Batfink

HAVE 1980 Hamer Flametop Special with retro Kahler - cherry red 1985 Hamer Special Floyd Gary Moore - none more black 1985 Hamer Steve Stevens - black 1986 Hamer Chapparall fixed neck 24.75" scale - red metalflake 1989 Hamer Chapparall with Sustaniac - black cherry metalflake 1992 Hamer Chapperall 12 string - red 1986 Hamer FBII - cream 1986 Hamer FBII - white 1990 Hamer Californian - ferrari red 1990 Hamer Californian - purple metalflake 1990 Hamer Californian - midnight blue metalflake 1990 Hamer Californian - cherry trans on ultimate grade solid flame maple 1990 Hamer Californian - cherry trans on ultimate grade solid flame maple and EMG's 1990 Hamer Californian - Holoskull replica 1991 Hamer Centaura - red metalflake 1994 Hamer Diablo - trans green 1992 Hamer Californian with diablo neck - Charvel'esque rising sun graphic 1985 Fingerbone LP junior - red Homebuild 1 Homebuild 2 Homebuild 3 Nocturne NC1 Mesa Triple Rec Marshall 1960A Morley RWV Morley pro wah Roland GP8 WANT A bigger bloody house ! Jem

Well i'm in Las Vegas for SEMA autoshow in November - if i'm bored with it by then i'll ask the pilot to take a detour One thing i'd like to ask GBT - where did you see Dangermouse, i didn't think it was ever syndicated in the US ? Jem

Sounds a bit cheap. In my limited experience always buy swiss or german made - or domestic if there's any your side - blades, doing a quick price calculation those sound too cheap. The one's i got with my first saw were made in India and almost put me off inlay for life - total crap and probably wasted more pearl than the saw cost the way the things snagged and snapped all the time ! Jem

Chris, i think we both need to lock ourselves away and practice.........no not that, engraving you fool Jem

Into the pickup cavity and follow the pick up wires into the control cavity ? You should be able to do this with a fairly short drill. Jem

You're right Craig he does but i did read something somewhere - dangers of the internet in the early stages of learning i suppose - did someone say Mr Litc...................lets not go there. I'm sure you're right about engraving in general, i'm being a tart about the initial lines and you're right, the graver's going where it wants to go, i back off even more because i'm scared of ballsing it and then it all goes haywire. Engraving is something i really need to practice rather than 'have a go at'. Oh, and remembering from either Grit or Larry's books i think my graver needs to be sharper than it is - perhaps part of the problem in the first place! Jem

Oh, i get 'em to intonate and they're all either OFR's or Schaller so they stay in tune however much i smash 'em around. But you know what it's like you hit some double stops, they never both go up exactly plus if you've hit a passing note that tends to go haywire or you try some palm muting, your knacked 'cuz you've been playing two hours already and you rest your whole weight on it - you know, the standard stuff that people always complained about floyds and no, i'm not about to go out and buy 19 Tremel-no's. If i was that bothered i wouldn't have kept using them since the mid 80's. Jem

What sort of bridge will you use ? If it's the ashtray, without stating the obvious, just drill a teeny hole straight into the control cavity. Jem

Irrelevent as i got sidetracked. Jem

I don't like Tele's at all but that's looking quite cutesy and P90's will make a nice change. Jem

+1 to the man from the Dam Oh, surform, microplane, 80 grit and a couple of Amstel's ! Jem

Well, being an 80's divebomber with Floyd's on all my guitars - well most of them anyway - i always have to live with intonation compromises just so i can go weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....thud Jem

I must admit that Mattia's getting to me and i brought a Stanley #7 from a junk shop for £25, spent a couple of hours cleaning it up and sharpening the blade and then a couple of days figuring out how it all went back together again I've been practising on various scrap and bits of crap laying around and i'm getting better and better. I will freely admit i've had a few disasters, all of which were salvagable by wandering into my local joinery shop and getting them to run it through their jointer - which is what i did before anyway so they're none the wiser. I think it's the old, as has been stated, what you think you need and what you actually need - i'd love a jointer but couldn't see me, at present nor in the near future, doing enough to justify the cost or, more to the point for me, finding somewhere to keep it !

What i'd do is overlay a .6mm ebony or dyed black veneer and start again as you'll never clear up the black that seeped into the maple. Perhaps this may be an option after you've exhausted all others as it wouldn't matter what sort of mess was underneath. Jem

As i said on the UKGB forum, use a pin vice or simular if you're scared of making more of a mess than you have already. It's as both of us have pointed out, the dot will fall apart quite easily and the glue won't hold it once you start munching it up. Jem

"i have a M.M floyd knockoff and its not brass. not even sure its aluminum" - thanks christ for that, neither would be a very suitable.

There's quite a smattering of down under's around the board and there was a thread fairly recently about timber and hardware suppliers in oz - not that i can find it at the moment. Oh, and there's Perry Ormsby who is one wicked wicked builder ! Jem

I kid you not. It had a sort of 'V' of grey growth if you looked at it from the end grain that was about 3 inches on the frontside and covered a large portion of the backside - hence i kept the back a little darker. The flame on the clean portion was very exciting and i could tell David was disappointed that the discoloration had put people off of buying it. If you look at the pictures you can see it almost looks like a neck through where the discolouration runs through the middle. I think if it had been clean all over it could have been around four times the price which, to be honest, i would have considered reasonable. Jem

Well, i've already shown this in the finished section but a few of the guys from the UK guitar builders forum recon i should make this my maiden GOTM entry so here we go: (i pressume i'm allowed to do this ?) Nocturne NC1 - Here's the specs: Body: One peice flamed sycamore Neck: Three peice laminated maple, 25.5" scale over 26 frets, ebony board with Dangermouse cartoon inlays, high wide fret wire, flame maple headplate, Wilkinson tuners, magnetic TRC Hardware: Floyd Rose II with an R2 nut, aluminium checkerplate covers Electrics: GFS crunchy PAF and overwound single, single volume, three way blade switch, upsidedown rim mounted strat jack Finish: black 'n back then Chestnut products blue dye doctored a bit to make it a bit greener and then all wraped up in around 30 coats of nitro Thanks for looking, Jem

Thanks for the words guys. mikhailgtrski - the pics were done by my inhouse guy who does all our catalogues, brochures, web etc. I must admit that they do look a bit too computery to me and i think it would have shot better outside than in the studio but as it was almost topping 100 degrees i can't blame him for shooting it in his aircon bunker. Oh, interesting comment on string pull. Setch - when Dave said £40 i almost pulled his arm out of his socket ! mattheguy - get yer visa card out Jem

OK, i know everybody likes 'in progress' pics but i don't have a digi cam and only think about borrowing one from work when i've finished the particular aspect that i'm working on - which is a wee bit useless Anyway the specs: One piece flamed sycamore body. This had been laying around David Dykes for a while as people discounted it as it had some growth/drying discoloration but for the amount of flame i couldn't resist - also David did me an unbelieveably cheap deal on it. Colour wise it's black/sand back topped with a blue Chestnut products dye that i messed with a little to produce a more 'bluey green' colour rather than the very strong blue that the dye is. On top of this went 30 coats of cellulose - whoever said 'it's like watching paint dry' was obviously making a guitar at the time. Three peice laminated maple neck 25.5 scale with 26 frets. This idea is stolen from Hamer (of which i've used exclusively since 1984 and amassed quite a collection) and is basically to prevent any warping as the centre section and the two outer splices are oppossing. Headstock faceplate is flamed maple, the board ebony and the back of the neck would have remained wood colour if dick for brains here hadn't put it down of a peice of stain soaked rag - DOH ! Wire is the widest that DD's do and is close in specs to Dunlop 6100 (or could be 6300 ?!?!) Inlays were chosen to avoid any skulls or simular and do give it a bit of a cutesy look although the one's past the 12'th were a bit of a pig to cut. Obviously these are lost on anyone who's never seen the Dangermouse cartoons. The hardware. The Floyd Rose II is from the parts bin and has never been really used. I would have used Schaller but the one's i've got are all Hamer logo'd so i'm saving those for Hamer projects. Pickups are GFS Crunchy PAf and a reverse wound middle out of one of their stupidly cheap sell off sets and to be honest it really impresses me. Not that i think you can see it in the pics but the output jack is a Strat type mounted on the rim and is reversed so your cable tucks neatly over your strap button. Ah, now you've noticed - no strap buttons ! Well, i've been promised by Schaller that the black buttons by themselves will be available soon but after a three month wait i'm going to chuck some chrome one's on it over the weekend and change them if the black one's ever do materialise. Back cover plates are aluminium checkerplate that was given to me by a mate after he saw my Mesa triple rec as he thought it would look cool - i personally can't make my mind up ! Laters, Jem Nocturne Guitars Body shot Neck shot Headstock shot Another body shot BAck shot Oh, and before you say, yes i have noticed that i've strung the bottom three one way and the top three the other way - note to self: stay away from the vodka and weed until you've totally finished !!!!

I think Guitarfetish (GFS) do a 12 string TOM, not sure if they do a F-nder'ish one (can't check due to works web blocker), worth a check as it's bound to be cheaper than SM. Jem

Well, seeing mine was the post in reply you'd have thought i'd have remembered it - perhaps the past 42 years of drink and drug abuse IS finally getting to me Hmmm...think i'll have another go, the problem i had was the material's change in density which made the 'graver suddenley shoot much farther forward, or sideways for that matter, than i'd planned. I'm not the greatest 'graver anyway so perhaps this will be some good practice - now, who can i unload yet another key ring on Jem

Hmmm...i'll have to have a seach for that, personally i've never had much success with engraving recon and i read an article when i was just starting out by either Larry Robinson or Will Laskin saying he avoid's engraving on recon - perhaps just a personal prefference. Anyway, perhaps Craig's post will enlighten me. Jem

Chris, a quick one to consider in that recon stone doesn't take very kindly to engraving so i'd take it easy as there's nothing worse than ballsing it up at the last hurdle - my scrap bin containes a number of trc's as testement to this fact Jem