DividedByJames

man...that looks like urine when you are dehydrated ! Just kidding (but it does). I think you should leave it the vintage color and buy another cheaper '03 Les Paul to be your guinnea pig for paint projects. Cuz more guitars are better! Plus it has schtick value. It's old school 70's flava' and it's aged like fine wine. Well maybe not fine wine, but old wine. But in 10 years it will be vintage. All the 50-60's Les Pauls will be found and stored like artifacts in some glass case and everyone will be out searching for the third oldest Les Pauls...the 70's. If this came out the same day you were born, then it's 30something years old (or twentysomething...hey wasn't that a TV show?). I mean look at some of those 50s strats you see out there...they're beat to crap, but they still fetch a crapload of $$. I mean if the guitar functions and isn't falling apart, it will be vintage one day and will be worth more if in it's original finish.

...yeah whats up with the pickup rings being so close to the bridge? Does that affect the play of the tremolo?

Hey thats a nice looking geetar! I think you basically answered your question about whether or not it is dyed. I mean if it has a natural binding, then it has to be stained to have that separation effect. Plus we all know that maple is very white/tanish, and thats more of a black-brown color. I think he stained it, and then put tung oil over the entire body after the staining was dry. But I've never Stained anything and then tung oiled it so I dunno if that would even work.

I have also found that on strat-type guitars if you angle the strap buttons from being parallel to the neck to being pointed towards the neck (like 7th fret) it'll help balance. I got that from watchign and sort of mimicing Fieldy from Korn. I did it once on a bass and the strap popped right off. So I moved it more around the edge so that the bass would hold the strap in while vertical like Fieldy holds it. I've since stoppedholding the bass this way, but at that angle the strap pin works wonders. On V shaped bodies, it also works to put the strap pins on the neck joint area (same direction as the 4 bolt neck plate screws). Then screw in just that button and attach one end of the strap. hold the other end up and see if your headstock goes for a dive. If it does, you need to move the button. If not, secure the other strap button to the end of the guitar and you should be set with it being balanced. Keep in mind that the headstock needs to be lighter than the body for this to work. If you don't keep that in mind your neck joint will look like swiss cheese looking for the most balanced place.

I'd say the only advantage is if you had a flamed maple piece and wanted the grain to go all over the neck and not look disconnected. Ernie ball basses don't use the fancy stuff but theirs look as if it's not even been separated.

Oops...I just read you have EMGs. Not sure if that will work then.

I had a Jackson Scott Ian JJ that had a kill switch in it and you could push it in (it's spring loaded) and do some crazy percussive stuff with it. But I think for your purposes you will need a 2-way toggle, not a push in type. The kill switch was between the last item (knobs or switch) and before the output jack. As for wiring, I think a typical switch will have 3 lugs, and you attach the outgoing switch to one of the sides, and the wire from the pickups to the center. For the led, you baically will need to attach the LED to that same lug. I'm guessing that you would just separate the power source from the LED, but I don't know if this will drain your battery.

I thought you had to use an inkjet because the laser would melt the decal paper. Has anyone actually used a laser printer to do it? I just bought a laser printer, but if I'm risking the chance of getting melted film all over the insides, I'm not doin' it. Let me know. I have a 70's strat copy and it's lacking a decent decal (got jagermeister stickers on it now). Can you buy the decal paper at like Office Depot or Best Buy or something? And thanks for the image.

Not that it makes much difference, but Carvin necks are 25" scale, like PRS guitars. I think Stew Mac points that out, but in case it doesn't, keep that in mind. My Carvin catalog I have at work says the NT6 is $179. According to their catalog any parts/accessory order is $7.99 shipping. Not sure what it is overseas. The Stew Mac is $195. Going direct seems much cheaper. Also they have seven string neck thrus too. NT7 for $199. I bought their bolt on neck for one of my projects and they are very nicely made (ebony and maple). If you like Carvin headstocks, I'm pretty sure you can request their headstock (as opposed to a unshaped one) for little to no cost. At least thats what they did for me. You might also be able to ask them about doing some of their neck mods too (abalone, block inlay, walnut stripes, mahogany or koa neck, etc.) but don't quote me on it.

Has anyone seem the real original Floyd Rose-the one without the fine tuners? I thought i saw that on a pic of EVH's red and white super strat. It was mighty ugly. But thanks to Floyd, most people are happy, and he's rich. I still like hardtails better. I voted for the Edge...I couldn't find a pic of the Edge II, and I've only really used a Jackson Floyd, the Edge, the Edge 7, and Lo-TRS. I think the design of the Lo Pro Edge is better, but I've never used it, so I can't vote for it.

...ah I remember now...um maybe...my coil tap went to a Tele style switch, not a Les Paul style, so that bridging effect is actually in with the coil wires and directly opposite out to the Tele switch. But i sold that guitar, so thats why I can't remember.

not to keep doing this to speedy but here's the direct link for duncan pickups. If you have a hum and single (like George Lynch's guitars), you'll want to coil tap the reverse of the neck single coil. I'll have to do more research on that one, but I think it just involves either switching wires (red vs green or something) or switching the lugs (in on the middle lug out on the bottom opposite lug). But if you just want a choice of hum or single in that bridge position, all you need to do is tap the humbucker.

Separate volume and tone, eh? Like a Les Paul? I use that first site that Speedy listed. Go here. That should be pretty close. Now the only thing I can think of is that your pickup selector is in the wrong order of the chain. Basically you want to your sound to be like this: 1) Sound from Neck (either hum or single) 2) Both pickups (either h-s, s-s, s-h, h-h) 3) Sound from bridge (either hum or single) and since you want the coil tap option, you need to do that prior to the toggle switch. Check out this wiring. See the difference? Now for yours, have the bridge mimic what the neck coil tap is doing. Use the middle lug to split the coil tap wires and ground the lug closest to the pot. So 2 lugs used in total. Although I recall mine coil splitter had the wires going all the way from the right to left middle lugs. Try that too. And finally check this out....it says "In the series mode (neck tone pulled out) both pickup go through the neck volume and tone controls. In the series mode (neck tone pulled out) no audio will be [heard] with the p/u selector in the bridge position." That kinda sounds like whats going on with yours.

Cool. Only 1971 posts to go. Now I know why Westheman has the most posts.

I like ibanez guitars for some reason so I always check Ebay for cheap stuff. These aren't cheap by any means, but maybe you can build that custom Ibanez you always wanted. Universe Neck , JPM 100 neck , Satriani neck , S-series neck , S-series neck#2 , Floral Jem neck (repaired) , Floral Jem body, RG AANJ wizard maple fb neck And yes... I admit...I am an ebay spam. I'm addicted.

My buddy Asher bought a Warmoth LP junior project and he was gloating about the frets on his neck. He said they were stainless steel frets and you can custom order them with Warmoth. I tried his guitar after one of his shows for like 5 seconds and I could tell a major difference. They were a lot smoother to slide on, and had a different attack on the string when fretted. Anybody else try them or try to install them? Check out the specs here.

I know all of you must own a Dremmel-esque tool and I wanted to get opinions about the other non-Dremmels. I have a Black and Decker RTX that came free with a tool box that I bought. Opinions? Should I put it to the way-side and spend the money on the brand name Dremmel? Or should I stick with it and buy B&D accessories? So far I've only used it with a sanding tool to fix a neck joint issue but I noticed the accessories it comes with lack luthier style tools. FYI I am at best a hobbyist, not a full blown builder like some of you. My talents are also lacking in doing anything extravagant. Probably simple body work like pickup routing and maybe inlay at best.

...and how do we become one?

27, but if I shaved off my goatee people would believe that I'm eighteen.

Out of those choices I wouldn't be able to decide. I like them all independently of each other. I guess if I really had to pick one, it would be a quilt 10 top PRS McCarty hollowbody II with piezo pickups, but have the 5way rotary switch for two humbuckers and the rosewood neck and fingerboard. It basically gives me all the sounds I want in one $5000 guitar But I'd have to have a few of them because I can never decide on the best color. Plus I'd play the crap out of it so I'd need a pristine one and a beater one, and maybe a few in between for fun. So Mr Smith if you're watching, please email me about an endorsement deal...

I think that neck pickup is the Fernandes Sustainer. THe full body shot shows a bunch of switches by the tremolo bar, so I figure since that his new tinkering toy, it's probably that. But them dots look mighty bright..I wonder if he has LEDs in it.

Dude you got a good deal on it. Originally Guitar Center sold those for $999, so you probably got it below their cost. But I have noticed people aren't buying seven strings anymore, so the resale amount has lowered drastically and I've been watching those for the hell of it and they sell about $400. As for the rarity, there was a S-series Sabre model (S540-7) that came out in 1991 in black and red and they made about 400 of them. They had the old square heels and it as a H-S-S pickup setup with the Edge tremolo. I know cuz I used to own a black one, but I cherished it too much and never played it. So I sold it on Ebay. Unfortunately a guy named Rich (you know who he is) sniped it at the last second and he got it for my starting price ($600) because no one bid on it. That my own damn fault for letting that happen. Now he's selling it on his website for $875. I kinda wished the buyer would be someone who would play it and cherish it like I did and not resell it, but I was able to pay for my Dual Recto Mesa head because of it so I can't really complain (even tho I sort of just did...oops). I have the orignal photos still so if you are interested in buying it from him let me know. Here are two of my original photos (kind big images--hope my bro in law doesn't wipe these off his drive) Pic1 pic2 The sabres are cool, but I don't miss it. It balanced a little weird on my beer gut. (I need to workout). But I have a beat up RG7421 that I bought to "use" when i had the S540-7 and it satisfies my once-in-a-blue-moon 7string needs. I think I played it once in the last year for 15 minutes. Good enough for me. Enjoy your new toy!

Ah...at first I thought you might be Tony (of TDL guitars)... I saw his stuff on Ebay and he does this sweet candy apple red/gold Tele (that first link) and this American flag Tele too (see top of Ebay page). I was going to have him build me a custom mahogany Tele with one humbucker and that red/gold flame paint job, but he's really busy and can't make a backrouted Tele yet, and I'm also lacking in funding right now (plus I'm sidetracked with other projects). If only he took credit cards... Great looking guitars none-the-less.

Hey those are sweet looking cases!

Not that I am capable or willing to do this but... for those handy with a drill and who like neck binding...what if you bound the fretboard, but before putting on the binding, drilled a hole from the edge of the fingerboad to the center of your inlay and slipped either the led or fiber optics through that hole. Then you could run a channel on the back side of your binding and run the wires in that channel down to the neck pickup or something. Is this possible? Wouldn't this alleviate the removing of the fretboard? I think you'd just have to have clear plastic inlays tho.