Ripthorn

How many people will it take to play it? That sounds almost like a joke: "How many (insert demographic of choice here) does it take to play a 10 string bass?"

Try Behlen's Rockhard. Supposed to be indesctructible and is used for table tops a lot.

Easiest way is to superglue the chips back in if they are still connected or if you have them. If not, I am not sure the best route to go. Maybe some dust and glue or something, but not really sure.

I haven't built one yet, but I am going to at some point. I am just curious what other chips one would recommend instead of the 386? I've heard many say there are better chips, which I am sure there are, but I haven't seen a chip number of any of them, really. As for the variety, I am sure there are as many ways to build a sustainer as there are to build a guitar. I think the analogy fits. It's good for a first time builder to start with a guitar that is well known and has been done a gazillion times, then move into the more adventurous territory. Of course, that's all philosophical.

Never even heard of it. What's the deal with it?

The issue sounds like maybe the pot casing isn't grounded. Take your meter and set it to ohms (resistance) and measure the resistance between a known ground (ring or sleeve of output jack) and the pot casing in question. If the reading is on the order of maybe 100 ohms or less, then it is grounded and the pot itself is suspect. However, more than likely you will see a reading of discontinuity (each meter is a little different as to what symbol they use for no continuity) which means the pot casing needs to be grounded with a jumper wire to a good ground point. Try that first and see what happens.

Where do you find clear epoxy? Pretty much all I find is "clear" that dries more yellow.

If you just clean up the top 1/8 o 1/4" of each corner just right, you can take your 3/8" bit to clean up the rest of the depth. That would make the using files or whatever a little less of a pain.

I suppose that would work. Of course, I am still seriously contemplating inlace, some sort of black with gold dust or something.

If you want to go with a gold theme, try evo fretwire from lmii. It is a little harder than normal fretwire and will therefore wear much longer than brass, which is very soft.

I hadn't even thought of that. I did some poking around and like the look of gold and brown pearloid (I found some binding strips). The gold would really go well with the hardware. Thanks for the idea. Any idea how to get a nice, uniform channel for putting that stuff in?

Hey all, this build is already under way, but nowhere near finished. I figured I would post because I am looking for some opinions on a couple things. First of all, the specs: 7 piece neck-thru, maple/walnut/maple/mahogany/maple/walnut/maple Body wings are laminated walnut/alder/mahogany/alder/walnut Carved top (nothing too stellar, my first one) Dual humbuckers with coil split and tone cap selectors on push pull pots Black and gold hardware Here is the first in-progress pic: Now for the advice part. On the top walnut lam, I wasn't able to get clamping pressure everywhere, so when I carved back to the alder, there were parts where the glue was visible. I figured that I could make a cool accent out of carving a small channel around the transition from walnut to alder and then filling with some sort of contrasting material. I was thinking mahogany dust with glue, but I am looking for suggestions. I have also thought about some sort of black inlace or possibly another color, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think would look good? Here is the best shot I could get of the channel (still a little rough).

If you are thinking of doing this much, I would maybe buy a jigsaw just for cutting body blanks at first and save for a bigger saw. That way you can still cut out bodies but still be saving for a better tool. But that's just me.

Wire is wire, so it should work as long as there aren't any breaks in any of the conductors. People use old telephone wire, too.

Maybe your next one should be a reversible design so that you use whichever side comes out best as the front. Just kidding, by the way. As for the kandy koat, I'm colorblind, so I dig a great silver or black chrome type thing. Maybe a sweet darker blue.

The short answer is it depends exactly on how are going to do things. A cheap mic and preamp will sound terrible, but a decent mic, good preamp and good guitar acoustics might make it sound awesome. Here are a few of my thoughts after reading your post: 1 - It might not sound anything like an acoustic in terms of tone or volume, especially if you don't have any kind of soundhole. This is because the enclosed air mass inside the body acts like a spring, so the body's pieces can't expand or contract very much, resulting in very little difference from a typical solid body sound. If you put in a sound hole, that may or may not be different, depending on body design. 2 - If there isn't much acoustic excitation, a mic is a bad idea, because the signal to noise ratio will be so low that you will be amplifying all the noise and your signal could sound like crap. However, if there is a good sound, and the mic and preamp are of high quality, you just might be able to get it sounding decent. I don't see how that is aesthetically more desirable, however, as the mics would look like strange little dots. 3 - This has more to do with the body itself, but if you are going to use plexiglass or acrylic, why not try making a mold and casting it using waterclear epoxy resin? Total materials cost wouldn't be much more than using good quality woods if you shop around and don't waste a ton by practicing on full size pieces. That way, it would be clear, you wouldn't have the (what I would think) mismatched aesthetic of the wood and plexiglass body. Of course, that is just my two cents there. 4 - Another note on the electronics, I would still do pickups, but you could combine them with a piezo bridge signal or a contact mic on the body if there is enough excitation. Then you could blend the signals together with a blend pot or something and have a huge range of sounds as opposed to a single gimmick. I have a bass with a piezo bridge and two pickups with blend pots. Having the continuously variable combination of the three different signals gives me the ability to get a whole world of sounds. Again, my two cents there. Hope those thoughts help.

I was half expecting an electric piano from way back in the day with the title. Oh well, at least the guitar looks pretty awesome. I've played a rhoads once, though I am not a fan of pointy guitars. Then again, I am nowhere near a shredder, so it's not a mandatory part of the motif.

I waited two weeks for my tru oil bass and I have had no problems in the several months since.

All of it is possible, but I think it is funny that with all these options we are worrying about the buffer. It most definitely is necessary, but if you are doing all the rest of this, putting in a buffer is nothing. I second the suggestion for switches, however. I would say put in a rotary switch perhaps that will give you bass magnetics, bass mags and octo, octo bass and octo full on a 1/4" jack and then also have the 13-pin jack going on that is completely seperate. You could do all kinds of fun stuff, though I think if I had the thing I would probably die before I ever got through all the combinations. Anyway, I say go for it and see what happens.

That is a great guitar, as usual Kenny. Though to me the lower bout seems more SG than anything, but that's just me. I think Tru-oil would look great on that. I did on a bass a couple months ago and love it.

I'm personally not digging the stripe, but I'm not a metalhead. I think a metallic job would be cool, but that is just me. I dig the headstock, though.

It looks like you may have had a little too much unevenness when you put on the final coats. You want to make sure that you level everything nice and even before putting on two or so final coats of lacquer. Then you need to sand it so that there are no glossy low spots. The grit depends on how level it was when you put the final coats on. The good guys can spray lacquer and start at 1500. If you are looking for super glossy, I would probably level what you have with 600, then put on another two coats and let that cure. After the cure, the grit will be determined by how level it is. 600 or 800 is probably a decent guess, but don't go any rougher than you need. Make sure to work thoroughly through each grit, but be careful not to sand too deep. It's a pain, but probably the only way you will get a really glossy finish. The finishing experts may correct me, though.

You also have to take into account where you live. If you are in Texas, Florida, Seattle, etc. then racking the wood will take a lot longer than if you live in Arizona or Nevada (or another country, forgot that we are international here). Like KP said, you need to measure the moisture content of the wood before anyone can tell you much that would be really helpful.

If you are worried about space between your bridge and the end of your body, I would look into a wraparound tailpiece. They are probably the most compact bridge and that would give you more space for pickups. You don't want too sharp of a break angle over your bridge to go to a tailpiece. The only other thing I would consider is where the heck your strap buttons will go. If you put them on the side of the body, you are going to have yourself a guitar that has abysmal balance. If you put them on the back of the body, then you shouldn't have as many problems. Sounds like a minor issue, but having ignored that on my first build, I have myself a guitar that takes a head first dive every time I put it on. It's only saving grace is that the arm rest is good enough that I can even the balance out while still playing comfortably. Ergonomics, man, they are more important than one might initially think.

Is this gap between the bottom of the pocket and the neck, or the side of the pocket and the neck? Any pictures?