zyonsdream

Sorry, I know you PM'd me but life (new work schedule) seem to be getting in the way of life right now and I forgot about the PM. I'm pretty low on fret wire right now. The biggest I have is equivalent to stew-Mac's medium/higher Width .092 Crown .048 Tang .062 If you are interested, I can send a set of 30 frets for $20.00 Plus $1.99 shipping. You can send paypal payment to sales@zdguitars.com. Don't forget to let me know what radius you need. I sell my frets the same way I install them myself. I like precision radius (through a precision bender, not bent by hand) frets because it make the mating between fretboard radius and fret a precise match and eliminates a lot of crowning work. You still have to trim to length and dress but it eliminates the need to purchase a bender. When used with a pressing cal it yields excellent results for a person who just wants to build a guitar or two and doesn't want extra investment. I suppose the hammer method would work to but I personally press my frets in. I found when I hand bent wire and hammered them in it caused more leveling and crowning work and the way I do it (by no means the best or only way) I have less work to do and have more height on the frets when I'm done. But like I said, it's a personal preference and in no way intended to be better than anyone else's method... I get tired of the flame fests that happen around fretting! It's really each to their own when it comes to fretting...

I really like that idea. You keep the machine screws and have a metal base for them to go into. Pretty damn smart! I'm not sure if I have a tap that small but I'm sure I can get one.

I want to direct mount a humbucker and I'm a bit confused about the process. I know you put the spring under the pickup so it goes between the pickup and the body but, My guess is, you don't use the machine height adjustment screws to mount it or for height adjustment. Do you use wood screws and just drill out the pickup to accept the wood screw? I'm a bit concerned about permanent damage to the pickup encase it doesn't end up being the best pickup for the guitar and with stripping the hole over time. What's the best method?

Jester: When I saw this guitar the first thing I thought was, "this could be branded with the PRS logo" and if you are a fan of PRS, that's a complement. It's a top notch build with everything you would want from a PRS and I absolutely love that neck: from the wood binding to the wood choices! no inlays... always something that excites me! decadentjon: To start I have always been a mosrite fan and one of my most prized basses was a Univox flyer (which has gotten away from me over the years) and when I saw this one with the wood choices I just had to spend 20 minutes thinking about that old bass my Dad got me when I was younger. Anyways, the build was really strong and had a vintage mosrite look to clear down to the tilted neck pickup. I always thought that the pick guard on these guitars was the best looking pick guard ever designed. The fulcrum style bridge and inlay threw this build off a little for me. Both arent my style, although the inlay was clean... just seemed out of place for this build. Phil Maillux: What can I say...Holy crap that's a lot of strings! Although I would never think of playing this guitar I can appreciate the work that went into it and it would surely catch my attention at a guitar store. I love how you took an issue (like finding a 9 string pickup) and solved it by designing your own and with those wooden covers they came out looking awesome. seemed a bit off that a bass with this much tension on the neck pocket would be a bolt on design. I would think a neck through would yield a more stable guitar over the long run. Just my thoughts though. Doug 59: I'm a big BCR fan so I love laminates and I also love semi hollow guitars with F style holes in the face so it would be natural that I would like this build: and I do but I don't care for the shape. Good craftsmanship all the way around but for me, if I don't like the shape, I can't vote for it. Scottyd: I guess the word about this build is "self-Build." To me that speaks volumes about a luthier. Who builds their own hardware??? I absolutely love the wood choices and the ascetics of the build. I love the bass side of the body and how it rides up the neck. The LED markers are a bit of a gimmick for me but I don't play on a dark stage and it's possible that might be the reason that the LEDs are lost one me. The cover plate for the controls could have also been a little tighter but for the most par, it looked good too. I guess I'm just getting used to seeing a lot of those seamless cover plates now. Who did I vote for? Scottyd all the way. It was an excellent month and I was really tempted for vote for the mosrite copy but when someone builds their own tuner system, and pickups and puts together a really strong build: they deserve the vote.

the yard I go to is about 3 hours away (30 minutes from Baltimore) so I try to get what I will need for bodies and necks twice a year and I search evilbay for any deals on tops. I have gotten a ton of stuff from hardwood lumber agent (thoag on EBay) and I have been super happy with it.

Obviously anything you breathe in besides pure air can be harmful to you. I try to protect myself from wood dust but sometimes I become lax in doing so. Just keep in mind that these things end your life early but generally those are the crappy years where you are sick and decrepit anyways.

Yah yah, it's the only usable light in my 100 year old home, I’ve heard it before. My observations on red wood (mine is old growth somewhat spalted I guess) is that it does tear easy so sanding is the preferred method for thickness sanding. If you press down with a thumb nail it will dent so I’m personally forgoing nitro for a harder poly coat on this one. Route it with a very sharp routing bit as the end grain is also prone to tear out. The wood smells awesome when you are cutting it but I’ve heard a lot about it being cancerous… we all got to die someday though.

Have you ever managed to really screw up a guitar and then manage to salvage it? http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j287/ZDG...le/100_3324.jpg This guitar started life as an all maple pointy guitar that was supposed to be clear coated with a bocote fretboard. So I Glue the blank up and throw it through the planer for final thickness and all of a sudden, the lower piece loses all of the quilt and birseye in it! YUCK, that’s going to look odd when finished. A bit bummed I move on. Well I cut the profile of the guitar out and everything went smoothly. I even did the bevels on the body which turned out okay. Then I started to cut the profile of the neck, Bass side went okay and the treble side went okay until I got to about 1” from the nut location and then it happened. My router bit bearing guide slipped under my template and I took a nasty bite out of the side of my neck. Well now I’m SOL and I throw the guitar into the pile to be forgotten about. After several months I decided to go back to it. I lobbed the neck off to make it a bolt on. One problem: the bass side of the body meets at the 12th fret and being a bolt on it would be impossible to scoop the back of the body so there weren’t any clearance issues beyond the 12th fret. So I steepened the angle so it would meet farther up the neck and then I cut all the beveled edges off to make the profile of the body smaller. Then I went radical with the bevels just to give it that 80’s ESP look. So, now it’s going to get a maple bolt on with an ebony board. A bridge humbucker and a TOM style bridge/string through. Oh, and winter camo finish http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j287/ZDG...le/100_3715.jpg http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j287/ZDG...le/100_3716.jpg

anyone say redwood?

some top woods can add a little snap or even warm up a tone a bit but overall they are used for looks. Go to a musci store and play one without a top and then pick the same model with a top and you will likely see little in tone gains. That being said, a good top can really set off a guitar in the looks department. Just my .2C

I like this one better than the last one... and I really liked the last one. I hope to see this in GOTM

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Just a question: Is that seven string spacing on a 6 string neck because the string spacing looks all out of sorts.

The carvin neck does not have built in angle as it relates to the fretboard and body blank. The angle you are speaking of is the headstock angle. Also, using a 25" scale on a seven string will be some what problematic when it comes to getting a good tuned down sound. Seriously, get a book read it, understand it and then build from hand first. Then you will understand what we are all saying.

I understood he didn't want to use a kahler but that or a recessed floyd will be his only options for avoiding neck angle which will be severely difficult to achieve since neck angle isn't built into Carvin neck blanks and doing it on a cnc will be very tricky without doing prototypes.

I've noticed that higher action at the nut causes more intonation issues than higher action at the 12th fret. It takes more tension to put down a string at the first fret since you actually have to bend the string to push it down. Most blues players like their action on the high side as you go down the neck as it tends to produce a warmer tone than super low action. This is why you’ve noticed that the intonation comes in as you move down the neck.

I ran a CNC mill, CNC lathe, engine lathe and Vertical knee mills for years and I can only think of a handful of times that I ever managed to hit all tolerances in the first shot when setting up. I didn’t make guitars on a CNC and I’d be confident to say that it would almost be impossible to use a pre-constructed neck blank with wings glued and hit the mark on all measurements without extensive trial and error. The key would be to make sure that 12th fret is located in the EXACT same axis and the center line of the guitar is exact. Just trying to set zero would be difficult. It would be easier if you just had a body/neck blank because you just need to make sure that you have enough raw materials and it’s basically lined up correctly. The finished neck is going to make this really difficult. This is what I would do personally. You have the neck blank and you are using walnut (which is really forgiving.) If you use a kahler, you don’t have to have any neck angle with the carvin neck blanks. Just use a router and a template to cut out the wings and then glue them onto the neck blank. Seriously, it will only take you about 2 hours (even being a novice.) Use the stewmac calculator for bridge placement. The kahler bridge comes with a template you can use for the cavity and you can get pickup templates from Stewmac for a few dollars. You’ll have a custom built guitar and you’ll learn a lot in the process. Also, with a kahler you really don’t have to use a locking nut as the bridge will generally react like a Fender style fulcrum. If your nut is high quality (and carvin nuts are nice) you won’t have any tuning issues.

Well; if you don't want to do it the right way you could always buy alot of sand paper and form the final edges by hand. I make templates and use a router. Simple, quick and easy to make multiple guitars with the same dimensions. There are only so many ways to skin a cat and the two ways that have been suggested to you are the most cost effective and logical ways of doing it. Some use belt sanders in conjunctions with spindle sanders but that's more equipment intensive. A low cost Ryobi router will get the job done in no time. These threads that ask "how do I get around doing it the right way" or "how do I reinvent the wheel" really get lost on me, sorry.

Actually, I don't see this as a lot of work. Run the body through a thickness planer, hollow out parts of the body, glue top on, cut contour and route cavities. Not much more work than a top on any guitar, is it? Well, they thickness sanded the top off, hap hazardly drilled some weight relief holes, glued a new top on and found it didn't reduce the weight. It was likely even heavier than the original guitar as the maple would weigh more than the walnut did. Then, they cut the top back off (more time and a waste of paint and wood) and then cut more wood out to make it lighter and now they have to take even more time and supplies to glue another top on and paint, sand, hardcoat it again. Sorry, but to me that's poor planning. I'm not questioning the quality of the completed work, just the amount of man hours it took to accomplish it. In a working shop there would be no way to make money doing the job the way it was done here. However, for a first time project, chalk it up to a learning experience. I'd rather take a few hours to measure, plan, remeasure and adjust plans than finish a job only to do it all over again due to poor planning.

I really like it. The Les Paul cut off shape really works. Running the Maple stringers through it really looks cool too. I don't like the jack placement but that's minor.

This thread reminds me of an old saying. It went something like "thoroughly plan before cutting so you only cut once." Seems like a lot of work for a top mod.

maikman First off, I love single humbucker guitars and a maple board is always a plus for me too. However, this build lacked the refinement that the other contestants showed with their builds. The back of the guitar looks really rough. It's the first build you did which is cool and I wish my first build had worked out this nice! Strandberg After seeing this bass I thought it was going to be retro GOTM! A 20 year old bass that still looks that good is a testament to its craftsmanship. The body looks really clean and I loved the raised controls. I would like to see pups other than Ibanez. All in all a great build and keep using that wenge! Jammy your stuff always looks professional and clean! The body has originality to it and the clean shaved look gives it a classic car feel to it. As I said in your build post, It seems strange to me to see a neck pickup and no bridge pickup. (forgive me for overlooking the bridge transducers before) If I saw this on the wall at a store it would catch my eye but I think the lack of bridge pickup would throw me off. oz tradie This guitar was the cats meow for me! Super finish, clean look and that fretboard looks awesome. I love the inlay and the fret work looks killer to say the least. A lot of work went into this build with the multiple laminates. I thought the horns were a bit much for me but this guitar was every bit a professional build! Capu This was also a super professional build as well. The color choice and pinstripe inlay looks awesome. Whoever gets this guitar will surely love it! I also liked the semi-hollow design. The fretboard was nice too. I like minimal to no inlays on a fretboard. I've used the LR baggs bridge before and I know how they suck to install but it looks stealth on this build! The knob layout alludes me. I know it's a rotery switch but I would have went with an LP style layout. Also, the TOM adjustors are level/below the top of the guitar. As a consumer, it would throw me off. blacklabb I have to say I like seeing original designs over the standard LP, PRS or Fender copies and that is one awesome piece of walnut! I fell this guitar lacks the refinement that the other builds show. The inlay really did nothing to enhance the build and really pulled away from the unique shape that you have going. dawnofzion I enjoyed watching this guitar being built. I love the reverse headstock and the maple board. I also love the color choice. It looks like a vintage Fender! The only thing that popped out negative to me is the neck pocket. I would have liked to see a little more neck/body overlap. I also felt the pickguard looked a little rough. Superfly This was another really clean PRS build. I liked the fact that the neck angle was correct and the bridge wasn't sunk into the body. The nitro looks good and the bolt on idea was really nice too. It make maintenance a little easier too. This was a really clean build and I have nothing to critique other than it's a PRS shape hooglebug I liked the color of the top and the wenge neck. Two wenge necks in one month! I liked the minimal inlay work on the fretboards and everything looks really professionally done. The extreme carving of the top and the rounded back sort of threw me off with this build. It looks like it would be hard to hold without it sliding down on my lap. I keep saying this month after month but it was another great month for guitar building. The major manufacturers should take notice of the work being done in the private market. If they did they would realize they need to step up their game! I'm giving my vote to Oz tradie because it just really looks clean and well thought out!

I've played them. Good tone, don't like the bridges though. Really cool paint too! I used to make them out of acrylic. Danelectro made some out of masonite too! Rather saught after too.

If you want 60's muscle car you need the look! I have used these pups before. they are not super distortions but they will give you an SH6 type over drive and they look the part! Do a search for boutique pickups and you'll find something that will excite you if you really want that 60's look

I've had two sets of D-activators and in both cases they had a really great tone but nothing more exciting than a super distortion. They still have passive noise (don't care what DiMarzio claims) but they have a bit more midrange than EMG actives. If you want a good cross over check out the active pickups sold by guitarheads. I have one in my warlock and I absolutely love it! Active electronics with a passive tone. It's the best of both worlds if you ask me. Along with that, Seymour Duncan make several active pickups that blow EMG away but they cost more.