Dmitry Sushkov

From my side: almost all builds are great. My personal criteria: don't vote for myself, don't vote for clones (especially fender clones). so only one meets all criterias.

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I agree with all the above.  One of the strongest set of entries so far.  My method is usually, 'which one would I want to take home to play every day'

OK that failed, because it's pretty much all of them.

So I've raised the bar. 'Which one, when I hang it back on the wall, pull out the plugs and switch off the lights, would I look back at, for just one last glimpse, in the disappearing light of the closing door?

And there's one of those here...

It's discrimination. Not all guitars can be put on the wall by design

Hi!

Dmitry Sushkov here and I proudly present the Wahlgaard mk. II - a 9 strings electric guitar made for Ragne Wahlquist of Heavy Load band, Swedish heavy metal pioneers.

The purpose of second build is some design and functional improvements after playing some concerts with first one, which I posted here some time ago. Main improvement is shorter scale for better behavior of first .007" string, originally supposed to tune in Ab. But we're also updated the look with more inlays and new custom designed top lock. This build took me whole year 2019. Most of the time was spent on inlay job, my favorite part. 

About me. I'm building custom guitars since 1999, I don't remember exact numbers but I can say I have built about 150 guitars in total which are living all around the world now. The Wahlgaard II is my 5-th guitar built in my own small shop in Prague.

Here is the link to build progress thread 

And here are the specs:

Guitar construction:    Headless, 9 Strings, double cutaway, special archtop design, set-neck        
Body material:    Korina
Top material:    16 mm American black walnut bookmatched top
Body construction:    LP style archtop front with back comfort contours and bridge tuning pegs cavity
Neck construction:    3 piece with carbon stripes (total 5 parts), no headstock
Neck angle:    3 degrees to body        
Neck material:    Korina, 3 parts
Neck reinforcement stripes:    carbon fiber
Truss rod:    Double-action 500 mm, adjustable nut under string holder
Fretboard material:    Ebony 85mm width
Fretboard radius:    20” (508mm)        
Fretboard width at nut:    66 mm        
Nut:    Black TUSQ (Hipshot)
Fret marker inlays:    Black ravens, walnut leaves, sword and Wahlquist symbol    
Frets:    20x2.5 mm + 9x2mm SINTOMS Stainless steel frets
Scale length:    671 mm        
Neck thickness:    1 fret = 20 mm, 12 fret = 22 mm        
Strings:    First string (.007) is a special type of string from Octave plus The other strings are Ernie Ball 9-String 28" Scale
    string No    size    tuning
    first    .007    Ab
    second    .009    Eb
    third    .012    Bb
    fourth    .016    Gb
    fifth    .024    Db
    sixth    .034    Ab
    seventh    .042    Eb
    eighth    .056    Bb
    ninth    .080    F
String spacing on nut:    Equal string spacing calculated as 6,361 mm, standard 4 mm from string to edge
String spacing on bridge:    10,4 mm        
Bridge:    9 individual Mera Submarine III (rev. 2) Gold plated
Top-lock:    9-string custom made solid locking nut, gold plated
Controls:    3 pots V+V+T
Active electronics:    JFET high quality low power adjustable preamp to boost volume by 2-6dB
Pickup selector switch:    3-way 4PDT switch
Additional active/passive control switch:    3-way 4PDT switch
Neck pickup:    Custom made vinatage PAF inspired 9-string pickup without covers bobbins both creme, including creme pickup ring
Bridge pickup:    Custom made vinatage PAF inspired 9-string pickup without covers creme/black bobbins, including creme pickup ring
Pot knobs:    Metal regular sized dome knobs GOLD
Output jack:    Gold switchcraft long threaded barrel jack
Strap buttons:    Gold Schaller Strap Locks
Body art:    Customer's signature on the lower part
Body binding:    Mother of Pearl stripe
Finish:    Modern high-gloss polyester
Case:    Molded plastic hard case with custom interior

Some sound clips:
 

And some completed pics:

Arrived. Together with her 2 years older sister at home.

On 3/9/2020 at 7:55 PM, JayT said:

Amazing fantastic work!

Thank you!

Thank you! 

One more pic while preparing detailed and ilustrated story. 

Waterproof molded SKB iSeries case interior update to perfectly fit the Wahlgaard for safest journey to its owner Ragne Wahlquist.

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

She's pretty!

Thanks for the videos, they proved that you don't need extra fingers to play!

It's not me. It's Jan Janson Kudinov. Hope today I'll have some time to capture couple DI samples. Hard case interior is still in progress but tomorrow i need to send it to the customer. 

6 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

You sir, have created a monster. 

5 hours ago, mistermikev said:

looks like you are putting shelves into your wood for the bridge pieces?  if I'm seeing that right, nice detail.  as always, some beauty work.

Those aren't separate details. It's 3d routing into the wood.

Some sound tests:

Sunny morning photo session

Setup in progress

Pickups assembly. 

polished

4 hours ago, Splintazert said:

Wow, that's a great spray booth! Do you spray one guitar at a time?

So far yes. I don't have separate spray booth yet.

finish

Rounded fret ends.

Fitting controls

Barrel jack mount router jig

And 29 stainless steel frets installed

Inlay is finally done.

For those who think CNC is just a push the button tool... Keeping in mind it's a custom one time job, massive overengineering here, translating client's AI sketch to a proper CAD model.

Some progress this weekend

neck profile. lot of fun with carbon stripes.