mistermikev

not stupid at all... but i do see some potential for issues. the p90 is a very fat sounding pickup... and even with moderate dcr they tend to sound 'louder'. as such... in order to match well with a neck pickup... the p90 would have to be really low output while the neck pickup would need to be very high output - IMO. otherwise... the p90 will just dominate the sound. might put a sep vol for the p90 so you can back it off. sm issue with splitting a humbucker with a p90. a split humbucker tends to be pretty weak unless it's a super high output humbucker. Further, combining a humbucker that isn't split with a p90... is gonna result in hum as it's an odd number of coils. no big deal if you go in knowing that. The other issue - is that when pickups are mismatched in output... they don't cancel hum as well. again not the biggest of deals if you go in knowing that. If I had to make this work... I think either a vol pot specific for the p90, or a 3 way toggle to serve up a few different fav resistance values for the p90 should get you there.

it is a lovely piece of mahog for sure... but if it were me... seems with the neck pocket issues a prime candidate for a lovely veneer over it. I think you may have just surpassed a member or two if we consider this one the longest ongoing guitar project! looks like you got her going in the right direction - looking fwd to the finish line.

this is a lovely build... and I know your not asking for my o... but the neck transition is one of the things that really appeals to me. it looks like it is kept as think as possible as high up as possible. imo... it would use some scraping/sanding... but it's very close to something I'd be happy with. love this top. love the idea of recessed pickup rings. not overly crazy about the headstock shape... but again just looks like it could use some minor shaping. You are too much of a perfectionist!! in a good way tho. rawk on. looking fwd to seeing it alive!

I don't know that he's not doing just that... I assumed he would. I usually do my pickup templates individually then trasfter them to a full teplate. probably don't need a full template at all... but IMO it's best to get the alignment perfect on mdf and make the entire transfer a no brainer. long story long... yeah - if I were you I'd make individual templates that will transfer to the body template.

looks pretty solid to me... but one concern I would have is where the prs fretboard ends... you need to ensure it ends b4 the neck pickup starts. other than that... looks like a winner.

looks good biz. nice job on the finish.

now this I can totally agree with. the idea that only certain woods CAN sound good. all it would take is some high profile guitar player playing a guitar built from unsanctioned wood... and it's ordained. vai/satch - basswood. jimmy page - masonite/pine, bill kirchen - pine... etc. really hope some celebrity picks up a sassafras guitar and makes it into tonewood cause I've been wanting to build a guitar out of it for a while!! (that way it will sound good).

well I don't think that recording is really 'great' but it does sound pretty good considering. I've seen this vid and a number of dylans' vids before and give him all sorts of credit for keeping it interesting (relic a strat by dragging behind truck comes to mind!). that said... I agree and disagree with his summation. on the one hand... people do take it way too seriously... on the other - who cares. if that makes you happy knock yourself out. we tend to get down on other folks for chasing 'tone wood' meanwhile we are all gear whores who are constantly tweaking our gear to sound better (I assume anyway... otherwise why have more than one guitar/amp/pedal/pick/strings choice?) if pickups are your tonewood, great. if amps are your tonewood - great. that said, we must all remember that video of joe satriani making a $100 cheapo strat copy sound good. he def doesn't sound quite as good as he typically does... but still sounds 100% better than I ever will!!

you can make guesses at what wood might influence the sound more or less and in more or less of a positive way... but that is all guesswork. I've said b4 and will say again... I don't think it matters what material you choose as ultimately you have to compensate for that choice in the end by listening and making choices about "yeah it works" or "no it doesn't work". changing pickups or wrestling with it in other ways. if a danelectro can sound good... almost anything can. I think dano got lucky with his combinations. that recipe will result in a decent sounding guitar. my def of tonewood is so relaxed it really isn't a def at all. I don't ascribe to the notion that it has to be a certain type because the dano proved to me it doesn't. but the dano DOES sound a certain way. I don't think you can quite capture that sound using elite tonewood. I don't think I have golden ears or anything... I don't know that I could consistently pick it out of a recording... but when I play one I hear something that sounds dif than other guitars. nothing wrong with chasing that.

saw this originally at mylespaul... thought someone might appreciate. some decent looking ebony and in theory one could get 3 fretboards out of one piece. cheers

honestly I don't think it's needs to go any further than the fact that something is being picked up thru the wood. One way or another it proved the medium the pickup is mounted in has an influence. he's not proving anything we didn't know... it's obvious to me - that if you build a hollowbody it's going to sound like a hollowbody to some degree. vs a semi hollow, vs a solid body. the 'why' do they have that characteristic sound is only described in more detail by his efforts - the medium does have some influence on the sound. you take that hollowbody and play it thru a marshal at 11 and it really doesn't sound like a hollowbody anymore (rev horton heath). i actually like the fact that he's not trying to prove mahog sounds dif than pine... it doesn't really matter in this context. the singer into the pickup - well that's an interesting one I hadn't thought of. an experiment of it's own. why DOES that work... well it def suggests to me that the idea that it is only the pickups that matter in a solidbody is not accurate. the argument that the pickups are not microphones and they only pickup the disturbance in the field made by the metal strings. are they still probably the biggest factor in determining the sound of a guitar - well yes. but they are def not the only factor.

SHUT UP AND JUST ACCEPT MY TRUTH - hehe, just kidding! accepted... well it's accepted that the actual pickup wire can be vibrated in really high volume situations... true... but this is not that. he's doing this at really low volume and amplifying the heck out of it. also, showing it on a strobe. literally shows tapping on the wood is being picked up by a magnetic pickup. controlled/predicted... i was trying to acknowledge that very point in the sentence regarding "at the end of the day... yada yada... too many variables... yada... impossible to predict...yada... so you just have to go with your intuition and develop your own recipe". iow, building out of mahog and maple is a lot more established than concrete so it is predictable in the sense that the outcome is much more likely to sound good with the std pickups/strings/amps/etc available. I think he set out to prove that it does MATTER in a way that is less subjective -and on that mark he hit the spot. as so many have eluded... most of these types of 'proof' videos can be easily refuted by so many variables... ie "that difference can be explained by how hard you hit the string here vs there" etc... and he really did a good job eliminating variables. it is the only video of this type that I think I have ever seen where someone actually proved something. what did he prove? that the magnetic field of a pickup is in fact influenced by the vibration of the wood and subsequently the pickup itself.

hehe apparently everyone else figured out ai is adobe illustrator but me... proving again my comments that my intelligence is artificial!!

well said.

one can only be smart relative to the other people in the room! if the other person in the room is you... and he is smarter... then you are probably doing allright!!

there is no microphone in the room. the tuning fork is 3 feet away and on a dif axis. the pickup is def not being influenced by the tuning fork.

see above. he's some sort of engineering student and this is his thesis. Had a long conversation with him, nice guy. Prior to seeing this I wouldn't have given much thought to the idea that the pickup itself vibrates... I've always thought the body influences the strings by bouncing sound back (reverb) and that in turn changes teh strings vibration... and in turn effects the change in magnetic field... but he's convinced me that the pickup vibration is yet another variable that def makes a dif. in summary - does tone wood matter? well, yes, EVERYTHING matters. how much? doesn't make sense to answer that q for anyone else -as it's subjective. it matters ENOUGH for me. that said... i think 90% of wood is tone wood by my own def. it is also a subjective term. if you build a guitar out of wood and it sounds good - it's then tonewood.

or any question really. I think one of the smartest things you can say is "I'm a dumbass". I keep saying it but it doesn't seem to make me smart.

well, the interesting thing about his post (at least for me) is that he is trying to prove scientifically that the pickup itself vibrates. so... no string even being plucked... he's got a tuning fork mounted in a piece of wood with a pickup in it... and a string nearby... hitting the tuning fork is actually being picked up by his strobe. i agree... $10k will net you .0000001%. more importantly, I don't think you are guaranteed a good sounding guitar if you use the best of the best woods... because there are so many variables and IMO it's the mixture that is the magic. I don't think anyone can "KNOW" the right mixture... you just have your intuition and have to follow it. it IS all a bit overrated because the mixture of masonite and lipstick tubes is EPIC to me!! that said... I like good lookin' wood so wouldn't really want to build with something else. anywho, for the record... not trying to prove anything... just admiring it.

kind of surprised you didn't go with your signature semihollow/steerhead with those... seems they would have been ripe for it given your comments about weight. looks lovely... but my back hurts. I know the pain of having a guitar I love... that weighs 10lbs!!

certainly a creative coolness to it.

that bridge really ties the whole thing together. I like the "path less traveled" approach to electronics.

looking lovely.

thing you have to be a member of The Electric Guitar Builders Resource to see this... but looks pretty interesting. Haven't heard it yet... but I'm pretty sure he proved it. tone wood is a thing. (hehe). always something new to consider anyway... good to keep an open mind. https://www.facebook.com/820235642/videos/pcb.10158967814319508/10165846790340643

what I use for drawings is typically photoshop... but there is gimp (free) and any number of other tools that can do that. AI - not sure what you mean... but I often feel my own intelligence is artificial!! lol.