Lumberjack

Made a bit more progress on Buddy Build 1.0

Have yet to round over the edges and the heel will get a bit more shaping once the neck is glued on, but other than that the body is nearly done.  

Do you guys have any tips on how to cut/route/saw the slot for the blade switch?  I haven't done one in 10+ years and frankly I don't even remember how I did it back then.  

Beautiful work, the matching carve on the back is a treat!

On 1/1/2021 at 5:12 AM, Bizman62 said:

Ultimate workmanship on the bevel!

Thanks my friend!

9 hours ago, Vitaly_V said:

Semyon Padalka makes cuts from the back of the top. This makes it easier to bend the wood.

This was my initial plan.  I don't have a cnc though, and didn't think I could do the kerfing consistently/precisely enough with hand tools to avoid splitting, so I decided to bend it without the kerfing.  

7 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

Looking forward to seeing this one move on. Lovely wood combinations, what is that body? in the pics of the blanks i thought it was sapale, but the pics after shaping makes me think is african mahog? 

Yessir!  it's African mahogany.  

Hey gang,

I’m getting started on a build for a friend of mine and figured I’d start up another thread. This will be a bit different from my usual stuff: he’s spec’d out a flat top PRS-custom-24-shaped geetar with HSS pickups, 3+3 headstock, and a fixed bridge.  More details to follow, but here’s the starting lumber:

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

 I like that axe almost as much as I like the beard 

The beard is where the shred comes from.  Petrucci doesn't have that thing for nothing 
 

46 minutes ago, komodo said:

Yes sir it is. You are hearing a lot of the Trisonics there, they impart a vocal tone more than any other pickup I've ever used. Also, I may have been using a Catalinbread Galileo clone I built which also has a boost. I can get similar tones with clean channel and Galileo, or blue channel (med gain) and the boost. The red channel is full balls to the wall high gain, which I actually pulled back by using lower gain tubes.

Ah that makes sense, I was wondering where that Queenish-mid-range was coming from in your demo.  Have you ever had a chance to play the EL34 version of the 5150 III?  I definitely don't "need" another amp, but the 5150 III's sound so good for modern stuff, and as much as I love the Mesa, it's 30 years old and isn't quite voiced for anything too modern.  The 5150 iii is starting to temp me.... can't afford it right now, but....

18 hours ago, komodo said:

This is funny. We clearly need a "What's your signal chain?" thread.
I'm on a Steinberg UR22 > puter, but mostly it's just guitar > one million pedals > EVH 5150 III >Thiele cab with Creamback. The 5150 was tube rolled to high heaven until I found the sweet spot and now it's beautiful.

None of this does any good to relieve the pain of me selling my 72 Marshall Superlead back in the day, not having any idea what I had.

 

Is the 5150 III what you used to demo the Black Queen?  It sounded awesome!  And yeah I've definitely regretted selling some amps/gear over the years.  Wish I would have just slowed down and thought things through before letting go of some of those keepers.  

I know the thumbnail looks spammy in this context, but for anyone curious I tracked a short solo yesterday to see how the guitar would sound in a full mix: 

On 9/6/2020 at 2:22 PM, komodo said:

 

This is just an absolutely stunning build, super happy to see you won GOTM for it!  Very well deserved, and full disclosure, you had my vote

13 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Totally. The Mark amps were/are a real tone enthusiasts line on the ticksheet. I'm so bummed that I didn't know what I know now when I passed over a plain brown on brown Mark combo back in the 90s when I bought my first (pretty screwy) ESP Explorer. Man, it hurts even thinking about it but not as much as selling my ESP The Mirage Custom. I digress.

We're really living in a golden age of accessible high-end recording gear and knowledge available to get some really cool sounds down. I've got admit though, I do prefer to live with a more pared-back setup these days so I can pick up and play. I neglected my practice and progression in favour of digging too deeply into the gear whore hole. I'm of the opinion that if you can work with a heavier setup and still be productive and creative, all power man. I can't switch that part of me on and off though, so I really need to have stuff ready to make noise right there and then.

I bet you that having a Mark combo would fit that bill SOOOO nicely, but it's not a fair bet....because you know this. 

Absolutely, that's partly why I got rid of the Axe Fx III; there was soooo much stuff in there I always felt like I was underutilizing it's potential, always wondering if a slight adjustment to the deeper parameters would improve the tone, wondering whether I had blended the IRs "correctly", or was I using the right IRs at all, should I be pre-filtering with an EQ or using a clean boost, and on and on.  That's part of the charm of plugging into an amp: turn it on, that's your sound.  The end.   

That's why I'm experimenting with the Captor.  I'm really just looking for the easiest and most honest way to get that plug n' play experience recorded, so that I don't have to worry about if my preamps are good enough, if I have the mics placed just right, etc.  If I could get a whole set up and sound hooked into a single on-off switch, I would.  So far, a live amp with the load box is the closest I've gotten.    

4 minutes ago, komodo said:

And here I was feeling good about picking up a used iRig HD2 today. ahahahahahahahhaa

So, I was just eating my lunch scrolling through Instagram and was fed a #guitarbuilding post that was your vid you just shared here. I was all 'wha?!' and checked out your feed. Super great stuff! You are the shredder I want to be but don't have the theory. I;m going to dig into some of your teachings and see if I can;t pick something up.

Thanks for the kind words!  I just started posting "guitar stuff" on there during the covid-19 lockdown as a way to stay sane, thinking I'd stop once life got back to normal.  But it's been fun, and well received, so I'll be keeping it up when I can.  I enjoy the instructional stuff and writing tabs isn't nearly as torturous as I thought it might be, so there's definitely going to be more of that.  
 

16 minutes ago, komodo said:

And here I was feeling good about picking up a used iRig HD2 today. ahahahahahahahhaa

I definitely don't have all that gear now!  I'm thrilled for everyone that can afford to keep 15k+ in amps and studio gear around, but for now that's not me.  I use the Mesa at home and a dinky Pod Go for live gigs cause all my live sounds are super simple.   

Anyways, all I'm saying is that you don't need a bunch of stuff to record a good sound.  You could get a entry level interface, a couple plugins, and whatever headphones you already have and off you go for a couple hundred bucks.  I'm still using a stupidly cheap Pre Sonus interface, and I got the Captor for $170 on eBay.  

30 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

right on.  that's a sweet amp.  add a tubescreamer to just about any mesa (barring subway and roadstar) and bliss.

I've gotta admit that I've drunk deeply of the Mesa coolaid.  I'm notorious amongst my "guitar buddies" for constantly buying and selling used gear.  But after so many years of hunting through everything from Marshall to Peavey to Splawn to Orange to Blackstar and on and on, the Mesa Mark series just really does it for me.  Absolutely loved the Mark IV I used to have, had a Mark V for a bit, and they were both absolutely stellar.   The Axe Fx III honestly did suuuuch a good job with those Mesa models I thought, they were some of my favorites on that unit.  

4 hours ago, mistermikev said:

wow dude... some fantastic playing there and sounds great.  what u using for amp?

4 hours ago, komodo said:

Killer! I know we are talking about the guitar, but maybe a brief thing of your signal path?

3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Still ruling that Mk III Mesa?

Trust me when I say it doesn't take much encouragement to get me talking about gear 

This was tracked with a red stripe 1987 Mesa Mark III, recapped and modified at the Mesa factory by Mike Bendinelli with the "III+" mod, which is supposed to get the III sounding more like the IIC+.  I used the lead channel with moderate gain, boosted by a Maxon 808, then running into a Torpedo Captor load box which takes the dry signal into my interface, into the DAW, where I used the free York Audio Impulse IR loader to slap an Ownhammer IR on there. It was a Mesa traditional 4x12 cab blended with an Orange 4x12, and reverb/delay were added in the DAW.  

I've been experimenting with all kinds of recording methods over the last couple years because I don't have the luxury of cranking up a loud amp and micing it properly; this video was actually my first time using the Captor, as I just got it a few days ago.  I've tried a bunch of modelers and plugins for at-home recording and have been somewhat disappointed. Neural DSP plugins, Line 6 Helix, and the Fractal Axe Fx III all sounded very good, but never felt or sounded quite as convincing as a real amp to me.  So I'm trying out the Captor as of a couple days ago, and am really enjoying it so far; something about playing through a molten hot amp sizzling with 1900's radio technology just feels *awesome*.  Like I said I used a 3rd party IR here, but the Two Notes Wall of Sound VST that comes with the Captor seems extremely robust, and just goofing around with it over the last day or two I've already been able to get significantly better sounds than I got here using a 3rd party IR loader.  

Listening back to this, if I recorded it again I'd back the gain down a bit and try to tame the high end a little more; it sounds a smidge harsh to me.  I prefer warmer, darker, chewier sounds for leads; this is close, but a bit too aggressive in the high end for my taste.  I like that high end bite for rhythm, but prefer creamy/smooth leads.  I'm not a good mixer, but so far playing the live amp, even with a digital IR, is sounding and feeling much more convincing than the modelers/sims/plugins I've tried. 

Quick bit of noodlin' to test it out.  Cheers!
 

2 hours ago, ScottR said:

Anyone else see the demon face below the bridge? It shows up best in that straight on third pic.

Finally done! Really enjoying the ultra-matte finish, this is the first time I’ve gone “all in” on matte, as opposed to satin/semigloss. It plays very well and the Bare Knuckles sound great, but I’ll record a little demo soon so you don’t have to take my word for it. 
 

5 hours ago, Prostheta said:

The tonal relationship between the Maple and Sapele is fantastic. That's all really well married together!

Thanks for noticing!  This definitely took quite a bit of experimentation to get right; I think the final mix was a blend of 5 different aniline dyes - a bit of brown, amber, yellow, red, and black.  

More progress: neck glued, finish dried. 

@Prostheta the dyes I’m using are water-based aniline, so usually they won’t interact with the clear I’m using. I’ve used lacquer to seal the binding in the past, but since I’m using a 2k finish over the whole guitar this time I went with a cheap hardware store acrylic clear since it dries quickly.  I shoot 3 or so light coats to seal, and I’m not sure how deep it penetrates exactly, but I find the acrylic clear works just as well as regular lacquer. 

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

You do a masterful job of masking.....each time.

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

I know. That's very very neat work. Are you sealing the faux binding with shellac or just using tape?

Yes I seal it, that’s the only way I’ve ever been able to get clean binding lines on “PRS-style” natural binding; I’ve tried using just tape and it *always* bleeds. I mask off the top and back with pinstripe tape leaving only the binding exposed and then hit it with a couple quick coats of clear (whatever you’re using, lacquer, acrylic, etc) so when I’m dying there’s actually no tape at all, just the clear coat keeping the binding safe. Then, once the dying is done you can easily wipe/scrape off any color that spilled over since the smudges are just floating on top of that thin coat of clear and never actually reached the binding wood.

These shots were taken before scraping the binding so hopefully it will be even cleaner in the end. 

On 8/14/2020 at 6:01 PM, RonMay said:

Or an incurable medical condition. 

If your big honkin’ volute lasts for 4 or more hours please contact your doctor. 
 

On 8/14/2020 at 10:19 AM, ScottR said:

Now you need to carve your initials or logo in that volute.

SR

I won’t even try to pretend my volutes aren’t inspired by your work,  I love your volutes!  I decided on inlaying a medal in this one. 

Thanks for the input guys! I think I’ll try some of those approaches for my next carves. 
 

Got the neck mostly carved, with a big honkin’ volute cause I like big honkin’ volutes. 

Major shapes/contours roughed in, next step will likely be carving the neck. All the contours were cut free hand with dragon and shinto style rasps, which is... sort of fun?  What do you guys use for your larger carves?  I’ve been using rasps for the longest time, but I’ve been thinking of switching to angle grinders with sanding attachments, or maybe some air-powered rotary sanding tools like I’ve seen others use. 
 

The sharp angle where the belly carve meets the upper horn was also part of the design for the blue guitar I built a little while ago, but I didn’t have the guts to keep it and I sanded it into a smoother shape because I thought it was a bit too much, sort of BC Rich-esque. I’m still not quite sure about it, but this is obviously a “pointy metal” style guitar so I’ve decided to keep it this time and see how I feel about it once the build is finished. 

On 8/7/2020 at 2:35 PM, mistermikev said:

the little 'lines' between the A and M - how did you maintain those so nicely?  That really looks great.  well done.

The inlay was a single piece of wood to start, so those lines are just a single pass with the jeweler’s saw and as little sanding as I could get away with to smooth out the saw marks. The material between them is clear epoxy with a bunch of ebony sanding dust mixed in for color matching purposes, and it was pretty slow-curing so I had plenty of time to smudge it around till the lines looked right.