jnewman

Listen to the opening sequence of "Birdland" by the Weather Report. There's a 25 second pinch harmonic bass riff to start the song off - it's an amazing sound.

That's only sort of true. It's mostly true for a pair of amplifiers of the same general architecture running through the same number and type of speakers. However, a 100 watt head through a 4x10 or 4x12 pretty efficient cabinet (the most common sort of stack) will be a lot louder than a 40 to 60 watt combo amp running into one or two speakers. Will it still be too loud for practicing in your house or apartment at full blast? Of course. Will it be as much too loud? Not even close. That said, I'm currently running a sixty watt all tube combo amp into one over-impedance 12 inch speaker (dropping output to around forty watts) and if I could get the same amp in five watts I'd jump on it in a heartbeat.

No worries... I knew it would happen too if I went too far - I just stopped paying attention and went too far .

Unfortunately, a skunk stripe wouldn't have worked - this happened during the final shaping of the neck, and I didn't drill a hole through to the truss rod channel or something, I had removed material until there was not enough wood left to support the truss rod. I HAD to add a wide strip. I've been thinking about filing most of it off and using an extra bit of the laminate I had lying around - but noone's perfect and this is my first guitar and I've decided that I want to be able to see my mistake and remember it so that it doesn't happen again.

That's maple, not tape. I got a little overzealous with the surform and took a bit too much off the neck up there (because my fretboard blank started out a touch over 3/8" - it was down to a pretty thin neck, slightly thicker than an ibanez) exposing the truss rod slot in a tiny hole at the end of the neck, so I had to add a bit of wood - I tried to explain in my first post, but I guess I wasn't very clear about it. I didn't think I could match a scrap of the maple/walnut laminate very well and decided that a single piece of maple would look better than a slightly off center stripe. In retrospect, I probably should have tried it. It's a shame because it ruined the clean line running all the way up the back of the neck, but it was my mistake on my first guitar and I fixed it myself - so I think we'll count it a victory .

Just noticed you can't really see the neck joint in that picture - so here's a better picture of it. It's not as radical as the AANJ style, but I never really use the frets above 17 and it's actually pretty comfortable up there (I have really long fingers and big hands).

New update: Let's see. I've gotten a lot done. The neck (except the headstock and the very, very end (past the nut) of the fretboard, and the fretboard) is pretty much done. Unfortunately, the four feet of fretwire LMI recommends per instrument is NOT enough. That's why four fret slots still don't have frets . I also haven't dressed the frets at all, which has led to several deepish cuts on my hands. I also made my first big mistake. Because of the thicker-than-normal fretboard, I accidentally took the neck too thin just below the headstock, and knocked through to the truss rod. Oops. I sanded it super flat about to about six inches below the headstock and glued on a 1/4" thick piece of maple on over the back and reshaped the neck. That's why the maple gets wider. It actually doesn't look too bad, although of course it would look better without it. The two little spots where there are little steps in the maple are because I actually had to glue a thin piece of maple on that would flex a bit so I could then sand that down and get it perfectly flat. In case noone noticed, at present the headstock has a keyhole in it. I think I'll probably fill the back and put a cover over the front, although I *may* just leave it an open keyhole. Unfotunately, I've been evicted from my dorm's wood shop until after this weekend, so not much more is going to get done, especially as I need to order more fretwire and haven't yet recieved my pickups (Bartolini PBF-49 and PBF-57). All that said, this project has gone amazingly well considering it's my first ever and I only started on Friday. I look forward to getting finished next week! The guitar feels really good in my hands, or at least it did until I put in most of the frets and it started cutting holes in me every time I touch it .

Man... I'd like to buy the neck blank that's on the bottom in that first picture (the darker one) off of you - that's NICE. Let me know how you want me to get you the money. Jimmy

If you have a router and some scrap wood you can make your own... search on the forum, I can't remember exactly where it is, but there are a few people who show how they did it.

Well, I've actually done a lot more, although I don't have any pictures yet. The face of the neck wasn't perfectly flat (I've never been able to sand things flat), so your friend and mine the hand plane got together to make things better - and once I got started, I realized I could just use the plane to add a bit of neck angle. So It has about a degree of neck angle, and a fingerboard that's not quite 3/8" thick. I think I'm going to route out a small "bathtub" area for the bridge and stop bar to sit in - I've been thinking it might look cool, and I never rest my hand on the body of the guitar, so it wouldn't cause me any problems. Anyway, after adding that little neck angle, I routed the truss rod slot and installed it (lmii double-action - GREAT truss rod), then slotted the fretboard and glued it on over the truss rod slot. Then I radiused the fretboard and got a good bit of the neck shaping done. There's just a little more on that. So let's see, still to do: shape neck heel (mostly all that's left to do on the neck), put the frets in, make and install the nut, add wings to the headstock, shape headstock, drill tuner holes and install them, install bridge and stopbar, route pickup holes, route conrol cavity, and install electronics. Oh... and the jack .

You could also use a table saw or a hand plane. I've used both with perfect results in the last few days. On figured wood, you'll probably need a really sharp blade or it'll tear out.

C'mon, guys, everyone knows the original James Bond theme is the easiest song ever . Except for that funky chord at the end. I don't even know it's name. Sweet Home Alabama for easy open chords. If I Could Be Like That by Three Doors Down for across-the-guitar melody picking.

Yep - I haven't done ANYTHING on the neck yet, the heel's going to be a very smooth curve from the neck into the body, the way nice neck-through basses are made. I actually did use a roundover bit on the edges, you're probably looking at where the belly and arm rest contours are - the edges aren't quite as rounded there (because I couldn't come up with a way to use a roundover bit on a 3D curve like that), I may take them out a little bit more once I do all the routing and so on and start finish sanding. About the fingerboard/bridge height - I ordered a schaller roller tune-o-matic that I got today. The fretboard blanks I have are a bit thicker-than-normal, and I'm going to recess the bridge just a hair (an eighth to a quarter of an inch, which should be plenty). I just really want a TOM on this thing, and don't want a neck angle, so that's what I have to do . CudBucket - I know I said I was going to taper the bits in the neck-through piece, but I decided it was more trouble than it was worth and they're straight (the camera angle may be making them look tapered). I actually have done one thing to the neck, I gave the neck itself it's taper, and I did that very carefully with a straight edge and the drum sander. I'm liking this so far, and it's going a lot faster than I thought it would. I've done 12-15 hours of work so far (not sure exactly, I haven't been keeping track).

Well, I've got the body contoured and rough sanded, now I basically have to wait for my hardware to get here (should be here tomorrow, according to tracking info) to continue. Lots of time with the sanding drum and orbital sander and here's where we are now: Front: Back: The contours are slightly different from a strat in ways that make it more comfortable for me, and the body's done being shaped. I obviously haven't done anything on the neck yet, but that's waiting for me to get the trussrod in and the fretboard slotted and installed. Once I have that, everything should really start coming together. Oh, also, I couldn't find a suitable piece of mesquite, so I'm trying to decide between an indian rosewood fretboard and a figured katalox fretboard (both of which I have as untapered, unradiused, unslotted blanks). I'm kind of leaning towards the rosewood as I feel like a figured fretboard on a plain wood guitar would look kind of silly, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

I think the real problem here is that masterminds has taken high school physics class and things he can explain everything about the way an electric guitar works. He doesn't care about what people who've been playing, working on, or building guitars for many years think because he's got education . For that matter, he didn't even understand his high school physics class right. Tension in one member is NOT two forces, it is one force. That tension causes two reactive forces, the forces exerted by the bridge and tuner, but it's still a single force in compression or expansion. The two forces exerted by the bridge and nut are not tensile, the tension is one force existing only in the string itself.

Man, you people are wierd . I had to cut new holes in my nice leather strap to SHORTEN it! Of course, I learned to play guitar sitting down, and having a guitar sit more than an inch or two lower than sitting playing position feels bizarre and my hands can't figure out where to go. I'll admit I look a little strange with my guitar sitting in the middle of my stomach . If you do decide to build your own, you might want to look into buying nylong webbing (like what seat belts are made out of). It's strong enough to hang a truck off of and it's pretty cheap and fairly easy to work with. EDIT: Uh... I meant nylon webbing. Not sure where the g came from.

Or get a small tube combo - but 100 watts is way overkill for anything, basically - a gig big enough to need it and you'll be using a PA anyway. A 100 watt amp you'll never be able to turn up loud enough in anything but a huge gig to get great sound out of it, you want something you'll be able to turn up without deafening yourself or pissing off your neighbors.

You guys thought I'd never get started, but... here we go! Starting with the boards that are pictured further up, this is my progress so far (note: the discolorations are glue mess that'll come off with the sanding I need to do anyway): Neck lams cut with table saw: Neck lams being glued together: One of the wings being glued: The neck and two wings, glued individually but not put together: And finally, the wings rough-shaped with the bandsaw (but still not glued to the neck-through): I changed the design a bit so there'd be less maple - I decided I didn't want the maple to brighen the sound too much, and didn't want little slivers of maple along the outside of the neck. It took me about three hours yesterday to cut everthing (to rectangular pieces) and glue them together, and about two and a half hours early this afternoon to get all the edges that still need to be glued (the wings aren't attached yet) perfectly flat and the wings rough-shaped. I'm making a trip to home depot as soon as I finish this post to get some things that aren't available in my dorm's woodshop, where I'm doing this. For the rest of this weekend, I plan to get the part of the neck-through that's actually the neck thinned down to about an inch, the wings glued to the neck-through, and the body mostly shaped. I can't do a whole lot more than that because most of my hardware won't be here until the middle of this week. However - it's already starting to look like a guitar! I'm really happy so far, it's been way too long since I've actually made something.

I had a music teacher who was a piano player. If you blindfolded her and played a note on the piano, she could tell you which note in which octave you had just played. If you tried to trick her and played two notes together, she could tell you which two notes you had just played. On a good day she could do three. That's perfect pitch.

You mean like the fact that they don't sound good?

That slightly longer length to the treble side post accounts for the fact that you want the first string saddle to be right at the scale length, AND to be about 3/4 of the way forward, not centered. The lower you go in pitch, the longer the scale for proper intonation, so you want to keep plenty of room to move the lower saddles back. The first string saddle should be right at the scale length. The lower strings should get progressively longer.

That gets you set up right, with the TOM angled about 2-3 degrees and the first string saddle about 3/4 of the way forward and at the scale length mark.

Setch - that's a beautiful neck. It looks killer, and super-clean. I'm sure Simo'll love it. Shame it's such an out-of-date design though, eh?

There are a lot of people who like it. I'm currently building a guitar from black walnut, but am just starting. I've heard people say it's like mahogany but with clearer lows and fewer highs, and other people say it's about as bright as maple, so I'm not sure what to think - I'll find out when I'm done, I guess, but that doesn't really help you .

Do the 18 watt amps have the signature early marshall tone? I've never gotten my hands on one to try it out. Some day I'm going to go crazy and build myself a 1x12 combo with one input switchable between tweed champ electronics for clean and a low-power gain amp for dirty (which is why I'm asking about the 18 watt, it's an ideal candidate). I've never built a guitar amp before, but I've built several hi-fi audio amplifiers, so I ought to be able to manage it without killing myself .