Dudemeister

Don't laugh, click. Now THAT, is COOOOL. Is that for real or just a digital rendering?

Now there's an idea, if I can ever afford it. I'll look around, but did they even make a PRS carved top with a bolt on? Most that I've seen were set neck.

It's Bich.

I bought the fretboard on eBay. There are a couple of guys that make these. One is Sam Musical Instrument Workshop, the other is Bruceweiart Musical Instrument Shop. They both have different grades of boards, but it seems the quality varies from board to board. I bought my boards from Sam's shop. The first one, a dragon was OK, but the inlay material was so thin, it chipped in a couple of places. The second is the one on the Bich. I made the mistake of buying it already fretted. Never again. The fret quality was horrible, they were not properly inserted, not leveled or crowned, bad stuff. I had to remove the frets and refret it. The problem with that was that the ebony began to chip slightly, and a couple of pieces of abalone started lifting. I had to heat each fret with a soldering iron to remove them cleanly. The third one was superb in both quality, design and workmanship. It was slotted already but no frets. I have that one on a different BC Rich guitar, a Warlock (click -here- for an image). I don't think the inlay work will lift or chip under normal wear, but you can always seal it using a light coat of nitro or poly. I have yet to buy any from Bruceweiart. As you can see, I tend to like symetrical designs that have a graphycal look about them. The stuff this shop has is more flowery and really busy, so I haven't found anything I like yet. I periodically look at their new designs just in case they come up with something new. One more thing, most of these guys fretboards have a 16" radius, which for some pplayers (string benders especially) may be a little too flat, but you can occasionally find 12"and 9.5". Also the thickness of these boards is usually more (about 1/6") than the standard fretboard that you'll find on the origianl neck. This basically leaves you with 2 options: either live with the thicker neck, or plane the neck or the board down. In the case of the Bich, I left the thickness intact, so the nech shape and feel is more like chuncky Les Paul. On the Warlock I went to a cabinet shiop and used their planer to remove 1/6" off the fretboard. BTW. Thanks for the name, but the Bich is a she, so she has to have a girl name.

Obviously I wasn't clear on what I did. The fretboard you see already had the fret slots cut to the 25.5" scale length when I bought it. I didn't just take a 24.75" scale length board, decided to turn it into a 25.5" by simply lenghtening the distance between the nut and the bridge. The spacing is correct for 25.5". This was the very reason why I had to move the bridge. I could not alter the fret spacing so the bridge had to move. The spacing IS CORRECT . Here is a link to a photo I just took to prove this (The image is pretty big, so please give it time to load): - Bich Fret Spacing - I hope this clears the confusion. Rock on!!

Everyone here has come to a point where they needed a cool logo decal to finish off their project. Some have created their own using the tutorials on this site, but ultimately producing a high quality, realistic looking logo requires some specialized tools. I have the means to produce water slide decals on clear film, that when applied properly are virtually impossible to detect as decals, they look closer to a slikscreen job than a decal. I can print them using metallic gold and silver colors, as well as white, so they can be applied on dark or black backgrounds. Here is an example on one of my own creations: These decals are waterproof, and ready to be applied. Once applied and dry, you may seal them in with a light coat of either polyurethane or nitro lacquer. If you provide me with high quality artwork (600dpi or better) or vector artwork (Illustrator, PDF, EPS, Corel, WMF), I will produce the decals you need. Alternately I can help you create those logos from rough sketches. Cost depend on what needs to be done. Most headstock logos from exisiting art work will cost $15 for 2 pieces (just in case one gets ruined accidentally). Oversized designs will be more. Design charges are certainly negotiable and depend on level of complexity. If interested in these services please contact me here, or e-mail me at pirvan@pacbell.net. I will try to respond in a timely manner. Thanks.

I'm guessing you either sacrificed your intonation for less time, or you didn't know that making a 25.5" 3/4" shorter does not make it a 24.75" scale. The frets location will be relatively off = bad intonation = bad playability especially in the higher frets. I think you misunderstood why I did. The original guitar had a neck with a 24.75" scale length. When I replaced the neck & fretboard, the new one had a 25.5" fretboard. In other words the frets (and fret spacing) are for 25.5". What I endded up with was a guiar that had a fretboard with 25.5" spacing (it measured 12.75" from the nut to the center of the 12th fret), but from the 12th fret to the center of the bridge I had on 12" (total length was 24.75"). So I had to move the bridge back .75" to restore the 25.5" scale length. Intonation is quite good, except for the low E (6th string), which is sharp and I can't get it any closer than about 10 cents and the G (within 5-6 cents). I guess I could have moved the bridge back at least another .125" to allow for more adjustment, but that's still pretty good. I've had brand new guitars that were virtually un-intonable no matter what I did. I got the neck on an eBay auction. It was brand new, in fact the bolt on holes hadn't been drilled yet. And yes, it's 25.5" scale. The only problem is that the overhang is about .125"long, so when I fitted in the pocket it actually hit the neck pickup ring. So I had to cut the ring to accommodate the neck. Take a look at the body detail and you'll see how the pickup ring buts into the sides of the neck (it actually looks like it goes underneath, but it's actually cut. I don't build these things just to look at them, I actually play them. I have about 12 guitars including a few Fenders, Epihones (love Les Pauls but can't quite justify the price of a Gibson) and Ovations, and I play them all, not professionally, but recreationally. If they weren't playable I wouldn't want them. It's my balcony. I use it because I get natural light, and I wanted to get the colors as close as possible. My wife will be glad to hear the compliment, Thank you.

This should be a new topic, but I'll keep all my projects under the same heading. Anyway, seeing how the majority of the projects on Project Guitar are Ibanez based, I decided to do an Ibanez quikie. - Larger image - - back - - headstock detail - - body detail - Started off with an RG-570 body I got off eBay. Also off eBay I got a neck from a Winter Razor SR-320 guitar. I liked it because it had binding all the way around, and offset fret markers. The neck also came with a roller nut, but it had to be worked on to get the strings to sit properly. The body is painted in a (automotive lacquer) metallic red with black splatters. The back cavity covers are made from scratch, with a decal on the trem cover similar to some of the Ibanez guitars. The headstock was painted in (automotive again) Metallic Black, and a home made decal was applied, then sealed in clearcote. The truss rod cover describes the pedigree of this mutt: Ibanez RG-570 + Winter SR-320. Originally I wanted all the hardware to be black, and most of it is (tuners, knobs, tremolo). But I had a set of Zebra PAFs adn I think they look pretty good. The single coil pickup is actually Tex_mex strat pickup with the cover painted black. Wiring is done based on a Seymore Duncan schematic: Position 1: Neck Humbucker full on Position 2: Neck Humbucker coil tapped Position 3: Center Single Coil Position 4: Bridge Humbucker coil tapped Position 5: Bridge Humbucker full on The guitar looks pretty sharp to me, it's confortable and a pleasure to play. I leveled and crowned the frets and was able to get the action ultra low without buzzing. The fretboard has a 16" radius and it's FAST. . As you can see from the headstock logo, this is Hybrid 1. I hope this is just the first in a number of hybrid guitars I'll build. I really like getting parts from different guitars and mixing and matching them to see what comes out. Anyway, your feedback is always appreciated. Rock On !!

Thanks guys, but how about a name for this Bich ?

Up for your consideration my first guitar refinishing project. My BC Rich Bich. Don't have a name for her yet, but I'll entertain your suggestions. - Larger image - - Headstock Detail - - Body Detail - The whole thing got started around Christmas when I saw cool inlaid dragon fretboard on eBay and bought it. The intent was to use it on an inexpensive Bronze series black BC Rich Bich. Got the board, and using instructions found here, removed the original fretboard and glued in the new one... ...just in time to realize that the original neck had a 24.75" scale fretboard, and the new fretboard was 25.5". Great, now what... One possible solution was to get another fretboard, and start again, or alternately move the bridge back 3/4". So I decided on the latter. First stud came off quite easy, the second... pulled off a 2" chunck of black paint. Even though I had bought the guitar brand new at Guitar Center, it had been repainted from a crappy blue to a nice glossy black. Unfortunately, they never bothered to sand the body down, mearly sandblasted and repainted it. The only thing that was holding the paint together was it's own integrity. I was able to strip down the black paint with a putty knife in about 15 minutes. The blue underneath was really nasty so I started to strip it as well. So what was I left with...? a cheap laminated plywood body in the shape of a Bich. Obviously it's time for a solid color. Then I see an article here on veneer tops. Off to my local lumber company where I bought 4ft long strip of lacewood venner. I didn't want quilt or flametop anigre. The choice for me was either a beautiful piece of birdseye maple or the lacewood. The $85 price for the birdseye vs. the $30 for the lacewood sealed it. After glueing the veneer top on, I stained it, sealed it with laquer sealer, sanded smooth and decided I was going to do a solid black on the back and sides with a burstover on top (once again a technique learned from the tutorials here) and the rest natural finish. Meanwhile I'd read a lot about Polyurethane and lacquerfinishes, and decided to go with poly. The first coat of clear poly goes on, looking mighty nice. When I come back 1 hour later it's all fogged up. Since this is my first time using poly, I attribute it to improper technique, sand it all down and start again. Fogges up... *** ?? Is there a compatibility between the poly clear coat and the lacquer based sealer? Everything I read said they are compatible. I called various paint shops with this question, but none had an answer. I started to do more trials and no matter what I did the poly would fog up. NOt all over, just in random places. By now I was getting ready to give it up, but I just had far too much time invested in it. So I decided to give up poly and finish it up in lacquer. But still there was something that didn't quite click. Even stained, the lacewood was still too light and contrasty to the black burstover, so one day as I'm browsing through a Michaels Art store I find a can of something called Glossy Wood Tone. When I get home I try this and it's a transparent Walnut brown, but the more coats you apply, the darker it gets, but it never really gets opaque. Great, this will add to the burst over to further blend it in, while darkening the original tone of the lacewood. By now this look great, and I'm quite proud of this. So after a few days I sand it lightly, and apply a coat of clear lacquer (no more poly, remember), just so I can watch all the areas with the new wood tone get fine cracks in the paint. It looked like some mad slasher had taken a knife and made a thousand small cuts in the finish. I was not having a good time... For a while I actually considered leaving it like that for effect, but instead I went back to various trials and tests. And lo-and-behold... Polyurethane seemed to go on top of this new wood tone coat like glass. No wrinkling, no fogging up, perfect. The best that I can surmise is that the wood tone spray is some sort of enamel, and it interacts OK with the poly. So...DING!... I get the idea. Why not give the entire guitar a coat of wood tone, so it acts as a neutral medium between the laquer base and the poly,... and, JOY OF JOYS, IT WORKED !!! So now I have this pretty cool looking body, but the new neck and fretboard just don't cut it, as the fretboard rosewood is just too light, and the dragon design just too busy. So I look around on eBay and find this floral/vine inlaid ebony fretboard (this time I checked to make sure it was the right scale length). The question is do I rework the already re-worked neck or do I get another neck to do this on. In the meantime I had bought a set of black Sperzel 3x3 tuners, so I decided to get a neck with a 3x3 headstock instead of 6 inline. So I find a brand new Line6 Variax neck and buy it. Removed and replaced the fretboard, applied some lacewood veneer to the headstock and painted to match the body. Custom made the decals, the truss rod cover, added all black hardware (including black knobs with abalone tops, and HERE SHE IS !! The bich of my nightmares... It was a pain in the butt, but I like it, it plays quite smooth, and given how much time I put into it, I'd never trade her for anything. Your comments are welcome, and thanks for looking.