brian d

I haven't used them, but I probably will on my next project. They're a bit pricey, but in terms of stability, they claim to be more stable etc. etc. and that is how they are marketed....not because of the headstock shape issue. I'd be interested if anyone has any insights into them before I shell out $150! (Gold hardware on the new guitar). I think they look cool too, as they don't interfere with the line of the headstock, but then they don't look like guitar tuners, which is problem for some. Regards, Brian.

Or you can use any shape headstock you like and put steinberg gearless tuners....you can put them anywhere you like on the headstock without worrying about the distance from the edge. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,...ess_Tuners.html I haven't tried them, but I'm thinking of them for my next project. Brian.

Does anyone have more detail on how to do this? The problem I can forsee is that once the pickup is in, how do you get the mounting springs inbetween the top and the tab? Thanks in advance, Brian.

I am a dentist in my day job, and I think about guitar building when I'm there too From my used bits, I've found that the ones used for denture adjustments etc will fit the dremel (but there are similar bits for the dremel anyway). The shank on the finer bits for tooth preparation is too small for any of my guitar building tools. What yool are you going to use them with? Or do I need to take my guitars to work to use those bits?

The conversion neck is 0.75" (or is it 0.875" ? ) shorter than the standard warmoth neck and is slotted for the 24.75 (24.625?) scale. That way, nut to bridge is correct length for the scale without relying on the play in the saddle adjustment. Cheers, Brian.

I can't decide on whether to use a cocobolo rosewood or madagascar rosewood fingerboard on my next guitar. Never having worked with either, my considerations are only based on what I've read, and pictures I've seen. For Cocobolo: Tone is a bit brighter (but less than ebony) which is what I want Colours go better with the top and neck wood (Goncalo Alves) It comes from South America which is emotionally more in keeping with the feel I'm going for ("Buena Vista" style music) Against Cocobolo: Difficult to glue Less stable more brittle. Have any of you built a guitar with a Cocobolo fingerboard? How real are the concerns? Any advice on how to avoid the problems? Other advantages/disadvantages I haven't listed? Thanks in advance, Brian.

I'm still a bit confused about this 24.75" scale actually needing a 24.625" scale fingerboard. If you have the shorter board, do you put the TOM at 24.75" or 24.625" (plus another 1/8" at the low E end) from the nut? Whatever the reasons are for having this compensated scale, why don't they apply to any other scale? Or do they apply, but it's easier to compensate for the intonation with non-TOM bridges, so nobody notices? Thanks in advance, Brian.

Hi group! I'm trying to decide which wood to use for a fretboard for my current project. I'd appreciate your help. Is there a difference in tonal qualities between a Madagascar Rosewood and Cocobolo? I was considering Pau Ferro as having the tonal qualities that I was looking for, but the boards I saw looked terrible with the top wood I have. Do any of you have experience with gluing a Cocobolo fretboard? I've read that Cocobolo can be a problem to glue because it is so oily. Can I do it with regular Tite-bond? If not, what with? The body wood is (according to the lumber yard) African Walnut, but it looks like the pictures I've seen of White Limba. It will have a 3/4" Goncalo Alves carved top. The neck will be 3 piece Goncalo Alves (quartersawn). Thanks for any advice you can give. Brian.

The builder of that absolute masterpiece is on this forum. I hope he lets us in on his secret. Brian.

I've seen pictures of these. They have the TOM recessed too. If the slots don't go all the way to the back ferrules (and that can be quite a way), then wouldn't the string cut into the wood somewhere? Brian.

If you go to the gibson site www.gibson.com and look at any particular model, it will list the thickness of the neck at the first and 12th frets. (for example the SG standard neck is 0.818" thick at the first fret, and 0.963" at the 12th) If you draw out your neck profile, there will be a straight line between those thicknesses and continuing to your heel, so you get the thickness at any point on the neck. Hope this is what you were looking for. Brian.

Like Primal said, you can use a TOM. Just remember that if you do any strings through body, you need ferrules at the back of the body, and if you use a bridge not specifically designed for strings through body (like a TOM) you'll need ferrules for the front of the body to stop the strings cutting into the wood. I know that guitarfetish has the back ferrules. StewMac has the front ones (and the back ones). Have fun with it, Brian.

I think the nut would be more of an issue than the headstock. Some necks have reversed headstocks anyway, so it wouldn't really be such a problem to leave the headstock as is (or go for a 3 per side headstock). The nut slots need to be the correct depths for each string....deeper for the bass strings. Depending on the nut, you'll either need to get a new nut, fill the deeper nut slots and refile the nut slots, or possibly - with a heck of a lot of luck - you may be able to just take the nut out and turn it around. In any case you'll have to check that the slots in the nut are correct in your lefty set up. Cheers, Brian D.

But I'm looking at Fender's site --they're all on the same scale (25.5", 648mm)...so that 'should' mean that I can use either neck, right? ← Not necessarily. The scale length is from the nut to the bridge. If the neck is 21 frets, with no overhang (assuming that the neck ends at fret 21) it will be 17.919" from the nut to the end of the neck, and 7.581" from there to the bridge (which will also be the measurement from the end of the neck pocket to the bridge). If the neck is 22 frets with overhang, it will probably be the same, with the extra fret overhanging the end of the pocket. However if the neck is 22 frets without overhang, it will be 18.344" from nut to end of the neck. If you put it in the same body as the other necks, your intonation will be out, as the actual neck is longer that the others. IOW, if the neck has the same scale as the previous neck (ie distance between each fret on one is the same as on the other), and the distance from the nut to the end of the neck is the same, then you can interchange them. If not, then not. Cheers, Brian.

Hey idch, I agree with you and Wes that the quality of build is of utmost importance, and the choice of bridge is secondary (or tertiary, or maybe quaternary?) in influencing the tone of the guitar. You were almost correct when you noted that when I said that strings through body will give more influence of the wood on the tone that it was "someone repeating what someone else repeated what someone else repeated etc." I learned it (along with the theory behind it) from an accredited master luthier, and it makes sense. My personal experience is too limited to support the concept, although FWIW, it does. I made no secret of the fact that I'm a newbie. My luthier friend, however, isn't. That said, he also said that the pickup has the most influence on the tone of the guitar followed by scale length, choice of woods (and of course the string itself), and that bridge construction plays an extremely subtle role. I know it's hard to prove one way or another considering that with an organic medium like wood, there's no way you can control all the variables enough to do a proper comparison. You may disagree with him that the bridge construction plays any role at all in the tone of the guitar - I think it's great that different builders do different things, but I'm going to make it one of the considerations when I choose a bridge. (right after stability in tuning, ease of use and appearance). Vive la difference! Brian.

Anyone know anything about this "system" for fret dressing? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...7&rd=1&tc=photo Brian.

Hello Matt, Apart from the ferrules at the top of the body, you need different ferrules for the back. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardware,_part...g_Ferrules.html There's another recent thread about drilling the holes for the strings through body ferrules....you should read it if you decide to go in that direction. The ferrules don't really do anything significant for the sound. The back ones hold the string in at the back, and the front ones stop the string from cutting into the wood at the top. The tone comes from the downwards pressure the strings put on the bridge, not from the ferrules. That applies to any brand of TOM. The TonePros TOM has the advantage of locking posts...that is, there is a locking connection between the bridge body and the posts, so the vibrations travel better to the wood. And TonePros has fantastic customer service too. Very helpful folk there. Hope this helps, Cheers, Brian.

Well, bass strings are generally intonated further from the nut than treble, so I would guess that heavier gague strings would have the same concept, and you'd need to lenthen the strings. Also, if you don't re-adjust the action with the truss rod, there will be bowing of the neck resulting in a slightly shorter effective string length and more stretch on the string when fretted, so you'd have to compensate for that with the intonation. All in all, I'd say just put on the strings, re-adjust the action and do your set the intonation as required without worrying too much about what theoretically should need to be done to it. Regards, Brian.

FWIW (I'm a newb, after all) for the sound I'm looking for at the moment, I wouldn't choose either. Of the 2, I prefer the look of the one piece, but I believe that the 2 piece will deliver more of the vibrations to the body and get more of the tonal influence from the wood. This is because the with the 1 piece the pressure from the strings onto the bridge is toward the nut, so the pressure from the bridge to the wood is basically on the posts away from the neck. The 2 piece has pressure from the strings pushing down on the bridge into the wood, so you get more vibrations into the wood and more colour from the wood. If you do strings through body instead of a tailpiece, there would be even more pressure going down onto the bridge allowing more influence of the wood. That's what I would choose (and what I'm planning to do for my next guitar) unless I have some misconceptions that someone would correct. BTW, I'm using a TonePros TOM since you mentioned that money doesn't matter. More expensive than the Gotoh's but I think it will give a better sound. Cheers, Brian.

check out http://www.tonepros.com/Products.htm almost at the end. the model is called AVT2. it's also at http://wdmusicproducts.com/Merchant2/merch...egory_Code=TPWA As to "normal" TOM's what's you're opinion of tailpiece vs strings through body? Regards, Brian

Wes, do you mean the tone pros wrap around better than tone-pros TOM with strings through body, or better than other brands wrap around? If the latter, which do you think is better between the wrap-around vs strings through body? Cheers, Brian. ← i have no clue what you are trying to ask... ← Hello Wes, Sorry if my question wasn't clear. You wrote that the TonePros is worth the extra $. My question is which tone pros (wrap around or with separate tailpiece) and worth the extra $ compared to what. In other words, do you think that the Tone Pros wrap around is better than using a "regular" Tone Pros TOM bridge with strings through body instead of a tailpiece? Which do you prefer between a Tone Pros TOM without a tailpiece compared to a (for example) Gotoh wraparound? I know the topic has morphed a bit, but I am interested in your opinion. The guitar I'm planning at the moment will have a Tone-Pros TOM with strings through body, but it's not too late to change it to a tail piece. Regards, Brian.

Wes, do you mean the tone pros wrap around better than tone-pros TOM with strings through body, or better than other brands wrap around? If the latter, which do you think is better between the wrap-around vs strings through body? Cheers, Brian.

Have a look at the TonePros AVT 2 also (http://www.tonepros.com/Products.htm) if you want a combined TOM/tailpiece. They have beautifully made products with exceptionally good customer service. BTW, why do you want a combined bridge/tailpiece? Is it an issue of sound, or aesthetics? Have you considered a TOM bridge with strings through body? That combination should give you more of the character of the wood than the combined bridge/tailpiece like the Gotoh 510 or AVT2. Regards, Brian.

Good point. Thanks, I've learned something. I'm glad I worded my "suggestion" as a question, not as if I really knew the answer. Brian.