mledbetter

Micing drums is just a fiddly thing. Could have been the mics, could have been the sound guy. Any good sound guy would have spent probably 30 minutes or so just on the drums, checking each feed and making sure it sounded it's best. Could also have depended on the drums too. People tune their drums differently, and if you don't tune for maximum resonance you won't get a good mic'd sound, even though acoustically they sound good. So you work with a video outfit? My father in law is a grip in nashville.. doesn't do as many feature films anymore as he's gotten older and had some shoulder injuries, but they do a ton of music videos. a lot of CCM and Country stuff obviously, being in nashville.

Man that sucks.. My glue is brand new, so if anything of mine fails, I can't blame the glue.. I was planning a scarf joint on mine too.. did you buy the limba neck? I got one limba and one maple.. i'm going to match limba with limba though. Good info. It's definitely worth throwing down another 5 bucks or so for a fresh bottle of glue if in doubt.

Sorry, that's what i meant with the split fence trick.. You start on the side that exposes the bit, then you put the pressure on the flush side. For small lengths like a guitar body, it really does pretty well.

And as much as that sucked (i didn't like the black album) i think that's why they survived.. EVERYONE in highschool listened to the black album, and all the young skate punks ate it up. All the original fans scratched their heads and wondered what the hell happened I remember once they did a live request show on head-bangers ball.. someone called in and said "play sandman dude.." they all looked at each other and said "naaahhhh" I thought that was hilarious. When you're sick of your own song it tells you something. I guess the alternative is to do like AC/DC and never change your formula.. not that I don't like AC/DC but it's been a pretty safe trip for those guys.. nothing cutting edge. Stick to what works I guess.

Ferrules. I just haven't installed them yet. Bridge is a wilkinson vintage tele bridge with the 2-per, swiveling compensated saddles. Gotoh Kluson nickel tuners, and the UPs are GFS premium vintage overwounds. Really cool pickups. I've tested them a little but can't wait to hear them in this guitar. The bridge is 9.2k. Electronics: i'm doing the standard tele setup, but i'm going to go with a 3 way toggle instead of a blade switch. 1) i don't want to have to cut a slot for the thing and 2) i don't really like tele blade switches. An LP style toggle is easier to manipulate, in my opinion I'll probably go with the 6 inline, mostly because I have the tuners purchased already. I think it boils down to the fact that i like my design sketches of the 3/3 better than the 6 sketches but hey, it's a bolt-on, i can always switch it out if i dont' end up liking it... Just got my truss rods in from AllParts. Nice little double-action rods. They are 1/4 wide and 5/16 deep. Don't take up much room at all. For the neck i'm planning somewhat of a reverse taper - a v-shape down around the nut end for chording and flattening out to more of a vintage C around the upper frets. It won't be a whimpy neck.

The neck will be a tele style neck.. done with a tele neck template.. but i will alter the headstock to an original design. I don't want to copy a standard one. I'm thinking kind of a tobacco burst finish.. matching headstock. let the grain really show through though. edges.. i thought about binding but have never done it before. I still might consider it, but was leaning more toward a natural edge.. It dips in slightly like a PRS carve. There's still room to change my mind though. Thanks for the comments!

no that wasn't directed at you.. i don't mind someone critiquing someone, with valid points.. it's the idea of "he sucks.. he's an idiot.. he can't play the guitar worth a *#&$#" when the person clearly has proven enough ability to be successful.. Critique is fair and objective.. the other is just uninformed opinion.

Well, while I wait on my stewmac order for the other guitar, i've started on this one. Body: Black Limba Neck: Black Limba Fretboard: Ziricote Accent wood: Ziricote The top is 90% complete. I have some detail rasping up around the neck pocket and some finish scraping to do but here it is. This is a 2 piece with wood purchased from Rich in the "wood for sale" thread. Awesome stuff. I routed a channel down the center edge of one side before the glueup which gave me a channel from cavity to cavity. I saw that on here somewhere, brilliant idea whoever had it!! Electronics will be routed in the rear and a cover plate made from the ziricote veneer piece. Knobs, if I have time, will be turned with a couple of limba offcuts, capped with a ziricote dome. Will recess the knobs a bit too. Here is a shot of the back. The limba had some nice flame in it that really shows up with i hit it with naptha. View of back This week will be the neck construction, still trying to decide whether or not to keep the 6 in line thing or do a 3x3. Any of you all have an opinion? I think the 3x3 will be a little better looking considering how I am dressing the body of this thing, but the 6 inline would be more true to form. oh well. back to the shop!!

oh good grief. i hadn't seen what this thread had turned into. Any interviews i've read with tremonti, i've always been impressed with his work ethic. He's gotten to where he is because he works hard and he doesn't mind touring 365 days a year if that's what it takes. The idea of a "hard working band" is less and less common these days. Everyone wants to think that they are so great that once they are "discovered" they will make it big. You look at the bands with staying power, i guarantee you're looking at people that didn't think that way. They worked extremely hard to get to the top, and keep working hard to stay there. I agree with devon, for all the people I hear bash musicians i always think to myself "when you have a record deal, i'll care about your opinion" It's easy to sit back and bash other musicians. But even then, i really wouldn't. I'm old enough that I remember when metallica frist started. Every single time they put out a new album, a bunch of people would be running around calling them "sellouts" saying that they suck, and that there will bnever be another album like (insert your favorite album here).. and you have legions of kids that will argue which album marked their last "real" work.. The younger they are, the more recent that line is drawn. Bands evolve, people change, people get better and there are always armchair quarterbacks that would rather rant about musicians they don't like rather than putting that energy into practice. I'm not going to have one negative thought about anyone that steps up and evolves or makes themselves better, even if it's not my type of music. Music is art, art is subjective, and if anyone thinks that they have the one and only answer concerning someone else's art, they need to have their head or ego checked.

I like the shape.. nice design. I don't have a jointer either (that is the correct spelling) What I did was use a router table with a split fence. Bring the fence flush with the outside of the blade (so if you slid wood across it you would get nothing) then loosen one side and "tap" it back a teensy bit. That will give you a poor man's jointer, assuming you have a router table It's worth the trouble to get a good tight joint though.

I tried to buy from a louisana supplier, they picked.. it sucked. I bought some from Exotic Hardwoods in new jersy.. was expensive, but it was incredible grain and light as can be. Global Wood Source in san jose seems to have a good selection and it would probably be a good deal if you buy enough to do freight. They have stock of hand picked guitar ash, separate from all the other ash.

That's pretty unique. I'm working on a carved top tele right now.. Limba.. Similar vibe though. Can't beat that shape.

LMII is another kit soruce.. They have 2 types.. "serviced" and "unserviced" the serviced ones have a lot of stuff done for you.. he unserviced ones are pretty much a box of pre-dimensioned wood and parts. I have no clue about an ovation. But you'll get a much better sounding guitar if you get a kit and build it, as opposed to trying to find a plastic boat back, or salvaging on off an older ovation.

about the switch.. do a search in the electronics section.. i saw something about a month ago on that. a couple of the guys knew where to order them. And yes, on the truss rod, it's not the length of the neck.. the butt end of the truss rod should meet wood.. The only open end is the adjustment end.

the ziricote is stunning.. i have a piece of it in peghead veneer as well as a fretboard. I'm not going to do a peghead veneer though, i'm going to use it as a cavity cover in the back. I'm also contemplating using a small piece of the stuff to cap a small offcut of the limba and turning 2 barrell knobs for the tele. My limba has some really cool figure in the offcuts. Would make some really interesting knobs.

wow.. not much to add here.. that's is incredible looking.

I think people roll over their creed bashing onto tremonti. I always thought he seemed like a pretty cool guy. And reading what all he went through to better himself after creed before kicking off the altar bridge stuff, i have to respect him. And people can say what they want, the first creed album was freakin awesome.. they just turned to cheese as time went on.. And plus, it's popular to bash the ones that have mega-success.. call them sell-outs and whatnot. I was pretty impressed with the vid clips though. i'd like to be able to play like that.

lol. too bad for this guy.. 2 100-ft trees, 3 ft in diam, all chopped up. he has an entire barn full of the stuff.. It mad a LOT of logs.

We have a local sawmill here that specializes in qartersawn sycamore.. a lot of folks refer to it as american lacewood.. I've seen a lot of beautiful sycamore but it seems to be a well kept secret, and i rarely see guitars made out of it. I was glad to see this one, as I plan to try a sycamore top soon. Anxious to see how it carves.

Just received my shipment.. I too got a limba body and ziricote fingerboard.. also got a limba neck, maple neck and a ziricote peghead veneer. Flat out gorgeous stuff, and great prices. Thanks man. As soon as this one's done i'll be back for more! -marcus

You may have seen an article on Ed Roman's site.. he has a mirror top conversion pictorial on there.. it's real mirror. Real mirror will break in a fashion that looks better I think than plastic.. but plastic won't slice and dice you in the process. If you want broken, i'd to a real mirror, stretch some saran wrap across it to stick it all together, wrap it in a blanked and hit it a few times with a hammer.. you want big pieces.. not little shards.. Then glue it and i'm not sure what you would fill it with. Probably epoxy. If you want a solid mirror top, i'd get the plastic mirror stuff and make a layer of it to fit on the guitar top. Then it would look like an ibanez bad horsie..

I much preferred the matching white fur covered Zs they used to use back in the day

I've always gotten a weird vibe off their web site. Didn't really know anything about them though. You can get a better deal on the kits from ebay.. however, given they are prone to missing items, getting them from brian is your best bet.

A friend of mine played a pignose.. the best was the line in the instructions "have a friend open and close the lid while you play for that funky wah wah sound"

body=cool headstock="frolicking" Not that the headstock is bad in and of itself, but it doesn't go with the body as much.. You have so much wood there you could probably alter the shape a bit without losing the work you did.. The outer "nibs" of maple don't do anything for me.. i agree witht he previous assessment.. the body has a flame vibe going for it and the headstock is just kind of nebulous