essexdave

It's alright - I won't sue!

Not terribly helpful but my brother has had 2 TNTs and both developed exactly what you described, so far no one has been able to fix either of them and he got rid of them for a Trace Eliiott stack. I'd love to know what the cause is if you ever track it down.

I like the 3x3 design - but then I'm biased because it's the same as the one on my current project! (Almost)

My Guitar

I like the shape, my only comment would be that with the length of the top horn it might be a bit body heavy on a strap, especially with all that maple, but I guess you'll find out when it's done! Are you planning to shape the body in any way? - carved or contoured? I look forward to seeing it finished, I have a feeling my next project will be a fretless bass if my brother has anything to do with it!

Well it's moving on, the bodies have been rounded over and contoured, I used a small drum sander attached to a power drill to do the rough shaping and then finished by hand and it was surprisingly quick I thought. All the mounting and wiring holes are drilled - while test fitting the black bridge one of the screws sheared off in the hole! I think they must be the cheapest screws I have ever seen!

I used a small ~3mm dremel burr mounted in a pillar drill to drill it out and the job was so neat all I needed to do was to go up 1 screw size and bobs your uncle. Lesson learnt, always change out any cheap-looking screws before you start or at least use a (known) high quality screw to cut the thread.

So now I have a load of finish sanding to look forward to. Now I've bevelled the cutaways the top fret acess is actually quite good and will serve me well on the 1 time a year I need a really high note! I wish I could say I can play like Vai but it's just not true!

No pictures though - I had to take them apart before I gave in and started thinking "they look great as they are - who needs a finish!"

the wood I got from Craft supplies wasn't equally planed either - I think I'll try somewhere else next time - I hate planing!

Thats what I'm not so sure of, maybe it looks just a bit too much like a Ricky 4001.

You can get small router bits for dremel type tools and routerstands, I've been using a Proxxxon one and it seems plenty powerful enough to do the job as long as you go carefully - an idea maybe?

Have you used standard Ash at all - it seemed to me that the swamp ash was much more prone to tear out than the standard ash. Maybe it's just this piece, the grain seemed much more vulnerable. Looks much nicer though.

Top horn too thin to my mind - I was thinking of just scooping away a bit more inside the cutaways to move them back a bit while still keeping the shape.

Yeah, I'm kind of in agreement with you, the chamfer you drew PRS style is exactly what I had in mind Marzochhi as well as a similar one on the top horn as well with a rib and forearm contour to boot. I probably will alter the cutaways too - as it's first time out I guess I just asumed the neck would need more support than it does - you live and learn.

I probably won't go for the full straight like in that excelllent photoshop image - thanks Guitarfrenzy - I kind of like the strat type slight curve at the neck join.

These kinds of helpful suggestions are why I like this forum so much, thanks guys.

Looks very 70's - nice - I probably would have chosen black hardware but it still looks good.

Thanks for the comments.

Yes the neck is set a long way into the body but thats part of the whole design idea, I have a shoulder problem and I'm trying to decrease the overall length of the guitar in order to shorten the stretch to the first few frets. I'm going to chamfer the cutaways and slim the heel in order to increase access but it's never going to be a shredders favourite!

Well, one guitar has become two.......

While routing the neck cavity on the original body the guide bearing on the router came loose and the pocket came out a bit ragged on one edge, not too bad but I decided to start again on a swamp ash blank. Then a little voice said "why not carry on anyway, you can always use some filler under a more solid finish". So some hunting on ebay and pawn shops later I have a second beastie with an Invader and Quarter Pound pickups for those metal moments.

The finish is going to be 'ebonized' - a black stain rubbed over with a special wax then oiled which gives an excellent ebony type finish.

So here's the new swamp ash guitar as is...

And here's the original body with a salvaged Ibanez style neck...

Next step is to round over and contour the bodies. I'm also making plans for a third with a thinline body, maple cap and P90's...If only I had more time!

Would anyone be able to provide me with the base dimensions of the Leo Quan Badass II and ABM bridge with lock down saddles?

I need to replace the bridge on a 70's Aria bass but the original bridge is recessed and I don't want to have to rout out the recess any further in case it spoils the finish. I've tried e-mailing the companies but no success.

The original is 74mm wide and 66mm deep - if you know of a 4 string bass bridge close to these dimensions I would love to know.

Any help much appreciated

Lace Duallys are also two single coils mounted on a humbucker base plate for easy mounting if you're interested.

Them nylon strings stretch like no tomorrow, you just have to perevere for a few days and you'll get there eventually. I used to hate stringing my classical guitar for that very same reason. But new strings sound soooo good.

the danelectro toggle switches at allparts are full size and are on-off-on but they only come in silver and the tip is not interchangeable. thats the only one I can think of.

*jaw drops*

Wow....that is fantastic.....not much else you can say!

http://www.abm-mueller.com/

There you go, I'm using one of their bridges on the guitar I'm working on at the moment, seems very well made - quite pricey though!

I like DiMarzio PAF PRo's, nice and crisp sounding. They don't have a super hot output though.

Yeah that drawing isn't right, it's going to be bevelled inside both horns or it just won't be too playable I wanted the body nice and thick as I like a weighty guitar. Also some bevelling planned at the waist on both sides and a rib contour and arm rest contour. Looks good on my actual plan but I have no scanner so no pics!

If you look at where the neck pocket is you cansee it's also going to be very short - this is to try and give my knackered left shoulder a break by having a shorter reach - I just hope it balances ok. I'm using schaller locking tuners - they havent arrived yet but I'm hoping they're reasonably heavy to help the balance, any ideas?

As for the wood, I was kind of planing to use this as a practice all of all the necessary techniques - routing etc and keep it simple.

I have plans for a second one with a nice top and P90s if this all goes ok. I'm planning on a blue stain and oiled finish - I hate lacquer!

krizalid - what were you planning to do with the 5 way switch? I'm just using 2 volumes a 3 way toggle and coil tapping on a push-pull pot. The 5 way switch seems a bit unnecessary with only 2 pickups. Just my opinion, but then again I always disconnect the tone controls on my guitars so maybe I'm not the best person to ask!

Sorry, is that better? I forget because I use broadband and a ridiculously high screen resolution.

I've finally taken the plunge and started my first guitar - armed with lots of info from these forums!

The body is Ash and I'm using an all maple neck from Allparts - didn't fancy doing a neck first time around, maybe next time. It's going to have an ABM fixed bridge with Lace chrome dome pickups, humbucker at the bridge and single coil at the neck. It's all going to be back routed so no nasty scratchplates.

So far I've spent a huge amount of time making all the necessary templates and making sure they're perfect. Last weekend I finally got the body cut out and thought I'd post some pics. Can't wait til next weekend to do some more!

Any comments and/or helpful suggestions gratefully received.