jmrentis

Matt, Thanks I saw purpleheart cheap at my local shop and their counter top was made of it and it looks like it ages real well, and the guy said it stains good. Are you buying your ziricote from Fryovanni? Looks good. Today I also saw a wood called Cocobolo, this wood looks awesome to me, some pieces were two tone length wise, it would have made a killer fretboard. One half was very pale like maple and the other was dark like ebony. Have you every looked into using this stuff? I wonder if it would make good fretboard material. What is your weapon of choice for shaping your necks? Thanks again Matt! Jason

Matt, still lookin good. I saw today in a book that purpleheart has a heavier gravity than rock maple and the weight varied from lighter to quite a bit heavier. Does it feel hard. Hard enough for a neck? Have any of you done this? Pics? Would there be any downfalls to use it as a neck?By the way what are you going to do as a fretboard? Keep us updated. Jason

Thanks everybody for the guidence. I have done a lot of digging around on this site and others, and I see what you mean. I'm sure now that it is the soft Red maple. I guess thats the way things go, no better way to learn than make mistakes. But I went out today and purchased some Rock maple from a local store, they were a bit expensive, but I got to choose my own piece. I figure that I could still use this wood for maybe laminating a couple more necks or something. If worst comes to worst I'll build a perch for my bird LOL. At least his cage would look good. Coulg this be used as a veneer on a headstock possibly. Like a thin piece on top for some looks? Thanks again everyone! Jason

Hey Mike I have a quetion or two for you. I hope its cool to ask you here and I don't mean to interrupt anything. Well I just bought a 6/4 piece of maple with light figuring of curly nature and one end has a slight crack like end checking I guess. It is only like an inch and I left about 4 inches to work with, its 30 inches total length. This wood is dry,so do I need to worry about any further checking? And when I cut it should I clamp it to keep it from spreading the crack down the board? The piece of wood was like 18 feet and this was the end, so I don't think its anything to worry about. I got really lucky because the store I got it from was charging $18.79 b/ft for Birdseye and $20 for curly in 12/4 Very expensive in my eyes, I live in san diego, if someone know of a cheaper or better place than Cut and Dry Hardwoods. This wood was from the normal rock maple and it has some nice but minor curling in it. By the way Mike your work is superb and I will probably need your guidence further down the line. Thanks for your time. Jason

What is the measurement from the nut to the base of the heal if there is an overhang or to the end of the fretboard if there isn't an overhang? I don't think the amount of frets is the issue, I think it's the distance from the nut to the saddles like as Mike stated above. I think I've seen 24 fret guitar at Stew Mac site for 25 1/2 inch scale and at the same time you could only have 21 frets I think. I could be wrong but this is my thought. Good luck and let us know the measurements and maybe we can help you further! Jason

Nevermind I bought a black F spaced Dimarzio Tone Zone on Ebay brand new for $30. Great deal! Anyone own a Tone Zone? How do you like it? What did you match it up with? Jason

I will soon be doing a neck from curly maple, its red maple so it will need some different care in finishes I'm sure. I know this wood is not first choice in a neck wood,but I will be doing a birdseye neck at the same time, so I can compare the two different maples and just incase the red maple is too flimsy. What would be the best to help make it strong and stable while bringing out the best in figuring. I will probably go for an ebony fretboard and a walnut or sapele stripe. If anyone has any other suggestions let me know. This isn't set in stone if you have a better idea for fretboards or skunk stripes put them down. Thanks for your time and input. Jason

He stated that it was eastern rock maple, but after he put red maple. I've searched on this site about the use of different maples for necks and it seems that most commonly only rock maple is used. I ended up just grabbing a piece anyways just to formulate my own opinion. If anything I could always just sell it. All of his piece went easily enough. He also said it felt as hard as the any other maple. I guess hardness and stability are two different things though. If I ended up using it, I would use a good truss rod, a strong stripe, and a very stiff fret board like ebony. And probably cut it a little thick, because I have big hands and my ibanez neck seems a little thin for me, I'm so used to my gibson acoustics neck which is quite a bit thicker. So I should be alright you think? I'm going to also buy a piece of birdeye and do them at the same time so I can get a direct comparison. Does anyone have any pics of red maple necks completed, if so how did it turn out? Would you do it again? Any tips that I should know about? Thanks for everyones help. Its really great to get many opinions, to be able to hear everyones experiences and make good decision based on multiple opinions. Sorry for the novel! Jason

Hey guys I have a question about this ebayers curly maple. He says it from vermont, would this be considered the hard maple(sugar maple). I feel that it is not for the reason that for the size of a normal neck blank the weight is usually 6-10lbs depending on exact dimensions and moisture level. All of the wood I saw was 2-4 lbs. Also it has great curl in it, I know that the hard maple can have curl but this is pretty strong figuring usually foung in soft maple. I emailed him and asked but have yet received an answer. I stopped myself from buying some, partly because I wasn't sure and I also found a local hardwood shop, a little expensive but I can pick and choose what I want. Anyways let me know your professional opinions on this stuff. Thanks for the help!Jason I hope this link works! barneygrad04

Hey Matt, that top I think would be perfect. What wood are you going to use for the top? Maybe you could do a thin top and then add a few strips that would extend from mid body down to the tips of the wings. Kinda look like sharp ribs. Like 2 down each side. Starting about where the bridge would be and curving with the wings. One that extends down to the longest point, and the other would go to the next short point. Lookin good Matt keep us drooling with the updates. Is oak ever considered for neck wood? Is it hard enough or too hard or just right? Jason

......................................damn, I'm speechless! That guitar has an incredible look and design. Even better than I was expecting. And that was incredibly quick. Now thats truly the work of a great artist. I still think it would be cool to incorperate the W or M instead of flying V. It just reminds me of a W with the cutout in the center. But flying W would sound dumb so you would have to come up with a whole new idea. Like a Rippin W or Wicked W or something like that. Something fresh. I know its probably too similar in shape, but I still think it would be a nice change. You could do a whole new line of designs with the names that you like such as the tormentor, the claw, and all the other that have crossed your mind. It would really be a great product for the metal and rock community. I think alot of the V designs are boring and old. Your designs are really a great stride in the right direction. I think alot of people would really like to have these options, something a little darker, more metal and meaner. So keep it up so we have some better suited guitars for our kind. Jason

I am looking for a Dimarzio Tone Zone F spaced white, or Air Norton F spaced white new or used. Or a TB 4 by seymour duncan in white. TB4 is a trembucker in the SH4 JB model it has bigger pole spacing. New or used.

How about Jagged Dagger

On headstock ideas has anybody done something similar to steve vai's jem the handle part. I don't think it would quite fit this guitar but it might. Although the headstocks shape would be better sharpened and more triangular. I was going to draw it out but I don't know what to use and how to post it(copy and paste?). Someone let me know if this has been done. For a name what about TM The Tormenting Mayhem. Too long probably. Jason

Matt, check out inlays and finishing chat, LGM guitar I think. He does great work, I think the thread is Mirror Finish or something along those lines. He posted some pics and info on what he uses. With your designs and his finishes, I don't know if I would play the guitar or put it in a glass case on display. You two could make some serious guitars. Good luck with your project. Jason

Jeremy, Thank you much.I don't mind a little hard work to get the results you obtain. They are truly amazing. I had removed the logo when I replaced the tuners. I thought it looked nice just straight black. There is however a shadow left from the logo, that you can see from some angles, so sanding it back would probably be the best way to go. The original paint almost looks like a layer of plastic, is this how it looks when your finished, like glossy plastic? Its probably all the clear coats that makes this effect, but it seems strange to me. Again thanks for all the help and keep up the fantastic work. Jason

Quick question, I have a small chip in my headstock and I'd like to repair it and refinish it, I know I will have to sand it down but how far, to be able to do a finish like that, it's already black and thats what I want to keep. Will I have to sand past the color and start from scratch or will the base paint be ok? You do great work, hope to get a couple pointers. THANKS. Jason

Great stuff matt. For names I was thinking something like Metal Mayhem, Wicked Metal, Wicked Warrior or any combo of them. I know one word name are more dramatic though. Also with the cutout in the bottom, the part people were childishly calling ballsacs, with the point it comes to you could consider it a W or M instead a V. W would be very cool. You could call it a Wicked W instead of flying V, start a whole new idea. And on the inlay, maybe at the 12th fret have a pair of interlocking W's. WW like that but slightly overlapping. Any conbo of W or M could work, WM,MW,MM. Anyway keep doing what you do best it's very inspirational. Good Luck and keep the updates coming, its great seeing the progress first hand. Just noticed you could use your screen name like Matt's Metal. Jason

Hey Jera, I actually bought one of those guitars recently for a experimental project. I attempt everything I wanted to do to guitars on this one first so when I do them on my more expensive ones I won't screw them up. I took mine down to the local music shop to buy the allen wrench for the saddles, (I lost mine) and the guys working there were completely blown away. For the $149.99 I paid for it online, they felt that it was great the finish was fantastic, tha action was super low with only very minor buzz on the low E, the neck was right on the money all the way down. So I know how you feel that these guitar are not crap. But I do agree that after the 6 years you had it, it might be time for some replacements and/or upgrades. If the neck is ok then I would start at the nut. As far a replacing the bridge I would like to change to a fixed bridge as well. If you don't mind drilling a couple holes in your guitar, then maybe take a look at custom shop parts, the Drop Top Convertible. The pickups and tremelo are not so good on those guitars. BTW is the name a GRX20. Good Luck, let me know how it turns out. Jason

Sorry that quote you put was more of a question, I'm still a little unsure that without the string trees that my angle is enough. I've even had my high E string slip out of the nut when I was wiping the guitar down. So if there is anymore input it would help a lot. BTW these tuners are a great improvement on stock tuners and gets rid of multiple windings on the posts. I have a set of gold grovers on my acoustic and I like like those a lot too, no complaints what so ever, but I feel the locking feature is a vast improvement for any tuners. As far as the staggering goes it seems to be very little in size difference, possibly not enough to lose the string trees. A good concept none the less. Jason

Thank you MrChurchyard that was what I was thinking but I just couldn't be sure. So with staggered Sperzels there's no need for string trees. The angle to the short posts is big enough to have no need for the trees? Somewhere I read that you can take them off when you put the Sperzels on, but wasn't sure if the angle was ok, because my headstock isn't angled. It sits back do to the truss rod adjustment, but its parallel to the fingerboard. Anyway thank you very much for your answer it helped out a lot.

My friend didn't know, he hasn't seen them with two sizes. And like I posted I couldn't get any pictures with the right angle and detail. I searched all over from guitar building sites, product pages and everything in between. But thank you for your very useful information.

I need some help, I took off my string trees on my Ibanez and now I would like to put them back on but I don't recall which of the two go closest to the nut, the short one or the tall one, my guess is the tall one goes closest to the nut. I took them off because I got the staggered Sperzel locking tuners(which are great) and I figured I take them off because I didn't feel I needed them anymore, but a fellow musician let me know that it's better to have them to get the angle from the nut which helps with a few things such as tuning and string breakage. So now that I want to put them back on I can't remember which one goes where, I looked all over the net and couldn't find that info or a close enough picture to see that detail. Thanks for your much neede info.

Is there any way to get the bottom end more pronounced, like maybe use a different type of wood, or make the body a little bit thicker?

I just wanted to get some opinions on everybodies favorite model of Gibson SG? It doesn't matter if it's new, vintage or reissue. I see so many models and I would like some experienced opinions of the pros and cons of all the different types. Also would like to know if there is any company that does a SG type kit to build? Thanks for your valuable information. Jason