mledbetter

I record straight into Acid by sony.. I happen to have a bunch of loop CDs and the Drum Tools is invaluable if like me, you hate trying to record acoustic drums but aren't happy with the run of themill drum machine either. I use a Behringer B1 (i think that's what it's called) studio condenser mic through a behringer small mixer.. probably one of the "crappy" ones mentioned above I would have to say though it's freakin dead quiet and useing to ine stuff in, or mic record my acoustic I have nothing byt great results from it. For recording acoustic guitar, i honestly don't even mic it anymore.. I have a baggs iBeam bridgeplate transducer and a baggs ParaAcoustic DI and between the two I get the best acoustic sound i've ever gotten. No peizo springy sound at all. All wood. For electrics i have a fender Pro Jr. I crank to 12, put in an ISO box with the behringer mic and go to it.. Acid works great though for this type of thing. You can click record and just jam.. if there is a good piece you like you can extract it and make a loop file so you could loop your chord progressions and get that perfectly synchronized sound without having to do 100 takes.

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking.. but a reactive load would be a dummy coil as opposed to a strictly resistive load, like a resistor based attenuator or dummy load. Weber Speakers sells all kinds of attenuator and speaker load products.. the active loads are basically speakers without cones. Provides the most natural load for your output amp, and to it.. feels just like a speaker. Generally speaking, a line out shouldn't have anything to do with the speaker output.. as the lineout is unamplified and the speaker output is. The line out should exit the amps circuitry just before entering the power amp section.

There's a thread about 1 page down about testing KTM-9 The new waterbased coating that LMI is pushing.. some good info.I eventually want to switch to waterbase.. but until I do some more research, i'll stick with oil and nitro

Thanks for the heads up. I'm not necessarily looking for 24hr cure. I have time and patience (at least sometimes The specs on the can say workable in 30 minutes. I need something I can spray from a gun though, and so far Deft looks like the best bang for the buck.

Well.. i'm just going to go with deft. Can't beat 9.99 a qt! That KTM9 stuff was freakin 40 bucks a quart almost from LMI. Got to order my epoxy.. thanks for the info. Going with an amber dye with black enhanced grain over ash.. deft clear.

That's what i'm in the process of engineering right now.. There is no room in my design for a heel and i'm determined to keep it that way, so I will probably do the PRS thing and have a thickerneck with the bolt on tongue lower to ride right under the neck pickup and install from the back with bushings and machine screws.. I guess the term is bolt-in as the tenon actually is IN the guitar. Should be a sustain/tone enhancement. I don't want to get into gluing if I can help it. Sonically I don't feel there is enough advantage when compared to a bolt-on that is properly executed. For now my model has an AANJ style interface but i'm going to make this bolt-in thing work and get rid of that.. The heel should start at about the 20th fret! For a strat player, that's pretty exciting considering I fight this brick like heel starting about the 16th fret. lol.

Cut the test body out of MDF and started contouring.. Too bad we can't build guitars out of MDF.. that stuff sure is easy to work with I have added a contour that flows from one horn to the other horn.. kind of like fret access contouring. It certainly balances out the design a bunch. I have enlarged the headstock too. I'll post pics once the model is all contoured. I built the neck pocket jig last night per Myka's tutorial. i modified it to use T-slots and moveable hold downs and guide rails. With the modification I can simply make panels for it depending on what kind of guitar I am routing for and have a perfect jig that gets all my cavity routing dead on and I can even cut them after I contour.

NJ is sculpted.. like the back of an ibnez.. Click on the "project guitar home page" link above nd look through tutorils. You'll see lots of ibanez based guitr tutorials. n AANJ heel fits in the palm of your hand. A regular heel is a rectngular block of wood and makes it difficult to reach the upper frets. Not sure what to recommend for a bass.. depends on how you play, but a lot of basses these days have a sculpted heel As far as the router goes.. you can't do much of any guitar building without buying a router. Check out the tutorials and you'll get a good feel of all that is involved.

Before getting too discouraged you have to check and see what all you have tried first. Have you advertised? Who have you sold (given) guitars to so far? I know some folks locally who made 3-4 acoustics, went to nashville and shopped them around the studios and came home with not only orders, but a strong word of mouth advantage. High end guitars are purchased by older guitar lovers who have means (or younger ones even who have means) or working musicians who rely on their instrument. Pros and superstars don't buy guitars, they are given them in exchange for their signatures. What kind of instruments are you making? Join NAMM, Go to guitar shows. Visit some studios. Work with your local music store and host a contest or some kind of incentive for folks to testdrive your instruments (giving away a gift cert to that music store ensures you a cooperative music store) Be creative and market yourself. You can't compete with the big companies getting throngs of teens and young players.. you have to go after the seasoned players that know good stuff from a big name.

I don't know that it would be that hard really.. Just have to get your lines down. I would route the truss rod channel first and build everything out from that.. maybe make jigs that fit in the channel to give you straight edges for the neck sides, etc.. I'd do the headstock thicknessing with a router BEFORE you shape it.. You can use a bullnose bit to go ahead and get the curved transition from the peghead plane to the fretboard. Once your done, the body and top of neck will be on the same plane, and then you glue your fretboard on.. that's about how a strat or tele is set up anyway. I know nothing of working with wenge.. but I can't imagine it's not doable. You could get a killer heelless design out of this.. Might be a CF rod or two in the neck might not be a bad idea. I personally hate the laminste showing throught he body look.. that's why i've never dug neckthroughs, so i understand the reasoning. My only reservation would be issues of warping.. so if you have that all figured out then go for it. If it's a good dry piece of wood and you seal it properly you shouldn't have a problem.

Hey Matt.. I remember in another post you having trouble finding dyes and stuff up there.. aside from that store.. I realized Sheldon Dingwall runs his shop up in saskatoon.. you may know of him already, i don't know.. but a friend of mine has two of his basses, says he is a super nice guy.. He might be able to help you if you have any more trouble sourcing parts or supplies.. just a thought. www.dingwall.com -m

Chalk one more up to Wind Your Own.. I'm getting ready to. I've built my winder and sourced all the parts. Startup cost can be high if you're looking for vintage spec wire, but even at that it's no more than what you would pay for 2 high priced pickups. I'm getting ready to try out some GFS pups i got off of ebay. Pretty cheap and the construction on them is like a tank. They are 62 alnico overwound tele set.. modeled after the guys 62 tele stock pups. 9.2k bridge. I swear you could drive a car over that thing. cloth leads, cotton cording wrapping the coils, nice grouding plate underneath.. vintage FORBON bobbin fiber.. Bottom line was I wanted to wind my own and wasn't going to go drop 200 bucks on fralins or something, but needed a set to tide me over. They sell vintage repro PAFs and stuff for 30-35 a piece or so.

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/removal.htm Uses a handy dandy iron and putty knife.. The heat gun might work if you soaked the fretboard.. or maybe soaked rags with water and laid them on the fretboard and used the heat gun to turn that to steam.. but the steam iron is probably better. You need the steam i believe to really loosen the glue

You could set in dome head bolts all the way around the perimeter to look like rivits.. Get someone who's good at faux painting and make the surface look like battle worn metal. that would rock.. oh i forgot you're using quilted maple.. I think people can go to jail for ruining a pretty piece of wood like that.. please disregard The other would be cool though.. just make you another one out of poplar or something paintworthy..

I'm going to split the difference I think and widen it a bit, and elongate it.. not completely straight string path, but not as bent as a traditional acoustic headstock.. I have a 6 inline version already designed.. and ultimately my goal with this is a body outline that is unique to me, that i can leave flat and dress like a tele, or carve and dress like a LP. I'll use a maple neck with 6 inline peghead for the tele style, and use a mahogany 3x3 peghead for the other style. Scale on both is 25 even. After the two single cut builds i'll do the same with a double cut that can either be a strat style instrument, or a carved 2 humbucker instrument like a carved soloist style. I have all the hardware and electronics to build a tele, so i'll do that one first... I'll follow up real soon with a 2 hum version. On the 2 hum version, I have a friend that does technical airbrushing (nice way to say he's not an amusement park airbrusher and he's getting the technique down for doing this type of flame job. I want the guitar jet black with some flames like this, maybe not quite as strong, lapping up from the lower bout. I think it will look killer.

Depending on the age, and the type of glue used.. I'd say heat and/or steam.. Heating will losen up hide glue.. My guess is to heat and steam the top.. you might have to sand the finish off where you are steaming and see if you can work it loose from the kerfing. You'll want to salvage as much of that as possible.. If all worked out, you could just buy a new topset and reuse your bracing, or at least use it as a pattern to make new bracing and recreate the top. You might have to remove the neck too, not positive about that though, just depends on the construction.

that's why i'd go with the b-band bridge plate transducer, or a similar bridgeplate mechanism like the I-beam.. no hole to drill and nothing sitting between your saddle and the bridge.. All youhave to worry about is the endpin hole and he could go ahead and build that so you don't have to do any reaming.. The bridgeplate devices just adhere underneath the bridge in the body and do all their work there.. Doesn't affect your guitar acoustically at all.

Yeah that's pretty cool.. but definitely has an ESP vibe going.. I like pointer headstocks.. like the McNaught phoenix's had.. I don't want a rectangular classic gibson/gretch/guild type of headstock.. It'll have to be a little more contemporary to compliment the contemporary lines in the body.. As it stands, i have a killer piece of ash that is ready to start shaping. A buddy of mine (the one with all the tools) actually ordered it for me and I'm afraid that he got gouged (came as 2 pieces of 2x7x22 stock from Exotic Woods) but it is light as a feather and has beautiful grain. I'm not going to top it.. it'll be kind oflike the old prs swamp ash specials.. except I won't put a cheesy looking single coil in the middle position. lol. I ruined my first neck, will have to try again but maple is a lot cheaper than the ash.. as soon as I have pics of something worth showing i'll throw it up here. Thanks again for the comments and if thee is anything to add, throw it my way.

Thanks so far.. Yeah I got some headstock issues.. 1. the headstock is too PRS'ish.. and 2. it's too small. I was working at scale with the body and neck, they are actually dimensioned in freehand but the headstock I just eyeballed and it's too small. I like the straight stringpath though and that kind of forces that shape.. i'll keep playing, as it throws off the balance being so small. Thanks for the input.. i'll be working on the headstock some more.. I thinkn I can tie it more into the non-cutaway horn and have that design tie in.. it's important to me that visually it's all cohesive.

OK folks.. i've designed my first project.. see what you all think. I especially want to know if there is a design i'm ripping off.. I'm one of those that sees a thousand things and some of it may come out in my designs without me knowing it. So anyway.. here goes.. My next step is a pine prototype to get my sanding and contouring down.. Thanks.. any and all input and or feedback is welcome.. you won't hurt my feelings. -marcus

To the last question.. To file suit against someone for an offense, you generally have to show intent to offend.. If someone stole your guitar and sold it, that's out of your control.. you are not acting with intent to defraud anyone. If you tell someone that your guitar is a rare ibanez custom, insinuating that it came from an ibanez custom shop then that is fraudulant (sp?) if you say Ibanez guitar, heavily customized, letting them know they are user mods then there is no intent for harm or fraud. Someone would have to prove that you are using ibanezs name and/or style to make a profit.

I talked to this guy once.. real nice.. seems to have a good product and is reasonable.. www.marlerguitars.com This guy is about 20 minutes away from me. I'm in east tennessee and we have a TON of luthiers around here with the nashville scene so close.. he's pricier but for a total custom, who knows.. www.tonyvinesguitars.com There is also a guy in knoxville TN, Lynn Dudenbostel.. you can get a contact if you search around.. He might do something completely custom. He builds lots of things. Chris Thile of Nickel Creek plays one of his mandos.. He's old school bluegrass instrument maker but makes excellent acoustics from what I hear. It's unfortunate, there are so many luths that have no website, no contact info as they are all word of mouth. Especially around here. You make a name for yourself in nashville and with the session musicians, they can keep you pretty busy without advertising a bit.

I had the same prejudice when my buddy at the music store called me in to look at it (this was back in 95.. in my town we had to wait for taylors to come into stock.. Now the same store has about 20 on any given day.. but playing it.. i think the maple helps it for strumming.. it's such a solid foundation you can bang the heck out of it and it really responds. That's not a bad price.. the 2900.. considering all that you are wanting. why not just commission an olsen. The 3 gs will get you on the waiting list and between now and 2 years from now you can come up with the other 9Gs to finish it off

ok I just read all your specs.. you only option is to probably build your own i'm afraid There are luths that would do that for you but with all the custom stuff they are going to have to charge an arm and a leg as it would take them so far away from their standard operations.

Acoustics.. I know you say you don't want a production guitar so I won't say too much about that.. although for the money, you can get lots of Taylor 800 series instrument on ebay for <1500 and they are excellent for what you describe. I'm a worship leader and I play a taylor maple jumbo, no regrets whatsoever.. but i understand wanting something that's not "off the rack" For customs.. a buddy of mine that a working musician used to play an everett.. back before they started charging 8Gs for them. he sold it though and his two main guitars were a Lowden (now avalon guitars) and his main one.. a Huss & Dalton. www.hussanddalton.com Those are made over here in virginia. This guy had tried out olsens and other high end stuff and to him the H&D was dead on in quality and sound.. calls it his poor mans Olsen. He got a RW/Spruce dreadnaught.. which is a strumming maching. They retail for just over 3 so you should be able to get one for less than 3. So many custom acoustic builders have gotten so "fancy" that you can't buy anything that doesn't have trees of life, 8 layers of abalone purfling and stuff like that. H&D seems to do everything from a barebones D style to ornate OM cutaway styles.. I have actually put my hands on a H&D guitar though and it was exquisit. For electronics.. B-Band is great i'm sure.. never played it. My taylor came sans electronics and I did the thinline thing for a while and got tired of the quack.. I went with a Baggs I-Beam passive (99 bucks) and an accompanying Baggs Para-Acoustic DI preamp/direct box gadget. Everyone always wants to know what's inside the box.. The I-Beam is nothing short of incredible. The B-Band is probably a bit better, but it's the same concept, at least for the bridge plate transducer model. It's just a transducer that adheres right under your bridge so it's not just taking saddle pressure signals, it's getting the whold picture of sound as it resonates through the bridge plate. Very woody and microphonic sounding with no feedback in the high end.. you can get a roar if you crank the bass up too high as it's got a lot of bass response. Do check out one of the bridge plate transducers though.. why pay for a nicely hand crafted bone saddle if you're going to make it sit on top of some plastic strip that saps tone and sustain. The BP Transducer doesn't affect the mechanical operation of your guitar one ioda.. And with the outboard preamp you don't have to worry about a hole in the side of your instrument either. Your last option.. get a kit from LMI I bet if done right they are pretty nice. You can also buy kits straight from Martin if you're so inclined. I'm just not a martin guy.