trubl

Trubl - The black grain filler in solid white finish made this instrument one of my favourites this month, just not completely sold on the extra long 8-on-a-side headstock in conjuction with the long scale length. Coupled with the thru-body string installation I would imagine finding a set of strings long enough for this guitar is a challenge!

this was a commissioned build. the headstock was designed exactly to specification of this instrument's respective owner. I wanted a 4x4 or a 5x3 headstock but he insisted on inline 8 reverse.

strings are available through labella... their crazy 8 strings are an off-shelf fit. I'm also in talks with a few sting companies to get custom sets made up as well.

Timpson 8 String ERG

Specs:

Ash body

5 piece neck - maple/wenge, single truss rod, dual carbon graphite reinforcements, tung oil finish

pao ferro fingerboard, 24 stainless steel frets

28.5" scale

hipshot bridge and locking tuners

bone nut

white nitrocellulose lacquer with black grain enhancement

bone nut

TDM Pickups (my brand) custom made humbuckers with EMG style covers

single volume, single tone, 3 way switch

the scale is a porky 28.5" to me it feels almost bass-like. the width of the neck is massive... same nut/heel specs as the ibanez rg2228 but 1" longer in scale.

as far as the finish goes, what I did was i dyed the top and bottom black and sanded it back, keeping the dye inside of the grain lines. Then i sprayed 3 coats of pretty heavily pigmented lacquer, thinned about 5%. The trick there was to get coverage but not a heavy build. Then I laid 3 coats of sealer over top of the white to provide a durable working surface and then colored the grain in with black wax inlay filler (the stewmac kind), wiped the excess with a paper towel and then removed any splotches on the white with a piece of super fine steel wool (hence the reason for the sealer)... then came 6 sealer coats and 5 lacquer coats. the thing about pre-dying the wood is i found that with a light build of base coats, the majority of the black still stick out although i did a post filling so it was possibly done in vain. I tried various methods before i found this, though... tinted grain filler was just messy and ruined the white and relying on dye alone under the white base coats didn't work out to my advantage either... so it was definitely a learning experience. i gave it to my customer and left for a business trip to oklahoma but when i get back, he wants luminlay side dots and i have to make a truss rod cover along with figuring out a logo design for the headstock...

My makeshift polishing setup: (don't try this at home! - Not recommended!)

LoL i've done this! but i mounted the buffer sideways and held it in place with a C clamp so i could do the buffing dance with a body i was making

ash body, maple/wenge/mahogany neck, TDM 8 Ball SHO humbucker with coil split tone pot, TDM Vintage Heavy series single coil, tung oiled body and neck

left handed bass, poplar body, curly maple top, wenge neck, Lawrence humbuckers (only store bought pickups i've ever used), push/pull pots in both tone controls for a real variety of sounds, hand rubbed dye finish, lacquer clear

mahogany body, maple top double cutaway, TDM Heavy Vintage humbucker and SHO humbucker, coil split on the bridge pickup, mahogany neck, pao ferro fingerboard... first guitar made (you've probably seen this one)

7 string V bass. 7 piece maple/wenge neck, ash body, birds eye maple fretboard, dunlop 4100 size fret wire, blue LEDs and fiber optic side dots (they light up too), hipshot bridge and hipshot ultralite tuners (love love love them)

just posted a thread about this 8 string... not going to reiterate

Been a while since i've been on here. just wanted to post up the latest and greatest.

Specs:

2 piece ash body

bolt on, 5 piece neck - maple/wenge

pao ferro fingerboard

custom made TDM Pickups 8 string humbuckers, plastic EMG style covers

Hipshot bridge, hipshot locking tuners

bone nut

stainless steel fret wire

I can do 27.5 and 28.5 scales (with more coming soon) for $40 for maple

Fan#%$&*!~tastic I love everything about it, now go shred on that thing

as brian adams once said... "played it til my fingers bled"... I haven't played 3+ hours in a day in about 14 years... my left hand hates me right now. the more i play it, the more I want to play it. The tung oil finished neck feels like i'm playing silk. there's zero drag. the only drag is i can never find a buyer for these things... but that's okay... the longer i keep them the longer i can play them

the pickups are pretty much as unbalanced as you can get... the single coil is 5.7k dcr with 42awg heavy formvar wire, alnico 5 magnets and the bridge pickup is a 14.6k, 43awg poly wire, alnico 8 with a push/pull split... in single coil mode, the pickup jangles nicely and has similar output to the single but in humbucker mode it's eardrum shattering loud and has a wiked midrange "chug" sound. I may toy with different magnets to see which one i like best in it... I just wanted to build something with a tremolo, a single coil and with a tung oil finish to partner up with the other guitars i've been making which have all been fixed bridge, dual humbuckers...

all in all i'm quite pleased with this guitar... hopefully i can find an interested buyer for it

nah... just alternating positions... nothing too taxing on the brain

it's finished

if anyone is wondering what the back of the neck looks like...

progress... needs to be finished by friday in time for a show :O

man... you guys are tough... i've barely had a bite on this one

getting there...

So many posts, so little time! Here's the beginning of my third build.

Specs:

Ash body

bolt on neck - hard curly maple, wenge accent strips, african mahogany

macassar ebony fretboard

grover locking tuners

gotoh/wilkinson vs-100 tremolo system

the neck with the feather inlays are for another build... coming soon!