thrasher!

Another backing track site here

http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/

It sounds like it's just a case of muting the unplayed strings. It becomes second nature (pretty much everything I play is hi-gain)

I tried foam in the trem springs after reading a tip on this forum, but found that everything went ever so slightly flat afterwards - because the foam was getting 'pinched' between coils and not allowing the trem to return exactly to it's original position !

http://scottish-hardwoods.com/

This is where I get my body woods from. He doesn't have any exotic hardwoods, but for good quality standard body wood at a good price he'll probably have something to suit. To order, just email him with your dimensions and requirements and he'll pick out a nice piece for you. Let him know it's for a guitar too and he'll select pieces without knots etc.

He sells his boards kiln dried to 10% and if you need them planed etc, he'll do that for £2 extra or something.

Pete

Cool, thanks

Easy both hands. But I can also do something weird. When I try to spread my fingers apart I can spread my left hand about 1 inch more than my right. It's deffinitly from guitar playing as it wasn't like that before I started playing.

I never thought about that before - just measured it and left hand spread is 9", right hand only 8".

Cool

I did my V model in the free version of Sketchup. The "Sandbox" texturing tools only come with the retail version, and they would be really handy for all the curves, reliefs & angles on guitars.

It was my first ever 3D model of anything so it took a while, but with patience it can be done. Individual pieces of hardware (tuning posts, nut, trem, knobs, switches, fretboard etc) were designed as seperate components, all added to the main body. Mine is only roughly to scale +/- 2mm , it struggles with exact measurements.

There are limitations i.e. I can't find a way to properly shape the neck/body join & heel - but for a visualisation tool it rocks

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/4.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/3.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/2.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/5.jpg

I know this is a lot to ask but can someone please draw me a wiring diagram on how it should be wired. It will be configured with the following:

-3 way blade style selector switch

-81/85 pickups

-PA2 gain booster

-9 volt battery connector

-1 master volume control

-1 master tone control

-"Ibanez" style stereo input jack

Thank you.

It probably IS a lot to ask

http://www.emginc.com/support.asp

I've got the KFK set sitting in a box , but I don't intend to fit all four pots to my guitar (whenever I get round to making it). They include 2xvolume & 2xtone controls, but it doesn't mean you have to fit them.

A single volume & tone control is all you need. There are a load of wiring diagrams on the EMG site that show how to set up different configurations for their whole pickup range.

Odin - a drummer/percussionist I used to know at school hated heavy metal, but was totally blown away by Dave Lombardo of Slayer when I let him hear South Of Heaven (this is back in '89). That was when we were only 15, and even then he could appreciate the talent. Saying a musician e.g. Kerry King is crap just because you don't like them, their sound, or the genre of music is silly. I don't like opera but I wouldn't ever claim Pavarotti was crap at singing

Easily, both hands. I remember my sister used to have to do that as an exercise for playing the viola. Can't see where it comes into guitar playing though

I can raise my right eyebrow like Spock used to do on the old star treks, but if i try it with the left, they both move. Weird....

I got a set of "Kerry King" EMG 81/85's from the US for substantially less than they cost here. $240 as opposed to £250. That, and a Kahler trem system (not available here yet anyway).

Customs and Excise decide whether import duty has to be paid - when I picked the packages up from the post office I got charged import duty on the pickups, but not the trem unit. Kahler forgot to put in the string lock and re-sent it seperately, but marked as $0 on the packaging to avoid extra tax. Even with shipping charges I saved a couple of hundred pounds. It's not illegal and there's nothing wrong or immoral about it.

If companies didn't try to rip-everyone off here in the UK we wouldn't need to order from abroad. It's the same as the story with official parallel car/bike imports. Eventually the manufacturers had to drop their official prices because so many people started to buy imports. At one point a few years ago Triumph motorcycles (made in Hinckley, England) were more expensive here than they were in the US (£7000 / $5999 ) !!!

Vote with your wallet - they can only charge what you're prepared to pay

I've tried the heavy bottom/light top combo for playing heavy stuff but I've eventually come to the conclusion they don't work for me.

Most of the stuff I play is thrash / metal with a bit of bluesy / Pink Floyd and other random stuff thrown in. A happy medium for me is D'Addario 0.009 - 0.042 gauge. Buying in bulk (5 packs or more) from the net is cheaper

However it's really a case of trial and error until you find what suits your ear & playing style...

The file associated with this link has expired.

Unfortunately, this file has expired. A file link is only valid for a certain number of days or a limited number of downloads, whichever occurs first.

Add lyrics, have a small solo towards the end, then it would be awesome!

+1

It's a great start to what could be an awesome song

The link has expired dude

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/motorhead_tabs.htm

there's one there called 'dogs' - might be the one you're looking for. Not familiar with Motorhead...

Looking at your plywood mock up it appears as if you are missing a crutical element to the overall shape of the King V, the bottom half of the V has a decent curve to it unlike the BC Rich version where the wings are just straight similiar to what you have.

Noted,- I have the curve in my full-size pencil plans though. I didn't bother with the curve for the plywood mockup as it was just to get a feel for the real thing - the wings were the wrong shape too! Unfortunately I couldn't model the curve in the 3D-model either as the program started throwing a wobbler, although I think there is another way to achieve the same effect).

Most probably white, although metallic silver comes in a close 2nd.

There is no such thing as non-metallic silver. Non-metallic silver is gray.

Nitpicker - "silver" in my sketch was gray and looked rubbish, as did white - hence the lovely mauve colour

Well I still haven't started making this yet....I neglected to consider where I was going to build it

So the first job after winter is to construct a proper workshop round the back of the house.

Anyway, here's some 3d-sketches I've been working on over the last few weeks:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/4.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/3.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/2.jpg

wireframe: http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr.../Flying_G/5.jpg

Thanks guys - I tried a few and LeafDrums seems pretty good. At least compound time signatures are possible if a little fiddly to program. 12/8 and 9/8 time signatures can be done using 3/4 or 4/4 time, using triplets & modifying the tempo. 7/8 has to be done with 7 individual 1-beat bars and double-time but at least it's possible. A lot of packages don't provide those options...if it didn't crash as often I'd probably buy it

Does anyone know of any free "drum machine" software - I'm just looking for something simple to keep a beat going. Fancier beats would be an added bonus.

There's a metronome on my Korg effects box but it's not very audible above the guitar (and it's nowhere near fast enough, only 180bpm max!)

I used to use ScreamTracker (DOS) back in the day, but have never found a good alternative for Windows.

how do you go about writing metal guitar solos? i gotta tell ya, i cant write solos for ****. any help would be appreciated. thanks.

I don't write my own stuff very often, but anytime I've come up with a decent solo it's always just been a case of improvising something in a jam session or to a backing track, rather than sit down with the intention of writing it. Unless of course it just pops into your head spontaneously.....

Normally you'd already have an idea of the general style, fast/slow/soulful/aggressive and just play some notes. Remember the bits that sound good and build on them, improve or change the rubbish bits. If it's not working scrap the whole thing and start again.

Let a band-member hear it, or just record it and listen to it - you'll notice things or get more ideas when you're not actively playing it. Generally I'm rubbish at writing songs/solos, but I come up with a few good ones every now and then

I've only ever played on strat / Floyd bridges, however I have a spanking brand new Kahler 2300 still in it's packaging for my project, so I haven't had the chance to try it yet!

Incidentally the knife-edges on my Jackson F.R. are starting to go so I don't tend to use it that much now as it never goes back in tune properly

If it's a shred guitar I say go for it, if it's good enough for Hanneman/King .....Slayer only used F.R's when they need 7-strings because Kahler only make 6's. I'm looking forward to being able to set the tension on the arm too, my Floyd-Rose arm always ends up in exactly the wrong place !

oh i get it, too bad i lost 1 of my string savers.

It's a pain cos it takes 1/2 hour with a pair of snips and an allen key to get the strings changed.

1/2 hour? It takes me 5-10 minutes to change strings on a floyd. I cant see what you are doing that takes a 1/2 hour.

I've told you a million times not to exagerrate

oh i get it, too bad i lost 1 of my string savers.

It's a pain cos it takes 1/2 hour with a pair of snips and an allen key to get the strings changed.

The upside is that when a string snaps it's usually the ball-end that breaks. I've had my Jackson for 12 years and I've never had a string break once even with all the whammy abuse that can be thrown at it. The worst that can happen is the end of the string can come pinging out the saddle if the block isn't tightened up enough !

Hi guys

I'm having a design conundrum with my neck-thru V.

In my head the design was straightforward enough, however I've just done a detailed full size sketch and found a problem width of the neck and the positioning of the trem system screwholes (Kahler 2300 trem unit).

The planned width for the neck (mid-body) is 66mm (approx 2 5/8"), however the screw-positions for the tremolo are going to come within a few millimetres (1/8 inch) of the glued neck/wing join. Does this weaken everything too much, or am I worrying about nothing? (given that I have been known to pick-up guitars by the trem alone when having a mad-turn )?

I've attempted to illustrate with this hastily drawn diagram:

(not to scale!)

I thought about making the neck wider so all four screws are fixed directly to the neck, however doing this means that the routes for the pickups will be almost exactly on the neck/wing join (marked in blue on the diagram) meaning less contact area for glueing. Plus it will look like it fell straight from the ugly-tree

I'd welcome any guidance as I'm itching to cut my first piece of timber

:)pretty cool. what colour you going for? I love black hardware it rocks. should be a great guitar

Most probably white, although metallic silver comes in a close 2nd.

Black would be cool too but I don't think the contours would stand out as much

Now that I've got all the parts, maybe I can maybe start making this thing soon!

Based on the Jackson King-V design:

Rock Maple Neck-through

Mahogany wings

Ebony 24-fret fingerboard (pre-slotted, cheat!)

Kahler 2300 trem unit

Graphite nut ( + Kahler string lock)

EMG 81 / 85 pickups & 20db pre-amp

Inverted headstock w/mini tuners

Here is the plywood mock-up with all the exciting bits layed on it:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h130/thr...g_g_plywood.jpg

The head dimensions were measured incorrectly off my Jackson PS-1 so the one pictured is actually wrong.

Whaddya think ?