Southbound

If you wanna do it like Eddie did it it's simple! Don't forget he was really just a kid doin a hack job on a crappy guitar. The fact that he became famous and is an awesome player don't mean he had some magic gift for guitar modding. Just follow what was written in that article: Rip it's guts out, use a chisel to make the bridge pu cavity big enough for a PAF, put a PAF in there wire it up with a 500k volume pot put a brass nut on it (don't forget to lube!) paint it with a black rattle can, mask it off and paint it with a white rattle can and make a pick guard from a black piece of plastic The orig. just has the standard cheap fender style trem (I'm assuming just like on your guiitar now) If you want the the next version just take off the pick guard mask it off again and paint it with a red rattle can and put a Floyd and a locking nut on it (you need to learn a thing or two to make this step) most important of all don't forget to put a knob with the word Tone on the Volume control!

Explorer for the Metal stance Tele for kickin back and playin the blues Thunderbird for playing bass in a Metal stance and Stingray for playing Funky head boppin bass

wow! ok, at first I was thinkin... give 'em a chance. Maybe they have something to offer. Then I saw the videos!?!? again...wow! Rarely do you hear somebody rattle on about something without saying anything! Did he REALLY say that because the frets are bigger the "fat bit" of your finger doesn't touch the fretboard and that is why you get more sustain?! I'll say it again...wow!

Hey Rick, I can't say I've read both books but I have read the Melvin Hiscock one and there are few things that strike me as advantages to this one imparticular: It not only teaches you how to build "a" guitar (3 in fact) it teaches you how to build "any" guitar. Most of the guys (many of them top quality builders) here have read and know it's contents cover to cover and that means you can quote it and ask questions and such and the guys will know exactly what your talking about. Once you've read a few chapters you'll find that Template's are the easy part (you can design them yourself or get them off the net real easy. The hard part is understanding what you're trying to acheive. Melvin is great for that. anyway...that's my 2 cents!

I'm with Resto! Leave that baby alone. The yellowing on the scratch plate is just there to remind you that she's a REAL orginal. Don't let anyone convince you to refinish it or buff out the scratches or bleach the pickguard...all those things are bad ideas on a classic like that. Wipe her down with a rag and put her back in a case under the bed. If you're gonna start playing again get something else for bashing around on and only bring her out on special occasions (not went your drunk...that's went the dings seem to majically apear!). Wait and see what she's worth on you 60th birthday...you'll be glad ya did. She's a beauty! I wish I had one just like it.

It's not bad but I think it needs more skulls! Nah jokin', wicked guitar man. A metalheads dream.

hey thanks for the Tutorial...nice and simple, gives me confidence that it's not that hard. Much appreciated. (nice guitar too )

I was torn between 2 and 3. I went for the slightly brighter one (3). I agree mostly with what Wez said, only I ended up chosing the 3rd. I thought 1 had the least "life" but was still a perfectly OK sound. I actually thought 2 sounded the best on it's own (particularly clean) But I try to consider what it will sound like in the context of a band and I just got the feeling that 3 would slice through a rhythm section a little better (maybe I'd roll off some highs or use a neck PU setting for a clean solo piece like an intro..I'm sure alot of that would depend on the room you find yourself in from gig to gig as well).

hey Xan, if you haven't decided on the headstock yet... I like your usual head stock...maybe you could adapt that into a 3x3. It might like cool (and just a little out of the ordinary) with 3 on the straight edge and 3 on the curved edge. I'm imagining somewhere between the "usual" one and the Jackson. You may need to frig with the overall downward angle a bit so the bottom 3 strings don't angle to far south. But hey, it's a thought (and you did ask for some )

mate! Search the forum (there's a search button in the top right corner), lots of the guys on this site are great teachers (not me, I'm a newbie too) but it's a bit disrespectful to ask them to give up there time to retype all the info they've already given out on other threads when all you have to do is 5 or 10 minutes of searching to find just about everthing you could ever want to know about building a guitar. I hardly ever ask questions cos I find that most can be answered with a quick search, there's so much greta info here. Use it.

WOW! I'm doing almost exactly the same thing! I have an old Hondo LP copy that is a flat top and I've run it through a thicknesser and I'll putting a drop on it. My top will be a book matched pair and I'll be doing a dark sunburst finish. I'll also be putting a new set of pickups in it. As for your questions, as a newbie myself I wont answer any just cos I don't feel qualified yet I will say this though, expect to get some resistance to this project from a few blokes cos it's not exactly the easiest or the most sensible way to to do it. AND don't expect it to be as straight forward as a dropping a top on, painiting it and playing it. You well need to consider important things like neck angle since the thickness of the guitar will effect the height at which your bridge is gonna sit in relation to the depth of the neck pocket. If this is something you haven't considered or you're not across all the details of neck angle there is some great info pinned on this forum to help you work it out. I'd also say if you're just going for a new look that's cool, but if you're hoping its gonna sound better, it probably wont unless you wack some pickups in it that are specific to the era you're going for. The last thing I'd say is that I thought the carve top on all the LP's of that era were made of maple (mahogany body/maple top)(I MIGHT BE WRONG!). You mentioned you had the Mahogany to laminate to your body. Without a maple top your LP probably wont sound much like a '50's LP. Just something to consider. (I should note that my one is gonna have Australian Blackwood top NOT a maple top...but then I'm not trying to emulate the '50 sound, I'm going for something a little different). Good luck with it...I'll be watching with interest. I'll be posting a thread for my own rebuild pretty soon maybe we can learn a thing or two from each other.

Well guys, I just found the answer to all my problems! I did sooo many google searches for MusicMan string spacings and the answer was on the EB FAQ page all the time! Don't you hate that! So, in case you're interested... The string spacing for a 4string Stingray is 3/4" which is the same as the the Fender bridges and heaps of others (or maybe they are 19mm which is 0.05mm different...eh? close enough to the same for this discussion anyway) soooo, that means it's pretty much standard string spacing anyway. Therefore my options are greatly increased from what I was thinking. Apparently it's the 5string which has a less coventional spacing so no worries until I start the 5 string version in a few months. Thanks guys..Jon, I hadn't considered the unslotted option...it will be something to consider for the future cheers, SB

Hey Fellas, I'm designing a bass and Iwant to use a Nordstrand MM4.2 pickup at the bridge. I'm wondering how much string spacing will effect the performance of the pickup. In other words, how accurately to the strings need to sit over the poles? I'm trying to work out what bridge would be best suited for the job. I'm thinking something like a Badass which I believe has spacing like a Pbass (19mm) which is different to the Stingray (which I I haven't eben able to find out the spacing for! If anyone can enlighten me it would be much appreciated) but I don't know if the difference in spacing will effect the pickups performance. I don't want to use a bridge with variable spacing if I can help it. Can anyone give me any help on this one? Should have said before: incase you didn't know Nordstrand MM4.2's are based on the pre EB MusicMan pickups in a Stingray

Geez man that looks great! I'm planning a LP rebuild for my first project where I'm gonna put a new top on... For me IT'S ABOUT THE TOP! and if mine comes out 1/2 as good as this I'll be stoked. Really nice work mate.

yep, explorer for me too. Seems it deserved a mention in the list since it's so popular I also like the Thunderbird headstock as well that's why my guitars will have a design that's somewhere between the 2 and be the greatest headstock of all time