Jon Bell

I think he plays in with a wide stretch - not with tapping. I don't think he likes tapping and prefers big stretches instead (like the Cowboys solo). I've always played it with tapping and I guess what is important is the sound you get not how you get it.

Warmoth have a reputation for good necks. I know yamaha used Warmoth necks on their more expensive Pacificas.

Cool idea! I read that a guy called Dan Armstrong worked on a similar idea in the 70s but it was abandoned. How did your guitar sound?

Loads of different sized clamps are very useful but my favourite tool would be my drill press. Although not essential it makes a lot of jobs much easier and with a bit of lateral thinking you can use it for all sorts.

Some folks on the forum have tried finishes with comic books pages. Here's two links: Thread 1 Thread 2

I like the look and feel of Strats but I'd prefer Les Paul hardware.

I voted natural. I love the look of an attractive piece of wood.

Looks great. I'd go with black hardware I think it would compliment the dark wood nicely.

You can put a bass guitar pickup on a guitar but the poles won't line up so some strings will be a different volume to others. This could give a "faded" sound to some strings. I don't think it would give a deep tone rather it would sound similar to a standard guitar pickup. The main reason a bass has a deep tone is the strings are an octave lower (obviously ).

I think Pete Townsend did on a strat trem. You might want to also replace the nut on your epiphone. I've found that the g string's tuning is often a bit shakey on epiphones. You could try a graphtech nut - it would be pretty cheap and it's an easy upgrade which should increase the tuning stability.

I think that a drawn diagram will be even more "confuzzling" than one off a website. That is a common wiring configuration so there should be loads of sites that have it.

I thought I'd resurrect this old poll to see what some of the newer members think.

I've got a guitar I routed all the way through to test my pickups. Once it is strung up I can change pickups by pushing them up through the back. I use croc clips to wire it up. I use tape to hold the pickup ring still whilst I test it.

According to the book "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!" his action at the 17th fret is 5/64'' on both the high and low E.

Guitar Electronics for Musicians is a useful book.

Gearing will give you a much tighter coil. My first winder was a dremel type motor connected to a transformer to change the voltage. What would happen was the motor wouldn't move at the lower voltages then as I turned up the volts it would suddenly spin off really fast. The resulting coil was very messy with very loose windings. The solution is gearing, with the correct gears the winder will pull slower with more force - exactly what you need for a tight coil.

Connect the start of the coil to the ground and the end to the hot, or the otherway round if you want a reverse wind.

Hi, I've got a KA humbucker that I changed the baseplate on. I've still got the unwanted screws and springs (somewhere!) and they should should fit your KA motherbucker. I'm in the UK so I could post them to you if you want. Jon

It's very thin and quite easy to break. Don't over tension and keep an eye out for snags.

That looks great! How long did it take?

I find mdf goes a bit wooly round the edges as it gets used, it often reminds more of cardboard than wood. So I think plywood is more durable.

A jigsaw is electric yes. Building a guitar from scratch requires pretty advanced woodworking skiils. If you've never used tools before I'd try a kit like Drak suggested earlier. In the meantime you could try a simpler woodworking project to get used to your tools. Maybe you could try building a stand for your kit guitar?

Its the metal thing at the bottom of a humbucker.

To make a humbucker wind two identical coils. Humbuckers use two bobbins, which are usually wound in the same direction, however the path to ground must go in opposite directions as shown below. If we labeled the start of each coil A and the end B. Ground -> Coil 1 A -> B -> Coil 2 B -> A -> Hot The poles on coil 1 need to be north and on 2 south (or visa versa). The fifth wire, the shied wire, is soldered to the metal baseplate present on a humbucker. A pair of singles wouldn't have a baseplate so it'd be an idea to build one - it gives a base to hold everything togther too.

Have you ever made pickup bobbins before? Things have to be very, very accurate in order to fit and work properly. It would take quite a bit of work to get an acceptable bobbin (or 12 of them in your case). You could try hunting for a ready made product that you could modify - for instance very small cotton reels might be suitable and would take a lot of the work out of it. You mention that your bobbins are going to be 10mm diameter but remeber that they will be a lot fatter once they have been wound. If you've never wound with AWG 41 before you should be aware that it is relatively thick and will fill up your minature bobbins very quickly. Bear in mind that you've got to squeeze 12 of these in the space of a humbucker so I think you may run out of space. A better option might be to use AWG 44 and 45 as it would be a lot easier to fit it all in or you could always make your bobbins taller.