komodo

All- I'm building a strat for home playing and recording only. I've got a custom wound set of singles, and am wiring with three mini switches instead of the blade. My middle pup is stock and not RWRP. I've got a place for a battery box, and room for onboard electronics. I also don't need the traditional third knob. Electronics are not my strong point, and am fishing for ideas on something either useful or cool. With direct recording being a main goal, I'm wondering about on board buffers, XLR connect, preamps . . .or maybe some kind of cool on board effects, not just a chorus, but something I couldn't do with regular effects? I realize this is broad, just have fun with it. Don't worry about wrecking a rare Fender, it's not. Anything goes here.

The post about tracing your plan reminded me of my first guitar in high school. My buddy and were taking lessons at a local music store, and we were both building guitars in shop class. Mine was to be a flying V, so I pulled down a Gibson korina V and laid it down on the floor on some big paper we brought and traced it directly. With sop owners approval of course. After I had the raw V cut and shaped, I changed my mind and made some radical chamfers and waist cuts to it. I'm currently rebuilding that one. At this point I'd probably rather have that original korina V!

If it's ebony, you can drill it out and fill it with ebony dust. Flood it with thin cyano and let it dry really good. Sand it down flush and you will be SHOCKED at how it disappears. This assumes fairly black ebony. Always save your ebony dust when you radius fretboards. This trick is also used when you do more complex inlays, since it's tough to get really detailed routes.

I'm a graphic designer and concur with Prostheta.

Rock royalty if there ever was. Super cool. Rush Hemispheres and Farewell to Kings were recorded there, as well as Queen Night at the Opera with Bohemian Rhapsody.

"Over the years, I've come to appreciate lower output pickups. Why? they let the guitar's character shine through. If you need more gain, you can add it later. Sure, pickups alter the tone and give off their own character but they should also let the basic tone of the instrument come out." This. Also, I think whenever this topic comes up there are a lot of assumptions that every wood affects tone in the same amount. Lots of woods only minimally change tone, and some that affect it quite a bit. I know I always tap a piece of wood (Drak used to call this 'bonk tone') with my knuckles to see if there is some extra resonance in that piece over another. Stiffness and resonance in neck woods (cocobolo, pau ferro) seems to heavily alter sustain, and I've noticed that woods like pine for a body can really create a bell-like tone when an electric is played unplugged. Surely this is only amplified when plugged in?

Semi-related: I built a simple guitar with parts that were laying around for my son. Body was based on Nuno's N4, and I made it pretty thin, Simple Charvel Strat like neck, one pup and volume, and a Badass wraparound bridge like so: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridges/Adjustable_Wraparound_Bridge.html The front of the body is flat, neck is slightly angled with the neck pocket deep enough to get the fretboard close to the body, and the bridge/string height FEELS higher than it is and makes it harder to play for me. I can't say it's any more than a TOM, but I think it FEELS like it because the body is flat vs. the carve of a Les Paul. It's not a huge deal, but it had me thinking about why compared to other guitars and hardware setups. Interesting too, because to me the typical Strat feels like the strings are way too close to the body.

I'd buy one of Jerzy Drozd's wicked mappa burl basses with 12 strings and crazy inlay. I don't play bass, but I'd just look at it.

G But flip the image.

This is not only a good point, but the V design itself is usually played with music that bends a lot. Good luck with re-frets.

This is my experience as well. I have a jug I keep with steel wool, old nails, etc and when I want to use it I pour some vinegar in there and let it stew for awhile. This is applied DIRECTLY onto the wood and the tannins IN THE WOOD react with it. By applying a powder/liquid mixture you actually defeat the best part of the process. In essence you are still applying some form of dye mixture, instead of altering the actual wood itself. The last cabinet I did was from oak and when i painted this mixture on, it looks a deep brown. When the clear goes on it gets MUCH darker and looks like ebony or rosewood almost, and its very hard to tell that it is oak! The greatest benefit is that it is so luminous, and doesn't look applied at all, but like a different wood.

The Drak Attack! I'm usually not a fan of double cuts, but the aggressive swoop of those horns is excellent. Stoopid cool top. "Bonk tone" lol Keep inspiring us!

YYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS My problem is that it isn't in English, and I wonder if they would deal overseas?

Can either of you guys in the Netherlands get Mappa burl (European or Black Poplar Burl) easily? It is the one wood I cannot get here in the US in billets and smaller quantities. I'm only looking for a couple of billets, but quality burl. ??

Go for it. Get the second body, and be prepared to do some work (drilling holes, set up work, fret work). You should end up with a sweet guitar.

That's exactly what I thought Drak. I'm thinking solid black ebony (Gaboon) for the FB. Zircote next to that Limba may be too much of a good thing.

Boy, I love white limba , not black so much. . . but this piece is just outstanding.

Wez - Can you describe your way of filling incursions and then the way you did that clouded up? I've started using West Systems for a number of things and this would be good info.

Simo, On that dyed Sycamore . . .when you sand the body sides, does it bleed the black onto the other woods like ebony FB's on maple does?

Yep, I saw that. I'm thinking of milling one out of ebony, but more of the Hipshot kind of baseplate. Mine won't have piezo, and it will have 8 saddles. My angle is very similar to yours actually - it's a 28"-25.5" with the straight fret at 6. This last weekend I finished a compound scarf joint successfully, and I can't be more thrilled as that wasn't easy. Also, I am going to slant my single pickup, splitting the angle between the bridge and last fret.

Wez this is a super nice build. I'm watching your bridge progress, as I am right at this stage now for a very similarly angled multi-scale bridge. I'll put up a build thread in the future when I get some more done.

Nice little trick and a REALLY great build tut. Check it out everybody.

File a rounded groove in the wedge and it'll sit on the fret better.

Beautiful. Your work is very very clean and it shows in the final product.

Maybe he wants it darker?