SJE-Guitars

the front inlay was just a moment of madness cum inspiration not a goof cover up - I have previous photos without the inlay dots. They were laid out on the body to kind of mimic the grain and also with the pattern I actually was considering putting a star in the centre between the HBs the dots being the tail but once I inlaid the dots I thought I like it as it is - so stopped at that point.

OK, I were just thinking out loud. I remembered Mickguards Tele from waaayyy back were he inlayed some starts to cover up a goof, so that's were that question came from. I hope I didn't offend you as it wasn't my intention...

Certainly no offense taken!

Forgot to mention, the one thing i found wrong is that the strings are too high above the freatboard and T-O-M don't have any room to be lower... (hope i am mistaking).

http://www.devansdesign.com/files/semiholl...mihollowTop.jpg

I think you're right as there is no neck angle - but the neck has been left higher to try an compensate but doesn't look like it's quite enough . . .

Well as I said in the my post I'll just make up the numbers as it was blatantly obvious who was/is going to be the runaway winner. Davee5 got my vote - regardless I'd never vote for my own work!

Just to clarify the front inlay was just a moment of madness cum inspiration not a goof cover up - I have previous photos without the inlay dots. They were laid out on the body to kind of mimic the grain and also with the pattern I actually was considering putting a star in the centre between the HBs the dots being the tail but once I inlaid the dots I thought I like it as it is - so stopped at that point.

As for the shape - it actually started out looking far different but the design was just done out of my head rather than copying the strat shape directly. How it compares dimension wise I really do not know!

Ok then you lucky people . . .

After a bit of messing around with screws - which still aren't perfect I really need to get the ones I want sent over from the UK . . here are some not so great pics from my phone!

Here is the bridge disassembled showing the bushes and studs in the body - you might notice the studs are slightly smaller than the studs, there is a reason for this!

So drop the bridge on . . .

and now lock it down . . .

and all is revealed . . .

As you can see even for a flush mounted bridge all you need to do is recess the bushes a few mm and volla . . or course the lower string side will end up being raised up for the playing action.

A few things aren't quite perfect with the machine work done - such as then not doing a slot in the stud top to allow the adjustment of bridge height with a screwdriver and obviously the screws and nuts aren't prefect these need sorting out. But as initial samples go it's not bad at all.

Go on then I'll make up the numbers and see if I can beat my previous nil pwaa!

Name wise . . erm how about 'The lesser spotted ironwood superstrat'

The specs are a solid bookmatched part flamed and figured Burmese Ironwood (Xylia Xylocarpa) body, the neck is a 1 piece quartersawn Afzelia Xylocarpa with a Laos Rosewood fretboard (also know as Burmese Blackwood - latin name Dalbergia Cultrata), the control knobs and the pickup rings are matching Laos Rosewoods. All inlay dots are Abalone.

Pickups are neck Seymour Duncan APH-1 Custom (by me . . replacing the Alnico2 with an Alnico5) the bridge is a SD SH-3 StagMag, bridge is a recessed Gotoh T-o-M and the 5 way is a Megaswitch-E for coil tapping the Stag Mag, the tuners are Schaller Mini Compacts and the nut is solid sunbleached Lao Buffalo bone.

Even the body is ironwood it has a very similar density to rosewood so have a very resonant tone and strumming the guitar unplugged you can feel the vibration through the body. It keeps the very bright StagMag well undercontrol and gives a real nice single coil quack tone when tapped.

Finish wise - dye black & sanded back to pick out the grain, sanded to 2000grit, then several layers a hardening wax (kind of danish oil), each layer smoothed with sanding sponge then waxed, giving a natural and gloss finish.

No build thread but the headstock was voted for in this thread: The Voting . .

So without further ado . . pictures!

Others:

Full - from back

Back of Headstock

Close up Neck pickup and ring

Back of body

Difference angle of body

Rosewood Knobs!

Ok folks for anyone interested in bits - I am now intending to take orders as people want for whatever sizes they require.

I have now confirmed shipping costs and they are:

One bit - $7 - anywhere

Two bits - $10 - anywhere

Three bits - $15 - anywhere

These are standard airmail shipping which take around 1 week.

If you want the quicker and insured EMS then the costs are more dependant on which country you are in:

Example

One bit - US - $25 UK & N.Europe - $27

Two bits - US - $28 UK & N.Europe - $30

Three bits - US - $30 UK & N.Europe - $32

So you pays the money you take the choice!

I'm confused to what the sad state of affairs is?!!

You live in a country where you can buy any tools online and have them dropped on your doorstep!

If you want a sad state of affairs try living in a country where it's impossible to buy ANY quality hand tools without importing them!

This why I have taken to drilling my control holes from the top of the straight through the body before routing out the cavity.

Very easy to do something like this particularly when tops and backs are involved. Sure does sucks when it happens!

You haven't lived until you've had an ironwood splinter - that always end up going in real deep!

The other day I shaped up my Siam rosewood neck for my 8 string and the dust from that was EVIL! It actually stung on my skin . . and shaping the back of a neck it's pretty impossible to avoid creating dust.

On the flip side of this thread on the thing I least like doing I think it would be shaping the back of necks . .

Have you re-adjusted the intonation on the FR for the 11s?

I started playing guitars with floating FRs and personally speaking I hate the damn things - in floating setup especially. My favoured setup much like Mr Edward Van Halen is whack the FR flush with the body and have 4 springs on the thing to keep the damn thing stable.

It'll stay in tune even with no end of whammy divebombs - however no screaming harmonic pull ups . . which for me as I only really play rhythm mean nothing.

I still have a Peavey EVH with FR but I've barely picked it up over my own guitars, sure it's a real nice production guitar the with build quality being far better anything Gibson or Fender can muster but it just doesn't do 'it' for me these days. Even though it's an original US built EVH from the first run when Peavey started building them not one of the later lesser models. The pickups in it are really rather silly - both the neck is 18.5k and bridge is 20.5k . . . I was rather amazed when I checked them with multimeter!

At least a 75mm wide blank would be needed for the standard 74mm string spaced bridges.

Bump . .

Just in case those who need to see it don't see it down in classified section.

For those who ordered . . .

Top 4 - 12", bottom 2 left - 9.5" and bottom 2 right - 16"

Tomorrow I'll double check the shipping costs and the Paypal invoices will be posted. Cheers!

The 2 x 16" radius bits are still up for sale - any takers?

Completely height adjustable and solid as a rock locked onto the screws. Even with the locking nuts there is very little moments due to the the tighter tolerances it is machines for.

I recieved the bridge today and it is pretty damn perfect - a few minor point on the design to be changed before any production run would occur. Also I need to nip to the nut & bolt shop here to get the type of screws for the saddle adjust I want - they ones they've used are what I wanted. Also on the note of the saddle screws they are wider screws (M3) than any of the Gotoh or Gibson thing t-o-m (M2 or 2.5 depending on the model). Once these are done I'll get some better pictures of the it up.

Recessed T-o-M you say . . . hmmm just think if there was a T-o-M designed with a flat bottom and bushes that don't protude from underneath the body of the brigde allowing to have a flush fitting recess pocket without needing to modify stud or bushes . . .

. . . I mean just how good would that be . . .

Should have the bridge today - then I am going to discuss it with several companies - including a 6 string version - I am pretty sure a 6 string version of my bridge could be placed straight on a body and intonate perfectly (obviously I need to get a sample made and test it to confirm this claim!)

Is an 8 string TOM really a good idea? The intonation room is going to be very tight.

It looks fine to my eye. Dropping the whole bridge position back so the minimum intonation point for the high E coincides with the saddle at it's furthest forward point, and angling the bass side back by ~3mm looks like more than enough "hard wired" compensation.

And/or you could make the width of T-o-M wider and ensure that the saddles are positioned so they protrude higher out of the bridge bodies and have a lower bridge body so that with Ferrules you virtually the full saddle adjustment with out the strings dragging on the bridge body . . . ahem . . . well I guess someone could do that!

Oops my bad . . . I flick from the above picture to the next and didn't notice pocket - it was early . . that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Good job . . .

You put a nut on the back of the pot shaft,and adjust it to whatever "height" you wish...then it is double nutted and very stable..

+1! You sure do . . then the switch I route or drill (if Gibson style switch) on the inside of the pocket rather than the top - doing this keeps the switch lever higher out of the body top.

Check the datestamp on your pic....unless that's the Buddhist calendar in which case it's slow.... X-D

D'OH!

Is an 8 string TOM really a good idea? The intonation room is going to be very tight.

That'll be why I've re-designed it from scratch . . .

In that picture it might look the same as 6 or 7 string but it ain't!

Once I get it and have had time to test it out I'll reveal all.

21 years . . the cheek!

I am assured by the machining company that a production run would be quick and easy now the initial sample pain is over - well that is as long as when I get it all is ok. I'd be making a trip down to the company to oversee any production run. I am starting to speak with possible distributors so fingers crossed this could be a bit more than just a custom order at a machine shop.

I would have gone the other way and made the body pointier if I were going to modify something.

Those pics were taken within the hour of applying the CA, there has been no sanding done yet.

All I'm trying to do with the CA is solidify the wood and even out the playing field before I switch to lac.

Only because it's easier to sand and re-apply more CA than it is to shoot coat after coat of lac to achieve a level finish,

so I'm making the CA do double-duty so-to-speak.

The CA will just be sanded to 220 before switching over.

You wouldn't want to make it too smooth, you want the lac to have something to bite into

to give a good mechanical adhesion since there is no chemical adhesion taking place

between the two dissimilar finishes.

Ahh I thought you were using the CA for the finish . . . that's what my intentions for the burl topped body I have in the works.

Yeah ditto above - string gauge only really comes into things when you're down tuning for example a certain Mr Iommi -uses Ultra light 8s - (008p, .008p, .011p, .018w, .024w, .032w.) but still has a huge sound. It all comes down to personally preference for me I moved up from 9-42s to 10-46s recently and have to say I far prefer the slightly tauter feel of them over the 9-42s.

When I very first picked up an electric guitar I started using Dean Markley Ultra Light 8s - however I snapped no end of the 8s by very slightly over tightening the Floyd Rose locking nuts I just gave up with them! Strangely just moving to 9s the snapping of the strings on the locking nut stopped - not a whole lot thicker but it just seemed my FR locking nuts didn't like the 8s! Anyway the point being that even with tiny 8s you can have a full on metal sound no problem you just need to find a gauge you like the feel of.

I still like Dean Markley Nickelsteels but cannot get them over this way however I've never like D'Addarios - don't ask me why for some reason I just don't like neither the sound or feel. Rotosounds are excellent strings also.

Oh yes! The 8 string T-o-M is on it way . . and should be in my grubby hands for Wednesday at the latest.

Also talking with the producers about Chrome, Black and gold plated versions . . so watch this space for possible production models!

Yep seen them even tried one out considering to buy it back in the day - but I still don't think the point headstock suits the body!

Sure the Jackson headstock is pretty iconic from the late 80s & early 90s and the way the finished their guitars were always aimed towards the metal crowd - floyd rose, shark tooth inlays, darker colour schemes and also their bodies for the whole were sharp edged no roundovers . . all in all more aggressive. Now put the Jackson headstock on the old Marty Friedman signature body and you have one of my favourite guitars - ever!

For me the strat headstock is somewhat dull not ugly but nothing to set the world on fire and I aren't a fan of non-angled headstocks.

...but it doesn't bother me, I rather like it.

and there inlies the most important thing! I think sometimes on this board people often end up making something that is to other peoples tastes opposed to there own, sure it's nice to have opinions and many critical eyes can help - but also it can hinder people into striving to impress other people rather than building something for themselves.

As I said for me it doesn't suit the body but also I've never liked splayed string pulls even though I'm a thrasher as heart and was bought up on bands who played basically nothing but Jacksons! But either way it's still a great looking guitar.

It is just me or is there a bit of a rough patch of CA under the bottom 2 controls? Do you use micromesh pads for the CA finish?