LightninMike

It really comes down to what type of music you play and the sound you want.

Creamy ?

Bright & aggressive?

Deep and Dark ?

any can be achieved with pickups choices although as stated before, some will dimish the neck/body combination you have.

Wenge does splinter easily, and it also can cause a septic wound if it gets in your skin. Just take precautions and you will do well, especially when sanding edges. Very sharp tools with a minimum being taken off at a time helps.

I guess a concern would be corrosion. Copper verdigris will happily seize up smaller threads like fine tuners, set screws, etc. I doubt that tuner gearings are of a size where corrosion could be an issue though.

I had a copper plated oil tank on my Harley Softail for about 7 years, stored outside in South Florida about 2 miles from the beach. It barely got any color in that time, and the first 7 miles in from the ocean have salt laden air. Now, if you have extra corrosive sweat, it may happen quicker. The gears will be lubricated so they shouldn't seize up at all.

as stated the chroming process starts with the base metal being copper plated, then nickel then chromium. The process is usually done en masse. The worst answer you can get is " NO" so it won't hurt to ask

I was meaning to suggest faux binding on this one... out of my own interest since I'm planning on doing a guitar like that but tests on scrap have not been successful so far. I think the maple top staining tutorial on this site is not compatible with faux binding in fact - the stain is supposed to be brushed on, the way I was doing this in the past was basically wetting the whole top with stain, which gave me a nice and even coating, but the stain penetrates so deep that

1. it soaks through at the edges

2. its nearly impossible to sand back to unstained wood to get nice contrast

If it is a figured wood, you can do a light stain - wiped on and sanded back to enhance the figure. Tape off the edges of the binding and spray a layer of shellac or a sanding sealer. The "binding" will be safe from further staining as you wipe it on in light coats. Flooding the maple will always run through the grain and wind up underneath the sealer.

If it isn't a figured maple, the process will be the same although you start with taping and spraying. And then go to light coats of the stain until it builds up.

As opposed to doing a traditional binding, why not do the "fake" natural wood binding? It gives the effect, and you won't have to work out a routing that a lot of guys wouldn't be able to accomplish. As well, the roundover doesn't need to be changed - Two birds with one stone.

It winds up being a project that is reachable, yet still takes a certain amount of skill to do well. Not a beginner project, and when done well it is advanced work

not keyboard... ugh.. Fingerboard

Lightning Mike said-

"With the Willis ramp"

Mike- not sure what the Willis ramp is (?) Are you referring to the Ibanez GW model bass?

The willis ramp is to keep the fingers at the same level as the pickup. Basically an extention of the keyboard.

http://www.garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/theramp.html

Is there some voodoo to the claims made: certainly. Does it work? it seems so

Sorry to hear about your loss.

As far as the progress goes it's looking good. Maybe having that bridge slightly recessed is also something to look at. With the Willis ramp, you can set the neck how you like and the body transition won't look odd. In doing this, you can transition the carve to suit YOUR bass, even though it is a Ritter INSPIRED instrument

So any progress?

As a tip for rattle cans:

Shake them up per the instructions, THEN place them in a pan of hot (not boiling) water for a few minutes and shake again

Spatter will be non-existent and it will spray evenly

I think you will be suprised how much weight is taken off once you do the carving. In looking at the website, the carve is quite complex and almost looks as though the bridge is set lower than the edges of the body. http://www.ritter-instruments.com/jupiter.php

Beautiful sounding instrument, especially when wielded by a great player. (I'm a big fan of The Grateful Dead, and Phil Lesh.)

Mike Zito is a great guy. Been down the hard road and lived to tell the tale. Got to hang out with him a few years back. Consider him a friend. Same with his bandmate in RSB, Devon Allman. Both practice their craft and love what they do.

Speaking of love what they do, You put some serious love in your guitars. You need to take some pictures of the Nola guitar at Cafe du Monde.

are you sure you want to put rare earth magnets near the pickups? that doesnt seem like the best of ideas

doing a rear route for the pickups and mimicking the pickup covers out of wood may give you what you want. not just a top cover, but the whole cover. it will wind up a little bigger than a standard strat pickup but depending on the wood, it might just have the look you are going for

As said by many, prep is the key. I used Titebond 15 years ago on a bookmatched cocobolo top and not a lick of separation with the body or bookmatch joint

If it is a true nitrocellulose, it will melt into the prior coats....

Somehow, you had a big temperature shock to that neck.... that is one of the ways to induce "Aging"

double check your surroundings that nothing possibly contaminated the area and checmically introduced the cracking

at this point, you have to put your CSI hat on and get to uncovering the mystery

He means set up blocks of wood around the body so the plate has something to ride on and you don't wind up with a wobble to the router..... in essence, you are creating a stable surface to run the plate along as you route the channel

If you click on the link, it walks you right through it.... very easy and simple... depending on the bridge type, it gives the specifics to that style

Here's a little known but helpful tool. Head on over to stewmac.com, and go to the free information link. Then to calculators, and the fret calculator:

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator/

Enter your scale (and the number of frets, but that doesn't matter for this use) and it will tell you exactly where to place your bridge, based on a number of available bridge types.

For Tune-o-matic style bridges they list:

'ABR-1' Tune-o-matic Bridges
Nashville Tune-o-matic Bridge
Gotoh Tune-o-matic Bridge with Standard Posts
Gotoh Tune-o-matic Bridge with Studs/Bushings
Schaller Roller Bridge
L.R. Baggs T-Bridge
Locking Roller Bridge
Gotoh 510 Bridge & Tailpiece

For an example, I typed in 24.75" for the scale, and scale, and it calculated:

24.811" (?0.030") from nut to center of treble-side post. Mount bass-side post 1/16"-1/8" further from the nut.

Very Nice.... It is moving quite nicely

The regular switches are all basically the same.... blade style.... the EBMM EVH model has the "Tone" that some folks will state is the yadda yadda and the whozeewhatsis in combination with....

If it is what they want, they usually get it

EBMM part number is M05434

it has the PCB board attatched

finding it may the hard part.... with some of the items, they are specific to that model guitar and the only way to get a replacement is to send in the old part and pay for the new one.... silly, but true

Coachella Office - Ernie Ball

53-973 Polk St.
Coachella, CA 92236, USA
Phone - 1-800-543-2255
Fax - 1-800-577-3225

San Luis Obispo Office - Music Man

151 Suburban Rd.
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401, USA
Phone - 1-866-823-2255
Fax - 1-805-544-0821

customer service email: customerservice@ernieball.com

or

musicman email: musicman_customerservice@ernieball.com

Very Nice! Love the Lightnin' Bolts

That is nothing more than masking before the color was sprayed.... but it is cool looking

make your own neck and give it a nice long tenon.... do a set neck and you can fit the heel as you please.... the glue will be stronger than the surrounding wood

Or if you are building with a nicely figured wood, keep the back a solid 3/16" or 1/4" proud...... route down to the actual level of the back EXCEPT for the cover.... cut it off with a nice thin blade handsaw.....

now you will have a piece that matches the grain almost perfectly