Gogzs

Well, if it turns out sounding like crap, the three of us will learn something about pickup positions and how a bbq tastes when you use bamboo and purpleheart as firewood... it's all good, that's why we have this forum

Thanks to both of you, I was thinking along those lines as well, just wanted to confirm by folks with more knowledge. I hope I get most of the rough work done by sunday, so next week I can start with varnishing it when the weather turns a bit warmer and less moist.

What @Bizman62 described is what I hoped would be put under the "aesthetics" property. But totally agree, it has to be comfy and playable. Rest comes easy on electric guitars.

So these builds have been dragging themselves for a variety of reasons, one of them being a shortage of pickups (at least the ones I wanna put in these two builds). But I finally got hold of a EMG Steve Lukather signature set. They are for the build that was planed to be built second, but oh well, it is what it is. So now that these are here, figuring stuff out. Fretboard for this one is bamboo + a layer of purpleheart veneer going down the middle: Really happy how it turned out. But now a question. So the pickup set I got is this: Initial plan was to make it 24 frets, 25.5" scale. But then I'd have to move the neck pickup closer to the middle one, by around 1.4 cm (roughly 0.55 inch). If I make the fretboard 23 frets, then the neck pickup would be just slighly moved towards the mid pickup, and if I go 22 frets, I can put them in as EMG intended them. I know, the more towards the 12th fret, the "softer" the sound etc... but how much of a difference would it really make? I can live with 23 frets but would prefer 24. 22 is not something I'd like to do, but if you convince me, I might just... so yeah, let me know what you think about the neck pickup placement. So yeah, this one is going somewhere, the dark one will have to wait a little until I figure out what pickups I'll put in it in the end.

Here is the build thread, you'll see that my build was heavily inspired by the S-series, I just "fixed" the things I didn't like on mine (like the fact that it isn't a neck through). Maybe you find something you like there. Cheers!

These are so damn pretty, but the wild cat pattern screams "5 dolla sucky sucky"... Amazing job as always, really love these!

Hope I'm not too late to throw in my two cents. I'd drill out the whole plastic sleeve and plug it with a piece of mahogany and redo the whole thing. If you want to keep it clean and clear, the sleeve has to go. Shame this is such an issue to you, the newer models don't have that sleeve and are actually fairly nicely finished and polished even on the low end models (take a look at the Ibanez S520/S521). This was my take on that socket position, and after a year of plugging it in/unplugging, no noticeable scratches/dents etc... pain in the ass to get it done, but worth it

I'm actually glad this isn't sitting in my shed. One one hand I really love the cut horn drawing, on the other hand, the way it sits now, it's such an oddly beautiful instrument... hammer frets in, varnish it and enjoy. Looking forward to see whatever you'll do with this

Uh uh, I really wanted to see this just being finished and playable, but I love the cut horn look, I say go for it. Nice job on the neck joint. Also, as for the recesses for the pickup rings, how feasible would it be to make em from ash and have them flush with the body? The build looks so nice and clean, I wouldn't want to disturb the front with pickup rings of any colour.

It's one of those things I randomly remember throughout the day ever since @killemall8 went public about the buzzing issue on this forum. So yeah, please let me know as well what it is and if we can finally put an end to this. Godspeed man!

And this is exactly why I come here, not for the "Fender clone nr. xyz" thread, but for the builds that push the established conventions to their breaking point or even completely ignore them. There are some folks on here, when I see that they started a new build thread, I get genuinely excited

After all the discussion and science, question is... if the pickup vibrates, is it beneficial or counter productive? same as if you place two speakers facing each other playing a sine wave, depending on the frequency/distance, they could either amplify or cancel each other out. Same here, what if the pickup vibrates just like the string that was plucked. So you'd lessen the induced current in the pole piece under the plucked string, but due to the pickup vibrating, you'd also induce current in the pole pieces vibrating under strings that are not played. So how do you know if you nailed it and they resonate and amplify each other, or they cancel each other out?And then there's the question if it's beneficial, do you lose some of the benefits by mounting the pickups onto pickup rings instead directly screwing them into the body? And the biggest question of all... DID YOU JUST ASSUME MY MATERIALS? What about tonecoffeebeans? Or toneepoxy? Hell, my current builds are like, 80% bamboo... can I coin the term tonegrass? There are so many factors in this one, and I'd totally understand the discussion if this was about acoustic guitars, but electric... it's easier to EQ the difference out on a good amp, rather than chase tonewood benefits.

I'm bad at finishes, so I'll leave that to others, but I really love the S series and depending on where you live and what you can order, this could turn out epic. Thomann has the Low Pro Edge in stock, in black/chrome/gold, a bit on the expensive side (around 220 EUR) so there's that. But if just one pole is broken, and the bridge itself is actually fine otherwise, I'm sure you'll be able to find those as spare parts. I assume if you find these, you'll be able to salvage the rest? Google: Floyd ROse Mounting Studs, and find a shop in your region that has them, should be easy to find. As for the pickups, I'd go with Dimarzio Tone Zone for the bridge, Dimarzio Air Norton for the neck, and Dimarzio True Velvet in the middle. This is the configuration they have on the prestige models, and it's a really pretty sounding combo. You should be able to reuse the switch, and as for pods, get some nice 500k ones. Wiring diagrams can be found online easy (just google Ibanez HSH 5 way switch wiring diagram). As for tuners, with the locking nut in place and the fine tuners on the bridge, I wouldn't go too crazy with them as long as they get the job done. And if you take better pics of the neck and the issues it has around the first frets, I'm sure someone here will be able to help you with it as well. On top of the hardware changes, level and recrown the frets (looks like there's enough meat on them), and finish it according to what some of the more experienced folks here are suggesting. You should end up with one damn fine S Series guitar. Best of luck

I think AI is Adobe Illustrator, but the furthest I got when it comes to design is Pinat.net (like paint but with layers), so I could be mistaken

@MiKro I've seen this one pop up from time to time in various threads (I think the last time was when you were cleaning the shop) and I still can't believe you didn't finish it. Such a weird but pretty build.

I got asked by a few friends there days "How's guitar building going?" so here is how it's going... So I first draw the centerline, then the outlines, then I mark every fret position with a loooong ruler onto the centerline, I use a 90 degree angle to get all the fret positions perpendicular to the centerline (I start off with a square blank for the fretboard, and the centerline is parallel to the edge). Since my marker is a bit thick and I'm not the most precise, before cutting every slot I take the ruler and check if I go through the middle of the line, a bit before or a bit after... when I'm done with cutting the slots I take the router with a template bit and get the fretboard to dimensions. Since I do all the fret slot cutting by hand without a miter box or anything, it takes me roughly 3 hours to get all this done. And then the router slips... yeah, that's how it's going.

Congrats, impressive build in many ways... well deserved

Please not Berlin, I lived there for 3 month on one occasion, and I had enough of that city for a lifetime... such an excitingly exhausting city... on the other hand, if covid passes by mid June, I plan a roadtrip trough the Baltics/Finland and back home via Sweden/Norway. Might stop by for a beer, Joensuu looks like the kind of comfy city I would enjoy

I miss traveling to the point I'd try to attend such a meet even if it's abroad Would be really cool to drink a beer with folks from here (I suck at playing, I could like... enthusiastically jog around while others play...)

What a joy to read. 11/10 thread, thanks for the awesome build!

Yeah I thought so, I was pretty sure your finishing game wasn't the only thing that is top notch on these guitars. But since we went through the craziest things, I thought this problem might be hiding in plain sight. Blah...

I'm gonna lean myself now faaaaar out of the window, I don't wanna question your guitar building skills because I have only the highest admirations for the stuff you pull off, but in what relation is the fretboard to the body. Are they perpendicular or is there a break angle? Because if there is none, and the bridge is too high and you try to lower the action by tightening the truss rod, you will get buzz at pretty much every fret except perhaps the few highest ones. This is the roughest of the rough sketches of what I'm trying to talk about. There are things that aren't the most accurate representation of a good setup, but just to give a visual representation of what I mean, consider I use paint for all of my sketches. And again, I'm sure you're aware of all this, and probably take better care of it than I'll ever do, but this issue is driving me personally nuts, because I can't accept the fact that those insanely sexy instruments have such a massive flaw.

I still can't believe these works of art have fretting issues. This top looks insane, I'm not even sure it's wood we're looking at. Such a happy sad story man, but yeah. Take care of yourself first, rest will be easy. Burnout is one hell of a state, don't push yourself there.

Interesting read, thanks for that. My "knowledge" about it came from a guy working in a music store in Stockholm. Was there during my stay in Sth, and went to the store to try as many guitars as possible, to see what in the end I'd like to incorporate in my first build. The guy working in the store was really into the idea, and showed me a few guitars with reverse headstock and explained to me why that is so, and apparently spread disinformation. Never thought about it really, but makes total sense from a physics point of view. Just to bend my mind a little around this. So the article you linked and what you said made complete sense, and thinking about it now, the only difference in the amount of string behind the nut would make, is the amount of bending needed to get a string pitch up half a step/full step etc. For example, the more string you have behind the nut, the more you'd have to bend the string to get it up half a step, compared to if the tuning peg was right behind the nut. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. Cheers!

Routing tone chambers into tonewood, has science gone too far?