Fraser

heh heh heh...tonebuckles.

I'm really interested to see/hear the combination of 12 string and ghost system.

It's looking good. I'm liking the carve on the top.

Fraser

very niiice. although I disagree that it doesnt need anything else.......

i'm thinking it needs some little metal bits in those grooves ...

I have a Line6 Vetta and I love it. I use a couple of great amp sounds, and all the stomp boxes I could want are built in too.

I've never used any of the factory presets, I just start with an amp without any effects.

One of the best purchases I have ever made.

i don't think it is Fspaced.

dimarzios have an 'F' stamped on the baseplate. Can you remember seeing it?

and, no, i don't think it is normal for a pickup to end up in the wrong box or have the wrong sticker.

f.

how about a full pic of that guitar, looks like a metallic swirl....

Is that a tiger claw behined the bridge?

Yup.

Hayden,

thanks, it was a bit complicated I guess. I don't split the rails. The 'split' sound selects the single coil. I designed the wiring myself.

The battery for the led also powers the Graphtech gear. I did look at putting in an active Humbucker in the bridge a shadow SH EQ5, maybe on another one....

To be honest I've never played actives much. one day....

The Midi Volume is also a push/push pot . Down - no lights. up - lights on! That saves battery.

mmm flamey neck. nice work.

Dude,

The neck pickups work with the coil split push/push switch on the volume control.

If the knob is down, you get full bridge humbucker or the neck fast track.

If the knob is in the up position, you get the split bridge pickup or the neck single coil.

Only one neck pickup is on at a time. Never had the desire to combine them. The fast track has a mountain of output.

The OF for me wasn't just about bling, its functional. I switch pickups alot so having a visual colourful indicator really helps in the dark!

I took me a couple of weeks (an hour here or there) to rout the fingerboard and glue in the OF.

Spent a lot of time in design getting the routing patern to match up with the inlay.

Desiging the circut for the colour changing took a little bit of experimentation

Cost: Circuit was cheap, the LED was the most expensive part. The OF wasn't cheap because it is proper OF. Probably $100 in materials.

As for effort, i'm not doing them on my next couple of builds, I have some other things planned

Hi,

all, wanted to share my second build with you. I wasn't happy with the outcome of my first full build, so I built a new one and have been playing it for a while now.

Here it is all finished:

There are 100 in progress photos showing the piecing together, Optic Fibre installation etc

Shape: Slightly downsized RG/ Jem Shape

Construction: Neck Through

Neck: 7 piece laminate - maple/wenge/maple/wenge/maple/wenge/maple. Asymetric profile.

Nut: Earvana

Body Wings: swamp ash with inlaid wenge.

Fingerboard: Ebony with Jem style Vine inlay

Frets: Jumbo Stainless

Bridge: Recessed Tonepros Tune-o-Matic with Graphtech Piezo Saddles

Pickups: Bridge - Dimarzio ToneZone , Middle - GFS Neovin7, Neck - GFS Neovin7 and Dimarzio Fast Track 2

Electronics: Graphtech Acousti-Phonic Preamp, Graphtech Hexpander

Machine Heads: Planet waves Trim Lock

Controls:

- 5 way Megaswitch

- Mag Volume with push/push selector for coil split /neck pickup select

- Acoustic Volume with Push/Push selector for Mid/Dark

- Midi/Synth Volume with Push/Push selector for Lights on/off.

- Toggle for Magnetic / Piezo / Both

- Toggle for Midi up/down

- Toggle for Pickup / Midi / Both

Re-used most of the hardware but changed some of the timber and the body thickness, added a little lions claw at the Bridge, and added a pickguard.

The Lights change colour with the 5 position pickup selection. Bridge - Red, Bridge/Middle - Orange, Middle - Green, Middle/Neck - Aqua, Neck - Blue.

Obviously has such a huge variety of tones. Funnily enough, my favorite is the Bridge TZ split.

Fraser.

I Have one of those bridges. I'll take some pics. Haven't finished buiding the guitar for it yet.

Thanks spoke. I thought about it overnight and decided there was no point doing it half@ssed.

Yesterday I steamed off the fingerboard while watching Oceans 11.

Will definitely be clamping it differently this time !

Hi all, been a while for me, but I need some advice/opinions.

I've been building another guitar (please forgive me for not posting progress pics (I will soon I promise!)) and have finally I glued the fingerboard to the neck using Titebond.

When I unclamped it, I checked the fingerboard for straightness - because of the way I clamped it for a few days, it now has considerable relief.

How much? about 2mm (0.07" or 1/14th') at the 9th fret.

ok, so i'm still a noob

Neck is very deep set laminated blackwood-walnut-blackwood-walnut-blackwood. Laminates glued with Titebond.

It is 25.5" scale length slotted bound fingerboard. Binding is the same timber as the fingerboard glued with Titebond.

Fingerboard not yet radiused but fingerboard and neck are tapered.

It has a LMII Double action Truss rod and two CF rods. Rods glued with epoxy.

I am installing LMII Jumbo Evo Gold Fretwire - eventually.

As it is now, I can get rid of just over half the relief by adjusting the truss rod as far as I'm willing to.

The neck has a long tang, so I can clamp the tang and headstock down so the fingerboard is flat.

When it is clamped, the fret tang feels like it will go in ok, ie: i don't think the slots are too wide or too small.

I really don't want to heat/remove the fingerboard because I believe it will delaminate the binding and the neck laminates.

I think some relief in the neck will be good for my playing style.

Am planning on using Optima Gold 10-46 strings.

I am thinking of the following course of action:

1 clamping the neck so the fingerboard is flat.

2 radiusing the fingerboard and cleaning/deepening the fret slots

3 fretting

4 unclamping and hoping that the backbow from the fret tangs evens out the relief, maybe with a little help from the truss rod.

am I kidding myself? and if so what is my other option? The fingerboard is reasonable thick so could be sanded to level, but it would look a little funny being thinner at each end.

Thank you,

Fraser.

answers receive a photo in the soon-to-be-created-build-progress-thread

ahh, so the core is 7mm deeper than the wings. nice. Thanks.

The jointing of the lapsteel neck to wings looks super neat, I have to ask how did you do it full depth so neatly?

I would have rough cut it then made matching templates to rout against with a template following bit.

But then, I have trouble jointing two supposedly straight pieces together!!

both projects look great.

F.

is that blood I see?

beautiful work

hey FSG, I used a central laminate (approx 10mm wide) in a neck through and the resulting guitar had no top end. no sizzle, snap or highs. Sounded nice for jazz, but still a bit too muddy. In my case, I believe the cause was the ironbark.

sorry, But I don't mean to discourage you, but I was really dissapointed with mine after all the effort. I think you could be making your life harder for yourself by using ironbark for neck and body, siply because it is harder to work.

Fingerboard could work well as ironbark. Cooktown ironwood, gidgee etc are used for fingerboards.....

Would you consider using qld maple if its available, or jarrah or even silky oak? These shouldnt be too hard to come by....

best of luck mate.

beautiful work. is the white circle below the bridge humbucker a moon or a camera flash reflection?

I use google sketchup, and after a learning curve, I find it a fantastic, intuitive powerful tool. And its free, so no, I don't get paid for my endorsement.

I have been able to experiment with every aspect of the design of the guitar before even touching a piece of timber.

Now I like touching my wood as much as anyone(ooh err), but with good hardwood becoming extinctMaghogahy CITES, I want to be 100% on every detail before I hack into it.

Plus, I don't get alot of time to spend in the workshop so I need to have a good plan.

Plusplus, i'm an engineer so its the nerdy way to do it.

so checkout sketchup - oh and 3dwarehouse, heaps of guitars already drawn by others. its like having a variax kisekae!!

good luck

well, now that this guitar has been entered in GOTM........SOUNDCLIPS!!!!

post some recordings.....

oh, and congrats, it looks fantastic.

Done. Finally.

Headstock

Back

Another View

I am really liking stainless frets. This is essentially my first 'new' guitar since 1991 so i'm feeling quite chuffed.

Thanks to all that helped.

on to the next one....or four! this building thing rocks!

Fraser.

Stew, where did you get your Queensland Maple? I see your in brisbane like myself, was it a local place?

Congrats on the build mate, looks fantastic.

hi all, just a quick update:

I let the test pieces to cure for quite a while, Maiden was 100% right, I put a lot of coats on in a short time so the top coats dried before the bottom coats. Even now it is still easily dinted by a fingernail.

So, I still wasn't 100% convinced with the finish on the test pieces.

I got talking to the painting subcontractor that worked on a building job with me. Turns out they do a lot of NC Lacquer work so long story short: they are painting it for me.

I dropped it off yesterday and had a look at it today! schweeeet!

It has a few coats of satin NC Lacquer (by Mirotone) and it looks really nice. They are going to put another couple of coats on and let me have another look before I decide if I am going to go Gloss or leave it satin.

I have the test pieces in gloss, but seeing the whole guitar in satin and still being able to feel the grain of the swamp ash, I gotta say i'm pretty confident I'll stay with the satin.

so basically, I am very excited.

and the aerosol technique I trialled will still be of use on the next one with different timber and using Maidens suggestion.....

oh, and yes, you will get pics very soon.

Fraser.

well, the clear coats on the test pieces have had 3 weeks or so to cure and they are still too soft methinks, a fingernail will really mark the paint.

......I'm now looking for someone to do it in 2pack poly, oh well.

meanwhile, i have done the routing on the headstock:

just deciding if i'm going to put a piece of swamp ash in the rout to make it a little more distinctive from the laminates....i kinda like it as is though....

till next update....

Fraser.