburst finish. It became a deep blackburst, but I like it very much:

Another view on it:

body4

The headstock got the same finish and my brand logo:

head1

head2

Thank you for you interest and tell me how do you like this finish.

Ben

Well the price of a custom build guitar vary between 2000 and 2500 Euros. You can understand that the wood and parts have very much influence on the price. Furthermore I concentarte on the designs I have built in the past(at the moment). I do not build Les Pauls i.e.

But I plan to make a kind of a little series of that fastfinger guitar. You can choose only the wood, pickups, colour and so on... but the design is the same. I hope I can give this guitar for about 1500 Euros away (this prize will be updated when the guitar is finished and I know the work on it).

Ben

Shredding is the art of playing the guitar in an amazing way, coupling awesome technique with baffling speed,...

So a shred guitar is a guitar that allows such playing. Of course every guitar could be used for this, but there are guitars which are better for it. As you said: low action, good access to high frets, and I think a versatile sound for different styles. So you have to choose the right the pickups and electronics. We agreed on the Seymour Duncan SH-2 in the neck and the SH-10 in the bridge. You can switch both of them to Single Coils. I will describe the electronics properly when the guitar is ready.

Mika and me designed a guitar which will be perfect for shredding, a mixture between a "old-school" Strat and a modern "Jem" guitar. Best of both worlds. A Les Paul is guitar for Rock, but not for Shred. This is my opinion.

As visual features I use that Carbon-fibers everywhere a normal guitar has plastic.

Hi,

I want to present my new project on a shred guitar for Mr.Fastfinger. I designed this guitar together with Mika Tyyskä, the pubisher and guitar player from http://www.guitarshredshow.com/

So here you can see the progress of the guitar: http://www.benreuters.de/shredguitar_progress_eng.htm

Any statements are welcome. Thanks for your interest.

Ben

Hello again,

because i had to do some practical courses i could not work on my project .

But today i had some time do shape the neck. Here you can see the newest photos:

I used the same wood as for the body. The shape is my own design, at least i do not know the design - perhaps there is a company who made it before...The fretboard is ebony.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/320836...seite_klein.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/320836...tlich_klein.jpg

The whole neck:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/320836..._ganz_klein.jpg

I hope next week i can shape the body. You will get the photos soon...

Greets

Ben

Thank you for your comments .

Ok, where can i find the rules of pic posting. I changed the links, as you can see . I hope this is ok.

greets

ben

Hi,

thank you for your comments and that you remind me of the pic rules. Now you can use the links.

Of course i know that these woods come from america. The walnut for example is called "amerikanischer Nussbaum". But i also know, that your(american) guitars are made of quite normal woods, too. I never saw a spalted maple top on a gibson or fender. I think the word "exotic" does not say something about the origin in this context. I use it for quite unusual and beautiful.

The electronics will be made by myself. It will be an active circuit and i thought about some onboard effects, like an autowah or an tremolo. I will use some very good pickups called Rough Crystals.

It will be an four string, fretted bass.

Some explanations to the first picture: In the front you can see the wood, in the back there is a mirror with a paper body on it. This is a printing of an photoshop made design.

Greets

Ben

This is my newest project. For the first time i designed the whole intrument from my own personal taste. Furthermore i only use exotic/nice woods.

Here you can see the top wood-spalted maple on the walnut body:

Here is the back of the guitar. The electronics-cover will be made in "continious wood" style.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589162.jpg/korpus2.jpg

The neck is build of three pieces of flamed maple:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589178.jpg/hals1.jpg

I saw the head angle with a japanese saw.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589194.jpg/hals2.jpg

Here in coarse stage:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31589210.jpg/hals3.jpg

And here ist the german sheep dog loaning his name.

Zero:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/315895...kstatthund1.jpg

Greets from germany

Ben

hi,

long ago, but i got round to give my baby a finish. it is a high polish transparant finish with open pores. i love such finishes and can not understand why you can never get such a finish regularly (at least in not in germany). it looks so cool on mahogany. here you can see it.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31850186.jpg/lack5.jpg

details:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31850122.jpg/lack1.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31850138.jpg/lack2.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/31850170.jpg/lack4.jpg

ciao

ben

Hi,

i wonder why nobody gives a comment to my project, is it so good or so bad???Hmmm probably the pictures are not so expressive.

Well i tried to make some interesting photos.

This is my first trial in making an inlay. Because the body shape is called buzzard, i made an inlay which shows a buzzard who swoops.

The real buzzard

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306758...pg/SMMB0089.jpg

The progress of cutting the inlay out of mother of pearl.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306756...pg/PICT0014.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306756...pg/PICT0015.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306757...pg/PICT0017.jpg

Here it lays on the fretboard

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306757...pg/PICT0018.jpg

In the next two picture you can see the trussrod cover, which i made of macassar ebony, the same is used for the fretboard.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306757...pg/PICT0019.jpg

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306757...pg/PICT0020.jpg

The whole guitar, almost done

And a little details of the neck through constuction.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/306757...pg/PICT0022.jpg

I hope you like the new pictures more. If you have any questions, i will answer them.

Greets from Germany

Hi,

my last project, an explorer shaped guitar turned out to be a very nice instruments. so i decided to build some more instruments. this project is a 5 string bass with a buzzard shape that john entwistle designed with warwick in the eighties.

here are the first steps:

i sawed the body and head out of oddments(mahogany) of the explorer project.

the neck is made of three pieces of wood(kambala and jatoba).

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/304935...pg/PICT0003.jpg

first i tried to laminate graphite pieces between the wood. unfortunatally it was a disappointment, bacause the epoxy could not join the pieces of wood properly. i finally used glue again.you can see it here:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/304935...pg/PICT0008.jpg

Here you can see the trussrod channel:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/304936...pg/PICT0014.jpg

In this picture you can see two steel rods. i put them into the neck and hope, that it adds sustain to the bass. i saw this at www. warmoth.com.

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/304936...pg/PICT0021.jpg

My last photo till now:

http://www.smartgroups.com/picvault/304936...pg/PICT0023.jpg

Next Week i will take more photos.

greets from germany

ragman

Hi,

ok, because threre is some misunderstandings in other forums (there is a guy who says he built my guitar ) i have to say that i use the name "benwolf666" in other forums, if the name ragman is no more available. Thank you for your understanding .

So greets from germany again

RAGMAN or BENWOLF666

hi,

thank you guys for your comments.

well there is no hardware in black on the guitar, except the pickups, so i wanted to give it a metal back plate. i think it is a different style from all the mainstream composition. everyone gives black hardware to a wooden guitar. i love the metal

finished hardware.

second thing: because i do not wanted only to copy exactly the ken lawrence guitar, i designed the headstock a little different. the original headstock is really nice, but this is my interpretation of that headstock. it turned to be out, that i find my curved carved headstock nicer than the original one, but everyone has a different taste. and there will come a logo to the head, perhaps an "R" for Ragman in metal finish.

the sound: it is awesome. and i do not say that because it is may guitar. i play the guitar since two weeks in my hardrock band. i play an Engl "Richi Blackmore" Signature Amp. The passive mode is some kind of bluesy and warm..... ZZTop like. But most of the time we play hardrock and metal, so i switch to the active mode, and that is unbelievable, a real heavy tone. i think the guitar sounds like an esp explorer, but with active power. a friend of mine plays a esp viper with emg81. no problem to draw level with. my petrucci ibanez, which i used for three years i unsoldered by the kle. this won´t be my last guitar......

Ragman

hi,

soooooooorrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy that i have not post anything for about two months, but i am a student and had to do some exams, so the time was very rare.

well i finished the guitar two wekks ago and i show it to you right now. because it has been awhile, i do not show you the last steps, just the results. here it is:

i think you can see everything on the photos. but if you have any questions, please ask...i will answer if possible. the main aspect on the guitar, is that you can switch between avtive and passive circuit. i tell you the active circuit is really heavy. i wish james hetfield would test my guitar .........perhaps he would like it.

greetz from germany. rock on!

sorry, because i am from germany i can not understand hyunsu . perhaps someone can translate it in english i can understand ??? does he like my work or not???

ragman

hi,

i am not a joiner, but my best friend, who helps me building this guitar is one . my wood i got from several sources. for an example: various carpenters and ebay offers.

ok, if pointy guitars are those guitars crazy carl has listed, i dont like pointy guitars as well, except the old explorer shape. the new explorer shapes like the new esp or the washburn hm 20v... i hate them

ragman

@genbloke: What are pointy guitars??? I can't find a translation.

In the next picture you can see how i put the frets into the fingerboard. i took glue for a better fit.

I also save money by pressing the frets into the fingerboard with the radius sanding block and some scew clambs.

Pics, pics....

Here is the result of it: I am so lucky about this

Next time i think i will present the finished guitar with a lots of pictures.

greets from germany, i like this forum very much.

ragman

Hi, I'm back . I think it is time for posting some pics of the work within the last two weeks. Probably i will finish the guitar next week. The first pic shows the template for the pickup holes.

Here is the self made radius sanding block. I made a radius of 12". I built it as it is shown in the book from Martin Koch . It works

After I spent much time on the neck form, it was time to do my first fretjob. i wanted to save money and built may own fret bender. Here it is.

24 pieces for 24 frets. Nice on an explorer...don't you think so??? most of the time i am lead guitarist, so i really need this..........well i dont know, but i like it.

Hi,

there is not much progress to see this week, but some work had to be done. As you can see in the picture, we had to round off the neck. We used rasps for the job:

We also had to install the trussrod. We made a template for a router and shaped the wood, that the trussrod fits:

Here you can see, that we glued the brasilian rosewood fingerboard on the neck. After that we had to wait, so that we drank the whiskey on the left side of the picture

This week i will do much precision work on the neck and all borders, as you can see in the picture. I will show you the result in a few days.

Ciao

Ragman

Back home we dealed with the wings, which have to be glued on the neck.

By the way I am the right guy, so it was not my lumber last week

Laminating the Body and the neck. In the meantime we had sawn the Ken Lawrence headstock. I like it very much.

Here is the result after 10 Hours work. No panic. The fingerboard is only fixed with double sided adhensive tape. The truss rod will be installed later.

One thing to the finish. It will be a transparent one. I will not put a colour on it.

greets from germany

ragman

First of all: Thank you for all your possitive comments and suggestions. I am very happy about it . Ok, next step!

Because we noticed, we made a mistake at sawing the body, we had to laminate a piece of wood into the neck. I want the neck become thinner from the bottom of the body to the saddle, not just from the border crossing of body and neck. I hope you understand my explanation. The neck was just to small at the beginning.

This is the piece of wood: My choice was Wenge (I do not know how it is called in english):

The neck before glueing:

Under Pressure:

Now we have sawn all angles with the circular saw. Because Westhemann has convinced me, i have given the neck an angle of 1,5°. I think he is right with the comfortability reason.

Here you can see the laminated neck and the sapelli mahogany head.

The next step was a quite complicated work, because we had to glue a 13° bevel, but the result is amazing. You have to fix the screw clamps proberly, that the head can not displace.