mledbetter

The twang comes from a single coil bridge pickup. Teles are capable of sounding like pretty much anything given the right tonewoods and pup configuration.

classic vibe meets death and destruction.. i love it

Man, that is an incredible opportunity! You have a lot of talent as a guitar designer and builder and you can really put some killer finishes on those bad boys, not to mention tackle the neck like you said.. congrats man and good luck.

the only person here who's attitude sucks is yours. We have tried to help and if you reread the thread you will see that people only become frustrated when you refuse to see what has been so clearly laid out in front of you.

ok if you want a formula, here's one for you. Merry christmas.. a | c ------ b | x a (known nut width of a 6 string - get a ruler) b (known 24th fret neck width of a six string) c (you choose width of nut for 8 string) To solve for x multiply b*c and divide by a. Not the most precise operation but you'll have a number in the ball park. Way more complicated than doing a drawing. And a drawing can also serve as a handy dandy template when you cut this bad boy out of real wood.

I have never once called you an idiot. i've even given you the answer several times as have others and something isn't clicking..

what the hell.. it's the same damn thing. math is math, related dimenstions are just that. you change one, the other changes. Doesn't matter if it's 6 or 60 strings.

i give up. 4 pages into this thread and i think it's time for this...

and Perry wasn't being mean. I've seen him be mean .. Don't say you have a plan unless you have drawn a plan to scale. If you had that you wouldn't have needed to ask any dimensional questions. All we know is you *planned* to build a guitar. Your questions indicate that you have made a parts list and probably have a general idea how to build one but haven't gone any deeper than that.

see, this is why you had a problem. It's not like you were asking some complicated question like in wiring, finishing technique, etc.. it was a topic covered in almost any book, forum, help page, etc.. wanting to learn is one thing, laziness is quite another and if you ask a bunch of questions that are easy to solve with 5 minutes of research, people will think you lean toward the latter

nah, people just get frustrated when folks want an answer to something that they could work out themselves. The width thing is very easy. The nut and bridge make a trapezoid, and when centered on a centerline and drawn at full size will give you a drawing that you can literally take your ruler to and find the width anywhere. it's very simple. you'll have to develop those kinds of problem solving skills on your own to do this kind of stuff. There's always some dimension to figure out that you won't find in a book. You have to be able to visualize the thing and determine how to extract the information you need from the model. To most people, the joy in the building. The engineering of it. To boil it down to a punch list of steps makes it an assembly exercise. The joy is in the "figuring it all out" and whn you get stuck there is a wealth of knowledge here.

buddy that is some nice looking stuff. I love the look of that koa. that should be a killer sound combination with those woods and that p90 in the neck. You'll have to throw a sound clip at us when she's all done.

This is an excellent article.. especially if you're looking to go to a lutherie school. Someone posted this a while back but i couldn't pull it up in search so i thought i'd post it here. A Pedagogs Lament, thoughts about a learners impatience If you don't like being second guessed then a school of lutherie may not be for you. You asked advice and people gave it and if you ask advice and people see other issues you may not have though of yet then they will point it out. You already admited that the fanned fret thing was a bad idea so it's good someone second guessed you. If you want to learn, then be open to learning. There is little room for ego when you're trying to acquire a skill. You sound more resistant to advice and only want the little bit you asked for and not the large amount that you might need. You can learn a TON here on this forum through searching and asking, but only if you're open to the information and work to apply it to the knowledge you may already have. I'm not trying to sound like yoda or anything. lol. i'm still learning a ton myself.

do a laminate body and put a couple CF rods in it. although i don't know that it's necesary. the body is still thicker than your neck so it shouldn't be a problem.

allright, so you asked a huge, open ended question requiring someone else to do research, then got snitty when it wasn't handed to you on a platter. Everyone has spoken and you have your assignment. Honestly, i dont know of anyone here who has made a fanned neck. The only reason I know anything at all, albeit not a whole lot, is because i've played several basses and helped a friend research making his own. He gave up, as I said before. Robert Novak holds the patent. He wants 75 bucks for the right to build it yourself as a licensing fee per instrument. Dingwalls are the only production instrument I know of that utilizes the FF system. A couple of boutique acoustic builders do it. You're going to have a hell of a time finding pickups to fit. as your pups will have to be angled just like the frets to get the same tone across all strings. and you'll have to spend a hell of a lot on individual bridge pieces. about 30-40 a pop times 8. The consensus is this isn't an easy project and if this is your first build, run, don't walk, as far away from this as you can and build a regular instrument first. Reak all of novak's writing (novax guitars) and you can even pull up his patent and look at specs and stuff, but it's really as simple as laying out fret marks for one scale on one side, and the other scale on the opposite side and connecting the lines. All I'll say about figuring out neck width is use the standard formulas and design the neck taper around the longest scale length. when you're done you jsut trim the bottom to match the fret angle and make a custom nut for the top. No one is trying to run you off or offend you, but most people here have gotten their knowledge the old fashioned way, by researching and studying.. not saying "i'm new, tell me how to do this" So that line will raise some hackles every single time. good luck

nut width in this case doesn't really count. The nut is longer than the width of the neck since it too is angled. Basically in a FFF system you just figure out how long the neck should be for the longest scale in your formula and go from there. You end up with a lot of wasted space. I dont' think the angled bridge will work as the more you angle it the tighter your string spacing will be and you don't want that. Individual saddles is the only way I know of. Dingwall's use 1 piece bridges but hipshot makes them specifically for sheldon and they aren't just regular bridges installed at an angle. This is not an easy project.

dude.. no offense, but if you can't figure out neck width at the 24th fret you'd better think twice about doing fanned frets. Fanned Frets are a bear to implement. Not impossible but you'll have to calculate much more complicated dimensions than neck width to pull it off successfully. Not to mention.. where do you measure the 24th fret at on an FF board.. at the center? or the bass side or treble side? All three will yield different measurements. If you want an 8 string FF board i'd contact novax and see what he'd charge to make it. There are several threads in and around here on calculating neck width. You should be able to dig them up pretty quick..

Use a standard tele style bridge, make sure the top surface of the neck is flush with the body and then use a gibson style nut that puts the strings to the proper height and you should be fine. Basically think of a guitar with the fretboard removed and the lines put on the neck bed. Gives you an extra 1/4 inch of action but really doesn't change the relationship between the bridge and the nut at all. You shouldn't have to sink the neck surface below the body plane.

plus tops affect the tone too. they aren't just for looks. Even painted LPs have maple tops over mahog.

The move from lacquer to poly was one of the changes instituded when CBS took over fender. I believe the change was from '68 on so i would doubt that your tele is nitro. Unless it's a custom shop or special model of some sort. If it's standard it's most likely poly. This dude has about everything you would want, or not want to know about fender color history. Pretty cool and exhaustive article. Fender Custom Colors

wow. 150 for that body? that's a very nice looking top and to be a full 1/4" thick is great.

well his auction said they were finally back in stock so I would say the one you ordered was backordered. If you look at his reviews, it seems to close hundreds of auctions each month. Yes he's not up to speed on his floyd technology. I think all he means is you can drop the ball end into the trem end instead of having to snip the ball off. Like I said, everything I have ever gotten from him is first rate.

which is what everybody here generally runs through a planer. not small pieces for other types of wood projects. I don't see where the argument is here. Besides, bringing the argument into this thread is silly and only gives creed to the frustration that the more experienced folks here feel. This is a matter of preference and you're shop preferences are different than probably most everyone here concerning a planer. The issue here is someone coming in and telling someone that they can glue glitter to a guitar body then clearcoat it for a cool metal flake finish. crap like that.

To each their own. I dimension, joint, glue up, then plane the whole damn body blank so I know it's perfectly flat on both sides. I would just as much hesitate to claim I know how 99% of the woodworking population works as I would try to convince the person that knows what 99% of the population does the right way to do things About that planer, I use that specific planer when I do power-plane and it's a very nice planer. HOWEVER my body sizes are all 12.5 inches wide so I don't have a problem with the width. You can get bed extensions for that planer too.

I don't know about this bridge in particular, but everything I have ever gotten from the GF guy has been supurb. He's got some nice stuff and seems to be pretty discriminating about the items he sells.