Drak

After using both, I've gravitated towards the copper tape. I've read it is a thicker shield than the paint and I've just grown more used to it. Something I heard on the 'by and by' is that you can find the copper foil tape at stained glass hobby supply houses for much cheaper than the guitar stores sell it, but I've never actually bought it that way... By the way, what is the thinner for the shielding paint? I had a jar dry up on me a few years ago, and I don't know what to cut it with to re-liquify it. I still have it, but it's all dried up. Anybody know? It's the Stew-Mac stuff...

Roli, I'm still experimenting with it and letting the tone it wants to give off 'sink in' with me. Been playin' it all day today! It's really leaning to Ronnie Earl/Lenny/10,000 Maniacs tones in a 'big' way, but I've just been playing it thru my '73 Deluxe Reverb sitting on top of a 1-15 extension closed-back bottom-ported cab, running thru both, haven't tried any high-gain amps (or any pedals) yet with it, and I don't think it will be a good match for them by the sound of it either (to my surprise as well). Except I bet a chorus will sound tremendous with it. When I roll up the pre-amp all the way with the Barden, it sounds pretty screaming Roy Buchanan-ish more than anything else. When I roll it up on the neck/mid, it does rock out pretty nice with a nice fat hard-rockin' rich riffy tone. I've got the Afterburner in a few others, and the effect is quite different for some reason. With those, rolling up the A-burner goes right into heavily-overdriven completely-saturated endless-sustain Satriani-Land (I like) but this one seems a bit different...Hmmmmmm...I still like tho. But it doesn't quite 'twang' like a genuine hard-core grittin' on Tele either, but then again I never thought Bardens did that as well as a real Tele bridge does anyhow...the Barden is a guest at the moment, maybe subject to change, but the Lawrences are just made for this guitar, they fit it perfectly for what it apparently wants to do. Actually, the Barden is out of phase with the Lawrences, just the way the chips fell between them, I was going to reverse the polarity to make it right, but I've found in the past few hours that the out-of-phase tone with it's reduced bass gives me the most twang-tone, so I might just keep it this way...we'll see...it's good for tonal variety. It's got the Stew-Mac 5-way Megaswitch, which gets rid of the middle-pkp only (pos 3) in favor of the bridge/neck 'Tele middle-position' sound. So I'm getting 2 out-of-phase positions right now (3 and 4), the best twang being the pos. 3 bridge/neck... Jehle, I'm a moron when it comes to having my sh*t and grits together for recording and posting MP3's. I want to get hooked up for that, but always seem to be doing something else and can't seem (as yet) to find the time to get hooked up like dat...I HAVE to get it together on that front soon... I'll post some pics of the Gibson version soon. I call it 'Bones' 'cause the top is highly flamed Walnut that looks like an X-ray of someone's rib cage.

Thanks! This is really my favorite shape and I am starting to consider it my 'signature' guitar shape. I've made a HB/SC/SC EMG 'Metal' Floyd-equipped version, a thick-hollow 2-HB angled neck 'Gibson' version, and there are 1 or 2 more on the way I really dig the body shape. Can you tell? This is kind of my 'cover-all-the-Fender-bases Tele-Strat-Fender' version... After playing it for a few days, it's becoming obvious by the tone that it really is a 'Lenny' machine, not really for hard-rockin', but I got some others for that...

Go to Reranch.com They are the masters of guitar-oriented color-tinted aerosol cans. I've never used their stuff (I have my own rig) but I always hear great things from their customers, and you will learn a lot at their website. Hope that helps a bit.

Just finished this one up the other day...let me know what you think! Perota bodywood Birdseye Maple cap Warmoth Birdseye Neck Tele Bridge Custom designed body Sperzel Locking tuners Bill Lawrence 280 neck and middle Barden Tele bridge EMG Afterburner pre-amp EMG EXG tone-shaping device Finished in Nitro Contoured Neck Heel Rear body-waist route Pretty light, very resonant Strung with 9's for now The pics (1,2,3,etc...) follow the guitar from the top headstock down the neck to the back then around to the front. Drakulator-1 Drakulator-2 Drakulator-3 Drakulator-4 Drakulator-5 Drakulator-6 Drakulator-7 Drakulator-8

I'm going to e-mail Stew-Mac about it, which is where I got them from. They should be able to help me out somehow... On second thought, I think I'll just call them now...

What you want is a guy with a resaw machine. Much like a bandsaw, but with a very thin/deep blade. There are a few guys around who will do that, but no one rides for free, your looking at shipping back and forth along with their price to cut/sand. The guys on e-Bay who sell woods ready to be joined and built into instruments, most of them have resaw machines. It can get pricey, and a regular bandsaw isn't that accurate to do what your asking. It sometimes can be accomplished...but probably not with a piece of lumber that is 9" deep...that calls for a pretty accurate sawcut.

Hey all... I can't seem to find any wiring diagrams anywhere on-line that include Blender Pots, even here. Help! (and thanks)

Any comments on whether a half-scalloped vs. a fully scalloped neck would be more appropriate? Warmoth sells both types...I figured what the hell, just go with a fully scalloped neck?

I've never tried one, but was considering buying a full-scalloped neck from Warmoth sometime in the future for a project, I hear they're sweet, and you can get spoiled on one quickly. True? Are there a lot of scalloped-neck users here? Would a scalloped neck work best in conjunction with a Floyd? (tremolo)

Y'know, I agree with the above post. Bill has such a huge site of his own, and it is so well done, and you can directly ask him questions on his own BBS, he always seems to be around there, I don't see the point of 'bringing him in' here??? What would you ask/do/say here that you couldn't ask/do/say over there? I would think someone who is a bit more 'closeted' would be good, like David McNaught. You never hear anything from that guy! Does that make sense?

That's Gorgeous!

I wasn't putting non-plungers down, the last time my Ryobi plunger took a dump on me, they (as stated above) didn't have the plungers in stock as happens for whatever reason, so I just bought the same router in non-plunge, and have been using that for over 1.5 years or so. But it's getting worn down too now, and I already found (they had them stocked again) and bought the same Ryobi plunge model I always have, but I'm in no hurry to break it out, it's been sitting new in the box for several months while I continue using the non-plunger 'till it gives up the ghost for good. I'm comfortable with both, they both have the same handle-grip I'm used to, but for an extra $30.00 or so, the plungers sure are nice to have around...

Wow Paul. I was quite impressed with the sound of that, I could hardly believe that was a Strat. I'll have to include one in an upcoming project, I like it!

That's pretty much the way I do mine except for I don't solder it, I wrap it around the stud with shielding tape, or run it into the studhole and make a little ball with the shielding tape, making sure that my stud will bottom out hard against it...

For Home Depot, I would recommend the Ryobi 1 3/4 hp Plunge Router. I know they're kinda cheap, and mine only last me about 1-2 years on average before they start to disintegrate and I toss 'em, but I use them *ALL THE TIME*, year-round, constantly, so your use might not be as hard-core as mine. I've gone thru 3-4 over the years, but I keep buying the same model over and over because they have the most comfortable handle/base (for me anyway) and they are really affordable, and basically, I like them. Also their system for changing bits agrees with me too, another factor to consider. Yes on the plunge. Funny thing is, sometimes they have the plunge model, and I've walked in there when they didn't have it, not even a store model, then a year later they show up again...go figure...but they are good, affordable, and comfortable to use. The issue for me is controllability, and it has to have really good grips to interface with your hands properly for the most controllability, which the Ryobi gives me. Those round generic knobs on the Porter Cable (to me) are a joke, I would never use such a thing... I also have a big ole' 2 hp Makita that will never break, but that's for real hogging work. PS, I made the retarded mistake long ago of lubing the posts on a plunge router once (it had started to get a bit sticky) boy what a stupid mistake. It wouldn't hold the depth and would slide up and down and ruined one job. I think it worked OK after I wiped all the lube back off thoroughly

The closest I could come to that was Norm Nardini and the Tigers, a Pittsburgh-based band who's members all had their guitars/basses painted white with black tiger stripes (also) sometime back in the '80's. I think there was a picture of them onstage on one of their albums with their tiger-striped guitars, maybe you could find something on-line. Never seen any snake-painted stuff tho...are you looking for a diamond-back design or something like that?

I recovered one of my amps in snakeskin (tolex), but never a guitar. I remember back in the '80's, I think it was Nuno Bettencort (could be wrong) talked about having one of his guitars done in snake. He said it muffled the tone compared to what it sounded like before, and he had some kind of answer as to what he was gonna do different the second time around...maybe it was the glue...I can't remember... Here's a rear shot of my snakeskin amp...the front has a repro BF plate, and black grillecloth now, just so you don't think it's still silver in the front (Ugh!) Snakeskin SFDR w/ EV SRO

What an achiement to bring something like that together. WoW!

Sounds like a semi-replica of the Fender Clapton Strat mid-boost circuit then? ...I don't know much about those. I'll have to ask the Fender crowd! Kinda sounds like it's geared more for SC's I'm guessing then. Mebbe I'll e-mail Stew-Mac, see if they have any worthwhile comments... Thanks for the links Brian. Hate to see any gain-increasing device sit and rot

Has anyone here ever tried this thing? I cannot find the company on the web anywhere, although I seem to remember a poster on another board saying they were in Canada... I bought one (smooth and creamy) a few years ago from Stew-Mac and have never installed it in anything yet. Lately I am a big fan of the EMG Afterburner and EMG's other active controls, but this thing is collecting dust and if it's a nice usable unit, I'll find a home for it... But I can't find any information or reviews on it, and especially some comparisons to other pre-amps out there... The pre-amp world seems to still be in the shadows... Anybody like this thing, and what are your observations?

Heya! From a new guy to a new guy!

Isn't Brian May's original guitar made out of Oak predominantly, including the neck and the extra long tenon into the body? Seem to remember reading that somewhere...

Ach! Now I understand! Mine was kind of a guessing game too and worked out to my liking also, although I did put my upper button directly above the neck plate facing rearwards, but it doesn't seem to give me any problems. Congrats!

You vould make Uli Jon und Rudolph smile for zat upper fret agcess! Nice work! A Question...when I was installing the strap buttons on my Shark V, I asked around first where the hell the rear button was supposed to go, and was sent a pic of a genuine Rhoads V, where it was shown that the rear button went, oh, about 1/2 way to 2/3rds way 'up the wing', if you follow, which is where I put mine and seems to work out great. How does yours hang with your button centered in the rear? Does it feel comfortable? Just curious, as that was the second placement that was recommended, where yours is 'in the middle stylee'... Did you do the 'rocketship' roundovers on the ends on purpose or are all King V's rounded like that? Something I don't think I've ever really took notice of...