Myrk-

As an Ebay buyer mainly, I say that I generally don't trust custom stuff built by other people, unless its just parts. A body, or a neck, but not a whole guitar, especially when we are talking big prices (£500 upwards). Atm though can't really buy any guitars, saving for a (don't kill me) electric drumkit, which should dent my pocket a good £2000-£3000! On that note, anyone wanna buy my acoustic double bass drumkit?! lol.

Ok, so I'm not really happy with my dual EMG-81 setup. Doesn't really do what it says on the tin, but I'm sure its the wiring. Whenever I turn the volume it does nothing until its almost fully turned, then wham! Its silent. The tone switch also does nothing really- load of crap. Before I had it "rewired" by a guitar shop it was ok, and had good acoustic tone to it (which it now doesn't) :-/

Anyway, because I don't have a clue, please advise me on what pots to use etc. I really want it razor sharp and want it to pick up harmonics more, but have a nice acoustic tone to it. Also want to keep the layout the same- Volume, P.U. Switch, Volume, Tone - as I like to use my pickup switch to flick between when I turn down the volume on the other pickup (a la Megadeth Train of Consequences when played live).

Sounds like an impatient fool...

Guitarman do you know what pickups you want? Or got any in mind? Or have you already purchased one?

If you've bought one and its expensive, I'd either get someone to show you how to do it, or pay someone to instal it. Its not too hard, but its also not hard to stuff it up if you don't know what your doing. If you know how to use a soldering iron, try and find a wiring diagram of what you want to achieve. In a strat, I'm assuming you'd just rip out the current one and make its wires go to your new pickup, but I can't be sure, especially if its an EMG thingy.

Check out the sustainer thread

21.6535433 inches...

(Google is your friend just type "550mm in inches" in google and it will tell you!)

I think hes saying- USE IT AND DIE!

I never heard Mattias Eklundh complain about a crap guitar, and listen to him go? Tbh I think alot of it is in the amp rather than the guitar. I've got a good guitar, with the "best" humbuckers you can get, and on my Line6 amp it doesn't sound as good as I'd like, but on stack amps and such it sounds amazing, as does almost any guitar

I think someone posted a diagram for the dimensions of a floyd rose, which you then use to get the positions of the pillars right. You then drill a hole as Scott said, then mallet them in I believe. I have the exact same floyd rose as the one you have, with the same pillars.

I'm sorry this invention of thiers just cracks me up-

Way to really blind your audience!

Also, a question from me (not hijaking, it is relevant)- Whats the name of that guitar that has the LED's under every fret and every string, then has a knob like a tone knob where you select chords and shizzle and it lights them up?

Also I'm not sure how you would do it by making it light up, the only way I can think of would be with a light dependant diode on the underside or something, but I don't think it would work too well. You can't do it on the fret itself with pressure sensors, because as you should know the string never touches the fretboard.

"and also an idea would be maybe to use thinner fretwire.".........errrr, why ?

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Well on my warlock its got 24 frets, and the 24th just about has room for a finger, so if the number was 27, I'm sure the fret area would be getting a tad too small. Thinner fret wire would mean greater fret distance.

Wait, I have a BC Rich platinum pro thats got the bridge grounded, but the whole thing uses EMG 81's, does that mean I can remove the grounded wire? Or is there no real point?

Also I'm having trouble deciding on pickups for this guitar. Everyone always goes on about 81's being so amazing, but I have them, and I ain't so sure. My m8 had some real shitty old guitar, Ibanez GX10 I think, and that screached like hell- I remember if you put up the distortion really high and the trebble it would do harmonics on every note you played! Any suggestions on razor sharp pickups/humbuckers to use? I want something that picks up harmonics really well, cus I find doing harmonics on my EMG's a right pain compared to my crappy squier strat lol!

Also make sure you have a super dust free room, else your gunna get hairs and crap stuck in the neck finish

OK if the body is made of 3 pieces of wood (like a home-made ply of say mahogany-maple-mahogany) would it be better to use multile dowels to hold the wood together instead of glue, so as to keep a wood-wood join and keep sustain better? I've been reading about Ed Romans website about all the different sustain tricks. Seems wood-wood is best, and glue or anything just ruins the sustain.

How could you fit it perfectly without glue though without it loosening over time? Use clamping jaws on the edges that are permanently there? Like a metal bracket or something at each corner, or a special wood joint that fits in after to lock it up?

Or email these guys, see if they will help- http://www.lgmguitars.com/splash_guitars.html

They make 36 fret 8 string guitars

It would be a hole perfectly sized, it wouldn't need screws... Or, I dunno really. I've just heard of 1 guitarist who did alot of finger tapping who had a pickup in the 12th fret I think it was.

Also another idea, does wood on top of the pickup make a difference to the sound? Could a slit be carved out of the neck and a pickup placed litterally in the neck (minding the truss rod).

You sure about that? Also whats the deal with angling pickups? I've seen pictures of IA's horned apple and I think thats 27 frets with an angled pickup. Kinda like this 27 fret jackson soloist I found, except the pickup was angled with the neck angle-

Ok I'm getting close to building my first neck, but I was thinking it might be a cool idea to make it 27 frets (the latter frets mainly used for harmonics and other crazy stuff).

My question- is it actually possible to make a 27 fret neck? I'm guessing yes, of course, it would be just like a 24 neck extension but longer. The scaling doesn't concern me (working it out- I'm not affraid of a bit of maths). Just checking befor I start planning such a venture. I do know it would mean you couldn't have a double humbucker body, and also an idea would be maybe to use thinner fretwire.

What do you guys think? (less of the questions as to why you need 27 frets plz).

You'll find the Warmoth customer services to be more than unhelpful! I tried asking about thier 24 fret neck extension, whether or not it was merely an extension to the fretboard or the whole neck (I hear fretboard extensions are rubbish compared to whole neck extensions)... They replied in quite a rude manner and were completely useless in answering my question, so I didn't bother with them.

Lol...

As for "Meaty" tone, I think most peoples perceptions are very similar... Just chug out a fat E power chord, and meaty would be something that sounds powerful when palm muted I suppose.

Easy to make finishes do that wierd effect btw- its a certain wood stain, really expensive one but I can't remember what its called. Basically it adds more contrast and light angles change the colour of the wood. After that I suppose you just stain it green or maybe add green colouring to the stain.

Ok I'm getting ready to build my first guitar body (I've been putting it off for about 3 years now!), but do you think it's best to do one first out of some crap wood just to make sure I don't make any mistakes. Then if the guitar is right copy the settings I used to make it, and if it's wrong then change it for the final build (which would be made from much better wood).

Also does building in a hollow cavity do much to the sound? I would probably do it by building a 2 piece body - the top part would be about 1/2 inch thick and the bottom part being the proper part to the body which I would route all the way through for the electronics, the 1/2 inch or so top part would then be the section which blocks up one side of the electronics cavity and has the holes in it for everything etc.

On that note- whats the best book to get for building a body? Screw builing a neck, I'm gunna get a nice Warmoth one or something (the whole tuning rod thing scares me and I know I'd screw it up!). The guitar I'm building will be 24 fret and have a floyd rose (I already have almost all the parts except neck and body).

Well at least I had the bit about dying right jnewman

What about 1000k's? From what I've read on Stewmac the higher the resistance, the more tone it lets through- so a 1000k lets through high and low... I'm probably wrong...

Oh and Lovekraft- its when the bridge isn't grounded with the rest of the electronics- in most guitars (if not all I think) the bridge is grounded. Put it this way- when someone was playing it, if you touched them with a piece of metal it would give them a nasty electronic shock- and I've heard of guitarists dying on stage due to the large currents going through thier guitars.

Being a guitarist a dangerous job But someones gotta do it!