Mr.Churchyard

Well I voted for "both" because I really love complex/difficult/technically challenging music with "that special something". But I regret it, I should have voted for "technical" just because of this widespread prejudice that technically challenging music cannot be emotionally loaded. Instead, most of these open or barré chord songwriter stuff, three chord stuff or standard blues licks are most of the times boring as hell to me for the simple reason that it is not very original. I have an intense dislike of musicians who always play simple stuff only for the reason that they are unable to play anything else. Do not misunderstand me, "simple" songs can be great, but most of the time there is no new musical idea in there, no possibility of developing into something that hasn't been there before... At least that's how I feel about it.

Now my personal test is whether the music speaks to me when the singing is taken out of the song (and possibly the singer's melody replaced by some instrument playing it). As far as simple three chord songs are involved, the answer for me is NO. They rely on the singer's interpretation of a more or less good songtext. Well if it's only words that are needed to make the music "emotional" or so, personally I prefer reading some poets like Rilke or Baudelaire.

Like classical music without singing- now most people nowadays would go and tell "oh, it's so boring, I fell asleep at the opera". I cannot stand it. They are not making any effort to dive into this music and try to understand it and its beauty. Don't know if I make myself clear.

Also technically challenging does not mean playing up and down the scale forever at high speed... In fact that is not even soooo technically challenging, you know what I mean? It's just the scale.

Just worthy of mentioning, my favourite piece of music is "Touching Tongues" by Steve Vai - no singer is able to give me the feelings this instrumental ispires to me.

I like the music more than the language because it is more universal. It is not restricted to the one language the singer sings in, it is far more widespread and international.

A 1-piece guitar is probably a pretty rare thing.  I've never seen one, though obviously it's possible to do and I'm certain that people MUST have made them before if only to satisfy personal curiousity. 

Greg

←

On the italian ProjectGuitar site, progettochitarra.com, there is one in the gallery. Look here, it's the very first one, made out of one piece of Paduak.

no i hate ibanez now for the fact that nearly every guitar/bass ive picked up by them in the last few years the action has been way too high.

←

Are we talking about the same company here?

Alright, I've been considering building my own guitar for a long time and, I'm gonna do it. Doesn't look to hard. But, I do have plenty of questions that I coudn't find complete answers to throughout the forum. Maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. Oh well.

First, I plan on building the body completely out of cocobolo wood. I read that dence woods give a thicker, richer tone. I'm young and I've got a good back so I think I can support a good couple of pounds for a while. I also think that with an emerald green stain it'll look beautiful. What are your opinions on using cocobolo wood?

Second, sense this is my first guitar I'll be ordering the neck online sense it's just too important to mess up. My question is, How should I go about ordering a neck online? (I know that's vague, Just tell me what you would do)

SINCE please :-D

Well depends. If you want to build a Strat like you mention afterwards, there are plenty of resources where you can buy a Strat neck. You should be more specific or we cannot help you. Do you want a completely custom neck? A neck exactly like those of a famous guitar? How many frets? What woods? And so on...

What tools are needed to carve a guitar's body? And are the same tools used to form the cutaways for the arm and body in stratocasters?

Well this has been answered in many posts so do a search or just read the sticky topics, like this one

Those Floyd Rose bridges are ridiculous. What makes them so special? And how do you set a bridge in the right spot? I'm actually considering having the bridge set by a porfessional at a shop because misplacing the bridge could completely destroy weeks of work. And isn't setting the bridge one of the last steps before electronics?

If you like to use the tremolo for special lead guitar techniques, like those of Maestro Steve Vai or Van Halen or Satriani and so on, Floyds ore similar (like Ibanez Edge trems) are the only ones that keep reasonably in tune after such use. Bridge placement is more or less predetermined by the type and the scale you are going to use. If you read up and ask, it shouldn't be so difficult. What bridge were you thinking of?

Lastly, what is a good electric guitar building book I should look into before I start?

Melvyn Hiscocks book "make your own electric guitar" is usually the one that everybody would advise you to get. Else, there is the one by Martin Koch and also others.

Ah, ok, I forgot. Great.

Well I don't know the others, but I surely hope that it WON'T be necessary for Perry to devote much time to modding the forums. I hope he will be only modding guitars

Hi Folk's we ave a new Moderator in the forum and most of you know him already please welcome rhoads56 to the Mod Team as the "Mod from Down Under"

←

Just a question. Am I wrong or last time new mods were chosen you had the right to vote whether you wanted them or not? Seems to me a bit strange that someone yells "Make me a mod" and that his wish is fulfilled no questions asked.

I am not complaining though. Perhaps Perry will be able to help out as much as he promised, and as far as I am concerned, I would have voted for him anyway... Congratulations Perry!

Hi, well I know that this question depend of many things but,

how much time or weeks has take to build a guitar aprox (like strato, jem, etc).

I´m new in this area so I want to know how many days or weeks takes to build a guitar. Sincerly I want to know how many guitars could a build in a month to sell.

Tell me your examples... about how much time took your works.

Thanx,

Demian.

←

Forget about the selling them if you don't know a thing yet how to build a guitar. My advice. There's lots to learn.

Remembers me of the one guy who wanted to enter the custom guitar business with assembled Saga Kits...

Pretend it was done on purpose and do it some more and then you can start the famous and expensive relic-ing process... tie your guitar with a rope to some motorized vehicle and drive around for an hour or so, making sure the body and neck bump really hard against all sort of stones.

It it was me, I would have ordered more than one fretboard right away anyway because I know that if I tried it I would mess it up... :-)

Anyway, you should try to fix it and first see what it looks like and decide afterwards, not to mention the learning effect...

@Miro, depends on the type of pickup.

Nevermind, wrong post

Well I voted for yes.

It is your responsibility to smoke a joint or not, same as alcohol.

When I say it is your responsibility, I mean that like almost everything it can be abused and have serious consequences BOTH for you and your environment.

IF you even decide to make use of drugs and so on you should be well aware of the changes it induces in your psyche, your coordination and so on. So please don't overdo it, and don't do anything that can be dangerous for you or others. Like those criminals who drive completely drunk (maybe even smoking while they do).

I do sometimes smoke a joint or two (sometimes means no more than once every month or so), but only in friend company and at home, where everyone would then also sleep right there or get home with public transportation services.

I dislike daily use of drugs (and alcohol is also a drug), when alone, exxagerating with the dose and so on.

To me, light drugs can be fun and interesting. But I prefer to see them as part of our and others society, and prefer to see them used in a limited way (limited in quantity and occurances).

Whether it is healthy or not or severely unhealthy makes no difference to me as long as smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol are allowed, although it cannot be that dangerous that a limited use would be seriously damaging your health. It is your choice anyway.

There are different good points for legalization.

One of them the cost-cutting factor, the extra taxes for the state (HUGE), the possibility to study it more thoroughly, the serious blow to criminal infrastructures it brings and so on. It would make it easier for people in trouble to seek help because it is less stigmatized. In essence, it would make the whole thing more transparent and safer.

But there is much to say about this.

One thing I think nobody brought up is that a huge part of the drug-related income of criminal organizations goes to funding international terrorism or other criminal organizations. This is also true for marihuana, despite the fact that it is more important for opium-related drugs. You wouldn't believe the money loss it would bring for such organizations...

Ah, but EMGs are a whole different beast.    Many people find them clinical-sounding, which may translate into "thin" for some people's personal perspectives.  I haven't played a pair personally, so I couldn't tell ya.    I don't find Zakk Wylde's tone to be particularly 'fat', so that's the only thing I can go by.  The only other guitarist I know intimately who uses EMGs is Martin Tielli of the Rheostatics, and I don't find his tone "fat", either, so you may be on to something there.

←

Well Metallica use them.

But same thing goes for Evolution pickups, there are many who dislike them and say they sound clinical, thin and so on. And Evos are really high output for passive pickups.

i have had nothing but trouble with a lot of floyd rose copies, mainly the low TRS II by ibanez, which couldnt hold a tune after a few mins playing. rubbish. but i replaced it with a schaller floyd rose from stew mac its fantastic. the bridge a bit over $200 if i remember 4 years ago. so i wouldnt advise cheaping out on this. might seem good now, but when your tuining your guitar 4 times for every hour of play you wont see it as a saving. trust me

←

If memory serves me well, the Lo-TRS is not by Ibanez but by another manufacturer. Ibanez just uses it for some unknown reason on their lower end guitars. AFAIK obviously.

To me, B.C. Rich today is like Fender during the CBS era.

Voted no though.

Which resizing do you mean though - filesize or dimensions?

And if they don't have your password, no one can modify files on your server if you have your permissions sorted out properly.

←

That's what I meant! That's why the only resizing I am referring to now is viewing dimensions.

Like the img tag in HTML, no? Like <img src="soandso.jpg" height=y width=x>

That's what I am on about.

Depends what he means. If he means file size, then that'd require all pictures being uploaded to the server. If he means height and width, it's easily done by just editting one php file on the server. Bandwidth usage stays exactly the same.

←

Great, resizing is all I thought of. It is a strange idea to have a message board modify files on, say, my homepage.

If possible, image-resizing should also be automatic. It IS possible.

←

The only problem is, in order for there to be automatic image resizing, the images have to be uploaded to the forums. That is not allowed, due to bandwidth requirements.

←

oh, that's unfortunate.

The "three octaves" one reminds me of a notorious Marleaux/Pagelli bass...

I also like the first the most.

An oberfraese is indeed a router, but remember, google image search and amazon are your friends for pictures of tools. Should help. My advice with tools is and always remains: buy them as you need them, not all up front. A good/decent jigsaw is a very nice thing to have, and a decent sized router, to me, is absolutely essential. Much more so than a Dremel tool (which really, is only really necessary if you want to do inlay; it has little to no place doing ANYTHING at all heavy duty, and forget doing pickup or trem routes with it right now). Bosch's blue line is top notch, but pricey, but remember that saving too much on tools is a false economy; the crap stuff will die on you, and you will want a replacement eventually.

←

What are the specifications for a decent router? Like wattage, rotations/min, possible depth and so on? Anyone could tell me please?

My two euro-cents:

I think there's an awful lot of thread-closing and post-deleting going on on this board lately. Seems to me that the mods are overreacting a bit lately - quite understandable, reckoning all what has happened lately. What I mean is, there are threads getting closed without any -at least to me - obvious reason.

What bugs me on a regular basis is the constant bitching about the rules for GOTM in the last months. As it is, "Pros" are disadvanteged simply because most people wouldn't vote for them despite their great work just for being "pro". There is seriously no need for more complications of GOTM rules to help "non-pros". Like the "if it's not built from scratch it shouldn't be allowed"... Well most people wouldn't vote for a Warmoth-part or Saga-kit built guitar anyway, and sincerely, most of the time they are not the prettiest or most original guitar out there in GOTM, right?

The whole atmosphere has been getting worse, although I think it is recovering.

It is a very unfortunate state of things when knowledgeable veterans of the board repeatedly consider quitting it...

And I sincerely have no idea why there is no language-censoring applet in this board. It is ridiculous that for every "s***" the mods have to edit a post... It is not necessary to give them all this unnecessary workload.

If possible, image-resizing should also be automatic. It IS possible.

As a sociologist, I know how it is always best advice to make things as easy as possible if someone wants some constant positive result...

On the other hand, some good will from the members is always great and what turns a decent board into a great one like PG.

What I am trying to say is: The less rules are necessary and implemented, the better. Like flood control on this board there should be also automatic image-resizing and language-editing (although I think it's exaggerated, for noone purposedly uses lots of swearing here, but that's my opinion). GOTM should stay as it is.

I also think that many of the problems of the last months arise from the fact that there are more and more members and especially lots of newbies (like me), especially newbies who don't know forum rules, search functions, grammar, spelling etc. (unlike me - at least I hope). Perhaps the mods have too much of a workload in these forums. Automatic language-editing would be a first step to lessen their burden.

As for the forum as a dictatorship, think twice about what you said - I can only say it's obvious you are from a country where there hasn't been a dictatorship yet.

Anyway I just wanted to add how much I like this forum and wanted to thank everyone, for making this place what it is.

Mattia is completely right... I am right now checking some addresses here in Germany, because I am finally putting enough money together to start my project, but many things are cheaper when from the USA.

One question, supposing I had a lot of time on my hands and were willing to do crazy stuff like handsawing and handsanding AND wanted to build a guitar completely from scratch (I mean: do body and neck with fretjob etc.)... What would be the minimum tool requirements? And where could I get those things cheap? My personal problem is I don't know what those tools are called in German - I suppose for example that a router like most of you use is called Oberfräse, but am not sure.

I was thinking of getting:

two good (jig?)saws

a Dremel

a cheap router (or could I do like the pickup and tremolo routs with the dremel? I couldn't, right? Or is it just incomfortable?)

StewMac's basic fretting tools kit (although it seems a bit overpriced to me)

a cheap drill (for tuner holes and stuff)

perhaps some slotting file...

a rasp

What did I forget (a planer?)? And could I cut something from the list?

What do you guys consider the minimal tool requirements to build a guitar from scratch?

I`m building a some kind of a telecaster with standard humbucker tele bridge, I have a chance to get some humbucker at low price but I have just realised, I do not know if it takes normal (Gibson) sized or F humbucker, as tele humbridge is made of solid brass I do assume it is not very tolerant to wrongsized pickup, is there anyone who knows?

Thanks

←

The normal sized one I assume. F-spaced is for guitars with tremolos.

But it is a tele-bridge with humbucker space yes?

Wait till someone who really knows tells you...

EDIT: See, I told you. As it seems I was wrong

i am soon to build another one...i plan on taking new pics and redoing that tutorial...and this time i will back the pics up and host them on my own site.

←

That is good news. I hope it's not gonna be a V (fool that I am)

Though it's not about licensing, I'll break the rules and get you guys an update:

Tonight I'm working on a script/layout for the Tremol-No demonstration and instructional videos.  They will be available for download in the Support section of the site.  For $5, you can get them delivered to your door on a DVD.

Rob Keeler and I will be shooting the videos the day after SummerNAMM (aka- The Show No One Is Going To, So Let's Drink A Lot!).  I'll get them edited and up on the site before units hit the shelves.

Requests are welcome. 

←

Please make a more or less subtle reference to something on pg or to projectguitar itself that we will understand and no one else will

I don't what kind of wood it is made of.  It is a standard Mexican Jazz Bass.  Is there a way to find out what it is made of?

←

On the Fender Standard Jazz Bass the body is made of Alder.

You don't NEED a metronome, you can tap your hands and feet to a tune on the radio if timing practice is how it will be used.  Certainly you can make use of one for practicing tunes or scales on your own but otherwise in a group environment, timing is a collective effort, starting with the drummer.  If the drummer doesn't have good time..everything sounds like Guns&Roses! 

←

Psss... don't listen to him, he's old and evil

I stress again that a metronome is essential... but obviously only for practicing alone. Not in a band! That's different... Let's just hope the drummer got good timing